Dalek

There were always going to be two big episodes-the first episode and the one where the Daleks come back. Neither disappointed, which is what counts.

The focus of the story is course the Dalek-it would have been suicide to do otherwise! And they really did suceed here. The plunger now has effective use, and the scene where the tortured gets 'suckered' is probably one of the scariest the series is ever going to produce. The rotating sections are really showing how mordern technology has benefited Doctor Who and enhances the feeling of the terror the Daleks create-the 'behind the sofa' factor if you will. The extermination scenes are the key points and they are lovely. I could go on for ages, but the bottom line is the Daleks are back and frankly could not have been done better.

Now on to the rest. The opening scene is very nice and retrospective, yet not interfering in the slightest. Its also special to me-the Cybermen were always more important to me than the Daleks, and if I could write for anything, screw te Doctor its these babies I want to write for. But thats another story. The guest cast is worth consideing. The soldiers are precisely what they should be, Von Straten is a complete hadcase and Diane has great potential. Then of course there's Adam, who we can see more of. He looks promising in adding a new dynamic to the TARDIS crew.

The sets are very nice, with the sprinkler sequence showing off the full scale of what they can do.

If you're going to borrow, borrow the best, and this is what Shearman has done. He has taken Power & Evil of the Daleks and melded some of the best sequences from them into a 45-minute crackpot. The downside to this is the rather predictable bit of the piece which allows for the ending. One feels a final climatic battle would have been worth it. The War bits are especially good though f you consider how strong the Daleks were getting as a result of time travel and the inevitable consequences.

This is truely a good dalek story, and a strong gun for this season, as it should have been. Lets hope the Doctor is wrong, and the Daleks will come back in force.