10 Criminally Underrated Doctor Who Stories

3. Victory Of The Daleks

victory of the daleks
BBC

When it first aired, this episode received a lot of backlash thanks to the gaudy new multicoloured Dalek design it debuted. But to dismiss this episode entirely based on one design misfire would be unfair, as this Mark Gatiss script has plenty of bold ideas up its sleeve.

Victory of the Daleks does something quite unique: it takes two staple episode formats and er… staples them together. There are dozens of Dalek-focused episodes, and plenty of episodes that centre on a famous historical figure, but this is the only story to combine the two concepts and it works surprisingly well.

Here, the Daleks meet Winston Churchill, and in an unexpected setup, they’re working for him. Churchill wishes to use the unmatched power of the Daleks – which he believes his chief scientist Bracewell invented – to win the war. This is a deliciously ironic premise, allowing for some iconic jokes (Daleks offering people cups of tea is the most quintessentially British thing ever) and some excellent acting from Matt Smith as he faces his arch enemy at their most devious. As if that wasn’t enough, as foreshadowed by the episode’s title, this is one of the only times the Daleks actually win. Seek, Locate, and Appreciate this episode by giving it a re-watch next time you’re in a Who mood.

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Patch is a pop culture enthusiast and purveyor of puns. He writes about media in a vague attempt to justify the alarming amount of time he spends consuming it. Nobody's convinced... but nobody's told him that yet. He spends his spare time working on Portal 2: Desolation, an ambitious fan-made sequel to Valve's beloved puzzle games.