THE DOCTOR WHO RATINGS GUIDE: BY FANS, FOR FANS
| Episodes |
7 |
 |
| Story No# |
2 |
| Production Code |
B |
| Season |
1 |
| Dates |
Dec. 21, 1963 -
Feb. 1, 1964 |
William Hartnell, William Russell,
Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford.
Written by Terry Nation.
Script-edited by David Whitaker.
Directed by Christopher
Barry and Richard Martin.
Associate Producer: Mervyn Pinfield. Produced by Verity Lambert.
|
|
Synopsis: The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan encounter the malevolent survivors
of a nuclear holocaust, who are destined to become the Doctor's greatest
enemy...
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Back to page one (the first twenty
reviews)
Reviews
A Review by Declan McKeown
25/7/08
Most people say The Daleks is one of the best Dalek stories .
Yet I would have to disagree with them for a few reasons.
The first reason is because the whole thing drags after the second
episode mostly because of Ian saying that he can't feel his legs, and also
because of pathetic acting from the people who played the Thals.
Also the Dalek voices are terrible and the dialogue is lousy. I mean,
episode six's cliffhanger is woeful and the way the Daleks themselves are
dispatched is laughable. The statue thing that the Thals are carrying is
portrayed by the most amateurish modelwork and the way the TARDIS crew and
the Thals escape from the Dalek citadel is not even shown.
The visual effects for the time might have looked impressive but now
they end up looking cheap and dated. The lake of mutations is not
necessary, the cliffhanger featuring it is as you'd expect - rubbish - and
half the story is spent running around corridors and the other half is
spent moving around boring and dreary-looking locations. Hartnell also
looks bored rigid.
When I sat down to watch this, I had my doubts but I was expecting
something better than the end result. I was put off watching William
Hartnell stories but I am watching them again because of true classics
like The Aztecs and The Dalek
Invasion of Earth.
It took me a week to watch this dreary rubbish, yet some bits of this
story are good, like a creepy episode one and impressive Daleks. But
ultimately this is nothing more than an exercise in padding.
2/10
A Review by Anthony Smith
29/8/09
Just to prove that everyone is different and opinion is subjective, I'd
like to completely disagree with certain other reviews of the absolute
classic, The Daleks. (And while we're about it, The Dalek Invasion of Earth is pants.) The
Daleks carries on the wonderfully gritty style of 100,000 BC, carrying on with the point of view of Ian
and Barbara, now adrift on a strange alien world. I adore the way they
accept it so readily: no melodrama, just numb acceptance.
The great thing about The Daleks is that every single episode
title describes what happens in the next twenty two minutes (The
Escape, The Ambush, etc) and you then get the most
bottom-clenchingly tense episode; every one of the seven episodes project
the story forward a huge amount. The first four are completely about the
time travellers' ordeal, and what an ordeal! Considering everyone claims
that at first Doctor Who was simply a kids' programme, we here have
the second story ever, in which, by the second episode, every one of our
heroes has radiation poisoning and is surely going to die a horrible slow
death. I can't decide if it was more scary in the sixties where the threat
of nuclear war was ever present, or in the modern day where we have all
been deeply emotionally scarred by Where the Wind Blows.
The Invasion of Time is always cited as how
to do a long story correctly, with it split into two parts. Here is the
blueprint. In one of the earliest classic cliffhangers, the TARDIS crew
are finallly free of the Daleks' city, when it gradually dawns on Ian that
he has left the fluid link in the hands (plungers?) of the Daleks, and
they have to go back. We then have a very uncomfortable few scenes where
the Doctor and Barbara want to casually use the Thals as their own
disposable army to get them back, with Ian getting some great moral
outrage across.
Everything switches for the last couple of episodes, as we switch to
the Thals' point of view. The spotlight is firmly on Ganatus and his
brother, Antodus. Antodus isn't brilliantly acted, but you can really see
his perspective. He doesn't understand why they have to risk their lives
to help the others, but only signed up because his big brother immediately
did. Ganatus covers for him when Antodus tries to cowardly leave Ian and
the others, and when he kills himself - beautifully, you are never sure if
it is to save Ian (doubtful), or if it is just because he would rather die
than show any backbone whatsoever - Ian finally clicks that Ganatus has
just been carrying his kid brother, and shows some understated compassion.
Well, I say understated, but let's face it, William Russell does his
job, but he's no Brando. (Show me a dad who isn't a tearful wreck in any
of Jor Els' scenes in the director's cut of Superman, and I'll show you
someone who, well, isn't me, I guess.) Jaqueline Hill, though, shines
throughout. Considering Who companions are always considered to be
very wet screamers, Barbara is probaby the strongest woman in the history
of the classic series, and Hill never ever puts in a duff performance. I
cheered when she grabbed Ganatus and kissed him at the end. The Daleks
themselves are obviously brilliant, though it's surprising how they talk
together: they say things like "Precisely that" instead of "Yes", although
they really feel like characters instead of your tin plated pepperpots.
Okay, it's a bit rubbish where the Thals run in and just push the
Daleks over at the end, but what else could Nation do? In any real sense,
the Thals would be slaughtered, but, let's face it, it's good, but seven
episodes is enough. Hartnell's great as usual and Carol Ann Ford isn't as
bad as in the first story (seriously, what is with that weird head lolling
running?). Utterly brilliant, overall.
The second best Dalek story by Roland Thompson
22/3/10
In my opinion, this story would rank as the second greatest of all
Dalek stories, close behind Genesis of the Daleks. In
The Dead Planet, one gets a genuine sense of atmosphere from the
outset with haunting mechanical tones set to an aerial view of the
as-yet-unnamed planet Skaro. In the previous story, it was Barbara
reassuring Ian when he became frightened, and now the other way around; an
excellent juxtaposition.
There is a wonderful sense of voyeurism throughout the entire first
episode. We really do get the sense that these characters are being
watched. With only the main characters, we don't have as much dialogue to
get in the way of the visuals (the city) and the music (mechanical and
haunting) to interfere with building the natural tension. Long, drawn out
dramatic pauses allow the tension to build yet there is still some
remarkable dialogue, Hartnell displaying a pomposity and dramatic flare
that most other Doctors couldn't pull off ("Uninvited passengers... I
didn't invite them into the ship!").
This is part of what made Hartnell's portrayal the greatest of all the
Doctors in my humble opinion. His cantankerous nature was tempered with a
moral fiber that was unrivaled by any other Doctor. You loved his inherent
tendency to be a curmudgeon. Why? Well, you also knew that it came from
the same sort of old school, flaming teapot, haughty nature that also made
him angry with injustice and firmly committed to the righteous.
By the end of part one (The Dead Planet), the viewer feels an
eerie sense of desperation. Ian, Susan and the Doctor are all inexplicably
disoriented, the Doctor having no idea what destoryed life on this
planet... for now. Meanwhile, Ian earnestly waits for the return of
Barbara, who has been trapped in a maze of corridors by Daleks who finally
approach her as she screams in terror... Without a doubt the best
Doctor Who cliffhanger bar none.
With that we go to The Survivors. The drama in this episode
focuses on some breathtaking dramatic scenes in a Dalek prison room where
Ian, Susan and most especially Barbara and the Doctor wallow in
radiation-addled illness. Susan must show her teenage spitfire like
bravery, venturing out among mutated Thals to recover their (the Thals)
radiation medicine with Ian crippled by a Dalek gun; Barbara and the
Doctor too weak to move. Perhaps the most grit and raw drama of all the
different situations throughout the story can be found here in the second
episode.
In the third episode, The Escape, we see the best interplay
between the four main characters in the story. As in the previous episode,
we see Ian portrayed as the leader whereas the Doctor is more a cunning
and sometimes even devious ally (lying about the fluid link). The
playacting to throw the Daleks off the scent is an especially nice touch.
The benevolence of the Thal Alydon reinforces the evil nature of the
Daleks ("if they call us mutations... what must they be like?"). There was
so much movement and action in the first story (100,000
BC) that we didn't really have a chance to see the characters relate
to each other as people as we do here in the third episode of The
Daleks. Susan has had a chance to show her bravery and Ian has
successfully played the role of courageous leader. Of course, now it's
Barbara's turn. To stop the Daleks with something so simple (mud) gives us
a sense of whimsy yet this does not detract from the drama and genuine
sense of panic we feel as the four attempt to deactivate a duped Dalek!
The final shot of the creature's arm popping out from beneath Alydon's
cloak must also rank as a hall-of-fame cliffhanger.
In the fourth episode, The Ambush, the dramatic focuses shifts
much more decidedly towards the Thals and their situation. This covers the
much more intellectual nature of the story which begins to manifest at
this point. Issues such as the cosmic fate of worlds (epic fare reserved
usually for traditional thought-provoking science-fiction novels; Poul
Anderson, Issac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Edgar Burroughs, etc), pacifism and
the consequences of nuclear technology and indeed nuclear war are all
brought to bear here, and these deeper intellectual aspects of the story
come to fruition here. That aside, much of the action was centered around
the escape from the Dalek city. Ian's escape from the Dalek machine, the
scenes with the lift and Ian's attempt to warn the Thals are some of the
most-well-filmed action in the programe's history and holds up even to
today's standards. Though reluctant to leave the Thals to their doomed
fate, the Doctor and company are ready to be on their way after what
they've been through when Ian discovers that the fluid link, which had
been functional all along, was taken from him... in the city.
Another great cliffhanger takes us into the next episode, The
Expedition. In one of the most pivotal scenes from this story, Ian
forces the Thals to defend themselves. This early in Doctor Who and
we already see gritty moralism and realism. The Doctor and Barbara want to
use the Thals to fight for them so they can leave Skaro but Ian realizes
that that Thals must want to fight for themselves and by teaching them to
do that ensures that they will fight willingly and not retreat into their
plateau "There is nothing wrong with being afraid to die but there is a
terrible shame in being afraid to live!"
We have a grim set of circumstances to contend with at the beginning of
the classic harrowing sixth episode, The Ordeal. Ian and Barbara
are part of a two-party force out to attack the Daleks. However, the way
is fraught with many dangers as the classic lake beast claims a victim.
There are remarkable feelings of tension when watching the cave sequences
even in comparison with a modern gritty horror film. The chemistry between
Ganatus and Barbara is shockingly believable and carefully developed for
television at this time, not to mention how natural the flirtation is for
the early 60s. The fatalistic character of Antodus is also nicely
constructed, as is his relationship with the brother, Ganatus. You can't
help feeling sorry for both of them and what ultimately happens between
them creates some great drama in the sixth episode...
After the tragic heroic beginning to episode 7 (The Rescue, not
to be confused with the second season, two-part story The
Rescue), Ian, Barbara, Ganatus and Kristas keep looking for a way into
the Dalek city through the mountains and the caves. They realized they
were only a few feet away from the city when they saw light coming in. The
Doctor, Susan, Alydon, Dyoni and the other Thals tamper with the Daleks'
instruments by reflecting their energy back at them. Again, Doctor
Who's tradition of staying within reality and realistic drama is
reinforced when Ian reminds the despairing Ganatus that his brother died
for something, even if he had been afraid and contemplated treachery. A
strong old chunk of moralism in the very early weeks of the show.
The Daleks know they must destory Skaro to survive, making them all the
more bent on destruction. While Susan and the Doctor are prisoners of the
Daleks, Alydon and a group of Thal men storm the defenseless city (they
were blocking their defenses while Ian, Barbara, Ganatus and Kristas storm
the Dalek control center at the same time). It is the Doctor Who
equivalent of the gunfight at the OK Corral. The Daleks' power is dying
out rendering them immobile. They beg the Doctor to save them who replies
with yet another classic Hartnell line in this story (the others are too
numerous to mention), "Even if I wanted to, I don't know how." An epic
struggle which portends the challenges that the Doctor and those he calls
his companions will face in the TARDIS; "No doubt you will have other wars
to fight".
The Daleks is the second greatest Dalek story of all time, one
of the five greatest Hartnell stories of all time and one of the ten
greatest Doctor Who stories of all time. As we ponder on fighting
to defend what we believe in and those that we love, as we think on the
consequences of our actions in the world and how the things inside our
hearts lead us to good (Thals) and evil (Daleks), we might remember that
while good may not always have as much power, it has much more strength.
We might remember that powerful secrets and powerful knowledge are not
worth their price if we live in an underground shell like the Daleks. We
might remember that it is better to have known and loved someone then to
have not, even if they leave us. We might also remember these words from
the good Doctor himself, voiced by the one and only William Hartnell:
"You wanted advice, you said. I never give it, never. I will
say this. Always search for truth. My truth is in the stars and yours is
here"
10/10
A Review by Francis Salvi
17/4/11
When they first appeared in the chilly Christmas season of 1963/1964,
no one could possibly imagine how successful they would become, how they
would send kids scurrying behind the back of the sofa. But they have
become successful, they have sent kids behind the sofa ever since. Who are
they? The Daleks of course!
Following the relatively dire An Unearthly Child,
the series really gets into gear with The Daleks, a seven-part epic
by one of the series' most prolific writers, Terry Nation. What he has
done is crafted a wonderful seven episodes that have become immensely
popular, even being made into a feature-length film, Dr.
Who and the Daleks.
Personally, I find this an immense improvement over An
Unearthly Child, with the seven episodes neither moving too fast or
too slow, just how I like it. We see a more selfish side to the Doctor
when he sabotages the fluid link. We also see the first signs of the crew
moulding into a sort of family. The city itself is remarkable, even if the
background in some scenes is just a painted backcloth. I find the scene
where the Doctore confesses he sabotaged the fluid link to be a tense and
enjoyable moment. But the scene most people remember of this serial is the
image of the arm of an unknown creature menacing Barbara at the end of the
first episode, which I think is one of the finest cliff-hangers in the
series if not the finest.
The Daleks themselves are well-realised. An obvious image of Hitler and
the Nazis, they must have brought back memories of World War Two. In this
story, they show a cunning not seen anywhere else, deliberately goading
the travellers into trusting them and manipulating the Thals into coming
to the city so they can exterminate them. There is also the first
appearance of an Assault Dalek, which might not be as well-realised as the
one in The Parting of the Ways in the new
series, but it opens up the mind to how many variants of Dalek there might
be.
The other inhabitants of Skaro, the Thals, are not so great. Wearing
shocking hot pants and tops that I'm still convinced to this day were
re-used in 1968's The Dominators (even though the
tops in that story were a lot bigger), they come across as pretty
pathetic, even for pacificts. The other unconvincing element is the lizard
creature glimpsed occasionally in the jungle scenes in the first half of
the story.
The latter half of The Daleks focuses on the Doctor, Susan, Ian,
Barbara and the Thals' efforts to find their way into the Dalek city. The
side story, of Ian, Barbara and one batch of Thals making their way
through the caves, is pretty exciting stuff, with one of the most touching
self-sacrificing scenes in the entire black and white era of Doctor
Who. The other half of the quest, the Doctor, Susan and another batch
of Thals trying to disable The Daleks' sensors, is equally exciting. The
resolution is a bit rushed, and the tipped-up Daleks look a bit pathetic,
but these are only minor quibbles in an otherwise fantastic story.
At the end of the day, The Daleks is a story no Whovian should
miss. And for those looking to introduce their friends to Doctor
Who, they should show them this as their first black and white story.
Verdict: 9/10
