A pet peeve of mine,
especially for Doctor Who, is when writers rehash previously used plots without
adding anything to them to bolster their substances. This is one of the main problems that plagues
The Time of the Daleks, it borrows
heavily from the Second Doctor serial The
Evil of the Daleks a story regarded as one of the best Second Doctor stories. Richards’ story however does add the
intriguing element to the main premise of the Doctor’s interference in the R101
has allowed for the removal of William Shakespeare from his natural place in
time to a future, almost dystopian, Britain ruled by a Shakespearean
fanatic. The entire story revolves
around the paradox and how a race of Shakespeare lovers called the Daleks want
to assist in the recovery of Shakespeare.
This premise is an intriguing one and allows for some great lines of
Daleks quoting Shakespeare. Sadly the
story reads like a shortened remake of
The Evil of the Daleks and it really shows how even when Justin Richards
has a good idea he can find a way to make it a traditional story that really
just won’t resonate with me. The
Shakespeare stuff is good until about the end of Part Two where it becomes more
clichéd and the Daleks do act like regular Daleks, but there isn’t much else I
can say I liked about the plot of the story.
Trying not to sound
redundant, but Paul McGann is still great as the Doctor and here he sounds even
more youthful than usual. He makes puns
about Shakespeare which Charley doesn’t get, prompting the start to this story
in a beautifully realized TARDIS scene which just shows how much of a
breathless romantic the Eighth Doctor is.
The meat of the adventure actually has McGann lose a bit of his steam,
which is a problem as he has to be a lead, but this doesn’t interfere too much
with the quality of the story. India
Fisher’s Charley Pollard on the other hand, doesn’t fare nearly as well mainly
because Richards writes her as standard Doctor Who companion which she isn’t. Here she is supposed to be missing
information and is supposed to be reacting to the changing timeline, but the
script just doesn’t allow it to actually happen to any degree of note.
So with both leads
suffering from the lackluster script, let’s see how the supporting cast fares.
Well everything is hit or miss in this story with two or three characters
really standing out while everyone else just sort of fades into the background
and are forgettable. Mariah Learman
played by Dot Smith is the dictator general of Britain where she was elected to
rule with an iron fist. She is also a
fangirl about Shakespeare and wants the plays all for herself and even as a
human acts kind of like a Dalek Her best
moments are when she actually becomes a Dalek which is a horrifying sequence
that you can just imagine in your mind’s eye.
There is also the kitchen boy who I really can’t go into without going
for spoilers. And finally there if Viola
Learman who is the leader of the rebels and is actually the General’s niece which
I actually find to be an interesting character.
The direction by
Nicholasr Briggs is also pretty good for the most part even though he doesn’t
fix a lot of the weird line reads from the scripts. Briggs does add in a sequence stringing
together the three other parts of the Dalek Empire Arc which I commend him for
as they really haven’t done anything well.
The music on the other hand is really forgettable and what I do remember
is again reminiscent of The Evil of the
Daleks, which doesn’t help this stories case for being of good quality.
To summarize, The Time of the Daleks for all its
faults only does amount to an average story as there are some good things
here. The acting is positive for the
most part and Daleks quoting Shakespeare is something to listen to. 50/100
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