Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks [VHS]

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VHS Movie Reviews of Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks [VHS]

Movie Review: Great Daleks episode!
Summary: 5 Stars

The Doctor and Romana find themselves on Skaros, the Daleks' home planet. Discovering significant seismic activity, they discover that the Daleks have enslaved a group of humans whom they are forcing to engage in mining activity for a purpose which the Doctor and Romana must ferret out. At the same time, another race, the wonderful Molvians (who always remind me of Rick James in full-on Superfreak mode), befriend the Doctor and Romana but turn out to have their own agenda.

The Daleks are great in this episode. Not a lot of chatter, just a lot of typical Dalek bluster -- "seek, locate, exterminate," etc. Not to mention the glorious return of the megamaniacal Davros, creator of the Daleks. This is one of the more action-oriented, straight-forward Doctor Who episodes and comes across as a lot less dated than even some of the later episodes. Not as humorous as many Tom Baker episodes once it gets going (if you're looking for humor and cheese, check out The Pirate Planet), but great action and characters. Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Read my review or YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars

This is another keep episode if you enjoy Tom Baker and the Dalek themes. Actually, it is one of the better episodes. Please add this exciting story to you collection and you will find yourself watching it again and again. For those of you that refuse to heed my review.... well, you must be EXTERMINATED! EXTERMINATED! EXTERMINATED! He he he.

Movie Review: Enjoyable quasi-sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks
Summary: 4 Stars

The Doctor finds some allies, the Movellans, a race of dark-skinned people with silver dreadlocks, white one-piece suits, and cone-shaped laser guns. They are calm, orderly, efficient, and extremely strong, as they lifted the pillar from the Doctor (offscreen). They are on an intelligence mission to find out what the Daleks are up to. A trip to the old Kaled city reveals the answers. However, when a Movellan is exterminated by a Dalek, why isn't the Doctor allowed to examine his body, apart from a Movellan code of honor?

Goofs: The Daleks are actually half-organic, but they are constantly referred to as robots here. Another is Commander Sharrel in Episode 4. During the struggle with Romana, it's clear that he isn't played by Peter Straker. And the Doctor has trouble telling the Daleks to "back off."

This is kind of a sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks, as it involves Davros, but it might actually succeed Planet Of The Daleks. With the radiation count on Skaro strong, there might have been a final nuclear war between the Daleks and Thals where the Thals were the runners up.

The concept of portraying the Movellans with African actors is interesting, as this story shows more Africans with speaking parts than any other. There are competent performances by the three lead Movellans.

The name of the script editor--Douglas Adams, hence the silliness of dialogue in some areas. The scene where Romana tries on several bodies before reappearing in a duplicate of the Doctor's costume is definitely his trademark. And the Doctor has a cheap shot at a Dalek's expense as he escapes up a shaft. "If you're supposed to be the superior creatures of the universe, why don't you climb up after us? Bye bye!" He ducks as the Dalek fires up at him.

Tony Osoba (the Movellan Lan) later played Kracauer in the Who story Dragonfire. Peter Straker (Sharrel) and Suzanne Daniel (Agella) effectively play the calm Movellans. David Gooderson (Davros) is no match for Michael Wisher (voice-wise) but maybe Davros's voice changed after centuries of sleep. And Lalla Ward is near-perfect in her first go at Romana, good-natured, logical, but more sensible, a compliment to the goofy Doctor.

OK, so the Daleks are made fun of here as repetitive killing machines wrapped in cold logic, but goofs aside, it's enjoyable. The Movellans are realized so perfectly it's a pity they didn't make another appearance.

Movie Review: Enjoyable quasi-sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks
Summary: 4 Stars

The Doctor finds some allies, the Movellans, a race of dark-skinned people with silver dreadlocks, white one-piece suits, and cone-shaped laser guns. They are calm, orderly, efficient, and extremely strong, as they lifted the pillar from the Doctor (offscreen). They are on an intelligence mission to find out what the Daleks are up to. A trip to the old Kaled city reveals the answers. However, when a Movellan is exterminated by a Dalek, why isn't the Doctor allowed to examine his body, apart from a Movellan code of honor?

Goofs: The Daleks are actually half-organic, but they are constantly referred to as robots here. Another is Commander Sharrel in Episode 4. During the struggle with Romana, it's clear that he isn't played by Peter Straker. And the Doctor tells the Daleks to "spack off" instead of "back off."

This is kind of a sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks, as it involves Davros, but it might actually succeed Planet Of The Daleks. With the radiation count on Skaro strong, there might have been a final nuclear war between the Daleks and Thals where the Thals were the runners up.

The concept of portraying the Movellans with African actors is interesting, rather than having the "token black?Eperformer. There are competent performances by the three lead Movellans, but note that they are all light-skinned. There are some darker-skinned Movellans, but they have non-speaking parts.

The name of the script editor--Douglas Adams, hence the silliness of dialogue in some areas. The scene where Romana tries on several bodies before reappearing in a duplicate of the Doctor's costume is definitely his trademark. And the Doctor has a cheap shot at a Dalek's expense as he escapes up a shaft. "If you're supposed to be the superior creatures of the universe, why don't you climb up after us? Bye bye!" He ducks as the Dalek fires up at him. And a Dalek grates: "Seek, locate, exterminate!?E Hmm, that rhymes. Why not do a dance remix? I'm sure it'll debut at #1 on the Skaro pop charts.

Tony Osoba (the Movellan Lan) later played Kracauer in the Who story Dragonfire. Peter Straker (Sharrel) and Suzanne Daniel (Agella) effectively play the calm Movellans. David Gooderson has a good try as Davros, but Michael Wisher played him better hand down. And Lalla Ward is near-perfect in her first go at Romana, good-natured, logical, but more sensible, a compliment to the goofy Doctor.

OK, so the Daleks are made fun of here as repetitive killing machines wrapped in cold logic, but goofs aside, it's enjoyable. The Movellans are realized so perfectly it's a pity they didn't make another appearance.

Movie Review: Middling Dalerk story
Summary: 3 Stars

Not even the Daleks can enliven this outing. The Daleks, ruthless and shapeless (and never seen) beings, have terrorized the galaxy with their efforts of conquest for untold of generations (since 1963 on earth, anyway) but this story is one more sign that the producers wanted to make a clean break from them as well as the Doctor's other frequent foes. (Cybermen appeared in Tom Baker's first season, and wouldn't put in an encore until "Earthshock" in the Peter Davidson years; The Master made two appearances in Baker's tenure). The Movellans aren't very interesting by themselves and seem invented only to make sure the Daleks have a real enemy to fight with. (The Dalek-Movellan war is hinted in the Davidson-era sequel "Resurrection of the Daleks", but the Movellans themselves don't appear.) Davros appears as outmaneuvered by the Daleks as before, and the Daleks, who hadn't put in an appearance since "Genesis", seem as creaky as ever. Adding to the sloppiness is the slapdash way in which Lalla Ward replaced Mary Tamm as Romana. As a timelord, Romana can regenerate and change her appearance; while the writers can normally think up inventive and agonizing reasons to explain the main character's regeneration, Romana's regeneration seems purposeless and seamless - an afterthought. If you want some vintage Who (I guess it's all vintage by now) get Baker's early years or his last season, especially "Genesis", a better story.

Summary of Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks [VHS]

General Video

• Genres > Horror
• Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Television > BBC > Genres > Science Fiction
• TV Series > Doctor Who > All Titles
• General William Hartnell
• Patrick Troughton
• Jon Pertwee
• Tom Baker
• Peter Davison
• Colin Baker
• Sylvester McCoy