Another story from my childhood… Like “Day of the Daleks” I remember buying the paperback Target novel of this and there are scenes from the story etched on my memory for decades. So, again, we go into this with high expectations and dreams of childhood…
The opening scenes of the TARDIS losing power are incredibly creepy as everything shuts down. Then the silence. I suppose you don’t always realise the background noise of the TARDIS until it’s gone but the silence itself is very spooky.
And so our heroes go for a wander. The bump into some humans, seeking a rare mineral, and some Exxilon locals, who wish the humans would just bugger off and stop mining their planet. Oddly, after taking the side of environmentalism last week, The Doctor takes the side of strip miners this week…
The cliffhanger at the end of episode 1 sees the Daleks pop up and would have been great if they hadn’t put the Daleks in the story title. That sorta gave the game away a little.
Powerless Daleks are kinda fun, even if they do get made to look very silly. And their replacement guns are suitably cool, including the scene of the practice shots at a model TARDIS.
The script isn’t great. It has one or two decent lines – The Doctor hearing noises in a cavern and declares them a “subterranian wind effect”:
“Who are you kidding?”
“Myself, chiefly”
The cliffhanger at the end of Part 2 is very nostalgic for me as the creepy monster comes to attack the Doctor. Sadly, now, it’s basically just a hoover nozzle.
The rest of the story just sort of dribbles on. It doesn’t drag, to be fair, but it never really hits the heights of the last couple of stories. As the Doctor and a helpful local wander through the creepy city they complete the simplest mind teasers even seen as the story tries to convince us that the mysterious city at the heart of the piece is testing their intelligence. I’ve seen tricker puzzles on the mats you get with a McDonald’s kids’ meal.
The secondary cast are very one-dimensional. Standard future-age humans in space. There’s no development of them at all.
I guess this was one where I really was seeing it through rose-tinted historical glasses. It has it’s moments but is not really very interesting, which is a shame.
6/10.