Doctor Who/Recap/S17 E1 Destiny of the Daleks

I want to get a closer look at that body

Well Davros, I see the long dark has done nothing to cure your megalomania. Have a Jelly Baby. —The Doctor

Is there a stowaway aboard the TARDIS? No, it's just Romana, who has regenerated off-screen, for no apparent reason, and chosen to do so into an identical double of Princess Astra. (One might think that she'd had enough of being a princess's exact double after the incident on Tara, but clearly our Romana is made of stronger stuff than that.)

Meanwhile, the TARDIS has arrived on a seemingly deserted planet that the Doctor finds naggingly familiar. Turns out it's Skaro, home planet of the Daleks, which the Doctor last visited five seasons ago, when he crossed metaphorical swords with the Daleks' creator, Davros. The Daleks exterminated Davros when they decided he had outlived his usefulness, but now they need his help so they've come back to find him — and isn't it lucky for them that Davros wasn't killed, but has only been in suspended animation all this time?

The Daleks' problem is that they've reached a stalemate in a war with the Movellans, and need Davros to cast a fresh eye on the problem. Speaking of Movellans, there's a group of them come to find out what the Daleks are up to, and when they find out they decide that if the Daleks are taking advice from Davros, they'll take advice from the Doctor — whether he wants to give it to them or not.

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This story was a turning point for the Daleks — every Dalek story for the next decade was more of a Davros story with some Daleks in it than an actual Dalek story.

This story is also known because Terry Nation seems to forget what he himself established about the Daleks, calling them robots and portraying them as perfectly logical Straw Vulcans... even though they're usually the opposite.

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Tropes

• All There in the Manual: The Dalek Combat Training Manual, released in 2021, would explain why the Daleks in this story are referred to as robots. Because they are. Perplexed by the Movellans and trying to predict their foes' thoughts, the Daleks removed their organic components. It didn't last.
• Air Vent Passageway
• BBC Quarry: See Lampshade Hanging.
• Big Little Man: Romana is trying out different bodies into which to regenerate, while the Doctor is crouched on the floor fixing K9. Romana reappears as a blue-skinned alien babe, towering over him.

Romana: "I thought I'd try this one, but it's a bit short." (The Doctor stands up, revealing Romana is the size of a child) Doctor: "Well lengthen it then, go on." (Exit Romana. The Doctor crawls along the floor for a while and then bumps into a toga-wearing beauty. He stands up...only to find he only goes up to Romana's shoulders) Doctor: "Too tall, take it away!"

• Costume Test Montage
• Depending on the Writer: Various writers in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe have offered their own explanations for why Romana regenerated. As is the case for Doctor Who, none of them are compatible with one another.
  • The most famous one, put forth by Gallifrey Vol. 2, is that, once in Gallifrey's past, there existed a tyrant named Pandora. When she was overthrown, she manipulated the Time Lords' Bizarre Alien Reproduction to produce a perfect vessel for herself, Romana. When Romana got wise to the imminent Grand Theft Me, she willfully triggered her regeneration.
  • The novelization of "City of Death" suggests that Romana regenerated because It Amused Me. It's apparently quite a common thing in her part of Gallifrey.
  • "The Chaos Pool" suggests that touching the Key to Time without any Phlebotinum Handling Equipment killed Romana and it the Key influenced Romana II to look like Princess Astra.
  • "The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe" suggests that, similar to the above, exposure to the Key was killing Romana I, but the TARDIS, in a Clingy Jealous Girl moment, froze Romana and then took her place in this episode, thus explaining the ease with which she sheds bodies. After realizing that the Doctor was Oblivious to Love, the TARDIS helped Romana through her regeneration.
• Distaff Counterpart: With her regeneration, Romana acts very much like the Doctor.
• Dropped A Bridge On Her: No explanation is given for Romana's regeneration.
• Faking the Dead: Romana
• Finger-Twitching Revival: Twice!
• Forever War: The Daleks and the Movellans. Their computers are constantly predicting what the other's will do leading to both sides being in constantly evading actions.
• Hand Wave: K-9 sits out the adventure in the TARDIS with robot laryngitis.
• Human Popsicle: Davros' backup life support systems switched on when he was exterminated.
• Hypocritical Humor: The Doctor is insistent that it's only what's on the inside that counts yet he rejects Romana's first three bodies based on their appearance alone. When she comes back as Lalla Ward, and dressed as him, he praises the choice. She calls him out on it of course.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • "Oh look, rocks!"
  • "How can a robot catch laryngitis? I mean, what do you need it for?"
  • "If you're supposed to be the superior lifeforms in the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?"
• Lie Detector: The Daleks use one while questioning Romana.
• Magic Countdown
• Male Gaze: Agella's shapely rear end as she blocks the Doctor.
• The Nth Doctor: Romana mk. II
• Not Quite Dead: Davros
• The Other Darrin: David Gooderson as Davros. Also a general Man in a Kilt, as Davros has magically become Scottish.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: K-9's sidelining due to robo-laryngitis. Sources differ on to why exactly this happened — some say it was because Terry Nation hated K-9 and didn't want to "degrade" his Daleks by making them appear with K-9 on-screen, while others have said that because of the amount of quarry filming in this episode, there was no way that K-9 would ever have been able to play a major part in the episode.
• Ridiculously-Human Robots: The Movellans.
• Rock-Paper-Scissors: Used by the Doctor to show the Movellans the fallibility of fighting only with logic.
• Plot Hole: Romana's regeneration is against every rule that would be established for the concept.
• Shout-Out: The Doctor reads a book by Oolon Colluphid. (Douglas Adams was the script editor for this season, and probably added that bit himself.)
• Straw Vulcan: Both the Daleks and the Movellans which leads to their conflict, or lack thereof. Both sides are caught in a logical stalemate as their battle computers have anticipated every stratagem their counterparts have made.
• Strong as They Need to Be: While Time Lords are always shown to be stronger than the average species, the Doctor and Romana have strength comparable to 1938 Superman here.
• Suicide Attack: Davros send all of the Daleks, but one, on one.
• Tears of Fear: Romana when being interrogated by the Daleks.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The Movellans can be killed by removing the unprotected power pack on their waist.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: "Humanoids are effective work machines!"
• The X of Y
• You Look Familiar: Lalla Ward, after guest-starring as Princess Astra in the previous episode, takes on the role of Romana; the episode spends several minutes climbing out from under the weight of the lampshade. (It doesn't help that Terry Nation turned in his scripts before Romana's re-casting was confirmed; Douglas Adams had to write the new opening scene himself, and the resultant change in tone is jarring.)