5J2 - Destiny of the Daleks 2

How many times do you need to tell someone to not move when that person wasn't even moving in the first place? Once? Probably. Twice would hammer the point home, to be sure. Three times? That would be pushing it. Four would be overkill.

Well, how about seven? That's how many times the Daleks, after crashing through some plasti...er...glass for no real reason to take Romana prisoner, shout at the petrified Time Lady to get her to stay still, which is just what she happened to be doing in the first place. You can tell Lalla Ward is doing her best to look as terrified of the Daleks as she possibly can in an unintentional homage to Jacqueline Hill, but it just doesn't come off. And how can it? If the story that's being told doesn't even take it's main villains seriously, then how can the heroes?

To hammer that point home, late in the episode, The Doctor, perched safely at the top of a shaft, famously taunts the Daleks, "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?". In truth, Baker was just saying what we were all thinking for years. But it's the fact that he did say it which is troubling. We, as viewers, knew that the various monsters that The Doctor met each week were obviously fake, but that was part of the fantasy. Doctor Who was built on its monsters, but now that the programme was no longer taking its monsters seriously, it was no longer taking itself seriously.