Evil of the Daleks [4.8]

The Doctor and Jamie have barely said goodbye to Ben and Polly when they have to say goodbye to their TARDIS too, as they watch it disappear on the back of a builders lorry. Trying to track it down, they come to the shop of Edward Waterfield who sells genuine, new antiques. It turns out that Dr Waterfield is a time-travelling Victorian scientist in the employ of the Daleks and he is on a mission to kidnap both Jamie and the Doctor.

From 1960s London we leap back to a Victorian manor house and are then catapulted far into the future, to the dread planet of Skaro and the city of the Daleks. There the Doctor must pit his wits against the Emperor Dalek, who plans to spread the Dalek Factor across the whole of space and time.

The Majesty

The Loose Cannon reconstruction of 'Evil of the Daleks' is superb. They have added in animations and even inserted cutaways of hands and switches and bubbling test-tubes which they must have filmed themselves. I very much appreciate the effort that has gone in, and it makes it a lot easier to watch and understand.

The story is deliciously textured – every character seems to have a different objective, which naturally gives them all a unique personality. Maxtible wants the philosopher's stone; Waterfield wants his daughter back; Ruth, Victoria, Toby, Terrall, Molly and all the 20th century characters each have their own specific agenda. This often means that there is serious dramatic conflict between the supporting characters even if neither Jamie nor the Doctor is present.

Maxtible in particular, is a fantastic character. His amoral lust for scientific knowledge combines with the exterior of a Victorian gentleman-scientist to create a really striking persona. His demise is equally brilliant – we feel a striking mix of sympathy and schadenfreude.

The Misery

Personally, there's not a lot for me to criticise in this story. It's obviously a great shame it's missing. Victoria is perhaps a little flat – we are told at every opportunity that she is beautiful, but she is missing that go-ahead proactive element that every good TARDIS companion needs. From the beginning, it seems as if she is being set up merely to stand screaming in corridors.

Magical Moments

• Apparently TARDIS is Gaelic for 'Police Box'. You learn new things every day.
• I love the rushing around in taxis (”Follow that car”) and the atmosphere of the Tricolour Coffee Bar.
• “Don't bump into anything!” the Doctor warns Jamie. Then proceeds to bump into everything.
• We first meet Victoria doing her very best Snow White impression, feeding the birds. Then a Dalek glides in with the immortal line: “You will not feed the flying pests outside. That is an order!”
• The moment when the Doctor discovers the Daleks is great. “What are they called, these creatures?” he asks, rising panic in his voice. A Dalek bursts into the room: “Doctor, now do you understand?”
• The Doctor and Jamie have a furious argument in Episode Three. Jamie speaks for the audience, accusing the Doctor of callous, selfish collaboration with the Daleks. We get the chance to see the Doctor at his most cunning and most manipulative.
• Maxtible and Waterfield form another brilliant double-act. “We are not the murderers!” insists Maxtible. “No,” agrees Waterfield, “Just the silent witnesses.”
• The Doctor: “I am not a student of human nature. I am a Professor of a far wider Academy, of which human nature is merely a part. All forms of life interest me.”
• The first meeting between Jamie and Victoria is charmingly awkward. He's just fought his way through hordes of Daleks. “I came to give you this” he says, holding out her dropped handkerchief.
• The experimental Daleks play trains with the Doctor. It's a moment more bizarre than magical, but it's certainly memorable.
• It's brilliant to make the return to Skaro, and see the same city and planet that we first encountered on the very second adventure in the while show.
• The Emperor Dalek looks amazing, but his line "You shall not fight in here" sounds like a mother looking after screaming armies of unruly children.
• Musing what he would do if the Daleks destroyed Earth, the Doctor even considers going back to his own planet. “I live a long long way from Earth”. It's these rare revelations of the Doctor's past life that I find particularly exciting.
• There is an electrifying moment when a Dalek responds to an order for the first time ever with the word “Why?”
• Waterfield gets a good farewell. “You saved my life.” “A good life to save”

In Summary

If we hadn't had a story called “The Dalek Masterplan”, this would definitely qualify for the title. The Daleks are at their most cunning, operating across multiple time-zones, and nesting layers of strategy within each other to create a fantastically complex scheme on an epic stage.

This multi-layered story packs in enough plot and characters that even at seven episodes long, it doesn't feel padded or overextended. It's a great return for the Daleks, and a great finale too – we won't see them for the next four seasons, and this was, I believe, intended as their final end.

The fact that this story is mostly missing is probably the saddest omission of all from the Dr Who series.

Overall: 4.8