Production Code: LL

First Transmitted

1 - 20/05/1967 18:00

2 - 27/05/1967 17:50

3 - 03/06/1967 17:45

4 - 10/06/1967 17:45

5 - 17/06/1967 17:45

6 - 24/06/1967 17:45

7 - 01/07/1967 18:25

Plot

The TARDIS has been stolen by antiques dealer Edward Waterfield, who lures the Doctor and Jamie into a trap. They are transported back to Waterfield's own time, 1867, where his daughter Victoria is being held hostage by the Daleks to ensure his cooperation.

The Daleks force the Doctor to monitor Jamie's performance of a test - the rescue of Victoria - with the supposed intention of identifying the human factor: the special quality possessed by humans that enables them always to defeat the Daleks. The Doctor, having succeeded in this task, implants the human factor into three test Daleks - with the result that they become friendly and playful!

Everyone is transported back to Skaro where the Doctor discovers that the Daleks' true aim has been to isolate the Dalek factor - the impulse to destroy - and implant it into humans. The Emperor Dalek informs him that his TARDIS will be used to spread the Dalek factor throughout all time.

By a ruse, however, the Doctor is able to infuse many more Daleks with the human factor. A civil war breaks out between the two Dalek factions and they are apparently all destroyed. As Waterfield has been killed during the course of the action, the Doctor offers Victoria a place aboard the TARDIS.

Episode Endings

Waterfield's henchman Kennedy, absorbed in rifling his boss's secret safe, fails to notice as a Dalek materialises behind him. He turns and stares in horror as the Dalek grates 'Who are you?' and demands that he answer.

Two Daleks wait for the test on Jamie to begin. One intones that the humans have been warned that any delay will result in their death. Unaware that Jamie is currently missing, the other replies: 'There will be no delay!'

Jamie makes his way cautiously through the booby-trapped corridors of the house. Suddenly a figure looms out of the darkness ahead of him. He calls out, asking who is there. The burly Turk Kemel prepares to attack him...

Jamie and Kemel reach Victoria's room. Jamie bangs on her door to bring her out. Suddenly a door opens behind them, and a Dalek emerges...

Jamie looks on in bemusement as the humanised Daleks play a game of 'trains' with the Doctor, who rides around on the back of one of them...

An alcove is illuminated, revealing the captured TARDIS. The Emperor Dalek announces that the Doctor will 'take the Dalek factor and spread it through the entire history of Earth'.

The Doctor looks down at the Dalek city and mutters 'The final end'. The city is in ruins, with exterminated Daleks all around. One Dalek, however, is still alive...

Roots

Hammer films.

Sherlock Holmes (especially 'The Norwood Builder').

Poe ('The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar').

Alice Through the Looking Glass.

The Beatles' Paperback Writer and other records from July 1966.

Dr Faustus.

Dialogue Triumphs

Dalek : "There is only one form of life that matters - Dalek life!"

Jamie : [To the Doctor] "Anyone would think that it's a little game, and it's not. People have died. The Daleks are all over, fit to murder the lot of us, and all you can say is that you've had a good night's work. Well, I'm telling you this, we're finished. You're just too callous for me. Anything goes by the board, anything at all. You don't give that much for a living soul except yourself. Just whose side are you on?"

Dalek Emperor : "So you are the Doctor."

The Doctor : "We meet at last. I wondered if we ever would."

Dalek Emperor : "The experiment is over?"

The Doctor : "Yes. I have implanted the human factor in the three Daleks that you gave me. [To Waterfield and Jamie.] When I say "run", run."

Dalek Emperor : "Speak louder!"

The Doctor : "I was merely telling my friend that the day of the Daleks is coming to an end."

Dalek Emperor : "Explain."

The Doctor : "It's very simple. Somewhere in the Dalek race there are three Daleks with the human factor. Gradually they will come to question. They will persuade other Daleks to question. You will have a rebellion on your planet."

Dalek Emperor : "No!"

The Doctor : "I say yes! I've beaten you, and I don't care what you do to me now."

The Doctor : [In reflective mood] "I am not a student of human nature.. I am a professor of a much wider academy of which human nature is merely a part."

Dialogue Disasters

Dalek : "You will not feed the flying pests outside."

Maxtible : "Everything you see here was created by us two."

Double Entendre

Molly : "I do know what it's like with soldiers..."

Continuity

The Daleks in this story are controlled by an Emperor, and the Dalek 'group mind' cannot cope with questions to orders.

The Doctor, who normally doesn't carry money, is able to hire a taxi to follow Bob Hall. He pushes a Dalek over a cliff in episode seven. The Daleks seem to measure weight in ounces and state that travelling in time has made the Doctor 'more than human' [the Daleks clearly do not know of the Time Lords at this point, and have encountered physiological problems when time travelling (see The Two Doctors)]. He seems to believe that the Daleks can destroy the TARDIS. (Cf The Krotons)

QV

The First History of the Daleks

Location

London, 20 July 1966 and 2 June 1866 onwards.

Skaro.

Untelevised

The Doctor gives Jamie a little lecture on the Crimean war, and states that he watched the Charge of the Light Brigade ('magnificent folly').

Trivia

The Beatles' 'Paperback Writer' and the Seekers' 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen' are used as background music on the juke box in the coffee bar scenes in the first episode.

The theme given to the Daleks by Dudley Simpson in his incidental music was based on the series' own signature tune.

Patrick Troughton and Deborah Watling appear only in film inserts in the fourth episode as they were on holiday during the week when it was recorded.

Sound effects from The Mutants (a.k.a. The Daleks) and The Daleks' Master Plan are reused for the Dalek city.

Some Louis Marx 'tricky action' toy Daleks are used in modelwork for the scenes of the destruction of the Dalek city.

The first individual visual effects designer credits ever given on the series appears, for Michealjohn Harris and Peter Day. Previously, visual effects had been handled by the series' scenic designers rather than by the BBC's Visual Effects Department, although the Department as a whole did receive a credit on the first story, 100,000 BC (a.k.a An Unearthly Child).

Michealjohn Harris is the person whose name is most often misspelt on Doctor Who's closing credits.

Goofs

In episode two, part of a camera appears as the Dalek questions Victoria.

The massed Daleks of the final battle are obviously toys.

Why not just kidnap the Doctor and Jamie?

Why does Terrall get Toby to kidnap Jamie?

Since Jamie is so essential to Dalek plans, why are the traps set for him so lethal?

How do they know he's the Doctor's companion anyway?

Cast & Crew

Cast

The Doctor - Patrick Troughton

Jamie - Frazer Hines

Victoria - Deborah Watling from Episode two

Arthur Terrall - Gary Watson

Bob Hall - Alec Ross

Dalek - Robert Jewell

Dalek - Gerald Taylor

Dalek - John Scott Martin

Dalek - Murphy Grumbar

Dalek - Ken Tyllsen

Dalek Voice - Roy Skelton

Dalek Voice - Peter Hawkins

Edward Waterfield - John Bailey

Kemel - Sonny Caldinez

Kennedy - Griffith Davies

Mollie Dawson - Jo Rowbottom

Perry - Geoffrey Colville

Ruth Maxtible - Brigit Forsyth

Theodore Maxtible - Marius Goring

Toby - Windsor Davies

Crew

Director - Derek Martinus

Director - Timothy Combe Dalek fight film sequence only

Assistant Floor Manager - David Tilley

Assistant Floor Manager - Margaret Rushton

Associate Producer - Peter Bryant

Costumes - Sandra Reid

Dalek Stories Created By - Terry Nation

Designer - Chris Thompson

Fight Arranger - Peter Diamond

Film Cameraman - John Baker

Film Editor - Ted Walter

Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson

Make-Up - Gillian James

Producer - Innes Lloyd

Production Assistant - Timothy Combe

Script Editor - Peter Bryant from Episode four

Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson

Story Editor - Gerry Davis until Episode three

Studio Lighting - Wally Whitmore

Studio Sound - Bryan Forgham

Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire

Visual Effects - Michealjohn Harris

Visual Effects - Peter Day

Writer - David Whitaker

Bottom Line - from The Discontinuity Guide

'The final end.' Designed to kill off the Daleks with a big bang, The Evil of the Daleks does just that. A grandiose production which papers over its scientifically implausible aspects with a confident swagger.

Analysis - from Doctor Who, the Television Companion

'The final end,' states the Doctor as the seventh and last episode of The Evil of the Daleks draws to a close. The momentous event to which he is referring is the ultimate destruction (or so he thinks) of his old enemies the Daleks in a devastating civil war that has reduced their gleaming metal city to a smouldering ruin. Coming at the conclusion of the fourth season - a season that has seen Doctor Who successfully negotiating its crucial first change of lead actor - it can also be said to mark the end of the first major chapter in the series' long history.

This sense of closure is engendered not only by the apparent destruction of the Daleks (something in no way invalidated by the fact that they were, in the event, later resurrected) but also by the fact that the story harks back to the series' roots and showcases many of the main elements that have contributed towards its early success. In taking the unusual course of splitting the action between three very different settings - Earth in the present, Earth in the past and an alien planet in the future - it provides an excellent illustration of the flexibility afforded by the concept of space and time travel and encompasses all the principal story types established within the basic Doctor Who format. It even sees the Doctor revisiting the Daleks' home planet, Skaro, the scene of his original encounter with them in the second transmitted story. Such return visits may now seem unremarkable, but in 1967 this was thrilling stuff.

Also reminiscent of the series' roots is the fact that the Doctor appears during certain parts of the story to be acting in a decidedly furtive and suspect manner. More so than at any other time since the early part of the first season, he seems an enigmatic and potentially dangerous figure with a distinctly dark side to his nature. Jamie is even moved at one point to denounce him as being 'too callous' (see 'Quote, unquote') and threaten to part company with him as soon as they reach their next destination - an echo of feelings expressed by the Doctor's original human companions, Ian and Barbara, in the early days of their travels in the TARDIS. The Doctor's dispassionate manipulation of individuals and events in order to bring about the Daleks' destruction provides an effective reminder of his alien qualities. 'I am not a student of human nature,' he comments at one point, 'I am a professor of a far wider academy of which human nature is merely a part'.

David Whitaker was an ideal person to script this virtual homage to the series' own ethos. As one of the small group of individuals responsible for developing the format in the first place, he understood perhaps better than any other writer what it was that made it so successful and gave it its unique appeal. His scripts for the story are superbly crafted, recounting a suspenseful and epic tale with a wealth of striking images and memorable dialogue. Particularly outstanding are his compelling and finely-drawn characters, including the naïvely misguided scientist Edward Waterfield and his innocent young daughter Victoria; the ruthless entrepreneur Theodore Maxtible, obsessed with the alchemist's dream of transforming base metal into gold; Maxtible's prim, deluded daughter Ruth; her hapless suitor Arthur Terrall, driven half insane by the Daleks' malign influence; the mute Turkish wrestler Kemel; and, of course, the Daleks themselves, positively radiating evil in one of their strongest ever vehicles.

The story's production values are also high. The scenes set in Victorian England, evoking impressions of sources as diverse as H G Wells and Lewis Carroll, are especially well-realised, consistent with the BBC's reputation for excellence in the production of period drama. Those set on Skaro, while perhaps lacking the distinctive look of earlier Dalek stories, are nonetheless effective. The imposing Dalek Emperor is a truly awe-inspiring innovation, and now one of the series' great icons.

The Evil of the Daleks is, in short, one of those rare stories truly deserving of that much over-used label 'classic'. Doctor Who had featured many excellent stories before, but rarely had it been as enthralling, as gripping or as exciting as this. 'It is Doctor Who at its very, very best,' commented Jeremy Bentham in DWB No. 50, dated December 1987, 'not only obeying all the rules of good drama production but rising to the challenge of making credible science-fiction melodrama while neatly avoiding all the temptations either to send it up or, worse, camp it up.'

Many scenes stay fresh in the viewer's memory long after they are witnessed: the TARDIS being stolen and driven away on a lorry; the Daleks gliding through the wood-panelled corridors of Maxtible's home; the Doctor playing 'trains' with three humanised Daleks; Jamie growing distrustful of the Doctor as he seems to fall under the Daleks' influence; the possessed Maxtible walking around with his arms outstretched like a Dalek, mirroring the actions of many thousands of schoolchildren over the previous four years; and the climactic civil war on Skaro, with the Emperor's increasingly desperate cries of 'You must not fight in here!' and copious quantities of gunge spewing from the tops of exterminated Daleks.

It is unsurprising to find that the BBC's Audience Research Report on the story's final episode, while indicating that there were as usual a minority who simply disliked the series and 'hoped that, as this episode suggested, this was indeed the last of the Daleks - and, for that matter, Doctor Who, the TARDIS and "the whole stupid, childish, silly boiling lot",' indicated an overwhelmingly positive response from contemporary viewers. The most commonly expressed opinion was that the story had been 'as amusing and exciting as ever' and that 'the entire Doctor Who series, if undoubtedly "pure escapism", was nevertheless "good fun" and certainly utterly harmless'. Children, it was found, 'still adored the Daleks, and were devastated by the suggestion that these amusing and fantastic creatures had been finally and irrevocably wiped out'. Adult fans, too, insisted that 'the Doctor Who series (and particularly those adventures involving the Daleks) were hard to beat... and they would be sorry indeed if there were to be no more'.

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This episode guide is made up of the text of The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, and Doctor Who: The Television Companion by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker. The Discontinuity Guide © Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping 1995. Doctor Who: The Television Companion © David J Howe and Stephen James Walker 1998, 2003.