Power of the Daleks Review: Animated Fascism
Directed by Christopher Barry
Written by David Whitaker
Starring Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze
Of the 97 Doctor Who episodes still considered lost by the BBC, the six that make up Power of the Daleks are potentially the most culturally important. Not only Patrick Troughton’s first serial, the transition marks the first time the Doctor ever regenerated, a revolutionary concept that’s kept Doctor Who going for over 50 years. In its own right, Power of the Daleks is also a fantastic metaphor for the gradual rise of fascism, making some of the best use of the Daleks ever put to screen. In a final resignation that these episodes are indeed lost forever, BBC has commissioned an animated reconstruction of the entire serial to allow audiences to actually watch this powerful story for the first time since 1966.
The first episode is far and away the most important for framing Power of the Daleks as a regeneration story. It’s as important a first episode as An Unearthly Child and actually watching it, it’s masterful how clearly they demonstrate the idea that Patrick Troughton is the same man as the Doctor, even as he refers to himself in third person, seemingly unsure himself if the process is going to work. Going through the Doctor’s old things, the way Troughton murmurs “extermination” while looking at a piece of Dalekanium is pitch-perfect for the tone of the episode. You sense the genuine fear of the Daleks he has, the responsibility to stand strong against them.
Ben and Polly play pretty much one note each throughout the episodes in which they appear, but it’s a deliberate choice that underscores how the writers feared audiences would take the change. It’s a shame that Ben gets the short end of the stick on this, accusatorily yelling at the Doctor for far longer than I’d care to have seen. It’s not a great episode to introduce you to either companion, but it’s clear from the get-go that this is Troughton’s time to shine. Ben does get an amazing moment of recognition when the Doctor and the reactivated Dalek first meet. By Ben-The-Doubter’s own admission, if the Daleks know Troughton is the Doctor, he must be. It’s a pivotal moment that Michael Craze plays quite well and underscores just how connected the Doctor and the Daleks will always be.
Yet apart from being a regeneration story, Power of the Daleks has a whole lot going on that absolutely justifies its length as a six parter. I’ve always thought that the best Doctor Who episodes of the classic series have the ability to stand on their own as a sci-fi plot even if you take the Doctor out of the equation, and Power of the Daleks is the best example of that theory I’ve seen yet. As I said before, Power of the Daleks is a fantastic metaphor for the gradual rise of fascism. There’s tension in the air throughout the serial. The way Bragen and his guards’ outfits gradually shift from white to black over the course of the serial is a fantastic visual cue to the shifting political dynamic, but the fact that the majority of these shifts are subtle and in the background of other events makes the massacre that takes place at the end all the more poignant.
Of the episode-specific cast, the performances of Robert James and Pamela Ann Davy stand out. Lesterson very much fits into the Victor Frankenstein mold of a mad scientist. His jubilant optimism at the potential of the Daleks, shifting to fear and opposition when he finally sees their true nature with his own eyes, is an awesome journey. His final shift into madness, robotically mimicking the Dalek cadence in his submission to them as their servant is entirely unnerving, the limited animation putting special attention on the unnatural movement of his head to make the scene perfectly uncomfortable.
Janley on the other hand, is Lady MacBeth. You see her pushing the pieces around her chessboard throughout the entire series, her hidden power growing in every episode until she openly becomes a secondary antagonist to the story. The dismissive twist to her ultimate fate underscores the fascist themes and leaves a full arc for the character. Seeing this development and nuance in Power of the Daleks really makes you see what Doctor Who lost while making the move to single hour-long episodes in the 2005 reboot, and I find myself mourning this kind of expanded storytelling in modern episodes.
For the 1966 viewer, it’s also clear that Troughton’s Doctor has ushered in an unprecedented amount of humour and lightness within the dark architecture of this story. The way one Dalek slips in his subterfuge, stating “Daleks are bet- …different than humans” is hilarious to me, but it’s Troughton’s lines that consistently made me laugh, mostly for how at odds his choices were compared to other actors in the same scene. I’ve heard many describe Patrick Troughton’s Doctor as a clown, but I’ve never understood his tactical use of this foolish behaviour until now. We still haven’t had a Doctor that understood the art of performance as well as the Second.
Of course, the elephant in the room of this review is how well the quality of animation provides a competent visual companion to the orphaned audio track. As this was my first time ever sitting down with Power of the Daleks in any form, I was definitely distracted by the main thrust of the story. While I think that’s an important note in and of itself, I did sit down to a second watch of it just to focus on the look. The reconstruction uses Archer-style animation to account for the limited time and budget restrictions given to the project, and even though those limitations are clearly visible, the production is polished enough that the good always outshined the bad. Character models were generally pretty stiff, though I was excited by the fluidity of facial movements and expression. Clearly, effort was prioritised in capturing the essence of performance rather than fluid body movement.
It’s not dissimilar to prior reconstructive animation efforts on single episodes in series like The Moonbase or The Tenth Planet, but it is the first time an entire serial has been attempted at such a high level of quality. After some initial reservations, I was definitely enjoying the episodes in spite of these limitations, and with a story as strong as the one Power of the Daleks provides, it was easy to forget what I was watching was animated at all.
The Verdict
Buy It! It’s been an especially quiet year for Doctor Who fans. If you have a Doctor Who fan in your life, find a way to get Power of the Daleks into their hands. This historic reconstruction definitely captures the essence of the classic serial and rebuilds the tension, paranoia, and overall experience of the classic audio track the way it was originally meant to be seen.
