060 - Day of the Daleks

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One of my favorite Dalek stories.

The Daleks have a cunning, complicated plan rather than the usual "we're taking over the galaxy" stuff. The Ogrons are introduced in this serial and are used by the Daleks as their soldiers to carry out their plot along with the Controller, a human puppet of theirs well played by Aubrey Woods. (I must confess that when I see Woods as the Controller, all I see and hear is the Candy Man from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!!) I really love the gold Dalek Supreme, even if he is only one of three Dalek casings used in this entire story! It's a tribute to the direction and editing, because it just seemed like there were more of them than just three.

The Doctor actually picks up a gun and uses it in this serial. Still not sure if I like this, but it fits in with the story and his "action-oriented" version of the Doctor, so I suppose I can give it a pass.

This is the first Dalek story not to be written by Terry Nation.


SeaDevil

Certainly a fun and easy to follow Dalek story, but there's not that much of the Daleks in it! That would be my main gripe really. I still really enjoyed it though.

Once again the Daleks come across as manipulating and ruthless, as they should. The new voices on the special edition make them even more menacing. The big battle of the climax was awesome, gun shots firing everywhere, people being exterminated left, right and centre, UNIT firing back and trying to hold their ground, and loads of stuff blowing up!

The guest cast do an excellent job, as do our beloved regulars, too. I loved the scene where Yates steals Benton's food - "Rank has its privileges!" The Doctor seemed wittier than usual, too, which made me smile more than once. Once again we see the Doctor fight, too, and even with a gun! I understand why some would have a problem with this, but since it was in self-defence and he did try to stop the Ogrons before firing on them, I have no problem with it.

My gripes with this story, however, would be that we don't see nearly enough of the Daleks - they don't turn up until the end of the second episode, which would have been fine if this story was longer, but it's only four parts - and we don't see enough of this supposed enslaved and dystopian world of the future, which would have set the tone a bit more if we had. Usually Classic Doctor Who stories suffer from being too long, but I think this one suffers from being too short. However, the fact that it's fast-paced might be a good thing for those who find it difficult to watch long stories. An extra episode or two with more scenes for the Daleks would have been awesome though.

Nonetheless, this is a fun story. It's not perfect but it's enjoyable, packed with action, fast-paced and certainly has some great scenes for the members of our favourite UNIT family.

3 stars from me.

A resounding 5 stars for the Special Edition with Nicholas Briggs doing the Dalek voices. That's how I voted above. But, sadly, only 3 stars had I been imagining the original as broadcast. I never watch that version at all anymore.