My Mini Marathons

I've decided that I'm going to do myself a set of mini marathons, usually of stories linked somehow.

I've decided that my first one shall be a countdown of my top 10 Dalek stories. I shall post my thoughts and musings here as I go. Quick disclaimer: I'm only counting existing stories that I have on DVD. As amazing as Master Plan, Power and Evil are (all would be in the top 5) they will not be included in this list.

So we begin with the story that brought them back after seventeen years. In 10 is... Dalek. I shall report back once I have finished watching.

'Dalek' only ranks tenth?

Wow. This thread is definately going to bear some scrutiny as the list grows. I would have to put 'Dalek' up there with 'Genesis' for how brilliantly it was constructed.

Will this turn into a top 11 if The Pandorica Awakes makes your top ten?

It look like some 60's classics have entered Johnstone's crack.

You probably will scrutinize this list immensely I'm afraid but I thought long and hard about it.

As for The Pandorica Opens, can it be counted as a Dalek story? I can understand counting Army of Ghosts but so far in Pandorica they've had about 20 seconds of screen time, Autons and Cybermen have had a hell of a lot more. Next week could, and looks like it will change that. So I may have to make a Pre-Moffat era only rule. Which as you can guess means that Victory is not on the list.

So, #10 Dalek...

Dalek is easily one of those different stories, one that manages to break the mould. Most significanntly this is one lone Dalek. As I said earlier this story was there to introduce the Daleks to a new generation. So the best thing to do was to have it kill pretty much everybody in sight. I think I'm correct in thinking that this story has more on-screen deaths than any other? It must certainly be a contender.

Not only did they show a single Dalek wiping out an entire private army, we also saw said Dalek develop emotions and spare people. That Dalek was just as scary when it let Van Statten live as it was when it electrocuted the best part of 50 people.

This story also sets up the time war. We've heard hints in the few previous stories but we were never told anything more solid about it until now. And after this, right through to the end of the RTD era, we never really learned anymore.

So why only 10th? When I first saw this story I didn't like it and it was only after a significant amount of time that I did get to like it. There are things that seem to bug me, such as Rose speaking in cliche's for the entire first half of the episode and the big hype about Daleks being able to climb stairs, even though they'd done it 17 years earlier (and Davros had flew even before that!). So put simply, I can see that it's an absoultely brilliant story, probably one of the best of the RTD era, but it just doesn't float my boat and I am doing this list from my personal perspective.

So all in all. It was good. I've not watched this one for a while and as a result of I think that I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's a good mix of action and emotion and the Dalek itself probably has the best lines ever given to a Dalek. Lucky thing.

Over the next day or two I shall be watching number 9 which is... The Daleks.

4 episodes down, 3 to go. Should be able to review tomorrow.

#9 The Daleks

OK, straight from one introductory Dalek story to another. While Dalek had the job of reintroducing the legend, this story had the job of introducing it. And of course, Daleks were not meant to be a legend. This was supposed to be 7 episodes of a 13 episode series.

The first thing that's clear about The Daleks is that it's a 4 episode story trapped in a 7 episode body. It is simply too long. The middle of episode 4 to the end of episode six does very very little to move the story forward. The Doctor and Susan shine some mirrors at the Dalek city while Ian and Barbara get lost in a swamp and then a cave.

But let's not focus of the negativity. Let's look at the most amazing part of the story: The Daleks themselves. In this we are able to see something that we never get to see again. Daleks effectively living their everyday lives. They scheme, they plot, they plan. We're not even sure that they're evil until the third episode,

The Daleks creates the most popular baddie to come out of Doctor Who and it's a position they deserve.

In #8 we have... Destiny of the Daleks.

Johnstone, what happened to No. 8?

Fell into a crack in the universe. That or I typo'd 7 instead of 8.