Episode One
This is the first Dalek story to be Terry Nation-free, and guess what? It's the first top class Dalek story, perfectly written and plotted. I apologise in advance, but this is just going to be one big love-in. This story perfectly highlights the difference between Terry Nation and David Whitaker. Nation's had four goes at Dalek stories, and Whitaker beats all of them easily with his first try. What is so great also is that the guest characters are so believable. They're all so beautifully you know all about them by the end of the first episode, in spite of less than fifteen minutes running time of them. Also, this story has so many little clips surviving, and seeing them is a joy. The reconstruction bursts into life so often, and each time is very exciting.
The first scene in the TARDIS is quite amazing. It's lucky the audience in 1966 were more patient (and open minded) than those in 1984, as the Doctor here is really portrayed as being very unlikeable, far more so than the sixth Doctor, who had his problems explained very clearly on screen. With the second Doctor there is no explanation at all. Of course, he is likeable for us, because Troughton's performance is superb. I like that he almost has to learn to walk again, and sees Hartnell in the mirror. Why can't regeneration always be this hard? But he's really quite cruel to Ben and Polly, ignoring them when they call him Doctor, just answering with a ,"don't you know?" when they ask him to say who they are. "Been renewed, have I? That's it, I've been renewed!" he states, and keeps talking about the Doctor and ignoring Ben and Polly.
Then, finally, he waltzes off into the swamps and the story begins. When the Doctor tries to read the Examiner's badge, he finds out he doesn't need glasses any more, which is a nice touch. He also appears to have a hat obsession, the first of which looks ludicrous, but fits. The colonists themselves are great. The obvious hatred between Bragen and Quinn and the thinly veiled threat from Janley to Lesterson very quickly giving us a nice summary of the characters. On presenting himself as the Examiner, and being asked why he is there, the Doctor says, "to examine," which presents us with the first instance of flippancy from our new Doctor, which is always good to see, and it's quickly followed by Hensell ordering proper clothes for the Doctor, Ben and Polly, to which the Doctor, mock baffled, says, "we are wearing proper clothes". Polly's new clothes are very appropriate. Anneke Wills looks great in them. Though he plays the fool the entire way, the Doctor immediately works out Bragen is up to no good (though it's not so hard to guess that, really).
The Doctor is infuriating with Ben and Polly, answering their questions by playing his recorder, then playing louder any time Ben tries to argue. This episode all leads to the Doctor breaking into Lesterson's "capsule" at night, followed by Ben and Polly. In it they find...Daleks! The bit where the Doctor realises there were three and one has gone is very chilling.
We have a new Doctor, but the quality, if anything, has only risen. I love Polly's line, "it is the Doctor, I know it is. I think". The opening scene in the TARDIS is hectic and exciting, and the colony scenes advance rapidly to the superb cliffhanger. This one episode beats any individual episode in the Hartnell era. An easy 10/10.
Episode Two
Polly's shorts really are distracting. Why didn't she always wear them? Ben mentions how "the real Doctor" was always going on about the Daleks. I've always assumed that plenty does happen between adventures, and the Doctor does tell his companions about his adventures, but it's nice to have this confirmation. The Doctor's claim that one Dalek is enough to destroy the colony echoes the Dalek in the Daleks' Master Plan, and is effective in selling their menace, and is nicely followed by the Doctor and Polly having a lovely moment of them both having fun saying, "Lesterson listen" over and over. This is where having clips help, you can see in those few short seconds just what a sweet moment of fun it is between the two of them which you wouldn't get (as much) with just the soundtrack and photos.
There's a nice continuation of the Doctor using his recorder to shut Ben up, but unlike in the previous episode, this time it's a warning to Ben that he's saying too much, rather than the Doctor being annoying. They easily work out that it was Lesterson who took the third Dalek. The Doctor's, "I want them broken up or melted down, up or down, don't care which," is a great line. He's all over the place. Ranting, comparing the Daleks to there being a bomb in the colony waiting to go off... and then being distracted by a bowl of fruit. But then, just as we (and Ben) think he's totally mad, he reveals that the fruit has been bugged. "So that's why you were messing about and talking nonsense?" Ben remarks...leading to more mock bafflement from the Doctor, stating that he never talks nonsense. I'm already in love with Troughton's portayal. His statement that, "I know the misery they cause, the destruction," as his reason for not running off to the TARDIS is becoming a common theme. There's all of that, and then he accidentally yanks a doorknob off and pockets it.
Then we get the scene of Lesterson, Janley and Resno giving the Dalek some power. It's really teasing the audience for Lesterson to bend over it and say, "I can't think what this short stubby arm is for". Resno finds the Dalek disturbing, and thinks it's watching him. Lesterson laughs at the idea of it having an intelligence. As they give the Dalek more power, and Resno becomes more worried, he quickly gets exterminated. That's a really chilling moment. The Dalek is happy to let the unsuspecting fools live, but those who do worry must be got rid of. Those such as the Doctor, Ben and Polly. Lesterson removes its gun and takes it to Hensell, demonstrating it can follow basic commands. Essentially humiliating the Dalek. But this scene is brilliant, as the Dalek sees the Doctor and recognises him instantly. Apart from being spine-tingling, it's what makes Ben finally believe it is really the Doctor, which is a nice touch. It essentially is a beautiful cliffhanger to go with another glorious episode. 10/10
Lesterson really is a patronising git towards the Daleks. They’re going to get enormous satisfaction from exterminating him later. “They have a certain intelligence,” indeed. And asking them such silly science questions. It’s interesting that the Doctor tells it to demonstrate that it’s really a servant by doing as he says and shutting down. It pretends to until he leaves the room, and then powers up, explaining that it doesn’t follow wrong orders, but will do what the colonists want. Somehow Hensell babbles, “it reasons!” and they all take that it disobeys “wrong orders” as a good sign, the bloody morons. This lot are really begging to be exterminated.
The Doctor pretends to change his mind and co-operate with Lesterson after all. Even though it seems an obvious ruse, you can almost believe him as a viewer. We don’t really know this Doctor yet. Of course, it is just a ruse to get to the generator and give the Daleks too much power, which naturally doesn’t work. But it does lead to that superb moment where as the Doctor walks away, the Dalek clicks its empty gun slot in frustration at him. It’s a really exciting moment.
The Doctor seems to enjoy infuriating Ben. He’s quite normal with Polly. When she gets kidnapped, Ben is naturally worried, but the Doctor just ignores him and says, “Ben, if you were a Dalek what would be your next move?” Ben angrily responds, “we’re talking about Polly”. The Doctor just gets even more irritating and pretends he thinks Ben’s asking what Polly thinks the Daleks would do. Poor old Ben, he’s having no fun at all. The Doctor doesn’t appear to care about Polly, and drags Ben off to the laboratory to confront the Dalek. It’s quite chilling, too, that it’s when no other people are around that the Dalek stops pretending and just acts like a normal Dalek to the Doctor and Ben. It also leads to the interesting, “when I say run, run like a rabbit,” quote, that sadly isn’t used again. Then later they get a warning not to stop the Daleks, or Polly will get hurt. This story is serious about people getting hurt, even though only two people have died...so far.
Here the colony story steps up, too, as we watch the power games of the idiots, not understanding that their lives are in danger. Bragen and Janley just want power. Bragen’s smart, though. He knows the Doctor isn’t an idiot. But it's Lesterson who is by far the focus, here, as he slowly becomes aware of the mistake he’s making. He talks about how the Daleks are curious, and just like people. The Dalek really has to bite its tongue, so to speak, as it responds, “a Dalek is bet...not the same as a human”. Now that is how you do a villain almost giving himself away. It’s chilling, and though he doesn’t admit it yet, it worries Lesterson. He finds out the Dalek has activated the other two. Naturally that worries him even more, but he’s already powerless enough to give them no more than a tiny slap on the metaphorical wrist. And then, of course, though they’re disarmed, they provide the cliffhanger as they chant, “we will get our power,” and the penny finally drops for Lesterson that the Doctor’s been right all along. Robert James plays the dawning realisation beautifully. This story just keeps on giving. 10/10.
Episode Four
Lesterson quickly jumps and turns the power down to show that he still controls the Daleks. And it works. For now. But not very conclusively. The Daleks sort of agree to obey him, and he says, “I’m glad we understand each other,” to which the Dalek says, “we understand the human mind”. This is becoming very stressful for poor old Lesterson. It is bizarre that though he is technically the villain as he started it all, he is the most sympathetic colonist. Now he finds out the Daleks are doing things behind his back, in an area he can’t get to. Then he finds out that Resno died, after all, and Janley lied that he’d only been hurt. This is where he really starts to panic. Janley tells him his tests were too important for him to be distracted by knowing of Resno’s death, and he refuses to accept that his tests were more important than human life. The pressure becomes too much and he collapses.
While all this is going on, the Doctor is confronting Bragen, and treating him like Ben. He cheekily admires the new uniform Bragen has acquired, leading to him saying, “I would like a hat like that”. It’s such a shame he stopped saying that after a few stories. I love the intimidating way the Dalek glides in to offer “liquid” to Bragen while the Doctor and Ben are trying to convince him that the Daleks will not help him. Then we get another very chilling moment, as the Doctor and Ben leave that Dalek in Bragen’s office, and then see three Daleks going down the corridor. There’s another one! After this, the Doctor infiltrates the rebel meeting, and sees that they think the Daleks will actually help them. Of course, they get discovered, and interestingly Bragen stops the Dalek from killing the Doctor, instead just chucking him in a cell. Ben getting captured means Michael Craze can follow Anneke Wills in having a holiday!
The big trouble with this episode, aside from Polly’s absence, is the long scene of Lesterson watching the Daleks reproducing. It’s good in itself, it just goes on far too long, and is the first time in the whole story where I feel it’s dragged a little, which is a shame, though the atmosphere and strength of the story means I’ll only knock off half a point for the length of that sequence. 9.5/10.
Episode Five
And suddenly there are loads of Daleks! And they’re still waiting! The head Dalek says that no more than three Daleks must be seen at one time... “we are not ready yet to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks,” he/it says. Rather than being a bad thing, though, it just ratchets the tension up even higher. And, in a very clever repeat of the reprisal from episode three’s cliffhanger, Lesterson turns off the power to show he controls the Daleks, wanting to melt them down...but this time nothing happens. The way the Dalek just stares blankly at him is really spooky.
Polly gets a shockingly bad line, here. "You think you're very tough pushing a girl around. I'd like to see you cope against a real man". I'm not even going to start, I'll just say it's an awful line, the worst of this story. Still, one duff moment in two and a half hours isn't bad.
Hensell suddenly returns from his "tour" and finds he's been usurped by Bragen. Interestingly, Bragen offers to let Hensell still officially be Governor. Bragen seems almost reasonable for a baddie. Oh wait, no, he's just armed the Dalek and told it to kill Hensell! Maybe not. It does lead to (yet) another famous line as the Dalek asks Bragen, "why do human beings kill human beings?" which sums all sorts of things up perfectly. Bizarrely enough, to a Dalek, killing one of its own is unthinkable (okay, I know that's contradicted quite often, but let's ignore that for now). In that one line, the Dalek hops on its moral high horse and puts itself as better than Bragen. And it's difficult to argue with it, really. And of course, Bragen and the Daleks in this story are both after power, though in different forms. Again, I find it all quite chilling, really, that this story is quite effectively saying humans are no better than Daleks. And of course, their plan revolves around waiting for these humans to start fighting amongst themselves...and then they'll strike! Bragen's loss of calm and control is also fascinating, as he realises too late that he's pulled off his coup at exactly the wrong time and begins to crack. He declares martial law and says, "from now on I'll have complete obedience from everyone!" Bernard Archard pulls off the sudden worry of Bragen very well.
I like how the Daleks are still biting their tongues and deceiving the colonists, even now at this point when we're just waiting for them to strike. One of them explains to Janley, "until now we've needed the colony's power. With static power the Daleks will be twice as... useful". The pause as it stops itself saying something incriminating and searches for the right word is terrific, a world away from the stuttering Dalek in the Chase.
This episode again does involve a lot of waiting, but by now the tension is enormous as the colonists start cracking. The Doctor is surprisingly absent through this episode (admittedly he is in prison), but he's just waiting for the oncoming storm. We know all the way through exactly what this cliffhanger will be, but it's still very exciting when it comes. 9.5/10
Episode Six
The massacre really is pulled off very well. After five episodes of ratcheting up the tension, this could have been a disappointment, but it's sold brilliantly as they storm the place killing everybody. And as the Daleks finally go on the rampage, the colonists are still playing out their petty power games, as Janley finds out Bragen wants all her rebel allies killed now that they've got him power. "Every one must be killed," he states. She's a bit shocked, but accepts (well, she'd have had to be killed to if she'd said no), and is overheard by one of the rebels.
Lesterson completely loses it, and I think probably his death sums up the ruthlessness of these Daleks best. He says, "you wouldn't kill me, I gave you life," and the Dalek, almost sounding bored, replies, "yes, you gave us life". And shoots him. It's yet another great moment in this story full of them. Yet Bragen isn't killed by a Dalek, he's killed by a fellow human. Which is quite a nice touch. Also, Polly this time begs the Doctor to run off back to the TARDIS. Usually that's Ben's role.
The Doctor defeats the Daleks, and then refuses to take credit for it. "Did I do all that?" he asks, bemused. The ungrateful sods tell him about how much damage he's caused the colony, as if leaving them all to die would have been better! But it does start the Troughton-era trend of the Doctor and companions nipping off quickly after their adventure. And of course, that old recorder is whipped out again as they make their way back to the TARDIS. I do quite like the moment where Ben asks the Doctor if he really knew what he was doing, and just gets a cheeky look. The Doctor has spent much of this story ignoring Ben.
This episode is a bit of a mess, but in a good way. It's the chaos that ensues after five episodes of tension-building, and it pays off brilliantly, ensuring Troughton has received the best first story any Doctor could hope for (and will ever get). 10/10
Conclusion
I love the Hartnell era, but this beats it all. It's an incredible story and shows just how menacing and, well, just how good the Daleks can be in the right hands. With a top class writer and a competent director you get magic. Here we get our first truly classic Dalek story, and this is the perfect time to do it. There are so many little touches and great moments in this story, from the tongue twister, to the Dalek clicking its empty gun, to the Dalek recognising the Doctor, to the Doctor pulling a doorknob off. It's very tightly plotted, and there isn't a weak performance amongst the cast. Troughton is brilliant. He is utterly commanding in the role. Power is going to be a very hard story to beat. I've always loved it, but I loved it more than ever this time. It's exciting, tense, and very nearly flawless.
Average Rating: 9.8
Old Rating: 10
New Rating: 10
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