Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Day of the Daleks - Episode 4

The final episode of this story comes at the right time because there is no way that this would have stretched to six episodes. I was thinking that considering this isn’t a Terry Nation story it’s a perfectly fine plot, Louis Marks has written a good story in the past in the form of ‘Planet of Giants’ and was given the job of bringing the Daleks into the groovy seventies. Sadly some aspects of this story are from the sixties.

The reprise is just as uneventful as the cliffhanger. The way that it’s (thankfully) ended is when the controller intervenes. Sometimes the controller is quite clever in the things that he does. The controller still thinks that he’s got a future with the Daleks though in the end he does redeem himself by letting the Doctor and Jo escape. Pretty soon he is shown as a failure and is exterminated. Clearly he didn’t go to extermination acting because it’s a rather lifeless (forgive the pun) performance and it’s a shame because I have found Aubrey Woods to be a interesting influence over the four episodes.
The fact that the war was started by one of the guerrillas going back in time and accidentally setting off the bomb which gets blamed on styles and so the guerrillas have accidentally created a paradox. I think that it’s a clever way of explaining how this started. They could have done a rather feeble way of explaining this but Louis Marks has done well with this aspect of the story.

The main point of the first episode takes centre stage in the latter half of this episode when Styles returns and its good to have Styles and the Brigadier back because it feels like there is a bit of meat to the story. Wilfred Carter has been very good as Styles and even when he’s being told to leave the house he’s still acting like an unreasonable civil servant.
The Daleks attack on Syles’ mansion is rather pitiful and very disappointing. Lets take this step by step. Firstly the fact that there are just three Daleks and a couple of Ograns is rather a flimsy group. If your that desperate to prevent someone changing history, wouldn’t you use more. Secondly, why come from the rear and lead the only means of escape free for everyone to leave at their own convenience? It’s a rather poor way to end the episode and it’s a shame really.

The way that the episode ends is nice because it’s a nice two shot with the Doctor and Styles who discuss about the importance of making sure the peace conference goes ahead. It’s a ending with a moral that stands true even today. As an episode its rather frustrating which is pretty much how I feel about this entire story because there are things about it. It was good to have the Daleks back but again the voices and the fact they don’t do very much means that their first story since 1967 is a rather underwhelming affair. The ninth season gets off to an awkward start.

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