Death to the Daleks Preview

Death to the Daleks was one of the first Doctor Who stories I saw. It features Daleks trundling around a gravel pit. You can’t get more Doctor Who-like than that!

The story involves the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee and Sarah Jane Smith, Elisabeth Sladen landing on a mysterious planet that is emitting a mysterious power which is draining the TARDIS's energy banks and preventing them from leaving.

This serial makes great use of a misty planet and a well chosen musical score to ramp up the tension.

The Doctor and Sarah get separated (inevitably) and the Doctor meets up with some humans. They reveal that they have come to this planet seeking a cure for a space plague (This follows the Terry Nation trend of making stuff sound cooler by putting “space” in its name.)

The planet is inhabited by a race called the Exxilons. They might look like men in sacks to you, but I was terrified of them as a child. I found the scene where the Exxilons trash the human's spaceship to be particularly disturbing. The Exxilons are scary because they creep up behind the characters. That’s unnerving.

The cliffhanger return of the Daleks is great, even if they do sound like they have flu.

So join us on Wednesday in the #DWBar and tweet along. Bar opens at 7:30pm and we press play at 8.00pm.

Hope to see you there.