Daleks Reloaded!

 

The Daleks in colour and Destination Skaro

The question of how modern Doctor Who should relate to its long history arose twice in the last week or so with these programmes. `Destination Skaro`, though ostensibly a sketch for Children in Need, reconfigured one of the show’s most iconic characters. `The Daleks` meanwhile was premiered tonight as an edited down colourised version of the second story. Both broke unspoken rules suggesting that whatever the new `Whoniverse` will be like, it will not be quite as expected.

 

`The Daleks`in colour, premiered 23 November BBC4

I have to confess that I like the updated versions of various stories with much better visual effects because that is how I remember them. The fact that they weren’t like that really is a prime example of that old JNT maxim “memory cheats”. Our rose tinted reminiscences are often a long way beyond the reality. So I wonder whether people who have distant memories of seeing `The Daleks` when it first aired in 1963-4 feel the same. How they will take to a  seventy five minute long edited, rejigged  colourised version of the story? Can a seven episode sixty-year-old programme even be re-edited effectively into what is essentially the length of one and half modern episodes without losing too much material? Time to find out Chessington my boy hmm?

The answer is affirmative. This version is a refreshing joy to watch skipping along at a pace that is more in keeping with how television is today. What impresses is the boldness with which the axe has been swung. There are no half measures here with scenes not only cut but moved around to give the story a more modern momentum. It doesn’t change the original version which is still there, it remixes it if you like. The first episode alone is scythed down to ten minutes without losing any of the story.

The edit keeps the focus of the story where it should be, moving the action along, overdubbing speech from one scene onto another. With this pace there isn’t really a need to show flashbacks – see it could be even shorter! The result is that we vividly see how this is Ian’s story as he leads from the front while the Doctor is somewhat cantankerous and gets them into the mess in the first place. This version also plays up the tension sifting through material to stitch together the most atmospheric parts possible. So Barbara's ensnarement in the Dalek city (always a great design) is nail bitingly cut together, Susan’s trek through the jungle is heightened, the clashes with the Daleks more exciting than ever and the Thals' peril strewn trip near the end has more pace now. Editing speeds up the action and hides any awkward choreography. It can’t change William Hartnell’s askew hair though. 

Conversations are stripped to their essence yet without losing any of the character work. There’s some new music (and I think sound effects too?) which complement the original and has much more light and shade than the wholly electronic soundtracks that mark the series in the Sixties. The acting of the central quartet is also more up front now that a lot of surplus dialogue is whittled away showing just how varied a performer William Hartnell was. We often joke about his mannerisms but in this version I noticed more than ever just how much energy he is delivering. Where a lot of Terry Nation’s tales get lost somewhere around the mid point by rather pointless expeditions through ventilation shafts, tunnels and, yes, icecanoes, the momentum is maintained throughout in this version. The same things happen but they somehow do so with much more urgency. 

Most vividly of all the whole thing is in rich colour and this aspect especially pulls the story from the murk of monochrome even if most things seem to be blue save for Bab’s vivid pink jumper. She is the original Barbie! In the glare of the modern wide screen all this work looks fantastic, the only slight thing being that the colour does sometimes highlight the use of painted backdrops but the action being so quick means that doesn’t matter. Any added visuals are never intrusive or too out of time except perhaps the modern Dalek eyestalk view. What the edit shows too more than ever is how much space the Daleks had in that studio to glide about. Its easy to see why they became so popular – there was nothing like them.

I’m not familiar enough with the detail of the story to say whether some lost scenes deserved to be kept in. For me this version encapsulates the kernel of the plot chopping down sequences that necessarily filled out a weekly serial but are not needed in this feature length version. It takes me back to my earlier point about how we remember stories and their highlights.  It also shows even more than the original version why the magic of the series and also of the Daleks was so captivating. It makes me like the story more rather than less. I can sense a new version of Doctor Who’s classic years unfolding and just like I will always watch the re-done version of Day of the Daleks`, so if I want to watch `The Daleks` again this is the edit I will turn to. In fact it's made it more likely I will watch it again.

A thrilling series of colourised clips at the end suggests this process is going to be used on other stories, not all of which may lend themselves as easily to the re-shaping, but I can’t wait to see them.

 `Destination Skaro`, Children in Need night 17 November

Last week we also had the first completed peak at the era amusingly being dubbed RTD2. `Destination Skaro`, a five minute piece for the BBC’s annual Children In Need telethon takes place at the origins of the Daleks and adds the idea that it is the fourteenth Doctor who accidentally gives them their name and that third plunger sucker. As a gag it’s fine and I wasn’t sure at first if it is simply a joke sketch or meant to be lore. As seems inevitable these days it came with baggage, this time in the form of Davros. Rather than his iconic half Dalek life support machine and scarred face, he appeared humanoid and walking. His pallor was a little grey perhaps but he resembled none other than actor Julian Bleach who played him under considerable prosthetics back in the first RTD era.

I had assumed it was set before whatever accident befalls the Daleks’ creator but its an interview RTD did for a behind the scenes show that suggested this was not the case and that from now on this is how Davros will be seen. The producer explained that in these changing times its wrong to follow the trope of the wheelchair bound and /or facially disfigured villain. Amongst fans and observers this has divided opinion and a number of wheelchair using fans disagree with the decision. In fact what the production has done is replace a character in a `wheelchair` (though it is much more than that) with one who is able bodied. I’m not sure how that furthers representation particularly.

My own argument about this type of subject (regarding everything from James Bond casting to racial representation in books) remains the same which is that true representation only happens when whichever group has their own characters created by appropriately qualified writers. Instead of changing Davros, if his countenance now offends, don’t use him and writes something else. The more Doctor Who is shackled to its history the harder it will be to reconcile that past with modern values. One of the tenets of the show has always been that you can’t re-write history – and RTD had already said he won’t re-write other showrunners’ work- so it seems strange that he should take this approach with Davros. On the other hand, classic texts are often reworked for different audiences so you could see this as an example of the same process.