EVIL AND POWER OF THE DALEKS

[johnstewart]

Many won't be aware of the way 'Evil' built up. I seem to recall in the first episode it was more like a spy thriller similar to an episode of 'Vendetta' or 'Troubleshooters'. The hired villain Kennedy was observing The Doctor and Jamie from distances through binoculars; then following them throughout the episode. I seem to recall in this first episode he wore a grey raincoat similar to the character plyed by Philip Madoc who betrays the Doctor to the Daleks in the film version of 'Dalek Invasion of Earth'. There were swift cuts between the Antique shop and Airport scenes; which appeared to be exactly the same as the setting / shots seen in 'Faceless ones'. To such degree in my minds eye; in the scene where Kennedy effected entry initially by climbing in through a window I imaging the airport plain being just outside the shop with it on the outskirts!
I recall the following scene well. Kennedy hid behind one of the high bookshelves in the shop and was able to spy on and see that a square button on the wall or similar slid another of these shelves back as a panel for secret entry to a white garage like room. After those he observed left, he copied the procedure to gain entry. A lead up piece of action not seen in episode 2 was where he 'swaggered', smiling quietly to himself with hands in the pockets of his mac and looked a chair like machine against the wall up and down, then casually turning a dial and flicking a switch. This is the point where he spied the wall safe and took the mac off. Episode 2 resumes where he walks over and begins breaking the dial code on the safe whilst a ghostly Dalek silhouette is seen slowly fashing on and off into view materialising behind him. The turning in shock to see the Dalek question 'WHO -ARE - YOU!?' seen in existing material must have been the cliffhanger fade shot.

These episodes of 'Who' were regularly punctuated by a 'next week on Doctor Who' trailer similar to the device used now; but this would fade in from black after the episode end credits had faded. A voice over male announcer would say 'In next weeks Doctor Who..' and described events. This gave viewers a feel of the overall story early on. Viewers like myself were hooked by the worry of the TARDIS being driven off and confiscated on the back of a lorry and that the Doctor wouldn't get it back. Pertwees Doctor later of course was in a similar position but became comfortable and adapted to his Earth bound situation.

It was clear early on it was a Doctor Who story with an unusual atmosphere; though built up in the last 4 episodes towards the Film high adventure style climax. Certainly the impression is that the last 4 episodes were extravagent and expensive with a large amount of film inserts. I recall only the cutaway shots of the city of the Daleks being on film. This is almost definite. I recall in the scene recorded in NAME? - Cornells super 8s where the silver Daleks lid jumps up and down then tipped off later (not recorded on his footage); the camera had a close up cut or pan down to the lid on the floor which had a mass inside it like an electronic brain with strands and wires sticking out of it and shaving type foam. The large area of white caused a solarised effect of 'burn out' also with an overhead studio light catching the edge of the Dalek lid. This is characteristic of electronic studio cameras of which the burn out effect was purposefully employed for the original 'extermination' effect.

this was a much better effort than David Whittakers later 'Wheel in Space' which though written with a layout brief by Kit Pedler was format bound and slightly wishy washy and tainted by comedy relief and padding.

[johnstewart]

Just to add re: 'Power'. Contrary to its reputation this story seemed at the time to have great highlights (ends of episodes 1, 2 and 4) and a super climax. But several peoplke seem to think it tended to be a bit drab interim and drag.

At the time; Troughtons Doctor wasn't established and the 'funny peculiar' and devious rather than endearing later incarnation of his Doctor was alienating.

[Deleted]

I thought These were two Cracking adventures & I would love to see them given the Animation treatment similar to what Invasion got , but I recall Terry Nation saying he thought that the Daleks had been tamed down a bit By David Whittaker

[garrettgilchrist]

You really ought to track down "recon" versions of Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks, or even just the audio soundtracks.

I'm 26 and not old enough to have any memories of these stories, but saw both through the wonders of Youtube, and the wonder of existing audio and photos made into reconstructions.

Both excellent Doctor Who tales. Power of the Daleks is notable for its creepy, early performance from Troughton's Doctor, who takes a nice chance by not letting the audience know whether he's still "their" Doctor or not .... rather being strange and devious, and proving who he is only when he saves the day at the end - as usual ....

Whitaker's Dalek stories are largely better than anything Nation ever did - and Nation's stories were quite good.

>>I thought These were two Cracking adventures & I would love to see them given the Animation treatment similar to what Invasion got

........ A bit like this?

orangecow.org/who-sprites2/1videos/evilofthedalekstest2.mov

[John Andersen]

petethetim said:

I thought These were two Cracking adventures & I would love to see them given the Animation treatment similar to what Invasion got , but I recall Terry Nation saying he thought that the Daleks had been tamed down a bit By David Whittaker

Sadly, no further animations of lost episodes are planned by the BBC. You have a better chance of recovering some lost episodes before the BBC have another release like you saw in The Invasion.

[Deleted]

johnandersen said:

petethetim said:

I thought These were two Cracking adventures & I would love to see them given the Animation treatment similar to what Invasion got , but I recall Terry Nation saying he thought that the Daleks had been tamed down a bit By David Whittaker

Sadly, no further animations of lost episodes are planned by the BBC. You have a better chance of recovering some lost episodes before the BBC have another release like you saw in The Invasion.

Such a Pity because I thought it worked well

[John Andersen]

petethetim said:

johnandersen said:

Sadly, no further animations of lost episodes are planned by the BBC. You have a better chance of recovering some lost episodes before the BBC have another release like you saw in The Invasion.

Such a Pity because I thought it worked well

Yeah, and those are the items that I would like to add to my Doctor Who collection. It looks like I will not be purchasing any more BBC releases for a long time. The next purchase I will probably make is if they have more animations of lost episodes or if they manage to recover some lost episodes and release them on DVD.

[johnstewart]

Actually bearing in mind the early comments on this thread. How the audience found the first change for the Doctor so difficult.

I'm wondering if the BBC still had the episodes; what the reaction would have been to a repeat of the first Troughton at the time following 'WAR GAMES'.

Troughton would have been the accepted Doctor by then. As it was I believe the filler between seasons (the first series of STAR TREK) was a ratings flop. The British audience only took to the series with the weekday 1970 repeats. And that type of repeat by the BBC in those days was quite common place; usually after the current series had ended.

[Daniel O'Brien]

johnstewart said:

Actually bearing in mind the early comments on this thread. How the audience found the first change for the Doctor so difficult.

I'm wondering if the BBC still had the episodes; what the reaction would have been to a repeat of the first Troughton at the time following 'WAR GAMES'.

Troughton would have been the accepted Doctor by then. As it was I believe the filler between seasons (the first series of STAR TREK) was a ratings flop. The British audience only took to the series with the weekday 1970 repeats. And that type of repeat by the BBC in those days was quite common place; usually after the current series had ended.

Did the master tapes for 'Power' still exist in 1969? A repeat would have been problematic, as the original contractual agreements had - I think - expired by then (was the standard time period two years or 18 months?) I don't know if Terry Nation's joint-ownership of the Daleks would have been another factor.

I doubt the BBC would have been interested in reshowing old Troughton shows. The series was about to be relaunched in colour, with a new star and a new look for the new decade.

[John Fleming]

johnandersen said:

Sadly, no further animations of lost episodes are planned by the BBC. You have a better chance of recovering some lost episodes before the BBC have another release like you saw in The Invasion.

Apparently because "The Invasion" didn't sell as well as was expected, proving that the BBC is simply a profit making organisation rather the public service broadcaster it is supposed to be.

I know these animations don't make themselves, and the talented animators and restorers deserve handsome reward for their work, but didn't this retail at around £18? You can walk into Tesco and pick up recent blockbuster movies for around a tenner which cost a sight more to make, so IMHO Auntie should have released this as a budget DVD by means of an apology to the fans for junking the original. The same goes for "Lost In Time", a wonderful set but £30, you're having a laugh. These can be picked up much cheaper at Play or Amazon but that's beside the point, if they were available on the high street at say £8 for "The Invasion" and £15 for "Lost In Time" they would have sold bucketloads more.

[John Fleming]

johnandersen said:

Sadly, no further animations of lost episodes are planned by the BBC. You have a better chance of recovering some lost episodes before the BBC have another release like you saw in The Invasion.

Apparently because "The Invasion" didn't sell as well as was expected, suggesting that the BBC is simply a profit making organisation rather the public service broadcaster it is supposed to be.

I know these animations don't make themselves, and the talented animators and restorers deserve handsome reward for their work, but didn't this retail at around £18? You can walk into Tesco and pick up recent blockbuster movies for around a tenner which cost a sight more to make, so IMHO Auntie should have released this as a budget DVD by means of an apology to the fans for junking the original. The same goes for "Lost In Time", a wonderful set but £30, you're having a laugh. These can be picked up much cheaper at Play or Amazon but that's beside the point, if they were available on the high street at say £8 for "The Invasion" and £15 for "Lost In Time" they would have sold bucketloads more.

[Daniel O'Brien]

I think the situation is more complicated. IIRC the animation was produced for BBCi, who then discovered that rights issues meant they couldn't use it for internet broadcast. Rather than waste some expensive footage, 'The Invasion' was released on DVD. I believe that 2 Entertain paid for a couple of shots to be redone but they certainly didn't meet the full cost of the animation. The extras budget for a 'Who' DVD doesn't cover the expense of producing animated episodes from scratch. 1960s 'Doctor Who' is a niche market, with nowhere near the sales potential of a movie blockbuster.

I don't know how well 'The Invasion' sold, but it was very much a one-off, with no further part-animated releases planned at the time. Maybe fully animated stories will be possible one day but that's a long way off.

[Ash Stewart]

johnf said:

Apparently because "The Invasion" didn't sell as well as was expected, suggesting that the BBC is simply a profit making organisation rather the public service broadcaster it is supposed to be.

No, it suggests that 2Entertain, the company that releases the DVDs, is a profit making organisation. Which is exactly what it was set up to do.

The BBC is a public service broadcaster, and hence you will find on its channels programmes tailored to suit all tastes and whims.

[Ash Stewart]

dobrien said:

I think the situation is more complicated. IIRC the animation was produced for BBCi, who then discovered that rights issues meant they couldn't use it for internet broadcast. Rather than waste some expensive footage, 'The Invasion' was released on DVD. I believe that 2 Entertain paid for a couple of shots to be redone but they certainly didn't meet the full cost of the animation. The extras budget for a 'Who' DVD doesn't cover the expense of producing animated episodes from scratch. 1960s 'Doctor Who' is a niche market, with nowhere near the sales potential of a movie blockbuster.

I seem to remember reading that the full cost of producing one animated episode was about the same as the DVD budget for three or four releases. Something of that order, anyway.

[Richard Bignell]

johnf said:

Apparently because "The Invasion" didn't sell as well as was expected, proving that the BBC is simply a profit making organisation rather the public service broadcaster it is supposed to be.

Sorry John, but that's absolute rubbish. *If* any further animations are produced, they'll be done by BBC Worldwide/2|entertain - independent companies that are specifically there to make a profit, not to make loss making philanthropic gestures.

I know these animations don't make themselves, and the talented animators and restorers deserve handsome reward for their work, but didn't this retail at around £18? You can walk into Tesco and pick up recent blockbuster movies for around a tenner which cost a sight more to make

Again, a total non-argument. Given that any "recent blockbuster" is likely to have enormous worldwide sales rather than the comparative drop in the ocean of DW sales, you can't possibly compare the two.

Richard