Day 509: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 4

We last left our look at Destiny of the Daleks contemplating how the three main voices, being Douglas Adams, Ken Grieve and Terry Nation, the script editor, director and writer respectively, could work together considering that they have such differing things that they bring to the table. The answer, I suppose, can be found by dividing them into pairs. By doing this, each voice is able to come together with the other, using their respective strengths to create something worth engaging with.

So, first let's look at the combination of Adams and Grieve. Adams brings comedy, and Grieve is able to use his eye for a more interesting looking programme to make the jokes work in a way that wouldn't necessarily be expected from other directors. Take, for instance, the botched escape from the Movellans halfway through this episode. Essentially, the Doctor gets up, feels a Movellan gun on his shoulder and immediately sits back down again. Grieve shoots all of this in close-up, both giving the set-up to the escape attempt a tension that makes the end-game more rewarding as a joke, and also adding the new joke that we, as an audience, are only focussed on the Doctor's face and not necessarily on the Movellan behind him, thus making the sudden appearance of the gun an unanticipated event and creating a joke out of that as well.

Adams and Nation work surprisingly well together as well. Nation has provided the bare bones of a simple adventure plot-line, leaving Adams to fill in the rest. Adams takes the simple adventure and, by adding jokes and the like to keep the audience interested, is able to make up for the fact that the adventure plot-line is fairly basic. But the plot-line is still fun, and has some interesting ideas within it, so it can provide flesh to Adams' simple little jokes throughout. Take for instance, the fact that we have two computers fighting each other, and they can't defeat each other because each is able to accurately predict the others' move. The way in which this is illustrated is through a simple game of scissors-paper-rock, which the robotic Movellans are hopeless at, whereas the more intuitive Doctor is able to win at the game fairly regularly. It's a simple and fun way to look at the larger idea, and is one step of allowing us to see past the flaws of the story and have some fun with it.

Grieve and Nation are also a strong pairing. Nation is writing a 1960's adventure story, and Grieve is able to at least make it look interesting.

Take, for instance, the above shot. The use of Daleks in foreground, middle and background helps give the impression that there is a far larger Dalek fleet, much as Nation would have wanted. The sole Dalek in the foreground makes the shot feel imposing, and injects an amount of menace into the shot, making the Daleks something to be feared. This is a director who is able to take Nation's work and modernise it, making it feel more exciting as a result. Another example can be found in the deactivation of the Nova device, shot with a handheld camera, and with a particularly shocking shot of a dismembered Movellan arm at one point, which is a very exciting sequence.

At the end of the day then, Destiny of the Daleks isn't that bad. It's well directed, and the plot is able to have its weaknesses accounted for by the script editing. It is interesting to note though, that we have a story where the voices involved with making it are seemingly in opposition. One wonders what it would be like if everyone were on completely the same page...

Day 508: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 3

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.

Day 507: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 2

The second voice that I want to look at is that of the director, Ken Grieve. He too is new to the series, but he quickly makes an impression, through his innovative use of cameras. For instance, there's a scene partway through this episode where a Dalek advances down a corridor. He makes the decision to have this be a tracking shot, but shot directly from the ground, looking up. It makes the Daleks feel far more oppressive, and the fact that this is a tracking shot gives the sensation that the Daleks are constantly advancing to overpower you. It's a far cry from the normal shots of cutting back and forth between characters speaking.

Similarly, he uses the new technique of Steadicam. This allows for a film camera to used in a handheld fashion, giving the camera operator more freedom of movement. It also means that the film sections of the story gain a somewhat more realistic feeling to them. The slightly shaky nature of the handheld combined with the already rough ground of the quarry that they are filming in makes us feel like we're on the planet Skaro with the Doctor and Romana. This realistic feeling can also be attributed to the soundscape, which is minimal, focussing mainly on background sound effects and having little to no music.

So we have a story that's got jokes and gags in it, and is filmed in an innovative and realistic fashion. Tomorrow, we'll look at the third voice, and see what he brings to the table of Destiny of the Daleks.

Day 506: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 1

When viewing an episode of Doctor Who, you can see the influence of four key voices: the producer, the script editor, the writer and the director. In the case of viewing Destiny of the Daleks I suddenly realised that three of those key voices (writer, director, script editor) were slightly at odds with one another, and that each one of these voices is interesting in their own way. So, for the next three days, I'll look at these three voices and see what they bring to the table in Destiny of the Daleks.

Let's begin with the script editor, Douglas Adams. One of the most recognisable names in science fiction, he is world famous for his work on such series as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He's also written for Doctor Who before with last series' The Pirate Planet and he contributed some minor editing work to The Armageddon Factor as well. This is his first full story as script editor though, so it's nice to see what a fresh faced young writer will bring to the table as he looks over this script.

The answer is jokes. This story is filled with small jokes, such as the Doctor openly criticising a book on The Origins of the Universe whilst being crushed by a large pillar, or the two minute scene at the start of the story where Romana decides to regenerate and goes through a charade of trying on different bodies in much the same way as someone would choose some clothes. It certainly makes the story feel more fun, and it helps to magnify the on-screen chemistry between the Doctor and Romana, thus relieving any tensions that new viewers might not accept the new Romana but it also raises questions about whether these jokes are right for this type of story...