Destiny of the Daleks

Dear Gary—

Destiny of the Daleks is the perfect story to follow up the Key to Time Season. After a unique season long story arc with none of the traditional Doctor Who monsters it is refreshing to return to the tried and true formula with one of the Doctor’s oldest foes.

But of course I have to first address the change in Romana from Mary Tamm to Lalla Ward. Much has been said and written about this ‘regeneration’ scene; much outrage has been vented; much contempt expressed. Many hardcore fans are incensed that Romana does not regenerate with all of the uncontrolled trauma that the Doctor undergoes. They rage at her casual ‘trying on’ of bodies and her apparent waste of regenerations. Personally my outrage has always been over the choice of actress and not the means by which she is introduced. Frankly I find the scene immensely funny.

Perhaps my lack of fury over the flippancy stems from the fact that the first time I viewed this particular story I had never seen a Doctor regenerate before. Now that I have seen all of the Doctor regeneration scenes, however, I remain unfazed. In fact, the more I think about it, I’m more upset by the way in which the Doctor’s regenerations have become an increasingly over dramatic ordeal.

Let’s look to that very first ‘renewal.’ William Hartnell stumbles into the TARDIS stating that his body is wearing a bit thin, collapses, and pops up as Patrick Troughton and he’s off and running. His second occurs at the will of the Time Lords, and if you remember Gary, he is given a choice of faces before the Time Lords impatiently choose for him, and voila Jon Pertwee. He does remain unconscious for a time, but probably more because the regeneration was forced on him and the Time Lords had also tampered with his memory and such. Next we have Jon Pertwee, after having dealt with deadly spiders and massive radiation, stumbling from the TARDIS and collapsing on the UNIT floor only to wake up as a delirious Tom Baker.  But Tom Baker was soon up and about “all systems go.”

The Doctor, as you rightly know Gary, is a renegade Time Lord. He is on the run from his society. Who knows how a true Time Lord, a by-the-book, staid, intergalactic ticket inspector Time Lord regenerates? I can well imagine that such a Time Lord doesn’t desperately hold on to a persona to the bitter end before being forced to change. I imagine such a Time Lord very well goes in to a shop to pick and choose what flavor of man (or woman) he (or she) wants to be next. It’s probably the only measure of titillation such a Time Lord has in his (or her) infinitely boring life span.

Next let’s turn to Lalla Ward. I have to admit that I have come to a grudging acceptance and even liking for Lalla Ward’s Romana. My initial ire is long blunted by time and now that I have seen her many times over as Romana I can appreciate her portrayal.

Having said all of that and gotten it out of the way, I can finally turn my attention to our story at hand, Destiny of the Daleks.

“Destiny. Destiny. No escaping that for me.” (Sorry Gary. I couldn’t resist that quote from Young Frankenstein. It just escaped me.)

The Doctor and our newly regenerated Romana (“What are you doing in that body?”) step out of the TARDIS onto a truly inhospitable landscape. “Shall we go back inside?” asks Romana. “What, and never know where I’ve been until the end of time?” responds the ever curious Doctor. Where they are is Skaro. That long ago and far distant planet of the Daleks first introduced with our first Doctor.

Now I’m going to aside again here, Gary, and please forgive me. Just as Romana has crossed the divide between Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward, so too has Doctor Who crossed the divide between Genesis of the Daleks, when last the Doctor visited Skaro, and Destiny of the Daleks. And just as Lalla Ward pales in comparison, so too does Destiny. But just as Lalla Ward will do, so too will Destiny.

To be brief: the Daleks have returned to Skaro to dig up their creator Davros who is buried under the demolished dome of those long ago and now mutated Kaleds. The Daleks are in a non-ending war with the Movellans and need Davros’ humanoid senses to provide the edge against their robotic foe. The Movellans have trailed after the Daleks to see what they are up to. The Doctor and Romana stumble upon these two warring factions and a typical Doctor Who adventure is born.

Again we have outrage and contempt expressed as the Daleks are referred to throughout Destiny of the Daleks as robots. I have to admit that I was thrown by the use of the term in relation to the Daleks, but then Gary, it’s all semantics. As you can probably tell, I’m not one to go by the rule book of grammar; so let the Doctor throw away the rules of semantics. We know that the Daleks are not robots in the strict sense and so too does the Doctor (“They used to be humanoid themselves.”). Let them bandy about the word; we know the truth. Just sit back and enjoy, throw out that rule book, and let Doctor Who be Doctor Who.

Since I am doing multiple asides—Destiny of the Daleks always reminds me of a sci-fi short story I read too many years ago than I want to admit about a technology dependent society that had long given up the teaching of such fundamentals as math to its citizens, but which had a crisis that was resolved by one man (or possibly boy?) who could actually do math in his head. It is the vaguest of memories, but it has stuck with me lo these many years, only to resurface whenever I watch Destiny of the Daleks and see the Doctor demonstrating via rock/paper/scissors how the robotic Movellans and robotic (?!) Daleks will be forever stalemated without the interjection of the human factor (“make mistakes and confuse the enemy”).

Next we have Davros and the Daleks. Last we saw Davros he was a chillingly evil mastermind masterfully brought to life by Michael Wisher in The Genesis of the Daleks. Resurrected in Destiny, he doesn’t have quite the same impact. Neither, frankly, do the Daleks. Blame it on the semantics.

No, not semantics alone. I watched this time, Gary. I watched it through and thoroughly. At the end of Genesis the Daleks had turned on their creator in one of the most spine-tingling moments of Doctor Who. Now they dig him up because they need him. OK. I can accept that. The Daleks might not be robots in the true sense of the word, but apparently they have relied upon their computers (?!) to conduct this war with the robotic Movellans (I can only assume this is only one faction of the Daleks fighting only one faction of their never-ending war against all of creation) and they need the humanoid unpredictability factor that Davros (not only Davros—couldn’t they enlist some humanoid ally as they have done multiple times in the past?) can provide to tip the scales in their favor. OK.

“Supreme Dalek. Hah! That is a title I shall dispute most vigorously,” Davros states. The Daleks had turned on him, had tried to kill him (his secondary and backup life support systems having saved him), and now have dug him up and turned to him in their hour of need, all feeding the hubris of Davros. I expect such grandiosity from Davros.

“We obey only Davros.” I expect that the Daleks (not robots) have the wherewithal and duplicity to coddle along with their megalomaniacal creator to get what they want, which is the means with which to win their war.

However, Gary, I watched this time. I watched it through and thoroughly. The obsequiousness of the Daleks, I always assumed, was a put on. They would turn on Davros in a second once their objective was secured. This never happens. The only excuse I can afford is that they don’t have the opportunity. The Doctor intervenes and everything explodes (literally) in their faces.

Now, Gary, I think I have one too many excuses for this story. I can forgive and forget and explain away only so much. How many times must I do it before I say enough is enough?

I suppose the main problem is that Destiny of the Daleks was written by Terry Nation, one of the original contributors to Doctor Who and creator of the Daleks, and script edited by Douglas Adams. Two geniuses at odds.

But then, Gary, we are looking at the mechanics of the show, aren’t we? The semantics, the grammar, the behind-the-scenes, the history, the lore.

Let’s toss all of that and view Destiny of the Daleks as a single Doctor Who adventure in and of itself.

As such, Destiny of the Daleks delivers as some decent entertainment. Certainly not the best and brightest, but presentable.

And so we can enjoy moments like the Doctor, buried under a fallen beam, calmly taking out a copy of Origins of the Universe by Oolon Colluphid and scoffing, “Ha, ha! He got it wrong on the first line . . . . Why didn’t he ask someone who saw it happen?” while Romana runs off for help. Or the Doctor taunting a frustrated Dalek below him, “If you’re supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don’t you try climbing after us?” Or Romana off-handedly saying of her two hearts, “One for casual, one for best” (I’ll bet that was a Douglas Adams line).

And we can get to know this new Romana. I have to say that she is growing on me, although I doubt if Romana I would whimper under Dalek torture like Lalla does (I guess it is Dalek torture—she is standing with her hands on a couple of flashing balls and doing a lot of sobbing “I don’t know” responses to Dalek questions, so I guess she’s being tortured in some way). But now that the whole quest thing is over and done with, this new Romana and the Doctor have found a more relaxed bond that suits them well.

Destiny of the Daleks does not have any supporting cast of note. Davros is passable but not memorable as he had been in Genesis. Tyssan, the escaped Dalek prisoner, is fine but doesn’t have much to do really other than keep the action moving along. The robotic Movellans are robotic even before we know they are robots (and why would they wear their power packs out there in the open for anyone to grab?).

“I’ll go alone,” the Doctor says at one point in our story and adds, “Ask me why.” I don’t have to ask, I know. Because there really isn’t anyone worth taking along. But his answer is better: “They’re unconscious. Also, I’m a very dangerous fellow when I don’t know what I’m doing.”

And that, Gary, is what makes Doctor Who Doctor Who. Despite all of the outrage and contempt over flaunted conventions and despite the lack of strong supporting roles, there is always the Doctor. He might be a dangerous fellow when he doesn’t know what he’s doing, but how often does he not know what he’s doing? He might seem to not know, his companions might question if he really knows, but we know. We know and we love and we forgive.

There is much to forgive in Destiny of the Daleks, but there is much to love as well. In the end I suppose they balance out.

Destiny, Gary . . . no escaping . . . .