Directed by Derek Martinus
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling (first appearance as regular)
Main Guest Cast -
Edward Waterfield - John Bailey
Theodore Maxtible - Marius Goring
Arthur Terrall - Gary Watson
Mollie Dawson - Jo Rowbottom
Ruth Maxtible - Brigit Forsyth
Kemel - Sonny Caldinez
Synopsis-
As we saw at the end of the Faceless Ones, the Tardis was being taken away in a lorry (truck) from Gatwick Airport, with The Doctor and Jamie giving chase. The Doctor and Jamie eventually track the Tardis down to an antique shop run by Edward Waterfield. Waterfield gets the drop on The Doctor and Jamie, and all three are transported through time to the year 1866.
Once there, we learn that Waterfield and his partner Theodore Maxtible are working with the Daleks. The Daleks wish The Doctor to isolate the "human factor", so that they may discover why human beings keep defeating them. Maxtible hopes to garner the secret of changing metal into gold from the Daleks as a reward. Waterfield is simply hoping to gain the return of his daughter Victoria, who is being help captive by the Daleks.
In order to isolate the "human factor", Jamie is given the task of rescuing Victoria from the Daleks, while The Doctor and the Daleks watch. One of the tasks that Jamie faces is overcoming a powerful Turk by the name of Kemel. After rescuing Kemel from falling off the roof of Maxtible's house, Kemel and Jamie team-up to reach Victoria's room.
Kemel and Jamie barricade the door to Victoria's room, as the Daleks are trying to get through. However, Victoria is kidnapped yet again, this time by Arthur Terrall, a young man forced to work for the Daleks via mind control.
Victoria escapes and Terrall's mind control is broken. The Doctor tell Maxtible's daughter Ruth to take Terrall away from Maxtible's house, warning that he might otherwise fall prey to the Daleks' again.
After the experiment, The Doctor implants the "human factor" into three waiting Daleks. The Daleks start to act more human and also begin to question their orders, which is something unheard of in a Dalek.
Victoria is taken to Skaro by the Daleks. Maxtible, Waterfield, Kemel, Jamie and The Doctor all follow in succession. While on Skaro, The Doctor learns that by isolating the "human factor", it has shown the Daleks what constitutes the "Dalek factor". The Daleks plan to implant this "Dalek factor" into the human race. Maxtible is the first victim of this experiment, forced to walk through an archway that implants the "Dalek factor" as one walks through. The success of Maxtible's conversion causes the Daleks to choose The Doctor as their second victim.
The Doctor is unaffected, as he's not human. Meanwhile, the Daleks that have been implanted with the "human factor" have been questioning their orders. The Doctor tricks the Dalek Emperor, ordering that all Daleks should pass through the archway, thus being implanted with the "Dalek factor". Unknown to the Dalek Emperor, the archway has been reprogrammed by The Doctor to implant the "human factor" instead.
This causes a civil war amongst the Daleks. Maxtible and Kemal are killed during the battle, and Waterfield sacrifices himself to save The Doctor.
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria watch as the Dalek city is destroyed and then leave Skaro via the Tardis, which had been brought to Skaro by the Daleks.
Review-
The Evil of the Daleks starts off with a great concept, the theft of the Tardis and the need for The Doctor to retrieve it. However, I found the Evil of the Daleks to be a major chore to get through. The whole bit where Jamie and Kemal have to rescue Victoria seems to take forever, and one wonders why there's a need for a test anyway. After all, most of the qualities that make up the "human factor", like courage, resourcefulness and compassion, are well known without resorting to a need for a test.
Maxtible, of course, represents another part of human nature, greed. Maxtible wants the secret of turning metal into gold, and hopes to garner this secret from the Daleks. The Daleks, of course, reward Maxtible by turning him into a Dalek slave by implanting the "Dalek factor" into him.
Victoria isn't given much to do in this particular story. For a major portion, her character's purpose is to cower in fear from the Daleks and to act as the "princess" that the hero Jamie has to rescue in the test to discover the "human factor".
While I'm not an overall fan of the middle part of this story, the ending is simply spectacular. Having the Daleks fight a civil war against each other was a brilliant idea. It's just such a shame that the only surviving episode is episode two. If only one episode was going to survive, I wish it had been episode seven with the battle between the Daleks. Fortunately, there is some footage from the battle that was saved via 8mm film that is available to view.
Had they shortened the middle part of this story, I might have rated Evil of the Daleks much higher. As it is, the less interesting middle part drops this slightly below other series/season four stories like the Macra Terror and Power of the Daleks.
Evil of the Daleks would be the last of the Dalek stories for quite a while, as we wouldn't see the Daleks again until the Third Doctor era.
My usual series/season four wrap-up will be next, to be followed by the first story from the fifth series/season, the Tomb of the Cybermen.
