Doctor Who Death to the Daleks

On their way to Flourana the Doctor and Sarah Jane get waylaid by a mysterious power drain and land on a planet called “Exellon” on this planet there are two points of interests first a strange metallic root creature that can destroy Daleks and the fabulous “City of the Excellons” one of the 700 wonders of the universe. As well as the natives there is an expedition from Earth that fell prey to the same power drain then some Daleks appear who have suffered the same power drain. From then on it’s a power struggle between the crafty Daleks, the hapless humans and the primitive natives who worship the city as a god.

One of the few …To the Daleks as opposed to ….Of the Daleks episodes the episode title leaves you with no illusions as to what we think of the Daleks or what we would do to them should we find them in our power. Jon Pertwee is on fine form here in his last season as The Doctor and Liz Sladen acquits herself well especially in the gasping in horror she was really good at that but also grunting in horror which she practically invented. And with so much horror to grunt at we get treated to it about every six minutes. But the real star of the show is Bellal the tame Excelleon who helps The Doctor break into the City of the Excellons. Despite being trapped in an alien suit that is clearly made out of bathmats his expression and voice combine to make him a likeable character.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the Daleks are eventually defeated although exactly how is open to conjecture, since once the city is destroyed and power is restored the Daleks seem to have no interest in sticking around and exterminating their oldest and deadliest enemy. Also unsurprisingly given this is a Terry Nation episode someone has to make the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the Daleks. Although this did seem a little pointless given that the Daleks were flying away without the valuable mineral they came for. Maybe he just wasn’t happy? If you’re a fan of third Doctor Dalek stories then this is a compulsory addition to your collection.

Video: Video quality is great although the CSO (or Blue Screen) is painfully obvious that’s a fault in the original video.

Audio: Two channels of sound thundering towards your ears like an angry hippo. 

Special Features:

Commentary – Which is ok but nothing to get excited about

Beneath the City of the Exxilons - Cast and crew look back on the making of this story. A Fairly good making of, but it is a little obvious that these days we are missing the key players to really make it compelling viewing.

Studio Recording - A rare glimpse into the production of a Third Doctor story, well I say rare, but almost every third Doctor DVD release has had same on it.

On the Set of Dr Who and the Daleks - Behind the scenes on the first Dalek film in 1965.Which is great but…why?

Doctor Who Stories – Dalek Men: Not as you might suspect an in-depth analysis of the Dalek slaves The Robo Men and how they relate to the subject of Free Will and Zombies in a 20^th century context. But in fact a nice chat with some of the actors who played Daleks. It always amazes me at what the BBC thinks that I might be interested in. Especially as I’ve seen this footage before.