Day of the Daleks (TV story)

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Synopsis

Freedom fighters from the future attempt to thwart a Dalek invasion by coming back in time to assassinate a delegate at the Second World Peace Conference.

Plot

The Doctor, Jo, and the Brigadier.

Sir Reginald Styles, organiser of a world peace conference, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a combat-uniformed guerrilla who vanishes like a ghost. Later the guerrilla is attacked by huge, ape-like creatures called Ogrons and found unconscious by UNIT troops in the grounds of the house. The Doctor deduces that he comes from about two hundred years in the future and that a device found with him is a time machine.

While Styles is away, the Doctor and Jo keep watch. The guerrillas attack again, but the Time Lord convinces them that he is not Styles. One of their party, Shura, is later injured by an Ogron.

Jo meanwhile accidentally activates one of the guerrillas' time machines and is transported to the 22nd Century. When the guerrillas return there, the Doctor goes with them. He learns that the Earth of this period is ruled by the Daleks with the help of the Ogrons and human collaborators, whose leader is known as the Controller. Jo and the Doctor are both taken prisoner at the Dalek base.

The guerrillas rescue them and explain that they are attempting to kill Styles because he caused an explosion at the peace conference, starting a series of wars that left humanity vulnerable to Dalek conquest - a history that they wish to change. The Doctor realises that the explosion was actually caused by Shura in a misguided attempt to fulfil his mission.

Returning to the 20th Century with Jo, he has Styles' house evacuated. Daleks and Ogrons arrive in pursuit, but are destroyed when Shura detonates his bomb.

File:Daleks advance.jpg
The Daleks and Ogrons advance.

Cast

Crew

References

  • The Doctor drinks a fair bit of wine during his stay at Auderly House noting (mainly to himself): "That's a most good-natured wine. A touch sardonic, perhaps, but not cynical. A most civilized wine, one after my own heart."
  • Dalekanium in the alternate future is both a substance and a bomb.
  • The Blinovitch Limitation Effect is mentioned here for the first time.
  • It is this effect that prevents the guerillas making multiple attempts to kill Styles.

Story Notes

  • This story is noted for being one of only actual 'time travel' stories, where the very nature of time travel is used as a main plot element.
  • This story had working titles of; The Ghost Hunters, Years Of Doom, The Time Warriors, The Day Of The Daleks, Ghosts.
  • The on screen title is Day of the Daleks, however the commercial releases (Video and Laserdisc) it was listed as The Day of the Daleks.
  • A section of the closing title sequence appears in the background on the screen of the Daleks' mind analysis machine at the end of Episode Three.
  • Episode Four was originally to have featured a confrontation between the Doctor and the Daleks in which the Daleks explain how they destroyed those of their number who were impregnated with the human factor in the events seen in The Evil of the Daleks and then turned their attention to conquering Earth by means of time travel. This scene was actually recorded but had to be cut at the editing stage for timing reasons.
  • The Ogrons were neither named nor described in Louis Marks's scripts.

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 9.8 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 10.4 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 9.1 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 9.1 million viewers

Myths

  • Terry Nation was not consulted in advance about the use of the Daleks in this story and, when he found out about it, this led to a row between him and the BBC. (Although Terrance Dicks recalls such a dispute, Barry Letts does not, and it is clear from contemporary BBC documentation that it is Letts who is correct. Nation was consulted in advance, and his agents ALS Management confirmed in a letter dated 22 April 1971, that he had no objection to the Daleks being used in a story for the 1972 season, subject to the usual negotiations.)

Filming Locations

  • Dropmore House, Taplow, Buckinghamshire
  • Bull's Bridge (railway bridge), Grand Union Canal, Middlesex
  • Harvey House, Green Dragon Lane, Brentford

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • There are only three Dalek props, not an issue...until it comes to the main action scenes.
  • A Dalek story had not been produced for some time, hence the Dalek's odd manner of speech.

Continuity

  • ST: Honest Living deals with some of the after effects of this story.
  • This is the second time UNIT has provided security for a peace conference (and once more there is a problem with the Chinese), the first time occurred during DW: The Mind of Evil

DVD, Video, Laserdisc and Other Releases

Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks

Released:

Target Novelisations

See also

  • DW: The Space Museum - a story which deals with similar issues of time travel and the like.
  • DW: Father's Day - another story which deals with similar paradoxical issues of time travel.

External Links

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