Review of Day of the Daleks (#60)
DVD Release Date:  13 Sep 11
Original Air Date:  01 – 22 Jan 1972
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story:  The Dæmons (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story:  The Curse of Peladon (Three, Jo)

To start Three’s third season, the production team was looking for some sort of hook to draw in viewers. The resulting story became the first of Three’s encounters with the Daleks, who returned after a nearly five-year absence (about half the show’s run, at that point). The viewing public loved it (more than 10 million people watched), and yet it’s often had a bad rap since for its less-than-stellar execution. Enter the DVD era.

If ever there was an embodiment of a fan’s obsessive love for this show, it’s the Special Edition of Day of the Daleks. Aside from a plethora of good extras, there’s an entirely separate version of the story to watch, with updated effects and even new footage spliced seamlessly into the original material (SE). Unless you’re the type of person who really enjoys the ambience and historical context of bad production values, I really recommend starting with the SE (disk 2). However, if you don’t watch any of the original (disk 1), you’ll never appreciate just how much it has been improved (I recommend episodes 2 and 4 for comparison, or just episode 4, if you want to whittle it down to the bare minimum).

The differences are striking. The original Dalek voices in particular are almost painful to listen to, and the final battle comes across as quite weak. However, once new voices were substituted (they’re now done by Nick Briggs, the voice of the Daleks since post-Hiatus production began), light bolt effects were added to the ray gun battles, and a bit of post-production magic was performed on the battle scenes, the story comes across quite well, even by more modern standards. What particularly impressed me was the fact that these “upgrades” were all done with techniques and equipment available in the early ’70s, to keep everything true to what might have been done at the time, had there been more money available.

One other change that’s been a long time coming is in episode 2. In a moment that was apparently quite controversial when it was first broadcast, the Doctor shoots and kills an Ogron – with a gun! While that incident was not removed (as some fans might have hoped – and, in fact, he actually shoots at least two Ogrons in the SE), it is modified so that the Doctor maintains his integrity by shooting only in self-defense, rather than in cold blood.

Aside from the aforementioned incident, Day is well known for a couple of reasons. Primarily, its plot involves quite a well-done temporal paradox (a staple of science fiction since its inception, but a bit hard to pull off in a continuing storyline like Who). It’s also where the Doctor explains (to Jo) why he can’t regularly just pop back in time in his TARDIS to fix things that go wrong before they happen: the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. I doubt the production team realized at the time just how often that little caveat would be called on in the future (even if not by name) to save the day (or at least the plotline).

DVD Extras (highlights)

Blasting the Past

As is often the case, we get the inside scoop on how this particular story came together. Highlights include reminiscences about shooting various scenes and about the director and his style; motivations behind the storyline, the pacing, and the aforementioned controversial gun use for the Doctor; the birth of the Ogrons; and the fact that Three’s character is really very much in keeping with Pertwee’s own. (How can you not love a dandy who can actually pull off a line like, “That’s a most good-humoured wine. A touch sardonic, perhaps, but not cynical.”?)

The Making of Day of the Daleks – Special Edition

We get not one but two “making of” extras in this set. While the previous piece gave us the original scoop, this one details how all the updates were accomplished – making the execution of the story as awesome as the team had always envisioned it as kids.

A View from the Gallery

Ever wonder what a vision mixer does? Ever heard of a vision mixer? Producer Barry Letts and vision mixer Mike Catherwood returned to the gallery overlooking BBC’s Television Center Studio 2 – where they put in their time bringing stories like Day to the screen – to tell us all about it.

The UNIT Family – Part 2

I completely missed the first part of this short series (Part 1 is on Inferno), so I’ll have to go back and check it out. This installment covers the most well-known days of UNIT, during Three’s time with Jo Grant as his Companion. Interviews with actors (including the late Nicholas Courtney) yield stories about how various roles were cast and the “family” took shape – and later, broke apart.

The UNIT Dating Conundrum

Not what you might first think, the eponymous puzzle is actually about trying to nail down just when the various UNIT stories are set.  At first blush, one wouldn’t think it would be too tough, but just a few mentions of specific dates really muddy the waters.

The Cheating Memory

Memory is a tricky thing, not least when it comes to thinking back on one’s childhood. Why can you watch something (like an episode of Doctor Who) as a kid and think it’s awesome and then years later watch again only to discover it’s rubbish? A Ph.D. psychologist helps explore the way memory develops in childhood, and gives us a glimpse at some answers.

There’s a heck of a lot to recommend this story. Day has scads of timey-wimey-ness woven throughout, and gives a great sense of Three and his relationship with both Jo and UNIT as a whole. Obviously, no story is perfect, and even with the SE’s improvements, there are still flaws and irritations. But if you’re looking to give Three a try, you could do a lot worse. And the production team has really put in a hard Day‘s work.