Classic Doctor Who - Season 17 - Destiny Of The Daleks (1979) - Review

Starring: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, David Gooderson & Peter Straker

Written By: Terry Nation

Directed By: Ken Grieve

 

To be honest, it was never going to be easy to write a Dalek story to follow up the immense success that was Genesis Of The Daleks. The second and final time that Tom Baker's Doctor faced the Daleks during his tenure, Destiny Of The Daleks isn't held in anywhere near as much of an esteemed light, and you won't exactly hear many fans calling it one of Doctor Who's classics. But is this story unfairly compared to Genesis Of The Daleks, and is there any kind of overlooked brilliance to be found here?

 

The Doctor and a newly regenerated Romana unknowingly land on the Daleks' home planet Skaro. After exploring the ruins of an old city, and encountering the robotic race of Movellans, the two learn the truth of just where exactly they've landed. In their city, the Daleks are waging war against the Movellans, whilst also digging deep underground, searching for their creator, Davros, who sits in suspended animation. But after openly attempting to kill their creator the last time the Doctor was on Skaro, what do the Daleks now seek in him?

 

First things first, I just want to clarify that I'll try not to compare this story to Genesis Of The Daleks, because those are just unfair standards to hold it to. I'll probably end up doing it at some point anyway, but I'll try not to do it too much. That being said, judging it by its own standards, Destiny Of The Daleks still doesn't hold up well at all, and it's riddled with problems. The most obvious of these problems is that it looks absolutely awful. When it comes to Doctor Who's classic series, I'm generally very lenient when it comes to production values, given the clear effort that's been put in and the miniscule budget available. But here, the production values are very poor and shoddy, even by classic series standards. The Daleks themselves look completely battered, and the casings are often crooked, scratched and damaged. Davros doesn't fare much better either, with his chair looking just as worn, and the rubber mask clearly doesn't fit David Gooderson. Even the Dalek city leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Production values aren't the be all and end all though, and as past Doctor Who stories have shown, a good script can save poor looks. Unfortunately, Destiny Of The Daleks doesn't have a good script that can save it. The story is suffering gaping problems with logic and continuity – the most frustrating being how everyone keeps referring to the Daleks as “another race of robots”. The Daleks are NOT robots! Something like this could be forgiven if the writer was a newbie and not that familiar with the show; but this is Terry Nation. He created the Daleks sixteen years ago, and has been writing episodes for them ever since! Also the story's ideas about logic are seriously warped. Its hate and the desire for racial cleansing that drives the Daleks, not just logic, as this story seems to believe. The Daleks' own version of logic doesn't add up either, as in Part 3, one of them states that self-sacrifice is illogical and therefore not possible. Yet in Part 4, a whole squad of Daleks try to blow themselves up to defeat the Movellans! Even the opening skit with Romana trying on different regenerations, while entertaining, doesn't add up in the show's continuity.

 

Even if you can look past the continuity problems, there's still a lot going wrong with this story. As a whole, it's poorly paced, with the first two parts spending far too much time establishing the Dalek-Movellan War, and trying to mislead us into thinking that the Movellans are friendly. Even though the Daleks are here in the first two parts, it isn't until Davros is introduced at the end of Part 2, that things get interesting. The Daleks just aren't threatening at all here, and this is mainly because the script's humour is often at their expense. If the Doctor isn't intimidated, and is poking fun at one because it can't climb after him, then why should I be intimidated? While I love script editor Douglas Adams' sense of fun and humour in his other works, his use of comedy against the Daleks strikes an uneven tone here. The story tries to poke fun at them, but later tries to make us feel intimidated by them, particularly when they start exterminating prisoners, but the two tones just don't balance out.

 

Though with all its problems, it's wrong to say that nothing works well in Destiny Of The Daleks. While most of the sets, designs and props look terrible as far as the Daleks are concerned, the Movellans fare a bit better. Their design and the interior of their spaceship is decent enough, and the exterior model shots of the ship are surprisingly good. This is also Lalla Ward's debut as Romana II, and it's certainly a solid one. This incarnation of Romana is one of the Doctor's most unique friends, in that she is arguably the companion most similar to the Doctor. While possibly down to their off-screen romance, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward work really well together, helping to make several scenes feel more watchable than they otherwise would've been.

 

Perhaps the highlights of the story are the all-too-brief scenes that the Doctor and Davros share. Despite the poor production values holding him back, credit still has to go to David Gooderson for trying his absolute hardest to make Davros an intimidating presence. It makes it even more of a shame that the mask is far too tight for him, particularly around the mouth. Still, the Doctor and Davros share some great scenes in Part 3, that end up feeling, to some extent, reminiscent of the scenes they shared in Genesis Of The Daleks. This all comes full circle towards the end, with a satisfying and explosive conclusion, even if the Doctor using his hat to disorientate a Dalek again pokes fun at them. Incidentally, when that Dalek sneaks up behind the Doctor, and shouts “Do not move!”, that genuinely surprised me as much as the Doctor when I first watched it.

 

So, even without comparing it to Genesis Of The Daleks, does Destiny Of The Daleks hold up? No. As I've said, there are things to like here, but there are just far too many major problems that drag this story down, whether it be continuity problems, writing problems or the fact that you can't even say it looks decent. Usually, a script can be terrible, but the story at least looks good; or a script can be terrific, and be let down by poor production values. In this case, neither the script or the production values were any good. Considering that this is Terry Nation's final writing contribution to the show, it's a real shame, as the result is just a cheap, conflicted mess.

 

 

Destiny Of The Daleks



4/10