Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks (Episode 104) dvd movie.|
Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks (Episode 104) buy bestselling dvd movies, videos find reviews, ratings, prices |
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List Price: $24.98 Our Price: $21.49 You Save: $3.49 Features • Closed-captioned • Color • DVD-Video • NTSC |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | "He got it wrong on the first line! Why didn't he ask someone who saw it happen?" |
| The Doctor, as performed by the ever popular Tom Baker. The regeneration of the Doctor's companion and fellow Time Lord, Romana--meaning a brand new co-star in the person of Lalla Ward. Up against the Doctor's archetypal and almost iconic villains, the Daleks. In a story authored by the very man who wrote them into existence, Terry Nation, and script-edited by a legend of British sci-fi, Douglas Adams. All the elements are in place for a classic of classics, a true "Doctor Who" epic. What could possibly go wrong?
Um, well, just about everything, really. "Destiny of the Daleks" is one of those thankfully few times when this wonderful show flirts with greatness only to fumble and drop the ball. First and foremost, the basic concept of the Daleks is entirely muddled in this story, as if Nation had forgotten the same premise that he himself created in 1963 and fleshed out so spectacularly in 1975 with this story's forerunner, "Genesis of the Daleks." They are organic mutants with strong emotions indeed--"Inside each of those shells is a living, bubbling lump of hate" as he had the Third Doctor say once. But now suddenly they are supposedly robots locked in a logical impasse with a competing race of robots, the disco-Egyptianesque Movellans? Uh, well, okay. And so they need to dig up the evil genius who genetically engineered them, or invented them rather, or whatever, because only he will do; lucky for them, Davros somehow managed to survive getting blasted by his own creations without decomposing and rusting down in a buried city lacking food, water, air and so on for century upon century. Hmm, okay. As for the Movellans, are androids with easily removable battery packs front and center on their belt buckles really a credible threat? Obviously, it's insidiously easy to go on picking away at this poor storyline. Too easy. One could go on and on, and many have. And yet somehow "Destiny" is still lots of fun to watch. What does it have going for it? First and foremost, Tom Baker is such a pied piper of an actor that he can rattle off muddled scripts and react to implausible threats with such thorough conviction that it kind of carries you along, and here in this story his trademark oddball clowning instantly reacts favorably with Douglas Adams' own idiosyncratically cerebral sense of humor to great effect. These funny moments save the day in this case, allowing one to laugh with rather than at the show. Lalla Ward also makes a very promising debut right away, and her version of Romana feels much more at home in the company of the Doctor and the Tardis crew than her previous incarnation. This story is historically important for the show, establishing Davros as a recurring character rather than a one-shot villain--how good a move this is might be debatable, and I'm somewhat of the opinion that trotting him out every time the Daleks show up cheapens the dramatic punch of what retroactively became his first appearance; but that's my two-cents worth, he has many good solid fans who eagerly await his reappearances and "Destiny" got that ball rolling. Then too, there are some interesting ideas somewhere beneath all the rubble of muddle, strange allegories about searching for one's lost creator and pertinent fables about cold war superpowers acrimoniously stuck in a rut. Finally, the plot has some clever twists and turns here and there along with an assortment of thoroughly respectable thrills and chills. In short, "Destiny of the Daleks" does admittedly fall way short of its exalted potential, and by no means is it a sample of "Doctor Who" at its best, and yet for all that it's still reasonably enjoyable and entertaining--and somewhat endearing in its faults if one gives it half a chance. P.S. For the classic forerunner to this storyline (including the introduction of Davros), see [[ASIN:B000EMG918 Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks (Episode 78)]]. For the Third Doctor's comment, see [[ASIN:6301628543 Doctor Who: Death to Daleks]] (not yet released on DVD). |
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