The Daleks

Story Title: The Daleks
Episode Count: 7 Series: 1 Story No: 2
Doctor: 1st Companions: Ian, Barbara, Susan
Date(s) Watched: Wednesday 26th November 2008 (1-3) & Thursday 27th November 2008 (4-7)

So here we go, the first Dalek story & I have to say that it was… alright, a bit long winded but had some nice moments indeed. The opening shot of Episode 1 was rather effective with an odd embossed or partial negative effect. The petrified jungle set looks rather good and convincing at times, although later in the story you can tell how small it is. Hartnell is now more like his latter self, showing his versions qualities. The Lizard statue looks rather good although the robotic statue doesn’t really get expanded on, The Thals wouldn’t have made it & to what purpose would the Daleks have built it for? Ian, Barbara & The Doctor all have some nice banter in the first episode with the Doctor trying to manipulate (and succeeding) Ian & Barbara into going down to the city with him & Susan.

The model shot of the Dalek city looks great, especially for it’s time & the musical piece here is rather eerie & fitting. There is some nice dialogue between the main cast, although unfortunately Susan has one of her many hysterical screaming moments in this story, you can understand why Carole Ann Ford decided to leave the show the following year, I think it was a shame that she didn’t stay like she did in the first episode of An Unearthly Child.

There is some nice, wrongly predicted futuristic inventions & fashions in this story, and in the first episode we see the food dispenser, of which by the Doctor’s time food is flavoured sticks, something which they thought would take off in future (possibly) back in the 60’s but which hasn’t changed at all. Another thing is that the early version of the Tardis console room & adjoining rooms is that it actually feels like a ship, it’s huge & the various camera angles seen in the console room as opposed to the same fourth wall shots of the 70’s & 80’s are a nice touch, which although I understand probably were unpractical to do as the show went on, make the Tardis feel more like a ship that a set (if you get what I mean by that).

The City sets have a nice futuristic feel to them once they get down to it, although again are “of their time future predictions” which, obviously do now look of their time. We hear that famous “door opening” sound effect that was so often heard throughout the Hartnell/Troughton era & the ending to Episode 1 is wonderfully iconic.

By episode 2 we see more of the inside of the city, & the first boom shadow “invasion” on Ian’s face during the “ticking sound machine”. Talk of neutron bombs was quite current then as it has (sort of been) in today’s world. The Daleks reveal here is quite iconic in this story & quite powerful, with less “catchphrases” and the paralysation of Ian rather than instant death. Again there is great dialogue in the “jail cell” scenes, of which this story has great dialogue throughout it’s 7 episodes.

A little quirk hear that is never heard of again is the 21 leaver lock of the Tardis & that if Ian doesn’t get the right one then the lock will melt (odd seeing as it’s a yale key nowadays). Susan however wines a bit too much in the jungle scenes which is more off putting than an effective show of her fear.

By episode 3, the story starts to pick up, we met a Thal, of which the costume is clearly an example of the 60’s view of futuristic fashion (as we all know fashion hasn’t changed to anything like that at all) of which the women come of worst (not that I’m complaining about the display of female thighs ) The Thals are quite camp once we meet them, & all appear as stereotypical “perfection” beings (all blonde haired and perfectly formed). The interesting thing I’ve noticed by this point of the story is how much Genesis Of The Daleks re-writes the Daleks history, for a start Skaro is never seen like this again, The Thals are (supposedly) wiped out, both domes (IIRC) were destroyed in Genesis & the Daleks were originally called Dals as opposed to Kaleds (as we learn by Episode 4). We also learn tat these Daleks are more limited compared to latter ones & that they rely on static energy to get around.

Episode 4 sees the first (and only, IIRC) time one of the companions gets into a Dalek casing, and indication that The Daleks themselves aren’t of a regular form (we don’t actually see the being inside but it’s implied quite clearly by Ian & The Doctors reaction and them ushering Barbara & Susan outside whilst they remove the Dalek from within. Susan unfortunately becomes too hysterical, first off with the pretending panic when they bump into the other Daleks & the lift scene when she, Barbara & The Doctor are making their way up the lift. The dissolving door effect is rather good for it’s time although the lift effect is obviously just a case of them cutting and moving the picture about. There is some nice “suspense music” when the Thals enter the city buildings & the Daleks callously hiding ready for the kill. Temmous (the leader of The Thals) gives a nice speech before he gets killed by the Daleks, giving a nice, if horrible contrast between the two races. The remainder of the episode after this, although has some nice lines & interaction between the cast, pads out the story too much, which unfortunately carries over to that start of Episode 5.

Episode 5 sees the story pick up again, once the plan to infiltrate the Dalek city takes momentum, although by the end it does pad a bit too much again. Hartnell does have several fluffs during this story but there is one that I’m not sure if it is genuine or not, The Doctor calls Ian Chessermen instead of Chesterton of which Ian corrects him (was this scripted like this or a nice bit of “ad libbing” on William Russell’s part? One part that did make me laugh a bit (unintentionally) was the out of control Dalek & again I suppose this is because the lines that Dalek would spout out in that usual predicament. The army of Daleks are also, unfortunately, obviously cardboard cut outs, as they have left the “extra bits” on the bottom for extra support. We do get the best line in this story during this episode which is uttered by Alydon “To fight & live or to die without fighting” kind of sums up the Thals moral dilemma they face. The swap set again looks good (although again is unfortunately a bit too small. The shot of the pipeline is obviously added in afterwards unfortunately due to the way The Doctor and Thals stand & the way how it’s pieced into the image.

In Episode 6 the gruesome death of Elyon is revealed with his body parts (?) swirling around in the infested swamp. Susan again screams hysterics at her Grandfather when he stands up, of which he just chuckles and goes “of course” (or something similar). We get some closer up shots of the model of the city in this episode which show how detailed the set was, shame that it probably doesn’t exist anymore . The cave set is well lit although parts of this go on for far too long, mainly the whole “jumping scene” which is perhaps the most padded out scene in the story, although it is well played by all five actors. Hartnell has a great moment of mischief in this episode when he is destroying the Daleks Static Electricity control box although again the control box itself looks very dated & the single cable powering the whole city reminded me of the jokey moment in School Reunion when all the computers were powered by one plug. The ending is great suspense moment with Ian clinging on for dear life with Antodus dangling off the other end of the rope.

Finally to episode 7 & by this point I’ve got a bit bored with the story, mainly because of the over long cave scenes in Episode 6, although the death of Antodus is rather effective. The Doctor again has some superb dialogue in this episode of which his best speech is near the end regarding travelling through the stars. We end up back inside the Dalek city & although the fake extended corridor is effective, Ian’s shadow gives away that it’s a fake. I found the fight scene at the end rather oddly choreographed, especially as the Thals and Team Tardis seem to be able to attack the Daleks much easier than in later stories. Another rather unintentional funny moment for me was the cry made by the last live Dalek, it just seemed rather camp, for a Dalek, to me. Just before The Doctors aforementioned speech about the stars we see & hear a rather odd cut in the episode on the whole “Rebuilt a new…” bit, anyone know why this was? The Doctor also mentions here that he was a pioneer of his own people at this point (although by The War Games he is seen more as a renegade Time Lord) another line about the Doctor possibly returning to Skaro in the future to visit the future Thals kind of shows how much the history of the planet had changed by the time we saw Genesis, of which the planet by then had become a virtually barren wasteland. Then again Terry Nation probably didn’t realise, at the time, how popular the Daleks were to become.


Overall Rating: 3.5/5 – Some nice moments throughout & some superb lines, however the story does have far too much padding during episodes 5 & 6 which kind of drags down the score, add to that Susan is bloody irritating in this one as well.