The Daleks have their own sub-history within the larger tapestry of Doctor Who. But unlike the multi-phasic peripatetic adventures of a Time-Lord, the Tour feels Dalek history cleaves nicely into B.D. and A.D. (before and after Davros).
Planet of the Daleks was the next-to-last-gasp of Dalek-mania (B.D.), the back half of a larger story paired with Frontier in Space which taken together could be considered something of a sequel to The Daleks Master Plan. And therein lies the problem. We guess you just had to be there, but once the novelty had been worn through, not even an Emperor Dalek from The Evil of the Daleks make the Daleks all that interesting to the Tour Honchos. Davros would provide that focal point a couple seasons hence, but he was invisible during Planet of the Daleks.
Despite deliberate attempts to make Planet of the Daleks echo back to The Daleks, we feel the story reduces to a simple mathematical equation, ‘Invisibility + Daleks = boring.’
Whilst looking forward to the 60th Anniversary later this year, it is the Golden Anniversary year sweeping through Season 10 for Jon Pertwee and, at the moment, episodes of Planet of the Daleks. Our ‘new’ HD caps are only marginally more exciting than Planet of the Daleks itself.
