Written
by Terry Nation
Script
Editor: Douglas Adams
When two writers with
absolutely opposite styles come together, the result can frequently be a car
crash of staggering proportions. Keeping that in mind, Destiny of the Daleks is
something of a masterpiece of unlikely triumphs, occasionally let down by logic
and faintly unfortunate late-70s BBC production values.
The story went out with
Terry Nation’s credit, and to be sure, the plot is all Nation, all the time.
We’re back on Skaro, in what looks like the same petrified gravel pit in which
the opening of Genesis of the Daleks was shot, and, give or take a few thousand
years, this is ultimately the story that should have been called Resurrection
of the Daleks (there being very little actual resurrection in the story that did eventually bear that name) – it’s
Genesis, Part 2. Davros, last seen being blasted to death by his own creations
in their final severing of ties with their bipedal Kaled origins, has
apparently been “sleeping” for thousands of years, buried in his bunker, while
the Daleks have been off running around the intergalactic block like a bunch of
bovver boys with ray guns. It’s only when they meet a threat they can’t
enslave, exterminate or in fact out-think in any way, that that shot that
destroyed Davros begins to look like a bad idea, and for the first time in the
history of the show, the fundamental Dalek begins to look weak. Their idea of
running back home to tell their dad about the mean Movellan boys and girls, in
the hope that he’ll beat them up for them, is faintly sad, and the story, in
true Nation style, is riddled with inconsistencies: they must assume that
Davros has been self-healing, otherwise, they’re mining their own planet to
recover a cadaver. And they know he should be “in this precise location”… but
somehow, they’ve conveniently “forgotten” the quick way down to him. Also they
have no concept of self-sacrifice, but later in the same story, go out packed to
the grilles with explosive like primitive suicide bombers to achieve a grander
strategic aim.
But if you ignore the
logic of Destiny, it delivers rollicking good fun. That’s undoubtedly in no
small part down to the Script Editor of the day, Douglas Adams. Episode 1 feels
almost all Adams, from the extended
Tardis scene at the beginning, with the Doctor replacing K9’s brain and
diagnosing laryngitis – “How can a robot have laryngitis? I mean, what do you
need it for?” to the parade of regenerating Romanas (which we now assume were
all one regeneration, a la the Tenth Doctor’s re-grown hand, but which caused
consternation in fandom for decades – “Did she just use up half her
regenerations in one day?”), and all the way through the description of bits of
rock, where the Doctor tells Romana she has all the makings of a first class
navvy, to the Doctor correcting Oolon Colluphid’s book on the origins of the
universe, an idea that was recycled twice in the Eleventh Doctor’s day – when
he wanders through a museum, noting exhibits as “Wrong, wrong, mine, mostly
wrong, little bit mine,” and in The Doctor’s Wife, where, as described in this
delicious moment in Destiny, the Tardis team actually land on a planet which is basically an 8,000 mile wide amoeba that
has grown a crusty shell.
In episode 1 we also get
the deliciously Adams idea of a spaceship that’s “not a flying saucer,” because
it looks like nothing more than a flying teacup. And enter the Movellans, a
fantastic idea in and of themselves – the Daleks’ equals in ruthless conquest,
but, and here’s the important thing – nice-looking and very polite. The idea is
a philosophical gem from Nation, and forces us to ask whether we fear the
Daleks just because of the way they look and sound, and on a deeper level,
whether we would recognise tyranny and terror if it wore a smart suit and a
sympathetic smile. But in episode 1 they’re the rescuers of the Doctor, as
Romana finds herself terrorised by a wild-eyed man, and then falls down a
conveniently-sloped duct. The end of Episode 1, to fans of a certain age, is
how the Daleks will always appear: suddenly crashing through the wall and
screaming “Exterminate!” – although here, they actually scream “Do not
move!”…really rather a lot, given that Romana backs up against a wall for her
end-of-episode close-up, and doesn’t seem to have any plans to move anywhere in
any case.
There’s a noticeably odd
amount of this in Destiny of the Daleks – Nation appearing to want to expand
the Daleks’ conversational skills has them chant a number of things,
pointlessly, over and over again – “Obey! Obey! Obey!” to people who are
already obeying; “Silence! Silence! You will remain silent!” to people having a
whispered work-party chat, the now-somehow-strangely-classic “Seek, locate,
exterminate!” despite the fact that to any logically-minded creature, the word
“Seek” there is redundant – if you’re ordered to locate something, the seeking
is implicit. And perhaps the most bizarre variant of all, “Seek, locate…Do not
deviate!” – as though there’s a dawdling Dalek at the back, skipping along
going “Ooh, look – rocks!”
But in spite of this,
there is joy in Destiny – after the grimness of Genesis, and more importantly,
the Dalek-lightness of Genesis, this is all Dalek, at least half the time: lots
of meaty shots of several Daleks in their control room, lots of trundling down
corridors and even a handful of extermicutions (an idea Nation would shortly
recycle for episode two of Blake’s 7). Once Davros has “awoken” at the end of
episode 2 though, he becomes, by the natural gravity of a creature who is
half-Frankenstein, half-monster, the focal point – much of episode three
involves pushing him down those self-same corridors, allowing Tom Baker another
classic line: “Shut up or I’ll switch you off.” The Doctor is able to use
Davros as a bargaining chip here, both to escape from the most bizarre Dalek
stand-off in history - “If you do not comply you will be exterminated in
five…four…three…” and to free the rest of the prisoners who haven’t yet been
burned to death in a corridor by Dalek firepower.
As the Movellans reveal
themselves to be at least as heartless as the Daleks, shoving Romana in a Perspex
tube with a bomb at the end of episode three, the beautiful irony at the heart
of the story comes into clear focus over a game of rock-paper-scissors: two
battle fleets, poised to destroy each other, but in such perfect logical
alignment that neither can out-think the other. The Daleks here are shown as
disappointing even to their creator, having lost that spark of organic spite
from which they were originally forged, and relying too heavily on the
mechanistic elements of their species. The focus now shifts to the Doctor and
Davros, as the brilliant organics each side needs to break the stalemate. Of
course, the irony gets another twist here – if you both have a genius, you’re
pretty much back at square one, unless one of your clever people can out-think
the other. Which is where the Perspex tube and the bomb come into play – the
Movellans intend to destroy the Daleks and Davros by incinerating the
atmosphere and escaping with the Doctor, so they can break the stalemate.
Meanwhile, Davros loads the Daleks up with explosive and sends them on a
suicide mission to stop the Movellans, so he can escape to Dalek command in
space and start wreaking illogical havoc on the opposing fleet. The tension
here is very well rendered, each side with the same basic objective, and the
cuts between scenarios earning Ken Grieve a directorial gold star for letting
us follow the story without ever letting the pulse of the story drop. A third
power though is moving – the exhausted prisoners of the Daleks, saved by the
Doctor. This lot of desiccated space-hippies, led by Tyssan (the wild-eyed man
from whom Romana backed away down a duct), and instructed by the Doctor’s
example, set about stealing the Movellan’s personal brains and reprogramming
them, leaving only their commander as a threat to be eventually disposed of by
the new Romana, more than showing her class.
The Doctor and Davros
have a final face-off, and in a move of which Steven Moffat would be proud,
they arm-wrestle for supremacy, the Doctor seeming to lose…which makes Davros
slam his hand down on the detonation button that blows all his suicide Daleks
sky high – in a scene that will have reminded fans of a different age of the
plight of the Daleks on Exxilon in Death To The Daleks.
The last few minutes
rather rush to wrap up everything – Davros is packed on ice and set to return
to Earth to stand trial for his crimes, and the fact that apparently, Davros
sent all the Daleks on the planet to
blow themselves up (except the one guard that the Doctor confused to death with
his hat) is rather glossed over before the Doctor and this new Romana disappear
into time and space, ready for their next adventure.
Destiny of the Daleks is
by no means a perfect Doctor Who story – there are logic issues in the
storytelling, and production value issues that let the storytelling down when
viewed today – Davros wobbles every time he moves, and some of the Daleks look
like they’ve seen far, far better days. But as an entertaining Dalekfest
without much of the macabre sturm and drang either of Genesis, Resurrection or
Revelation, it wasn’t bettered for ten years, till the Seventh Doctor’s
Remembrance of the Daleks exploded on screen. Grab a sandwich, pour yourself a
beverage, and make a date with Destiny of the Daleks today. Even 35 years on, you won’t be disappointed.
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