(Note: A review of all four episodes.)
When I discovered that one of my local public libraries had a massive collection of Doctor Who on VHS nearly two years ago this was the first story I checked out. After all it had my then favorite Doctor and the Daleks in it plus it had what looked like an intriguing story. So having seen many times since I find myself asking the question (which is also the title of an very good 1942 World War II film incidentally): Went the day well?
Well let's start by looking at the main cast members. Jon Pertwee gives as good a performance as the third Doctor as any other story, especially with some nice character moments in episode one. Katy Manning gives a nice if not adequate performance though she seems to fall rather too easily into the traps and machinations of the Controller. Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levenne all give adequate performances but nothing special about them here. In fact that could easily summarize the main cast members: adequate but nothing special.
The supporting cast favors much better. In particular the performance of Aubrey Wods as the Controller stands outs as his character makes a fascinating journey thanks to a crisis of conscience. Anna Barry, Scott Frederick and Jimmy Watson give believable performances as the guerrillas on a desperate mission to change history. Wilfrid Carter gives a fine but sadly underused performance as Sir Reginald Styles, the diplomat at the center of the story. There's also a nice cameo from real-life BBC reporter Alex MacIntosh in the final episode which adds some realism to the story. This story is one of the rare occasions where the supporting cast is better then the main cast.
The story is perhaps known as the return story of the Daleks after their apparent extinction in The Evil Of The Daleks back in 1967. Sadly though this was far from a grand return. the problem really is that the script wasn't written for the Daleks originally and it shows. For the first three episodes of the story the Daleks do little else but sit in a room issuing orders and then they finally move in episode four the results are less then great, particularly in the finale. Exaserbating the problem is the Dalek operation seems limited an unimpressive as a result. Worse yet is the voice work. The Dalek voices of Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline are by far the worst of the entire original series and one can only hope that when this story comes out on DVD the BBC will invest in having a special audio track for Nicholas Briggs or Roy Skelton to redo the voices. This story wasn't the Daleks finest hour and the story is hurt by it significantly.
Also other aspects of the production don't help. Dudley Simpson's music for the story becomes almost unbearable to listen to at times due to its volume and overuse of electronic elements in it. the editing of the story is a mixed affair with some really slow segments going on for too long (espeically the sequence with the Doctor and Jo at Styles' house). The story's biggest problem is direction of Paul Bernard which comes across as the director being uninterested most of the time. These elements all hurt the story and it never really recovers from these faults.
There are good aspects to the production though. The Ogrons are not only well designed but well acted as well, making them strangely more effective then the Daleks in this story. The design work of David Myerscough-Jones makes for nice sets which are complemented nicely. Then there's the script by Louis Marks.
If anything can be said about Day Of The Daleks it is that it has a fine script behind it. Marks deals with the issues of time travel paradoxes intelligently years in advance of other science fiction shoes and blends them well into a story about the world on the brink of World War III. When the story moves to the 22nd Century is becomes a familiar tale of a handful of people fighting to free themselves from oppression. While this has some echoes of The Dalek Invasion Of Earth in it and lacks the depth of that story, it still makes for some intriguing viewing. The script does have two problems: the Daleks (discussed above) and the fact that the ending leaves a few interesting strands of the plot loose. Those flaws aside Day Of The Daleks has one of the finest scripts of the Pertwee era.
With adequate performances from the leads, a nice supporting cast, poor Dalek usage, an overly loud score, slow pacing and uninspired direction plus well used Ogrons, well designed/lit sets and one of the best scripts of the Pertwee era we return to the question at the start of this review. So went the day well? The answer is average, yet it should have been better.
When I discovered that one of my local public libraries had a massive collection of Doctor Who on VHS nearly two years ago this was the first story I checked out. After all it had my then favorite Doctor and the Daleks in it plus it had what looked like an intriguing story. So having seen many times since I find myself asking the question (which is also the title of an very good 1942 World War II film incidentally): Went the day well?
Well let's start by looking at the main cast members. Jon Pertwee gives as good a performance as the third Doctor as any other story, especially with some nice character moments in episode one. Katy Manning gives a nice if not adequate performance though she seems to fall rather too easily into the traps and machinations of the Controller. Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levenne all give adequate performances but nothing special about them here. In fact that could easily summarize the main cast members: adequate but nothing special.
The supporting cast favors much better. In particular the performance of Aubrey Wods as the Controller stands outs as his character makes a fascinating journey thanks to a crisis of conscience. Anna Barry, Scott Frederick and Jimmy Watson give believable performances as the guerrillas on a desperate mission to change history. Wilfrid Carter gives a fine but sadly underused performance as Sir Reginald Styles, the diplomat at the center of the story. There's also a nice cameo from real-life BBC reporter Alex MacIntosh in the final episode which adds some realism to the story. This story is one of the rare occasions where the supporting cast is better then the main cast.
The story is perhaps known as the return story of the Daleks after their apparent extinction in The Evil Of The Daleks back in 1967. Sadly though this was far from a grand return. the problem really is that the script wasn't written for the Daleks originally and it shows. For the first three episodes of the story the Daleks do little else but sit in a room issuing orders and then they finally move in episode four the results are less then great, particularly in the finale. Exaserbating the problem is the Dalek operation seems limited an unimpressive as a result. Worse yet is the voice work. The Dalek voices of Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline are by far the worst of the entire original series and one can only hope that when this story comes out on DVD the BBC will invest in having a special audio track for Nicholas Briggs or Roy Skelton to redo the voices. This story wasn't the Daleks finest hour and the story is hurt by it significantly.
Also other aspects of the production don't help. Dudley Simpson's music for the story becomes almost unbearable to listen to at times due to its volume and overuse of electronic elements in it. the editing of the story is a mixed affair with some really slow segments going on for too long (espeically the sequence with the Doctor and Jo at Styles' house). The story's biggest problem is direction of Paul Bernard which comes across as the director being uninterested most of the time. These elements all hurt the story and it never really recovers from these faults.
There are good aspects to the production though. The Ogrons are not only well designed but well acted as well, making them strangely more effective then the Daleks in this story. The design work of David Myerscough-Jones makes for nice sets which are complemented nicely. Then there's the script by Louis Marks.
If anything can be said about Day Of The Daleks it is that it has a fine script behind it. Marks deals with the issues of time travel paradoxes intelligently years in advance of other science fiction shoes and blends them well into a story about the world on the brink of World War III. When the story moves to the 22nd Century is becomes a familiar tale of a handful of people fighting to free themselves from oppression. While this has some echoes of The Dalek Invasion Of Earth in it and lacks the depth of that story, it still makes for some intriguing viewing. The script does have two problems: the Daleks (discussed above) and the fact that the ending leaves a few interesting strands of the plot loose. Those flaws aside Day Of The Daleks has one of the finest scripts of the Pertwee era.
With adequate performances from the leads, a nice supporting cast, poor Dalek usage, an overly loud score, slow pacing and uninspired direction plus well used Ogrons, well designed/lit sets and one of the best scripts of the Pertwee era we return to the question at the start of this review. So went the day well? The answer is average, yet it should have been better.