The Evil of the Daleks (TV story): Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 20:29, 1 June 2010


The Evil of the Daleks was the ninth and final story of Season 4 of Doctor Who, and was the first story to feature companion Victoria Waterfield, played by Deborah Watling. It was at the time intended to be the Doctor's final battle with the Daleks, which, aside from a few cameos, did not appear again in the series for five years.

Synopsis

The TARDIS has been stolen by antiques dealer Edward Waterfield, who lures the Doctor and Jamie into a trap. They are transported back to Waterfield's own time, 1867, where his daughter Victoria is being held hostage by the Daleks to ensure his cooperation.

The Daleks force the Doctor to monitor Jamie's performance of a test - the rescue of Victoria - with the supposed intention of identifying the human factor: the special quality possessed by humans that enables them always to defeat the Daleks. The Doctor, having succeeded in this task, implants the human factor into three test Daleks, calling them Alpha, Beta and Omega - with the result that they become friendly and playful!

Everyone is transported back to Skaro where the Doctor discovers that the Daleks' true aim has been to isolate the Dalek factor - the impulse to destroy - and implant it into humans. The Emperor Dalek informs him that his TARDIS will be used to spread the Dalek factor throughout all time.

By a ruse, however, the Doctor is able to infuse many more Daleks with the human factor. A civil war breaks out between the two Dalek factions and they are apparently all destroyed. As Waterfield has been killed during the course of the action, the Doctor offers Victoria a place aboard the TARDIS.

Plot

In 1966 London, the Second Doctor and Jamie watch helplessly as the TARDIS is loaded onto a lorry and driven away from Gatwick Airport. The trail leads them to an antique shop run by Edward Waterfield, who sells Victorian-style antiques that curiously seem as though they were still new. Waterfield is being coerced by the Daleks, who appear in a secret room of his shop through a time machine, and exterminate his mutinous employee Kennedy. Investigating the store, the Doctor and Jamie succumb to a booby trap that gasses them, and are dragged into the time machine by Waterfield.

File:Evil of the Daleks.jpg
A Dalek interrogates Victoria Waterfield.

They wake up to find that they have been transported to 1866, and are in the house of Theodore Maxtible, Waterfield's partner. The two had been trying to invent a time machine using mirrors and static electricity, when the Daleks emerged from their time cabinet. The Daleks then took Waterfield's daughter Victoria hostage and forced Waterfield to travel a century forward in time to lure the Doctor into a trap by stealing the TARDIS. Waterfield is obviously fearful for his daughter's safety and his own, but Maxtible seems to be going along with the Daleks for his own reasons.

The Daleks threaten to destroy the TARDIS unless the Doctor helps them by conducting an experiment to isolate the "Human Factor", the unique qualities of human beings that have allowed them to consistently resist and defeat the Daleks. Once the Doctor has isolated the Human Factor, he will then implant it into three Daleks, which will then become the precursors of a race of "super" Daleks, with the best qualities of humans and Daleks. To that end, the Daleks want the Doctor to test Jamie by sending him to rescue Victoria, who is being kept in the house. The Doctor is strangely co-operative with the Daleks, manipulating Jamie into the rescue mission but not telling him of the nature of the test.

Jamie manages to rescue Victoria, but she is taken prisoner again and transported through the time cabinet. The Doctor, observing how Jamie accomplished the rescue, distills the Human Factor, but continues to harbour suspicions that there is more to the experiment than just this. Once the Human Factor is implanted in the three Daleks, they become completely human in personality and seem almost child-like, although the Doctor says their mentalities will mature quickly. This was the Doctor's intent all along, that the human factor would lead to "human" Daleks that would be friendly to humanity. He christens the three Alpha, Beta and Omega, but they soon return through the time cabinet to Skaro, the Daleks' home planet.

Meanwhile, Waterfield has discovered that Maxtible has betrayed them all to the Daleks, hoping that he will be able to learn the alchemical secret of transmuting base metals into gold. However, Maxtible, who has travelled to Skaro through the mirror cabinet, is discovering just how ruthless the Daleks are and how empty their promises can be; he is tortured for his failure to bring the Doctor to them. Jamie, Waterfield and the Doctor are locked out of the time cabinet, but manage to use the Daleks' own short-range time machine to make the journey to Skaro before a Dalek bomb destroys Maxtible's house.

File:Mo su01theevilofthedaleks.jpg
The imposing Emperor Dalek in the Dalek city on Skaro.

The trio find their way into the Dalek city and are brought before the imposing Emperor Dalek, who reveals the true reason behind the experiments and the capture of the TARDIS. By isolating the human factor, the Doctor has succeeded in isolating the "Dalek Factor" as well. The Daleks will use the "Dalek Factor" — the qualities that make the Daleks mindless killing machines — to reconvert the "human" Daleks. In addition, the Emperor wants the Doctor to use the TARDIS to spread the Dalek Factor throughout human history, turning all humanity into Daleks. The Doctor knows that the Emperor realises that he would die before complying with this order, and so is concerned about why the Emperor seems so confident.

Maxtible is tricked into walking through an archway that infuses him with the Dalek Factor, mentally turning him into a Dalek. He hypnotises the Doctor and lures him through the arch as well, apparently converting him. However, the Doctor is feigning his conversion, and secretly plants a device on the arch while the Daleks hunt for the three "human" Daleks. As one still remains to be found, the Doctor suggests that all the Daleks be put through the conversion arch so that the "human" Dalek will once again be infused with the Dalek Factor.

As the first batch of Daleks go through the arch, the Doctor frees the others. The arch did not work on the Doctor because it was calibrated for humans, and he is not one. The Doctor has also substituted the Human Factor for the Dalek one on the arch so the Daleks that go through will become "human" and rebel against the Emperor.

The Emperor calls out his Black Daleks as the rebellion spreads and the city falls into chaos. Waterfield throws himself in front of a Black Dalek blast meant for the Doctor. The Doctor promises that Victoria will be taken care of, and Waterfield dies content. The Emperor is attacked and exterminated by the "human" Daleks. While the Doctor and his companions escape, Maxtible rushes back into the exploding city, screaming of the everlasting glory of the Dalek race.

The Doctor tells Jamie that they will be taking Victoria along on their travels. Jamie, Victoria and the Doctor watch the Dalek city in flames from the top of a hill as the civil war continues. The Doctor pronounces this as the end of the Daleks — the final end.

Cast

Crew

References

File:Mo su01theevilofthedaleks.jpg
The Dalek Emperor

1854, Battle of Inkerman, Charge of the Light Brigade, Crimean War, gold, James Clerk Maxwell, time cabinet

Story notes

  • Written by former Doctor Who script editor David Whitaker, "Evil" was initially intended to be the last Dalek story on Doctor Who. Writer Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, was busily trying to sell the Daleks to American television at the time and it was intended to give them a big send off from the series. Of course, despite the Doctor's pronouncement, this was not to be his last encounter with these most famous of his adversaries. And despite the intention to 'kill off' the Daleks, Lloyd was told, at the last moment before filming the final scene, not to. He did this inserting a light globe inside the Emperor Dalek. This glowed as the Emperor was destroyed, suggesting that something within remained alive.
  • "The Evil of the Daleks" was wiped from the BBC's archives in the early 1970s. Only a telerecording of episode 2 remains, returned to the archive in May 1987 after being found at a car boot sale a few years earlier, but a copy of the soundtrack was released in 1992. A second version with alternative narration was released in 2003. A home movie of the filming of the Dalek battle sequence exists and is included on the DVD of The Tomb of the Cybermen.
  • In 1993 readers of DreamWatch Bulletin voted The Evil of the Daleks as the best ever Doctor Who story in a special poll for the series' thirtieth anniversary.
  • The Beatles' 'Paperback Writer' and the Seekers' 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen' are used as background music on the juke box in the coffee bar scenes in the first episode.
  • The theme given to the Daleks by Dudley Simpson in his incidental music was based on the series' own signature tune.
  • Patrick Troughton and Deborah Watling appear only in film inserts in the fourth episode as they were on holiday during the week when it was recorded.
  • Sound effects from The Daleks and The Daleks' Master Plan are reused for the Dalek city.
  • Some Louis Marx 'tricky action' toy Daleks are used in model work for the scenes of the destruction of the Dalek city.
  • The first individual visual effects designer credits ever given on the series appears, for Michealjohn Harris and Peter Day. Previously, visual effects had been handled by the series' scenic designers rather than by the BBC's Visual Effects Department, although the Department as a whole did receive a credit on the first story, An Unearthly Child.

Ratings

Original broadcast only

  • Episode 1 - 8.1 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 7.5 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 6.1 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 5.3 million viewers
  • Episode 5 - 5.1 million viewers
  • Episode 6 - 6.8 million viewers
  • Episode 7 - 6.1 million viewers

Rebroadcast

The Evil of the Daleks was the first Doctor Who serial to be rebroadcast in its entirety. This occurred between June and August of 1968, when the serial was aired to fill the gap between season 5 and 6. Unlike most reruns, the rebroadcast was actually worked into the narrative of the series, by having new companion Zoe Heriot watching the events unfold via a telepathic projector hidden behind one of the roundels of the console room. For the rebroadcasts new introductions were recorded.

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

  • The hangars on Kendal Avenue in Ealing were used for the opening scenes at Gatwick Airport.
  • Grim's Dyke Mansion House at Harrow Weald, Middlesex served as the location for Edward Waterfield's estate. *Warehouse Lane in Shepherd's Bush was used for the scene at the railway arches.
  • All other scenes, including the final scenes on Skaro, were filmed at Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing.
  • Lime Grove Studios (Studio D), Lime Grove, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • In episode two, part of a camera appears as the Dalek questions Victoria.

Continuity

  • This story picks up where DW: The Faceless Ones left off. The first two parts take place contemporaneously with part four of DW: The War Machines, which may go some way to explaining why the First Doctor said that he had the same feeling he had when Daleks were around at the start of that story.
  • The following story picks up immediately after the events of this story on Skaro, with the Doctor welcoming Victoria aboard the TARDIS as its newest crewmember. (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen).
  • With some speculation, this Dalek Emperor could in fact be the mentally affected Davros from BFA: Terror Firma.

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

  • The surviving episode (Episode 2) was released on the Daleks: The Early Years video.
  • It was also released on the Lost in Time DVD (January, 2004).
  • An audio cassette of the soundtrack, with linking narration by Tom Baker was released in 1992.
  • Another audio version of the soundtrack, with linking narration by Frazer Hines, was released by BBC Audiobooks Ltd. in 2004.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Evil of The Daleks novel.jpg
Main article: The Evil of the Daleks (novelisation)

See also

External Links

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Dalek television stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Dalek story" is one in which one living, authentic Dalek plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as The Space Museum are not counted due to the Daleks' appearance being defined by their importance to following stories, while stories such as The Wheel in Space and The Waters of Mars are absent due to the Daleks' only contribution being references to past Dalek stories. Stories like The Wedding of River Song, Hell Bent, Once, Upon Time and The Vanquishers are also not included due to the Daleks' appearance being restricted to a single scene of no consequence to the plot of the story, while the TV movie is also absent due to the Daleks only being heard from off-screen.
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