Goon Daleks (Death to the Daleks)

Saturday 23 February 1974. Death to the Daleks. It’s Doctor Who at its most typical this week, as a stranded space expedition is sufficiently beset by natives and Daleks to fill four episodes with daring sacrifices and human escapes until the generically mandatory explosion comes along to set everything to rights.

Saturday 7 April 1973. Planet of the Daleks. This week, Jeremy Radick joins us for a desperate mission to a low-effort jungle planet somewhere in the northern reaches of Shepherd’s Bush, as Terry Nation tries to reclaim the glory days when Dalek stories took place on a more modest scale — full of incident and thrilling action sequences, but shot in a studio that had once hosted episodes of Morecambe and Wise.

Saturday 13 November 1965. The Daleks' Master Plan. This week, we rashly decide to steal the Daleks’ favourite thing and run away, only to find ourselves pursued through time and space for three months, during which time we visit Z Cars, the cricket, a volcano planet or something, and some of BBC Television Centre’s most lavish jungle sets. Toby Hadoke joins us to help us thwart The Daleks’ Master Plan.

Saturday 9 October 1965. Mission to the Unknown. In an isolated episode on a distant, inhospitable planet, the Daleks are fomenting an intergalactic conspiracy to overthrow the Solar System. And for arcane budgetary reasons, the Doctor isn’t there to stop them.

Saturday 22 May 1965. The Chase. This week, Adam Richard and Kevin Burnard join us for a picaresque and shoddily made romp through time and space, with Daleks, followed by a devastating emotional farewell.

Saturday 21 November 1964. The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This week, it’s our annual trip to post-apocalyptic 22nd-century London to see how David, Tyler and Jenny are getting on. Turns out, probably better than we let on last time.

Saturday 11 April 1964. The Keys of Marinus. Terry Nation has left the Daleks at home this week, but he’s still bristling with so many ideas that the TARDIS crew rush through no less than five mini-stories in six weeks, proving that while the sea-bathing on the planet Marinus is basically lethal, there’s still a lot there to keep the tourists occupied.

Saturday 21 December 1963. The Daleks. Doctor Who has barely even started when the writer of Episode Five shows up and decides to take the show in a whole different direction. That writer was Terry Nation, and that episode, or possibly the one after that, will change the world forever.

Friday 10 July 2009. Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Five. It’s the end of the week, and although some kids and a whole building full of public servants are dead, we all learn that even the ones who walk away from Omelas discover that the real Omelas was inside them all along.

Thursday 9 July 2009. Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Four. Tonight, John Frobisher’s relationship with the 456 turns from sour to ugly, while Captain Jack Harkness’s day starts with humiliation and ends in death. In contrast, the British PM and his advisors are being uncharacteristically dynamic and productive, which doesn’t bode well for anyone really.