One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

The Daleks are Never Defeated

Aug 26 2017
The Daleks are Never Defeated

Generally speaking, you know it's a good workout if you spend at least part of it thinking "I can't possibly keep going, I just can't..." Preferably, though, you hit that point somewhere near the end of the workout and then fight your way through the last few minutes. It's a bad sign when you hit that point about five minutes in, like I did this morning. I've got a cut on the pad of my right foot where I stepped on something, and every time my right foot came down it screamed at me. I've got another spot on my left foot where I got a blister while in Vegas from walking all day on granite floors, and it was also screaming. Even so, and even with thinking five minutes in that I would never make it all the way through, I did just that. I pushed through a solid fifty five minutes of treadmilling at my current full speed. I hope you are proud of me, my dear Imaginary Readers, because I came this close to quitting. I also watched the end of Planet of the Daleks.

Let's talk about that.

Planet of the Daleks - Episodes 5 & 6

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The last third of the story boils down to two parallel attempts to infiltrate the Dalek city in order to stop the awakening of the ten thousand Daleks currently held in cold storage at the deepest levels. There is the pressing threat of the biological plague, which winds up being neutralized in a not-entirely-satisfying way:  Two Daleks are immunized against the plague, but the immunizing apparatus is located inside the same laboratory that contains the plague. A rebel Spirodon deliberately opens the plague container, sacrificing himself while setting it free - thus forcing the Daleks to seal off the room to prevent it from killing the rest of them since they have not yet been immunized. With the room hermetically sealed the plague cannot escape (and one of the immunized Daleks plaintively wails about how he can never leave that room), but it's still there. How long will that bacteria survive? At some point won't the seals break and destroy all life on the planet? Nobody seems to really care.

The big finish also has a deliberate undercutting to it. The Doctor, along with the surviving Thals, manages to detonate an explosive in the wall of the cold storage chamber. This floods the chamber (along with the rest of the base) with the molten ice from the nearby ice volcano. Everyone knows that this won't kill the Daleks, but only immobilize them beneath the ice until they can be excavated. Still, the Thals seem happy to call it a victory and then to fly off in a stolen Dalek spacecraft to return home. Likewise, the Doctor and Jo are content to run off in the TARDIS, even knowing full well that there is a surviving and mobile Dalek Supreme plus several other Daleks still running around on the planet. As the TARDIS dematerializes, the Dalek Supreme dispenses with all subtlety and subtext, and straight-up says "The Daleks are never defeated!" The Dalek High Council is contacted to send a rescue ship, and the excavation of the frozen Dalek army will begin promptly thereafter.

So, yeah, it was a strangely weak ending for a story that was quite strong overall. I didn't hate it by any means, it continued to be thrilling right up through the end. There were some great speeches about the dangers of glorifying war, there were some tender moments, and there was even another almost-romance for Jo (who ultimately decides she'd rather go back home then to get a little sumpin' sumpin' from a Thal - she's definitely no Barbara).

From a production standpoint it was clear that they only had a handful of actual working Dalek props that could move, and then another pile of dummy Daleks that never moved. And, of course, the cavern full of miniature Daleks that I gather were actually commercial toys dressed up for the big miniatures shots. Apparently the Dalek Supreme was actually loaned to the production from Terry Nation himself, one of the four Dalek props he was given from the two Peter Cushing films.

Still and all, for all the financial limitations, this story looked great from start to finish and showed the kind of imagination and inventiveness that has always made me so fond of the show. 

Tomorrow: straight-up horror with glowing green corpses and giant man-eating maggots, and Jo Grant's final story. I am positively quivering with anticipation.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Third
Companion(s): Jo Grant
Episode(s): Planet of the Daleks - Episodes 5 & 6
Steps Walked: 7,144 today, 1,200,055 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 592.45 miles total
Weight: 264.48 lbs (five day moving average), net change -42.82 lbs


Total: 0 Comment(s)

Progress

Currently Watching:

( Story )


 of episodes viewed
%
 
 
 

of stories viewed
%
 
 
 

Total Steps Taken:

Total Distance Walked:
miles

Weight Progress:
 
Blue Line: 5-Day Moving Avg
Yellow Line: Daily Weight

Archives

Latest Posts

My Final Sweaty Thoughts about Doctor Who
6/7/2021 2:18 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
5/26/2021 4:47 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about Warriors of Kudlak
5/25/2021 6:12 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about Eye of the Gorgon
5/24/2021 6:10 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about Revenge of the Slitheen
5/21/2021 5:14 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about The Last of the Time Lords
5/20/2021 4:46 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about The Sound of Drums
5/19/2021 6:27 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about Utopia
5/18/2021 5:00 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about Blink
5/17/2021 6:55 PM
Sweaty Thoughts about The Family of Blood
5/16/2021 5:00 PM

Recent Comments