Product Details

• Actors: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward
• Writers: Terry Nation
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 6, 1997
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304432402
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,257 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hitch Hiker' Guide to Daleks, September 15, 2000

By 

N. A. Parry - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you listen to most Dr Who fans, this is the least liked Dalek story of them all. Tom Baker is over the top, they will say, the Daleks look battered and worn, Davros is a bit of a joke ... Don't listen to them. This is great fun. It is also an example of Dr Who at the peak of its power. When first aired by the BBC in 1979, it drew over 13 million viewers (a substantial amount in the UK). The script editor of Dr Who at the time was Douglas Adams, who went on to become famous for 'itchiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and it shows; the script is quite lighthearted in places, but rather than detract from the eeriness of the story, this approach only enhances it. Of course, it would be easy to poke fun at the occasional dodgy special effect and the odd lacklustre performance. But it has always been the conviction on behalf of the production team and actors that makes this show great fun. And great fun is surely something we could all do with a lot more of.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable quasi-sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks, September 3, 2002

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Doctor and a regenerated Romana land on "not the most inviting planet," but the Doctor feels that he's been here before. Upon examining the ruins of a city, he and Romana see a ship shaped like an inverted pyramid corkscrew its way into the ground, are assaulted by seismic tremors, and subterranean explosions, one of which causes a pillar to fall on the Doctor.
Romana goes for help but an explosion traps the TARDIS. Before long, she is captured by the Daleks in a moment that mimics the cliffhanger to Episode 1 of the first Daleks story.

The Doctor finds some allies, the Movellans, a race of dark-skinned people with silver dreadlocks, white one-piece suits, and cone-shaped laser guns. They are calm, orderly, efficient, and extremely strong, as they lifted the pillar from the Doctor (offscreen). They are on an intelligence mission to find out what the Daleks are up to. A trip to the old Kaled city reveals the answers. However, when a Movellan is exterminated by a Dalek, why isn't the Doctor allowed to examine his body, apart from a Movellan code of honor?

Goofs: The Daleks are actually half-organic, but they are constantly referred to as robots here. Another is Commander Sharrel in Episode 4. During the struggle with Romana, it's clear that he isn't played by Peter Straker. And the Doctor tells the Daleks to "spack off" instead of "back off."

This is kind of a sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks, as it involves Davros, but it might actually succeed Planet Of The Daleks. With the radiation count on Skaro strong, there might have been a final nuclear war between the Daleks and Thals where the Thals were the runners up.

The concept of portraying the Movellans with African actors is interesting, rather than having the "token black�Eperformer. There are competent performances by the three lead Movellans, but note that they are all light-skinned. There are some darker-skinned Movellans, but they have non-speaking parts.

The name of the script editor--Douglas Adams, hence the silliness of dialogue in some areas. The scene where Romana tries on several bodies before reappearing in a duplicate of the Doctor's costume is definitely his trademark. And the Doctor has a cheap shot at a Dalek's expense as he escapes up a shaft. "If you're supposed to be the superior creatures of the universe, why don't you climb up after us? Bye bye!" He ducks as the Dalek fires up at him. And a Dalek grates: "Seek, locate, exterminate!�E Hmm, that rhymes. Why not do a dance remix? I'm sure it'll debut at #1 on the Skaro pop charts.

Tony Osoba (the Movellan Lan) later played Kracauer in the Who story Dragonfire. Peter Straker (Sharrel) and Suzanne Daniel (Agella) effectively play the calm Movellans. David Gooderson has a good try as Davros, but Michael Wisher played him better hand down. And Lalla Ward is near-perfect in her first go at Romana, good-natured, logical, but more sensible, a compliment to the goofy Doctor.

OK, so the Daleks are made fun of here as repetitive killing machines wrapped in cold logic, but goofs aside, it's enjoyable. The Movellans are realized so perfectly it's a pity they didn't make another appearance.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Daleks episode!, December 4, 2003

By 

J. Fuchs "jax76" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who - Destiny of the Daleks [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I can't figure out why this isn't a more popular episode. It moves much more quickly than a lot of other Doctor Who adventures, it features Romana, who unlike a lot of Doctor companions had a brain and an active role in the Doctor's adventures and, in fact, this is the first series in which Lala Ward (the princess from the Androids of Tara episode in the Key to Time series) plays Romana.

The Doctor and Romana find themselves on Skaros, the Daleks' home planet. Discovering significant seismic activity, they discover that the Daleks have enslaved a group of humans whom they are forcing to engage in mining activity for a purpose which the Doctor and Romana must ferret out. At the same time, another race, the wonderful Molvians (who always remind me of Rick James in full-on Superfreak mode), befriend the Doctor and Romana but turn out to have their own agenda.

The Daleks are great in this episode. Not a lot of chatter, just a lot of typical Dalek bluster -- "seek, locate, exterminate," etc. Not to mention the glorious return of the megamaniacal Davros, creator of the Daleks. This is one of the more action-oriented, straight-forward Doctor Who episodes and comes across as a lot less dated than even some of the later episodes. Not as humorous as many Tom Baker episodes once it gets going (if you're looking for humor and cheese, check out The Pirate Planet), but great action and characters. Highly recommended.