I groused yesterday about today being another damn Dalek story, but it turns out I should have given Terry Nation and Douglas Adams more credit. I am actually enjoying this one quite a bit so far, which really surprised me. On the other hand, I absolutely remember every other upcoming damn Dalek story and I can unequivocally say this is the last one I enjoy until the Ninth Doctor comes around. I guess I should savor this one while I can.

So let's talk about it.

Destiny of the Daleks - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Right off the bat this story is a bit of an anomaly -- it is the only one since The Green Death to have each segment labeled as "episodes" instead of "parts". It only happens for this one story, and then the naming convention goes back to normal.

Also, this story is credited as Terry Nation's final televised story, and he get's sole on-screen credit, but multiple people have claimed that most of the script was actually written by Douglas Adams. There is no question that the plot has Terry Nation's fingerprints, but the story is also sprinkled liberally with Adams' clear influence. The most obvious bit of that is a scene in which the Doctor is reading Origins of the Universe by Oolon Colluphid, a direct lift from The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. 

The think I like about how Nation structures his stories is that he allows the setup to breathe and to slowly reveal itself. We know this is a damn Dalek story, it's right there in the title, but he waits to bring them on screen until the very end of the first episode. In fact, it is most of the way into the first episode before we even learn that they are on the planet Skaro. Then it takes until the end of the second episode to discover what the Daleks are actually up to. They have returned to their homeworld in order to dig up Davros, to aid them in their stalemated war against the Movellans.

Speaking of which - if you have watched the most recent episodes with the Twelfth Doctor, in Bill Potts' first story The Pilot, when they travel into the middle of a pitched battle with the Daleks, this is the story they are passing through.

Of course, the other notable thing about this story is that it opens with Romana's regeneration. Instead of it being a traumatic thing, it is played more as her just deciding to try on a new body. She actually goes through several, in a scene played primarily for laughs. The upshot is that Romana winds up looking identical to Princess Astra from the previous story, what with them both being played by Lalla Ward. I am definitely in the Romana II camp, I like her much more than the first Romana. I just never really warmed up to Mary Tamm. It's safe to say that Tom Baker was also very much in the Romana II camp, given the fact that he married Ms Ward shortly after she left the series in 1981. Unfortunately the marriage only lasted sixteen months. Oops. Some years after the divorce she was asked what her favorite monster on Doctor Who was, to which she famously replied, "Tom Baker".

So hey, a good day of viewing. Tomorrow I wrap up this story, and then move on to arguably one of the single best and most beloved stories in the show's history. Won't that be exciting?

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Romana, K9
Episode(s): Destiny of the Daleks - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 7,494 today, 1,756,099 total
Distance Walked: 4.12 miles today, 884.60 miles total
Weight: 253.44 lbs (five day moving average), net change -53.86 lbs