After so many years without having any Daleks at all, it's been profoundly strange having three stories featuring the little guys in as many seasons. I confess that, of the three, Death to the Daleks is probably the least successful. That isn't to say it's a bad story. In fact, having finished watching this era as of the time of this writing, there isn't a single bad story in the whole of Pertwee's run. But this remains perhaps one of the least successful.
It's hard to put my finger precisely on why. None of the individual components were especially poor, but just like what happened on my first viewing of this story four years ago, I found myself curiously sedated by the experience and just about ready to drift off by the end. There's also a certain tonal issue with this story. The Chase felt like it was sending up the Daleks by making them look silly, but I really can't tell if this story is trying the same thing on purpose. The Daleks enter the story unable to operate their weapons, looking quite silly when they try to exterminate the human mining team, and spend much of it being killed by Exxilons, garden hoses, and even self-destructing over failing to keep Sarah Jane captive. I think I have to assume that it is intentional, but if so, that it feels out of place.
The humans feel like they've come out of some sort of cod-Star Trek setting (Federation pins and all), and are on the hunt for, ahem, parrinium. A couple of stories over the past seasons, like Carnival of Monsters, reference some kind of "space plague", so I wonder if the one described here is supposed to be the same one. None of these humans really stood out to me apart from John Abineri's Railton, who nevertheless is killed off quite early. Probably the only memorable guest character (aside from the Daleks themselves) was Bellal, the exiled Exxilon.
Generally speaking, I thought Part One was fairly brilliant and atmospheric, with the darkened sky and mists making Exxilon (the planet, not the people) seem more mysterious and dangerous. It's a little disappointing that the effect isn't maintained through the rest of the story, which rapidly loses my interest with the puzzle-solving in the trapped city.
For all that this story has some fun elements and interesting ideas, then, it averages out into quite the tranquilizer, and a bit of a disappointing turnout for the Daleks. Better luck next time, Terry?
As promised, The Ghosts of N-Space is next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 12 April 2021.)
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