Dr. Who: Destiny of the Daleks

I suppose it was high time I got around to writing about Dr. Who—the seemingly endless BBC serial starring a multiplicity of continually “regenerating” Doctors (Gallifreyan Time Lords), but most famously starring the quintessential Doctor, the one everyone—and I mean EVERYONE—most associates with the role: the redoubtable elder statesman of Time Lording, Tom Baker. (No relation, BTW.)

In this Series (I think it’s the English equivalent of Seasons, but with, like, a lot fewer episodes), which aired in 1979, the Doctor and Princess Astoria—in the guise of Romana (Lalla Ward, who regenerates into several meatsuit costumes until deciding on Romana)—land their flying phone booth (which is a good deal more spacious on the inside than the outside) and go gallivanting until they come across some rather rustic—not to say dirty and rather peasant-like—natives burying a body.

After that, everything moves toward a state of confusion.

Doctor and Romana are fired upon by a hovering craft that sort of looks as if it buries itself into the soil. If I am remembering correctly, that is. Afterward, Doctor gets trapped in some ruins they run into, and Romana goes to—I don’t know, I guess get help—and she’s captured herself. All of a sudden, rolling garbage bins—the infamous Daleks—appear, resplendent with little glass eggs below and outer-space toilet plungers sticking out of them and firing laser beams. They have weird, reverberating synthoid voices and love the word "Exterminate!"

The slave people of Skaro are caught in the middle of a war between Israel and Hamas; er, I mean, between the Daleks and the Movellans. (Hey, a comparison to current events could be made here.) The Daleks come and excavate Davros, who is a horror show all in and of himself. A shriveled, wizened alien elf-man with a large round melon-head covered in kind of wires and springy parts, who rides around in a Captain Pike chair and exclaims in a haughty, reverbed, imperial Dr. Evil voice. His skin, which is obviously made of rubber, doesn’t move when he speaks—obviously an evil creation of Rick’s Halloween Store.

Be that as it may.

Those Marvellous Movellans

Doctor and Romana play Paper, Rock, Scissors aboard the Movellan ship. I can’t exactly remember why, but it was an intriguing scene nonetheless. The Movellans all have white ABBA outfits and Rick James hair. Word is they’re actually cybernetic beings. They are a multicultural lot, as to reinforce the idea that the future is totally DEI.

Since there’s still a hundred and fifty words to go, I’m going to clue the Reader in on a little secret: there are some reviews more or less that write themselves. There’s already enough in the mental saucepan to pour out six hundred words stat. Piece of cake.

Others, you search and search your mind and, well, you end up drawing a blank. Oh, what you’re reviewing may have been great—just might have been better than sliced liver sausage on toast with horseradish, mayo, onion, tomato, a slice of cheese, and a kosher (not to say ZIONIST) pickle on the side.

Others... not so much.

I’ll close this out by saying the Fourth Doctor, Monsieur Baker, was the most quintessential of ALL doctors, and is most assuredly the one everyone thinks of when they hear or read the name Dr. Who. He’s the maximal dotty, eccentric Englishman, with a tall gait, a vast honker, curly hair, and a scarf that just won’t quit. The fact that he has that name—Tom Baker (where have I heard that name before?)—just makes him that much more, I don’t know. Is perfect the word I’m going for here?

Okay. Word count accomplished. I’m off in my flying phone booth through space and time, to battle strange talking trashcans who love the word Exterminate! I’d stay to chat some more, but Time and Time Lords are a precious commodity.

Cheerio!

Destiny of the Daleks | FULL EPISODES | Season 17 | Doctor Who: Classic

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