The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
Revision as of 13:10, 12 October 2007 by I am rufus (talk | contribs)


The Evil of the Daleks was the ninth 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

to be added

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.
  • This story was repeated at the end of the following season with a new introduction. In it, the Doctor decides to warn new companion Zoe about the dangers she will face travelling in the TARDIS, and shows her the events of this story on the scanner, using a telepathic projector hidden behind one of the roundels of the console room.
  • "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.

Ratings

  • 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

Myths

to be added

Location Filming

  • 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 Studios.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • In episode two, part of a camera appears as the Dalek questions Victoria.
  • The massed Daleks of the final battle are obviously toys.
  • Why not just kidnap the Doctor and Jamie?
  • Since Jamie is so essential to Dalek plans, why are the traps set for him so lethal?

Continuity

  • This story picks up where The Faceless Ones left off. The first two parts take place contemporaneously with part four of 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, The Tomb of the Cybermen, picks up immediately after the events of this story on Skaro, with the Doctor welcoming Victoria aboard the TARDIS as its newest crewmember.

DVD, Video and Other Releases

  • The surviving episode (Episode 2) is available on the Lost in Time release (January, 2006).

Target Novelisations

to be added

See Also

to be added

External Links

Retrieved from "https://tardis.wiki/w/index.php?title=The_Evil_of_the_Daleks_(TV_story)&oldid=56293"