Episode #60 : Day of the Daleks

"There are many sorts of ghosts, Jo. Ghosts from the past, and ghosts from the future."

Episode 60:    Day of the Daleks.
Companions: The 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 1st to 22nd January 1972.

Freedom fighters from the future attempt to thwart a Dalek invasion by coming back in time to assassinate a delegate at the second World Peace Conference.

After a lengthy absence, the Daleks have returned to the show. It's a shame that it isn't a great story. The concept is fine and it starts off well but bleeds out the further in you go. The story deals with a temporal paradox where the death of numerous world leaders in a single moment sparks the third world war, and leads to the Daleks being able to take over the weakened peoples of Earth. A group of freedom fighters accidentally cause the paradox by being the ones who come back to the kill one of the delegates before he can cause the war. Hence a paradox of their own making.

As for the Dalek element of the story, it isn't made too clear but it would appear that these events in the alternate future time line replace the Dalek invasion that the 1st Doctor stopped. Already it seems that time can be rewritten.

The story also introduces the Ogrons, a servant race who only make a couple further appearances. How and why they are working for the Daleks is not really explained. After all, we know that the Daleks want to eradicate any life that isn't Dalek so why have they enslaved (or hired) them as soldiers? Doesn't make much sense to me.

This story also features one of the very few times that we see the Doctor actively using a firearm to kill an adversary, as he shoots Ogrons when they try to stop him.

Sadly, this is one story that could easily be overlooked. Bringing the Daleks back is a good move, but the story works out weak and just not very good.