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I think we`ve seen the end of the daleks forever. The final end. Until 1972 that is!

At this point in 1967, the production team of doctor who were looking to put doctor who in a new direction. With Terry Nation attempting to sell the daleks in the USA and the heyday of dalekmania drawing to a close, David Whitiker was set to write the story that would see the daleks permenatley disapear from doctor who.

This story is one of if not the best doctor who story ever. Unfortunately all but one episode (episode 2 to be exact) of this classic 7 part adventure are missing from the BBC archives.

However the soundtrack on it`s own is brilliant and a cracking narration from Frazer Hines (Jamie) makes it even more so. The music is very epic and the all the actors are top notch.

The plot zaps through at a very steady pace. The daleks want to harness the human factor as they belive that it will aid them greatly in universal domination. To do so They call an old enemy. You guessed it, the doctor! As the events play out Jamie`s Friendship with the doctor is at risk as he is tested by the daleks to rescue Victoria Waterfield.

On Skaro the doctor implants the human factor in several daleks and when they question the authority of the Emporor dalek, all hell breaks loose within the dalek city.

After this the daleks would not make a reapearence until 1972 in "day of the daleks".

I highly recomend this wonderfal adventure to any doctor who fan. Buy now! You won`t regret it!

Brilliant

Despite, bar a single episode, only surviving on audio I'd put this as one of my all-time favourite Whos. Patrick Troughton puts in, as ever, a stupendous performance but the motivations of non-regulars such as Waterfield, Maxtible and even the adventure's first casualty are complex and thoughtful; unlike later years, there are no 'throwaway' characters and cardboard cut-outs here. Instead we have a rich tapestry of competing viewpoints and agendas, behind which lurk the quietly scheming Daleks (I always prefer the adventures where the Daleks are wily and in the background to where they just act like talking tanks).

It's also a very pacy story - the narrative never lets up and maintains your attention by shifting, logically, between three different, imaginatively rendered locations - mid-20th century and mid-19th century England and Skaro. By the time we're confronted by the Emperor Dalek it's achieved a very epic feel without sacrificing the smaller human dramas it so carefully sets up. Highly, highly recommended.

The Daleks go out with a bang (for the moment..,)

"The Evil of the Daleks", by David Whitaker, ends the fourth season of Doctor Who with a bang. Originally intended to be the last appearance of the Daleks (and indeed this turned out to be the case for some years), "The Evil of the Daleks" builds up to an explosive finale in which we finally get to meet the leader of the Dalek race (a gigantic wall-mounted creature of which only a photographic record now exists).
At seven episodes, "Evil" is long enough to contain three distint sections: a short section set on contemporary Earth, the main body of the story set in the 1860s, and the final couple of episodes set on Skaro. Of these seven episodes only episode two survives, but it thankfully gives us a glimpse of the Victorian setting and the main supporting players, helping to ground the audio version of the story in a visual context.
"Evil" is a well-loved story and is higher rated by many than "The Power of the Daleks". However, I feel "Power" to be the more interesting of the two, featuring characters with more complex motivations. "Evil" is closer to conventional sci-fi, but with the bonus of having Daleks rampaging around a Victorian country house. The principal supporting characters of Edward Waterfield (John Bailey) and Theodore Maxtible (Marius Goring) are well-played, meanwhile companion-to-be Victoria (Deborah Watling) starts as she means to continue: as a whimpering wreck. I find the best thing about the story to be the friction that develops between the Doctor and Jamie as the Scot begins to doubt the Doctor's motivations: this strand of the story offers Frazer Hines' character greater substance and drive than he normally possesses, and leads to some good moments between Jamie and the mute Kemel (Sonny Caldinez).
The final moments of the story, including the destruction of the Dalek base, are now left only to our imagination due to the absence of so much of the video material. None the less, "The Evil of the Daleks" is an enjoyable audio adventure that is enthusiastically narrated by Frazer Hines.

The final end?

Released individually this time (originally part of THE DALEK TINSET from last November,) it remains to be seen how successful an individual CD only release of this classic story will become. But at Â£16.99 it is an excellent purchase regardless of whether you have the tin or not (of which I personally thought was of poor quality...)

'Evil of the Daleks' is in my opinion, the first real attempt by the BBC to bring Doctor Who to an adult audience. We must remember that this story was orginally broadcast in 1967 by which point, the series and more importantly, the Daleks had been around for some four years. Consdiering that this story was intended to be the 'end' of the Daleks, it is fair to say that the production team were trying to introduce new methods and ideas to the show. Witness at this point the regeneration of Hartnell into Troughton - it seems logical therefore, that if Hartnell, the first of two who helped to cement the series is replaced, then the Daleks, who were also instrumental in the beginning, could also be written out.

Evil of the Daleks is seen as a classic by fans - but in reality, is this the case? At seven episodes, it was one of the longer stories at the time, but unlike previous stories of a similar length, the listner is always occupied with the plot, and the seven episodes whizz to the chilling climax.

Similarly, the characterisation of the story is excellent and each of the roles are aptly defined. The double act of the reluctant scientist Waterfield - terrified by the Daleks, bullied by Maxtable and fearful for his daughter and Maxtable - the greedy, self obsessed scientist with a ludicrous dream to transmute metal into gold, reflect this new adult theme. Although the Daleks are present, their characterisations are more effective at reflecting the difference between 'good' and 'evil' than those of the Daleks.

Similarly, Troughton's Doctor is made more sinister - at the original time of transmission (one episode per week and the end of season 4) the viewer did not know whether the Doctor himself had turned traitor against his friends. As always, compliments must go to Troughton for his performance - so far, I have yet to listen to any of his stories in which he is off par.

The Daleks themselves are kept in the background compared to their previous adventures, although essential to the plot, they do not drive it. Similarly, they do not walk around merely shouting 'Exterminate' as has been the case in the past, and Whitaker's story portrays them as cunning, ruthless creatures and a worthy foe for the Doctor. The sole apperance of the Emperor Dalek, what this story is remembered for, is effective, giving the Daleks substance and a hierarchy. His preachings that 'The Dalek race will live forever,' is a subtle pun on the fading 'Dalekmania' at the time and implies that the series is finally moving to something different.

As with all these BBC releases, they are of excellent quality, and Hines' narration is much better than that of the original Tom Baker cassette release in the 1990's. Whilst fans would love to see the real visuals, the true saving grace with this audio release is that it keeps the classic story as that: a classic. The listener is able to visualise the epic civil war with the special effects of a blockbuster film and not, as was the true case, toy Daleks fighting with lots of gunge spewing out of them.

Perhaps, the audio CD's real purpose is to keep the mythical status of this excellent story alive - recent finds of 'lost' episodes have been met with disappointment i.e. Tomb of the Cybermen.

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