The Doctor and Bellal continue to penetrate the City's defences while Sarah and Jill try to stop the Daleks leaving with the parrinium.The Doctor and Bellal continue to penetrate the City's defences while Sarah and Jill try to stop the Daleks leaving with the parrinium.The Doctor and Bellal continue to penetrate the City's defences while Sarah and Jill try to stop the Daleks leaving with the parrinium.
- Dalek Voices
- (voice)
- Dalek Operator
- (as John Scott-Martin)
- Dalek Operator
- (as Murphy Grunbar)
- Zombie
- (uncredited)
- Exxilon Corpse
- (uncredited)
- Zombie
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Terry Nation
- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- Donald Wilson(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe ending to this story was revised. Originally, the Daleks escaped with the cure, but the humans worked with the Exxilons to set them back on the path to advancement and were given more of the cure in return.
- GoofsThe beacon drains all electrical power from any technology on the planet, which is why the Doctor, the humans, and the Daleks are stranded there. Yet the Doctor's sonic screwdriver works just fine when he needs it to.
- Quotes
[first lines]
[the Doctor and Bellal walk down a recently revealed corridor]
The Doctor: [blocking Bellal with his hand] Stop, don't move!
Bellal: What is it?
The Doctor: Another test, I think.
[the Doctor squats down to get a closer look at the red-and-white mosaic on the floor]
The Doctor: The people who built this city, they didn't go in for ornamental floors, did they?
Bellal: I don't understand.
The Doctor: No, neither do I.
[the Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and sweeps it across the pattern. It beeps part-way, buzzes, then beeps again]
The Doctor: Tell me, have you ever tried Venusian hopscotch? No, it's a silly question. You wouldn't have done. Anyway, now's your chance to learn. I want you to do exactly what I do, all right?
With The Time Warrior, and the Dinosaurs, the eleventh season had started pretty well and I assumed this trend would continue with a serial that not only offered the return of the Daleks, but also would be a 4-part serial (which often means less padding and a generally tighter delivery. There are a lot of moving parts within the story too – quite a few groups, differing motivations, moral conflicts, historical factors, and even an Indiana Jones style series of traps to be figured out and avoided. However all of these parts seem excessive considering few of them are really capitalized on, plus, being honest, the energy levels of the serial seems low – particularly when compared to the elements of fun that came with the previous two serials. Even though there is material to be explored here, usually it leads nowhere – such as the morality of "greater good" which rears its head a few times.
For all their brand recognition, the Daleks seem like an unnecessary fifth wheel here, really doing very little that could not have been done by any other random species. Okay the end of their thread does fit with them (sort of) but otherwise they always seem a little behind the action and very much a secondary concern. This feeling isn't help by the musical accompaniment they get, which is an oddly bumbling curiosity of a piece of music – and it is consistently applied for no good reason. The other supporting characters don't make much of an impression either and, considering the stakes and the risks involved in the detail and the bigger picture of the plot, it is all a bit lacking in energy in terms of how it is delivered. Pertwee is okay, although Sladen seems mostly to be in trouble, with little to really do (and her appearance in a bathing suit at the start surprised me a bit – I thought she started out not being such a companion).
All told Death to the Daleks is not a bad serial, but it certainly is not a particularly good one, and it does stand out as weaker when put after the previous two serials. The Daleks themselves may carry the serial title, but they could easily be replaced for all the specific use they have in this serial. Hopefully the next serial will pick up the tone so far, and this can be a blip in the eleventh season.
- bob the moo
- Jun 6, 2015
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