The final major voice in this production is that of the writer, Terry Nation. Nation, is of course, a familiar writer to Doctor Who, and has been writing for the series since it began. His stories tend to be generic science fiction adventure stories, and Destiny of the Daleks is no exception. The story features the Doctor and Romana landing on an alien planet, meeting the local slave workers, and fighting the Daleks. There's some engagement to make this story different from the others, such as the robotic race of Movellans, but on the whole the story, as conceived, feels like something that we could have easily seen in William Hartnell or Jon Pertwee's tenure as the Doctor.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Nation's treatment of the companions, in particular Romana. 2 of the 3 cliffhangers that this story has focus directly on Romana being placed into direct danger. Now, by my count, in the previous series, 5.5 cliffhangers focus on Romana being placed into direct danger out of 20, giving a percentage of around 25%, compared to Nation's percentage of Romana in danger of 66%.
So what does this tell us? It indicates that the way in which Nation is writing the companion is as a character to be rescued by the Doctor. In normal circumstances, we wouldn't bat an eyelid about this, however the companion in question is Romana. Romana is a Time Lady, someone who is just as competent as the Doctor, if not moreso. Nation is doing her character a great disservice by reducing her to a character to be rescued.
So we're left with an editor inserting jokes, a director who makes things feel modern and realistic and a writer who comes direct from the 1960's. Tomorrow, then, we'll look at how the story concludes and whether these three distinct voices can come together as a whole.
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