The 72 serial, Death To The Daleks, aired February 23 and ran through March 16 1974. It's the third story of the 11th season and the Doctor and Sarah Jane were heading for a beach holiday when they crash land on the planet Exxilon. Something is sucking all the power out of the Tardis. The people on the planet are pretty primitive. There are some Space marines from Earth on Exxilon. They're trying to collect a mineral that is the basis of a cure for a plague ravaging the Earth. The lives of millions of people are at stake. The Daleks are looking for the same mineral and they've had the same power issues and have little power over anyone. The Doctor and the humans join forces with the Daleks but that doesn't work to well. The Daleks are just plain dicks. You can't trust them at all.
The Exxilons manage to kill a Dalek at one point. Since much of the program is shot in a quarry there is the usual problem of the Daleks moving around. They shot many scenes with the Daleks on a track that would normally be used for moving a camera around. They tried to hide it by painting the rented track a sand color and banking real sand next to the tracks. You can see where the track is in the picture to the right. Most of the shots keep the track out of sight much better. The Doc and the rest of the humans and aliens act out their parts and move around, getting caught and escaping, through the show. There's plenty of running around in a quarry and some hallways when they get into the ancient city. There's a Powerful Computer that is running everything and it's at the heart of the power issue. You know that PC is going to get turned off. Sarah Jane and one of the Space Marines steal the mineral from the Daleks. Another Space Marine hides aboard the Daleks ship for a bit of sabotage. Boom! Bye bye Daleks.
The story is by Terry Nation and I found it more enjoyable than most of his stories. The show gets mixed reviews online but i thought it was more ok than poor. It's a four parter and I like those better. There's a fair bit of story and a bunch of different characters to keep me interested.
There's a making of short, a piece on the guys who acted in the Daleks and other creatures, some raw takes from the studio, an isolated score, a commentary with some an actor, the director and other crew members. I actually listened to most of the commentary track.
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