Destiny of the Daleks
From
The True Melissa@thetruemelissa@gmail.comNOSPAM to
rec.arts.drwho on Sat Sep 5 08:30:39 2026
From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho
Well, we know who wrote this one. First, the robot dog has
"laryngitis" to explain a new voice actor, and then Romana starts
trying on bodies.
Once that nonsense is over, the TARDIS team emerges onto a basic
rock-quarry planet with high levels of radioactivity. They use
iodine tablets to protect themselves and start exploring. They
witness natives burying what appears to be one of their own dead,
but when they poke into it, they discover that he's from a
tropical planet named Kantra. They wonder how he got here, but
then they see a spaceship land, which is probably sufficient to
explain it.
They want to investigate, but underground explosions force them
toward some ruins. A column falls on the Doctor. Romana can't
lift it, though she tossed boulders at the end of The Pirate
Planet. This planet must have higher gravity. She goes to
reassemble K-9 instead... and she is followed. The TARDIS is
buried in rubble, and Romana cannot reach K-9.
I understand why they wanted to reduce K-9's role, since he was
fixing everything. K-9 and the sonic screwdriver both have to be
handled carefully so they don't unbalance the show. The ploys to
disable him do seem contrived at times, though.
The Doctor is still trapped but is happily reading (a book by
Oolon Colluphid). He remarks that he needs to remind Romana to
take more iodine. Romana is also carrying an iodine timer, so
it's virtually certain that Romana will be deprived of iodine at
some point.
Anyway, a group of humanoids appear at point their weapons at
him. He tries to charm them, but they're unimpressed. Romana
returns to the ruin to find the Doctor gone. As she turns to
leave, she discovers the man who has been following her. She
backs away, but manages to fall down a chute and knock herself
out. The man starts to climb down, to help her.
The Doctor's seeming menacers are also fine. He thanks them for
helping him, asks the planet's name, and is shocked to learn that
he's on Skaro.
Before the friendly stalker reaches Romana, a pair of Daleks
burst in. Instead of killing her, they take her prisoner. They
don't seem to notice the man.
The Movellans tell the Doctor that they're on Skaro to fight the
daleks. Meanwhile, Romana is being interrogated by those same
daleks. They determine she's no threat and set her to work at a
drilling rig.
The man who followed Romana meets the Movellans and the Doctor.
He says he's a starship engineer named Tyssan who was captured by
the daleks two years ago. He doesn't know much else, but he tells
them what happened to Romana, so they set out to rescue her.
Romana gets weaker and appears to succumb to radiation poisoning.
The other workers remove her body. The Doctor and the others find
her grave. As the Doctor tries to dig the body up, Romana appears
and explained that the Academy taught her how to feign death.
One of the team is killed by a dalek, and the other Movellans
refuse to let the Doctor examine the body. They say it is against
the Movellan culture to let an alien see the bodies of their
dead.
The Doctor, Romana, and Agella make their way to another floor,
where they discover -- Davros! He's not dead! He's also not
moving. Part of the ceiling collapses on Agella. While the
Gallifreyans are distracted by this, Davros begins to stir....
Davros immediately begins stretching out the kinks in his
megalomania. The Doctor takes Davros and takes him to another
room, while Romana and Tyssan escape back to the Movellan ship.
The Doctor and Davros talk about the daleks' mission -- the
Doctor disapproves of ended and ruined lives, while Davros says
that the daleks have only begun their conquest of the cosmos.
The daleks find them and start exterminating prisoners to get the
Doctor under control. The Doctor threatens to kill Davros with a
makeshift explosive he just MacGyvered. The Doctor tells them to
release all prisoners and let him go, but they decline. Davros
then tells them the same thing after insulting the Doctor, and
they do it. The Doctor fastens the explosive to Davros' chair and
dashes off while the daleks start removing it. The Doctor later
detonates it, killing a dalek.
Agella isn't dead. She pops back up to report to the Movellans on
all she's witnessed.
Romana, on the Movellan spaceship, learns that the Movellans are
not as saintly as they seem. This is one of my favorite parts of
Doctor Who: it's friendly to children, but it avoids simplistic
good guys and bad guys. People who seem good can turn out cruddy,
and once in a great while, someone who seems bad isn't so bad in
the end.
The Movellans have something called a nova device, which ignites
a planet's atmosphere and kills all life.
The Doctor reunites with Tyssan, and the pair find a Movellan
scout. The Doctor *deactivates* the scout by removing something
(a power pack?) from her belt. We learn that the Movellans are
robots.
The unconscious Romana has been attached to the nova device. This
seems pointless when it will end all life on the planet, but I
guess they want Romana extra dead. The Doctor sends Tyssan away
(again, it's supposed to light the planet) and begins trying to
free Romana, as the timer ticks down...
Turns out it's a dud. The Movellans created a decoy nova device
to lure the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the daleks and
Movellans have been locked in a battle-computer stalemate for
over two centuries. Unlike most battle-computer stalemates in SF,
nobody's dying. The computers are tied up with finding the
perfect moment to attack, and in over two centuries not one shot
has yet been fired. The daleks thought that Davros, a genius,
would give them an advantage. The Movellans want the Doctor, also
a genius, to give them a similar advantage.
The idea that the Doctor and Davros are mirror images, one light
and one dark, probably explains their earlier summit. They're
enemies, but they're also of the same ilk underneath. That's
what's being pitched in this episode, at least.
The Doctor declines to help the Movellans fight, but the daleks
aren't sure of that, so they decide to attack quickly while
they're still the only side with a genius.
There's lots of fighting and bombing.
While the prisoners are trying to seize the Movellan ship, the
Doctor makes his way back to confront Davros. He tells Davros
that the Movellans are no longer a threat, but Davros plans to
destroy it anyway. As the daleks approach the ship, the Doctor
goes to detonate their bombs prematurely, only to learn that
Davros didn't send all the daleks. The dalek leader holds the
Doctor at gunpoint.
Tyssan inspires the former slaves to defend the ship, but they're
no match for daleks. Sharrel tries to detonate the real nova
device to destroy all life on Skaro, including Davros, but Romana
stops him.
The Doctor uses the old hat-on-the-eyestalk trick to blind the
dalek leader and escape. Daleks are supposed to be killing
machines, but any killing machine which can't handle hats or
curbs is not that much of a threat. Villain decay is a tragedy
for the narrative, but I guess it's the only way to explain how
the heroes keep defeating and escaping the villains.
Although the Doctor is happy to kill rank-and-file daleks, he
takes Davros alive. Davros is to go into cryosleep and then stand
trial on Earth. The Doctor and Romana sneak off and go back to
the TARDIS, where they clear the debris away. They discuss the
fact that whoever makes mistakes often wins. The TARDIS
dematerializes, only to reappear immediately because the Doctor
flipped the wrong switch -- what happened to the randomizer? I
guess the TARDIS hadn't fully dematerialized to deploy it. The
TARDIS dematerializes again, successfully this time, and the
TARDIS team is off to a new adventure.
This is not one of my favorites, but it's solid and has many good
touches.
8/10
--
The meek shall inherit, we're told,
But I'm not so easily sold.
For supposing they should,
It would do them no good --
They'd lose it at once to the bold.
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From
The True Doctor@agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM to
rec.arts.drwho on Sat Sep 5 14:45:10 2026
From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho
On 05/09/2026 13:30, The True Melissa wrote:
Well, we know who wrote this one. First, the robot dog has
"laryngitis" to explain a new voice actor, and then Romana starts
trying on bodies.
Once that nonsense is over, the TARDIS team emerges onto a basic
rock-quarry planet with high levels of radioactivity. They use
iodine tablets to protect themselves and start exploring. They
witness natives burying what appears to be one of their own dead,
but when they poke into it, they discover that he's from a
tropical planet named Kantra. They wonder how he got here, but
then they see a spaceship land, which is probably sufficient to
explain it.
They want to investigate, but underground explosions force them
toward some ruins. A column falls on the Doctor. Romana can't
lift it, though she tossed boulders at the end of The Pirate
And at the end of this story too. You'd think they'd have weighed them
down with sand to make them behave more realistically when dropped.
Planet. This planet must have higher gravity. She goes to
reassemble K-9 instead... and she is followed. The TARDIS is
buried in rubble, and Romana cannot reach K-9.
I understand why they wanted to reduce K-9's role, since he was
fixing everything. K-9 and the sonic screwdriver both have to be
handled carefully so they don't unbalance the show. The ploys to
disable him do seem contrived at times, though.
It would have been good to have had a conversation between K9 and a
Dalek and a Movellan. Three robots go into a bar...
The Doctor is still trapped but is happily reading (a book by
Oolon Colluphid). He remarks that he needs to remind Romana to
About the origin or the universe which the Doctor says is wrong because
he was there.
take more iodine. Romana is also carrying an iodine timer, so
it's virtually certain that Romana will be deprived of iodine at
some point.
</snip>
The daleks find them and start exterminating prisoners to get the
Doctor under control. The Doctor threatens to kill Davros with a
makeshift explosive he just MacGyvered. The Doctor tells them to
And of course it was Terry Nation who also created MacGyver.
</snip>
The unconscious Romana has been attached to the nova device. This
seems pointless when it will end all life on the planet, but I
guess they want Romana extra dead. The Doctor sends Tyssan away
(again, it's supposed to light the planet) and begins trying to
free Romana, as the timer ticks down...
It's in a closed cylinder like when it was being tested so it will only
kill Romana.
Turns out it's a dud. The Movellans created a decoy nova device
Agella didn't activate the detonator.
to lure the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the daleks and
Movellans have been locked in a battle-computer stalemate for
over two centuries. Unlike most battle-computer stalemates in SF,
nobody's dying. The computers are tied up with finding the
perfect moment to attack, and in over two centuries not one shot
has yet been fired. The daleks thought that Davros, a genius,
would give them an advantage. The Movellans want the Doctor, also
a genius, to give them a similar advantage.
The idea that the Doctor and Davros are mirror images, one light
and one dark, probably explains their earlier summit. They're
enemies, but they're also of the same ilk underneath. That's
what's being pitched in this episode, at least.
Both are imperfect human(oids) not driven by total logic and subject to
making mistakes is what is being pitched.
</snip>
The Doctor uses the old hat-on-the-eyestalk trick to blind the
dalek leader and escape. Daleks are supposed to be killing
machines, but any killing machine which can't handle hats or
curbs is not that much of a threat. Villain decay is a tragedy
for the narrative, but I guess it's the only way to explain how
the heroes keep defeating and escaping the villains.
And they need slaves to do their mining work for them. How did they
build their cities?
Although the Doctor is happy to kill rank-and-file daleks, he
takes Davros alive. Davros is to go into cryosleep and then stand
trial on Earth. The Doctor and Romana sneak off and go back to
the TARDIS, where they clear the debris away. They discuss the
fact that whoever makes mistakes often wins. The TARDIS
dematerializes, only to reappear immediately because the Doctor
flipped the wrong switch -- what happened to the randomizer? I
You may ask the same question for part 4 of The City of Death and the
end of part 1/start of part 2 of Shada.
guess the TARDIS hadn't fully dematerialized to deploy it. The
It probably only kicks in based on locality.
TARDIS dematerializes again, successfully this time, and the
TARDIS team is off to a new adventure.
This is not one of my favorites, but it's solid and has many good
touches.
8/10
--
The True Doctor
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw
"To be woke is to be uninformed which is exactly the opposite of what it stands for." --William Shatner
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