‘Destiny of the Daleks’ (TV)

2244-Doctor-Who-Destiny-of-the-Daleks-UK-DVD

‘DESTINY OF THE DALEKS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Daleks, Davros and Movellans with the Fourth Doctor and (Romana)

“All elephants are pink; Nellie is an elephant; therefore Nellie is pink.”

As 2021 drew to a close, I received the Season 17 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’ in the post. This was before I went to check out ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ at the cinema in December. I glad I received Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ on Blu-ray in the post, since it made an early Christmas present.

Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ stars Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Lalla Ward as Romana and K-9 (voiced by David Brierley). Like Season 24, this is a season that tends to divide quite a lot of fan opinion. This also happens to be the third and final season of Graham Williams’ era as the producer.

I became aware of Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ to be released on Blu-ray when the announcement trailer on YouTube was released in October 2021. It had David Gooderson back as Davros! I was amazed it was David Gooderson. He sounded more Davros-like compared to ‘Destiny of the Daleks’.

Also, Davros sounded like Emperor Palpatine with that opening line of his, as it echoes the trailer for the ‘Star Wars’ film ‘The Rise of Skywalker’. I was disappointed that Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Peter Davison didn’t return to do some more ‘Behind the Sofa’ items for Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’.

But I was looking forward to checking out the Season 17 ‘Behind the Sofa’ items with Colin Baker and Matthew Waterhouse, Katy Manning and Nicola Bryant, and Mat Irvine, June Hudson and Graeme Harper. I also looked forward to checking out the other new bonus material in the Season 17 Blu-ray box set. 🙂

The Blu-ray box set of Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ is a 7-disc set. The six stories of Season 17 are ‘Destiny of the Daleks’, ‘City of Death’, ‘The Creature From The Pit’, ‘Nightmare of Eden’, ‘The Horns of Nimon’ and ‘Shada’. There are two more versions of ‘Shada’ and bonus material on Discs 6 and 7.

It’s amazing that ‘Shada’ is included in Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ on Blu-ray, as that was a story never completed in the making of the season back in 1979. Then again, ‘Shada’ has been attended to a number of times to see its completion before it got its ‘final’ version on DVD and Blu-ray in 2017. 🙂

But ‘Shada’ is something to be talked about another time. Meanwhile, let’s talk about Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ from the beginning, shall we? Like I said, this is Graham Williams’ third and final season as producer of ‘Doctor Who’. It was also Tom Baker’s sixth season in playing the Fourth Doctor.

At this point, Tom Baker was considered to be the best and perhaps the most definitive Doctor of them all so far in the series. With his floppy hat, long scarf and love of jelly babies, Tom Baker won the hearts of millions of children as well as the hearts of millions of fans with his ‘bonkers’ eccentricity.

However, with that said, and despite Tom Baker’s Doctor often looking cheerful in the time he spent in the series, it wasn’t always plain-sailing for him when it came to working behind-the-scenes. It wasn’t so bad until it got to Season 18 (his final season), but signs were evident in the proceedings.

Tom’s relationship with producer Graham Williams wasn’t always the smoothest. Quite often, Tom and Graham clashed with each other in terms of how they approached the series. Tom was often ‘bonkers’ mad with some of the ideas he contributed, whilst Graham was pretty reserved than Tom.

Not to say that Graham didn’t give Tom a hard time when making the show compared to producer John Nathan-Turner a season later, but it’s evident that Tom and Graham didn’t always see eye-to-eye. This is a shame, considering Tom seemed to have a happy time in playing the role of his dreams.

Despite the clash between Tom Baker and Graham Williams in the show’s making, a new script editor arrived to make things easier for Tom’s enjoyment on the show. That happened to be Douglas Adams, who was so famous for creating ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to Galaxy’ and the ‘Dirk Gently’ books. 🙂

Douglas Adams, like ‘Doctor Who’, is someone who can be divisive. You either like him or you don’t. Me personally, I quite like Douglas Adams’ approach to writing and script-editing ‘Doctor Who’. He sought out to find a balance of comedy and drama in ‘Doctor Who’, which I often enjoyed watching.

Sometimes that can be too much of a good thing. But after impressing Graham Williams and former script editor Anthony Read with his efforts in ‘The Pirate Planet’ for ‘The Key to Time’ season, it seemed like Douglas Adams was to be an ideal candidate to take over as script editor for Season 17.

But as it turned out for Douglas Adams, it wasn’t always plain-sailing when it came to script-editing ‘Doctor Who’s seventeenth season. That’s something I hope to clarify as we explore each of the six adventures made during Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’. With that out of the way, let us begin, shall we?

The season, of course, begins with the four-part adventure called ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ by Terry Nation. This happens to be Terry Nation’s last contribution to ‘Doctor Who’ as a writer. At the time, Terry had created other TV shows such as the sci-fi ‘Blake’s 7’ and the apocalyptic TV show ‘Survivors’. 🙂

Although credited for being by Terry Nation, Douglas Adams wrote most of the dialogue and the interaction between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward’s characters as well as adding more humour to the proceedings itself. This was due to the fact that Terry Nation’s scripts were very thin in their delivery.

Now that’s not an uncommon thing regarding Terry Nation. After all, Terry Nation delivered half of the scripts for ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ before Dennis Spooner and Donald Tosh took over. Also, it’s understandable Terry Nation was busy in working on other projects at the time this story was made.

The same thing can be said for Douglas Adams who was working on ‘Doctor Who’ and a number of projects for ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ such as the book and the TV series as well as the second season for radio. It tainted on how Douglas handled his time being the show’s script editor. 😦

That’s something we can talk about another time. As well as Tom Baker’s return to ‘Doctor Who’ in Season 17, ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ also features the debut of Lalla Ward as Romana in ‘Doctor Who’, taking over from Mary Tamm who previously portrayed Romana in the show’s ‘Key to Time’ season.

Although being her debut as Romana in ‘Doctor Who’, this is technically Lalla Ward’s second appearance in the show as she previously played Princess Astra in ‘The Armageddon Factor’. There’s also debate regarding Romana’s regeneration in this certain Season 17 story, which we’ll discuss later.

I first received ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ on DVD for Christmas 2007. I recall watching this story on DVD before checking out the 2007 Christmas Special ‘Voyage of the Damned’ with David Tennant on TV. And that was the first time I actually watched a proper ‘Doctor Who’ episode on TV that Christmas. 🙂

I enjoyed ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ when I first saw it on DVD in 2007. With that said, I don’t think ‘Destiny’ is one of the greatest Dalek adventures ever made in the show. Some will debate that, considering they might approve of the story’s visual look as well as some aspects of the story itself. 🙂

However, I found this story rather slowly paced and lacklustre. I wished for the action sequences to have been better. I also felt that with more music, the story would’ve been stronger and more compelling. Even with the CGI effects option added to the story, it didn’t really help matters for me.

Now with the story released on Blu-ray, I was able to enjoy it with the CGI effects option as well an enhanced 5.1. surround sound audio option featuring additional music composed and realised by Tristram Cary from the original ‘Daleks’ story with William Hartnell. It did make things a little better.

It still doesn’t change my mind about how I perceive this story, since there are aspects about the development of the Daleks and how their conflict with the Movellans is handled that I don’t entirely agree with. But hearing Tristram Cary’s music in the enhanced option made the tale more enjoyable.

Like I said, the story is heavily influenced by the humour provided by Douglas Adam in the script-editing for the show. Now I do like Douglas Adams’ approach to humour in ‘Doctor Who’ at times, but very often that’s more in the stories he writes rather than the stories that he script-edits for the TV show itself.

When he’s script-editing stories that were penned by writers like Terry Nation, David Fisher, Bob Baker and Anthony Read, they can be uneven in their output. Quite often, the humour speaks out more than the drama and sometimes some actors can be a little over-the-top in their performances.

Now with all of those things said, ‘Destiny’ is a story that contains some intriguing ideas by Terry Nation concerning the Daleks’ development. This is especially as they try to seek out and dig up their creator Davros, whom they killed at point blank range during the events of ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. 🙂

And he miraculously survived! Over the years, Davros has become a popular character, thanks to being in ‘Genesis’ and his resurrection in ‘Destiny’. But I don’t know. Having him come back in ‘Doctor Who’ when he could’ve been left for dead might have really hampered Dalek stories after that.

In the remainder of the classic series, Davros appeared in every Dalek story including ‘Resurrection’, ‘Revelation’ and ‘Remembrance’. Thank goodness that the new TV series has more Dalek stories without Davros in them, but I’m not sure if Davros can be at times over-used in the latest ‘Doctor Who’s.

Incidentally, ‘Destiny’ happens to be the first ‘Doctor Who’ story since ‘The Key to Time’ season to go back to more traditional standards as each story in Season 17 isn’t linked an overarching theme. I’m pleased Graham Williams didn’t have every season of his have stories linked by a certain theme or arc.

In some respects, it’s better to have future ‘Doctor Who’ seasons like ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ and ‘Flux’ happen once and a while, as there needs to be plenty of variety in each season for ‘Doctor Who’ fans to enjoy. Thus, there are more stories to enjoy in Season 17 than it just be only one story.

In ‘Destiny’, the Doctor and Romana visit Skaro as they explore the city ruins. They’re initially unaware that they’re on Skaro before they find the Daleks are on the planet and that they’ve come to recover Davros. The Daleks want Davros to program their battle computers (more on this later). 😐

It transpires that the Daleks have been fighting an endless war against the exotic-looking Movellans who have also come to Skaro. Like the Daleks, the Movellans want to take over the universe and be the dominant species in existence. But I don’t know. The Daleks are more impressive than the Movellians. 😀

A big issue I have with ‘Destiny’ is the Daleks themselves. I found them very annoying. This is because the Daleks are very monotonous and repetitive in some of the phrases and orders they say and bark out like “SEEK AND LOCATE!”, “DO NOT DEVIATE!” and “LET NO OPPOSITION HALT YOU!” 😐

The Daleks are voiced by Roy Skelton (who was voicing George and Zippy in ‘Rainbow’ at the time) as well as David Gooderson (who plays Davros in the story). I don’t know if it’s me, but I found Roy Skelton’s Dalek voices becoming increasingly harsh by the time ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ came along. 😐

Now, I know the Daleks are meant to sound more robotic compared to the organic creatures they used to be when inside their metal shells. But I’ve written better Dalek dialogue in ‘Doom of the Daleks’. The latest TV and Big Finish stories have far more intimidating Daleks than ‘Destiny’s Daleks.

The scene where the Daleks crash in on Romana and say “DO NOT MOVE!” is repeated about seven times. Three times would be enough! Seven times makes me cringe! However, when a Dalek orders mine-workers “SILENCE!” three times in that monotonous tone, it sounds quite painful to hear here.

Now I’m not trying to make out Roy Skelton’s Daleks voices aren’t great, as I’ve found him fine in other Dalek stories such as ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ and ‘Revelation of the Daleks’. But the Daleks sound more scratchy than usual and I prefer it when Nick Briggs voices them.

Like Nick Briggs when he was interviewed for the ‘Terror Nation’ documentary on DVD, I felt at times that Terry Nation had forgotten that there were creatures inside the Dalek machines. Despite the odd mentions that the Daleks were once people, it’s implied that they happen to be more robotic. 😐

This is evident when Davros states that the Movellans are another race of robots like the Daleks. Now this could also imply that Davros has met another race of robots before the Movellans came along when he worked on the Daleks on Skaro before ‘Genesis’, but I don’t believe that’s really the case here!

Essentially, the Dalek/Movellan conflict doesn’t work for me. I can’t feel for the Daleks and the Movellans in their conflict, since it’s implied that the Daleks and the Movellans are equal in terms of their robotic programming, whereas the Daleks are semi-robotic and the Movellans are fully robotic.

I don’t feel the Daleks are menacing enough and are being played for laughs, especially in the aforementioned phrases and orders they say and bark out loud. I wish more was developed in terms of the Daleks being creatures in their machines instead of them being made out to be just robots. 😐

When I wrote ‘Doom of the Daleks’, I had the Daleks pitted against the Dwaxi, who were equal to them in terms of their aggression and their violence. I wish that the Daleks had a foe ready to pounce them out in a very aggressive manner compared to the monotone manner of the Movellans.

The Daleks also look tatty in terms of their design. They look as if they’ve not been well-preserved and have been badly-treated over the years before they were taken out to be filmed. Bits of their casing have come off and are broken. Then again, they’ve fought the Movellans for a very long time.

I also feel that the extermination sequences by the Daleks are pretty appalling. There’s a scene where the Daleks are exterminating human prisoners and the humans seem happy to be exterminated, ‘flopping’ to the ground as if about to go to sleep. It’s pathetic and very cringeworthy!

Now I know some of the extermination scenes in ‘Resurrection’ can be over-the-top, especially when one of them does a ‘disco dance’ as he’s been exterminated, but at least the point comes across that they’re being exterminated. Surely the human prisoners should have been terrified once being shot.

As indicated, Davros returns in his second ‘Doctor Who’ appearance on TV. When Davros first appeared in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, he was played by Michael Wisher. Here, he’s played by David Gooderson, who incidentally was the barman in the first ‘Hitch-Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy’ radio series.

I’ve met David Gooderson twice at conventions. The first time was at the ‘Collectormania Glasgow 2012’ event in August 2012. The second time was at the ‘Cardiff Film and Comic Con 2014’ in March 2014. I’ve had some nice chats with David about his appearance as Davros in ‘Destiny of the Daleks’.

He’s a very nice gent to talk to. He even signed of a photo of Davros from ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ for me as well as an autograph at conventions. It was intriguing to hear David’s thoughts about playing Davros both at conventions as well as when being interviewed for documentaries on DVD/Blu-ray. 🙂

Over the years, I’ve found David Gooderson’s portrayal of Davros in ‘Destiny’ to be…um…interesting. I don’t consider it to be as good as how other actors have played the character in the series like Michael Wisher, Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach. But it’s an interesting attempt to say the least here.

Initially, I felt Davros’ voice sounded normal and less Dalek-like when David played him. It doesn’t have the same terrifying menace when Michael Wisher played him in ‘Genesis’. But lately, I see that David Gooderson was trying to mimic Davros’ voice, but without the voice treatment that it needed.

Had David Gooderson been given the voice synthesiser to make him sound more Dalek-like, maybe I would’ve taken Davros’ voice more seriously compared to how I first saw ‘Destiny’ on DVD in 2007. It would match a lot in how Davros sounded in the ‘Risen’ trailer for the Season 17 Blu-ray box set. 🙂

As mentioned, it’s intriguing how Davros managed to survive being shot by the Daleks at point blank range by the end of ‘Genesis’. I enjoyed Davros’ scenes with the Doctor, as they challenged each other on their scientific intellect and the moral situation concerning the Daleks and the Movellans. 🙂

Concerning the Movellans, they’re beautiful and exotic-looking robots in white suits and flowing braided hair. I would’ve preferred it if the Movellans were more subtle in their dress sense and their hairstyle, as they’re not attractive-looking as I would’ve expected them to be in their TV appearance.

June Hudson was the costume designer for this story by the way. The Movellans include Peter Straker as Commander Sharrel, Suzanne Danielle as Agella and Tony Osoba as Lan. The Movellans have made a comeback recently, both in the Big Finish audios and the TV episode called ‘The Pilot’. 🙂

The Movellans are interesting as robots, since they’re supposed to match the Daleks in terms of intellect and logic. But like I said, I would’ve preferred it if the Daleks came up against a deadlier opponent that matched their ruthless and cold-blooded killing nature compared to robotic nature. 😐

The story also features Tim Barlow as Tyssan, who helps the Doctor and Romana out. I saw Tim Barlow recently in the ‘Sherlock’ festive special called ‘The Abominable Bride’. There’s also Penny Casdagli as Jall and David Yip as Veldan, who are mine-workers that Romana encounters in the story.

Speaking of Lalla Ward’s Romana, it’s interesting how she gets to regenerate in this TV adventure. Mary Tamm chose not to return to play Romana, but she wasn’t asked to do a regeneration from herself into Lalla Ward. A bit of a shame, but Mary Tamm still returned to do some Big Finish audios.

So, instead of us not seeing the actual regeneration between Mary Tamm into Lalla Ward, we get to see Lalla Ward’s Romana seemingly picking different bodies in a strangely comedic scene in the TARDIS, as if she was shopping in a clothes shop, before she settles upon the body of Princess Astra.

Now this does seem weird, as I’m not sure if Romana is using up all of her lives as she’s picking different bodies or if she has the ability to choose different bodies before settling on a final one in her current regeneration. It’s a pity that the Doctor can’t do that, as his/her regenerations are troubled.

The Doctor also objects to Romana picking Princess Astra’s body to wear in her current regeneration, as he says to her, “But you can’t go round wearing copies of bodies.” A bit of a hypocrite there, Doctor, since you would later wear Commander Maxil’s body from ‘Arc of Infinity’ as Colin Baker’s Doctor! 😀

The comedy stuff of Romana picking different bodies when in the TARDIS does go on for too long and is rather silly in my humble opinion. I imagine that was more the invention of Douglas Adams’ script-editing as opposed to Terry Nation’s writing concerning the TARDIS scenes being played out. 🙂

Also, for your information, Romana has met the Daleks before. Even though her answers to the Daleks were ‘truthful responses’ when she was being interrogated by them in ‘Part Two’, Romana clearly states the Daleks ‘used to be humanoids themselves’ after she had her interrogation scene. 🙂

I’m pleased that it’s confirmed that Romana has met the Daleks before since Mary Tamm’s Romana encountered them in the four-part audio story ‘The Dalek Contract’/’The Final Phase’. Amazing that the Daleks’ lie-detector machine wasn’t able to pick up Romana’s lies during the ‘Destiny’ story! 😀

Mind you, I’ve discovered Romana in ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ might not be as she appears. In the Short Trip called ‘The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe’ from the ‘Short Trips: Companions’ anthology, it’s suggested Romana in ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ was actually the TARDIS disguised as her.

I like how that theory works out in that Short Trip and it would make sense concerning why Romana seemed able to switch bodies a lot during her ‘regeneration’ scene in the TARDIS. Not many will have read ‘The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe’, but it provides more credibility for Romana in ‘Destiny’.

Tom Baker is brilliant playing the Fourth Doctor in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I enjoyed the jokes that his Doctor delivered in this adventure, and it’s clear Tom Baker warms to Douglas Adams’ approach to script-editing in ‘Doctor Who’. I also enjoyed the scenes he shares with Romana here. 🙂

This includes when they’re in the TARDIS and when they’re out on Skaro. The scene where the Doctor made Romana jump when coming up behind her was funny. The rock-paper-scissors scene between the Doctor and Romana aboard the Movellan spaceship is funny, but also pretty inspired. 🙂

K-9 does appear in this story, but not very much. He’s at the beginning when the Doctor tries to fix him in the TARDIS. It turns out he has laryngitis, which is quite absurd. How a robot dog can have laryngitis is beyond me. 😀 A shame K-9 doesn’t get to go out on Skaro since he’s stuck in the TARDIS.

At the story’s conclusion, Davros and the Daleks are defeated. Davros gets captured and is put in cryogenic suspension where he’s to be taken to Earth to stand trial for his crimes. The Doctor presses the button and freezes him in the cryogenic unit, where he will never be seen ever again! 😀

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was a documentary called ‘Terror Nation’ which focused on Terry Nation and his involvement with ‘Doctor Who’. There was also a ‘Directing Who’ interview with the story’s director Ken Grieve. There was a CGI effects option to enjoy; BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story; and a photo gallery of the story. There was a mono sound audio mix option for the story and an audio commentary with Lalla Ward, David Gooderson and director Ken Grieve. There was an info-text commentary option to enjoy and some ‘Prime Computer’ adverts starring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. There was a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the ‘Beneath the Surface’ DVD box set, containing ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’, starring Jon Pertwee, Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney, ‘The Sea Devils’, starring Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning and ‘Warriors of the Deep’, starring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson. There was also a ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of the story and a DVD Easter Egg which happens to be studio clocks of the story.

On Disc 1 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 17’ Blu-ray, the ‘Terror Nation’ documentary, the ‘Directing Who’ interview with Ken Grieve, the CGI effects option, the mono sound audio mix option, the DVD audio commentary, and the studio clocks can be found on there. The BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story have been updated with the Season 17 BBC1 launch trailer on its own and the BBC trailers and continuity announcements from 1979 and 1980. The photo gallery and the info-text commentary option for ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ have been updated for 2021 on the Blu-ray. The ‘Prime Computer’ adverts are now included on the ‘Warriors’ Gate’ disc in the Season 18 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the making-of documentary called ‘Return to Skaro’ with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There’s the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ with Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) as well as Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Nicola Bryant (Peri) as well as visual effects designer Mat Irvine, costume designer June Hudson and director Graeme Harper. There’s ‘The Dalek Tapes’ documentary (taken from the ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ DVD), the ‘Risen’ Season 17 Blu-ray trailer, a ‘Nationwide’ item with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a ‘Blue Peter’ item on abseiling, and a ‘Blue Peter’ item featuring a fan-made Dalek. There’s also a 5.1 surround sound audio mix option for the story to enjoy and the enhanced 5.1. surround sound audio option with Tristram Cary’s music from the original ‘Daleks’ story. There’s also a brand-new Blu-ray audio commentary for ‘Parts One and Four’ of ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ with Tom Baker, moderated by Toby Hadoke.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, there are production documents; scripts for the story, including four rehearsal scripts and four camera scripts, studio floorplans, an audience research report, miscellaneous BBC ‘Doctor Who’ correspondence, a Season 17 television play synopsis, the ‘Doctor Who Annual 1981’, a BBC Enterprises knitting pattern for Tom Baker’s scarf (taken from the 2-disc 2017 ‘Shada’ DVD/Blu-ray), a Season 17 BBC Enterprises sales sheet, and visual effects design drawings.

‘Destiny of the Daleks’ is an unusual and a lacklustre Dalek story in ‘Doctor Who’. I enjoyed some of the ideas featured in it, but I don’t think the Daleks and Davros are at their best. Tom Baker and Lalla Ward deliver great performances as the Doctor and Romana, but this is an average Dalek adventure.

Mind you, it terms of revisiting the story on DVD and lately on Blu-ray with the enhanced 5.1. surround sound audio option and the CGI effects option, I’ve been able to enjoy it more and more. Thankfully, the opening story would be won over by the following instalment featured in Season 17.

‘Destiny of the Daleks’ rating – 6/10


The previous story

For the Fourth Doctor was

  • ‘The Stealers From Saiph’ (Audio)

For Romana was

  • ‘The Stealers From Saiph’ (Audio)

For K-9 Mk II was

For Davros was

  • ‘Risen’ (Blu-ray)

For the Daleks was

The next story

For the Fourth Doctor is

For Romana is

For K-9 Mk II was

For Davros was

For the Daleks was

Return to The Fourth Doctor’s Timeline
Return to Romana’s Timeline
Return to The Timelines of K-9
Return to Davros’ Timeline
Return to The Daleks’ Timeline
Return to The Doctors’ Timelines Index
Return to The Companions’ Timelines Index
Return to The Monsters’ Timelines Index
Return to Doctor Who Timelines
Return to Doctor Who
Return to The World of Douglas Adams
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18 thoughts on “‘Destiny of the Daleks’ (TV)

  1. Timelord 007's avatarTimelord 007

    A fair balanced insightful review Tim, i thought the tone of the whole of season 17 to uneven, the Daleks sound more Zippy from Rainbow as Roy Skelton voiced both & the constant repetitive repeated lines by the Daleks is frustrating.

    David Gooderson is by far the weakest actor to play Davros, his voice doesn’t match the chilling tone of Michael Wisher, Terry Molloy or Julian Bleach as Goodersons vocals sound to human like.

    Tom Baker is easily the best thing about Destiny, his bonkers but brilliant eccentricities have me in fits of laughter & he turns a average story into a above average one.

    And don’t get me started on that whole body swapping sequence with Romana which felt like padding.

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  2. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

    Thanks Simon! Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ and found it balanced and insightful. It did find the Daleks rather annoying at times in this one, especially when they kept repeating lines during the story that made them sound less threatening.

    Yes it’s fair David Gooderson isn’t as great as Michael Wisher, Terry Molloy or Julian Bleach in the way he played Davros in this story. But it’s an interesting performance in my opinion.

    I like Tom Baker’s one liners in this story, especially when he’s with Romana in the TARDIS. All I can say the Romana body-swapping scene is too comedic and silly that I couldn’t take it seriously.

    Many thanks, Simon. Tim. 🙂

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  3. Williams Fan 92's avatarWilliams Fan 92

    Great review Tim.

    Yeah, ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ wasn’t a great start to Season 17 as I said in my review of the story. It was very weird that the Daleks were implied to be robots and not once organic beings. What’s even weirder is the Doctor at one point stumbles across a Kaled mutant. I wonder if that was more down to Douglas Adams’ rewrites than Terry Nation.

    The Daleks were rather grating at times with their voices and David Gooderson’s Davros isn’t as great as the other Davros interpretations. The Fourth Doctor was great as ever though and Lalla Ward’s first broadcast story in the role of Romana did her justice I felt. I didn’t particularly mind the regeneration scene.

    Eventually I will re-watch the story with updated special effects and possibly Tristram Cary’s music. I also hope to update my review by mentioning the Movellans. I’ll probably share my thoughts on ‘Into the Death-Space’ tomorrow and ‘City of Death’ the day after. My review of ‘The Romance of Crime’ was uploaded earlier today.

    Take care, WF92.

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    1. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

      Hi WF92,

      Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘Destiny of the Daleks’. You could be right there. I imagine Douglas Adams added in the Doctor finding the remains of the Kaled mutant during the rewrite to cover up the notion that Terry Nation might have forgotten the Daleks weren’t robots. It’s a shame the Daleks aren’t as good as they could’ve been in this story. Despite David Gooderson being a good actor, his Davros is not on the same level as Michael Wisher, Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach.

      Hope you enjoy revisiting the story with the CGI effects option and Tristam Cary’s music. Hope you enjoy ‘Into the Death-Space’ too. I’ll check out your ‘Romance of Crime’ review soon.

      Many thanks,

      Tim 🙂

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      Reply
  4. Williams Fan 92's avatarWilliams Fan 92

    Hi Tim.

    What I meant was, it could have been Douglas Adams that wrote the parts about the Daleks being robots and them wanting Davros to reprogram them. Terry Nation might not have put that in his original script. I assume that’s covered in the making-of documentary. I’ll make sure to watch that after I’ve revisited the story.

    Take care, WF92.

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    Reply
    1. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

      Hi WF92,

      Okay. Interesting observation. I thought it was the other way round according to Nick Briggs in the ‘Terror Nation’ documentary. Maybe Douglas Adams rewrote the scripts, thinking the Daleks were robots and not mutant creatures inside the machines, although you’d think he’d know the Daleks due to being a ‘Doctor Who’ fan himself.

      Many thanks,

      Tim 🙂

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      Reply
      1. scifimike70's avatarscifimike70

        With the issues of robotic constrictions that the Doctor makes clear for the Daleks (though agreeably not truly robots) and the Movellans, perhaps it’s just as well that K-9 because of his robot way of life didn’t appear in this story. Because it might have in obvious ways clashed in the sense that K-9, even for his logical mind, could clearly be more than that in ways that the Daleks and Movellans couldn’t. So the main focus for this story made no room for K-9 which is sad for the first chance we could have had to see K-9 vs. the Daleks.

        Bringing back Davros after his timeless death scene in Genesis was risky business, even with good Davros drama to follow in the first two stories with Terry Molloy in the role. Davros has been a brave challenge in the decisions for which Whoniversal villains were deserving enough of comebacks. But after the S9 opening 2-parter with Peter Capaldi, whatever way the powers that be can find to give Davros a fresh new story seems almost unimaginable.

        Lalla as Romana may have made a mixed first impression, with how she can intelligently match the Doctor at first, then fearing the Daleks when they interrogate them to the point of begging them to leave her alone, and finally taking her role in the final fight to Sharrel over the Nova Device in a primitive tussle. It’s good that she could excel as Romana 2 more easily in following stories, even with vulnerable moments and certainly the Part 2 cliffhanger in Warriors’ Gate. Lalla’s performance was always very special. Someone else on WordPress commented that she could have made a promising female Doctor after Tom Baker and I agree.

        Thank you, Tim, for your review.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

        Hi scifimike,

        Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Destiny of the Daleks’. Glad you enjoyed my review. It’s a shame K-9 didn’t appear in this TV story very much to fight off the Daleks, but at least he got to confront them in ‘The Dalek Contract’/’The Final Phase’. I don’t mind Davros coming back to the series now and again. I’m pleased that he got better with later appearances compared to his first return in ‘Destiny’, especially as Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach play the character well to match Michael Wisher’s original performance. David Gooderson did sound Davros-like when I heard him in the Season 17 Blu-ray trailer and I wish we had more of that in ‘Destiny’. I prefer Mary Tamm over Lalla Ward, but Lalla Ward is good playing Romana and her stories after ‘Destiny’ get better with defining her character. I agree she has her moments when fighting Sharrel over the Nova Device and I’m glad ‘The Dalek Contract’/’The Final Phase’ had it explained why Romana seem terrified of the Daleks in her interrogation scene, as she seemed able to conceal her thoughts from the Daleks in that she knew and met them already, following her recent regeneration. Then again, she might not be the real Romana anyway, according to ‘The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe’ Short Trip story. 😀

        Many thanks for your comments.

        Tim 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. scifimike70's avatarscifimike70

        I’m glad, from what I heard in the trailer, that Gooderson’s Davros voice could be made to sound much better. Any actor to be cast as Davros certainly has a most challenging task. I remember Michael Wisher explaining how he had rehearsed Davros with a paper bag over his head. Revelation Of The Daleks felt like the most creative extension for Davros’ villainy and I admired how Terry Molloy for that one had achieved Davros’s first laugh and managed to act for most of the story within that tank.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

        Hi scifimike,

        I’m glad I’ve met David Gooderson twice at conventions, as he’s a nice chap . It’s interesting chatting to him about how he played Davros and how he gave his own take on the character compared to Michael Wisher, Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach’s interpretations. I like how Davros has evolved as a character, even though he somehow manages to cheat death all the time, especially after he was first exterminated by the Daleks in ‘Genesis’ before he revived in ‘Destiny’. Terry Molloy is really into the character, as I’ve experienced from checking out his audio appearances, including the ‘I, Davros’ series.

        Many thanks,

        Tim 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Wolfie's avatarWolfie

    “Destiny of the Daleks” is such an odd story, in many ways.

    For the first story out of the Key to Time saga, ‘Doctor Who’ is back to basics. A Dalek story. Penned by Terry Nation. Featuring the return of Davros, the Daleks’ creator, from the Fourth Doctor’s earlier encounter with them. It’s the only revisiting adversary of the series under script editor, Douglas Adams, in Season 17.

    For all the tonal issues of this season, Adams tended to commission scripts with quite strikingly cosmic ideas. Two spacecraft merged together in a hyperspace accident caused by drug smugglers. The Mona Lisa is the key to a one-man genocidal war between the Jagaroth and humanity. A doddery Cambridge professor is linked by a stolen book to a Time Lord prison planet. Many of the core premises are holistic and striking.

    In “Destiny of the Daleks”… Well, the idea of a computerised Cold War is certainly compelling. It’s 1979, at time of broadcast. That’s a topic which is about to become frighteningly pertinent… But we already covered this territory, after a fashion, in “The Armageddon Factor” with Mentalis. So, we’re beginning the season with a re-tread of the central concept.

    Now, that’s not fatal, in and of itself. I rather like the invention of the Movellans as a combat-ready equal to the Daleks. Part of the journey is determining what their purpose is (Police? Soldiers? Conquerors?). Also, the director, Ken Grieve, is using things like a Steadicam and low-slung shots of Daleks photographed from below. I found the sequence of the Daleks exterminating hostages until the Doctor complies to be a particularly compelling set piece (even if it was realised more effectively in Blake’s 7’s “Space Fall”). Romana’s fight to stop the Movellan Commander from activating the Nova Device is one of my favourite scenes with a companion solo.

    But “Destiny of the Daleks” is a story that’s struggling (wheezing like a grampus) under a particularly bare-bones script. Not so much in plot, but characterisation. We learn so little about the personalities active on Skaro. The prisoners in the mine are simple ciphers to deliver exposition. Davros, especially, suffers quite a bit from a one-note megalomania that feels… *strikingly* at odds with his more layered portrayal in “Genesis of the Daleks”. Replace him with the Dalek Supreme and nothing much changes.

    The biggest missed opportunity, though, is Romana’s regeneration. Just one scene and then it’s irrelevant. But what if it had been more…?

    How interesting would it have been for “Destiny of the Daleks” to have been Romana’s version of “Robot”? Her “The Power of the Daleks”? The Doctor being the one to shepherd his companion through the aftershock of a regeneration. Rather than vice versa. What would such a transition have looked like for her?

    By discarding it as a joke, irreverent and throwaway, we’re actually robbed of a really unique and interesting storyline for a companion. One that had never been done before (and couldn’t have been done before). It’s such a terrible shame, really.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

      Hi Wolfie,

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ and identifying the strengths and weaknesses it has as a story. It has some good concepts in it that are sadly executed in a way that aren’t thought-through. Interesting how you compared this story to ‘The Armageddon Factor’ and how the computerised Cold War-like premise in that is covered again in this adventure.

      The Movellans are an interesting concept as a robot species and the Doctor complying to the Daleks’ demands in stopping their killing of their mine prisoners could be compelling. I wish the robotic aspects about the Daleks were less prevalent and their organic aspects are more at the forefront in order to emphasise the deadliness of both Daleks and Movellans, and to have more of an emotional vibe to engage with the battle going on between them as adversaries. And the extras that got killed by the Daleks in that procession needed to have more painful reactions than just flopping the ground.

      I agree that ‘Destiny’ struggles as a story, as there needed to be more focus on the mine prisoners as characters for us to emphasise with them. Davros’ character as a meglomaniac could have been expanded upon in this story in order to match up with who he was in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. I don’t know if the Terrance Dicks’ novelization makes up for that. I’ll have to read both the ‘Genesis’ and ‘Destiny’ novelizations in order to find out.

      Having the story be the ‘Robot’/’Power of the Daleks’ of Lalla Ward’s Romana would have been great, as in this story, her regeneration isn’t talked about much and there’s no post-traumatic effects that occurred. Then again, this might not be the real Romana as established in the Short Trip story ‘The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe’. It is a shame that Romana’s regeneration isn’t explored enough, as it seemed easy for her compared to the Doctor, and for the most part, the Doctor takes it casually that she’s Romana looking like Princess Astra from now on.

      Many thanks for your comments.

      Tim 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Wolfie's avatarWolfie

        I think that might be one of the biggest weaknesses in “Destiny of the Daleks”, Tim. By forgetting its roots, it forgets to draw on its own strengths. For a story set on Skaro, we have a curious absence of a Thal presence. At all. There’s no appearance from them. Not even a mention. Nothing. In a vacuum, sans other stories, it presents the rather uncomfortable possibility that the Doctor’s presence changed history in “Genesis of the Daleks”… And, inadvertantly, wiped out the Thals. For the Time Lords — right mission, wrong target. We certainly never hear from the Thals again in the televised classic series.

        But let’s look at the Daleks themselves. Their whole mission is the supremacy of their own species at the expense of all others. A product of thousands of years of racial hatred and fascist zealotry. Genetic superiority. The Movellans, however, exist entirely at odds with that. They have no blood, no bone, no DNA. They are robots and yet they are consistently besting the Daleks at every opportunity. That has to rile them up something fierce.

        The Movellans, conversely, seem to only exist as a contrast to the Daleks. We learn little of their motivations and nothing of their origins, which feels rather odd. With the reminder that Daleks have an organic component, the Daleks’ pursuit of victory over the Movellans may have led to a far more robotic approach to warfare. Wouldn’t that be ironic? In trying to best their enemy, the Daleks are losing the very thing that made them “superior” in the first place. The “purity” of the Dalek mutant.

        Another thing… Davros meets the Movellans, but nothing really comes from his influence. It’s all slapdash and off into the city’s heart. (As an aside, with “Revelation of the Daleks” in mind, I like the idea that Davros’s chariot could hover out of their trapped room, at any point — he just refuses to do so.) Wouldn’t it have been terribly interesting to have him introduce the “logic” of ambition to the Movellans? To stretch beyond their programming and invest in the idea of conquest. Specifically to prevent something like the Daleks occurring again. The Daleks risk becoming the Movellans and the Movellans risk becoming the Daleks.

        The final crescendo kind of reflects that road not travelled. Romana gets a great do-or-die struggle with Commander Sharrel (cementing Lalla Ward’s interpretation as a very worthy successor to Mary Tamm’s), but as for the Doctor… A hat is all it takes to flummox the Daleks? It could’ve been more, really. Davros is a man out of Time. Taken from his own surroundings and flung to his own far future. Alone. That could’ve been a tremendous showdown. The ageless Doctor squaring off against the Dalek creator who decides to ally with the Daleks as his only constant in an completely unfamiliar Universe.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

        Hi Wolfie,

        Yes, it’s odd that the Thals don’t make an appearance in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure, considering that it takes place on the planet Skaro. I wonder if history had been changed as a result of the Doctor’s adventure on Skaro in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. It makes me wonder whether the first ‘Daleks’ story featuring William Hartnell’s Doctor ever happened at all, especially with the debate of ‘Thals’ and ‘Dals’ compared to ‘Thals’ and ‘Kaleds’. 😐

        I suppose with the Daleks growing more robotic as the years go on to match to the Movellans could be feasiable to make them potential enemies of equal measure in terms of strength and intelligence. Mind you, I can’t get into the Movellans as characters due to the fact they are robots and there isn’t enough emotional investment on my part to be concerned about the conflict. It’s one of the reasons why I wrote ‘Doom of the Daleks’ in showcasing the Daleks’ aggressive nature against an enemy in the Dwaxi who are more aggressive and can overpower the Daleks in an instant. I prefer that kind of conflict between Daleks and another foe matching to their standards compared to the Daleks and Movellans. The closest combatants for the Daleks to match to that criteria in terms of being robotic and organic is the Cybermen in ‘Army of Ghosts’/’Doomsday’, since both have organic/robot components when fighting each other.

        There’s clearly a lot of missed opportunities involved in a Dalek story like this, especially with the conflict between the Daleks and Movellans, how Davros views both sides and how Romana works as a companion to overthrow opponents compared to the Doctor, even in a jokey manner. I like that idea of Daleks becoming Movellans and Movellans becomng Daleks. That could have worked. Maybe it could turn up in a Big Finish audio sequel or something.

        Many thanks,

        Tim 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. scifimike70's avatarscifimike70

        I for one assumed that the Thals at some point before Destiny had all left Skaro to totally get away from the Daleks and start fresh in a new world. It might make sense even if somehow we never heard from the Thals again. Having them finally return in the new Who can also be an option, couldn’t it?

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

        Hi scifimike,

        Then again, the Thals could have gone off to thwart the evil of the Daleks on many worlds, as established in ‘Planet of the Daleks’ when they visited the planet Spiridon. That could explain their absence in ‘Destiny’. I don’t recall the Thals making appearance in the ‘Dalek Universe’ audios which also features the Movellans, which I feel is a missed opportunity. I enjoyed the Thals that appeared in ‘The Mutant Phase’. The Thals’ return to new ‘Doctor Who’ is overdue.

        Many thanks,

        Tim 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    2. scifimike70's avatarscifimike70

      Lalla clearly doing her own stunts for that fight scene says a lot about how committed she was to improving on a role that Mary Tamm originated. In the understanding that this was supposedly Romana’s first regeneration, I found it most interesting that her reasons were because she just felt like it and that she was clearly more mentally prepared for her first in a way the Doctor wasn’t. Lalla’s incarnation for Romana has lasted a long time, from her own E-Space adventures via Big Finish to the Gallifrey series. Though BF’s briefly third Romana voiced by Juliet Landau sparks our imagination of who should be a new Romana for her possible return in the modern TV series.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      1. Tim Bradley's avatarTim Bradley Post author

        Hi scifimike,

        I’ve yet to check out the ‘Gallifrey’ audios, though I have heard Juliet Landau as Romana III in ‘Luna Romana’, which I’ll be a sharing a review on soon. Lalla Ward’s Romana has appeared in quite a lot of stories beyond the TV series, including the Big Finish audios and book stories, which I’ve enjoyed checking out, including ‘Blood Harvest’, ‘The Worlds of Doctor Who’ and ‘The Legacy of Time’.

        Many thanks for your comments,

        Tim 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

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