Fixing Destiny of the Daleks

How would you do it?

As much as I enjoy the final version, I have to admit, the tone felt wrong for a sequel to Genesis, it felt too lighthearted and comical after the former and could have benefited from having a few more moments of darkness and atmosphere. Namely the final scene of the Daleks killing off prisoners could have been more darker and suspense filled. I'd leave Davros after Genesis as I much as I enjoy the Terry Molloy incarnation, his death felt rather poetic and fitting for that story's ending.

Can't fix what isn't broken

I have quite a list.

- Re: Romana. I would probably explain her regeneration as being caused by long-term exposure to the Key (maybe even getting a glass splinter from it) which causes her to regenerate into Astra's form.

- Much of episode one I'd leave intact until the Daleks appear. Mainly I'd need them to be in more solid condition, and to be a lot faster and more menacing in how they move.

- The Romana interrogation scene should end on a close-up of Romana covering her ears as the surrounding Daleks bark "Obey!" at her.

- The scene in the mines with the slaves, I would need to make it more lucid that the Daleks regularly give the slaves anti-radiation pills. I think dissolve flashbacks to the Dalek attacks that saw the other slaves captured would be very effective. Also the Dalek threat that if Romana isn't fit for work, she'll be exterminated should've been taken a lot more seriously with her desperately trying to prove herself work-able.

- A few things I'd make more lucid about the Daleks' miming. Firstly that they're digging into the old Kaled city to recover a particular access tunnel that connects underground with the bunker (something Sevrin mentioned back in Genesis). Secondly, that the Daleks aren't actually expecting to Davros to be alive, but are hoping to either recover some of his surviving research notes, or use the material of his corpse to genetically engineer a perfect clone.

- I'd be very tempted when the Doctor's teasing the Daleks' inability to climb after them, *that's* when the Dalek reveals the power to levitate ("Romana? We've got a problem!").

- I would do something with the fact that Davros' last memory was of the Daleks turning on him. Maybe the Doctor gains his co-operation for a while by claiming the Daleks are still a threat to him and they must flee together, before Davros cottons on the Daleks want his help instead. At that point it should become a lot more of a struggle for the Doctor to push him or keep him from yelling their position to the Daleks.

- In the novelization, the Doctor suggests that the Daleks have devastated ten whole galaxies since Davros slept. I'd keep that line in, as it establishes the stakes if the Daleks succeed in using Davros to become more powerful.

- As Mercury pointed out, the actors in the hostage scene need to really up their game and the scene needed to be more dramatic, with the Daleks actually thrusting scared prisoners forward and them dying in agony.

- The moment the Doctor blows those two Daleks up should be a lot more emphasized, with more shots of their burning remains. This is the first breaking of the Daleks' invincible power so far, and should be a bigger deal than it is. Likewise, Davros should've sounded a lot more scared of the Doctor's ruthlessness here.

- There should be more exploration of the stalemate issue. The Daleks are not robots and the Doctor should emphasise this, but their lack of emotional range beyond hatred is what causes them to think in binary and lack imagination, hence their reliance on battle computers for strategy. Furthermore the Doctor should actually have to justify why he doesn't want the Movellans to win the war. Maybe he could be tempted by the idea, but come to realize the Daleks being vanquished will just mean the galaxy suffers the Movellan tyranny instead.

- The defeat of the Movellans definitely needs to be handled better. In the novelization the Doctor actually deafens them and brings them collapsing during the battle by attacking their computer systems. Something like that would help the battle scene.

- I'd want Davros to explain why the Movellans being out of action does nothing to change his plan to destroy their ship and the slaves. Whether his motives are to stop Movellan technology falling into human hands, or just plain malice. Maybe this could play into the Doctor's persuading of his Dalek bodyguard to turn against Davros.

- The final battle needs to be more coherently edited. It would be better infact if we saw the slaves having to withdraw, seeing that the Daleks were too powerful to be held back.

- If the Doctor is to blind a Dalek with his hat, it should at least come across like a desperate, crafty gamble, and he should've been at least looking right at it when he aimed and threw it. Throwing it over his shoulder just seems too easy.

- I think they should've come up with a much more effective visual for when Davros is frozen. Maybe a chilling scene where his face is literally turned into an ice cube before our eyes as he is protesting. Just something to give the story a bit of nightmare fuel.

- Maybe it would've been better to have done this story on the big screen instead of as a TV story. Maybe the time was right for the show to make the transition from TV show to cinema series. This probably would've looked great as a space adventure movie, with the budget to do it justice (and could've spearheaded cinema takes on City of Death, State of Decay).

All this is mainly just to paper over some cracks and give the story some more dramatic punctuation. Make it more than the sum of its parts.

Judging by Tanmann's post you may be expecting more detail but here goes:

I wouldn't have Adams as the script writer for this story - or season. Maybe just a guest writer for City of Death.

I would tone down the humour. It seriously undermines the dramatic tension that sbe in so many scenes.

I'd tear up the regeneration scene and make it more serious. What appeared on screen was farcical.

I'd take out the "paper cuts scissors" scenes. Too much time is spent on them and it comes across as silly.

I would recast Tim Barlow, Peter Striker, Suzanne Danielle & David Gooderson. Barlow was especially wooden and Gooderson just came across as an angry old man, not Davros. None of the subtleties of Wisher's performance.

The Daleks were crap. They looked shabby. Williams should have planned ahead. If he wanted to do a Dalek story and he was going to use storage props he should have checked well in advance they were fit for purpose and spent his budget accordingly. It wasn't for Hinchcliffe to be using his budget 3 or 4 years previously to keep the props in good condition "in case" a future producer wanted to use them.

Planning ahead could also have secured Wisher for the role.

The fight sequences with the Movellans were very poorly staged. They should have been better done. As it is they are either laughable or eye rolling.

In retrospect i think Davros could have been left out of this. He could have been resurrected in a later story if need be. He was badly used here.

I definitely agree with you about Gooderson.

He came off more as a bad-tempered cartoon than the psychotic intellectual of old.

Destiny Of The Daleks could've been fixed in two fairly simple ways.

1) Sacking Douglas Adams
2) Getting Tom Baker to stop acting like a cunt.

Indrid Mercury wrote:it felt too lighthearted and comical after the former and could have benefited from having a few more moments of darkness and atmosphere. Namely the final scene of the Daleks killing off prisoners could have been more darker and suspense filled.

Isn't that exactly why it's so terrifying? The nonchalant, emotionless way they are disposed of, and the prisoners' lack of hysteria - as if it's a release to finally be killed off after being slave driven by the Daleks?

Also, the scene where Romana is trapped and the Daleks break through the sealed-off area is among the scariest scenes the show has ever produced.

Boofer wrote:
Also, the scene where Romana is trapped and the Daleks break through the sealed-off area is among the scariest scenes the show has ever produced.

I agr- actually, no. I'm not going to give you that satisfaction.

iank wrote:

That animation is absolutely putrid. They looked much better when they were drawn.

Boofer wrote:

Indrid Mercury wrote:it felt too lighthearted and comical after the former and could have benefited from having a few more moments of darkness and atmosphere. Namely the final scene of the Daleks killing off prisoners could have been more darker and suspense filled.

Isn't that exactly why it's so terrifying? The nonchalant, emotionless way they are disposed of, and the prisoners' lack of hysteria - as if it's a release to finally be killed off after being slave driven by the Daleks?

Also, the scene where Romana is trapped and the Daleks break through the sealed-off area is among the scariest scenes the show has ever produced.

I have no problem with the lack of reactions. It's more the direction I have a problem with. For some reason the final sequence just felt like it could have been done better.

I don't hate Destiny and enjoy it quite a bit, but at the same time, I felt it could have been much better.

It's not a colossal letdown like Ressurection though, I'll give it that.

Indrid Mercury wrote:
It's not a colossal letdown like Ressurection though

InGRID Mercury.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Indrid Mercury wrote:
It's not a colossal letdown like Ressurection though

WHICH Resurrection were YOU watching. The one I saw was a Saward masterclass.

Masterclass in boring shite.

iank wrote:Masterclass in boring shite.

The Macra Terror animation was horrific. Accept it and move on.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Indrid Mercury wrote:
It's not a colossal letdown like Ressurection though

WHICH Resurrection were YOU watching. The one I saw was a Saward masterclass.

The one I saw made me decide "Screw this.... I'm a Trekkie now."

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Indrid Mercury wrote:
It's not a colossal letdown like Ressurection though

InGRID Mercury.

COLA MARXil.

It can't be fixed.
Davros should never have been resurrected. Making Davros central to future Dalek stories reduced the status of the Daleks as a power in their own right.
Mind you, it really didn't help that Gooderson was such a bland, poundland version of Wisher's remarkable original performance. It was a shame they couldn't get Molloy in from the first of the sequels in they really wanted to go down that road.
Plus the Movellans were such a disappointment. They couldn't have been any more camp if they'd tried!
I think I'd rather have the Mechanoids back. As ridiculously cumbersome and ineffectual as they are.
Agree with Boofer about that particular Dalek scene though. It's moments like that that save it from the bin.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:Can't fix what isn't broken

Agreed... Destiny >> Genesis, Resurrection, and Revelation

And I think the scenes with the Doctor and Davros were the best part.

But yeah, the regeneration scene needed to be changed so it was clear that while Romana could control her appearance, she wasn't just wasting regenerations.

Fendelman wrote:Agreed... Destiny >> Genesis

Agreed.

Fendelman wrote:Destiny >> Resurrection, and Revelation

Let's not be silly

I'll admit that Destiny vs. Revelation could be close (although I do prefer Destiny), but Destiny is way better than Resurrection.

Resurrection pisses all over Destiny from a great height in my book.