Doctor Who: The Daleks
Feb. 25th, 2026 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavere(Still catching up on my posting backlog. My brain is so completely fried right now I'm grateful I had a near-complete review ready to go here.)
If nothing else, watching the big name episodes, the ones which put the classic in Classic Who, is going to be a lot of fun!
I never understood Dalekmania. I've never liked the Daleks. They seemed to come with a rule of inverse effectiveness to how many were on screen, and just annoyed me most of the time. I could never understand why they saved the show.
Well, I get it now. For one thing, instead of a screechy monotone, their voices in this first story are just mildly robotic. Much easier on my ears. For a second thing... They're cute. They carry around tea trays and pick up pieces of paper so other Daleks can read notes written thereon. Susan laughs at their terrible accents. The whole team drags one around by its eyestalk while it protests and then Ian clambers inside and the design is perfectly calibrated to appeal to children. It looks ominously alien, but also toylike. It's menacing, but moves around like a bumper car. And despite the lack of human shape, it's superbly easy to mimic. No wonder they were all over playgrounds and sold figurines so easily.
Great set design, cool miniatures. The first episode does a great job building tension, especially with the observation that the high winds do not disturb the stone forest around them. For no budget, this does a great job conjuring a genuinely alien landscape.
This is the first real example of companions wandering off in dangerous territory... except it's the Doctor who is to blame. Ian and Barbara are extremely sensible of the danger surrounding them, and he's the one who insists on hanging around to explore. He's kind of a git, to be honest. And the thing is (here again is my fascination with the character) this is in keeping with later behaviors. All too often, the Doctor goes looking for trouble, for anomalies, for distress calls, and puts his companions in danger by this obsession ('Oxygen' is a good example of this, to say nothing of 'World Enough and Time'). This is part of his baseline. As much as it appalled me here, it isn't out of character. The Doctor is not a good man, but he learns to be better, or at least channels this dangerous instinct into helping others. I don't think the First Doctor would answer a distress call, if he could even pilot the TARDIS to it. He's only out to satisfy his own curiosity here.
I did laugh at Barbara being so sad when they discover alien fossils among the petrified, bombed-out wasteland they are wandering, because it means they aren't on Earth. Lady, I don't want that to be my home planet in any era!
I laughed again when they started wandering around a swamp full of monstrous mutations - in sandals. While drinking straight from the water to freshen up. I don't care if they have anti-radiation drugs, that stuff could be full of mutated flesh-eating bacteria. Stop modelling bad behavior on a children's show!
I liked the slower pacing, letting me soak in the sense of actual space to be crossed. I was fond of the long, slow rope crossing sequence because it felt so much like the real world. Ian saying the same thing every time, in the same manner, to project calm. The story stopping with the characters, watching every single crossing, rather than just the first two and the inevitable failure. I've always found the pacing of NuWho a little frenetic, and I'm glad to experience something a little calmer.
In general, there's something refreshingly grounded about the sci-fi in this era. I mean, sure, there's a food printer in the TARDIS (because it's the sixties and everyone wanted to eat astronaut food for some reason), but the TARDIS feels lived-in. They have actual chairs. They have to freshen up after their caveman escapades, and wait for daybreak to go investigate the world outside. There's a sense that they've actually gone somewhere in a vessel built for long-term travel.
Interesting things which caught my eye: It's a Dalek who first refers to the Doctor's "companions." Woo hoo. Pepperpot's a trendsetter.
Also, this is an important episode, as the Doctor's relationship with said companions hits rock bottom through his lies and manipulation, but then once they are imprisoned, unlike in the cavemen episodes, where they were all flying off the handle in different directions, here they band together to figure out how to trick and disable a Dalek, with all four of them having a role in brainstorming and in action. It's really heartwarming. The Doctor is becoming less of a scraggly alley cat and is learning to play well with others.
He doesn't give a damn about the Thals, although he does seem agreeable toward them by the end. He starts out expressing admiration for the Daleks, because they obviously possess brilliant minds, but eventually, when hearing their plan to irradiate the planet some more, he does take a step toward moral awareness when he denounces them as "senseless evil." He's not trying to be a hero at any point, but he does at least admit his errors and show some proper abhorrence that isn't purely selfish in motivation.
The secondary characters are easy to tell apart despite deliberately monochrome casting. I like Barbara getting a love interest rather than being relegated to the mom of the group.
A completely successful venture. No wonder this became legendary.
If nothing else, watching the big name episodes, the ones which put the classic in Classic Who, is going to be a lot of fun!
I never understood Dalekmania. I've never liked the Daleks. They seemed to come with a rule of inverse effectiveness to how many were on screen, and just annoyed me most of the time. I could never understand why they saved the show.
Well, I get it now. For one thing, instead of a screechy monotone, their voices in this first story are just mildly robotic. Much easier on my ears. For a second thing... They're cute. They carry around tea trays and pick up pieces of paper so other Daleks can read notes written thereon. Susan laughs at their terrible accents. The whole team drags one around by its eyestalk while it protests and then Ian clambers inside and the design is perfectly calibrated to appeal to children. It looks ominously alien, but also toylike. It's menacing, but moves around like a bumper car. And despite the lack of human shape, it's superbly easy to mimic. No wonder they were all over playgrounds and sold figurines so easily.
Great set design, cool miniatures. The first episode does a great job building tension, especially with the observation that the high winds do not disturb the stone forest around them. For no budget, this does a great job conjuring a genuinely alien landscape.
This is the first real example of companions wandering off in dangerous territory... except it's the Doctor who is to blame. Ian and Barbara are extremely sensible of the danger surrounding them, and he's the one who insists on hanging around to explore. He's kind of a git, to be honest. And the thing is (here again is my fascination with the character) this is in keeping with later behaviors. All too often, the Doctor goes looking for trouble, for anomalies, for distress calls, and puts his companions in danger by this obsession ('Oxygen' is a good example of this, to say nothing of 'World Enough and Time'). This is part of his baseline. As much as it appalled me here, it isn't out of character. The Doctor is not a good man, but he learns to be better, or at least channels this dangerous instinct into helping others. I don't think the First Doctor would answer a distress call, if he could even pilot the TARDIS to it. He's only out to satisfy his own curiosity here.
I did laugh at Barbara being so sad when they discover alien fossils among the petrified, bombed-out wasteland they are wandering, because it means they aren't on Earth. Lady, I don't want that to be my home planet in any era!
I laughed again when they started wandering around a swamp full of monstrous mutations - in sandals. While drinking straight from the water to freshen up. I don't care if they have anti-radiation drugs, that stuff could be full of mutated flesh-eating bacteria. Stop modelling bad behavior on a children's show!
I liked the slower pacing, letting me soak in the sense of actual space to be crossed. I was fond of the long, slow rope crossing sequence because it felt so much like the real world. Ian saying the same thing every time, in the same manner, to project calm. The story stopping with the characters, watching every single crossing, rather than just the first two and the inevitable failure. I've always found the pacing of NuWho a little frenetic, and I'm glad to experience something a little calmer.
In general, there's something refreshingly grounded about the sci-fi in this era. I mean, sure, there's a food printer in the TARDIS (because it's the sixties and everyone wanted to eat astronaut food for some reason), but the TARDIS feels lived-in. They have actual chairs. They have to freshen up after their caveman escapades, and wait for daybreak to go investigate the world outside. There's a sense that they've actually gone somewhere in a vessel built for long-term travel.
Interesting things which caught my eye: It's a Dalek who first refers to the Doctor's "companions." Woo hoo. Pepperpot's a trendsetter.
Also, this is an important episode, as the Doctor's relationship with said companions hits rock bottom through his lies and manipulation, but then once they are imprisoned, unlike in the cavemen episodes, where they were all flying off the handle in different directions, here they band together to figure out how to trick and disable a Dalek, with all four of them having a role in brainstorming and in action. It's really heartwarming. The Doctor is becoming less of a scraggly alley cat and is learning to play well with others.
He doesn't give a damn about the Thals, although he does seem agreeable toward them by the end. He starts out expressing admiration for the Daleks, because they obviously possess brilliant minds, but eventually, when hearing their plan to irradiate the planet some more, he does take a step toward moral awareness when he denounces them as "senseless evil." He's not trying to be a hero at any point, but he does at least admit his errors and show some proper abhorrence that isn't purely selfish in motivation.
The secondary characters are easy to tell apart despite deliberately monochrome casting. I like Barbara getting a love interest rather than being relegated to the mom of the group.
A completely successful venture. No wonder this became legendary.
