'Day of the Daleks' is a classic Doctor Who adventure

Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks (1972)
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, and Nicholas Courtney
Director: Paul Bernard
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

On the eve of an international summit that hopes to stave off a war between China and the United States, time travelers arrive to assassinate the British delegate, claiming he is the cause of the inevitable war, and that it is his fault the evil Daleks enslave humanity in the future. With the TARDIS out of commission, the Doctor uses their primitive time travel technology to go forward in time to stop the Daleks from meddling in the present.

"The Day of the Daleks" is a film that was created by editing together four episodes of the long-running British television series. They combine seamlessly and present an interesting tale of cause and effect in time travel. It's a little more cerebral than most of the original "Doctor Who" storylines, but the pay-off is worth it.

The Daleks--and other time travelers in play in this episode--are almost as sinister as they got during the original run of the series; this is one of those story-lines that makes it clear why the Doctor has the fearsome reputation they like to play on in the revival of the show. Even better, it features Katy Manning as Jo Grant, one of my favorite of the Doctor's Companions.

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'The Time Monster' is a 'Doctor Who' classic

Doctor Who: The Time Monster (1972)
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Roger Delgado, and Ingrid Pitt
Director: Robert Sloman
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

The time-traveling alien known as the Doctor (Pertwee) and UNIT operative Jo Grant (Manning) find themselves squaring off against their old nemesis, the Master (Delgado). The Master's latest scheme for domination of all of time and space involves harnessing the might of Chronos, the creature that brought low the mighty land of Atlantis.

"The Time Monster" is a film that originally aired as 30-minute segments as part of the long-running and very popular BBC sci-fi/fantasy television series "Doctor Who". It is one of my all-time favorite storylines from the show, as it features an equal blend of sci-fi, fantasy, social commentary, and nifty actions with plenty of cool story twists. It's fun the way the story moves easily from the 1970s Earth setting with the Master conducting mad science experiments with interdimensional physics, to the purely sci-fi environment of time-travel machines and the Doctor and Master matching wits and testing each other's nerve, and to a pure fantasy environment with an evil and duplicitous Atlantean queen (played by the sexy Ingrid Pitt) who would have been perfectly at home in one of those Italian Hercules movies. The film is further enhanced by multi-faceted minor villains and by the way the personalities of the Master and the Doctor are compared and contrasted as the story unfolds.

This is a classic "Doctor Who" storyline that has stood up well to the passage of time. The effects can't hold a candle to what we've gotten with the revival of the series in recent years, and the acting might be a little hokey at times, but the storyline and the characterization of the Doctor and the Master fit right in with the "Drums of War" story line from a few seasons back. (In fact, watching "The Time Monster" before watching "The Drums of War" and "The Last Timelord" will make those modern episodes feel all the more impactful, because the love/hate relationship of the Doctor and the Master is so well defined in this film... and because Roger Delgado plays a GREAT Master.)

"Doctor Who: The Time Monster" is worth seeking out by fans of both the new and classic series.

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