For a long time, this was my favourite Dalek story ever but having listened to both Troughton Dalek stories recently, I concede Power Of The Daleks is a better story but this one still has a lot going for it. As it wasn't written by Terry Nation, it will always stand out for me. Both Dalek stories of this Era have something different from the norm about them that separates them from the Nation norm of jungles, radiation etc. In Power Of The Daleks it was the fact they spent most of the time acting as servants to man whilst in this, we get to see nice friendly Daleks which I thought was a great idea!

What I love also about it is the various settings. It starts of Gatwick, following on from the previous story, moves through a cafe to a Victorian-style house, before moving to one for real. Then it moves to Skaro. By listening to it in one hit, I really feel as it I've been on a massive journey.

It also has strong characters. Right from the darker Second Doctor, to Jamie, who is core to the story, through to Maxtible, Waterfield and even down to Toby, everyone of them has a strong contribution. And off course, Victoria is introduced and her debut is also a strong one.

I also love the final climatic episode with nice Daleks fighting usual ones to create a civil war. If this had been the very last Dalek story as intended, it certainly would have been a good one to go out on.

It's not entirely perfect. It really is too long at 7 episodes and the middle episode where Troughton is clearly away for the week, despite the pre recording, sags incredibly. There are a few plot holes, not least as to why Arthur Terrill orders Toby to kidnap Jamie on the Daleks behest when clearly he was vital to their plan.

Anyway, I love this story, I know it's not for everyone as no doubt others will say but for me, it kicked of an extraordinary run of excellent stories as the show entered the first of it's Golden Ages which ran right towards the end of the following Season.

Yes, the Victoria(n) era was a great one and sadly is almost entirely lost to us. This one is all right but spends entirely too much time messing about in Maxtible's house.

Diz-zy Da-leks ...

David Whitaker sure knew how to write the Daleks. I agree that this and Power are probably the two greatest Daleks stories, alongside Genesis. In fact, you could make a good case for Power of the Daleks being THE greatest Doctor Who story.

But Evil is a very good second / third.

I wouldn't disagree with that though I've never been overly keen on Genesis but the two Troughton Dalek stories are top notch. Much better than the Pertwee ones which I rank as some of my least favourite Dalek stories.

have to say from listening to the audio soundtrack it does seem a little dull at times and probably an episode to long.

Hello

I am quite excited that the feedback on this story seems mostly positive. I watched a clip from the BBC America site a while ( link below) ago from Evil of the Daleks and i was quite impressed actually.

It seems quite an atmospheric story .Patrick Troughton is a bit irascible but i love him. His voice draws me in every time and his mannerisms. Victoria comes across as a sweet girl. Its a crying shame it doesn't exist in full except as an audio. Another lost classic.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglopheni...ia-waterfield/

You wait until Chuffnobbler comes on, things will change then......

I know I've said about Patrick Troughton already but he really does give an excellent performance in this story. His Doctor shows a darker side, especially with his dealings with The Daleks and Jamie. I've read in places The Doctor in this story was quite reminiscent of McCoy's Darker Doctor in his later stories and I don't think that's so far of the mark.

At least we have Episode 2 to give us some idea of how the story looked, shame it couldn't have been one of the later episodes that survived.

Agreed. The Pertwee Dalek stories are very gratuitous and don't have much going for them. In fact, 'Genesis' is about the only Dalek story I like post 'Evil'.

Perhaps that should be 'preminiscent'.

Not as strong as Power but still a very good story, starts and ends well but loses its way in the middle plus it introduces one of Who's weaker companions.

Victoria worked well with Jamie, even though Deborah Watling's acting wasn't the best. Zoe tended to make Jamie look like a buffoon when he really wasn't.

Or even 'prescient', which is actually a word

But the Second Doctor wasn't prescient of the Seventh unless they met in a hypothetical multi-Doctor incident.

I think I was referring to the darker interpretation in a retrospective sort of way.

I was just trying to have a bit of fun making up a word.

It was a good one, I wasn't stealing your thunder..... Dizzy...DizzyDavey.........

Not really thunder, more a damp fart.

Agreed. It bored the arses off me and Mrs Chuff. Capture/escape/capture/escape stuff clogs up whole episodes. Jamoe walking round silly boobytrapped corridors. A mute foreigner who nobly self-sacrifices (exactly the same thing happens in the next story, Tomb of the Cybermen). Cliche upon cliche. Terrall, Toby (etc) in the Victorian episodes exist purely to stand around talking, padding the story out.

Yes, the Dizzy Daleks are good. The mystery at the beginning with the missing Tardis and antique shop is good. But it gets terribly bogged down.

This is a great example of the Received Wisdom of ye olde fans, who remember being excited by it in 1967. Since nobody has seen it since, and the surviving episode is pretty good, it takes a listen of the soundtrack CD to realise that this is actually a pretty ordinary story.

Oh, and Deborah Watling is among the poorest actors to have taken a regular lead role in DW.

Some of that excitement was probably the fact that it gave our first look at Skaro since the Dalek city in '63-'64, and really our only look at the nerve centre of the fully-developed Dalek society in the classic series. Unfortunately very little of this survives today, but at the time the surprise may have been so great that people forgot all the boredom leading up to it.

To be fair, that does happen in a lot of Doctor Who stories so it's nothing new.



That is not necessarily the case. I for one was not around when it was first transmitted. I listened to the audio before I even watched the surviving episode and enjoyed it enormously. I know a couple of other people who have done the same thing. Watching that episode did not ruin it for me, indeed it simply enhanced what I think is a very good story, though I do concede that episode where Jamie rescues Victoria is below par as it happens mid story where it sags. The next episode picks up the pace and the last two episodes for me are amazing.

The first part of this made me chuckle as capture & escape is a staple of classic Who- mostly episode 3 out of 4 when there is a lull and a bit of padding required before the resolution in the last episode..

Its a bit mean though to say Deborah Watling is one of the poorest actors. I've watched some clips ofDeborah as Victoria and she plays her as a very sensitive English Victorian lady who can banter with Jamie when required.

Capture/escape stuff is what happens in order to pad out an overlong story, and it is very hard to do successfully. I rather like Frontier iNS pace, where the Doctor and Jo escape from, and are locked back up in, a variety of cells over the course of the mid-story lull. Evil of the Daleks has such a huge level of padding that I was utterly startled. I think it's the most boring of the seven-parters. It could probably have been trimmed down to four episodes quite effectively, as the rubbish bits have equal significance in the story as the good bits. Evil feels like a first draft!

Sorry but i love it , but then i love Pat Troughton's era form start to finish . I'm so involved i even crave more Underwater Menace .

I think one thing we can both agree on is this. I agree there is some padding, the unexplained kidnapping of Jamie being one of those. I think the middle three episodes could have definitely been cut down to one, possibly two but I'd have left the last two episodes unchanged as they are the best part of the story.

Out of all the 7 parters there have been this is still the best for me though and far better than some of the snorefests in Season 7.

Davey! That's fighting talk! I love Season 7!