Death to the Daleks

"The only alternative to living is dying."

Writer: Terry Nation
Format: TV
Broadcast: 23rd February - 16th March 1974
Season: 11.03

Featuring: Third Doctor, Sarah

Synopsis

A power failure in the TARDIS draws it off course, and the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith end up stranded on the bleak planet of Exxilon. They soon meet members of an Earth expedition in a similar situation. The humans are searching for a rare metal, but first they must find out what is draining their power and avoid what's inside another grounded spaceship - the Doctor's oldest enemies, the Daleks...

Verdict

Death to the Daleks was a very good serial and quite an eventful way to introduce Sarah Jane to life on other planets. Not only did she meet the creepy Exxilons, but she was acquainted with the Doctor's oldest and most deadly enemies in the Daleks. The story starts off in excellent fashion with the TARDIS unprecedentedly being ridded entirely of all its power. It was unlike anything we'd seen before up to this point in the show and when the emergency power supplies also quickly failed, along with a normal torch, something very powerful lay outside the TARDIS doors. Speaking of which, just opening the wretched things was a task in itself without sufficient power. Sarah would later struggle when she was inevitably split from the Doctor. Considering this was only her third story as companion, I thought she was terrific and dealt with being left alone on an alien planet pretty well. She didn't cope too well though as she was almost sacrificed! The Exxilons were very intriguing species and although I wasn't a fan of the cloaked costume design of those faithful to the City, I did really like those who refused to worship it such as the likes of Bellal. He had a very nice relationship with both the Doctor and Sarah which was great to see. Bellal would go on to explain quite a bit about the history on Exxilon and the story behind the city was extremely fascinating I must say. An independent one that could think for itself. It had now outgrown its creators and the planet's inhabitants now lived in fear and awe of it. The Exxilons were on the brink of extinction because of that and the Doctor couldn't just sit back and let them go out of existence. The cliffhanger to part one wasn't exactly a surprise and it just seems to be the general occurrence in nearly every Dalek story of the Classic era. Part there's cliffhanger wasn't too good either which was a little bit of a shame. With that episode setting up the final part, I always expect that to have a good cliffhanger. Now, the details of this story weren't exactly new to me as although I've only watched it once before, over four years ago now, I did read the Target novelisation of this story earlier this year. I absolutely loved the book and would rank as one of my favourite novelisations but sadly, despite remaining very good, the televised story doesn't quite match up which is a bit of a shame. As much as I loved the design of the Daleks in this serial, I thought their voices were a bit whiny and puny which took away a bit of their fear factor. I do feel that it was improved in the stories that came after it though so at least some lessons were learned. The MSC team were good and that's where I picked up on most of the deviations with the novelisation. Well, I'm not sure deviation is the correct word actually as I think it's just natural of the novel format that there will be more explanation and background to the characters. In a television story, we don't tend to care an awful lot about the guest cast but in a book it doesn't seem like there is much choice and I wouldn't have it any other way. Jill and Galloway remained the standouts with the latter's sacrifice still being emotionally felt. I thought part four was probably my favourite as after the Doctor and the Daleks had entered an unlikely alliance, they were now back on opposing sides and taking part in a brilliant intelligence test that would lead to the heart of the city and ultimately bring about its downfall thanks to some ingenuity by the Doctor just in the nick of time. The ending was done very well as well as being excellently paced and whilst I didn't think it quite lived up to the novelisation, it was still a great story. Overall, a very good serial!

Rating: 8/10