Doctor Who-Destiny of the Daleks (1979)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Lalla Ward, David Gooderson and Ken Grieve Featurette-Terror Nation Featurette-Directing Who Seamless Branching-CGI Effects Featurette-Continuities DVD-ROM Extras-Radio Times Listings Short Film-Prime Computer Adverts Trailer-Continuities Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	100:10 (Case: 343)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (74:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ken Grieve
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Tom Baker Lalla Ward Tim Barlow Peter Straker Suzanne Danielle Tony Osoba Mike Mungarvan Roy Skelton Cy Town David Gooderson
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Dudley Simpson

    Testing out the new randomiser circuit on the TARDIS, the Doctor (Tom Baker) and a newly regenerated Romana (Lalla Ward) arrive on a desolate, burnt out planet littered with ruins of ancient cities. It is not long before the travellers realise that they have materialised on the Dalek home world Skaro, hundreds of years after the planet's destruction (as witnessed by the Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks).

    As they explore the wastes the pair come across an unusual spacecraft landing in an open gully. Through the usual series of misadventures the Doctor finds himself at the mercy of the occupants of the ship, while Romana is captured by the Daleks and sent to a humanoid slave camp. The Daleks are looking for something that has been long lost on their ancient home world and the Movellans, a mysterious alien race who have been locked in a centuries long war with the Daleks, have dispatched a ship full of troops to investigate. Alas, it is too little and too late as the Daleks have almost uncovered the one thing they believe can turn the tide in their war with the Movellans... their creator Davros.

    Destiny of the Daleks is one of the more thoughtful Doctor Who adventures. It explores the theme of logic versus intuition and tells a cracking yarn in the process. The secret being a good dose of action to drive the story (and not too much running through corridors!). The pace of the four 30 minute episodes is spot-on.

    This was the final Doctor Who adventure written by Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, and also one of the best. The production values are quite high (once you get past the mops on the Movellan's heads) and the cast quite strong. Destiny of the Daleks is a real treat for any Doctor Who fan.

Video

    The video looks very good for a show that is nearly 25 years old. A commendable effort has been put in to the restoration.

    The episodes are presented in their original 1.29:1 full frame aspect ratio.

    The episodes are sourced from a mix of 16mm and video. The video scenes are reasonably sharp. The 16mm scenes are a little soft in comparison, particularly for shots at any real distance, but still very good. A small degree of low level noise is present throughout the video-sourced scenes, though you are unlikely to notice it unless you are watching closely on a very large display. Contrast levels and black levels are both good.

    The colour palette looks a little dated by modern standards, but is evenly presented throughout.

    There are no significant MPEG compression related artefacts visible. A small number of analogue video artefacts are noticeable, however, but none are terribly distracting (particularly to anyone used to the standard typically found in Doctor Who releases). The most noticeable being occasional mild comet trails. The video-sourced shots also feature noticeable edge enhancement in a few of the scenes, although this is fairly common in video of this age.

    The English subtitles are white with a black border. Based on the section I sampled, they appear accurate and well-timed.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer change occurs between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

        A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kbps) audio track is available. The track is crystal clear and well mixed.

        The dialogue is clearly audible throughout and at a good level in the mix.

        The score is fairly typical Doctor Who fare, although a little sparse. The score is clear and well mixed.

        There is no noticeable pro-logic surround speaker use throughout the episodes. A modest degree of bottom end makes its way to subwoofer level, particularly around the many explosions in the episodes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    Standard animation with clips and audio form the show. Beware, the special features menu page animation gives away a significant twist in the story.

Audio commentary with Lalla Ward (Romana), David Gooderson (Davros), and Ken Grieve (director)

    A reasonably chatty commentary that relies on anecdotes more than technical guff.

Terror Nation Featurette (27:50)

    A documentary about writer Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks, and his work on Doctor Who. The documentary runs sequentially from the start to the end of Nation's involvement with the show and features audio interviews with the late Nation, producers Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe, script editor Terrance Dicks, director Richard Martin, and Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs.

Directing Who Featurette (9:30)

    Destiny of the Daleks director Ken Grieve chats about his experience directing Doctor Who (and contradicts some of the sentiment contained in the previous featurette).

CGI Effects

    This extra allows the story to be watched with simple CGI effects replacing a number of the old video effects (for Dalek lasers and the like), using seamless branching. The branching works well and the effects themselves are very good - simple, but certainly nicer looking than the original effects and designed to blend in with the dated look of the show.

Trails and Continuity (dur. 3' 43")

    A series of clips of the continuity announcements bookending the episodes during their numerous broadcasts in the UK and a trailer heralding the return of the Daleks in Destiny of the Daleks.

Prime Computer Adverts (3:09)

    A hilarious series of TV adverts for Prime Computers, starring the Doctor and Romana.

Photo Gallery (8:15)

    A fairly run-of-the-mill set of production stills done as a slideshow and backed by a passage of music from one of the episodes of the story.

DVD-ROM Extras - Radio Times Billings

    6 pages of snippets from the Radio Times, Britain's TV magazine, advertising the episodes' original airing, including an article about the episode's costume designer and a poem about watching Doctor Who.

Trailer

    A trailer for the upcoming release of Beneath the Surface, a box-set of water themed Doctor Who stories.

Informational Subtitles

    A set of subtitles with production notes and other trivia about the episodes.

    The Region 2 and 4 editions are identical in terms of content.

    The NTSC Region 1 edition has not been released yet, it is due in early March 2008. Early reports indicate that it will most likely have a very similar, if not the same, set of features to the PAL release.

    An excellent Doctor Who story featuring the Doctor's age-old nemeses The Daleks.

    The video and audio presentation are of reference standard for TV material of their age.

    The extras are solid, without being overwhelming.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall