N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Whilst I tend to favour the originals over the special editions on these Doctor Who DVD releases, the re-vamped version of Day of the Daleks on disc 2 does enhance the climactic battle in Episode Four: it no longer looks as though it’s merely an attack by the three Dave the Daleks.
“Changing history is a very fanatical idea, you know.”
The Doctor, Day of the Daleks: Episode Two
Of all the tweaks this Special Edition offers – lasers, computers screens, futuristic skylines, deaths (blaster and Dalek-related), and so on – it’s perhaps Nicholas Briggs’ Dalek voices that add the most to the story, giving the Dalek dialogue some much-needed oomph. The purist in me would still say watch the original first, but if you’ve seen Day of the Daleks many times, the Special Edition is worth your time. (My son and I watched both!)
What of the story? Whilst it’s by no means perfect, I’ve always been fond of it, almost as fond as the Doctor appears to be of wine and gorgonzola. I agree with what has often been said: that the Daleks, despite their return after a near-five-year absence, do seem to be a bit superfluous to proceedings – it’s quite obvious they were tacked-on to Louis Marks’ original story of time warriors to grab the headlines for the season opener.
In amongst all of the temporal paradox shenanigans, Aubrey Woods as the pallid Controller, the last in line in ‘a family of quizlings’ (as the Doctor describes him), is very good indeed – as is Anna Barry as Anat. I thought it was a nice touch casting the part of the guerilla troop leader as a woman.
Elsewhere, we get our first mention of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect and also discover that Brutalist architecture survives at least until the twenty-second century. We meet Ogrons for the first time, although curiously they are not named here. (Did the name come about because they seem to be part-Ogre, part-Klingon perhaps?)
All-in-all, Day of the Daleks is a solid start to Doctor Who‘s ninth season, although how it all ties in with The Dalek Invasion of Earth is anyone’s guess.
"I think it's funny that Day of the Daleks sounds a bit like 'Dave the Dalek'."
"In the 22nd century, inside it looks futuristic but outside it's like it's 1970's England. I wonder why …"
"… but on the Special Edition they made it look more futuristic by using 3D animation."
