He IS the Doctor!!!
A diplomat finds himself the target of agents from the future before his big peace conference. Believing them to be ghosts, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) have been sent to investigate for UNIT. The Doctor learns that the agents come from a future where the Earth is controlled by the Daleks and that they hope to stop the Daleks forever by destroying their opportunity to seize control in the past. As the Doctor investigates how the Daleks used the conference to dominate Earth, the Doctor and Jo discover attempts to change the past could forever damn the future.
Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks was the first story of the ninth season of the popular BBC series Doctor Who. The serial aired in four parts from January 1, 1972 to January 22, 1972 and followed Doctor Who: The Dæmons. The serial has been collected in The Jon Pertwee Years as Story #60.
The Planet of the Apes mated with those super-ogres from Lord of the Rings to make…Ogrons!!!
I always love a good Dalek story and this is a decent Doctor Who adventure. The show reintroduces the Dalek to the “new” Doctor who had yet to encounter the Daleks at this point (they last appeared in the Second Doctor’s adventure Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks (Story #36)).
A little story error occurs in the story in that due to time constraints, the story doesn’t quite match up as intended. A beginning scene has Jo and the Doctor encountering themselves from the future, and the series planned to end with the trip to the past by the Doctor and Jo for a brief moment. How it is presented in the actual broadcast leads to a weird unexplained appearance, and it would have been nice to have it more tied in to the actual story.
Who says the Doctor never uses a gun?
Pertwee was an interesting Doctor in that he sometimes got physical…something other Doctors really haven’t done much. Here, we have the Doctor perform some his classic Venusian karate (I wish that would come back more). There is also a scene where the Doctor shockingly uses a gun to dispatch an enemy.
Visually, this story matches most of Doctor Who series from this period. The Daleks are always enjoyable and despite their rather cheesy appearance, they have become classics. The Dalek attack and the destruction of the house at the end won’t win any special effects awards, but it does have the fun of a classic BBC FXs.
I really enjoyed Pertwee as the Doctor and Jo was rather fun as the dingy and flighty Jo Grant. If you like this version of the Doctor and his companion, this one is worth seeking out. I really enjoy the four episode arcs simply because they are short and to the point (though they still could probably be pared down a bit). Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks was followed by Doctor Who: The Curse of Peladon.
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Preceded By:
Doctor Who: The Dæmons (Story #59)
Followed By:
