Doctor Who (TV Series) The Evil of the Daleks: Episode 6 (1967) User Reviews

Dizzzzy Doctor..

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 31 October 2015]

The Doctor plays games with the three Daleks he's given the human factor to. Each is named Alpha, Beta and Omega. All Daleks, including the trio of humanised Daleks are ordered to return to home planet Skaro. Waterfield overhears a conversation between Maxtable and a Dalek, he now understands that Maxtable is guilty and will do anything for the formula of metal into gold. The Daleks are set to destroy Maxtable's house, the Doctor uses the Time machine to transport himself, Jamie and Waterfield to Skaro. Victoria is once again a prisoner, this time alongside Kemel and Mr Maxtable, they too are transported to Skaro. The Black Dalek is advised that the Doctor was not transported to Skaro, a warning message sounds alerting the Daleks that intruders are in the City, Victoria feels sure the Doctor is there to mount a rescue. The Black Dalek discovers Omega Dalek and lead it off. Maxtable is led away, and tricks Victoria into screaming, alerting her presence, a plan to flush out the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield. The trio are discovered and are led to the Emperor Dalek.

I just love this episode, once again I just loved Marius Goring's performance as Maxtable. As i've reviewed this serial I've realised just how key Maxtable was to the series.

The scene I would dearly love to see one day is the Doctor playing with the three humanised Daleks, it's such a unique scene.

I'd love to see how Kemel appears on screen too, he's an interesting character, with a physique to match.

The end of the episode is just awesome, it's a flavour of the concluding episode.

Truly excellent episode. 9/10

Extermination

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 28 August 2014]

Review for all 7 episodes:

Spoiler Alert: This 7-parter seemingly ends with the destruction of the Daleks and that is suitably dramatic. The fact that they eventually returned does not diminish the power of this story as they only reappear 5 series later. That is a long gap without the most famous enemy appearing in the show. The drama and impact in this story is impressive but so too is the story idea itself with the great concept of setting events in the past, present AND future. One aspect of the plot does not fully make sense: Why do they even need to test Jamie to "find the Dalek factor" and why is he seen as the only worthy candidate? It seems an unlikely plan but it there are not clear cut illogical things of a kind that annoys me. The whole story is thrilling and interesting.

Over the course of the story with its different elements a tremendous amount of absorbing entertainment is created. We have Earth in the past, Earth in the 1960s (present day of the time) and an alien planet in the future providing contrasting backgrounds to the action. There are also some fascinating characters such as Maxtible (Marius Goring), good acting especially by Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines with plenty of excitement and fun.

The quality of script writing from David Whitaker is as usual very high and nothing really lets this story down very much except the slightly questionable idea of gaining the 'human factor' from Jamie. Despite that minor 'imperfection' it is a great adventure and a great end to series 4 leading into the superb 5th series.

My Ratings: 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 - 10/10, Episodes 3 & 6 - 9/10

Overall: 9.71/10

Season 4 was a momentous season but in my view falls somewhere in the middle compared to all the other seasons rather than near the top. It has five great stories but it also has one of the show's poorest stories and three stories which are OK but pretty flawed. Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis running of the series brought some great stories but not consistent greatness.

Average Season 4 rating: 8.38/10