The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)

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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. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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

  • 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 Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing.
  • Lime Grove Studios (Studio D), Lime Grove, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • In episode two, part of a camera appears as the Dalek questions Victoria.
  • 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.
  • In MA: Downtime, Victoria claims her father's estate, which has amassed to a considerable sum. She is duped into using this money to assist the Great Intelligence in its efforts to conquer Earth.
  • With some speculation, this "Evil" Dalek Emperor could in fact be the mentally affected Davros from "Terror Firma".
  • If the Doctor's statement that the Daleks have their 'final end' in this story is taken as fact, there are problems in placing the events of Evil. The events of Evil may occur in Skaro's distant future, and so the Dalek adventures of the Third to Tenth Doctors have already occurred. It has been speculated that the Fourth Doctor's attempt to change the course of Dalek evolution in Genesis of the Daleks created a parrallel time stream in which the events of Evil did not happen. Or it may be, quite simply, that the Doctor is mistaken.

DVD, Video and Other 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, 2006).
  • A audio cassette of the soundtrack, with linking narration by Tom Baker was released in 1992.

Novelisation

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

See also

External Links

Template:Season 4

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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.
First Doctor era
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Second Doctor era
Third Doctor era
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Because of the ubiquity of this race, no attempt will be made here to list every appearance in every medium. Instead, we focus on televised appearances here, and invite you to explore a complete list of appearances elsewhere.
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