It had been over four years but they were finally back. The Daleks!
The usual tropes of a Terry Nation script are wheeled out again. Doctor and companion land on a planet, they spend the whole of the first episode exploring, get separated and then there is a surprise appearance of a Dalek as the cliffhanger.
Let's start at the beginning. The Doctor is in the TARDIS. He calls out for Romana but what appears to Princess Astra from the previous story steps out of the back room. Although its not Princess Astra, it is Romana who has decided to regenerate *nerd rage building* and so is trying on various bodies *nerd rage explodes*. I mean what the hell were they thinking?? We then go through a comedy routine involving Romana trying on various guises before settling back on the form of Astra. Absolute crap! It makes a mockery of the whole regeneration process! I love all Doctor Who, even the stories that have their serious faults but I find a good way to measure the success of a story is how I feel watching it with someone else. At this point, my brother happened to be watching it with me and I found myself having to apologise. Not good, not good at all.
There are some good moments though. The Doctor has installed a randomiser to the TARDIS console so that he can never be sure of where they are going to land and more importantly the Black Guardian can't follow them to seek vengeance for the Doctor seriously screwing up his plans by scattering the segments of the Key to Time. This means that the TARDIS lands on the Dalek home world of Skaro, but the Doctor is not aware of it, although he does claim to have a feeling that he has been there before.
The Doctor and Romana witness the landing of a Movellan ship which has to be one of the coolest ships ever. It lands on the surface and then drills down to hide just below the surface. The Movellans are a race of robots who have been at war the Daleks. Now this brings me to the second serious problem with this story. It is constantly stated that Daleks are also robots just like the Movellans. But they're not! Daleks are mutants that drive round in protective travel machines! They are NOT robots. And the whole plot revolves around the fact that these are supposed to be two robotic races that have reached a stalemate in their war because each fleet can anticipate and counter the other ones attacks because they are both working from pure logic. It's demonstrated fantastically by the Doctor and Romana in a game of rock, paper, scissors and it's actually a really cool idea. But the Dalek's aren't robots! So the whole thing falls apart!
Meanwhile the Movellans are at least humanoid robots so they can be played by real people as opposed to wobbly bits of metal. (I'm currently reviewing season six so I've got the Krotons stuck in my head! Now they were crap robots!)
The Daleks have returned to Skaro so that they can locate their creator, Davros, who can "reprogramme" their battle computers to give them the advantage. It's always good to see Davros back in the series and here he is for his second appearance. The scene where he is found, inert and covered in cob webs, only for his one eye to slowly light up and his hand to start moving is a really creepy scene and I must admit it was quite thrilling to watch. Unfortunately he is being played by a different actor who just seem to get the characteristics nailed as well as Michael Wisher did in Genesis Of The Daleks. Also there are some scenes where its really obvious that he is pushing his chair along with his feet as his whole body wobbles from side to side, which is kind of funny but a bit crap too.
The story ends with Davros imprisoned and being put into cryogenic stasis..but I'm sure I've not seen the last of him.
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