Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Who Reviews Day of the Daleks by Matt Rabjohns




After a very long absence, what were we to expect from the return of the Daleks? Unlike the modern era, every single classic Dalek story houses a TARDIS full of merit. And Day of the Daleks delivered a bucketload of new thrills. And this, after the Space Museum was the first real time, we get a "timey wimey" tale from the classic series. ​

The tone of this story is very much in tune with the previous seasons. There is a slightly bleak tone to the future where the Daleks have invaded and taken over the world again. A real sense of fear and foreboding hangs around the desperate guerrillas who are doing their best to struggle against the power of the Daleks.
Anna Barry is awesome as Anat, the leader of the guerrilla group when we first meet them at least. Scott Fredericks is wonderful and stand-offish, but this is good as one would hardly expect humans from a broken future to act calmly or reasonably. The team are very believable and the acting is extremely polished indeed.
But one of the real champions of the story is the brilliant Aubrey Woods as the Controller. He truly injects an incredible amount of feeling and pathos into his role, and even makes you feel very sorry for his and the world's plight at the hands of the pepperpots. His final showdown where he has betrayed the Daleks is a brilliant and highly memorable moment, and his extermination turns into one of the best ever. He dies knowing he has helped to save the world from the clutches of the Daleks! He is charming, especially when dealing with the bewildered Jo when she first gets sucked into the future by the human's time machine. ​

Jon Pertwee too is absolutely at the top of his game here. One of my all-time favourite scenes is when he confronts the rebels about just who and what started the war with the Daleks in the future of Earth. The realisation is brilliantly delivered, and hugely impacting. I remember my heart beating fast when Jon was letting rip at them for their part in their future. It’s a brilliant piece of time paradox writing, but unlike with the Moffat era it isn't confusing or protracted. ​
The Ogrons are truly one of the most brilliant and fantastic alien races in the entire history of the show. I think they look highly plausible and real in this and Frontier in Space. They look brutish and mean, and the actors are of course on superb form as the simian brutes. I truly would rate the Ogrons high up in the list of the best realised monsters ever on the show. ​

Sir Reginald Styles comes over as a bit of hardnosed, yet still reasonable, politician. He is not portrayed as a bumbling oaf or an irate do-gooder either. Wilfred Carter in fact plays him totally authentically, so that he is not a detestable political type such as Chinn from the Claws of Axos. Indeed, his final summation of what will happen if the peace's talks fail at the climax of the tale is excellent and highly moral. So, just for a change here is a political type I do not overtly despise! And Wilfred must be given the plaudits for that! You can tell his "ghost" experience has unsettled him deeply, and yet his contributing to the world peace talks is very very cool indeed and of more importance to him. ​
The original transmitted version did suffer from so few Daleks being readily usable for the finale. In this respect the original ending is a little bit flat, but the final Dalek send off by the brave Shura is absolutely superb, and an excellently performed scene. I love the look in his eyes as he blasts his hands down on the plunger to put an end to the Dalek future. It’s just another of the many great moments peppered throughout the story.​
The graphic feel of the slave workers scene gives some serious food for thought. And all the extras in this scene do look like they are half starved. Brings back rushes of the evils of slavery throughout human history. Bleak and horrendous and utterly immoral, and this scene is excellent in evoking a hot response from me.
Day of the Daleks may not have the largest overuse of the Daleks ever, in fact they are more in the background throughout this story, but they are never less than a totally evil and wicked threat to the world. And the newly shot finale with more Daleks and more Ogrons does benefit the finale and make it even grander. Makes the Daleks demise even more cool in the extreme. This story starts of season 9 utterly sublimely. It’s a Terminator-esque story, but a whole lot more enjoyable than that film series ever was in my own opinion. Definitively a high mark from me.




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