2.7: The Evil of the Daleks
In which the Doctor walks into a trap, and the Daleks meet their final end (for a couple of years).
Broadcast: May-July 1967
Listened: September 2019
This is another one that’s since been animated, but wasn’t when I reached this point in the series. So my notes are about listening to the audio version, except of episode 2, which actually exists.
The Evil of the Daleks, Episode 1
And this is totally different to anything we’ve seen before *again*. A trap! For the Doctor! Which he knows he’s walking into! Love the totally pointless business with the matchbook.
The girls of 1966 still can’t keep their hands off Jamie.
JAMIE: Its ours and somebody’s stolen it.
HALL: You’d better see the airport Commandant or someone.
DOCTOR: Oh, no. I don’t think we’d better do that. [We haven’t paid for him to appear again this week.]
Second Whitaker cliffhanger ruined by the fact the word “Dalek” was in the episode title. You’d think someone would have told him.
[Apparently, he didn’t realise the show had abandoned individual episode titles, and thus didn’t realise the word “Daleks” would be slapped over the opening credits. Oh dear.]
The Evil of the Daleks, Episode 2
The character of Kennedy was literally only in it to provide a cliffhanger wasn’t he.
Jamie hasn’t heard of trains but knows when Victoria was Queen, even though it wasn’t for a century after his own time. Hmm.
Waterfield looks more like Abe Lincoln than I imagined.
Ooh a circular screenwipe! Not for the first time: I wish we could see the rest of this story.
Oh! Maxtible looks like I thought Waterfield did. That does explain it.
Odd in its way that it takes four years for Doctor Who to get to Victoriana. Perhaps it needed the ‘60s to get properly swinging first? The mirror and static based science is great, even if 1866 is a bit early for HG Wells shit.
Oh christ Molly the servant girl wants to bang Jamie too.
Weird cliffhanger too. The Daleks’ “There will be no delay!” seems less of a threat than the entire preceding 10 minutes.
Anyway. It’s a bit good this one isn’t it?
The Evil of the Daleks, Episodes 3-7
Listened to this on the go so consequently didn’t take notes and am hust going to splurge it all out now. So...
This story has a level of complexity that I’m also not sure we’ve seen before. Not just the three different settings (1966, 1866, Skaro) thing – we have seen that before – but in the number of characters, and in the way everyone is seemingly lying to everyone else and they all have their own agenda. It’s not always clear what the right thing to do is is, whether the Doctor is being stupid or clever, how culpable Waterfield is. There’s probably something about the relationship between lies and morality here somewhere – it feels telling that the male character whose motivations are the purest is Kemal, who can’t lie, because he literally can’t speak.
This is also the first time we get the manipulative Doctor plotting behind his companion’s back isn’t it? Jamie’s anger at him in episode 3 is very well played, though this is sort of the first time he’s had anything to do that isn’t totally generic so the “Jamie is the perfect model for the Human Factor” stuff sort of comes out of nowhere.
Funny that Victoria is literally introduced as a damsel who needs rescuing. No wonder she spends most of her run on the show screaming.
The humanised Daleks are fun and I *love* that there’s a cliffhanger which is just “They’re playing a game! My GOD”.
Why the Doctor would believe this is the final end is never exactly clear. But this feels oddly like it was written with half an eye on being the final episode of Doctor Who. Which is odd because I know that it wasn’t?
Three years on, the thought occurs that maybe it’s just that it’s the first time they do a conscious season finale rather than randomly breaking for two months between stories? Anyway, here’s the trailer for the animated version: