Ian McNeice (Churchill), Bill Paterson (Bracewell), Nina de Cosimo (Blanche), Tim Wallers (Childers), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek 1), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek 2), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice), Susannah Fielding (Lilian), James Albrecht (Todd), Colin Procktor (Air Raid Warden).
CREW
Written by
Mark Gattis
Directed by
Andrew Gunn
Produced by
Peter Bennett
SYPNOSIS
The Doctor has been summoned by his old friend Winston Churchill but in the Cabinet War Rooms, far below the streets of blitz-torn London, he finds his oldest enemy waiting for him. The Daleks are back! And can Churchill really be in league with them?
NOTES
This episode was incorrectly entitled The Dalek Project and the Dalek Tea Party. In this episode, each Dalek was given a different title, which corresponded with their armour colour, namely, “Scientist” (orange), “Strategist” (blue), “Drone” (red), “Eternal” (yellow) and “Supreme” (white).
In Doctor Who Confidential, M ofatt and Gatiss both admit they don’t know what the title “Eternal” means yet (“but it sounds cool”). The red, blue and yellow Daleks were first revealed in the Radio Times and the colours were used to symbolise the different colours of the three major British political parties: Labour (red), Conservative (blue) and Liberal Democrats (yellow). Colin Prockter previously appeared as the Head Chef in The Long Game.
Winston Churchill wants The Doctor’s TARDISkey. It is acknowledged that he has met The Doctor before, which the character has done in spin off media. Like The Unquiet Dead in Series 1, this episode is the third in the series, is a pseudo-historical, is penned by Mark Gatiss, and is both preceded and followed by two episodes by the head writer.
Ian McNeice previously portrayed Winston Churchill in the Royal National Theatre’s 2008 production of Never So Good. This is the second Dalek episode in the new series to use the infamous”___ of the Daleks” title scheme, the first being Evolution of the Daleks. Mark Gatiss said in the Radio Times:”they’re bigger than they’ve ever been, and in technicolor!” This would show that the new Daleks shall be different colours like the ‘classic’ daleks of the earlier eras.
This is the third time in the new series that the Daleks have featured mid-way in the series, following Dalek in series one and then in series three two part story Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks. The Daleks seen since series 1 were designed so that the eye stalk lined up with Billie Piper’s eyes. The new Daleks are designed to match Karen Gillan’s height. For narrative and filming purposes, the Cabinet War Rooms in the episodes are far larger than the real ones and have an RAF “spotter” table that was not really present.
The Doctor threatens the Daleks with a Jammy Dodger
The Dalek model on the “spotter” table appears to be a Character Options Dalek toy painted grey, likely the “mutant reveal” Dalek figurine with the removal front given the visible separation lines on the front of the model. This episode holds the record for the most non-CGI Dalek models used in a single story, with no less then eight Dalek models on-screen at the same time. The Doctor mentions how The Daleks always manage to recognise him despite his regenerations, as they first did in The Power of the Daleks with his second incarnation, However, this has not always been the case:
In Revelation of the Daleks, only Davros’ daleks recognised his sixth incarnation, with the other faction disbelieving that he was the Doctor. Furthermore, in Doomsday, the Cult of Skaro failed to recognise the Tenth Doctor but acknowledged that he registered as an enemy. It is not clarified whether these Daleks were part of the half human ones from Parting of the Ways or the Journey’s End ones, implied to be from the latter but neveropenly stated.
The progenator won’t recognise the gold Daleks, the ones seen thus far in the series, because (according to The Doctor) it doesn’t recognise their DNA as Dalek anymore, which could mean that these Daleks are either part of the fleet developed by The Dalek emperor from human DNA or part of Davros’ Medusa Cascade fleet developed from his own Kaled cells. The latter seems more likely, as Rose, empowered by the Time Vortex, was able to wipe out the Emperor’s fleet in an instant, through mere thought, making it extremely unlikely that one Saucer would be able to escape. Amy refers to the Daleks as the Doctor’s “Arch enemies”.
This episode aired on the same day as the K9 episode, Jaws of Orthrus
MEDIA CLIP
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