Written by Terry Nation, Douglas Adams, Sydney Newman, and Donald Wilson
Directed by Ken Grieve

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series that has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Tom Baker. His traveling companion is fellow Time Lord, Romana (portrayed by Lalla Ward). She was recently regenerated herself.

Destiny of the Daleks immediately follows the final episode of the Key to Time series. The Doctor even mistakes Romana for Princess Astra. As Romana is trying to find a look that suits the new her, the Doctor engages the randomizer in the TARDIS, and they are off.

They land on a rocky planet with much seismic activity as well as radiation. As they explore, they soon come across the ruins of what used to be a city. What first seems like a tremor, Romana deduces is some sort of underground drilling. The two become separated after a tunnel collapse. The Doctor is captured by beings who seem to have advanced technology and sport dreadlocks. These are the Movellans. It is from them that he learns they have landed on the planet Skaro.

Romana, meanwhile, has fallen through into another area of the subterranean structures, where she is confronted by the dreaded Daleks. She is soon put on a work detail with other imprisoned humanoids. They are searching for the dormant form of the Dalek creator, Davros.

The Daleks and Movellans have engaged in an interplanetary war, and it has reached a stalemate. Each is looking for an edge. The Daleks from their creator, Davros, and the Movellans see an opportunity when it presents itself and decide the good Doctor can be of use to them.

You would think any story-arc involving the Daleks would be a no-brainer as a good episode of Doctor Who. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The writing is incredibly predictable and stilted. Instead of the Daleks being dreaded killing machines of the galaxy, they seem to be goons in search of their leader, lost without them. That either they or the Movellans can be thought of as a threat in this story is laughable.

Cheesy special effects are a hallmark of the Doctor Who series, but Destiny of the Daleks carries it to a new low. At the beginning of a new season, the show was given an incredibly small budget. This meant that no new Daleks were created, and instead, the Daleks from five years before were dusted off and put back to work. The same is true for Davros, and the look of all is pathetic, rather than being charmingly cheesy.

I give credit to Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, who are the highlights of the show. They do the best they can with the material. Ward in particular impressed me, as later in the series the character seemed to be much weaker. Here she is more on an even keel with the Doctor, and Ward holds her own. I now no longer place blame for the downfall of the character on her shoulders, but rather on the series writers. Baker hasn’t gone over the top with the humor in the character, and does his best to have the audience believe the character and take the circumstances seriously, despite the weak script he’s been given.

The rest of the cast seems lost for the most part, and that’s unfortunate. David Gooderson seems never to find his footing in the role of Davros. It’s debatable whether that’s due to script issues or his own abilities, but Davros hardly seems to be a threat here. The leader of the Movellans, portrayed by Peter Straker, has an almost androgynous feel to him that likely couldn’t be explored completely due to the feeling that Doctor Who was considered a children’s show. The result is the feeling that the potential was there for him to do much more with the role, but he was held back.

There are plot inconsistencies galore. To generate some humor, the story-arc opens with Romana trying on several bodies after the Doctor voices displeasure at her modeling herself after Princess Astra. There’s no real explanation for why she’s regenerated, nor why she can suddenly try different forms when it seems the Doctor usually regenerates and has little control over it. It’s a moment where writer Terry Nation is going for humor, damn the show’s history!

The extras on the DVD are good. In particular, the commentary is interesting because, based on what Lalla Ward says, it seems that she and Tom Baker didn’t get on so well. She even reveals that there was one story arc where he not only wouldn’t talk to her, but wouldn’t even look at her, and spent the entire story arc looking over her shoulder. The other extras are the usual caliber and nice to look at. After being displeased by the quality of some parts of Destiny of the Daleks, I had high hopes for the CGI effects added to the story.

Destiny of the Daleks just has the feeling of something I’ve seen before. In addition, it emasculates the Daleks completely, taking them from a feared villain to brainless street thugs. The acting could be considered good for the most part, with the exception of David Gooderson. The problems that did arise could be due to the script, which is riddled with cliches. It’s just a poor story overall, and though I give the actors credit for doing what they can, they can’t save it from being a very weak story-arc.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Lalla Ward, David Gooderson, and Director Ken Grieve
• Terror Nation – about series writer Terry Nation
• Directing Who
• CGI Effects which allow the viewer to watch the DVD with newer CGI effects instead of the old, schlocky effects
• Trails and Continuity
• Photo Gallery
• Information Text
• Prime Computer Adverts