A pair of mad Victorian scientists create a time travel device using static electricity and mirrors in the first great Doctor Who Victorian story. Only the middle of the story is set in the Victorian era, though, with the first part involving a shady antiques dealer who turns out to be getting his second hand goods first hand, and the reveal that everything is part of a Dalek trap moving the final parts to Skaro. The bulk of the story takes place in a big manor house full of booby traps where the Doctor's companion Jamie attempts to rescue inventor's daughter Victoria, who would become the next companion. 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton seems awfully happy to help the Dalek plan to use Jamie to extract "the human factor" that will make them unstoppable, largely because more human Daleks prove far less interested in widespread extermination (a lesson the Nazi pepper pots repeatedly fail to learn with every variant on the human-Dalek hybrid). The Evil of the Daleks was intended to be a send off for the Daleks with Terry Nation trying to flog his creation to America and, indeed, it would be five years before they appeared again, but it also ensured their popularity in the long term. A 1993 poll considered this the best Doctor Who story of all time on the show's 30th anniversary. Unfortunately it is very difficult to ascertain the truth of that thanks to the BBC's tendency to reuse tapes during the 1960s. Only one episode of this seven part serial survives and that was found at a car boot sale. The one part that does survive, which introduces both the Victorians and Victoria, is enough to convince that this would be worth seeing.
