Dalek Invasion of Earth

Dorney
Dalek Invasion 1:Well, this is a bit fab - eerie and disquieting. The first proper location work in the series really grounds this story in reality. The bridge and warehouse sets combined with this look very real, and suddenly we feel less of an need to suspend the imagination. Of course, this does mean that sets and models that would have been ok elsewhere (the underground set, and, yes, the saucer) leap out a bit more when they turn up.But in general, the atmosphere and imagination work wonders - there's a lovely shot of the advancing Robomen from high above them which is incredibly creepy. The running sequence is pacey and tense. The direction and the music work hand in hand to make this possibly the most succesful episode yet - we feel we're in a different league now. (The music is smashing - and the location filming has real energy).Oddities - Ian and the Doctor see a flying saucer and then completely fail to be bothered by it, mentioning it only in passing. Very strange.It's a typical Terry Nation part one - split the travellers up, and have virtually nothing happen for the whole episode, bar a racking up of mystery and tension. It's more effective than either of his previous openings for me. The Daleks 1 was good, but still slightly straining for length, whereas there doesn't seem to be an ounce of fat here.Watched the info text with my mum and she told me that she knew the designer, Spencer Chapman. She was an actress several years ago and worked with him. Apparently his pregnant wife developed a craving for housebricks. They had to go out to building sites in the middle of the night to get some.That's what I like about doing this Day by Day. There's always something new.
Dorney
Dalek Invasion 2:Well, it's still pretty terrific. The common question about 'Why is the Dalek in the thames' doesn't matter a bit, it's a wonderful cliffhanger. The Doctor is clearly more of a proactive hero here. His berating and belittling of the Daleks seems to be misplaced considering he has no information about what's going on at all, and the little he knows would seem to suggest that the Daleks are in control. The 'I think we'd better pit our wits against them and defeat them' line is ridiculous, but it does sum up where the character is now. Previously he's been indifferent, or selfish, or mainly interested in keeping the good safe, rather than actively seeking out evil to defeat, just for the sake of it. Seems a desperately contrived nonetheless. The Doctor turns into voiceover man, stating his every intention for no clear reason. (And at no point do Ian or The Doctor express any concern at the disappearance of Susan and Barbara - wouldn't you be panicking?)The rest of the episode is excellent. The illustration of the Invasion is superb - cutting between two explanations and then into a thematic illustration outside the saucer (with the characters all entering just as their description starts). Brilliant, inventive direction. In fact, virtually the entire episode is directed effectively, only losing its footing in the battle at the end of the episode, which suddenly loses drama and coherence - its hard to tell what's going on. Do the bombs do anything? When David etc. duck, did the wall ripple, I wasn't sure. Were they fired on? It isn't clear.The character's seem based rather more in reality than last season. There's depth here, with the heroes being grumpy or bitter, or slightly barking, and not just the black and white stereotypes of the earlier stories. The performances are terrific.The cell test is both bollocks and clearly padding, but as with all of this story it's fun. In fact, a lot of this episode is padded, but its intelligently written, pacey and fun, so it hardly matters.This is right there with the Aztecs as the best stories so far, so the dvd releases are rather appropriate. This is all drama and conviction, pace, realism and grit. That's not to say these things are inherently better than say lightness (I love the Romans as much as the next man), just that after the slghtly relaxed style of season one, the slight air of children's show, this is turning into family drama. Not afraid to be thoughtful, or nasty.

Dorney
Just wanted to add - I sincerely hope that Daleks Masterplan 2 will be out before I get to it here!And I want the moon on a stick!

madame president
Your plan is an ambitous one. Dorney's Master Plan? Anyway, I've read your comments about each episode with interest and will continue to do so.

odoru tardis
Enjoying reading your reviews. Keep up the hard work.As much as I love Doctor Who, I can't imagine going throughthem all as quickly as you are, and reviewing them to boot.You'll have to speed it up though, if you want to finish in timefor the new series.

Ultimate Foe
I think I'm going to have to start watching DIOE again now! (last time was the UKGOLD day). I have the DVD (form Jan. Sales), but have yet to watch it.Keep it up...it gives me soemthing new and interesting to read everyday, and your views are enjoyable (maybe as for the stories I've seen, I agree with them)

Dorney
Thanks for that chaps! Much appreciated. You know, I wasn't sure if anyone was actually reading these at all - but now I've started I ain't stopping. Especially since I've got into the habit of doing what I'd wanted to do at the start - go over each and every single episode.OK, then, Dalek Invasion 3:This is a sort of filler episode. There's a temptation to say the word 'padding' again, but this is extremely well written 'padding', showing the way to fill in time effectively. If you watch the episode, very little actually happens - the bombs and the raid fail, and then everyone spends a bit of time getting away. Susan, The Doctor and Campbell spend the entire episode in someone's back garden, Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun run around London without obvious purpose.But, and this is the important part, it's all beautifully well written. The extra time is used to develop the world, show you how things work, deepen the characterisation - the burgeoning romance for Susan is truly believable. The shots of abandoned London and the random deaths all establish the reality of the situation. In deed, the realism is still the key factor here - its all about the bleak effects of domination and oppression, to a degree that is rarely done in Who. It's about fear (the scenes of running through London), horror (the offscreen screaming man's death is bleak beyond belief) despair (Jenny and Tyler's reactions to the whole situation are brilliantly real and human - they're not noble or heroic - they're people like you and me put in extraordinary circumstances). One of the most interesting moments occurs early on in the rebel base - in the background in one shot, we see one other rebel, unnamed, unreferenced, sat huddled in the floor, obviously half mad with despair. He's easy to miss, but rather a chilling detail. Especially since it's clear that everyone else is ignoring him as they know he can't be helped.Occasionally it goes a bit mad - Dortmun's death was always coming, but it seems rushed and a little dramatically pointless. Likewise the death of Baker - very casual and quick, unremarked elsewhere and serving no real dramatic purpose as he was going anyway. But of course, the lack of dramatic point is arguably exactly the point. This is the first real horror story in the show. Nation always compared the Daleks to the Nazis, and that's most true here. The random killing, meaningless and agonizing, reminds me of films like The Pianist. Obviously, its a slightly trite comparison, as this is entertainment drama, but it's grim and adult. Of course, this new, real brutality to the Daleks is totally at odds with their logic and seeming rationality of the first serial. This is the true beginning of the Daleks as they were to become. Nasty cold blooded killers, not just moving blasters, or henchmen. Shame it's a side so rarely seen later (and seeing as they feel little like the original Daleks in tone and action, and the attempts to reconcile this story with that fail miserably, its almost a shame that the two are connected at all. These are true monster in a way the original serial ones weren't.) The nastiness and sadism all add to the effect. This is no longer fun adventure fiction - this is adult drama.Also, the 'padding' has the same effect as some in Marco Polo - to give the real appearance of an epic. This is a story of scale, it takes place over time, over distance. The only slightly odd note in the episode is one brief moment. Ian hides in the spaceship. Daleks all around. He waits til it takes off - then decides to pop out of hiding? Why? He likes to take risks? On a dramatic level, it's purely to meet Larry and see the Robotised Craddock. But he's never given any good logical reason to leave. Hmm.But it hardly matters. God I love this story!edited to add:(incidentally, couple more thoughts - it's worth praising the location work. A very obvious point, it must be said, but it's one of the most memorable sequences in the series to date - for the first time ever, this is a threat to people and places we know. Saying the Daleks are in London is different to seeing them, in a creepy deserted Trafalgar Sq.And nice to see Pat Gorman as a slave! Haven't spotted him before in the show, apart from episode two, when I forgot to mention it - why exactly do the Daleks take exception to that girl in part two anyway? Cos she's the most photogenic? You can tell the Daleks don't read FHM.)

Dorney
Dalek Invasion 4:Precisely what has to happen to Ian before he loosens his tie, undoes his top button, and unbuttons his blazer? It’s fair enough wanting to look smart, but really. There's a time and a place for everything.I know everyone always goes on about the Slyther and the Saucer - yep, they're bad, but they're not a vast deal worse than any of the other effects seen to date - it's a testament to the strength and realism of the script that these seem to impact on this story rather more than the others.Its still an episode of marking time, in a way, but that's what this story is. It's about the journey, an epic, a quest if you like. Simple, everyday tasks become matters of life and death. Whilst Reign of Terror was a series of capture/escapes, and this is a series of obstacles, the difference is that there's a clear goal here. The travellers need to get to Bedfordshire - and in order to get there, they have to find a route, and suffer whatever obstacles they encounter. The reason the story works so well is that these obstacles appear realistic (I know I'm using that word a lot, but this is the first story that really exists in the same world we do - if anything, what with the enjoyable petty villainy of Forester in Planet of Giants to add to this, that's what this season seems to be aiming for - a more down to Earth feel). Jenny and Barbara have to pump up the truck wheels, Ian has to deal with the ugly face of the human factor in the form of Ashton the black marketeer. Only the breaking ladder that Susan steps onto, suspending her above loose alligators seems contrived, and out of keeping with the rest of the story's tone. Especially considering that it takes David a stupidly long time to come to her aid, leaving it, almost as if he knows Tyler's going to appear. And the fact that the alligators look like babies... Its important with quest/journey movies that the quest itself looks strenuous or complex or difficult (which is a problem I have with AI and Saving Private Ryan - the individual quests are solved too easily. Contrast also the novel of Cold Mountain with the film: Inman's journey in the novel is long, agonizing and painful - in the movie he ends up with one cut on his forehead, strolling along hands in pockets). Therefore, the journey in this story HAS to be long and strenuous, and at cost. The travellers have to cross half the country, against several different obstacles, in order to reach the objective.Ashton and Wells provide the centre of the episode in many ways, and illustrate the stories themes. Whilst this story is named after the Dalek's, it isn't really about them. It's about living under oppression, again dealing with World War II. Its about how people respond to this, for good and bad. Ashton exploits it for his own ends, and Wells is selfless. The story is essentially about human capacity for good and evil, if you like. About survival. It's a shame Ashton is disposed of as quickly as he is, and one can't help but think of Phillip Madoc's rather more memorable exit in the movie version.Thinking of the movie does rather contrast the difference between this tale and its Dalek predeccessor. The original doesn't seem to lose much in the translation - it gains pace at the expense of not much, really. The DIOE film is hugely entertaining, and again pacier than its tv equivalent - but loses the depth and horror, really. With no Jenny/Larry, there's no real bitterness - even Tyler becomes quite cuddly. (Though it has at least enough sense to realise that the grimness is the story - killing of Dortmun, the only time in either film any goody we've got to know well dies)Nice direction abounds - the framing of Jenny and Barbara's escape from behind Dortmun's corpse in particular. Ah, I love this. Favourite so far, easily. Even with the Slyther.(incidentally, how come every time I think I've got nothing to say about an episode I write a vast amount?)

madame president
You're making me really want to watch this story... Can I? Is this available in the US? I hope so!

Dorney
I believe the DVD has just come out there - the extras are good so far (only really done the info text - stunningly good for a seemingly simple extra), and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

madame president
I'm off in search of it then. This is one of those few stories people don't talk about much.

Dorney
A friend of mine, not a full on fan as such, and I were talking about my episode by episode journey. He liked the show, but has never really got any merchandise, or watched videos. He's decided to borrow the episodes when I've finished with them - today I have lent him the entire first series. I've asked him to email me his opinions on these stories too, on the basis that as someone outside of fan lore, but with an interest and knowledge of quality drama, his opinions on the stories will be worth hearing - he won't know that story x is supposed to be better than story y, will have no pre-knowledge of suprise monsters or regenerations, companions joining or leaving, etc. etc. so will hopefully have a fresh, unbiased interpretation of what's good and what isn't. I will post these answers in this thread in addition to mine.

Dorney
Dalek Invasion 5:Just managed to squeeze this one in today...It's more of the same, but I was trying to wonder why this story feels very different from the previous ones. And I think I may have done. This story has a cost, something at stake. Arguably, only the Aztecs has done that before.This struck me most with Larry. Up to this point in the series he does seem the only real good character to die (well, him and Dortmun, and Baker, but he crystalised this for me). Now, I'll have to qualify that. As far as I can recall, most of the deaths so far are bad guys - very rarely does a truly good guy die. The obvious exceptions are the Thals and the Second Elder (and Farrow I suppose). But the Thals never seem quite real - they're all slightly one note in characterisation, the noble one, the coward. We don't really get to know Farrow, so his death isn't a vast shock. DIOE is the first story were good likeable real people like you and me die after we take time to know them. And die in agony. (the Sensorite's death is quick, like Farrow - in deed, the death's are all but brushed aside, as if they aren't really there). Larry's death, machine-gunned by his brother, whilst strangling him back, is nasty. And tragic, too (the last word the dead Phil says is 'Larry'.) This script has an emotional cost for the viewer that we don't really get with stories before this. Up to now, it's been fun adventuring, and no-one really dies, not anyone important, or if they do they deserve it.To compare it once more to the original Dalek tale - this story seems to have a literal cost to the characters too, emotionally, physically, in a way that the journey into the city doesn't (and that has the faint air of contrivance - looters, oppurtunists, etc. seem logically derived from the setting in a way that chasm's and sea monsters aren't - they're more derived from Dan Dare stories, and cliche.) Watch Jenny's despair in the mine - it's believable and understandable. She isn't being a wimp, she is us. Also the death of Larry/Phil really does define the series. It's a reminder of the central evil, that the Doctor now seems to be determined to fight (the fact he can't enter the TARDIS is immaterial - it's ceased to be important. This is a man who fight's the villains now.)The Doctor states his beliefs here, quite clearly - he never kills unless his own life is threatened. The amount of people who complain about the 2 Drs and Shockeye's murder, when there's precious little difference. Of course, can't quite see why the Dr objects to the killing of a Roboman - it is after all well established that they are walking corpses, so it would be a mercy.Rather amazing that this grim, nasty tale can find the time for a believable and rather sweet romance. The fireside scene is lovely and unforced - I love David gently stroking Susan's hand, it's simple but true. And the Doctor clearly knows what's going on, which is equally sweet.Another fine moment of direction is when Ian sees Barbara in the mines. We only see the back of her head as she passes by, but she is unmistakeable. Again, subtle and unshowy.One minor niggle is the complete lack of tension in the two main fight's - the Slyther vs Ian, and the sewer scene. Obviously the difficulties of 1960s tv make it difficult to edit or control the camera as much as would be good, but these sequences could have done with some music to cover the awkwardness.I do see what they mean about Dalek's being boring communicators - the scenes with just them expositing the plot are very weak. It's ok for a while, but they are monotonous and you find yourself drifting. Shame their plan's seemingly barking. Let's hope they know a good reason to want to pilot Earth around the galaxy (yeah, we don't find out, but that doesn't mean they don't have one... er, yes...) Not quite clear why it had to be Earth, as Hartnell suggests.Fabulous cliffhanger - Ian trapped inside a bomb about to be dropped down a mine shaft. Well get out of that!Cannot wait til the final part.
Dorney
Eternal(1/18/04 4:55 pm)
Re: Day by Day
Oh, and a minor extra - everyone always wonders who or what the Waking Ally is - I dunno, but some thoughts:I think it could be Phil - he clearly knows who he is just at the moment of death. Not sure he could be described as an ally though...The Doctor returns at the beginning, could be him. Or possibly it means the Dalek that Barbara tricks (who seems to use his eyestick to indicate he's talking, rather than the lights - this leads to a wonderful bit where, after another blatant load of crap from Babs, his eyestick points straight up. It's clearly meant to suggestion he's in communion with his superiors, but to me it looks like he's rolling his eye up to heaven, and saying good grief).And finally - it really does beggar belief that Babs and Jenny stay with the mad old women who are clearly up to no good...

Dorney
Dalek Invasion 6:Bad stuff out of the way first - the defeat of the Daleks is slightly led by technobabble, frankly, but it at least seems quite logical. Not sure if they have saved the entire world, but it is implied that 'saucers', i.e: in the plural, have been caught in the explosion, so maybe they all popped back to watch the end! And it's very strange that the Robomen don't just attack the Daleks - they seem to turn back into humans - they're running along, gleefully battering the cases. Shouldn't they still be mindless zombies - albeit ones now working for the goodies.Really, that's about it for the bad stuff for - well, practically the entire serial. This episode abounds with lovely moments. Barbara gets to show her resourcefulness with her wonderful history speech, improvising and just generally being fab. Ian gets to defeat the Daleks (nice to see that his jacket is giving up with the strain, though I can't quite see why he doesn't use all the wood to block the bomb, just three rather measly planks. He succeeds, yes, but you can't help but feel he got lucky). Ian also gets the episodes funniest moment - his complete obliviousness to David/Susan's awkwardness, even when Barbara tries to subtly get him to go, before having to drag him away physically. Great. It's tempting however to think the best actor in the entire thing is one of the extras - just after the Robomen are instructed to attack the Daleks a whole load of slaves/robomen run into a corridor. First it's two Robomen. Keep an eye out for the guy who comes out right behind them - he's really going for it, it's hysterical!The episode does, however, really belong to Hartnell. Great performances, great lines, great characterisation. His instructions to David and Susan get amended with the beautiful line 'and don't go stopping to pick dasies', which he almost (but not quite, showing the master craftsmanship) throws away. Then his eccentricities, stopping mid invasion overthrow to stop Tyler calling him Doc. Then, the dramatic iconic figure as he stands waiting for the Dalek to close in on him. It has no real story purpose other than simply being a great shot, but damn it's a fabulous moment. This is the Doctor as icon, finally the character we've come to know writ large - the hero, good who defeats evil, with all the dramatics, wit and courage we've come to know.And of course, then we have the final scene. It's breathtakingly good, genuinely moving. I know a lot of people rave about the last scenes with Evelyn in Project: Lazarus, but for my money they're not even remotely moving. Sure, they're emotionally charged, but that's a different thing. The difference is the P:L wants to move you, whereas DIOE actually does. Compare and contrast - Evelyn screeching and wailing like a harpy - to Susan. From the moment she knows the Doctor's mind is set she does not say a word. Doesn't even react. Its more real (when traumatic personal events happen, in my experience, people don't run around wailing, it's always more shocked, frankly). Likewise Hartnell underplays the scene, allowing the moment to do its work. He doesn't oversell it - there's the faintest inkling of a tremor in his voice at the end of his speech as he says goodbye - but that's it. All the emotion is focused. We are moved because it is dignified, it is real, it is true.Of course, it is a bit odd to be sad that Susan's going - up to now she's been a bit annoying for the most part. Always getting hysterical seemingly instantaneously (I think the Velvet Web cliffhanger leaps to mind most clearly for that), seeming a bit stupid and childish, and always prone to act before thinking, only vaguely coming close to character in the first story and the Sensorites. All a bit odd for an alien time traveller, who you'd think would be harder to shock. But it's a testament to this story that she does seem to have grown up. The romance is believable and sweet, touchingly awkward (it's great that David can only ask her to stay when they're both pointedly not looking at each other). So farewell, Susan. It's an end of an era, a cliche, obviously, but true. You'll be missed, funny to say.All in all, probably my favourite story so far. Would have made the perfect finale if they'd had to stop at the end of the first recording block. Just brilliant, and thoroughly recommended.