The Dalek Tapes is a 54 and a half minute long documentary found on disc 2 of the 2 disc special edition of the Genesis of the Daleks (1975) DVD that was released in the UK, I'm not sure if the documentary has carried over to other versions released elsewhere but I put my money on the fact that it had.
As usual for these Doctor Who DVD documentary's the familiar line up of interviewees are present, Eric Saward, Terrence Dicks, Philip Hinchliffe, Roy Skelton & David Maloney etcetera. More of a surprise is that film critic Kim Newman & his silly moustache make an appearance trying to over analyse & give hidden meaning to everything.
As you might expect this is just a collection of people saying how good the Daleks are & how scary they are. There's nothing new or revolutionary here.
What saves The Dalek Tapes though is an examination of all the stories they appeared in during the 'classic' series, but there is no mention of the current revival. This is quite cool with some archive footage & the like although disappointingly the Pertwee stories involving the Daleks are all but ignored & given a few token references but nought else. There are also two highly amusing diversions, one called an interlude where we see Daleks dancing in synchronisation with each other in some park somewhere! Then there's an cheeky little scene where the documentary is interrupted & we go to a vintage episode of Blue Peter where the presenters appeal for the return of two Daleks that were stolen from outside the BBC, then a few minutes later the documentary is interrupted again with what was obviously a follow up story on Blue Peter about the discovery of the stolen Daleks including an interview with a policeman & a guy who found one lying in his drive!
The Dalek Tapes overall is a neat introduction to the Daleks which is fun & gives some insight into how they developed across the series which would be especially useful to anyone not familiar with the original series & maybe have gotten into Doctor Who because of the recent successful revival. However I'd imagine most seasoned fans won't find much here they didn't know already & why did they skip Jon Pertwee's era so quickly?
As usual for these Doctor Who DVD documentary's the familiar line up of interviewees are present, Eric Saward, Terrence Dicks, Philip Hinchliffe, Roy Skelton & David Maloney etcetera. More of a surprise is that film critic Kim Newman & his silly moustache make an appearance trying to over analyse & give hidden meaning to everything.
As you might expect this is just a collection of people saying how good the Daleks are & how scary they are. There's nothing new or revolutionary here.
What saves The Dalek Tapes though is an examination of all the stories they appeared in during the 'classic' series, but there is no mention of the current revival. This is quite cool with some archive footage & the like although disappointingly the Pertwee stories involving the Daleks are all but ignored & given a few token references but nought else. There are also two highly amusing diversions, one called an interlude where we see Daleks dancing in synchronisation with each other in some park somewhere! Then there's an cheeky little scene where the documentary is interrupted & we go to a vintage episode of Blue Peter where the presenters appeal for the return of two Daleks that were stolen from outside the BBC, then a few minutes later the documentary is interrupted again with what was obviously a follow up story on Blue Peter about the discovery of the stolen Daleks including an interview with a policeman & a guy who found one lying in his drive!
The Dalek Tapes overall is a neat introduction to the Daleks which is fun & gives some insight into how they developed across the series which would be especially useful to anyone not familiar with the original series & maybe have gotten into Doctor Who because of the recent successful revival. However I'd imagine most seasoned fans won't find much here they didn't know already & why did they skip Jon Pertwee's era so quickly?
