This is to my mind possibly the worst Dalek story of all time - even Secs in the City had a few neat ideas. This is the Dalek story you have because the ratings demand you have another Dalek story.
Although I may be being a bit harsh on "The Chase" because I only recently re-listened to "The Power of the Daleks", and it simply doesn't compare.
Nation is obviously bored with his creations by this point. Though it doesn't help that the production team had decided that twelve dalek episodes a year was a good idea - that's a quarter of the yearly episode count!
I'll always maintain that any series that has a really popular enemy shouldn't just bring them back yearly - much better to give them a break and only bring them back when you think you have an interesting story to tell. The Borg, The Master during JNT's run, the Daleks in the latter half of Rusty's run - they all suffer and become less threatening as the writers struggle to find things to do with them.
By Daleks' Master Plan Nation was literally handing in scene breakdowns with no dialogue, which then meant Dennis Spooner did most of the writing, hence it being a better story than this one.
I adore Power. I still think one of the creepiest scenes ever within the show is the Doctor trying to warn everyone, while a dalek drowns him out by repeating, louder and louder, "I am your servant!"
I like the bit in "Power" where Lesterson tells one of the Daleks to back off from threatening the Doctor, and there's the longest pause possible before it petulantly goes "I obey" and actually does move away,
I often think that Whitaker knew what made the Daleks work as villains much more than Nation ever did.
Once he created Davros, Nation persisted with this idea that the Daleks are boring conversationalists and so need a spokesperson. Whereas Whitaker knew that they weren't boring if you showed different facets of their character, like sheer cunning, and their use of psychology against the humans.
The beauty and strength of Power is that the audience knows what the Daleks are capable of, as does the Doctor, and instead of doing the obvious, we're watching them manipulate the humans into a civil war, just so they can get what they need - and then they'll kill everybody.
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Although I may be being a bit harsh on "The Chase" because I only recently re-listened to "The Power of the Daleks", and it simply doesn't compare.
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I'll always maintain that any series that has a really popular enemy shouldn't just bring them back yearly - much better to give them a break and only bring them back when you think you have an interesting story to tell. The Borg, The Master during JNT's run, the Daleks in the latter half of Rusty's run - they all suffer and become less threatening as the writers struggle to find things to do with them.
By Daleks' Master Plan Nation was literally handing in scene breakdowns with no dialogue, which then meant Dennis Spooner did most of the writing, hence it being a better story than this one.
I adore Power. I still think one of the creepiest scenes ever within the show is the Doctor trying to warn everyone, while a dalek drowns him out by repeating, louder and louder, "I am your servant!"
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Petulant Daleks are awesome.
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Once he created Davros, Nation persisted with this idea that the Daleks are boring conversationalists and so need a spokesperson. Whereas Whitaker knew that they weren't boring if you showed different facets of their character, like sheer cunning, and their use of psychology against the humans.
The beauty and strength of Power is that the audience knows what the Daleks are capable of, as does the Doctor, and instead of doing the obvious, we're watching them manipulate the humans into a civil war, just so they can get what they need - and then they'll kill everybody.
Reply
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