307 Day of the Daleks: Episode Four

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 307
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 22 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"The Daleks have discovered the secret of time travel. We have invaded Earth again. We have changed the pattern of history. The Dalek empire will spread through all planets and all times. No one can withstand the power of the Daleks!"

The Controller interrupts the Daleks' interrogation of the Doctor saving his life so that he can be questioned about the resistance. The Daleks, then the Controller relate how the Daleks invaded Earth and enslaved the population. The resistance storm the Dalek HQ with several casualties including Boaz who dies saving Anat from a Dalek. The Doctor & Jo are rescued, the Doctor persuading the resistance to spare the Controller. In our time Unit is still searching for Jo & The Doctor. The Resistance want the Doctor to return and kill Styles, who they believe killed everyone at the conference with explosives leading to world chaos. The Doctor works out that the explosion was caused by the missing resistance member Shura using the explosives the team took with them. The Controller sets an ambush up for the resistance in the tunnel, capturing the Doctor & Jo, but the Doctor talks his way to a release enabling them to return to the present day. The Controller is observed by his deputy who reports him to the Daleks causing his extermination. The Daleks travel themselves to the 20th century and attack Auderley House. Warned by the Doctor, the Brigadier evacuates the house. Once the Daleks are within the house Shura detonates his explosives killing him and destroying the Daleks & Ogrons and giving the peace conference the impetus to succeed.

There's a lot to get into in this episode: The Doctor's been asked before why if they don't succeed they can't go back and have another go.

DOCTOR: Jo, every choice we make changes the history of the world.
JO: I just don't understand. I mean, why don't they go back to September the 12th if that's where they want to be. You know, have another go.
DOCTOR: Ah, that's the Blinovitch limitation effect.
JO: The what?

Well here the Daleks appear to have done just that:

DALEK: The Daleks have discovered the secret of time travel. We have invaded Earth again. We have changed the pattern of history.
DOCTOR: You won't succeed, you know.
DALEK: The Dalek empire will spread through all planets and all times. No one can withstand the power of the Daleks!
CONTROLLER: Take him away.

The "the pattern of history" they're referring to is, presumably, the failure of the Dalek Invasion of Earth, also set in the 22nd century.

We've seen Daleks with time travel before in The Chase & Dalek Masterplan. Masterplan is set in the year 4000, with the Dalek elements of The Chase looking contemporaneous, so I'm guess that's when these Daleks are from too.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a frequently referenced event in Earth's future history as it progresses down it's normal path so somehow the Daleks travelling back from the far future must have ended up in an alternate near future created by the resistance killing Styles, which is itself undone when The Doctor returns to the past!

Doctor Who is always against altering established history yet here an entire future is changed: the get out clause allowing them to do it here is that the future shown with the Daleks ruling isn't the correct one. As I'm writing this I have two other Doctor Who stories in mind, the McGann movie and the abhorrent Last of the Timelords where what we see on screen is undone. Here it feels OK, because the future already established is one where the Daleks invade in 2164 and are defeated, the Day of he Daleks future is the wrong one. It the other two stories it doesn't feel OK and makes you think that what you've seen onscreen is a waste of time because it's been undone.

This episode features one of the major short comings of the story: the Daleks attack on Auderely House. It's soooooooooooo slow! The Daleks are having obvious trouble moving over the grass and, once again, the Ogrons are having to amble as to not outpace them. It's also painfully obvious during this sequence that there are just three Dalek props available to film with, a position made worse by one of them, a third of what you can see on screen, being painted a different colour!

Thankfully this sequence has had some love & attention lavished on it for the special edition on the DVD in terms of CGI & newly filmed sequences. Two grey Daleks now becomes a multitude:

The extermination effects have been beefed up too with the traditional negative being replaced by the more modern "reveal the skeleton" first used in Remembrance of the Daleks, and infamously omitted from the original version of the DVD

Earlier in the story there's some extra tower block shots to emphasise the bleakness of the future: these look great but don't quite match the environment we see in the location footage shot at the time

We're back on location at Harvey House in Brentford for the scenes of the rebel guerillas attacking the Daleks headquarters.

There's a number of Guerillas involved in these scenes which both the DWAS Production File ad IMDB claim are in episodes 3 and 4. Can I spot any of them in episode 3? NO! This becomes relevant because one of them, Emmett Hennessy, is replaced by another actor, Brian Justice for this episode! Justice later appears in The Sea Devils, the next story filmed, as Castle Guard Wilson and then in The Green Death as Yate's Guard. Hennessy meanwhile *IS* in episode 4 but in a different role!

Jim Dowdall, a stuntman, returns as a Thal Guard and a Kaled Elite Guard in Genesis of the Daleks and a Warnsman in Frontios. He's also in Blake's 7 as a Space Rat in Stardrive, The Empire Strikes Back as a Bespin Guard and The Professionals as a Man in Spy Probe.

The guerilla with the most form on the show is Steve Ismay who'd been a BBC3 TV Crewmember in The Dæmons, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, Varan's Bodyguard in The Mutants episode one, a Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space, a UNIT Soldier in The Time Warrior, an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Metebelis 3 Guard in Planet of the Spiders, a Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara, a Citizen in Full Circle and a Cyberman in Earthshock. He also plays another role in this episode! Outside of Doctor Who he's in Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Guard in Dawn of the Gods, Convict in Moloch and a Hommik in Power while in Doomwatch he plays a man in Flood and The Islanders. He's in The Tomorrow People twice as a Vesh Rebel in Worlds Away and a S I S Sergeant in The Dirtiest Business, The Sweeney as a Policeman in Cover Story, a Driver in Golden Boy and a Villain in Stoppo Driver, and in Porridge he plays a Prison Warden in A Night In and a Gardener in Happy Release.

After it not appearing in episode 3 we're back at Drop More House in Buckinghamshire, the location used for Style's house. Gathered outside the house in the background are a group from the media all made up people who appear elsewhere in the story! Pat Gorman is the Film Cameraman, he was a Guard in episode 3, while his soundman is Robert Bauld, a Slave in the same episode. There's three Stills Cameramen : Donald Baker, the other Guard in episode 3, Len Saunders, another Slave, and Steve Ismay, who'd a guerilla elsewhere in this episode!

Like the Dæmons we get to see a BBC television reporter on screen & involved in the action in this story. However Alex MacIntosh was an actual BBC presenter as well as being the voice over on the first ever television advert !

The African Diplomat is played by Sam Mansary who'd previously appeared in Mission to the Unknown as an Alien Delegate, who Delegate Detective thinks is Beaus, and The War Machines Episode 1 as a Journalist. He was in A for Andromeda as a Fitter in The Murderer and in Doomwatch as a Man in Public Enemy. His aide is Glen Whitter, who was a slave in episode 3.

The Chinese Diplomat is Basil Tang who'd been the Office Foreman in Mighty Kublai Khan & Assassin at Peking, the sixth and seventh episodes of Marco Polo. He returns as a Coolie in The Talons of Weng-Chiang. His aide is Vincent Wong, making his Doctor Who debut and he returns as Ho in The Talons of Weng-Chiang and the Chinese Captain in Enlightenment. He was in Space: 1999 playing a Medic in Force of Life & Alpha Child and Toshiro Fujita in Black Sun & End of Eternity. These may or may not be the same character! In Monty Python's Flying Circus he's Mr. Kamikaze in How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body, the ninth episode of the second series. He's a Japanese Tourist in The Sweeney episode Supersnout, appears twice in The Professionals as a Kidnapper in Take Away and Colonel Lin Foh in Discovered in a Graveyard and is Pan Duc Lao in the Jonathan Creek episode Black Canary. On the big screen he plays a Casino Croupier in Diamonds Are Forever, a Paramedic in Pink Floyd - The Wall, a Crimelord in Batman and General Li in Die Another Day.

Charles Adey-Grey is the American Diplomat: he's back in The Talons of Weng-Chiang as the Theatre Doorkeeper and can be seen in the Doomwatch episode Friday's Child as the Male Magistrate. His aide is Emmett Hennessy, who is supposedly a gorilla in episode 3 but replaced as a guerilla here! He'd been a Tavern Customer in The Massacre, an Inferno Customer in The War Machines and a Roman Soldier in The War Games. He returns as a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space and also plays a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episode Outsiders.

The Russian Diplomat is Alan Cope and his aide is Brychan Powell who was a guard in the first 3 episodes of this story.

We have the return of Sir Reginald Styles this episode, played by Wilfred Carter, but his secretary Miss Paget is missing for the studio scenes: actress Jean MacFarlane had been taken ill and her lines for episode 4's studio sessions go to Desmond Verini, who plays Styles' Aide.

However Paget is visible in the location footage alongside her studio replacement Desmond Verini, who was a slave in episode 3 and played a Plain Clothes PC on location. Harry Tierney is another Plain Clothes PC: he'd been in The Smugglers as a Villager at Inn / Pirate and The War Games as a Resistance Man.

Actually Jean MacFarlane's absence raises an interesting question: why reuse the house sets for a couple of very brief scenes with mostly the same personnel in this episode? Why not record them all in one go for episodes one and two?

Lots of UNIT Soldiers this episode, most of which have popped up throughout the story. Christopher Holmes is on debut here and returns as a Guard in The Time Monster, a Miner in The Monster of Peladon, a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks, a Traveller/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Citizen in Full Circle, a Plasmaton in Time Flight, Ambril's attendant in Snakedance and a Genius in Time and the Rani. In Blake's 7 he was a Federation Trooper in The Way Back, a Prisoner in Space Fall, a Prisoner in Cygnus Alpha, a Mutoid in Duel & Project Avalon, a Star One Technician in Star One and a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay. Derek Hunt was a British Soldier The War Games, a soldier in Spearhead from Space, a UNIT Soldier in The Silurians and a technician in Inferno. He returns as Prison Guard in Frontier in Space, a guard in Planet of Spiders, an Android mechanic in Android Invasion, a Bi-Al member in Invisible Enemy, a Time Lord in Invasion of Time, a Citizen in Pirate Planet, a Passenger in Nightmare of Eden, James the footman in Black Orchid, a Dinner Guest, a guard in Planet of Fire and a Time Lord in Trial of a Timelord. David Melbourne was a Gond in the Krotons, a Resistance Man in The War Games, a UNIT soldier in The Silurians and returns as a UNIT soldier in The Three Doctors, an extra in Robot, a Gallifreyan in Invasion of Time and a crew member in Earthshock. He's also in Doomwatch as a Man in Flood, Moonbase 3 as a Technician in Castor and Pollux & View of a Dead Planet and Blake's 7 as Technician in Dawn of the Gods. <Terence Brown was Abu in The Krotons. Nick Hobbs will shortly play his most famous Doctor Who role as Aggedor in Curse of Peladon, we'll do his full credits there.

So Day of the Daleks: good story, cracking in fact. Unfortunately it's not a triumphant return for the Daleks. All the story's problems surround them: they're confined to the background for the most part, sounding wrong and made to look ridiculous in the closing battle scenes. I think it would have worked perfectly well without them as the story was originally written. It's one of the better Pertwee stories, better than I remember it being. I'd not watched it for some years prior to viewing it for the Blog but I've seen it twice in the last week now and it was great both times.

What Day does do is give the Pertwee era another solid link with it's past. Apart from UNIT and the occasional mention of the Tardis & the Time Lords, the Third Doctor's reign has felt like a different show to what has gone before. Now the Daleks are back, and will be back every year for the next three years, the show starts to play a little more with it's heritage. The next story involves Tardis travel & returning foes the Ice Warriors, we'll make two more trips in the Tardis after that this season and we won't see the Brigadier & Unit HQ again till the last story of the season. The show is starting to feel a bit more like old Doctor Who.

Day of the Daleks was repeated on BBC1 as a 60-minute compilation on 3 September 1973.

It was novelised by Terrance Dicks and released in April 1974. The Day of the Daleks paperback was one of the first Doctor Who books I owned, being given a copy by my parents for my 9th birthday in 1982 along with Destiny of the Daleks and the first volume of the Programme Guide.

Day of the Daleks was released as a compilation video in July 1986. It was the first Pertwee story to be released on video, initially costing £24.95 and was the last Doctor Who video to be released on Beta Max as well as VHS. An episodic version was released in April 1994 by which point Doctor Who videos were a much more palatable £9.99 each!

Day of the Daleks is one of just six Doctor Who stories to be released on Laserdisc in the UK: The others are Revenge of the Cybermen, Brain of Morbius, The Five Doctor, The Ark in Space & Terror of the Zygons.

A 2 disc special edition DVDDay of the Daleks was released on September 12th 2011, the same day and month which Jo says she left earlier Time, and 40 years almost to the day since location work was started on the story. The DVD contains the restored original version of the story and, as mentioned above, a new special edition with enhanced effects, newly filmed footage and replacement Dalek voices provided by new series Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs. You can see a trailer for the special edition on YouTube while another is included on The Sun Makers DVD.