Right OK yep this is yet another Doctor Who post as I seem to have done a spate of them lately and this is another post I have done in the past which will now be given an update. So this one will be on another Jon Pertwee story, Day of the Daleks which as I have already mentioned was done on this blog almost two years ago but now its getting the treatment (again!).
So without any further messing let's give this one a look..... and PLOT SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!
So the story begins with an attempt being made on the life of a peace delegate Sir Reginald Styles (Wilfred Carter) who is attacked by a guerilla who quickly vanishes before he can kill him. As a result Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) and the Doctor (Pertwee) and and his companion, Jo (Katy Manning) investigate and go to Auderly house and question Styles who brushes off his encounter with the guerilla even though he claimed earlier to his assistant that the man disappeared into thin air "like a ghost". The guerilla however soon reappears on the grounds of the house but is attacked by two humanoid aliens, Ogrons, who leave him unconscious. The Doctor then examines the guerilla's leftover equipment, a futuristic looking gun and a small black box, which turns out to be some of time travel device. As the guerilla is taken enroute to hospital he vanishes from the ambulance just as the Doctor activates the device and Sgt Benton (John Levene) who was in the ambulance at the time informs Brigadier of this. The Doctor then decides the next move would be to spend the night at Auderly house, which he does with Jo, however nothing happens during the night.
The next morning however three guerillas appear from the time vortex, which consist of Anat (Anna Barry) the leader and two men, Boaz (Scott Fredericks) and Shura (Jimmy Winston) and they make their way to the house. In the study of the house, the Doctor tries to reactivate the time machine, which causes an alert in the 22nd century and Shura enters the house but is subdued by the Doctor's Venusian karate. Shura pleads with the Doctor to turn off the time machine as it could kill them all and in the 22nd century a human controller (Aubrey Woods) informs his masters about the time machine trace, who turn out to be the Daleks who now rule on Earth in this time zone. The daleks insist that once the time-space co-ordinates have been located that whoever is operating the device must be exterminated. The Doctor then tries to explain to Anat who arrives at the house along with Boaz that he is not Styles and that Styles has flown to Peking. Anat then has the Doctor and Jo taken to the cellar and tied up until the phone rings upstairs and the Doctor and Jo are taken up. The Doctor answers the call which is from the Brigadier and he pretends everything is fine but let's slip subtly that it isn't by saying to him "Everthing is fine, tell it to the Prime Minister and don't forget to tell it to the marines". Jo then frees herself from her bonds and grabs the time machine and threatens to destroy it but Anat warns her it could activate, which it does and Jo is hurlted through the vortex to the 22nd century where she meets with the controller. And it is from here that the Doctor must find a way to escape from the guerillas and try and rescue Jo from the 22nd century and prevent the daleks from continuing their evil futuristic reign over Earth.......
Day of the Daleks is easily one of the strongest stories from the Pertwee era and it sees the continuation of the theme from the William Hartnell, first doctor's story, Dalek invasion of Earth in which the daleks ruled the Earth also in the 22nd century. The story which was very well written by Louis Marks, also nicely combines the two timelines of the 20th and 22nd century together in the story with the future of Earth depending on the outcome of a very important peace conference which the peace delegate, Styles allgedly sabotaged to start World War III which ultimately leads to the dalek wars. The story is also notable for the first appearance of the Ogrons, who are larged ape-like humanoid aliens and their appearance in the show is pretty impressive especially given the excellent face masks created by the story's visual effects designer, John Friedlander.
Performance wise the story is also pretty good and Jon Pertwee again delivers a fine performance in his role as the Doctor and he has quite a few highlights in the story. And as a few examples to start with there is the scene where the Doctor asks Jo if she will go with him to Auderly house to see if any ghosts (or guerillas really) show up and he says to her "Jo, how would you like to spend the night in a haunted house?!". And the Doctor once at Auderly house with Jo, later walks in carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and two glasses and also a cheeseboard and says to Jo "You know one thing you can be certain of with politicians, is whatever their political ideas, they always keep a well stocked larder! Not to mention the cellar!". And later as Jo dishes out some food and wine to the troops she comes back and the Doctor says to her "Quite right. Do you know I remember saying to old Napoleon. Boney, I said, an army always marches on its stomach!". Another fun scene comes when the Doctor is faced by Shura and who moves to attack him but the Doctor subdues with his Venusian karate and with his wine glass still in his hand he casually takes a sip of wine after! And another is when the Doctor fights and struggles with an Ogron when they are held by the controller and Jo smashes it over the head with a futuristic wine container and the Doctor says "Pity! That was rather a good vintage!". Jon get's one of the story's best lines when he tries to persuade Styles to evacuate Auderly house near the end of the story and he says to Styles "Look try and use your intelligence, man, even if you are a politician!".
But there are also some good dramatic scenes from Jon when the Doctor confronts the Controller and asks him "Who really rules this planet of yours??!" and the Controller refuses to say and leaves and the Doctor says to Jo "Humans don't rule this world anymore, Jo." and as Jo asks who does the Doctor replies "The most evil, ruthless lifeform in the cosmos. The Daleks!". Then there is the scene where the controller tries to get the Doctor to cooperate with him and says the daleks can be reasonable the Doctor snaps back "Reasonable?! They tolerate you as long as you are useful to them!" and as the controller says "I am a senior government official" the Doctor angrily says to him "You sir, you sir, are a traitor! You're a QUISLING!". Another really good scene comes when (PLOT SPOILER!!) the Doctor is rescued by the guerillas in the 22nd century and they tell him the back story behind their movement and they ask the Doctor to kills Styles to prevent the war but the Doctor refuses. The Doctor then pieces together what really happened and the guerillas in the end set themselves up for the fall by creating the wars themselves by having Shura go back in time and start the war by detonating a bomb there. And the Doctor says to them "You went back to change history, but you didn't change anything. You came a part of it!" and the Doctor says to them of Shura and his intentions to detonate his Dalekanium bomb "Isn't that exactly what he would have done?! One last suicidal attempt to carry out his orders?! You're trapped in a temporal paradox! Styles didn't cause that explosion and start the wars! You did yourselves!".
Katy Manning again is not too bad in his role as Jo Grant and she again shares some nice onscreen chemistry with Jon Pertwee. Katy has some good moments in the story aswell such as the scene where she goes to give Benton some cheese and wine and the Doctor asks her what she is doing and she says "Its all in a good cause!". And afterward Jo walks back in and the Doctor says to her "And what was that all about?" and Jo smiles saying "Feeding the troops!". Then there is the scene where the Doctor and Jo are tied up and put in the cellar by Anat and the others and Jo asks the Doctor what he thinks is going on. And Jo says to him "I still don't get it, that changing history bit. It just doesn't fit them. They seem more like a bunch of thugs to me!". Another good scene from Katy is when Jo releases herself from her bonds and she grabs the guerillas time machine and she says "Right drop your guns. If you don't I'll smash this to pieces!" and as Anat says "You don't know what you are doing!" Jo says "Oh yes I do. You're going to let us both out or you'll be stranded here forever!" but she ends up activating the machine and is thrown into the vortex through to the 22nd century. However Katy still has one truly cringeworthy moment in the story when Jo creates a diversion in order to escape from the controller by screaming "Agggghhh help me!" in a very unconvincing way, which is just awful.
As for the supporting cast Aubrey Woods is excellent in his somewhat ambiguous role as the controller in the 22nd century where he is forced to serve the daleks. Woods has some really good moments in the story where he can be quite sinister sounding such as the scene where the controller meets with one of the factory managers who questioned the Doctor. And in the scene the controller intimidates the manager into trying to make him increase the production figures for the factory and as the manager says "Its impossible I can't do it!" the controller cooly says "Then I shall just have to find someone who can, shant I? And you know what that will mean, dont you? To you and your family!". And another good scene from Aubrey comes near the end when the controller surrounds the Doctor and Jo with Ogrons and he says to him "It ends as I said it would. Didn't I say it was madness to fight the daleks?". But as the Doctor tries to persuade the controller he can change the future by going back in time, the controller orders the ogrons away and he subtly thanks the Doctor for saving his life from the guerillas and says "You saved my live, and you could have let them kill me. Go quickly".
Anna Barry is also pretty good as Anat, the guerilla leader who travels back in time to kill Styles, who they percieve to be the instigator of the future wars on Earth and she has some good moments also. And one or two examples include the scene where Anat faces the Doctor for the first time mistaking him to be Styles she says "So, you are the man. Outwardly so innocent looking but capable of such crimes. Would would ever know?". Another good scene is when Anat tries to stop Jo from destroying the time machine and she says to her "Stupid child! You do not know what you are doing! That man that owned that machine is dead! His body is back in our own timezone!". And as Jo is sent through the vortex to the 22nd century, and Anat tells the Doctor she might be dead or as Boaz says "re-embodied in the 22nd century" Anat says "Believe me she would be better off dead".
Valentine Palmer is also quite good as the overall leader of the guerillas, Monia, who meets later with the Doctor and Jo and he asks the Doctor to do one thing to help their cause. And as the Doctor asks Monia why he rescued them Monia says "Well you said so yourself, you're an old enemy of the daleks. Then you will help us to beat them" and as the Doctor asks "What do you expect me to do?" Monia says "Well, you can succeed where we failed, Doctor. We want you to go back into your own time and kill Styles". And briefly Scott Fredericks and Jimmy Winston are not bad as the two guerillas, Boaz and Shura, with Shura playing the key part in the story as the guerilla who inadvertently detonates the bomb to starts the wars. But in his last scene Winston delivers a good scene where he tells the Doctor and Jo to leave as the Daleks and the Ogrons prepare to enter the house he says to them "Get out of here. Let them come in, leave them to me!" and as Jo tries to persuade him to come with her and the Doctor he says "You don't understand this is Dalekanium! Its the only thing that is effective against the daleks! There isn't time this is something I must do myself so get out!".
And last of all the UNIT family are all in good form in this story as well starting with Nicholas Courtney is good as ever as the Brigadier. And Nick has some good moments in the story aswell such as the scene where the Doctor activates the time machine but then it shorts out and the Doctor says "Oh I see what's happened, the temporal feedback circuit has overloaded" and the Brig confused says "The what's done a what???" and the Doctor replies "In your terms, Brigadier the thing's blown a fuse!". Then there is the scene where the Brigadier enters the UNIT office room and asks the radio ops woman "Any chance of coffee?" and she says "Canteen's closed, sir" he sighs "It would be!". Later there is also the scene where the Brigadier arrives at Auderly house and rescues the Doctor from being shot by an Ogron and the Doctor takes the Brig's jeep and drives off and the Brigadier yells after him "DOCTOR COME BACK AT ONCE!" but shakes his head as the Doctor is already miles away! And lastly Nick has a great shouty moment near the end of the story when he orders Styles to evacuate Auderly house as the Daleks and Ogrons attack. And the Brig says loudly "Sir Reginald, this house is under attack by a hostile force. You will please consider yourself under my orders!" and as Styles tries to protest the Brig yells "NOW BE QUIET, SIR!".
And lastly John Levene and Richard Franklin share a good scene in the story in their respective role as Sgt Benton and Captain Yates where Benton sneaks into Auderly house later at night and asks Jo quietly for some food. And Benton says to Jo "Oh and talking of food, you couldn't get us a bit to eat, could you? I'm famished!". And Jo goes and get's a glass of wine and cheeses for him but Yates intervenes and tells Benton "What are you doing, Sgt? I want you to check on number three patrol! Move, Sgt Benton!" and Benton without choice or question walks off. And this leaves Yates to grab the glass of wine and bit of cheese saying "Jo how thoughful!" and he downs the glass in a oner! And Jo says to Yates "That wasn't very kind of you" and Yate says "RHIP, Jo. Rank Has Its Privileges!".
Finally getting onto the director's paragraph (which is always pretty samey and rather short unlike the rest of the post!) Paul Bernard does a good job with the story and at four episodes long its just right the length and it moves along at a quick pace and never lags at any time. And music wise Dudley Simpson again provides a good score and while it still features some staple early 70s synth moments its more orchestral sections work better for the story than in the show's previous season when Dudley to electronically composed all the music himself, which he later said he found exhausting.
As for the story's flaws.... yeah OK DOTD has some worth mentioning. To start off with it has to be said one of the weakest aspects of this story are the daleks themselves as there are only three of them in the story throughout. The original dalek voices in the story were also crap and the rate at which their lines were delivered were dismally slow and the typical dalek staccato sounds really naff here. And as an example one of the daleks says to the controller in one scene "do----you----have-----the-----space---time---co---or--di--nates?" which kind of indicates just how cack they sound. Later in 2011 of course the BBC re-released the DVD of the story with some new CGI effects and the dalek voices were also dubbed over by Nicholas Briggs, which was a big improvement (although his delivery is always a bit sarcastic sounding!). Also given the fact that there are only three daleks this is even more noticeable during the scene where the daleks emerge from the tunnel to attack Auderly house along with only six Ogrons! Now that is quite an attack force! This was of course also re-done with some CGI effects in the 2011 DVD version. But it is pretty silly to think that three daleks and six ogrons on its own would be anywhere near enough. Another thing that can be said of the ogrons is that they aren't the swiftest movers as during their assault on the house near the end they move slower than a granny on a zimmer loaded with some heavy shopping!
And this brings to mind another issue with the story in that surely if only some of the daleks came back in time to kill Styles and they ended up being destroyed by Shura's bomb then there surely would be plenty more back in the 22nd century! Especially given that if the daleks are ruling Earth in the future there would be daleks throughout the world and not just in England, so if three ruling daleks are killed there must surely be plenty elsewhere on Earth to still keep things ticking over! But the story neatly deals with the daleks entering the house at the end and by them being destroyed by Shura's bomb that's it all wrapped up and there will be no further complications or anything to worry about (as everything in the world does appear to settle around the UK in Doctor Who of course so the rest of the world doesn't come into it!).
Another issue with the story which probably did have some fans concerned was the scene where the Doctor appears to commit a cold blooded murder as in one scene he shoots an Ogron with one of the guerilla's disintegrator guns in an anticipatory manner. And while this is of course morely a self defence shooting it does still seem out of character for the Doctor and for the 2011 DVD version they adjusted this a little by having the Ogron shoot at the Doc first and then the Doctor responds by shooting him, effectively employing the "Greedo shoots first" ideaology here. But the Doctor rarely does commit cold blooded murders and there are very few instances in the show's history where it has occurred with perhaps the exception of maybe the Talons of Weng Chiang (ANOTHER SPOILER!!) when the Doctor pushes the main villain Magnus Greel into a distillation chamber, which disintegrates his body. So another disintegration, how about that?! Anyways but that's me lot re: the flaws.
So that's it for my re-look at Day of the Daleks which is still one of Jon Pertwee's strongest stories and if you are a fan of the original show and you haven't seen it then its still worth checking out.
And that's it for now old chap.
