4.30: Destiny of the Daleks
In which Daleks cannot fly.
Broadcast: September 1979
Watched: October 2020
Destiny of the Daleks, Episode One
“Ooh look, rocks.”
The first three minutes of this episode deserve an entire Black Archive to themselves.
Firstly, the tone finally commits to what I’ve always thought of as the Williams tone – not funny, exactly (most of the jokes aren’t), but not taking itself in any way seriously – but which actually takes two seasons and the addition of Douglas Adams to achieve. K9 having laryngitis – a trick to deal with the fact John Leeson isn’t currently available, I assume; basically like Granddad being in hospital at the start of the 1985 season of Only Fools – seems to sum that up. It makes no sense, the Doctor comments on the fact it makes no sense, it remains the explanation.
Secondly, the whole “Romana regenerates into different people!” sequence is nuts. At no point are we given an in-universe explanation of why. The idea Time Lords change bodies like clothes and can look like different species is a nice joke... but it totally undermines what we think we know about regeneration, and doesn’t fit with what we see anywhere else in the show – future producers just ignore it. (Possible exception – the Curator?) It shows that the series is not in any way going to take itself seriously this year.
It’s sort of funny how Astra is the exact opposite of Rodan in Invasion of Time – the latter was cast as a backup in case the companion left and didn’t want it, the former was cast as a one off and got the job through the old one quitting.
The very tall Romana is standing on a chair or something, right?
…and then suddenly we’re back in Serial B only this time the radiation pills are treated like a joke.
I had no memory that there were non Daleks/non-Movellans in this. “What’s a Kantrian doing dying here?” Well you just said he was a space pilot sooooo.
Oooh someone silently follows the companion accompanied by sinister incidental music! Normally this would be worrying but this is a Terry Nation Dalek script so he’s obviously about to become her best mate.
The idea that planets have one characteristic (tropical paradise; rocks) is very common in science fiction but also very weird, since literally all of those characteristics are taken from different bits of our actual planet.
The spaceship that buries itself is almost cool, and original enough that I’m wondering how it ended up in a Terry Nation script.
“Don’t go away, will you.” “I’d rather hoped you’d resist the temptation to say that.” This is quite entertaining, but if the regulars aren’t going to take their peril seriously, and neither are the people making the show (that bloody Oolon Coluphid book), why should the audience?
It is possible to do a version of Who with a lot of jokes in it – RTD and Moffat showed that; hell, Robert Holmes had managed it already by this time – but it feels like a misstep to make it feel trivial.
The cliffhanger, despite the story title, is almost effective because there’s been so much mucking around you’ve almost forgotten this is meant to be a Dalek story. And then they blow it by not editing it tightly enough.
Wow that’s a lot of words about one episode.
Destiny of the Daleks, Episode Two
Far fewer jokes in this one, but not a lot to replace them, it’s basically all running around and Nation cliches. More than one person seems to be dead but isn’t, which doesn’t help with the triviality. There’s never any tension about the possibility Romana is dead, it just feels like they’ve forgotten to tell us something.
The decision to make all the Movellans camp black people is an *interesting* one isn’t it. Huh, I googled, and the lead one was literally friends with Freddie Mercury. [Not a weird euphemism, he literally was.] Mind you, one of the humans is British east Asian – clearly an attempt to go for proper casting diversity on this one.
In the interrogation scene Lalla is really, really shit.
Another of the humans looks enough like Nyssa to be confusing.
Oh – the best joke is the Doctor sneering at the Daleks. Again: it’s amusing, but it’s sort of undermining the entire premise of the series.
Destiny of the Daleks, Episode Three
“Now spack off!” I assume this was a production error...?
“The Daleks were originally organic life forms” – are they not now? What? Has Nation just forgotten? This retcon feels accidental rather than a plot point.
Davros sounds all wrong, and the explanation for why he’s alive is rubbish. His belief that the Daleks will conquer the universe and come back for him one day is also an uncomfortable fit with the end of Genesis. He’s sort of laughable now which he wasn’t before. It’s like Hitler coming back, only It’s the John Cleese one.
Why do the Daleks have humanoid slaves? Seem to be there mainly in case the Doctor shows up and they need to do some blackmail.
The cliffhanger with Romana in a box with the nova device is quite nicely directed.
Destiny of the Daleks, Episode Four
“But elephants aren’t pink.”
Okay, there’s lots here that is good. The actor playing Thyssen, especially considering he can’t hear. [The actor, Tim Barlow, lost his hearing in the ‘50s.] The bit where the Doctor is going to press a button, and a Dalek comes up behind him and he genuinely jumps, is quite nicely done.
The vaguely Egyptian Movellan design is great. The scene where the humans and Romana escape the Movellan ship, while the Daleks massacre them, is really well done. So is the bit where the Doctor puts his hat over a Dalek’s eye piece and it goes mental and starts shooting shit. So is the Movellan spaceship design, and the Doctor realising that if he doesn’t leg it *right now* it’ll take off with him on board – actually making his usual disappearing act into a plot point for once!
Also, the idea of two computers locked in a stalemate because they’re both perfectly logical is lovely, and very well conveyed with the rock paper scissors stuff. But the fact the Daleks have become robots as a one off to tell that story is weird – Nation clearly does know it’s a change, because the Doctor finds a Kaled mutant in episode 3, but it’s not at all explained why the Daleks are suddenly robots, and it’s never referred to again.
Other things that don’t make sense… Davros is banging on about deep space transports. Again, it’s like he’s used to leading space battles, when he isn’t, he’s a scientist who’s been trapped in a bunker during a massive great war. It doesn’t fit with Genesis.
It is very unclear what the slave workers do to the Movellan to make it get confused and fall over. Or to get him to switch sides and help attack another Movellan. Or how the humans overpower the entire Movellan crew.
But the biggest problem is it’s just quite boring to watch, and I can’t work out why. There’s loads of good stuff in there. But it doesn’t work.
This episode is 26 minutes long. That feels very long. Is it very long? [Yes, apparently it is.]
Re “spack off,” I think Baker starts to say something like “stand back” or “step back,” then corrects himself to say “back off.” But his mouth is just slightly ahead of his brain. That sort of thing happens to me all the time.
There's a whole scene showing how the slave workers overcome the Movellans! They rewire their power packs. "Now, this bit here and this bit here. Good...."