World peace hangs in the balance. Sir Reginald Styles, a high-ranking diplomat is the only person that stands between mankind and a third and final World War. But a mysterious and savage guerrilla force from the 22nd Century believe Styles is the agent that shaped their terrifying future and therefore must die.
The Doctor and Jo find themselves flung into the guerrillas’ world, a brutal dictatorship policed by the merciless and ape-like Ogrons. The Daleks have invaded Earth, enslaved the population and face certain triumph unless The Doctor betrays all he believes in and condones the cold-blooded murderof Styles in an attempt to change the course of history irrevocably.
NOTES
This story is noted for being one of only a few actual ‘time travel’ stories, where the very nature of time travel is used as a main plot element.
This story had working titles of the Ghost Hunters, Years of Doom, The Time Warriors, Day of the Daleks, Ghosts.
The on screen title is Day of the Daleks, however the commercial releases (Video and Laserdisc) it was listed as Day of the Daleks.
A section of the closing title sequence appears in the background on the screen of the Daleks‘ mind analysis machine at the end of Episode Three.
Episode Four was originally to have featured a confrontation between The Doctor and the Daleks, in which The Daleks explain how they destroyed those of their number who were impregnated with the Human Factor in the events seen in The Evil of the Daleks and then turned their attention to conquering Earth by means of time travel. This scene was actually recorded but had to be cut at the ing stage for timing reasons.
The Ogrons were neither named nor described in Louis Marks’s scripts.
This is the first story in which The Doctor encounters – and actually interacts with – a second version of his current incarnation. The Eleventh Doctor briefly comes face to face with himself in The Big Bang. As this story predates The Three Doctors by a year, it also marks the first on-screen “multi-Doctor” scenario (albeit a brief one). The Ninth Doctor and Rose do observe earlier versions of themselves in “Father’s Day” and the Tenth Doctor also meets a half-human, half Time-Lord copy of himself in “Journey’s End”.
Discounting a couple of brief cameos, the Daleks had not appeared in Doctor Who since The Evil of the Daleks in 1967. With this story they returned to being semi-regular menaces of the Doctor, making annual appearances before going into hibernation again after Season 12.A new sound effect for the Dalek energy weapon is introduced (but not used since).
Every serial of the preceding season featured The Master as such, this is the first serial broadcast in 18 months in which he does not appear.
