Death To The Daleks (1974) Review

Death To The Daleks has a great premise and opens really well, but it's like Terry Nation decided to just write another story in the last two episodes.

PLOT

1) The TARDIS is stranded on the planet Exxilon by a power-sucking mechanism, forcing the Doctor and Sarah to go find help. On the way, they meet up with officers from the planet Earth who are searching the planet for a cure to a big plague ravaging their empire and the Daleks who are also being affected by the same plague. The three sides form an alliance to uncover the source of their problems and battle the crazed primitives trying to burn them all to death.

2) The living city of Exxilon has found new victims and draws them in, but instead of killing them like it did all the other supposedly advanced Exxilons, it gives them simple IQ tests until it blows up for no reason(the Doctor was taken away by the "antibodies" in the middle of his work), the Daleks turn evil again like they always do and that's it.

I love the first half of this plot and I hate hate hate the nonsensical and dull second half.

CHARACTERS

What makes Death To The Daleks notable is the use of Daleks as potential allies in a crisis. Watching them tolerate the others and work together on a mission to stop the city and the primitives guarding it was great. But in the latter half of the story, the Daleks start shouting orders again and it becomes a retread of earlier stories.

There's really nothing notable about the Doctor or Sarah, character-wise here. They're still a great team, but there's no stand-out moments.

Of the guest stars, I liked Galloway the best. He was a bit of a comic book character, rubbing his beard and going "yes..." about the Daleks' evil plans non-chalantly. But hey, he had some personality. I don't get why he didn't just set the bombs on a timer at the end, though.

The good Exxilon, Blaal was nice and played really well, but I liked the idea of the Exxilons as Lord of the Flies-style cultists much better.

NOTES

*The Daleks blowing up little police box models was the cutest thing ever.

*Where did they get all those bullets for their machine-guns, though?

*I loved the design of the Exxilon city, particularly that beaming light on the top. It was a very spectacular sight.

*The TARDIS being trapped by a planetary system that shouldn't affect it in the Time Vortex anyway is just like The Web Planet, down to the unorthodox method used to open the doors(in the former story, he used his ring).

*What was the point of those IQ tests anyway? And how did the Doctor know so much about them?

*The tiling trap where you have to jump on the white tiles only was just... dumb.

CONCLUSION

I really wanted to love this story, because Episode 2 was terrific, like The Daemons done right and with some meaning, but the great set-up just degenerated into farce. Shame.