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The Randomiser: Evil of the Daleks
"It's a shame more of this one doesn't exist," Tame Laymen remarked halfway throught the lone surviving episode of Evil of the Daleks. It's another story which very much reflects the serialised form of Doctor Who's roots starting out as a detective drama/investigation in contemporary London to discover who has stolen the Tardis, moving back to Victorian England for a gothic tale that hints at possession and an episode which is devoted to Jamie overcoming traps and obstacles as he seeks to rescue Victoria before moving forward to the Daleks' futuristic city.
Each part has a very different tone and a somewhat different cast of characters. I think the first segment is probably the strongest with its pace driven by the mystery. The second part is more confused, in particular it isn't quite clear the extent to which incidental characters such as Ruth Maxtible are complicit in events (at the very least she is ignoring a lot of distinctly suspect goings on) and the rescue of Victoria, while entertaining enough, is clearly largely an excuse to fill an episode with a small quest narrative and random obstacles. However, while somewhat confused, it has plenty of atmosphere and enough narrative to keep the story moving. The final part harks back to The Daleks with our characters imprisoned in their city for mysterious purposes and it benefits from the strong design of that earlier story. The battle between the Dalek factions at the end, which has been the source of some derision, looked better than I expected (at least in still photographs).
We watched the loose canons reconstruction of this and they had really gone to town in some places with standins for some of the characters (filmed from behind) and CGI renderings of people climbing ropes etc. Monsters like the Daleks are obviously gifts to animators with their clean lines and simple shapes and the reconstruction made full use of this.
I think Tame Layman is correct, if I were making a list of stories I would like to see returned this would come quite high. Not necessarily at the top because I think I would currently reserve that for The Myth Makers, but certainly close.
Each part has a very different tone and a somewhat different cast of characters. I think the first segment is probably the strongest with its pace driven by the mystery. The second part is more confused, in particular it isn't quite clear the extent to which incidental characters such as Ruth Maxtible are complicit in events (at the very least she is ignoring a lot of distinctly suspect goings on) and the rescue of Victoria, while entertaining enough, is clearly largely an excuse to fill an episode with a small quest narrative and random obstacles. However, while somewhat confused, it has plenty of atmosphere and enough narrative to keep the story moving. The final part harks back to The Daleks with our characters imprisoned in their city for mysterious purposes and it benefits from the strong design of that earlier story. The battle between the Dalek factions at the end, which has been the source of some derision, looked better than I expected (at least in still photographs).
We watched the loose canons reconstruction of this and they had really gone to town in some places with standins for some of the characters (filmed from behind) and CGI renderings of people climbing ropes etc. Monsters like the Daleks are obviously gifts to animators with their clean lines and simple shapes and the reconstruction made full use of this.
I think Tame Layman is correct, if I were making a list of stories I would like to see returned this would come quite high. Not necessarily at the top because I think I would currently reserve that for The Myth Makers, but certainly close.
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