11 Best Doctor Who Dalek Stories

6. The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (1964)

So Hartnell flubs a few lines, and so the Daleks' massive plan for Earth involves scooping out its magnetic core - because as we all know, only Earth has one - and driving it around the galaxy. So what? As crazy as this story can sometimes get, for many fans it's the first time they felt honestly scared by the Daleks because they could recognize them as a threat to their own lives. After all, when you see the Daleks congregating around the most iconic sites in London trying to find humans to exterminate, who wouldn't be scared? It may be a couple of hundred years removed from our time, but it's still recognizably London. Despite being only one episode shorter than the first Dalek story, there's also a difference in pacing here. The first episode is creepy enough, even without the Daleks (and even with Hartnell's inability to deliver a line properly on location). But once a Dalek first appears - after taking a much-needed bath, apparently - the pacing picks up, and we get something of a roller coaster compared to other Hartnell-era stories. The Daleks themselves are far more menacing than previously, and we get our first indication of them as a spacefaring enemy that could really cause the rest of the Galaxy some trouble. We even get one of the most touching departures of a companion in the show's history - and again, Hartnell's inability to deliver the entire scripted speech doesn't put a dent in it. Mind you, the feature film tells the same story faster, and with better effects - but it loses a lot of the emotional punch that the televised version carries. Besides, it would've been creepy to see Roberta Tovey hook up with Ray Brooks, wouldn't it?