Doctor Who – Destiny of the Daleks

Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks
Doctor Who – Destiny of the Daleks

“Destiny of the Daleks” is the first adventure of the seventeenth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1979. It follows “The Armageddon Factor” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Terry Nation and directed by Ken Grieve.

The story

While the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is repairing K-9, Romana regenerates and after trying different looks that involve total physical transformations, she eventually turns into Romana II (Lalla Ward). The Tardis lands on a planet that has a high level of radioactivity that looks familiar to the Doctor. In the area there are underground explosions that cause a collapse of rocks that bury the Tardis.

The Doctor, trapped after another explosion, is rescued by a group of androids while Romana returns to the Tardis to take K-9. On the road, however, she’s captured by the Daleks and the Doctor discovers that the planet he arrived on is Skaro.

Extras

This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, a promo of “Doctor Who” DVDs to be published soon, the Radio Time Billings and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Lalla Ward, actor David Gooderson and director Ken Grieve.

Terror Nation. A documentary about 27 minutes long about Daleks creator Terry Nation and his work in “Doctor Who”.

Directing Who: Ken Grieve. Director Ken Grieve recalls his experience working on this adventure.

CGI Effects. The option to watch this adventure with some sequences containing new CGI special effects. They provide some visual enhancements but don’t affect the story significantly.

Trails and Continuity. Some BBC announcements from that time.

Prime Computer Adverts. An Australian advertisment with the Doctor and Romana.

There’s also an “Easter egg” but it’s irrelevant.

Graham Williams became “Doctor Who” producer in 1976 and decided to wait before creating a new adventure with the Daleks because he thought that having them too often wasn’t a good thing for the show. In 1978, Williams decided it was the right time for a new adventure with the Daleks and their creator Terry Nation wrote the script that became “Destiny of the Daleks” having from the beginning the idea of bringing back Davros, the character he invented for “Genesis of the Daleks“.

Script editor Douglas Adams added some parts and profoundly revised the script. At the beginning of “Destiny of the Daleks” it was necessary to introduce Romana II as Lalla Ward was cast to replace Mary Tamm in the role of the Time Lady. Adams wrote the scene of Romana’s regeneration as a parody of the Fourth Doctor’s: Tom Baker tried various clothes while Romana tried different bodies. For this reason, this scene has become a source of controversy concerning the limits of the regenerations but it shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Douglas Adams abundantly added his humor in “Destiny of the Daleks” but maybe it wasn’t suitable for a story with the Daleks because for once the result isn’t extraordinary and this adventure ends up becoming almost a parody of the stories with the Daleks. In the first episode, after the scene of regeneration, there’s tension but then in my opinion there aren’t elements dramatic enough to maintain it.

“Genesis of the Daleks” is an adventure really solid also for its dramatic strength and among its most important moments there’s an intellectual fight between the Doctor and Davros. Michael Wisher, who played the Daleks creator in that adventure, was busy with another job so in “Destiny of the Daleks” David Gooderson played that role.

There are people who criticize Gooderson but I think he does a good job in “Destiny of the Daleks” with the material available to him. The real problem is that the script is weaker than “Genesis of the Daleks” and Davros doesn’t have the same dramatic strength, also because the war against the Movellans is less interesting than the one against the Thals.

The Movellans are a good idea but could be handled better. Their war against the Daleks is little more than an abstraction as in “Destiny of the Daleks” there’s much talk of the stalemate between them but in the course of this adventure there are almost no direct clashes.

The idea that Daleks and Movellans can predict their enemies movements leads unfortunately to state that the Daleks have turned into robots, thus heavily altering their nature without explaining how that happened. It’s no accident that this idea was then forgotten and in the subsequent adventures with the Daleks they went back to be living creatures closed in a kind of small tank.

A problem concerning the Movellans is that the Doctor, to explain their stalemate
with the Daleks, uses the example of the paper-scissors-rock game but that’s exactly the kind of game where using a non-random strategy is harmful. In particular, the fact that two Movellans choose the same item when they try that game after the Doctor explains it to them only shows their limitations in a game of that kind.

In the end, I think “Destiny of the Daleks” is an adventure with ups and downs that’s overall fair and has some importance in “Doctor Who” for the introduction of Romana II and the return of Davros. The kind of extras on the DVD makes it more than ever a product suitable for the show’s fans.

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