Again I've seen this story, and once again not that long ago. I started this marathon having seen the first three stories a few times before but not for a long while. Now I've started the second season having seen three in a row (though one was the end of last season), all for the first time and all recently. Just a strange coincidence.
The Daleks on Earth, in London, in front of Big Ben. Swarming around Nelson's Column. The team knew they were making iconic images when they did this. But when the shots of Daleks slowly trundling around are inter cut with fast paced shots of Barbara and Jenny pushing Dortmun along in his wheel chair it all becomes... a bit flat really. When you see those fast shots it's exhilarating , it's energetic, especially when accompanied by the constant drumming in the soundtrack. Then cut back to Daleks gliding along with the same music, which just becomes a bit annoying, and it doesn't really work. For me anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of fans out there who would shout their disagreements. I can see what they were going for, the Daleks menacingly gliding along famous locations in London is a great image in the photos, and when I imagined it my head, but the way it is edited together it just doesn't quite work. The same for the Dalek emerging from the water at the end of episode one and start of two. It's a brilliant idea, and it's done well. But there's something missing that stops it from being as epic a moment as it should be.
I found it hard to engage with the images, though the location shooting was great especially in the first episode, and I found it even harder to engage with the story. The Daleks have some rubbish dialogue in this and the whole idea of taking out the Earth's core so they can move Earth? What now? How now? And then they decided to blow it up instead. The fact that these ideas were reused in The Stolen Earth and Journey's End in modern Who just makes it worse. Oh and the Robomen are a good idea but are basically shit Cybermen.
The Daleks were really popular so they wanted to bring them back, fair enough, then they thought it would be a great idea to have them on Earth in London. Not to bad. But they forgot that they actually needed a decent story in there. Don't even get my started on the Slyther...
It seems like I really hated this story but I didn't, I just found it a bit boring, poorly executed and not as note worthy as people make out.
I did however love how they dealt with Susan's departure. It really was quite emotional and that speech from Hartnell is absolutely brilliant. I've seen that speech a few times now and I always liked it, but this time, having watched Susan and the Doctor's journey together, it meant even more than normal. Brilliant acting from Hartnell.
Episode score:
1. World's End: 8/10
2. The Daleks: 7/10
3. Day of Reckoning: 7/10
4. The End of Tomorrow: 5/10
5. The Waking Ally: 6/10
6. Flashpoint: 7/10
Average score: 6.5/10
Next up we get new companion Vicki in The Rescue.
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