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.
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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.
