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Day of the Daleks

1ST JANUARY 1972 - 22ND JANUARY 1972

(4 EPISODES)

It was either just after or just prior to the series’ cancellation in 1989 that I inherited a stack

of early Target novelisations from my Uncle Mick; I cannot quite remember exactly. Terrance Dicks’ fifteen year-old “Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks” was the one that caught my eye first and I read the tattered old thing cover to cover in probably less time than it would take me to watch all four episodes of the same story on video. To my seven-year old mind it was the single greatest piece of literature in the history of man.

I then went on to attack novelisations of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, “The Abominable Snowmen”, “The Web of Fear”, “Terror of the Autons”, and “The Sea Devils” with every bit as much zeal but, almost certainly owing to my happy memories of my first Doctor Who literary experience, “Day of the Daleks” always stuck with me as being something a bit more special. And this was before I had even seen it.

Long before the days of the internet and at a time when even mail order was perceived as being risky in the extreme, no matter how hard I tried I could not get hold of “Day of the Daleks” on video. It was not until 1995 – some six or seven years after first reading the novelisation - that my parents were able to track down the recently released episodic version of the serial on video in time for my birthday.

It will probably come as no surprise that I was not desperately impressed with the four episodes; after all, it is human nature to gravitate towards the version of the story that one knew first – how many people say that the film is never as good as the book? Well the novelisation of “Day of the Daleks” may not have been written until a year or two after the  television serial, but for me it came first and the television serial simply could not match its epic splendour.

A lot of my disenchantment with the four episodes is directly attributable to the slightly

below-par production. My biggest gripe would have to be with the Daleks themselves – first off, you never see more than two grey Daleks on screen together at any one time. Director Paul Bernard may have covered this up to some extent with some clever editing, but the action sequences – particularly the ‘siege’ of Auderley House which is absolutely epic in the book – looks pathetic. Secondly, where was the Black Dalek? The novelisation contained a vivid illustration of a Black Dalek looking just like the one I had seen on television in “Remembrance of the Daleks” and so when I finally watched “Day of the Daleks” and found that the Dalek Supreme was actually gold, I could not help but feel a bit cheated. It sounds daft, but there you go. Finally – and a bit more objectively – the Dalek voices here are absolutely awful. They are without doubt the worst Dalek voices heard in Doctor Who

outside of the Fox TV Movie. In episode three you can even hear the clicking noise as the Dalek Operators turn their dome lights turn on and off. It is not good.

Some other elements also paled in contrast to my imagination. The bleak ‘future Earth’ ruled by the Daleks is just an autumn field and some anachronistic (though I will admit, suitably grim) 1970s concrete architecture. And why was the corridor outside the Doctor’s lab yellow-screen with nothing keyed in?

However, the above points certainly do not make “Day of the Daleks” a bad television story. Believe it or not, this serial remains one of my favourite third Doctor / UNIT stories, it is just that for me it did not quite live up to the book. Louis Marks’ plot is simply outstanding; it is

hard to believe that it took the production team almost a decade before doing a proper ‘time paradox’ story like this one. The only criticism of the story that I could possibly level is that

the Daleks’ are not really crucial to the plot; they are just ciphers for it. They could have been Cybermen or Silurians or anything and it would not have made one bit difference. If anything,

it may have made more sense - I still have not got my head round how “Day of the Daleks” fits in with the Dalek occupation of Earth in the 2150s!

Marks can hardly be blamed for this though – the script for his original “Ghost Hunters” story was almost complete before the word ‘Dalek’ was even mentioned to him. Apparently the original plan was to end the season with Robert Sloman’s “Daleks In London”, though this was aborted as for one thing Sloman’s story was far too similar to “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” and for another, the production team wanted to start the season with their tradition publicity-grabbing gimmick and what could attract more press attention than the return of the Doctor’s oldest foes? A Radio Times cover and competition, an item on Blue Peter, and appearance by Pertwee and the Daleks at the London Planetarium – it looks like the gimmick worked!

I think the thing that I still admire most about this story is just how damned clever it is. I love how the two time periods run parallel; how when a minute passes in the twentieth-century a minute passes in the twenty-second century, and even if someone travels back from the twenty-second century to the twentieth, when they arrive there if they have been away for two

hours, two hours have passed. I was especially pleased that Marks took the time to explain about this ‘Blinovitch Limitation Effect’ that prevents time travellers from repeatedly trying to undo their own actions. It puts a lot of the Doctor’s adventures in perspective and explains why he cannot always go back and change things once he has become a part of events.

“Don’t they like being happy and prosperous?”

The complex and fascinating paradox aside, “Day of the Daleks” is also notable for some wonderful characters. Aubrey Woods as the Controller of twenty-second century Earth is the standout in my opinion – utterly unlikeable at first, yet over the course of the serial we learn that he is just a normal bloke thrown in at the deep end. His face turn in the final episode is immensely rewarding as he finally stands up to his Dalek masters - “Who knows? I might have helped exterminate you!” Brilliant.

There are so many other things about “Day of the Daleks” that should be applauded. Little things like Captain Yates giving Benton a bollocking so that he can steal his lunch and flirt with Jo, or the Doctor casually munching on a sandwich as he fights with a guerrilla. Even

the Brigadier yelling “BE QUIET SIR!” right in the face of the pompous and irritating Sir Reginald Styles - that told him! I am not so sure about the Doctor being into cheese and wine and gunning down Ogrons in cold blood, though…

All things considered, “Day of the Daleks” stands out as the best third Doctor / Dalek serial and would probably be one of the best third Doctor serials full stop were it not for a few dodgy Dalek voices and some poor CSO. Marks’ moody script is both chilling and

thought-provoking, and every actor’s performance (bar that technician in the future who fluffs her line - she is rubbish) is fantastic. And so in spite of a few forgivable flaws, this story is

still an absolute must.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2008

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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