306 Day of the Daleks: Episode Three

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 306
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 15 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"When I meet a regime that needs to import savage alien life forms as security guards, I begin to wonder who the real criminals are!"

Fleeing from the Dalek the Doctor is transported to the future with Anat & Boaz. Becoming separated from them he emerges onto the surface and sees the deprivation of the enslaved humans. The Daleks are enraged when they hear that the Doctor is in their time and order his extermination. Anat & Boaz report to their superior Monia who tells them of Jo's capture. The Doctor is swiftly apprehended by Ogrons and taken for interrogation while Jo is wined and dined by the Controller plying her for information. A more friendly Interrogator questions the Doctor but is interrupted by the Controller who takes the Doctor into his custody as "an honoured guest". The Interrogator reports what has happened to the resistance before being caught & killed by the Ogrons. Reunited with Jo the Doctor is also plied with food & drink but is critical of the future regime. Jo & The Doctor stage an escape but are swiftly recaptured. The resistance learn of his capture & decide to rescue him. The Doctor is strapped to the Mind Analysis to prove his identity.

Apart from the reprise of episode 2's conclusion at the start, this episode is entirely set in the future and, thanks to some fab location work, it looks a horribly bleak place. Both the tower block exterior and the area the slaves are working in was shot as Harvey House in Brentford, which is close to Bull's Bridge in Hayes and Osterley House in Middlesex, the intended location for Styles' house. It's very close to two other Dalek locations Kew Bridge Steam Museum, the Totters' Lane scrap yard in Remembrance of the Daleks, and Kew Railway Bridge, from the opening of Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The waste ground seen when the Doctor materialises and again during the chase is near the bridge & tunnel entrance over the Grand Union canal at Bull's Bridge in Hayes, used in the other episodes of this story.

The bleakness is reinforced by The Doctor's treatment by his human interrogators:

And then his conversation with the controller, where the Doctor decides to tackle him on the status quo of the time period:

CONTROLLER: Some more wine, Doctor?
DOCTOR: No, thank you, no, not for me. Though I must admit, it's an excellent vintage. Well, it's the finest I've tasted since, er, well, since we had dinner at old Styles' house. Do you remember, Jo?
JO: It seems a long time ago.
DOCTOR: It was. Two hundred years to be precise. And quite frankly, I wish I was back there now.
CONTROLLER: Naturally, you prefer the twentieth century, Doctor. After all, it is your own time.
DOCTOR: Oh, I've known many times, and some of them much more pleasant than others.
JO: Well, I quite like it here, I must say. Everyone's been most kind.
DOCTOR: Well, I met some people today who were far from kind.
CONTROLLER: That was a simple mistake, Doctor, I assure you. You must not jump to conclusions.

DOCTOR: Well, better than jumping from the crack of a whip from some security guard. Do you run all your factories like that, Controller?
CONTROLLER: That was not a factory, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Oh? Then what was it?
CONTROLLER: A rehabilitation centre. A rehabilitation centre for hardened criminals.
DOCTOR: Including old men and women, even children?
CONTROLLER: There will always be people who need discipline, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Now that's an old fashioned point of view, even from my standards.
CONTROLLER: I can assure you that this planet has never been more efficiently, more economically run. People have never been happier or more prosperous.
DOCTOR: Then why do you need so many people to keep them under control? Don't they like being happy and prosperous?
JO: You're being a bit unreasonable, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Am I now?
JO: Well, look, the Controller wants to help you.
DOCTOR: Does he? I wonder why?
JO: You're not on the side of the criminals, surely? They wanted to kill you.
DOCTOR: When I meet a regime that needs to import savage alien life forms as security guards, I begin to wonder who the real criminals are.
JO: Those creatures aren't really savage.
CONTROLLER: Exactly. They are simply guard dogs. They just do what I tell them.
DOCTOR: You mean there aren't enough humans around that will follow your orders so blindly?
CONTROLLER: That is not what I was saying.
DOCTOR: Isn't it? Then what you're saying is that the entire human population of this planet, apart from a few remarkable exceptions like yourself, are really only fit to lead the life of a dog. Why?
CONTROLLER: You have no right to say that!
DOCTOR: Haven't I? Who really rules this planet of yours?
CONTROLLER: I'm sorry, I must go. I have work to do. You will excuse me.

JO: You shouldn't have spoken to him like that. You don't know the whole picture.
DOCTOR: Neither do you, Jo. Neither do you. That man is no more than a superior slave himself. Humans don't rule this world any longer, Jo.
JO: Then, who does?
DOCTOR: The most evil, ruthless life form in the cosmos. The Daleks.

The Daleks looks superb in the tunnel at the start of the episode, I always think they look good when you put them in dark confined spaces. There's some similar shots in the Daleks in Manhattan which are one of the few things about that story which really work for me! Unfortunately they are so dark they don't lend themselves to being screen capped that well!

Jo's "screams" to attract the guard's attention don't sound like she's afraid or scared .......

The Trike she & the Doctor escape on is obviously a gadget Pertwee sighted and wanted to use in the show but they are so slow that it makes the Ogrons ambling after them look completely stupid.

DALEK: The prisoners have escaped. They have broken through the outer perimeter.
DALEK: Find and exterminate them!
CONTROLLER: We need them alive!
DALEK: The prisoners will be recaptured and returned here for mind analysis!

As the Daleks announced what they intended to do to the Doctor Liz and I turned to each other and chorus as one "No,Not the Mind Probe!". A scene ruined by a future Doctor Who story, which is a shame as during it you get a glimpse into the Doctor's past with the faces of his former self appearing on the screen of the Mind Analysis Machine over the Pertwee end title sequence - a conscious decision or a CSO keying mistake?

Evidence suggests the latter as, uniquely, the music starts playing and Jon Pertwee's credit appears over the closing action. Like the previous episode this one starts with the reprise ending with the sting crashing in before the new action starts.

This story is the first appearance of the Daleks in colour in Doctor Who, but they previously appeared in colour in their original silver colour scheme with blue skirt balls in the now missing third season Out of the Unknown episode Get Off My Cloud.

Here they sport new grey paint schemes with black skirt balls whereas their leader's primary colour is gold, used previously in the film Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. for one of the leader Daleks there. Returning inside the shells are veterans John Scott Martin & Murphy Grumbar with newcomer Ricky Newby making up the numbers inside the third Dalek.

Regular Dalek Operator John Scott Martin made his Doctor Who début in The Web Planet as a Zarbi graduating to Dalek Operator in The Chase three stories later a role he'd repeated in Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan,Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks. He'll return as a Dalek in Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He also plays a Mechanoid in The Chase, the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie & a Coven Member in the Dæmons, a Mutant in the Mutants, a Gel Guard in The Three Doctors, Hughes in The Green Death, a guard in Robot, Kriz in Brain of Morbius and the Virus Nucleus in Invisible Enemy. His distinctive hair makes him a familiar figure amongst bit part actors in many television roles: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a T.V. Technician in The Wild Hunt and A for Andromeda as a Lab Assistant / Man in Pub in The Message. He appears in the missing Out of the Unknown episode The Naked Sun as a robot but misses out when The Daleks turn up in Get Off My Cloud. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders and e appears in the first episode of The Tripods as the Schoolmaster. Away from science fiction he was in I, Claudius as Julia's Lover in Waiting in the Wings and a Slave in Some Justice and appears on the big screen in Pink Floyd - The Wall as a Dancing Teacher.

His appearances as the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie in the Dæmons and a Dalek here mean he has been in three consecutive stories.

Alongside him is his frequent colleague Murphy Grumbar. He was first a Dalek, credited as Peter Murphy, in The Daleks & The Dalek Invasion of Earth, then as Murphy Grumber he's Dalek in The Space Museum, Mechanoid in The Chase, a Dalek in The Evil of the Daleks & Day of the Daleks and Arcturus in The Curse of Peladon He returns as a functionary in Carnival of Monsters, a Dalek in Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and, as Murphy Grunbar, in Death to the Daleks.

They are joined as Dalek Operators by Ricky Newby, later to appear as a Mutant in the Mutants and a Gell Guard in the Three Doctors. There's a lot of comedy on his CV including an appearance in The Young Ones: Cash.

The voices are provided by Oliver Gilbert & Peter Messaline neither of which quite hit the right tone throughout. It's their only appearance voicing Daleks: Michael Wisher, a Who regular in the seventies, would provide voices during their next four appearances frequently alongside long time Doctor Who voice artist Roy Skelton. Dissatisfaction with the Dalek voices here was one of the major motivations behind producing a special edition of this story on DVD where the Dalek voices are provided by new series Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs.

We meet Monia, the rebel's superior in this episode and he's played by Valentine Palmer. You can see him in The Sweeney as Carew in Visiting Fireman and The Professionals as a News Reporter in Heroes.

The Manager, who is reporting to the rebels but is then discovered, is played by Peter Hill who was in The Professionals episode Weekend in the Country as an Onlooker.

The Senior Guard interrogating The Doctor is Andrew Carr who I've not seen in anything else!

The chief guard at the work centre is George Raistrick. He was in The Professionals as Smith in Operation Susie, Inspector Morse as Sir John Balcombe in Happy Families, To Play the King as Gropeham and the 90s revival of The Tomorrow People as Chester Toms in The Living Stones.

His Guards, who spot the Doctor are played by Donald Baker and our old friend Pat Gorman! Both reappear in episode 4 as a stills cameraman and a film cameraman respectively.

For the number of slaves that appear onscreen there are an awful lot of people listed in in the DWAS Production File and on IMDB. Robin Baldwin, Paul Huckin, Jeanne Doree, Beverley Grant, Anne Priestley, Jane Cousins, Pat Taylor, Gaynor Jackson and Suzanne Jackson all don't bother us any further but Iris Fry had been a Guardian in The Ark 1: The Steel Sky, appears in Doomwatch as a woman in Invasion and The Islanders then plays Mrs. Sharp in Fawlty Towers: The Germans while Eileen Winterton appears in State of Decay as a Peasant and Betty Cameron is also in Doomwatch as a Woman in The Islanders.

Then there's a bunch of slaves who, like Pat Gorman & Donald Baker above, appear in episode 4 in different roles: Len Saunders, who'd been a Dalek Operator in the Dr. Who and the Daleks film, plays a Stills Cameraman in episode four, Desmond Verini is Styles' Aide, Robert Bauld is a Sound Man and Glen Whitter, who was an Egyptian Slave in Dalek Masterplan 10: Escape Switch, plays the African Aide. You can also see him in Flash Gordon as an Ardentian Man.

During this episode we also get our clearest look at Deborah Brayshaw, the speaking female Technician, and Brychan Powell, the control room guard. Powell, like several of the slaves, is back in episode 4 where he plays a Russian Aide.