Looking Back... Eye of the Daleks

[SiHart]

The Daleks finally take on the PS Audios Doctor in this story by Paul Monk and Simon Hart.

What are your memories and thoughts on this story?

Si xx

[Terileptil]

Can I have the script for this? I want to understand what the Krotons are saying.

[Si Hunt]

"Exhaust!!" most of the time.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

We might add PDFs of the scripts to the website at some point, that's a good idea.

[Andrew Curnow]

My main memory of this one is you crafty backroom guys keeping the Daleks a secret until part one was put online. I can't think what you were billing the story as up to that point (was it The Crystal Eye or something?) so it was a real surprise to suddenly (finally!) hear Paul's Doctor up against the Daleks.

I relistened to it recently, actually. Battle scenes are tricky to pull off at the best of times, and being in sound only makes it even more difficult I guess - so I have to admit I found part 2 a bit hardgoing at times, in that there seemed to be a lot of 'Dalek/Kroton battles' which were inevitably pretty much just Dalek & Kroton voices, and gun noises.

The other thing which I didn't quite buy into was the romance developing so rapidly between Rob and Choo'dar. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and did feel a bit contrived in order for Choo'dar to be able to save the day.

This sounds like I hated it, but that's far from the case. Definitely first time out it was great to have a Dalek story in the PS range, and even on second listen there's some great stuff in there - the 'image' of the Kroton burrowing out of the ground at the end of part 1, and the huge sense of scale aboard the Dalek ship, not to mention Wayne clearly having the time of his life doing the voices!

[SiHart]

It was indeed called The Crystal Eye in all the pre-publicity. It's great to be able to keep these things a surprise!

[Anthony Williams]

I try to forget, but I can't help but remember the extremely dodgy Northern accent I put on for this!

Ant x

[Andrew Curnow]

Don't worry Ant - lots of planets have an extremely dodgy North!

[Paul Monk]

Andrew, the romance was planned to develop over the second episode. back when it was 3 episodes long. It was going to be much quieter character led but I ran out of time and thought it better to ramp up the action instead.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Yeah I liked this, but I didn't like the ending so much - just that the Doctor seemed to have planned for Choo to do something that would end in her death. Seemed very cold on the Doctor's part.

However looking back, this came out during Season 4 - and there was a lot of criticism about RTD how in something like the Sontaran story the Doctor "wants to give the Sontarans a second chance" and put his life on the line, rather than anyone elses. And in the end someone else takes his place so he lives.

It became a bit of overkill in RTD - but when you try doing a story without that, you find the Doctor does feel a bit cold. Can you imagine Caves of Androzani where the Doctor drinks the milk first, or End of Time where he leaves Wilf to die?

[Rob McCow]

Yeah, but Choo'Dar was better looking.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Actually reading Paul's comments about how it was going to be more about characters with the Daleks vs Krotons as a backdrop does make it seem a shame that wasn't developed more.

[Si Hunt]

Well it kind of was, with lots of stuff about Rob and ChooDar. But it was our first Dalek story so it would have been insane not to have loads of gun battles and huge Daleky stuff. That's what I was going for on the production - just as loud as possible, an enormous Daleky soundscape.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

And it was the season finale so it was absolutely the right decision. This wasn't the time for a quiet story but it needed the relationship to flesh out the characters, otherwise they just become cannon fodder. I don't think rob and Choodar was every true love. It was more that intense crush that you can get when experiencing something exciting or exhilerating with someone new. Choodar was a person utterly cut off from everything, desperately sad and looking for someone or something to connect with and she finds Rob. Ultimately she knows it won't work and feeling that its her last chance realised she can help her new friends and gives her peace. The Doctor tries to talk her oit of it off scene but realises he has no other way out so relictently agrees. This scene was never scripted because it would have ruined the ending.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Interesting to hear your thoughts on it anyway Paul.

[Si Hunt]

I like "Eye" but the best bits I think are the Dalek bits because they just sound great when matched with all the epic sounds and music. The crew of the spaceship is just bizarre, which is sort of good but was very difficult to balance in the production; that bee-man was a right royal pain. I'm less fond of the character stuff than the Daleks, largely because of problems with the sound quality of Allie's lines and this destroys the illusion of the intimacy of her situation with Rob. The ending is fairly outrageous but somehow Paul gets away with it.

I really like the TARDIS scene in Episode 1, and had great fun matching sounds with all the weird and wonderful gadgets that Paul wrote in as they repaired the TARDIS.

Staging the surprise appearance of the Daleks and giving everyone that big shock was enormously fun.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

The ending is fairly outrageous but somehow Paul gets away with it.

I always had that ending in mind. It was the starting point for the story in many ways. It meant that I could engineer a ridiculous no win scenario and then still get out of it. Plus I loved the idea of the Daleks and Krotons in kind of telepathy induced heaven where they were the supreme rulers of the universe. I also knew that it would be tricky to realise on audio but both you and Si Hart did it superbly.

[Si Hunt]

I seem to recall going for the surreal a bit. Isn't there a chiming clock in there somewhere.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

I think so. It works brilliantly though