Full Notes: Day of the Daleks
Full Notes: Day of the Daleks
This might be the Classic Doctor Who story that has benefited the most from updated special effects.
Plot summary:
Guerrilla soldiers from the future travel back in time to prevent the tragedy that creates their dystopian timeline, but the new masters of Earth pursue them to ensure their supremacy remains intact by exterminating all resistance.
Notable for:
Return of the Daleks! Not seen since The Evil of the Daleks (apart from a cameo in The War Games).
Special edition has updated effects for the guns, transition visuals of the Daleks’ HQ in the future (towers with saucers circling), and Nick Briggs doing the voice of the Daleks.
Originally the Daleks were to return in “Daleks in London” but that was dropped since it was too similar to Dalek Invasion of Earth. This script was retooled to include them.
Bit where the Doctor and Jo meet themselves — they never come back to it. They were supposed to in ep 4, but the director refused to film/include it, asserting the story was over. Terrence Dicks included it in the novel.
Per the TARDIS Wiki: Louis Marks was heavily influenced by the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt. The freedom fighters were inspired various revolutionary figures like Che Guevara. In particular, Marks' decision to use names of Middle Eastern provenance for his time-travelling guerrillas was prompted by the September 1970 hijacking of three aeroplanes by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Alex McIntosh was a real BBC anchor at the time.
Pete commentary:
If you squint hard enough the generic “world on the brink of war” almost resembles the Cold War, although the Chinese delegation is perhaps given a bit more weight than the real world, at least at the time. They do seem to be paying lip service to “UNIT’s the near future” POV. At one point the Controller of Earth says to Jo, “You’ve already told me what year you’re from,” clearly a deliberate attempt to avoid stating it.
Holy cow does the special edition look amazing! I had never seen it all the way through. The ray beams the Ogrons and guerillas shoot look excellent, and the disintegration effect is actually a tad gruesome. That actually has the effect of making it more believable/visceral, which really works. Nick Briggs’ Dalek voices level up the whole affair so much, I found myself kind of blown away by it. Day of the Daleks really suffered by cheapness and low production values (even for Doctor Who), but the new stuff really got me into it. Loved the transition scenes too — the ones that show the Dalek HQ.
The special effects can’t help all the weaknesses in the production, though. Shura getting into the house just by running through the grounds is weak. Would have been nice to see him being a bit more clever than that.
There’s also the bit where the Brigadier standing right in front of the gun prop after he’s seen it disintegrate something!
Great bit where Benton and Yates give some comic relief in ep 1, giving them stuff to do and fleshing out the characters a bit. It’s lines like these that make us remember the UNIT era so fondly.
I like the Controller’s performance; it seems intentionally wooden. Same with the women in the control center. His weird face paint and everyone’s robotic behavior isn’t really explained, but that’s ok… it’s really all for atmosphere. I wonder if Rober Palmer saw Day of the Daleks as inspiration for his Simply Irresistible video!
That said, it would have been nice to flesh out the future world a bit more. We see a slice of the factory, get a teensy-tiny bit of the politics going on among the human ranks with the security chief (?) who gets to be Controller at the end, the scientist, etc., but there’s ultimately not enough there to get us to care about any of the characters.
Hilarious that the Controller is on the screen talking to the Daleks at the end of ep 1, then he’s right in the next room. LOL!
The guerillas are super nice, then super merciless, depending on the scene.
Good call by the director to not do the second part of the Jo/Doctor scene as a denouement, but it does leave things hanging. Would have been better to work it in somehow BEFORE the climax, perhaps when the guerillas are talking to them and working out what really happened. It would have made the discovery more interesting/active.
Overall, this is a prototypical time-travel story, where the people in the future are intent on changing the past and end up causing the very thing they want to prevent. We’re used to it now, but it was pretty novel then, and it’s a nice twist for ep 4. The problem is: how do you get out of it? How could you get out of it? Isn’t the whole point the outcome is inevitable? The script essentially has the attitude that it’s best not to ask such questions — you need to head-canon this to factor in the Doctor being a Time Lord, and thus has an understanding of time that lets him manipulate it in ways that most can’t
First citation of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, which is apparently the name for the phenomenon that disallows people/beings from time-traveling back to the same point in space and time to affect things. Explains why the guerillas don’t go back again and again to Sept. 12, but also maybe why the Daleks didn’t just go to 2164 again.
Speaking of, since this timeline is wiped out, is it a setback to the Daleks’ time-travel efforts? They seem not to be time travelers in Frontier in Space, Death to the Daleks, and Destiny. We start to hear about time corridors in Resurrection. It seems the reversal of what happens here sets them back a bit.
Kind of weird that they overuse the term “guerilla,” which is meant to describe a type of warfare, mostly. I was also struck in ep 4 when the controller uses the word a few times with Ogrons in the room. I was waiting for one of them to say, “I’m standing right here.”
Let’s talk Orgrons: They’re obviously a ripoff (homage?) to Planet of the Apes, although the apes from that movie would probably take offense. The Ogrons are slow, dumb, summoned by literal dog whistles, and can’t even kill people properly. They’re apparently easily controlled and quite strong, which seems to be why the Daleks like them, but the Controller’s assertion that they generally suck as security appears accurate.
Jack observed that the Daleks are pretty dumb in this story, just screaming their way through the whole thing with no regard for reality. It’s an obvious consequence of them being tacked on at the end, but at least they get to attack the house at the end. Yes, it’s a tactically stupid attack, but they’re in good company there (hello, Ice Warriors!).
No, not the mind probe! The Doctor is hooked up to one of these things, and we get to see Hartnell/Troughton on the screen! No other Doctors, but arguably the Daleks just cut it short once they know he’s the right guy.
What did Pete’s family think?
Held their attention for 3 episodes. Struck by the Doctor killing: “Damn!” Jack said. Grace was struck by the lack of machines in the factory. Jack: they’re talking the talk but not walking the walk.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Warrior Doctor in Seeds of Death → Warrior Doctor in Day of the Daleks. The Doctor kills plenty of Ogrons here, and it’s a little disturbing.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? Either the Doctor is prevented from going back to the 20th century so Shura just does his thing OR the Dalek attack goes better for the Daleks and they destroy the house faster, killing Styles and the delegates. That means the Daleks’ future, with their rapidly expanding empires, is sustained? And thus they threaten the Time Lords earlier? Does Pertwee regenerate into Tom Baker? Or is he just dead? Probably just dead, and it’s a bleak future for everyone.
Where's the Clara splinter? Keeping Styles’ wine cellar and cheese collection full of high-end stuff.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? Supreme Dalek for special edition! Otherwise, just a regular drone Dalek.
Chris commentary:
Imagine the scene! Barry Letts called in to see the DG of the BBC (Huw Weldon) and TOLD to bring back the Daleks. That meant we lost the Terminator script that should have been, that Louis Marks really wanted to write. He hated the Daleks (and it shows). If they ever filmed another "Adventure in Space and Time" behind the scenes (and wouldn't that be a great idea for the 60th!) then this might be the ideal place to set it: Louis Marks, alone with his typewriter, haunted/visited by Daleks from the future, trying to put off the moment where they enter the script.
The Daleks are back for the first time in years … and they're C-suite managers now! Very concerned about productivity. Terrible at middle management relations. Their first word in 5 years, randomly inserted into the middle of episode 1: "report!"
(Totally breaking the convention that you're supposed to introduce the Daleks in the episode 1 cliffhanger, even in a "of the Daleks" story)
The Ogrons come out of this looking surprisingly well!
China was actually much in the news. They and the Soviet Union are threatening to open up another front in the Cold War, and the US is in hot proxy wars with both of them. Millions of people fully expected World War III to result, and it wasn't until Nixon's masterstroke of going to China later in 1972 did these fears subside.
That said, what's the unnamed African delegation doing there? Nice representation for 1972, but still.
Sir Reginald Styles can bring about peace in the world. Oh Britain, you've just canceled your space program. Your empire is almost fully dissolved. Sir Reginald isn't getting a look in. This may be the biggest fantasy element in the show.
The rebels are smokin'!
Four Questions to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here? The console outside the TARDIS bingo! The international situation. Day bingo! The Doctor casually killing!
What if the evil plot had succeeded? Um… we've seen it?
Where's the Clara splinter? Delivering Mike Yates a swift kick in the nuts off screen
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? Dalek-Hayter hybrid