The Evil of the Daleks - Episode 7

After the joint second longest Dalek serial ever, we have finally reached the end. Despite it being the final episode it doesn’t exactly start in a particularly quick fashion. In fact there is a scene where they are all in the same cell and they are just talking/arguing.  After several minutes of inane chatter, the plot finally moves along again. After episodes of hearing about the Human Factor we are introduced to the idea of the Dalek Factor as Maxtible is turned into a Dalek. Maxtible’s demise was something that I was expecting in the previous episode and it happens in a rather unexpected way.

I wasn’t quite as impressed with Troughton doing a Dalek impression as I was expecting. It served a purpose so it wasn’t particularly terrible. It would have been a good sight to see the Dalek Maxtible and Dalek Doctor standing side by side. When the inevitable destruction begins it would have been a lovely sight to see as it sounds quite fantastic on audio. The fact that the story ends in quite an abrupt manner is quite good actually. The episode ending in explosion instead of all peace and tranquillity is quite a different way to end a story.

Edward Waterfield’s demise was quite well done and rather sad. It basically gave the viewer a warning that they would be seeing more of Victoria after this episode finished airing. I think that Edward Waterfield has been a rather good addition to the story and it’s just a shame really that they had to kill him off but it was needed. Maxtible has also been a good part of the story but I wasn’t so sad about his exit which I suppose is the point. The regulars (and I am including Victoria Waterfield) all did quite well with Troughton doing his best.

This was suppose to be the big send off for the Daleks as Terry Nation was going to take his creations to America to try and get their own show but Nation realised that as much as the Daleks made Doctor Who what it is, the Daleks have little value outside of the show but it would be five years before they would return to the show.

Sadly the problem with this seven part serial is that its too long and for too long there was not much happening and in a normal story its not such a problem but in a Dalek story its simply not good enough. When the story does get going it does make up for the lack of action but I think that the six parters are a bit of a doomed to fail type story and as such the final Dalek story of the 1960’s is a bit of a let down.