I don't think this story lands with the anticipated effect when you're marathoning the series. It's not so much "Oh boy! The Daleks are back!" as "Oh right, I guess it has been a while." I wouldn't say that I've particularly missed the Daleks; their last starring role was a bit of a dud, and Genesis of the Daleks was more effective for their relative scarceness. Unfortunately, it seems like this latest installment was not the occasion for the revival of their importance to the series.
This definitely does feel like Terry Nation working his notice, as it is in fact his last contribution to the series. He's gifted several good-to-great stories to Doctor Who during his tenure, and I've spoken in his defense before, but this story, alas, shows absolutely none of his good points as a writer.
It is rather annoying that this story makes the categorical and repeated mistake of treating the Daleks like robots. You'd think that making this mistake so regularly would be impossible when the author is the one who invented them, but nevertheless, here we are. It's kind of absurd when the story insinuates that the Daleks are only capable of machine logic and that all of their decision making, even their battle strategy, depends on computers. This is contradicted by pretty much every Dalek story before and since, so as a premise it simply boggles the mind. My only assumption is that this story was originally written with two different warring robot factions in mind, and that the Daleks were just written in at the eleventh hour because there was a box that needed to be checked.
The inclusion of Davros is also a bit bewildering. The feats of explanation that are taken to justify his presence when he clearly dies at the end of Genesis come across a little hollow, and the idea that he's so eager to rejoin the Daleks when they exterminated him, last he remembers, is more than a bit laughable. David Gooderson does well, but can't quite measure up to the Davros actors on either side of him.
The Movellans are memorable enough, although I felt like their history and motivations were left frustratingly vague. It's nice that they, and most of the extras in this story for that matter, are more diverse in race and gender than we've tended to see in the past.
The setting isn't much to look at. Skaro is neither as threatening as it was in Genesis or Evil of the Daleks, nor is it as alien was it was in their maiden outing. The first episode is enticing in places, promising mysteries about the story that will unfortunately never pan out, with the scenes of the Doctor and Romana exploring this "new" planet really the only riveting parts of the serial.
The one breath of fresh air is Romana. Lalla Ward doesn't have a lot of great moments in this story necessarily, but seems to be handling her Time Lady promotion well. Her lovely pink coat is the only thing keeping my eyes on the screen for most of its runtime. The jokes and short scenes inserted by newly inaugurated script editor Douglas Adams try desperately to elevate the rest, to mixed results.
Not a favorite. Wake me up when they're doing something cool with the Daleks again. The infinitely more pleasing City of Death is next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 4 October 2021.)
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