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FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

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AceAceBaby

AceAceBaby

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I also liked it although it did suffer from trying to fit in so much. The most annoying thing - the cup that Oswin had - which is clearly empty when she is running around but she takes a sip out of it at the end...grrr.

The empty coffee cup prop is almost a trope these days. Once you notice it, you see it all the time.
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Exidor

Exidor

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Well it's never funny if you have to explain it and I don't know what Sean's on about (as ever) but when I click on fireproof's link I see the two famous guys at the front and then, behind them, two bald guys. Who do we know who is two bald guys?

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Planet of the Daleks

(Blog has pictures)

So, wait a minute, what happened with the Earth/Draconia war? The Doctor calls the Time Lords and they send him to destroy a Dalek army on another planet... that doesn't really stop the Master's cunning plan to provoke galactic hostilities, does it? In hindsight, this rather puts a downer on the previous story – not only was six episodes not enough to wrap that one up properly, but the next six pretty much ignore it too, save for a throwaway line. I guess that's what happens when you change writers without finishing your own story first. Poor show.

[Picture: The blinged out 'Supreme' Dalek rolling through the jungle.]

The writer of the very first Dalek story, Terry Nation, heads up this one. On the one hand, it's a delightful throwback to that first Dalek story, reintroducing the Thals, now generations on and capable of interstellar flight. It even name-drops Ian, Barbara and Susan for that extra bit of nostalgia.

[Picture: One of the Thals shoves a Dalek into some ice.]

On the other hand, sadly, the story is almost a total retelling on that first one, albeit with the details changed (the planet is different, but there's a forest, a Dalek 'city', a doomsday weapon, and a convenient weakness to exploit) and I never felt the original story was all that strong anyway. Still, there are some interesting ideas, like the invisible inhabitants and a planet filled with a molten icy core that spews out frozen goo like lava. Some of the individual moments are quite good, too, like the air-lift sequence in the vent or the moment when the Dalek army starts waking up. The final episode is fairly exciting as everything comes to a head.

[Picture: The dormant army beneath the city. It's a cool shot, but that ain't ten thousand!]

The problem with Dalek stories (as with any 'superpower' villain; see also Star Trek's Borg) is that they can become a bigger and bigger threat, but you then have to write them out somehow without it seeming contrived. Massive armies gearing up for full galactic invasion may sound exciting but you end up stuck in a corner. I much prefer the stories where there is a risk of danger, not an ever-present threat, and in this respect, 'Planet of the Daleks' doesn't quite succeed where, say, 'The Power of the Daleks', does.

Alternatively, it might be nice to have a story where the Daleks actually win!

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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Yeah, I did think you'd be disappointed by the lack of resolution to the last story. Sadly Roger Delgado died in 1973, so that's the last you'll see of his Master. Shame he never got a proper exit. :(

This is another story which works much better in its novelised format. I seem to remember finding it quite exciting as a kid.

As for Dalek stories in general, hang on in there for Tom Baker's era - you'll get an absolute belter then!

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Sadly Roger Delgado died in 1973, so that's the last you'll see of his Master. Shame he never got a proper exit. :(

Shit, I didn't know that!

It's sometimes a little depressing watching old TV shows/films and having to remind myself that most of the people in it are either elderly or dead now. :(

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CarloOos

CarloOos

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What happened with Delgado's intended final story, surely that's been adapted/released in some form somewhere along the line? How many planned serials did his death affect? I know Pertwee's reasons for departure were certainly inspired by it.

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Flub

Flub

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What happened with Delgado's intended final story, surely that's been adapted/released in some form somewhere along the line? How many planned serials did his death affect? I know Pertwee's reasons for departure were certainly inspired by it.

Don't go looking for more information on this just yet Sprite. You'll get spoilers for Pertwee's last story

To author the Master's swansong, the producer turned to Robert Sloman, who had written (with considerable input from Letts) the concluding stories of each of the last three seasons, most recently The Green Death. Sloman was beginning to tire of Doctor Who but acquiesced, and on February 15th, 1973 accepted a commission for a storyline entitled “The Final Game”. Drawing on Letts' proclivity for Eastern philosophy and the feature film Forbidden Planet, “The Final Game” would have revealed the Doctor and the Master to be two facets of the same person, with the Master as the “id” (instinctual needs and desires) and the Doctor as the “ego” (conscious perception of and adaptation to reality). At the adventure's climax, the Master would have perished in an explosion, in the process saving the Doctor and others from death -- although it would have remained ambiguous as to whether or not this was an act of redemption.

Unfortunately, “The Final Game” had to be abandoned in the wake of the events of June 18th, when Delgado died in a car accident in Turkey. This precipitated the final dissolution of the team which had carried Doctor Who through the Seventies, as it appeared that Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks, and star Jon Pertwee would all leave Doctor Who following Season Eleven. A reluctant Sloman was therefore asked to deliver a new storyline under his original commission, which would bring the era of the Third Doctor to a close.

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