Destiny of the Daleks

Episode One: 

It's hard for a first episode to be poor, when all the Doctor has to do is arrive and witness some intriguing events. Intriguing events here include a burial, a wandering man, a ship that arrives and burrows into the earth, and finally the Daleks, though as usual, the title has given them away. The Movellans are serene cats in disco suits, and we don't know why they hate the Daleks. 

Episode Two: 

Suddenly, this goes downhill fast. I'll take the "Death Comes to Time" Timelords any day over Romana crying when "interrogated" with a few simple questions. It fits well with her plan, however, to drop dead after a half day's work, which the Daleks seem to believe without checking. Watch carefully for the Dalek who skips on his way into the Dalek bridge. The Daleks were digging, it turns out, for Davros, but the Doctor knows how to get there in seconds (um, OK I'll buy that I guess). Davros, having been exterminated by the Daleks, and then having sat there for centuries, wiggles his fingers for the episode climax. My God, has he been looking for the TV remote all these years?

Episode Three: 

After the rhyming Dalek ("seek, locate, do not deviate"), there is a little tension and suspense here, with the Doctor trying to hold the Daleks off simply by threatening to kill Davros. At last, in episode three, the Daleks show they're evil (a new viewer to the show would have been waiting all this time to understand what the big deal is about them) by exterminating prisoners to get the Doctor to cooperate. The Movellans are serene cats in disco suits, and we don't know whey they hate the Daleks, or why they put Romana in a tube with a bomb. Except, perhaps, to draw out the Doctor, who they suddenly seem to have decided is a better objective than Davros. We'll find out in… 

Episode Four: 

The Movellans are defeated because no matter how many times it happens, they never learn to prevent anyone snatching their exposed power packs. The Daleks, having been cruel enough to exterminate prisoners as a pressure tactic in the previous episode, are once again ridiculous. First, they allow the Doctor to sneak up on Davros, and then when one Dalek does stand in the Doctor's way, a hat defeats it. The other Daleks charge towards the Movellan ship, frantically repeating the idea that nothing can be allowed to stand in their way. Meanwhile, nothing stands in their way. The Doctor plays with Davros's arm and gets him to blow up his Daleks, while Romana is able to kick the last Movellan apart (presumably this is because he was wounded, I guess) and of course, snatch his power pack. 

Analysis:

After a promising beginning, the story becomes a silly and tedious affair. The conclusion is rushed, and a great deal goes unexplained, like who created the Movellans or where they came from. The idea of the two war machines at a logical impasse is interesting, but not really enough to sustain the story, or provide a payoff at the end for the viewer, in terms of a meaningful story. And while Genesis of the Daleks had something to say (in terms of showing us the stupid prejudice and hatred that gave birth to the Daleks), this story portrays them as incompetents who can't open a closet door, never mind conquer the universe. And the Movellans aren't any better. You wonder why the Doctor and Romana don't just leave. Fortunately, in Resurrection of the Daleks, with Peter Davision, some of the old menace would be back, and the sense of tension and danger much higher. Destiny of the Daleks remains a somewhat nonsensical and only somewhat entertaining interlude between those two stories. Oh, and it has the wrong guy as Davros.