The Daleks' Master Plan

The Nightmare Begins

And here we go. Can we have reached the place of perfection so soon? It seems so with the Daleks' Master Plan. We're back in that terrific jungle on Kembel. Ooh, Nicholas Courtney! Yay! The Nightmare Begins is pretty much perfect. With Douglas Camfield directing, we know this looked good, too. The jungle set for Kembel is the first of many for this story, and all of them are terrific.

I like the fact that news is on Channel 403. I know they just picked a random high number, but having the foresight to do that is great, and it seems very appropriate now. My only problem is, for me 403 is Sky Sports 3. What news can you watch on there? I really like Roald and Lizan. They're totally irrelevant, but they just make the whole thing seem more real. They add the human touch, so to speak, with their gentle bickering. The only thing is, Chen is the Guardian of the Solar System, which I gather is an important job. He claims that for his holiday he's just going to jump into his spar and go, to get away from the media. Maybe there have been severe restrictions imposed on the media by the year 4000, but that doesn't sound so realistic to me. Not one journo from any of the countless million red tops that there must be in the Solar System followed him? Really? Can you imagine David Cameron going off on holiday and nobody knowing where? And that's just going on holiday, let alone meeting up with multiple alien invasion forces to plan attack. The media in the year 4000 are shockingly slack.

Also, the Doctor talks about Bret, "brain or brawn versus brain. I've got you beaten from the start young man"! So, his idea of brain beating brawn is to use brain to create a brawn that can restrain the brawn you're up against? Which is essentially what the magnetic chair is. And why does it have a forcefield strong enough to hold a herd of elephants, exactly? How many elephants can you get in one chair? I do like how Bret genuinely wants to help Steven, though. Oh, and we find out Mavic Chen is bad. What a shock! Still, this is a terrific opening episode, full of tension and excitement and setting up an intriguing story. As a first 25 minutes, flawless. 10/10.

Day of Armageddon

This contains one of Hartnell's worst fluffs. The Doctor and Steven are bickering about nothing much, and Bret understandably tells them to shut up, as they need to focus on the issue at hand and warn Earth about the Daleks. The Doctor replies, "you'll have to do more than that. If the Daleks are doing something drastic then we have to stop the Daleks. Now will you shut up sir?" Huh? That makes absolutely no sense. However, that isn't enough to detract from another episode of perfection. Nor does his, "I don't know whether it's revelant or not" later on.

I love all the different alien representatives. Yes, they look a bit daft, but they're all trying to act "alien" and be noticeably different in the way they walk and clap. Zephon is great fun, although those arms can't be practical. And why is he so ridiculously arrogant? Antagonising not just the Daleks, but a whole load of warlike races and galaxies. There's a time and a place to assert your authority. This is neither. Still, it's rather funny that for all that, he'd probably have got away with it if Bret and Steven hadn't bopped him on the head and let the Doctor (very badly) pretend to be him. Throughout the story Mavic Chen is portrayed as smart and savvy, so how on Earth can he not notice Zephon is suddenly completely different? Still, Bret's "you're a very brave man" to the Doctor, and the way the Doctor brushes it off, is a very sweet and touching moment.

I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I absolutely love Day of Armageddon. It is genuinely one of my all-time favourite individual episodes. It's really all quite elegant. We have the alien delegates, smart Daleks, Mavic Chen already planning and taunting Zephon and the Doctor and co. barging in and stealing the taranium. I just enjoy the greatness while it lasts, since this story is perfect. So far. 10/10.

Devil's Planet

It had to end somewhere. Luckily this is still a very good episode, even if it does just feel like a high quality version of the Chase. Oh, sorry, did I say Zephon would have got away with his arrogance? I was wrong. His "friends" all decide that he's just a prat and kill him. Billy's fluffs are on the increase, as he says, "fifty years to be suffice...precise" about how long it takes to mine the taranium. Then comes the most bizarre line since Barbara told Sabetha she was in deep deep hypnosis. The Doctor says, "the Daleks will stop at anything to prevent us"! Erm, that's a good thing, surely? I'd certainly be celebrating.

The Doctor found Cory's tape in the previous episode, and they play it now. And it's completely different to Cory's message in Mission to the Unknown. That's rather strange. Anyway, Desperus, a prison planet with no guards. People just get dumped there and left to fend for themselves. The year 4000 is a very unusual place. The media can apparently lose track of the most famous person in the Solar System. People are just dumped on planets and left to, essentially, die. Can you imagine the outcry now if they did something like that? Let alone in two thousand years. I'm probably just complaining because the portions on Desperus are very poor in comparison to the opening two episodes. The three convicts we meet are rather dull, really. This episode consists of The Doctor and co. flying from Kembel to Desperus and the Daleks killing Zephon. In spite of that, it is very good, and heartbreaking when Katarina tells the Doctor, "with you I know I'm safe". 8/10

The Traitors

Obviously this episode is overshadowed by Katarina, but it's pretty horrific all-round, with Bret also dying after killing Daxtar. The episode really revolves around those events. The silence after Katarina dies is powerful, and the Doctor's speech is very sweet. I liked Katarina. I think it's a shame she never got a chance. She's the first companion to not get a proper leaving scene, which is sad. And of course the first to be killed off. So here's to you, Katarina, Adrienne Hill. Thanks for the brief memories. Then of course, you have Bret murdering his "friend" Daxtar, who falls into that never knowingly underused "accidentally revealing something only a baddie could know" trap. Then "Kingdom" kills Bret, which is actually almost as shocking as Katarina's death. Considering he's a bit of a git, it's quite sad he gets killed off so soon.

Apart from those deaths, the only notable thing in this episode is Chen, as Kevin Stoney gets a decent amount to do. His quote that, "a heroic war cry to apparently peaceful ends is one of the greatest weapons a politician has," is a pretty terrific one, and his scheming to get Trantis killed off so he can be the Daleks' "top ally" is good. This episode also introduces Karlton, who is a rather good, sneaky character who could pose a threat to Chen. Or at least, he could have done if he didn't perform a magic and rather bizarre vanishing act after the next episode. This episode is rather gripping for the lack of action. It's sad and somewhat depressing. The Chase it definitely is not. I actually rather like this episode, but I do find Katarina's death a really sad and quite upsetting moment. Wait a year or two to find out if I think the same about Adric's! 8.5/10.

Counter Plot

Oooh, pictures. Exciting! The particle dissemenation set does make me really appreciate the sets for this story. It's a really good set, and yet it's only in this one episode. The jungle on Mira is only in this and the next. It's an impressive effort. I do like the guy who says that they've been sent to, "a strange planet in a strange galaxy, the nature of which we can only guess at". Oh look, it's a jungle planet, much like Kembel. Oh, well,the Visians are 8 feet tall. That's amazing or something, I guess. Still, as I said, it's an impressive set, and the incidenta music is terrific here. It is all the way through the story, but here it's particularly noticeable.

Karlton is really being built up well here as a rival for Chen, somebody who is dangerous for both him and for our heroes. It's funny to think we never see him again. I'm going to have to be slightly generous with my marking for this story simply because of its length. This and the last episode are overmarked a little. 8.5/10.

Coronas of the Sun

The first Dalek episode written by somebody not called Terry Nation. It's probably the strangest episode title yet. It's meaningless. Still, the music is still awesome here. Tristram Cary is so good. The Visians are invisible. I wonder if that gives the Daleks the idea for Planet of the Daleks?

"You make your incompetence sound like an achievement" is both a great quote, and something rather a lot of people around the world today need to be told as they make up lazy excuses for themselves. I think Chen's excuse is quite a good one, really. I like that to prove that he's as "with it" as the Doctor and Sara, Steven knocks himself out! Funnily enough, the Doctor tells Steven to "get off". I'm not sure if that's a fluff or just terrible writing. And speaking of terrible writing, what about the cliffhanger? "If either of you went outside, it would be extremely dangerous". Erm. So the cliffhanger is that they're perfectly safe, basically? Still, in spite of this and the terrible stalling going on, it's still not a terrible episode. 7/10.

The Feast of Steven

This, on the other hand, is. I love comedy episodes, but this one suffers through not actually being funny. There is, however, one joke I really like. "Haven't I seen you before? Oh yes, I remember! The marketplace at Jaffa!" says the Doctor to Reg Pritchard, who played Ben Daheer in the Crusade eight months ago! Now that's what I like, a joke that only the smallest fraction of your audience will get, considering nobody would have actually seen the Crusade since it was shown! That aside, there's really not much going for this episode, is there? The Doctor's quote that, "I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot," is a nice one, though. I do also find it quite funny that Steven pretends to be a policeman, then immediately gives himself away by admitting he knows the Doctor. He does cover very well, to be fair. The less said about the film set bit, the better. Still, at least the Doctor cares about us! 2/10.

Volcano

Tristram Cary's going mad here, again, which is nice, since there's very little here, too. It's a marginal improvement on the Feast of Steven, but still pretty awful, frankly. I know it's very very ridiculously childish of me, but I really can't help laughing at the line, "it came from Uranus, I know it did!" You do need that laughter, considering. The Daleks are going to test the Time Destructor on one of their allies. What? That makes no sense. That's one of the problems of the second half of this story. Why did the Daleks bring these delegates to Kembel to represent their sections of the galaxy just to kill them off one by one? Surely that will just provoke those galaxies to join together against them? If they only needed the taranium and nothing else, what was the point? Surely they just needed Chen? Much as I like Dennis Spooner, he doesn't appear to have actually read the first half of the story. And then when the Time Destructor fails, they kill the ally anyway! Absurd!

Speaking of absurd, why is the Monk still a monk? That was just a disguise when he was in 1066. Why does he need it now? And that stuff of him disabling the TARDIS lock is a bit pointless, isn't it? Oh well, the story can begin (again) now this is over, with the Daleks threatening the entire universe. Can it? Please! 4/10.

Golden Death

Seems like the answer is no, though at least the standard is improving again. We're in Egypt, for some reason. The Doctor has a superb hat. The Daleks kill a bunch of Egyptians. This is just an episode which concerns manoeuvring everybody into place for the next episode, but it's entertaining enough. The Doctor changing the Monk's TARDIS into a police box is rather funny. The Monk is quite amusing now. Kevin Stoney seems to be contractually obliged to get one good quote per episode. This time it's, "three time machines in one infinitesimal speck of space and time? Of course a coincidence is possible, but hardly likely". It's not particularly amazing in itself, but Stoney never fails when he gets half a chance. Though it's hardly a special episode, at least things happen and characters are somewhat entertaining, so I think considering the abysmal last couple of episodes I'll give this one a generous 7/10.

Escape Switch

Chen's slow descent into madness that has been one of the few consistent plot strands in this story is now becoming more and more highlighted. His anger at the Daleks, and taunting them for getting things wrong is interesting, and mistakes he wouldn't have made earlier. The stress is getting to him badly. Especially as "one Dalek is capable of exterminating all!" In spite of that, the Daleks are still nervous enough to send a couple off with Chen to get the taranium from the Doctor. I find it very strange the way the Doctor shouts instructions at Chen, even though he's standing right next to him. It's very convenient that the Egyptians all attack at just the right moment for the Doctor to escape. Hartnell is really fluffing a lot in this story, as he talks of magic Mavic Chen. The cliffhangers are becoming really lazy, though. Again, though this episode literally is simply about the Doctor giving the Daleks the taranium, it is tense and exciting, and you feel that the story is really starting to pull itself towards a conclusion. I certainly do like that the story begins with two episodes on Kembel and ends with two on Kembel. Bring it on. 8/10.

The Abandoned Planet

Chen's getting worse still. "I hope the Daleks will suffer no more setbacks," he sneers, and later tells the delegates that "some of us are more equal than others". He truly has gone properly bonkers. The Dalek Supreme abandons him and he takes that as a sign that the Daleks trust him to run the council on his own! Whoops. Sorry Mavic.

The abandoned planet part of the episode is actually quite creepy. I do like Steven's doubts about blundering in to face the Daleks, and Sara's rather optimistic reply of, "we'll go carefully". The lack of anything happening in the Dalek city is effective, even if in plot terms we find there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for it beyond wanting a few creepy scenes of Steven and Sara wandering about the deserted city. Oops, then they let the delegates out, which leads to them all dying, as Chen massacres them. Not going very well, is it? And once again the Doctor has vanished. He didn't appear until halfway through Escape Switch. Hartnell must have loved avoiding so much of this. Still, at least it's good again. 8/10.

Destruction of Time

Hmm. Chen goes utterly pyscho here. It's quite a good payoff, though. He's finally reached total insanity. He thinks the Doctor wants to take his place as the Daleks' golden boy! Then the bit where he starts ordering them around and they just stand there staring at him is really creepy. I'm not terribly keen on grimness, or on sad endings, but it does work fairly well here, and it does seem appropriate for the story. I think it's quite sad that Sara dies because she goes back to help the Doctor. It is a remarkably good payoff for such a long and unfocussed story. The despair and sadness of the Doctor and Steven is nicely played. 8/10.

Conclusion

Sadly I didn't enjoy this as much as I have in the past. I love long stories, but it's all over the place. I love the first two episodes, and I think the last two finish it off well, but in between... Episodes 3-6 feel like the Chase as it would have been with a worse script but an actual director. The Feast of Steven and Volcano are just dire. The Egyptian episodes are there because we can't go to Kembel yet, but all that happens over them is the Doctor handing over the taranium and the Monk bumbling about. It's such a wasted opportunity. I can't believe I'm saying this, I don't really like Dennis Spooner's contribution all that much. People complained of the vanishing pirate in the Curse of the Black Spot, but that's nothing to the magic vanishing Karlton. Hartnell fluffs like mad throughout, too. Still, I do like it. For me it's impossible not to like a story of that length. But I do wish it could have been a bit more focussed. Oh, and Kevin Stoney's great, but Vaughn is better than Chen. For fairness purposes, I've rated this without the Feast of Steven, which isn't really a part of this story.

Average rating with Feast: 7.42

Average without Feast: 7.91

Old rating: 10

New Rating: 8