Day 73: The Death of Time

So the plot of this particular serial revolves around the Doctor and co. being chased through time and space by the Daleks, who have the Doctor as their sworn enemy, meaning that it's now official, the Doctor has moved up through the ranks from mild inconvenience to sworn enemy. How lovely, I hope he got a card or something to celebrate this momentous occasion. Because it is momentous, it marks the first time that enemies have acknowledged previous knowledge of the Doctor, and that they bear some sort of grudge against him. It shows a character who is becoming notorious for his actions, and that he is being recognised for this. The Doctor is being recognised for his meddling in the affairs of evil creatures, which allows for a sense of continuity to develop. Continuity is important, it means that the series is not just adventure after adventure each week, it allows for things to develop. Here, the Doctor's actions are shown to have consequences, allowing for the Daleks to acknowledge him as a threat and seek him out through time and space to destroy him.

But there is a nagging feeling that something's wrong with all of this. The Doctor has faced the Daleks twice, so far. Defeating someone twice over the course of several centuries does not make you sworn enemies, it should just be viewed as a coincidence. There are two ways that we can read this. One, the Daleks are really quite pernickety and see these two defeats as blemishes that should be wiped out through travelling through time and getting revenge on the person who did it. The other way, and my personal favourite, is that these Daleks are not the Daleks that you think that they are. They are Daleks from the future, travelling back in time to prevent the Doctor's meddling in future affairs, and in doing so, they create some of the opening shots during the Time War. I like the last explanation because it allows for the continuity that has developed around the Doctor to make more sense, and that this continuity will develop over the course of over fifty years. Because the Doctor is leaves footprints, and it  stands to reason that he ought to be noticed.