Planet of the Daleks

Just a really dull story and incredibly disapointing after the cliff-hanger of the previous story.

One could criticise Nation of rehashing here as this adventure is highly familiar. In many respects it’s like the iconic 1963”The daleks” but fortunately it has enough to salvage it as it’s own. We have an ominous forest but this time it’s on a world the daleks are experimenting with tech rather than their home world. We have thals here too , albeit more wore torn and less placid. Instead an invisible race takes that placid position as the daleks slaves. Even wearing similar cloaks to the old thals.
There are a few more elements copied here and there.

But the forest is alive and creepy rather than dead and haunting. We see an interesting dalek variant. And the doctor is out for a while leaving Jo to fend for herself a while.
The rather simple concept of stealth daleks could nearly be laughed off but no it is also a concern just as much. This episode has extra appeal to me as I had not seen it until quite recently in my classic who watching (I started in roughly 2000) and only saw this and enlightenment the first time in 2017.
7/10!!

In a lot of ways this story is the distillation of Terry Nation's core Dalek concepts. The Dalek's themselves are already established as evil, remorseless killing machines so not much attention is given to characterizing them. Instead that narrative time is given to fleshing out the environment. The jungle benefits from a higher budget compared to the black and white era and is lush and alive. The deadly spitting plants take over human flesh similar to the Varga plants introduced in Mission to the Unknown / Master Plan but here are more organic and tie in better with the setting. The Thalls make a welcome return to the screen and are given a more proactive attitude. Rather than being two dimensionally pacifistic they are a well meaning space crew that is willing to fight for defense and their sense of morality. There's a strong reminiscence of Nation's SSS at play here, almost as if the old race from Skaro was merged with the human faction. As for the plot, the concept of an invisible Dalek invasion force is truly terrifying and a great escalation of what they are capable of. Unfortunately, outside of some excellent jungle scenes and infection subplot the story falls short of success. The Daleks as a threat are underwhelming and are easily defeated by old tricks like the "cover the eyestalk" technique. At one point the Doctor comically walks over top the heads of several Daleks making them seem almost trivial as an enemy. Add some dated green screen effects and the faults start to pile up against this serial. By the time the ridiculous ending arrives the whole affair is too unbelievable to bear (within the context that this is a story of aliens and time travel, etc). It's a good story with a great start and premise that hits the right notes for a classic Dalek tale but it never finds it's footing to excel.

People don’t like this episode for a lot of reasons - chief among them being because of how weak the daleks are. And while I understand that criticism, I feel that stripping the power away from Doctor Who’s most powerful villains is an interesting take. Placing them as merely one element in the story as opposed to the main antagonist is both brilliant and refreshing. Plus, the ending is oddly powerful as both we and the Doctor marvel solemnly as the city crumbles to the ground.