Harry -
Doctor Who's seventeenth season -- and Tom Baker's sixth -- roars into action with this amazing story. "Destiny of the Daleks" is one of my favourites. Great story, great cast, great production, direction and sound. I'm ready to watch it again right now!
Sarah -
I've been looking forward to "Destiny of the Daleks" since we started this little marathon of ours. It's one of my favorites, as well.
Harry -
First off, it's a regeneration episode, only this time it's Romana! She never explains why the regeneration is happening, but her ability to "try on" new bodies was a groundbreaking moment.
Sarah -
Romana's regeneration was the first I'd ever seen, so I rolled with it at the time. In subsequent viewings, it's always bothered me. First, regeneration is always presented as a traumatic event, but it just seems like "another day, another body" for Romana. Perhaps it's the Doctor's renegade lifestyle that leads to his dramatic regenerations, but Romana's is still all too calm and ordinary. Second, it's annoying that she's trying on bodies like new outfits and seeking the Doctor's approval. As much as I love Lalla Ward, it's hard to imagine Mary Tamm's Romana giving a damn about the Doctor's opinion of her regeneration.
Harry -
Unless I'm forgetting an obvious example, this was also the first time a guest actor returned as a regular cast member. Would Peter Purves count? He played two different characters in "The Chase", but I'm not sure if he'd already been cast as a new companion at the time of his first appearance. Casting decisions seemed to be way more fast and loose back then.
Sarah -
I was about to remind you of at least two notable instances of a guest actor being cast as a regular, but then realized that they are still to come in our timeline and it would be bad form to bring them up now. While Peter Purves was the first a guest actor to be cast as a regular (I'm counting him because I said, "Oh look, it's Peter Purves" when he appeared in "The Chase"), I also remind you of Space Agent Bret Vyon in "The Daleks' Master Plan" -- portrayed by none other than our beloved Nicholas Courtney! So, it turns out Lalla Ward's casting is less revolutionary than it may seem at first glance.
Harry -
Ohhh, I knew I was forgetting someone! Anyway, new Romana! We've probably seen and enjoyed most if not all of Lalla Ward's stories, so it's not really a shocking development, is it? The behind-the-scenes stories from this time period will always be juicier it seems.
Sarah -
Who doesn't love a bit of gossip -- especially when it involves the Doctor and his companion's off-screen tempestuous relationship and doomed marriage! Still, in the end, being on Doctor Who worked out well for Lalla. She developed a close friendship with Douglas Adams (who is making his first appearance as Script Editor in this story), who eventually introduced her to her second (and current) husband, Richard Dawkins.
Gossip aside, let's get back to the Daleks and their destiny! In an effort to elude the Black Guardian, the Doctor has installed a randomizer in the TARDIS. They find themselves on a rocky, mysterious planet that feels somehow familiar...
Harry -
Whoever scouted out the quarry and the ruins for the external shots picked a winner. A quick spin on Google reveals it to be Winspit in Dorset. The "ruins" we saw were two old stone cottages fallen into disuse there. Instant, cost effective ruins!
Sarah -
"Cost effective" -- no other two words can so quickly warm the heart of BBC accountants! Skaro on a budget!
Harry -
The sights of Winspit and the ominous notes of Dudley Simpson create a post-apocalyptic atmosphere for the Doctor and Romana explore, having ditched K-9 in what is becoming an increasingly unfortunate routine. Poor tin dog.
Sarah -
It's so sad to see K-9 left behind with his brain outside his body.
Harry -
The movie-like quality of the exterior filming gives us a grander scale of things and the opening episode was great. The Doctor and Romana observe a group of ragged individuals bury a dead body, before they go underground to investigate the ruins. Elsewhere, an unidentified ship lands and burrows itself into the ground. At the end of part one, our friends are separated and each is seized by either the Movellans or the Daleks, and the story kicks into high gear.
Sarah -
And it really never slows down after that! Romana manages to escape her Dalek captors by stopping her hearts and being carried out for dead, while the Doctor discovers what the Movellans (with their Rick-James-Fabulous look going on!) are really after -- our old pal Davros!
It's been a while since we've seen Davros and the intervening time has not been good to him. Left behind after the events of "Genesis of the Daleks", he has been in suspended animation for centuries. While he's been sitting around in the Kaled City, the Daleks have been busy spreading violence and misery throughout the galaxy. For the first time, I found myself thinking about when this story was occurring in relation to other Dalek stories. Of course, I was not the first to contemplate this question. Feast your eyes on this, my friend and prepare to have to your brain explode with possibilities: Timeline - Daleks.
Harry -
If there is a list to be made, a Doctor Who fan will make it!
I had poor memories of Davros in this story, and they were renewed, mostly because he was portrayed by someone new (David Gooderson) wearing the old costume that Michael Wisher had made famous. I don't know if there was a dramatic size difference between the two actors, or a matter of physicality or what, but the cold menace of Wisher's Davros was missing. Instead, this Davros came off as a pissed off Aussie, madly piloting his chair from room to room and bumping into things as if he was having a seizure. Even his megalo-rants were less than terrifying.
Sarah -
Davros is a bit of a disappointment, isn't he? Perhaps we can interpret it as a sign of his diminished importance to the Daleks to staunch our disappointment.
Harry -
I rationalized the weaker Davros as the result of him having just awakened from a lengthy period of stasis, and not up to his usual megalo-haha standards.
Sarah -
He just needs some time to work it up to an appropriate megalo-level and be less, well, boring?
Harry -
The Daleks, meanwhile, were all over this one. Thanks to the brilliant direction of Ken Grieve, we see them smash through walls, rumble across dusty fields, ascend hills and blow up with great gusto. Thanks to the vocal talents of Roy Skelton, they menace pretty much everyone in the story. So many nasty Daleks helped make up for Davros' deficiencies.
Sarah -
Loads of Daleks doing Dalek-y things! I love how they look like battered, old WWII tanks.
Harry -
As for the Movellans, wow! What a look. Without looking it up, I'm tempted to say that they must have sought out dancers or gymnasts to play these robot characters. Their movements were always smooth and graceful -- the complete opposite of the stomping Cybermen of today.
Sarah -
It's a pity you don't see more Movellan costumes, but I imagine your average cosplayer doesn't have quite the right build to pull it off.
Harry -
It was great that the Movellans and Daleks had been at war for centuries, but not a shot had been fired in all that time because both sides kept stalemating each other strategically. Leading us to the jist of the story: find Davros and bring him in as the tiebreaking factor. Failing that, press the Doctor into similar duty.
Sarah -
In which, the Daleks and Movellans begrudgingly admit that humanoids may have a purpose after all -- other than being exterminated, of course.
Harry -
As the Doctor put it, the Movellans were just another race of robots, no better than Daleks. They abused Romana and used her as bait to lure the Doctor into their grasp, and then they were perfectly willing to incinerate the entire planet of Skaro in order to destroy Davros. That's super-freaky!
Sarah -
I am so overwhelmed with admiration for your super-freaky comment that I'll just keep quiet for a moment here.
...
Harry -
My favourite moment in the story is the paper-rock-scissors demonstration that underscored the logical impasse between the Movellans and Daleks.
My least favourite moment had to be the fact that this brilliant race of robots could be disabled by plucking away their power pack. Their power-winding-down actions were graceful, though.
Sarah -
It does seem like a fatal design flaw -- kind of like being blinded when a hat is tossed over your eyestalk. It's no wonder these two races couldn't defeat each other.
Harry -
Romana couldn't be bothered with that, as she royally kicked Sharrel's arse before he could activate the Nova device. Hurrah!
Sarah -
Romana's not afraid to bust out with the fisticuffs when she needs to!
We end with the Movellans deactivated, the Daleks exploded, and Davros cryogenically frozen. The freed slave workers are taking him to Earth on the Movellan ship to hold him accountable for his crimes.
Harry -
They never did explain how Davros was basically sitting in a room gathering cobwebs for hundreds of years, and magically came back to life when people entered the room. Was he locked down by some kind of motion sensor? Anyway, he's on ice for the foreseeable future, hopefully enough time to lose the Aussie accent.
Sarah -
That is the largest plot hole in the story. If there's one thing Doctor Who prepares you for, it's the ability to gleefully scamper past glaring plot holes!
Harry -
As for our friend Tom Baker, dare I say he was minimized in this story? First off, the new Romana settles in wearing not so much a new set of her own clothes but rather a feminized version of the Doctor's attire, right down to the cut of the coat and the overlong scarf. Thus the show is suddenly no longer about a lone Time Lord, but a pair of Gallifreyans roaming through time and space together as a team. Davros was slightly less "Davrosy" here it's true, but his mind matched up against the Doctor's equally. The Movellans and Daleks menaced the Doctor in equal measure, leaving him little room for hamming. Even the story's supporting character Tyssan brought the Doctor down a notch, because in Tim Barlow the producers found an actor who was taller than Tom. The Doctor is still the lead character in the story, but I don't remember him being surrounded by so many equals before. Tom was really restrained here. Even his few hammy moments felt like they were written in by Douglas Adams, rather than sparks of spontaneity from the actor.
Sarah -
Excellent observation, Old Boy. Everyone gets a piece of the smarty-pants action in this story. I have a fondness for the Romana Era, especially the Second Romana Era, because she and the Doctor really are a team of equals. By this point in their story, Romana is a more seasoned traveler and confident adventurer. The chemistry between Baker and Ward is so delightful and I'm excited to have finally reached season seventeen!
Harry -
We're off to a cracking start. Shall we roll on?
Sarah -
Oh yes, let's!
Best Line: "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?"
Favorite Moment: The Doctor delivering the line above after crawling up a shaft.
Lasting Image: The Movellans, without a doubt!
8/10
Harry -
Best Line:
Doctor: "Make mistakes and confuse the enemy."
Romana: "Brilliant."
Doctor: "Yes."
Romana: "Is that why you always win?"
Doctor: "Yes. What?"
Romana: "Because you always make mistakes."
Favourite Moment: Paper-Rock-Scissors
Lasting Image: The Movellans!
8/10
Our marathon continues with Story #105 - City of Death...
