The Evil of the Daleks

A full review of the animated version of The Evil of the Daleks can be found here.  This post was published before the release of the animated reconstruction.

Synopsis

The Daleks capture the Doctor to try to distill the human factor, believing that this will mean that it will make them invincible.  The Doctor appears to be co-operating with them, making Jamie question his faith in the Time Lord.

The Story

The Evil of the Daleks is another Patrick Troughton story which is mostly missing from the BBC Archives, having been wiped in the early 1970s, with only episode two having been recovered.  Ironically, The Evil of the Daleks was the first story to be repeated on British television, being re-broadcast in the gap between Seasons 5 and 6, with some new framing narration performed by Patrick Troughton and Wendy Padbury (the new companion as played by Wendy Padbury) at the start of the first episode.

This story actually serves as an introduction for another new companion, Victoria Waterfield, played by Deborah Watling, who leaves with the Doctor and Jamie at the end of the story.  With the story starting with Victoria’s father Edward stealing the TARDIS in Victorian times, this means that the Doctor is travelling with two humans from different eras of humanity’s past.  Edward’s eventual sacrifice at the end of this story leaves Victoria as an orphan, something that will lead to one of my personal favourite Doctor speeches in the next story, The Tomb of the Cybermen.  Victoria would stay with the Doctor and Jamie until Fury from the Deep, which continues a tradition of only having companions (apart from Jamie) travel with the Doctor for a single season.

The Evil of the Daleks was at the time intended to be the final appearance of the Daleks on Doctor Who.  Their creator, Terry Nation, intended to sell them to American television and so the decision was made to give them a final send-off from their parent show, as there was some talk of this Dalek spin-off being broadcast in Britain on ITV.  David Whittaker’s story did kill off the Daleks in the final scenes of the story, however, producer Innes Lloyd was told at the last moment not to make this a final end.  This was achieved by putting a glowing light inside one of the wrecked cases of the Daleks, suggesting that something had survived.  Of course, the Daleks would return, however, this would be their last appearance for five years, reappearing in Day of the Daleks opposite Troughton’s successor, Jon Pertwee.

This makes this story the first season finale to feature a recurring adversary of the Doctor’s and marks the end of Troughton’s first season as the Doctor, marking a successful transition of lead actors and securing the future of the show.

Cast: Patrick Troughton (The Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield), John Bailey (Edward Waterfield), Marius Goring (Theodore Maxtible), Alec Ross (Bob Hall), Griffith Davies (Kennedy), Geoffrey Colville (Perry), Jo Rowbottom (Mollie Dawson), Brigit Forsyth (Ruth Maxtible), Gary Watson (Arthur Terrall), Windsor Davies (Toby), Sonny Caldinez (Kemel), Robert Jewell, Gerald Taylor, John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar & Ken Tyllsen (Daleks), Roy Skelton and Peter Hawkins (Voices of the Daleks).

Writer: David Whitaker

Director: Derek Martinus

Behind the Scenes

• John Bailey, who plays Edward Waterfield here, had previously appeared in The Sensorites and would go on to appear in The Horns of Nimon.
• The Evil of the Daleks was voted as the best Doctor Who serial ever by readers of Dreamwatch Bulletin in a 1993 poll celebrating the show’s 30th Anniversary.