N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Is this a first in Doctor Who – someone at the outset knowing more about the Doctor (and Jamie) than vice versa? It certainly makes for an intriguing opening, picking up the moment The Faceless Ones has ended – with the TARDIS being stolen. Of course the story title, as often is the case, gives away who is behind Waterfield’s apparent foreknowledge.

The Evil of the Daleks is also Doctor Who‘s first true big season finale (and a proper epic it is too) but with the action moving swiftly from the present day to Earth’s past to far-flung Skaro, it never feels padded.

“I am a professor of a far wider academy, of which human nature is merely a part.”

The Doctor, The Evil of the Daleks: Episode 5

Whilst for me The Evil of the Daleks doesn’t quite hits the heights of the Second Doctor’s initial encounter with the Daleks or even [whispers it] The Macra Terror, it’s still pretty impressive stuff, especially in the character development and relationship between the Doctor and Jamie.

Indeed the exchanges between the two of them, where Jamie accuses the Doctor of being ‘callous’ in his attitude and his resultant wanting to leave at the soonest available opportunity are amongst the most tense interpersonal scenes we’ve had since Ian and Barbara first joined the TARDIS crew.

It’s not the only way The Evil of the Daleks feels like a hark back to the earliest stories. The return to Skaro takes you back to that original visit in the winter of 1963 (or 2013 in Unearthly Times’s case) and as with David Whitaker’s preceding Dalek story, the well-drawn supporting characters – here Waterfield, Maxtible, Mollie, to name just three – remind you that a good Dalek story is never just about the Daleks.

As a final word though, I do have to say perhaps the most unnerving thing in the whole serial is the idea of a happy Dalek!