The Randomiser: The Day of the Daleks

[purplecat]

The Day of the Daleks is one of the few classic who stories to actually attempt to do something with time travel, beyond using it as a device to get the Tardis crew to the start of the adventure.


At its heart it is a fairly traditional take on the idea of someone travelling back in time to change history, but it succeeds in disguising the basic plot in enough UNIT, capture-escape, Dalek flummery that it's not all that obvious where it is heading until shortly before it gets there. Or at least Tame Layman didn't spot the "twist" until episode four and I recall being impressed by the whole thing when I first read the novelisation back in nineteen seventy-something. Of course, it's also notable that the Doctor manages to avert the standard resolution to these tales, in which the attempt to change history only serves to create history, which leaves one with the awkward question of what has happened to everyone in the timeline that was averted. The novelisation has a passage in which Anat leaves the underground tunnels in the future, clearly expecting to find the Daleks have vanished in a puff of timey-wimeyness, but that of course simply opens up a huge set of questions about, for instance, the chance that Anat would ever have been born at all in this new timeline. The televised version avoids that by leaving behind the people of the future world once the Doctor travels back to set things straight.

Viewing this so close after The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the similarities are quite striking, sufficiently so that one wonders if Louis Marks was deliberately referencing the earlier story. Both give us a future Earth that has been taken over by The Daleks, with humanity forced into work camps. Perhaps this also helps obscure the nuts of the bolts of the plot since some of us, at least, are already primed to expect there to be a future in which The Daleks have subjected the planet. Day of The Daleks gives us a new viewpoint on this world, however, with the quisling Controller. He's an unusual character for Doctor Who which generally prefers its antagonists to be unsympathetic or mad (or both). Off the top of my head the only similar character I can think of is the Governor in Vengeance on Varos, another ruler trapped by circumstance, meaning well but lacking the the ability to genuinely make a difference.


I feel vaguely that I like this story better than it deserves. It is decidedly slow in places with a lot of sitting around waiting for things to happen. Neither the Doctor, nor Jo, really get to shine though there are some nice moments. But it's a story that has a classic SF feel. It utilises the Daleks well as background villains who are reacting to events rather than pursuing some devilish plan and has a pretty decent set of supporting characters who avoid overly simplistic categorisation into good and bad. It's trying to do something a bit different while still being distinctively Doctor Who.

Comments

[theandrewhickey]

I don't think Marks was referencing Dalek Invasion of Earth -- or at least, I'm pretty sure he originally wrote the script without the Daleks in at all, as just a standard time-travel plot, and then was told to make the baddies Daleks later on.

I hadn't made the Vengeance on Varos connection before, but yes. Arguably also the Pirate Captain in The Pirate Planet is a similar figure.

I also like the UNIT cheese-board stuff, and how it both works as UNIT comedy bits *and* the way the "politicians always have a well-stocked larder" sets us up later for the Controller having a banquet for Jo while most people are on pill-food.

I like the story, but I've always preferred the novelisation, not least because it bookends the story with the scene where the Doctors and Jos meet again.

[purplecat]

I think you are correct about the story genesis - interesting then that those scenes are so like Dalek Invasion - though I suspect its genesis as a non-Dalek story helps explain why the treatment of the Daleks here feels refreshing and different.

I hadn't thought of the Pirate Captain - he's played very differently to the Controller and the Governor: both Aubrey Woods and Martin Jarvis give very similar performances.

While it's a nice character moment, I think all the stuff with waiting in Styles' house and eating cheese contributes the feeling that the pacing is a bit off in places.

I'd forgotten that the story doesn't close the loop the way the novelisation does. It seemed like an odd thing to omit.

[daniel-saunders.livejournal.com]

I find it an odd one. The first couple of episodes feel vaguely under-rehearsed, although I'm not quite sure why I feel like that. Something about the performances and maybe the direction feels 'off' somehow. But I like time travel stories and they were rare treats in the original series.

[purplecat]

You're right the start feels oddly lacklustre.