Arriving on Spiridon, the Third Doctor and Jo encounter a Thal group. But the Daleks are here… and this time, they’re invisible.
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I always have to look up the 3rd Doctor Dalek stories to remind myself which is which. And even then I can see Spiradon and only be like 75% sure I know what we’re talking about and not some amalgamation of 3 diffrent stories Ive made in my head.
Needless to say this one got a 3.5/5 from me. I think almost all the 70s Dalek stories are pretty average stories that blend together. But the effects for the invisibility and ice caves are both well done… if that really is this episode anyways.
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I feel like this is how Terry Nation would have described Planet of the Daleks when he pitched it to Barry Letts. Because this story really does feel like ‘Terry Nation’s Greatest Hits’. There are so many ideas and characters that we can find in his past work dor the series. Unfortunately it does all make for a very average story in my view.
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Describing this story as average is just right IMO. “A perfectly fine Dalek story” is how I’d describe it myself — I imagine that if I ranked all the Dalek stories this one would be dead center of the list (not a bad thing, I do love the Daleks).
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Pretty much the same opinion as everyone else here. I love a Dalek story and it’s always fun seeing The Doctor against his biggest nemesis but this one is barely all that memorable to be honest.
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Unfortunately, I found this one rather tedious (particularly coming immediately after another slower paced story).
I think my problem with it is that the Daleks seem more inept than threatening. As neat as the idea of a vast army is, it is rather underwhelming to see a Dalek killed by being pushed into a small pond.
I really like this story. For a long while, it was my favourite colour, classic dalek story. Revelation definitely takes that spot now and my recent 180 on Day probably puts that well ahead too. But this and Genesis do well close together after those two. I’m excited to get back to it, particularly in the context of directly following Frontier, which I’ve not done since the first time I watched them.
Part One
- Gosh, I’d forgotten the Doctor spends a good chunk of this one out of action.
- Pretty darn wild that Katy Manning seems to have gained the ability to act right at the eleventh hour. Her narration to the log thing is quite touching.
- I love a jungle planet in all honesty. I love that you can track the improvements in jungle sets from The Daleks onwards. I do have a soft spot for this one, even though it’s not the strongest iteration we see.
- I think the invisible enemies are done very well in this one.
- I’ve known a few people say they get the three Pertwee dalek stories mixed up, but this one has always stood out as very different from the other two for me. However, I have been known to get this mixed up with The Rescue oddly. Supporting friendly strangers on a grounded ship while a mysterious and elusive enemy stalks the outside I guess.
- Thals. I love that they brought back the Thals. After so, so long, it’s satisfying and exciting.
- ‘Space medicine’ makes me laugh. Like there’s Earth medicine and everywhere-else medicine and those are the two options. Very Terry Nation.
- I like Taron. He’s like Allydon 2.0.
- Oh wait, maybe it’s Jo that’s absent from this a lot. Or maybe I’m misremembering altogether…
- Kind of odd that the Doctor chose to have a full outfit change when Jo was missing and the TARDIS was malfunctioning but okay.
Verdict after Part One - Yep, still loving this. The dalek reveal is fun, the sets are good, and there’s just something far less irritating about Jo. Excited to get to know more of the supporting cast, as I think I quite liked them before.
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Part Two
- Interesting that this has virtually no recap at all where Frontier in Space had some that lasted an age. Is that interesting? No, no it’s probably not.
- Jo’s infection prosthetic is pretty well done.
- The eye plants are somewhat less impressive.
- I don’t know if it’s just me and my own personal preference for stories, but it really feels like Pertwee has sort of settled in to being on alien planets now. He felt a bit out of place at first post-exile but much less so here. Maybe it’s me who’s adjusted, not him.
- This purple jacket is even more dapper than the green. Oh to pull off a look like that.
- Of course the Doctor’s quotation about courage has gone down in history, but rightly so, it’s lovely.
- I remember so vividly the scene of the Spiridon trying to treat Jo’s infection. It’s a lovely subversion of expectation and all the invisible stuff is done well.
- It would be a lot cooler seeing so many daleks if most of them weren’t very obviously empty and completely stationary.
- The four-note musical refrain is virtually identical to the clompy baseline of ‘Making Christmas’ from The Nightmare Before Christmas and it’s amusing me.
- Fun cliffhanger, although how they intend to show us 10,000 daleks is beyond me.
Verdict after Part Two - Still very good. I’m worried as it becomes more daleky but currently both the thals and the plotline with Jo and the Spiridon are interesting enough. Still a big fan of the jungle set and all the visuals too.
Part Three
- All the blonde thal wigs are hilarious.
- Well it just wouldn’t be Doctor Who without a good bit of duct-clambering.
- It’s not something I often notice, but the lighting of this serial is really effective in making everything spooky and labyrinthine and adding a bit of a believable threat level to the daleks.
- Oh damn, that shot of all the hundreds of daleks really is quite cool, fair play to them, I take it all back.
Verdict after Part Three - Okay, this one is a bit more lacking, my interest did start to wane. But Perwtee is on great form and the little model daleks in the cave made me happy.
Part Four
- Their whole escape technique is fun and it’s actually really nicely shot.
- Jo got GUTS trying to reverse the bomb detonation. Also that rockfall on her head is proper brutal.
- Mad that the explosives have little hand-drawn arrows on them. I wonder how the Daleks managed that neat little scribble.
- Between Jo waking immediately prior to the explosion and the Doctor’s winch mechanism breaking, there are some properly tense moments here. Real cliffhanger stuff but only a few minutes into an episode - and twice. How they spoil us.
- The thal romance feels a bit unnecessary, but it’s sweet. Or it would be if he wasn’t completely berating her for trying to help them.
- The Doctor is really noble here in a genuinely likeable and heartwarming way. Makes me realise what a long time it’s taken to get to this point. He’s not constantly abrasive but it’s the first time I’ve found Three to be genuinely lovely.
- Jo says a handshake means you’re good friends. What a terrible description of a handshake?
- How are they so certain that destroying the refrigeration unit would destroy the daleks if they have no idea why the daleks need it?
- A weaker cliffhanger to be sure, but you can’t win ‘em all.
Verdict after Part Four - It’s the direction that’s standing out to me most here, I think there’s some really effective compositional work. And also that the Doctor is just considerably lovelier than I think this Doctor has been at all thus far.
Part Five
- There’s an awful lot of bashing people on the head with big blunt objects in this story.
- Originally I thought Wester was whispering all the time to avoid being heard. Turns out that’s maybe just how his voice works lol.
- I’m not entirely persuaded by the ‘cuddle attack’ on the daleks. Pushing them into the ice pool is fun though.
- How on earth can the Doctor and co. tell that the Spiridon in with the daleks is Wester?
- Wester’s self-sacrifice is genuinely quite affecting though, bless him.
Verdict after Part Five - There’s a lot going on still, which is fun. It has its slower moments but they’re not as painful or frequent as those in many six-parters of the era. The daleks are getting a little tiresome, as ever, but I’m still enjoying the rest.
Part Six
- “Seems you stopped being a dalek just in time.” - Just really emphasising what’s just happened for the audience in case they can’t remember specific characters or do simple maths.
- More very cool model work with the descending (and smoking!) dalek ship.
- I do like the design of this Dalek Supreme. Can’t beat a bit of black and gold. Weird they just leave the door to their ship open though.
- Oh wow, now it’s moving up close and getting some dialogue, it’s immediately evident how clunky the Dalek Supreme prop is compared to the others, that’s rather unfortunate. Fun light-up eyestalk though.
- I’m assuming the shots of the dalek hoards in the cave thing are done using lots of miniature models. Certainly more effective than the cardboard cut-outs of the sixties.
- Must have been fun flooding the lil dalek models. It’s quite an effective shot really.
- I love the Doctor’s parting advice to the thals. I’m a big old pacifist myself, but also just nice how he acknowledges the race’s origins and calls back to the first dalek serial.
- The whole Latep/Jo romance thing feels so forced and unnecessary. But maybe I’m slightly biased because I know what’s coming in the next story.
Verdict - I think I was right to say that this is a pretty good dalek story, though of course - and as others said on this thread - hardly the best. I was probably a little over-generous to put it on a par with Genesis, but otherwise I think my ranking still stands. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how it just repeats beats from Nation’s other dalek stories, especially The Daleks, but that doesn’t really bother me. It was virtually ten years later after all, and the various tropes that are repeated are updated and made more visually impressive. It’s no different to The Hungry Earth repeating The Silurians in a way.
There are some very paint-by-numbers relationships between the thals and it’s a shame the Spiridons don’t get any real resolution. But the supporting characters themselves I really got on with and I really enjoyed the writing of the Doctor himself in this one - sadly Jo’s boomeranged back to being her irritating self again. I still really like this story - it’s well directed, well designed and better paced than most six-parters.
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