The Review

Davros: the deadliest person ever to live

It starts with the Doctor meeting a young child on a battlefield, and preparing to save him before realizing: it’s Davros. The Doctor leaves the child and centuries later as dying Davros sends snake-man to find him, giving us a look old friends the Shadow Proclamation and the Sisterhood of Carn. Clara is teaching when she notices that the planes in the sky have stopped. This leads her to UNIT which leads her to Missy with the news: the Doctor is dying and she has his confession. They go to the middle ages to find him.

A fourteenth-life crisis

The Doctor is rocking out with future technology, and when he hears of Davros’ summons decides to go. There the Doctor is trapped on a rejuvenated Skaro, and has to see Clara and Missy vaporized. Of course they’re fine: Missy explains how in a brilliant flashback where she shows the Doctor avoid crisis. While the Doctor temporarily steals Davros’ chair Missy takes Clara into the sewers of dead liquified Daleks and has her jump in one to get back into Skaro to track down the Doctor.

Davros rejuvenated

The Doctor is put back with Davros, and Davros emotionally convinces him to use some regeneration energy to keep him alive a bit longer. It actually works on all Daleks, but even the dead ones which vastly outnumber the living and attack them. Missy is unable to get the Doctor to kill Clara in the Dalek, and with sonic sunglasses the Doctor and Clara and back in the TARDIS. The confession dial is a secret for another time, but the Doctor survives the first meeting of the Master and Davros.

Missy works her charm on some Daleks

The pacing in this story is as good as I’ve ever seen from Doctor Who, and kept you thrilled from start to finish. The highlight again was Michelle Gomez who continues to play Missy so well I want her to appear as often as possible. Julian Bleach turned in another fined performance as Davros, and the regulars continued to impressive. This episode was Doctor Who distilled to its core: funny, thrilling, and with the charm that only Doctor Who can provide.

The Master AND Davros in the same episode! Even the 50th Anniversary didn’t have that! If Series 9 holds to this quality this will the best series ever.

10/10. I’ve never given one of these before, but I honestly cannot think of a flaw. This story is Doctor Who at it’s absolute best. And this was only the intro story!

The Doctor in awe at this story’s incredibleness

The Daleks

daleks201 — The Doctor and the Daleks meet

Story 2, Episodes 5-11, Season 1 Story 2

Doctor: First

Companions: Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright

The Doctor’s mortal enemies appear in a landmark story, and Doctor Who‘s first classic: The Daleks.

The Review

So I’m ditching review episodes independently, and we’re just going together here. Now, this story is a triumph. Just as what hooked me on the show, the 2005 episode Dalek, it’s only fitting it’s classic equivalent is just as spectacular. And it is. With Skaro being visited in the closing of the last story, we’re now truly on the show’s first alien world. Even without any characters in the first episode, the stone jungle and distant city are alluring and fascinating. Heading into the city, the tension is there, and the cliffhanger is Barbara separated from the rest, locked alone with a rackety plunger heading toward her. Soon, the other three find a Geiger Counter, and realize they’re dying of radiation sickness. Then: it happens, the Doctor encounters the Daleks. They temporarily paralyze Ian, and realize they had found radiation drugs in the jungle. Curious, the Daleks imprison the others and let Susan go alone. The drama is there, with the group’s fate resting on Susan. She finds a Thal, survivor of the Thal-Dalek war years ago, but unmutated. Back in the prison, the Doctor reveals he lied about a broken TARDIS part to get them into the city. Now, Susan brings the Thal drugs back, and the Daleks take some for themselves. Ian realizes there’s a security camera and destroys it, and the Doctor realizes the Daleks are powered by the floor’s static electricity. One comes in, and they use Susan’s Thal coat and mud from her shoes to stop it. Heaving the mutant out, Ian gets in the Dalek suit and uses it to get them to escape.

They reach the Thals, and the tension, despite being nearly two hours in, the pace is electric. Alas, the Daleks have the TARDIS piece now, but the Thals refuse to help, especially after the Daleks ruthlessly killed their leader. Ian convinces them to fight, he’s more heroic than the Doctor! Sadly, the plot sags at Episode Six with a slog through swamps and caves until the Thals break into the Dalek city. The Daleks realized they now live off radiation, and plan to flood Skaro with it. In a kind of lame fight, the Daleks are defeated, as they are just metal toys on wheels. The Doctor cuts the power, and the Daleks die without their electricity. The TARDIS crew heads out, when an explosion rocks the TARDIS. This story by Terry Nation is a masterpiece of storytelling, beautifully realized by the production team. With the first alien story on Skaro, the Daleks are set up as a powerful foe, willing to commit extermination of a planet for themselves. (Note: These Daleks differ from all others later seen, they are mutated Kaleds using prototype Dalek shells left behind by the Daleks’ real maker, but we’ll get there later). Easily just as impressive as Nation’s writing is the set design. The cramped, slanted corridors and sliding doors predate Star Trek! Still well done now, in 1963/1964 this must have been just revolutionary. There’s no doubt that the Daleks would be take Britain by storm as this story is the show’s first classic. Stunning.

9/10: Despite a weak ending, tension abounds in the Daleks’ debut

hqdefault-1 — Not murder Doctor, extermination

Skaro

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar Review

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar

The Review

The Daleks Review

The Daleks

The Review