68: Planet Of The Daleks - Transparently Repetitive

Written by: Terry Nation.

Companions: The Doctor, Jo Grant.

Monsters/Villains: Daleks, Thals, Spiridons.

Brief Synopsis: The TARDIS follows a Dalek ship to the Planet Spiridon, where the Daleks are attempting to master invisibility.

Rating: 4/10.

So... Planet Of The Daleks features a band of Daleks on the planet Spiridon trying to discover the locals' secret of invisibility; the Pepper-pots don't manage to achieve this transparency but the plot's similarity to that of 'The Daleks' more than makes up for their failings. Terry Nation is behind this almost direct reworking of his original story and Planet of the Daleks contains a number of the same plot devices including: a group of Daleks in a city encountering the Thals on a ravaged planet; a deadly plague instead of a neutron bomb; someone using a Dalek shell as a disguise; the Doctor imprisoned in a cell, and the Daleks imprisoned in their city at the end of the story. It just feels like Nation is afraid to do another story, he's had success with his first Dalek story and doesn't want to break the mould. He's invented these wonderful creations but doesn't know where to go with them, he does go on to redeem himself before too long, but we'll have to wait until there's a new Doctor on the scene.

Terry Nation, writer and creator of the Daleks.

The story carries on right where Frontier In Space left off, Jo gets a chance to run the show as the Doctor is out cold, literally; this is similar to what happened to him in The Dæmons. On her journeys, Jo chances on the Thals, and a friendly member of the invisible Spiridon race. The Spiridons all wear big purple furs to keep warm, and presumably so as to not bump in to each other. Once the Doctor is up and about he too meets up with the Thals and tells them of his past encounter with their people on Skaro, even mentioning Ian, Barbara and Susan, which is a lovely moment.

Jo gets given more to do.

At first it appears the Daleks are on Spiridon simply to master invisibility; an invisible Dalek is a scary idea, although it really feels like this story line gets forgotten about very quickly. We later learn there are 10,000 Daleks in hibernation on the planet just waiting to awake and conquer the galaxy. Likewise we don't see much of the invisible Spiridons (no pun intended) until one dies and loses his camouflage.

A Spiridon.

There are some rather infortunate shots using tiny Dalek toys to fill in for the huge 10, 000 strong Dalek army. It's a great idea to have such a massive Dalek force but technology wasn't quite there yet leaving these shots best forgotten.

An army of tiny toy Daleks.

There is a rather wonderful scene in a cell where the Doctor gives a Thal a pep talk about bravery, stating: "Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway." This has a really genuine heart-warming quality, but unfortunately stands out as the only  such moment in the story.

The Supreme Dalek, or disco dalek if you will.

In the end the Daleks aren't destroyed but frozen by a wave of molten ice. The Supreme Dalek (which was adapted from one of the sixties film Daleks) also manages to escape, meaning we can surely expect the Daleks' return at a later date. 

Jo is given more to do and it's here that one can really see how far the roll of the companion has come during Jo's time as assistant. Her character has grown and developed from a screaming child into a responsible individual. At the end of the story Jo tells the Doctor that there is only one planet she wants to see: earth, home. This is perhaps a little sign post of Jo's departure in the next story.

The Doctor and Bernard Horsfall as Thal Leader Taron.

Overall Planet Of The Daleks isn't particularly memorable, we've seen it all before in previous Nation stories. The performances from the actors playing the Thals are two dimensional, with the exception of Bernard Horsfall. Like it's predecessor Frontier In Space, this story feels like an unwanted throwback to Doctor Who when it was at it's adventure/pulp sci-fi stage of development back in the sixties. 

It has to be said that a more up to date version of 'The Daleks,' which hadn't been seen since 10 years earlier would have been welcome at a time where repeats and DVDs were non-existent, but with hindsight the story just feels transparently repetitive. 

Join me next time for an absolute classic, Season 10's finale and a farewell to Jo Grant in The Green Death.

67: Frontier In Space - Doctor Who Does Space Opera?

Written by: Malcolm Hulke.

Companions: The Doctor, Jo Grant.

Monsters/Villains: Draconians, Humans, Ogrons, The Master, The Daleks.

Brief Synopsis:  In the 26th century the Doctor and Jo get embroiled in the stirrings of a war between the great empires of Earth and Draconia.

Rating: 5/10.

Frontier In Space started it's life as a 12-parter planned by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks as an extravaganza to rival The Dalek's Master Plan. It was later decided to split the story into two 6-parters which left us with The Frontier In Space and... well let's not get ahead of ourselves.

My favourite Doctor Who writer penned this Space Opera, but is it his best work? The story is exciting and challenging but the finished product often comes off as a little repetitive and clunky. With too many scenes of space ships attaching and detaching, the Doctor and Jo being locked in various prison cells, and numerous never ending space walks the narrative becomes, at times, muddled. It feels like Doctor Who as a programme takes a step back in it's development.

One to many stilted space walks, ay Doctor?

But we're ticking lots of boxes. We've got the return of the Ogrons, we've got Roger Delgado as the Master (although sadly for the last time), we've got a new alien race, the Draconians, but yet it just feels like something isn't quite right. I'm a sucker for 50s, 60s, and 70s ideas and expectations of the 'future.' There are some weird and wonderful designs, including futuristic collars. The then newly built National Theatre was used as a location and the Doctor goes on a tangential visit to a lunar penal colony, or "Moon Jail," if you will. There are also some lovely little touches that ground the piece in reality; like the pin-up girl posters in the Cargo ship control room. As always Hulke's characters are fully rendered and non-stereotypical. They're not goodies and baddies, they're all believable people with motives and ambitions. But how does that fit with the Space Opera style?

Vera Fusek as the President of Earth.

You can tell writer Malcolm Hulke, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks had some say in the casting for this one. Vera Fusek a Czechoslovakian woman was cast as the President of Earth; something that at the time would have been so far from possible that even the representation of the idea of it on a programme like Doctor Who would have been shocking.

Louis Mahoney would later go on to play the
older version of Billy Shipton in Blink.

The casting of black actor Louis Mahoney would also prove to be fortuitous. Frontier In Space was broadcast 24 February-31st March 1973. In that very same year Trevor McDonald would become the first black Newsreader. It has sometimes been suggested that Malcolm Hulke was a communist; whether or not that is true he was certainly a progressive man. Like all of his stories Malcolm Hulke has loaded Frontier In Space with real world implications. Instead of his more usual moral dilemmas  Hulke here delves in to the world of politics and it's ramifications on war. It feels like he's pushing against the melodrama of the Space Opera setting.

There's a clue to who he's working for on his chest!

One of the saddest parts of this story is that it would transpire to be the last appearance of Roger Delgado as the Master. He died whilst on location in Turkey when a chauffeur-driven car in which he was travelling came off the road and plunged into a ravine. Jon Pertwee often remarked that it was Delgado's untimely death that led to his departure from Doctor Who. Delgado gives an excellent final performance, but sadly isn't given the farewell he deserves.

Jon Pertwee often named the Draconian as his favourite 'Who' Monster,
due to their design and use of the actors actual eyes and mouth.

So it transpires that the Ogrons are working for the Master, who is using a sonic device that makes people see what they fear most. This feels like Hulke and also fits the Space Opera style. The device causes the Draconians to see the Ogrons as Earthmen and the Earthmen to see them Draconians. The Master is trying to start a war between the two great empires so that... dun... dun... dun... the Daleks can sweep in and take over the Galaxy in the confusion.

Surprise!

The first time we met the Ogrons they were working for the Daleks but the Doctor explains that they are mercenaries, which neatly keeps the surprise of the Daleks showing up right until the end of the last episode. The Draconians make excellent characters. They have a sort of oriental, honour, dragon feel to them in design terms and each actor uses sibilance beautifully. They are one of the alien races that I believe most deserve a come-back in the current series. They were named-dropped as part of the Alliance to trap the Doctor in the Pandorica in The Big Bang in 2010 but didn't make an appearance on screen.

I love Peter Birrel as the Draconian Prince.

In the end an Ogron shoots the Doctor, who manages to escape back to the TARDIS with Jo. He uses the telepathic circuits of the TARDIS to contact the Time Lords, telling them to help him follow a fleeing Dalek ship before collapsing. It's a big cliffhanger, which is emphasised more by the fact it comes at the end of the story. So on the hole Frontier In Space isn't bad. It's let down by it's lengthiness and sometimes repetitive production. It feels like Hulke wants to write a straight drama highlighting the connections between polotics and war, but he's stuck with the melodrama, adventure and technological aspects of a Space Opera. At times the two synthesise and blend, but at others they clash horribly. 

It doesn't work on a consistent level, but there will always be a place in my heart for this story.

Join me next time for the continuation of this story in The Planet of The Daleks.

60: Day Of The Daleks - A Surprisingly Unusual Time Travel Plot

Written by: Louis Marks.

Companions: The Doctor, Jo Grant, Brigadier, Captain Mike Yates, Sergeant Benton.

Monsters/Villains: The Daleks, Ogrons.

Brief Synopsis: Freedom fighters from the future attempt to thwart a Dalek invasion by coming back in time to assassinate a delegate at the second World Peace Conference.
Rating: 8/10.

Hello wonderful blogtastics, I can only apologise for my absence of late, I've been kept busy with various other projects, auditions and trying to write a musical, but I am back with a vengeance to give you a full report on the first episode of Jon Pertwee's third season and the ninth overall, The Day of The Daleks. Since Dalek creator Terry Nation, was unavailable to write this one we welcome back Louis Marks who wrote the Hartnell story Planet of Giants, and would go on to write two Tom Baker stories: Planet of Evil and The Masque of Mandragora. The script that had originally been submitted wasn't called Day of The Daleks and didn't actually feature the intergalacticly infamous pepper-pots at all. It was called The Ghost Hunters and featured a fairly nondescript group of alien oppressors. Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts liked the story and decided to develop it, substituting it's extraterrestrials for the Daleks, who hadn't been seen for five whole years after being destroyed (for good, supposedly) in the Patrick Troughton story, The Evil of The Daleks.

Radio Times cover.

They pulled out all the stops, including a specially shot television trailer, an illustrated Radio Times cover, and even a contest to win your own Dalek. In 1972 this was Event TV and it clearly paid off as the story received 10.2 million viewers. The Daleks return brought in the viewers and the story was excellent, if flatly directed, but what of the Daleks themselves? They spend most of their time in a control room, barking orders, and then try to invade earth with just three Daleks.

The most interesting part of The Day of The Daleks is it's surprisingly unusual plot that centres around time travel. Uncannily similar to James Cameron's motion picture 'The Terminator' (1984), the story centres around a small group of Guerillas from the future who time-travel to the present day to avert the domination of a totalitarian dictatorship, but end up causing the very events they set out to prevent. In Cameron's case it's Skynet, in the Doctor's it's the Daleks. 

It's the most interesting part of this story because surprisingly Doctor Who doesn't do it very often. You'd think in a series where the main premise centres around a man who can travel in time and space, you'd get this sort of thing all the time, but it's surprisingly rare.

The Doctor with the Guerillas, Boaz and Anat.

The story also has a political connection. The Guerillas Target is Sir Reginald Styles who is on a mission of peace. He is trying to coax the Chinese to attend the Second World peace conference (The first having taken place in The Mind of Evil) and prevent the escalation of war. This is a direct reference to the Sino-Russian border conflicts of 1969 which almost spiraled into a nuclear strike on China by the USSR. Styles's last attempt to broker peace by flying to Peking is also an analogue to the February 1972 visit of Richard Nixon to China that would eventually establish the future Washington–Beijing–Moscow diplomatic relationship. It is also interesting to see that when the story starts we are meant to believe that the Guerillas are "the baddies," but they turn out to be "the goodies." It forces an interesting notion, that the characterisation of good or bad, of terrorist of freedom fighter is totally in the eye of the beholder.

The Daleks have got themselves a police force, the Ogrons.

Rather shockingly the Doctor acts in a very uncharacteristic way in this story. He drinks wine, something we rarely see him do, but much worse than that, he kills two Ogrons. I'm sure the script suggested that he was defending himself but in actuality he seems to calculatedly kill two Ogrons in cold blood. This is certainly one of those moments, much like Hartnell's 'I'm gonna bludgeon this guy with a rock,' moment, where I initiate my selective memory.

"Oh no, someones shot him. Me? No it wasn't me!"

Episode Four was originally to have featured a confrontation between the Doctor and the Daleks, in which the Daleks explain how they destroyed those of their number who were infused with the Human Factor in the events seen in The Evil of the Daleks, and then turned their attention to conquering Earth by means of time travel. This scene was actually recorded but had to be cut at the editing stage for timing reasons. What I would give to see that...

Aubrey Woods gives a stage-like, exaggerated yet excellent
performance as the Dalek's Human Controller subordinate.
He's also really shiny and wears silver nail polish.

The Guerillas try to assassinate Sir Reginald Styles as they believe his death will stop the Daleks future domination of earth, but it is his death that would in fact be the cause. However we don't get this temporal paradox fully explained until an expositional scene in the last episode of the story. In the end the Doctor gets Styles to safety and one of the Guerillas sacrifices himself to destroy the invading Daleks.

Just three??

The story's most infamous moment is when the Daleks have followed the Doctor back to present day and along with a handful of ambling Ogrons attempt to invade earth with just three Daleks. This issue along with many others including, the somewhat stilted Dalek voices, lack of future earth imagery and sometimes longwinded editing has been adressed by Steve Broster in a special edition included on the official DVD release. The special edition includes, new effects shots, extra material including a vastly larger Dalek invasion force and new Dalek voices supplied by Nicholas Briggs. I was lucky enough to attend the first screening. It's an excellent piece of work and really brings the story bang up to date.

CONTROLLER: Where there any complications?
OGRON: No complications!

Without a doubt, one of my all time favourite moments in Doctor Who takes place in this story. I like it for all the wrong reasons. It's the "No complications" line. There are two extra actors who are playing the Ogrons reporting to the Controller on their mission to kill one of the Guerillas. One explains they were successful in his best attempt at how an Ogron might speak. When the controller asks, where there any complications the first Ogron's counterpart replies just a little too abruptly in a comparatively normal and unaffected voice, "No complications." It's hilariously bad and that's why I love it. 

All in all the story is incredibly strong, but it is let down by incredibly poor direction. Steve Broster makes up for some of this in his wonderful special edition, but it's still just a little under par. The prototype 'Terminator' story is excellent, and the political parallells to the story's creation are handled tastefully but the actual return of the Daleks seems a little stilted and inanimate.

Join me next time for the return of the Ice Warriors in The Curse of Peladon.

36: The Evil of The Daleks - The Final End Of The Daleks?

Written by: David Whittaker.

Companions: The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon.

Monsters/Villains: The Daleks.

Brief Synopsis: The Doctor and Jamie are taken to Victorian England, where the Daleks are experimenting with the 'Human Factor' in a bid to turn themselves into super-beings.

Rating: 6/10.

I have to apologise for my recent lack of blogs. I have been super busy with various other projects, but I am back with a vengeance to tell you all about The Evil of The Daleks and more to follow soon!!

We continue right where we left off with this one. London, July 20th 1966, Ben and Polly have departed and the Doctor and Jamie are in search of the TARDIS. They see a truck driving off carrying the TARDIS. They track a man named Bob Hall to a warehouse. They enter to find Hall knocked out and the Doctor finds a matchbook for a coffee bar called the Tri-Colour. Mr. Kennedy, who has been watching them, reports to Edward Waterfield at his Antique shop and we learn that the matches were left on purpose as a lure. Waterfield is dressed in full Victorian costume and has a few odd slip ups with the names of things, like when he calls a taxi, a handsome.

The Doctor and Jamie find the Tri-Colour. A Mr. Perry is waiting for them and passes on a message to meet at Waterfield's shop at 10. In the shop Kennedy has seen Waterfield talking to something or someone and decides to investigate. He breaks into Waterfield's study where he finds a hidden door. Inside he flicks some switches, there is a low hum, and an alien form begins to take shape behind him. He spins round in horror as a Dalek glides towards him.

Once again only a single episode, episode two of this story exists. "Who are you?" Questions the Dalek. A terrified Kennedy runs and is exterminated just before the dalek vanishes. The Doctor and Jamie enter the antique shop half an hour early. The pair notice that all of the antiques are brand new, but are not forgeries and deduce that they are in fact genuine. Jamie thinks Waterfield may be a time traveller. 

Edward Waterfield.

Waterfield discovers Kennedy's body and is angry at the murder but the Dalek commands him to follow his orders and abruptly leaves. The Doctor and Jamie find Perry and the three discover Kennedy's body. Perry goes for help. The Doctor examines Kennedy and finds a torn picture of himself in Kennedy’s hand. They discover the hidden room and find a chest containing the other half of the picture, Jamie opens the trap and the pair are gassed and pass out. Waterfield re-enters and activates the time machine.

Mollie Dawson.

The Doctor awakes in an ornate room of a house and a maid, Mollie Dawson brings him some water. Jamie is still asleep. They are in a house belonging to a Mr. Maxtible. The Doctor is asking the date and location when Maxtible and Waterfield enter and inform the Doctor that he is in Canterbury and the date is 2nd June 1866. Maxtible tells the Doctor about their commanders, and that they hold Waterfield’s daughter, Victoria.

Theodore Maxtible. What a beard!!

Victoria Waterfield is being held in a cell. A Dalek enters and commands her to eat the food she is given and not to use it to feed the flying pests outside. It orders her to a weighing machine and the Dalek tells her that she has lost weight. There's something rather hilarious about this.

"Vic-tor-ia, you-need-to-eat-some-more-pies-if-you-are
going-to-grow-up-big-and-strong!! 

In his laboratory Maxtible tells the Doctor of his interest in time traveling and explains how they have used mirrors and Faraday's static electricity to create a time machine when a Dalek emerges. The Daleks have the TARDIS and they want the Doctor to help them with an experiment on a human subject, Jamie. The Dalek explains that too often they are defeated by humans and they want to transplant the 'Human Factor' into themselves to make them supreme beings. They have brought three inactive Daleks from Skaro that they demand the Doctor endows with the 'Human Factor.' They want to test Jamie because he is human and has traveled through time, making him unique. They don't want the Doctor because he is not human. The Dalek demands that Jamie not be aware he is being tested. The test: Jamie must attempt to rescue Victoria.

Jamie awakes and Mollie the maid brings him something to drink. Jamie demands that she call him Jamie and not sir and she appreciates his courtesy. Ruth Maxtible, Theodore's sister comes in and Jamie comments that the painting of Mrs Waterfield is beautiful, which is made particularly comical considering the fact that it is hideous. Jamie is briefly kidnapped by a man named Toby. Not exactly sure why to be perfectly honest.

Toby. I wonder if he knows what's going on?

Maxtible brings in Kemel, a giant strong, mute Turk and orders him to stop Jamie at all costs. Another member of the household Arthur Terrall, Ruth Maxtible's fiancee is acting very strangely. We learn that he was behind Jamie's somewhat random abduction. Mollie says Terrall is kind, but he fought in the Crimea and is sometimes inconstant. The Doctor comes in and give us a little history lesson about the war where the English, the French and Turks fought the Russians and recalls watching the Charge of the Light Brigade, commenting, "magnificent folly."

Arthur Terrall.

Then something rather uncharacteristic happens, Jamie and the Doctor have an argument. Jamie thinks everyone's lying to him and the Doctor uses reverse phycology to manipulate Jamie into trying to rescue Victoria and Waterfield drops the hint of her location in the south wing of the house.

That night, Mollie helps Jamie by getting him a map of the house, and shows him the way to the south wing. The Daleks are recording Jamie's reactions, and will transport them to thought patterns, so the Doctor can then select the major feelings to make up the Human Factor. Toby, the man Terrall hired to seize Jamie sees a Dalek. He runs but the Dalek exterminates him. Hearing the scream, Jamie sends Mollie back to her room and continues alone. As he makes his way through the haunted house with only a candle to light his way some wax drips on to his hands. As he recoils spikes fall from the ceiling only just missing him. Then Kemel appears menacing over him.

Kemel The Turk.

Jamie and Kemel fight, but Jamie escapes and hides in a nearby room. Kemel breaks in and launches himself at Jamie. Jamie dodges and Kemel flies straight out of a window. He hangs from the guttering, but Jamie finds some useful rope (which will come in handy later as well) and throws it to Kemel, helping him to safety. Jamie goes on, with a truce understood with Kemel. They enter the room where Victoria was being held and Jamie picks up a handkerchief. Kemel pushes Jamie to the ground. Just as Jamie looks around he sees an axe burst out of the wall and realises that Kemel has saved him. The Doctor and the Daleks are watching Jamie's progress. The Doctor notes Jamie's courage and mercy.

Waterfield finds the dead Toby. Maxtible orders Waterfield under protest to despose of the body. Waterfield admits that his only purpose is to see his daughter out of the hands of the Daleks, and that afterwards he will confess his part in this. Waterfield and Maxtible dispose of Toby's body and as Waterfield leaves, Maxtible raises his pistol intending to shoot him in the back, but is stopped by Terrall.

Kemel is mute but introduces himself to Jamie by writing his name in some dust. He tries to bow to Jamie but again he doesn't require the formal manner. The pair agree to find Victoria together. Jamie accidentally presses a button and a pendulum slices down above them as they duck. "Instinct," notes the Doctor. Jamie and Kemel enter a banqueting hall where they witness two Daleks inspecting Victoria. Kemel picks up a mace, and intimates that he will attack the Daleks and draw them off while Jamie rescues Victoria, but Jamie won't let him pursue the suicide mission. "Self-preservation," records the Doctor.

Maxtible approches a Dalek saying he has done all he has been asked and now he wants them to tell him their secret. Maxtible wants to learn the secret of alchemy; how to turn metal into gold. He wants power and influence and infinite wealth; that is why he is helping the Daleks.

Only one Dalek is left guarding Victoria. Kemel throws the mace into the corner to divert the Dalek and they use their trusty rope to catapult the Dalek into the huge stone fireplace. They then use the handy rope to climb up to the gallery where Victoria is being held but the rail that the rope is tied around begins to break. Jamie grabs Kemel's hand and once again helps him to safety. Just then a Dalek enters the banqueting hall and the doors on the gallery open to reveal another Dalek waiting for them.

Here's a pro tip: if you're travelling in the TARDIS or facing Daleks,
bring a rope! You'll need it... 

Victoria is behind the Dalek and once more Jamie and Kemel use their multifunctional rope this time as a lasso sending the Dalek crashing off the gallery. They enter the room and barricade the door from inside. Jamie wonders who helped the Daleks to control Victoria. Meanwhile Maxtible is hypnotising Mollie. He commands her to think that what she has seen is nothing but a dream. We learn that Maxtible persuaded Victoria to go to the Daleks using the same technique. Waterfield finds the Doctor working on the Human Factor. He makes a positronic brain containing: courage, pity, chivalry, friendship, and compassion which he will implant into the three dormant Daleks.

Ruth Maxtible.

Maxtible orders Terrall to slip into the barricaded room via a secret passage and grab Victoria. Jamie finds the secret door, and Kemel and he split up to find Victoria. Jamie steps out into the room with Terrall, who goes at him with a sword. Jamie grabs a sword and they fight but the Highland warrior and the Crimean Soldier are evenly matched. Terrall is taller, but Jamie is younger and stronger and gets the better of him. Ruth and Mollie enter and Terrall collapses. The Doctor enters and finds a control unit in Terrall's pocket, he deactivates it and orders Ruth to take him as far away as possible.

Jamie is not a happy Scottie!

Kemel comes out of the secret tunnel and finds Victoria on the ground in front of the gothic time cabinet when a Dalek enters and orders Kemel to pick up Victoria and to move into the cabinet. Jamie is angry at the Doctor for making light of the situation and challenges his regard for life. I really like that throughout this story Jamie isn't just going along with everything, even in dire circumstances he still questions the Doctor's sometimes apparently inhuman actions. Just at the hight of Jamie's mistrust, three Daleks emerge, and the Doctor says they are friends. They're from the experiment. The Daleks practically force the Doctor into a chair and begin to push him around the room. After a short while the Doctor realises that they're playing a game, and taking him for a ride.

The Doctor, Jamie and their Dalek Friends!!

They're playing trains and they all start to speak, saying: "trains," "Dizzy Doctor," and "Friends." The Doctor then gives them names and marks their letter on each, Alpha, Beta, & Omega. The Daleks say they must go, as they are being called home to Skaro.

Maxtible discovers a box attached to the floor, he opens it and sees a timing device. Waterfield works out that Maxtible is to blame for everything and the two fight. A Dalek demands that Maxtible brings the Doctor, and reveals that the box is a bomb that will destroy the house. Maxtible escapes into the cabinet. The Doctor says they must follow the Daleks to Skaro. They pull out the parts of the time machine and the Doctor tries to set the controls allowing Waterfield, Jamie and the Doctor to escape just as the Dalek bomb destroys the empty house.

Victoria Waterfield: It's all about her!!

Victoria awakes to discover that she has been imprisoned again this time with Kemel and Maxtible. Meanwhile the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield have been transported to the desert of Skaro and traverse the treacherous route into the city. The human factor Dalek Omega meets a black Dalek and explains the Doctor gave it it's name. The Doctor and co come out of a vent and are surrounded by Daleks who take them to the control room for an audience with the Emperor Dalek. The Doctor imposes that the the day of the daleks is coming to the end and the three daleks with the human factor will question and there will be a rebellion.

The Emperor reveals that they only wanted the Doctor to decipher the 'Human Factor' so they could grasp the Dalek factor and show the Daleks what their power is: to obey, to fight, to destroy, to exterminate. The Emperor also unveils the TARDIS and demands that the Doctor will take the Dalek factor and spread it through the entire history of Earth.

Maxtible, Kemel and Victoria are joined in the cell by the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield. The Doctor says there is nothing that could make him do what the Daleks are demanding of him. He just wants the rest of the group to be safe and even suggests that he might try and take them to his own planet.

The Doctor's not sure what to do,
so he plays his recorder.

Meanwhile a black Dalek commands that work be discontinued when a Dalek questions, why? A Dalek shows Maxtible a machine that turns iron into gold tricking Maxtible to walk through an archway which instills him with the Dalek Factor. Later Maxtible comes into the cell and hypnotises the Doctor into walking through the archway. The Doctor passes through the archway and pretends to follow Maxtible's commands, even reprimanding Jamie. Maxtible leaves the Doctor, who returns to the archway where he makes a few changes, alternating a part for one from his pocket.

A black Dalek takes Maxtible and the Doctor to see the Emperor. The Doctor suggests that all daleks need to pass through the archway to deal with the problem of the three experimental Humanised Daleks. The Emperor agrees and thanks to the Doctor's tinkering as each Dalek passes through the archway it is endowed with the human factor.

The Doctor explains to Jamie that the archway didn't affect him as he is not human. All of the Daleks begin to question their orders, causing a black Dalek to fire at the disobeying Dalek. Two humanised daleks fire on the black Dalek, exterminating it.

Some rather hilarious shots of Dalek toys used for filming the final sequence.

The Doctor leads the humanised Daleks to the Emperor and persuades them to destroy it. The Emperor calls out his black Daleks to counteract the humanised ones. Waterfield takes a Dalek blast meant for the Doctor, admitting the Doctor's is "a good life to save." The Doctor promises to look after Victoria and Waterfield dies at peace.

The two Dalek factions battle it out while Victoria, Kemel and Jamie make their escape. Maxtible attacks Kemel, the dalek factor has given him inhuman strength. Kemel fights off Maxtible allowing the others to escape but Maxtible throws him into a chasm. The Emperor is destroyed by the humanised daleks, while Maxtible runs into the Emperors room as it burns down, screaming, "The Daleks will live forever!" He was not wrong...

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria escape to the TARDIS. Jamie asks what Victoria will do and the Doctor says she is coming with us, and once again the TARDIS crew is three. He looks back just once as the Dalek city burns, pronouncing, "This is the final end [of the Daleks]."

And originally The Evil of The Daleks was planned to be the end of those unsavoury pepper-pots; their last appearance in Doctor Who. Terry Nation was trying to sell the Daleks to American television and this story was intended to give them a big send off from the series. Of course, despite the Doctor's pronouncement, this was not to be his last encounter with these most famous of his adversaries. And at the last moment before filming the final scene producer Innes Lloyd inserted a light globe inside the Emperor Dalek. This glowed as the Emperor was destroyed, suggesting that something within remained alive.


The Evil of the Daleks contains some wonderful stuff. The first appearance of the Emperor Dalek, time travel with mirrors, some hilarious moments of Daleks playing and the introduction of a new companion in Victoria. This story suffers from too much padding. At the heart of the piece is a good rollocking adventure especially when you think it's written by David Whittaker who gave us the proper barmy Edge of Destruction. There are some brilliant ideas, it's just a shame it's so ruddy long. 


And thus ends Season 4. It's been a pretty mad one. We saw the introduction of the Cybermen. We saw Hartnell transform into Troughton. We gained a companion, lost two and then gained another. We met the Cybermen twice, the Daleks twice, mad old Zaroff and the fish people of Atlantis, the giant crab-like Macra, and the formless Chameleons. We were able to watch only 10 existing episodes of the total 43. That's 33 missing episodes. My favourite story from season 4 was Troughton's introduction The Power Of The Daleks. I honestly couldn't pick a least favourite. I really liked them all, which clearly shows how good a season this has been. Out of a possible 90 I scored this season 62.5/90. Giving it a high average score of 69/100 and winning it the top spot so far, beating season 1 by just three points.

I'm very excited about the next episode. It's Troughton's first episode that exists in it's entirety and we see the return of some classic monsters. Join me next time for The Tomb of The Cybermen.

30: The Power of The Daleks - A Strong Opening Story For A "New" Doctor!

Written by: David Whitaker

Companions: The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Ben Jackson, Polly.

Monsters/Villains: The Daleks.

Brief Synopsis: The Doctor 'regenerates' and the TARDIS arrives at a colony on the planet Vulcan, where a scientist called Lesterson is trying to revive two inactive and surprisingly subservient Daleks.

Rating: 9/10.

Hello blog-land I am so sorry I've been terminally absent lately. I have been stupidly busy with various auditions and such but here I am making my long awaited return with the first Troughton story, The Power of the Daleks. What a strong opening story that was!! Wow. Only the audio exists for this rather long 6-parter but I promise you it's well worth a listen. Troughton does so much with the character on his first outing, injecting an entirely new kind of humour into the programme. It's so exciting; you just want to find out more about him and the character as soon as possible. But they feed it to you a little bit at a time.

So... The Cybermen have been defeated, but, something has happend to the Doctor. He's breathing. The TARDIS seems to be normal. As before Polly is a lot more willing to accept that this is the Doctor, whereas Ben is more wary. 

This whole opening sequence is just wonderful.The Doctor says, "It's over." He dematerialises the TARDIS and reacquaints himself with the controls. He feels his face, as if examining it for the first time. He drops his ring as it is too big for his finger and trips saying, "muscles are still a bit tight." It's as if he's learning to walk. As Ben rightly says, "It's not only his face that's changed, he doesn't even act like him." The man rifles in a storage case and produces a mirror. The image in the mirror changes into the likeness of Hartnell and then back to normal. He picks up a dagger given to him by Saladin. He refers to himself in the third person saying "The Doctor was a great collector." Ben replies, "but you're the Doctor." To which the Doctor returns, "I don't look like him." He finds a piece of dull silver metal which conjures up a word in his memory, "Extermination." Ben continues to challenge him to which he replies, "Did you ever see a butterfly fit into it's chrysalis case after its spread it's wings. Life depends on change and renewal." Ben questions, "You've been renewed?" The Doctor explains, "It's part of the TARDIS. Without it I couldn't survive" He finds his 500 year diary and a recorder and dons a stove pipe hat. Ben and Polly aren't sure he is the Doctor. Can you just image how mental this would have been for the viewers in 1966? It throws out so many questions. It's so creepy the way he refers to the Doctor as someone else, like he's a completely new person. The only thing that is a little odd is that his clothes have changed along with him. 

The Doctor goes out of the TARDIS. Another man appears. He's the examiner from Earth. Suddenly he gets shot. The Doctor pulls out a pair of wire rim spectacles to read the badge on the dead man, only to realise that he no longer needs them. The badge reads: Earth examiner, accord every access, Vulcan. Someone hits the Doctor knocking him out, presses the badge into the Doctor's hand and drags off the examiner's body. Polly and Ben pass out after breathing in some noxious vapours. They are rescued by Deputy Governor Quinn and Bragen, head of security.

The three awake in a colony led by Governor Hensell, where the Doctor is mistaken and poses for the examiner from Earth. It is unknown why an examiner was requested, it seems it is either due to a growing threat from rebels or something to do with a scientist called Lesterson's space capsule. The Doctor is taken to inspect the capsule. He recognises a similar piece of dull silver metal and demands that no one explore the capsule further. The trio depart for some rest. Ben and Polly awake later and follow the Doctor to see the capsule in the lab. The Doctor inserts one of the pieces of metal into an opening and a door opens. Inside are two cobwebbed Daleks. Eerily the Doctor invites Polly and Ben in to meet the Daleks. The Doctor discovers that a third Dalek is no longer in the capsule when suddenly a clawed mutant scuttles across the floor.

It is ingenious the way they keep the companions and thus the audience guessing as to whether this man is the Doctor. Doctor Who has always been at it's best when it's scaring people, and I can't think of anything much scarier than changing the character you know and trust into a different person and then not even confirming that he definitely is the same man.

The Doctor realises that Lesterson has already seen the Daleks. Lesterson removes a hidden compartment revealing the third missing Dalek. Janley and Resno, Lesterson's research assistants are wiring up the Dalek for testing. They put power in to the Dalek and the sucker stick and eye piece react. Resno is killed by the Dalek but Janley covers it up. The Doctor arrives and the Dalek seems to recognise him. It speaks, stating "I am your servant."


The Mark Gatiss story Victory of The Daleks in the new series has obviously picked up some influence from The Power of The Daleks. With the pepper pots pretending to be helpful.

"Would you like some tea?"

The Doctor orders the Dalek to immobilise itself but it refuses. We learn that Quinn sent for the examiner because of the rebels. Bragen blames Quinn saying he did this to overthrow the Governor in order to replace him. Governor Hensell imprisons Quinn and makes Bragen deputy Governor. We also learn that Bragen is making Janley help the rebels. Polly gets kidnapped by the rebels. Lesterson continues to work with the active Dalek, who says, "A Dalek is bett... is not the same as a human. If I am to help I must know everything." The Dalek promises to help Lesterson by making a 100% accurate computer. Hensell gives Lesterson everything he requires to help with the development of the Daleks and the computer. Two armed Daleks come out of the capsule chanting, "We will conquer! We will conquer! We will conquer!"

Bragen seems to know the Doctor is not the examiner, and we discover that he was the one who killed him. The first Dalek disarms the two other daleks to calm the humans but again they chant, "We will get our power! We will get our power! We will get our power!" Lesterson cuts the power and claims he is in control of the Daleks. 

Lesterson and Bragen.

The Doctor kicks off this series with an odd obsession with hats. He's wearing a stove pipe hat and when he sees a newly promoted Deputy Governor Bragen he says, "I would like a hat like that!" Matt Smith's Doctor seems to have a similar obsession with hats in the new series with the Fez and the Stetson. 

The Doctor discovers a hidden message and learns of a secret meeting of the rebels; to which he and Ben decide to attend. Ben gets caught and taken away and we learn that Bragen is the rebel leader! Bragen imprisons the Doctor with Quinn. We witness a Dalek construction line and actually see the creature itself being placed inside the travel machine. There are now dozens of Daleks being mass produced.

It's well known that in most of the old Doctor Who Dalek stories they had only 4 fully operating Daleks and in order to not challenge this production weakness a Dalek actually says, "not more than three Daleks are to be seen together at one time!"

Lesterson learns that the Daleks are mass producing themselves and cuts their power only to discover that they can now store power. The Daleks lay cables to spread static power to the whole colony and Lesterson starts to go full on crazy. The Doctor and Quinn escape but Bragen gets a Dalek to kill Hensell and takes over as Governor. Afterwards the Dalek questions "why do human beings kill human beings?" We also get a large group of Daleks all chanting "Exterminate!" Which is always good.

Four "real" Daleks and loads of cardboard ones.

The Doctor and Quinn find and free Polly. They find Hensell dead and are captured by Bragen. The Dalek army emerges and begin their attack rallying "Daleks conquer and destroy"

The Daleks head off to "exterminate all human beings." Bragen tells Janley that he has decided that all the rebels must be destroyed and reveals that he would have killed her if she didn't join him. Another rebel Valmar overhears this. Bragen sends his guards to kill the rebels. Janley manages to convince Valmar that she didn't betray him and they take control of three Daleks and take them to aid the rebels in their battle against Bragen's guards. But the controlled Daleks fire on the guards and the rebels including Janley.

The Doctor, Polly and Quinn find Ben. Quinn forces Bragen to use his guards as a diversion for the Daleks. The Doctor tires to sabotage the Daleks' static power supply and Lesterson sacrifices himself to distract the Daleks, echoing, "I want to help you. I am your servant." He gave them life and they killed him. With Lesterson's distraction the Doctor manages to overload the Daleks' power destroying all the Daleks. Valmar kills Bragen.

The Doctor has destroyed the colony's power supply and along with Ben and Polly, he sneaks off to the TARDIS. As they're leaving a destroyed Dalek's eyestalk lifts up as if to watch the TARDIS depart. Something tells me this isn't the last we will see of the Daleks. 

I really enjoyed The Power of The Daleks. It's a little long, but it is action packed. I love that we are thrown right into an adventure, with all the questions about the Doctor's 'regeneration' all up in the air. There are some really strong performances in this story including Bernard Archard as Bragen and Robert James as Lesterson. Patrick Troughton gives a great performance on his first outing and has significantly wetted my appetite for his interpretation. I do miss Hartnell some, but I am very excited to see where Troughton is going to take the role and the show...

Join me next time for The Highlanders.