Death to the Daleks

The season 11 titles always catch me off guard; another sign of transitioning from Pertwee to Baker. 

Andrew Marsden@LifeonMarsden I quite like the Pertwee version of the "Tom Baker" credits. He totally looks like a time travelling vampire in them! :-) 

Frivolous Pursuit@Cluemark LOVE this story. My second VHS after 5 Drs. THE ROOT WON!  

John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland was the first Pertwee I saw. I was surprised that Sarah was in it. Also confused. The titles were not the ones featured in the Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special. 

Ah, yes, wasn't it down as Doctor Who and the Exxilons or something similar? Also that on one of the sound FX albums, I think.

John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland 
 

And "The Destructors" for The Sontaran Experiment! I'd totally forgotten that one!

John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland  The Invisible Enemy is down as The Enemy Within. More here!

Ooh, a quarry! How rare! 

KrynoidPodCast@KrynoidPodCast Best one ever though :) 

Terry Walsh got the point. 

CMDR UNFAZED ‏@AnthonyWalsh16 You can see why he was a stuntman not an actor :) 

The Doctor & Sarah are off to the seaside apparently, beside which the Doctor does like to be. 

But just for a change, something's up with the TARDIS & it lands, sounding even wonkier than usual. 

Power cut! Well that's UNIT dating solved; definitely the 70s. 

James Cooray Smith@thejimsmith The story would have been written just after the OPEC crash/three day week, so may be a joke of sorts. The Heath gov was unceremoniously thrown at by electorate between Parts Two & Three after little more than 3 years in power. & this was in part because of the collapse of 60s positivity that these events (& others) seemed to represent. 

As soon as the Doctor gives it more power, it's drained away instantly.  

Even Sarah's torch is affected. 

The Doctor has to resort to an oil lamp to illuminate us this time out. 

Hooray for old fashioned oil lamps!  

And hand cranked TARDIS doors! 

Great eerie sound effects when they venture out into the bleak wilderness. 

James Cooray Smith@thejimsmith This whole episode has a horrific atmosphere. The night scenes. The brutal, hooded, wordless savages stalking Sarah. The steaming piles of ash. It's really cranking it up. Horror movie stuff. Universal, rather than Hammer, but striking. I love the score too. & both Blyton's others. Wish he'd done more later; lifted the monotony of deadly Dudley's monopoly.

I really like his Revenge of the Cybermen score, though there's probably a bit of nostalgia involved with that worn out VHS!

John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland The score and sound effects in this are perfect. Always love the sound of the beacon especially.

Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin It has great atmosphere and direction from Mike Briant.

Neat little misdirection trick where Sarah is spooked by a rocky outcrop that looks a bit like an Exxilon but isn't - this time. 

So that she'll be caught unawares when one actually moves! 

The Doctor goes for a quick scout around, leaving Sarah alone... 

Or so he thinks. 

The Doctor is soon facing an unwelcome committee! 

Sarah's feeling the cold so goes back to the TARDIS for something warmer. 

The Doctor's been gone a long time, so she goes to track him down... 

...only to find signs of a struggle. 

Sarah makes it back to the TARDIS but has to fight to close the doors... 

...meaning she doesn't notice she's no longer alone!  

Sarah's beaten him to a pulp. That's okay then. 

This Exxilon isn't giving up, though, so she scarpers into the night! 

Some other locals have captured the Doctor, but he's soon giving it a bit of the old Venusian Aikido. 

Sarah finds herself at the foot of an enormous city with a pulsing light atop a central tower... 

Great design on that model of the city. Slightly Escher-like with its' steps.

Daylight at last & the Doctor's walked all night. The place looks a bit like Androzani Minor. Fairly sure it's Cromer. 

The Doctor trips a trap... 

...and some human types in pastel blue uniforms capture him. 

John Abineri! Get in. 

Railton seems to be descended from General Carrington. 

Still waiting to find out who the villains of the story will turn out to be... 

The space marines have a problem with their perineum. What goes on tour... 

Oh Parrinium, right, right. 

Sarah will be fine as long as she stays away from the Exxilon city.  

Guess where she's gone. 

Back at base the Doctor enjoys a slap up meal. 

The relief ship's here! 

Sarah is locked up by the Exxilon priests and sentenced to be sacrificed. 

Under their robes, the Exxilons have skull-like heads but somehow fail to actually look frightening.

That's not the relief ship. 

Not totally sold on the Daleks' theme here to be honest... 

Well, they're done for now, as the Daleks fire their guns at the lot of them... cliffhanger! 

Botched cliffhanger, that. Those Dalek guns are going forever without anything happening before the credits roll.

So yes, part 2 and *surprisingly* the Daleks' guns don't work. 

The 70s power cut Daleks have had a new lick of paint. 

Great Dalek voices from Michael Wisher here; the way that Dalek sounds scared when it can't kill... 

Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin TBH when i hear Michael Wisher voicing the Daleks i just hear Davros!

The Doctor sees a tactical advantage to an alliance with the Daleks; they're brilliant technicians... 

...so they should be able to fix the electrics, right? 

There's more than 4 Daleks, apparently, though they're pretending otherwise. 

And they're not admitting that they too have a need for perineum, but that's to be expected... 

Interesting that the Daleks themselves still function. 

With an uneasy truce in place, the crew take the Daleks to inspect the mining site. 

But they're being watched... 

The Doctor's Spidey-sense is tingling... 

John Abineri's taken an arrow to the back. 

That puts Galloway in charge, so they all better watch their backs. 

Hordes of Exxilons attack the defenceless Daleks. One blows its' top. 

Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Why does it blow it's top? 

I have to assume it's the heat from the kinetic force generated by its' knickers untwisting. 

The Exxilons have the useless Commander hostage so the Doctor & co. surrender. 

Sarah's been at the old defiling again. 

The Daleks plan to offer technology to the Exxilons for their freedom & will sell the Doctor out as part of the bargain. 

Sacrifice time.  

The Daleks have resorted to old fashioned bullets. Hilariously they use mini police boxes for target practice. 

Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Where the bloody heck did The Daleks get that TARDIS model from?!

Andrew-Mark Thompson@Andydrewz One was stolen from the BBC Visual FX tent at the 1983 Longleat Celebration. Could be that one. Possibly.

Their 3D printer can knock off small models, it just can't cope with lifesize Hartnells, that's all. 

Rather bizarrely, the Exxilon's overcome the Doctor & Sarah by getting them stoned on incense. 

Despite his respiratory bypass system, the Doctor inhales. Works when he wants it to, doesn't it? 

Meanwhile Galloway's selling them out to the Exxilons... 

...and finishing off the commander, because his dying wish is to deny him promotion. 

The Doctor and Sarah escape during the Dalek attack and are off down the tunnels. 

The Doctor corrects Sarah, the Daleks are not robots. Terry Nation forgets - or changes - this by Destiny of the Daleks. 

Inside each Dalek travel machine is a "bubbling lump of hate." 

"I see"
"Do you?"
"No!" 

Galloway's sold the Doctor & Sarah out to the Daleks, and the Exxilon resistance to the priests. 

"This is the part you're not going to like..."

"I haven't liked any of it so far!" 

The Doctor says that ravenous howling might just be a wind effect. 

"Who are you kidding?"
"Myself, chiefly." 

Sarah's bumped into another Exxilon - a robeless flasher, no less... 

...and the Doctor's confronted by a tunnel snake. 

The glowy eyed metal snake misses the Doctor... 

...and the flasher Exxilon turns out to be Bellal, a loveable anti-Gollum.  

The Doctor profits from a spat between the snake (or "root") and the Daleks, and makes his getaway. 

"Good shot, sir! A palpable hit! Back of the net! Go on, my son! They don't like it up 'em! 'ave some of that!" 

The Doctor pulls the old 'round the corner' gag. Proof he's been a parent: total dad joke. 

Final scores: The Root 1, Dalek 0. Perivale, 600 million, Rest of the Universe, nil. Doctors 12, Masters 7. 

The Doctor is reunited with Sarah and the glowy Bellal and his mate show them the way to the surface. 

Galloway's got his feet under the table with the Daleks and has become a right slave driver in the quarry. 

Even the ruthless Galloway is taken aback by the Daleks' one strike disciplinary process, though. 

The Exxilon's gave their city a brain, and it turned into a living, thinking arsehole. 

That root's up to no good again, rising up out of that quarry pool and incinerating one of the Exxilons. 

Top stunt work. 

A Dalek comes and has a go, thinking itself hard enough, but the root drags it into the pool and slinks off. 

Apparently the Exxilons have been to Peru. Is Paddington descended from Exxilons? 

The Daleks plan to blow up the beacon atop the city to restore their power, and co-opt the space marines...  

It's only a model! 

The Doctor leaves Sarah to sabotage the mining operation. 

Pretty sure that clean white city with touch sensitive buttons was designed by apple, not the Exxilons. 

The Doctor thinks the sentient city is beautiful, but to Bellal and the resistance, it's evil. It's both, of course. 

The Doctor and Bellal are into the crystal maze, I mean Exxilon city, but the Daleks are hot on their heels. 

Stop, don't move! Infamous floor tiles of terror!  

Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 It's the Lino of Death!!!!!!  

After a quick test with the sonic screwdriver... 

...and some Venusian hopscotch (Pretty sure any old bollocks the 3rd Doctor cares to make up he labels as "Venusian")... 

Tim@parks8472 It's when he breaks out the Venusian crochet you know you're in trouble

The Doctor throws a coin on to the red and white tiles and a lightning bolt strikes it. 

Terrance Dicks had to put this sequence in to Nation's underrunning script, then recycled it for the 5 Doctors. 

From the mid-60s (Master Plan at least) Nation always seemed to send in under written scripts that required the script editor of the day to do a fair heft of the work, be it David Whittaker, Dennis Spooner or of course, uncle Terry.

In fact, I've a sneaky suspicion Davros' "Up above the Gods" speech in Genesis of the Daleks, at least in its final form, is from the pen of Robin Bland himself, Robert Holmes (especially when you think of the "indomitable" speech from The Ark in Space). Wouldn't take too much away from Nation (he certainly came up with Davros unaided) but some dialogue polishing, surely.

Ooh, there's a shifty BBC Controller watching the Perters & Bellal show. 

Meanwhile the Daleks have just ploughed over the tiles... 

...which niftily heal themselves after being shot. 

Sarah recruits Jill to her resistance effort. 

The Doctor's in "A Room without a Clue!", where Bellal is driven to attack the pun with a gun. 

The Daleks drive Galloway and Peter to carry their bomb to the top of the Exxilon city. 

The next room sees them attacked by the visual effects department. 

Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Am i the only one who gets a headache when watching this scene? 

Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 It's the Top of the Pops vision mixer getting carried away again!! 

But they've made it to the BBC Controller, who crumples under scrutiny. 

The city activates a pair of mutants, but the Doctor & Bellal once again palm off their troubles on the Daleks. 

These Daleks are hilarious: "I will cover you, I will cover you! Faster, faster, faster!" 

With just a bit of sabotage, The Doctor & Bellal escape, but the Daleks are busy half-inching the marines' perineum. 

The beacon is destroyed so the Daleks are free to leave & hold the universe to ransom with their stockpiled perineum. 

Lovely to hear the Dalek heartbeat, even if it is rather close to the perineum. 

But Sarah & Gill fiddled the perineum, so the Daleks only have a sandbag where they thought the perineum was. 

Galloway sets off the bomb as they go.  

As @TobyHadoke points out that's 2 out of 3 Pertwee Dalek stories ending with a suicide bombing! 



And the city melts, almost as if it were polystyrene being dissolved by a solvent of some kind... 

"Now the universe is down to six hundred and ninety nine wonders..." Lovely little end. 

John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Death To The Daleks is a good story which tries do something different. It's maligned by fans due to two poor cliffhangers.

Steve Powner@StevePowner Totally agree I've always enjoyed it.

KrynoidPodCast@KrynoidPodCast I think it's thoroughly enjoyable. I've never understood the poor reception it gets.

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon: Inferno