The Chase

BARBARA: Doctor, what is this machine?
DOCTOR: I've already told you, my dear. It's a Time and Space Visualiser.
BARBARA: Yes, but apart from making that dreadful noise, what does it do?

BARBARA: What's that awful noise?
DOCTOR: I beg your pardon? Awful noise? That's no way to talk about my singing!
BARBARA: No, Doctor, not that awful noise, the other one.

VICKI: It's a trail.
IAN: Probably blood.
VICKI: Oh yes, it's bound to be.

DALEK: TARDIS!

DALEK: TARDIS!

DALEK: TARDIS!

DALEK: TARDIS!

DALEK: TARDIS!

BARBARA: Doctor, he said the TARDIS!

(Yes, well spotted, Barbara)

BARBARA: You're from Earth?
MORTON: No, no, Ma'am. No, I'm from Alabama.

DOCTOR: I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them, silly old fusspots.

• Daleks can fly. Just look at the picture of them on the Marie Celeste. It's literally impossibly for that Dalek to have got up there without flying. So much for Remembrance of the Daleks, eh? Still, we now know from Ian that the best place to fight Daleks is somewhere with "good, stout walls". Very handy, walls. I'm still not certain about the plan to fight the Daleks. What with? Just the four of them? How? 
  
• The Time-Space Visualiser has planets written on it, for some reason. It's also absurdly huge. I know it's an amazing device that we sadly never see again, but why does it need to be that huge? 
• That Dudley Simpson chap is back yet again to do the score! And is a bit bizarre again. 
• The Aridians are a bloody boring bunch. 
• I know Terry Nation was never exactly great at titles, but two here are "the Death of...", and one of them is "the Death of Time", which is both daft and doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with the story. 
• I said in the Space Museum I thought Ian was starting to crack up. Well, here he calls a Dalek "Fred". And that can't even be excused by the Doctor having just bafflingly called one "Auntie"! Also, he asks for Barbara's cardigan (rather than ripping it off her this time!) and Barbara says, "not again!" I wonder if that just refers to the Space Museum or if he has a general cardigan fetish? Also, Ian is known for questioning the Doctor, so it's bizarre that the one time the Doctor says something ridiculous, "we're inside a human mind", Ian just nods and accepts it! 
• The cliffhanger to episode three of this story, which is the halfway point, is identical to the cliffhanger to the end of the Space Museum. I know in a story about a chase that we're going to get a lot of "the Daleks are still chasing us", but it doesn't have to be a cliffhanger!

Verdict

Lots and lots of great moments, but none of them really hold together all that well and the bits in between are really very dull. That's how I feel about the Chase. For starters, why exactly are the Daleks after them? It just seems to be a random breakaway group of a few (rather dim) Daleks rather than the species as a whole. Why do those few have such a grudge against the Doctor? The fact that they don't bother exterminating Morton Dill or anybody on the Marie Celeste highlights how incompetent they are. The final scene is very sad.

William Hartnell's anger at the thought of Ian and Barbara leaving is really sweet. It is played so well. This is the second Dalek story in a row cut short to have a touching leaving scene. The past two stories have seen the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki make such a together and fun team, it'll be such a shame to see no more of them. I do worry about them, though. How on earth are they going to explain having been away for two years without getting locked up?