Thanks to an industrious Doctor Who fan, I have copies of a reconstruction of “Evil of the Daleks,” the fifth season Doctor Who epic that had the Daleks invade Victorian England, leading to a final confrontation between the Doctor and the Emperor Dalek on Skaro.
Disappointed in “Evil of the Daleks”? Far from it. I enjoyed it immensely. The sound quality was crystal clear, the still pictures were rock-solid, the one extant episode looked very good, and all in all I wish I could trade all of “Time-Flight” for just one more episode of “Evil,” preferably the final episode just to see the fight in the Dalek throne room in all its glory, but I’d settle for any other episode, too, maybe episode four where there’s so little dialogue but so much action with Jamie and Kemel skulking through the mansion.
Troughton’s performance was just incredible. After the NAs it’s easy to think of McCoy as being the cold, manipulative Doctor, but Troughton’s Doctor in “Evil” was just as manipulative, maneuvering Jamie into running the maze, maneuvering the Daleks into infecting themselves with the Human Factor. And the Daleks! Scheming, alien, and just plain evil. And when the Dalek Supreme tells the Doctor that he’s done their work by isolating the Dalek Factor, that’s a pretty chilling moment. I got the sense that the Doctor has probably never been so close to losing, to being beaten by a foe. Here was the Doctor out-thought, and that’s a take-your-breath-away moment if ever there was one.
Amazing! This is Doctor Who at its finest! 🙂