The Evil of the Daleks: Episode 3

After the enjoyable previous episode and the mildly so-so first episode, this was a relatively boring episode. Nothing of any note really happens in the course of the 25 minutes which is a shame but I think this is one of those padding episodes which we will have to put up with from time to time. The whole purpose of this episode is to start the plan of testing Jamie so that the Daleks can have the human factor enabling them to win battles.

One of the few gems that exist in this episode is the partnership between Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton. Jamie is started to lose trust in the Doctor and considering how strong their friendship has been in the past it’s surprising to see them being at such odds. Hines seems to be enjoying playing this side of Jamie and its good to see the Doctor being caught between a rock and a hard place.

At this stage of the story I feel like it should be more gripping than it currently is. I wish that something would have happened but it didn’t and its one of the weakest Patrick Troughton episodes so far. Only the final episode of The Highlanders is weakest and that shows how good Troughton stories have been. I have always thought relatively highly of this story as it was one of the earliest Doctor Who stories that I have listened to and sadly its not going the way that I thought but there are still four more episodes to turn this around.