Right, I admit it, I am being very lazy with this blog of late as there are more posts I could have squeezed in by now but I have been busy with other things so apologies for that.
So, with that said I am doing another post revisitation again and this time its another Doctor Who one, which is a revisit of my post for the Jon Pertwee era story, Day of the Daleks. So, after 47 years how does this classic story fair??? Well, let's take yet another look!
And yep the usual is coming up...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
STORY
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.......
THOUGHTS
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.
PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
Performance wise the story is also pretty good from its regular and supporting cast.
Starting with good old Jon Pertwee who 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?!".
Then there is the scene where the Doctor and Jo not long after arriving at Auderly house, the Doctor 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. So, Jo warns the Doctor "You shouldn't have spoken to him like that! You don't know the whole picture!" and the Doctor tells Jo "Neither do you, Jo, neither do you" and he refers to the Controller by saying "That man is no more than a superior slave himself! 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 and he tells them "You are asking me to commit murder!". However Anat pleads with the Doctor and tells him "No, we are asking you to kill one man and prevent millions more dying!" and the Doctor asks her "Yes but would it?!".
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 it yourselves!".
Katy Manning again is good again in her role as Jo Grant and she 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. So, in the scene Jo goes out into the hallway and is given a scare by Benton who quietly walks in on her and she says "You took years of my life walking up like that!" and Benton says "Sorry, miss. I didn't want to disturb the Doc. What's he up to?" and Jo tells him "Well at the moment he's behaving more like a one man wine and food society!". So, as Benton asks if Jo can get him something to eat, she tells him "Hold oN" and she goes back in and takes a glass of wine and some cheese and 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 and gagged up and put in the cellar by Anat and the others and Jo asks the Doctor what he thinks is going on. So, in the scene, the Doctor manages to get his gag off and Jo still has hers on and she mumbles something and the Doctor tells her "I have good mind you stay like that! So much more peaceful! Even if I did release you, you'd still ask me alot of fool questions". Jo finally manages to get her gag off and asks the Doctor "I've only got one question...who are they?" and the Doctor tells her "On the face of it, three very desparate people!". Jo then suggests "Well, they're criminals aren't they?" and the Doctor says "You're prejudiced" but Jo insists "Well, aren't you?! They tried to kill you and me!" and the Doctor tells her "That's not in her favour, I'll admit".
So as the Doctor suggests Jo try her escapology training to help them untie their bounded ropes, Jo tells him "I've been trying but these knots are rock hard!" so, the Doctor tells her "Well, in that case there is only one thing we can do" and Jo says cheerily "I know, wait!" and the Doctor grins and says "You're learning, Jo!". Jo, however is still irked by the whole thing and says to the Doctor "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 but in her defence it was supposed to be fake anyway!
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!".
Another good scene is when the Doctor confronts the Controller over his position and that he is really a traitor and a "Quisling!". So, the Controller outraged shouts "Silence! You do not understand!" and he calms down and tells the Doctor and Jo "Nobody who did not live through those terrible years can understand. Towards the end of the twentieth century, a series of wars broke out. There was a hundred years of nothing but killing, destruction. Seven eighths of the world's population was wiped out. The rest were living in holes in the ground, starving, reduced to the level of animals".
The Controller then explains how the humans were then taken over by the Daleks, who used them as slaves and that he and his previous family generations were controllers in this section, which provokes a taunt from the Doctor as he says "A family of Quislings then!". The Controller then angrily shouts back "We have helped make things better for the others. We have gained concessions. I have saved lives!". The Doctor however then suggests "Wouldn't you have helped more by fighting against them?" but the Controller says "No one can fight against the Daleks" but the Doctor reminds him "That's not what your criminal guerillas seem to think, is it?!" but the Controller dismisses the idea and tells him "A handful of fanatics. Most of them have been killed already. I assure you there is nothing they can do to change things!".
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 to leave and says "Go! I shall deal with these criminals myself! I said GO!". So, the Controller then quietly says to the Doctor "If only I could be sure" and the Doctor tells him "You spoke of the war and its years of suffering and starvation. I can prevent that all from happening, you know". So, the Controller quietly says to the Doctor "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?". And as the Doctor says to her he doesn't know what she is talking about it, Anat not interested says "You have said and done enough. The time has come for your execution". So, Anat then asks the Doctor "Any last words of repentance, Sir Reginald?" and the Doctor almost smirks and says to her "Only that you are making one fundamental mistake" and Anat asks "And that is?" and the Doctor tells her "A question of mistaken identity. I am NOT Sir Reginald Styles!" and Anat smirks and says "Is that the best you can do?".
So, as Anat accepts that the Doctor isn't Sir Reginald having checked the newspaper showing that Reg had already flown to Peking, she asks what the Doctor is doing here and he tells that he wanted to meet her and find out why she came. However, one of her men, Boaz becomes impatient and tells Anat that they should kill the Doctor and Jo but Anat firmly tells him "Who is in command of this mission! We are soldiers, not murderers. Keep guard outside, I'll deal with these two. I said out!" and Boaz leaves and Anat asks the Doctor "Now, who are you and what are you doing here?".
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! Put it down and don't be silly!". 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".
Then there is the scene where Anat and Monia try to fill in the Doctor on the blanks of what they have been doing in their efforts to try and defeat the Daleks. So, as Monia tells the Doctor he wants him to kill Styles, the Doctor is outraged and says "You are asking me to commit murder!" but Anat pleads with him and says "No, we are asking you to kill one man and prevent millions more dying!".
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 I will mention quickly a few of Palmer's scenes such as the one where Monia tells Anat and Boaz that they must rescue the Doctor, so he can help them defeat the Daleks. So, Monia says to them "He's captured. Taken for processing. We must rescue him" but Boaz objects and says "Rescue him? Are you mad? From there? and Monia remains insistent "I say we must!". Boaz then says "Suicide!" and Monia asks him "Are you afraid?" and Boaz says "Of course I am! I'm no fool. What is he to us?" and Monia tells them "We have fresh information from one of our contacts at control centre. He is the sworn enemy of the Daleks. He's the one man they're afraid of. Don't you see? It's our only hope! If we don't act quickly, it may be too late!".
Then there is the scene where Monia and Anat charge and rescue the Doctor from the Controller and as the Controller shouts for his guard, Monia says to him "Guards! You have no guards! They are all dead!". Monia then turns his gun on the Controller and says to him angrily "As for you my friend..." but the Doctor stops him and says "Put that gun down! There's no point in murdering him" but Monia says "You don't know how much blood is on his hands!". The Doctor then tells Monia "Nevertheless, he's not your real enemy" and Monia says "He helped the Daleks! He's worked for them!" and the Doctor insists "They would always have found someone. Now just leave him!" so Monia relents and they leave.
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". The Doctor then refuses as he won't commit murder but Monia then insistently asks the Doctor "Doctor, will you help us?! You're our only hope!".
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.
And quickly to give some mention to Scott Fredericks as Boaz, he does not too badly in his role and I will mention his scene where Anat tries to contact her base in the future to get new orders on a radio but to no avail. So, in the scene Boaz impatiently tells Anat "We can't wait for new orders!" and Shura then suggests "Look, why don't I return to the tunnel? There might be a better chance of contact there". Anat agrees and says to Shura to "Ask them..." but Boaz interrupts and says "Why ask them anything?! Isn't it obvious what we must do?! We must wait here and kill Styles!" and Anat then asks him "What if we are detected?" and Boaz tells her "We hold these two hostages and kill them if necessary" but Anat tells Shura firmly "Get alternative orders!" so Shura leaves. Boaz however is not impressed and tells Anat "You are soft, Anat. What do two lives matter when so much is at stake?".
And lastly regarding Jimmy Winston there is the scene (SPOILER!!) where the Doctor and Jo try to persuade Shura not detonate the bomb however the Daleks and the Ogrons enter the grounds of the the house. So, as the Doctor attempts to reason with Shura, Shura points his gun at him and shouts "Get out of here unless you wanna die too! I must kill Styles and prevent the war!" but the Doctor says to him "Shura, Sir Reginald and all the other delegates are leaving this house just now, if you detonate that bomb you'll be sacrificing your life for nothing!".
And lastly there is the moment where Jo comes down into the basement and tells the Doctor the Daleks are coming into the house. Shura however says to Jo "Daleks?! You're lying!" and the Doctor tells him "No, she's not. They've come back in time to make sure their version of history doesn't change!". So, Shura suddenly tells 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!". The Doctor suggests however "Couldn't we set a fuse?" and Shura says "Now, this stuff is too unstable, there just isn't time! This is something I must do myself now get out!" so the Doctor says to him "Very well" and leaves but Jo hesitates for a moment and Shura shouts at her "OUT!" and she runs up the stairs as Shura prepares himself.
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 in the scene where the Brigadier comes to see the Doctor, who is working with Jo on his TARDIS console. So, the Brigadier tells the Doctor about the situation with the peace conference "You know, Doctor, if you didn't spend so much time tinkering around with this wretched contraption, you'd realise just how bad the international situation's become". The Doctor however dismissively tells the Brig "Humans are always squabbling over anything, Brigadier!" and the Brigadier warns the Doctor "Yes, well, this particular squabble looks like ending up in a third world war! The Chinese delegation have refused to attend. Without them, the conference can't even begin. Now Styles is flying to Peking in a few hours. There's just a chance that he can persuade them to change their minds". The Brig then goes on to explain Sir Reginald's attacker and the attempt made on him "He suddenly started behaving rather oddly. Seemed to think that someone was trying to assassinate him" and the Doctor asks "Any idea who?" and the Brigadier tells him "Some ghost apparently".
Then there is 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!".
Later there is also the scene where the Brigadier arrives at Auderly house and rescues the Doctor from being shot by an Ogron as he arrives in his jeep. So, the Doctor says to the Brig "Thank you, Brigadier for that timely intervention!" and the Brigadier asks of the Ogron "Who was that creature?" and the Doctor tells him "Yes, well I'll explain about him later. Excuse me old chap, I'm in a hurry" so he takes the Brig's jeep and drives off and the Brigadier yells after him "DOCTOR COME BACK AT ONCE!" and shakes his head in disbelief.
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!". So, the Brig turns to Yates and shouts "Captain Yates! Get Sir Reginald and all the delegates away from this area at once! Use the front exit!".
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!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Finally moving onto the story's director, Paul Bernard who does a fine job with the story and at four episodes long its just the right the length and it moves along at a quick pace and never lags at any time. Beranrd himself would then go on to direct two more stories from the Jon Pertwee era with The Time Monster, the 9th season finale (the same season as this story) and Frontier in Space the following year, which turned out to be Roger Delgado's final story as the Master before his tragic death. Bernard himself later died in London in 1997, aged 68.
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 his entirely electronic scores from the previous season. In fact Simpson welcomed this change as he was exhausted by his efforts of composing and performing the exclusive electronic scores of the previous season (which was the show's 8th season featuring The Master in every story!).
FLAWS
As for the story's flaws, yes well Day of the Daleks does have 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 (by Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline) in the story were frankly pretty 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 further to the point regarding the slow ineptitude of the Ogrons there is also a pretty cheesy scene where the Doctor and Jo try to escape from them as the Doctor and Jo drive a buggy to escape them. And this is a pretty daft (albet fun) sequence where the Ogrons clumsily chase after them at a slow pace as the Doctor runs circles around them with the buggy but its not long before they are caught. Again however I belive this scene was added because of Jon Pertwee's affinity for fancy gadgets and transport!
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 that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, Day of the Daleks remains an excellent story from the Pertwee era and although it may not be one of the better representations of the Daleks as there are only three of them and their voices are pretty poor, the plot behind involving the Daleks, Styles and guerrilas works very well and the cast all do a fine job. And it is also one of my own personal favourite stories from the Pertwee era aswell, so I can certainly recommend it.
So, that's it for now and I will be back sometime hopefully with yet another post.
Till then its ciao for now old chap!
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