Six of the seven episodes of The Evil of the Daleks are gone, with only some model footage of the Dalek battle from Episode Seven surviving.
Fortunately, Episode Two exists in its entirety, presented (along with the model footage) on the Lost in Time dvd set. This episode gives a wonderful glimpse at the serial. It's a good episode in its own right, though the same could be said of any of the story's parts. It also neatly bridges the contemporary setting of the story's start and the Victorian setting that occupies the central portion. It introduces Victoria and Maxtible, and sees the Doctor's wonderful reaction to realizing that the Daleks are at the heart of his TARDIS' theft. If only one episode could survive, this isn't a bad one to choose.
Below is a quick run-down of the ways in which viewers/listeners might choose to enjoy the rest of the story:
1. The BBC Audio: BBC Audio does its job to its usual standard, with the narration by Frazer Hines nicely livening up the extended action scenes during the attempted rescue of Victoria - even more than the Loose Cannon reconstruction does, in my opinion, though I accept that others may differ from me on that.
2. The Loose Cannon Reconstruction: Dalek stories provide Loose Cannon an advantage in reconstructing, as scenes of Daleks interacting are easily recreated with models and/or CGI. Both are employed in this story, and when they are just used for Dalek interactions, these touches greatly enhance the watchability of the recon. Less effective are the scenes in which live action stand-ins are used for the characters. We see the backs of stand-ins' heads or large chunks of action in which a stand-in's face is carefully avoided while hearing the soundtrack - an experiment which I just found distracting, as it really drew attention to the lack of the actual actors. The bulk of the reconstruction is excellent - but I would have preferred the elimination of bits using "doubles" for the cast.
Once again, either option provides a fine way to enjoy the full story - A story so good that it grips in any form, watched or listened.
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