Doctor Who, season 4 concludes …

The Evil of the Daleks is a 7-part early Doctor Who adventure that is mostly missing from the BBC archives.

In order to watch the serial, I’ve found the “Loose Cannon” reconstructed version of the missing episodes (all episodes except episode 2).  This version employs the audio of the story matched against telesnaps (still images), descriptive text captions, existing footage where available, and sometimes a little added pieces of CGI/animation.

The Evil of the Daleks is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure.  I listened to the audio some years ago and enjoyed it then, but it’s even better when you can watch it.

Once again, the Loose Cannon versions of the missing episodes make it a delight to watch, allowing you to go from the live action episodes to the missing episodes almost seemlessly.  Some effort is made to recreate some live action scenes, particularly when it’s only the Daleks moving about.  This is particularly effective in the last episode when the Emperor Dalek is revealed.  Its latter-day CGI complements the surviving footage really well.

Although perhaps not so epic as The Daleks and it lacks the location filming of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, I think The Evil of the Daleks is probably the best Dalek story so far.

The story begins for the Doctor in 1966 London, travels back in time to Victorian England, and shoots across space to Skaro.  As such, all 7 episodes are packed with something happening at all times.  The only negative is the “human” Daleks behaving a little sillier than you’d expect but it is only for a short time, not the entire duration of the story.

Jamie gets a good chunk of The Evil of the Daleks to himself which helps a lot.  The introduction of Victoria and her joining the TARDIS crew isn’t the best introduction we’ve had (there’s precious little to add to what you see at the start of The Tomb of the Cybermen).

In short, The Evil of the Daleks is one that you could easily get through in one sitting, despite its length, and not feel that it has outstayed its welcome.

This brings us to the end of season 4, and it’s been an extraordinarily strong season.  The weakest story is probably The Macra Terror, but even that is worthy of some consideration.  Without the “Macra” of the title, it would have worked better than it does.  I think all of the other stories are top-drawer adventures from a strong start with The Smugglers to the superb ending with The Evil of the Daleks.   From The Savages in season 3 onwards, it’s as though Doctor Who has taken a step up.

In such a strong season, it’s probably the height of irony that one of the weaker stories was The Tenth Planet.  That shows how good season 4 is.  With only a very few exceptions, these “missing episodes” adventures must be considered as some of the best Doctor Who has to offer.

Next time … The Tomb of the Cybermen