Destiny of the Daleks

Romana, for reasons unknown, regenerates, choosing the form of Princess Astra of the planet Atrios, in spite of the Doctor's initial disapproval of it.

The Doctor and Romana see a group of ragged-looking humans burying one of their dead, followed by a spaceship landing and half-burying itself in the ground in a valley.

The Doctor establishes that the Daleks are searching for something on a level that they have yet to access, and remembers an alternative route to this area, so they make their way to this floor.

The Movellans test their nova device: a weapon which changes air molecules so that a planet's atmosphere becomes flammable and can be set alight, killing all life.

The Doctor learns that the Daleks and Movellans have been in a stalemate for two centuries and that both sides' battle computers have been calculating the best strategy and precise moment at which to attack.

Colluphid is a character from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy written by script editor Douglas Adams, who inserted the reference to his own work.

Ken Grieve, director of the serial, claimed on the DVD commentary that Adams wrote 98% of the script.

Nation moved to the United States in 1980 and went on to work for various television projects in America, most famously as a writer and producer for MacGyver.

[2] David Gooderson replaced him, but the Davros mask (which was originally fitted for Wisher) was five years old and in poor condition; as a result, it suffers in appearance.

K9 only appears near the start of the story, explained in-story as due to an electronic form of laryngitis – the croaking was provided by Roy Skelton.

Terry Nation has said he had no desire to use K9 in his storyline; the scene (as well as other continuity gestures to Season 16) was inserted during rewrites by Douglas Adams.

The BBC added to the flooring of the two larger buildings a large number of silver coloured cylinders and pipes, sticking out of the rubble, which transformed these two derelict shells into the external ruins of the long abandoned Dalek city and the disused Kaled bunkers.

This was one of the first British productions to make use of a Steadicam; due to the high cost of such a set-up, nearly all the props and sets were reused, including the Davros mask.

[3] Tony Osoba later played Kracauer in the 1987 serial Dragonfire and Duke in the 2014 episode "Kill the Moon".

When Episode One was broadcast, ITV was three weeks into a ten-week strike, which took it entirely off air with the exception of the Channel region, and all BBC programmes received a significant audience boost as a result.

[6] The story was repeated on BBC1 across four consecutive evenings from Tuesday to Friday, 5–8 August 1980, achieving viewing figures of 4.9, 5.8, 7.1, and 6.5 million viewers respectively.

[7] Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote in The Discontinuity Guide (1995) that the serial had "a tacky, inconsequential feel that comes from a decade of having its best jokes sneered at.

Club reviewer Christopher Bahn praised the first episode and the introduction of the new Romana, but felt the story quickly became dull, mishandled Davros, and failed to do anything with the Daleks.