The Daleks are back, Romana’s had a face swap, and the Doctor stumbles into a cosmic war of attrition where the biggest threat isn’t extermination — it’s boredom.
Short Synopsis
The Doctor and his freshly-regenerated Romana land on Skaro, where the Daleks are locked in a never-ending war with the logical Movellans. Both sides want Davros to break the stalemate. The Doctor mostly wants a nap, but ends up wrangling android disco armies, a cranky genius in a wheelchair, and Daleks who can’t solve a stalemate without cheating.
Extended Storyline
Things kick off with Romana regenerating — not because she was injured, but apparently because she fancied a wardrobe change. She cycles through a few possibilities (including the Doctor’s own face) before settling on a Lalla Ward look. The Doctor is mildly alarmed but also very Tom Baker about it: exasperated, sarcastic, and secretly quite pleased.
The TARDIS lands on a suspiciously rocky wasteland, which turns out to be Skaro, the Daleks’ home planet. The Doctor, who really should know better by now, decides to have a look around. Within minutes, he and Romana are dodging collapsing tunnels, slave labor camps, and Daleks trundling about like they own the place (which, technically, they do).
The Daleks, as it turns out, are stuck in the least fun war ever. They’ve been fighting the Movellans, a race of glittering androids who dress like they’ve just come from a 1970s space disco. The two sides are locked in a perfect stalemate because both are entirely logical. Imagine two computers endlessly playing chess and neither one ever makes a mistake. Now add endless laser fire and a lot of shouting, and you’ve got the gist.
The Daleks decide the only way forward is to dig up their old boss, Davros, last seen being blown to bits but now buried in a bunker like some sort of evil leftovers. Their plan? Wake him up, let him cheat for them, and pretend they were going to think of it themselves all along. Unfortunately for the Daleks, Davros is still very much Davros — shrill, scheming, and already plotting how to put himself in charge again within three minutes of regaining consciousness.
The Doctor and Romana, meanwhile, are captured, escape, recaptured, escape again, and generally spend a lot of time running around corridors that look like they were borrowed from a quarry storage shed. Romana, newly upgraded, proves herself capable and sharp, though she does end up being used as labor by the Daleks at one point — which mostly proves the Daleks are terrible managers.
When the Movellans finally show up in full force, they look like the Bee Gees’ backup dancers but act like Vulcans with worse people skills. They want the Doctor to help them too, but it quickly becomes clear that their interest in peace is about as genuine as the Daleks’. They’re logical to the point of absurdity, and the Doctor, quite rightly, mocks them for being so predictable that a game of rock-paper-scissors would probably crash their operating systems.
The climax comes when Davros, drunk on his own self-importance, tries to reassert control of the Daleks, only to find himself once again outmaneuvered. The Doctor sabotages both sides by demonstrating the Movellans’ Achilles heel (literally: knock over their power packs, and they keel over like fainting goats). Romana joins in, looking far too elegant to be wrestling disco androids, while the Daleks bumble about shouting “EXTERMINATE!” at anyone in range.
By the end, Davros is captured and cryogenically frozen (again), the Movellans are embarrassed, and the Daleks are forced to slink away to plot another day. The Doctor and Romana head back to the TARDIS, probably wondering if every trip is going to involve digging Davros out of increasingly stupid hiding places. Spoiler: yes.