Classic Doctor Who - Season 1 - The Daleks (1963) - Review
Starring: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell & Jacqueline Hill
Written By: Terry Nation
Directed By: Christopher Barry & Richard Martin
Even
though Doctor Who began with An Unearthly Child,
it was The Daleks that ensured we're still talking
about the show more than fifty years later. Response to the very
first Doctor Who story had been mostly positive, but the fact
that it was overshadowed by the assassination of President Kennedy
and achieved only average ratings meant that it was in need of a shot
in the arm if it was to achieve its long-lasting success. Thankfully
the Daleks are exactly the kind of thing Doctor Who needed,
and given that we're still familiar with them today, is that an
indication of this story's quality, or was it more of a rocky start?
In
their hasty escape from the Stone Age, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and
Barbara arrive in a petrified jungle on an alien planet, rather than
Earth. Their exploration of the jungle leads them to discover an
advanced, futuristic city in the distance. While the Doctor insists
they must explore it, his companions protest and want to leave.
However, their attempt to leave is halted by a fault in the TARDIS'
fluid link. It needs to be refilled with mercury, their only hopes of
finding any being the city itself. But when the group travel to the
city, they encounter their first hostile race – the Daleks.
As
the title would suggest, it's the Daleks that are the stars of this
particular story. The Doctor and TARDIS crew may have had their time
to establish themselves in An Unearthly Child, but
there's no denying what this story's famous for. Given that this is
their first appearance, it could be understood if the Daleks weren't
quite as we know them today, and if there were still a few creases
that the production team had yet to iron out, but there's really no
need for that. The Daleks hit the ground running in a fantastic
debut, and it's brilliant to be able to say that their first story is
still one of their best. It introduces everything we still love about
them today, and with their gliding movements and constantly twitching
“limbs”, or a really great scene where the Doctor and Ian remove
an unseen mutant from a Dalek casing, the Daleks feel like the show's
first true alien lifeforms. It's also not hard to see why they left
such an impression on an audience in 1963 and triggered a whole
“Dalekmania” craze. Terry Nation ensured that they play off many
fears of the time – the Daleks' xenophobia and behaviour resembling
that of the Nazi regime, which at the time of broadcast had only come
to an end eighteen years ago. Skaro itself is a nuclear wasteland,
with the TARDIS landing in a petrified stone jungle, which plays off
the fears of nuclear weapons and fallout that was prominent in the
sixties, and to some extent prevails even today.
Although
they may not be the stars of the show this time around, the Doctor
and his companions still work incredibly well together. The Doctor,
Susan, Ian and Barbara make up one of my favourite TARDIS crews
simply because of how strong the chemistry is between them. Their
second story together is all about starting to get over the initial
mistrust and working towards acceptance, and when they're able to
work together to achieve something, the sense of teamwork is really
strong. It's also nice to see that not one of them gets left in the
dark or with nothing to do. For example, when Susan feels like no one
believes what she's saying in Part 1, the Doctor trusts Barbara (one
of the most underrated characters of the show) to speak to her and
comfort her. Susan later gets her chance to help when she has to
journey alone through the petrified jungle to retrieve some
anti-radiation drugs, rather than Ian, the companion who was
practically designed to be the hero figure. But then again, Ian still
steps up to the mark when it comes to escaping the captivity of the
Daleks, in a great sequence that sees him disguising himself in a
Dalek casing.
But
while the Daleks and the TARDIS crew are on top form here, there is a
weak point to be found in The Daleks, and that's a
certain group of characters known as the Thals. Unlike their Dalek
counterparts, the Thals as they're presented here are very
forgettable and written in a way that feels very wishy-washy. They
tick almost every box for uninteresting and there's barely any
variety between them – each one is blond, pacifist and God-like.
They're just not engaging on any level, and certainly not relatable,
and so it's hard to feel sympathetic towards them in the same way as
characters such as Susan do. To make matters worse, the few Thals
that may stand out from the crowd don't become anything more than
stereotypes such as the coward, the leader, the cocky one etc.
With
the exception of the Thals, Terry Nation's script for The
Daleks is a success in almost every other regard. At seven
parts long, this is one of the longer Doctor Who stories, but
oddly when watching it, it doesn't feel quite as long as it sounds.
It is lengthy and can only be fully viewed in one sitting in the
space of about three hours, but it rarely sags. Admittedly the last
three parts aren't quite as compelling and original as the first
four, but I still can't call them boring. A lot of this is down to
just how much Terry Nation packs into three hours, to the point where
the dynamics are always changing, and there's always something new
going on. The first part presents us with a mystery and gets us
thinking about what might have happened to turn an entire jungle to
stone. Once the Daleks are introduced, it becomes a situation of
assessing along with our characters whether we can trust them or not.
When the Thals are introduced, it becomes a negotiation situation,
hoping to reach a peaceful truce between them and the Daleks.
Meanwhile, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara turn things into an
escape story with their attempts to flee captivity, and when the
Daleks double cross the Thals, it changes again to become an ambush
story. Finally, the last three parts make one long adventure story
that see our heroes' attempts to navigate safely back to the Dalek
city and put an end to the Daleks' plans. Plenty going on isn't
there? Because things never stay in one place for too long, the story
constantly keeps things fresh and moving.
Making
things even better is the fact that the planet Skaro looks pretty
good, especially considering the slim budget Doctor Who was on
at the time of filming. Thanks to some strong world building, Skaro
feels believable, with its petrified jungles, an underground network
of tunnels, brief looks at the wildlife that inhabited it before the
fallout, the mutated monstrosities that inhabit it now, as well as
brief teases of Dalek and Thal history (that would later form the
basis for Genesis Of The Daleks). The highlight of the
production is easily the Dalek City. When seen from far away, there's
some really nice model work of it and it feels like a proper alien
city. When we see our main characters actually getting to explore the
city, the design work is again very memorable and nicely done. It
even goes as far as to try and put in some trick optical effects to
make the city and its slanted corridors feel bigger, and I'm willing
to suspend my disbelief enough to believe it (though not all will be
inclined to do the same). If there are any weak spots of the
production, it is once again the Thals and the costumes they wear.
The leotards and tight leather trousers with holes cut down the sides
just don't really sit right with me, and feel more like something I'd
expect to see off the original series of Star Trek.
Overall,
there can be no doubt that The Daleks is one of the
most significant stories of Doctor Who, and up there with the
many highlights the original run of the show had to offer. The Daleks
themselves ensured Doctor Who's success and we Whovians owe a
lot to people like Terry Nation, Raymond Cusick and a great many
involved with the production of this particular story. The Daleks'
debut with one of their best stories, thanks to a strong script,
great production values and a fantastic TARDIS crew, making it one of
the best stories of William Hartnell's time on the show.
The Daleks
8/10