Doctor Who
The Daleks episode 1 (The Dead Planet)
The Doctors already in an inquisitive mood, wanting to find out why the forest they land in is petrified. Ian has the feeling something is wrong with this new location. Barbara shows early prejudice against friendly reptile creatures (beware Vicki!). The reveal the creature was a robot makes Barbara sad this isn't Earth, because Earth getting nuked to death would be so much better.
"There's nothing here to rely on" says Barbara, crushing poor old Ian.
"The planet is totally dead" says The Doctor, 10 seconds before seeing a big alien city. That city is bloody huge though, to scale. You can just picture poor old Dalek Kindergarten Teachers: "Tommy, DO NOT EXTERMINATE THE TOYS!"
Quite a lot of people have mentioned "setosolidified" as a Hartnell Fluff but hell, its not that long until Pigbin Josh invents 57 new words to the English language per minute of screentime.
You know, given the Thals are implied to be watching Susan, you'd assume at least one would go "Hi, pacifists, please don't go down to the Dalek city, they're mean." But they don't because they are gits. Ok, a bit later one of them half heartedly knocks at the TARDIS door then runs away. Not exactly a warning note, though.
Doctor continues to grow as a character, saying he'd be grateful if Barbara could talk to Susan as he struggles to "given the age gap".
Very little happens in this, but what doesn't happen happens in a very effective manner.
Ian and The Doctor have a continuity argument to fill up time. We even get to see the TARDIS food machine.
IAN: My bacon's a bit salty.
DOCTOR: It shouldn't be. It's English.
I laughed. I also laughed at the Doctor's shameless dive under the console to sabotage his own TARDIS so he can get to investigate the city. Its funny how last story was based around the Doctors entire lack of interest in the curiosity of his surroundings and yet this one is entirely based around them. Terry Nation accidentally rewriting the show through doing a Terry Nation first episode.
Aren't the Dalek City sets lovely?
Although everyone showing mysterious headaches is straight from the Nation School of Foreshadowing.
First use of the Dalek door noise, one of my favourite regular returning Doctor Who sound effects.
And then Barbara just casually strolls right into the place. For a history teacher she is remarkably lacking in common sense so far in the series. And promptly gets herself lost. Luckily a friendly local shows up to guide her with his friendly sink plunger arms, but instead of saying thanks, Barbara screams a lot and the episode ends.
Really the episode before the episode that changes Dr Who forever is an exercise in atmosphere and little else. The regulars are still developing their roles. The big heroes are the sound effects (the howling wind being a nice added extra) and the sets.
Still, I presume next week we'll see who that thing Barbara saw was...
The Daleks episode 2 - The Survivors
Terry Nation liked to repeat his titles, didn't he?
The Doctor, Ian and Susan explore the city far more tentatively, find some measuring equipment measuring the radiation at dangerous levels, and then walk straight into...5 or 6 Daleks, and don't they look bloody fantastic.
William Hartnell and William Russell are quite good at playing weakened versions of their characters, radiation sickness displayed with shortness of breath and some sweat.
One of the Daleks immediately shoots Ian, but he's very lucky they only set their guns to paralyze, for the first and only time in their history. Barking orders, looming impressively over the regulars, shaking with anger at every statement, the talking Dalek is instantly the most exciting thing to turn up in the series. I mean, obviously now we all know Daleks are one of the most famous things in pop culture but I suppose if you were a kid in 1964 and saw that, your mind would have been blown.
I don't know why the Time Lord gets so sick with the radiation levels quicker than the humans tbh.
Daleks chat to each other about the plot. They mention the Thals, who live on the surface but are "immune to radiation". Chatty and paranoid, the Daleks question the Doctor, and even take the piss out of him. "He is becoming delirious, I do not understand his words."
Nice of the Daleks to give the Doctor a quick history lesson too. They are wonderfully moody bastards here.
William Russell gives a good look of horror at "they must be radiation gloves...drugs" but hell, this was AS Live. I know only too well have much the throat can trip you doing a live performance, one time I meant to say the "actor fluffed it" but said "the actor ¤¤¤¤ed it" by accident. Which wouldn't be an issue but for the fact I was reading to a Primary class at the time. Even by the 1980s, things had changed considerably, as you can see on the outtakes on any Peter Davison DVD with people fluffing all over the place for takes. Hartnell was a wonderful and fully faceted actor who played a character, and managed to fit most of the as live take issues into his character. If he had the opportunities given to modern actors he'd have probably nailed the character 100% to his liking without slips but technology, time and money didn't exist. Do any of the 60s fluffs really take you out of the show? I'd suggest not.
Susan is sent off on her own to get the radiation drugs, as Ian's legs aren't working yet from the whole being shot fiasco. And the Daleks sneakily review to the audience they want the radiation drugs for themselves ie they too are struggling with the radiation. Terry Nation could be a lazy writer at the best of times but so far hes knocked it out of the park on the one day of his life he was setting himself up, financially and in career, for the rest of his days.
More shoutouts to the sound department, the unsung heroes of the BBC. Making a set look like a forest with a wind, lightning and strobe lighting. And a bit of running on the spot.
Meanwhile, the Doctor is gravely ill. Will he recover, or will Doctor Who be cancelled after six weeks?
Despite being scared of her own shadow, Susan makes it to the TARDIS.
DALEK 2: I have just come from the prisoners. The old man is dying.
DALEK 1: Then he must die. There is no help we can give him. How are the others?
Hahaha they are gits.
We don't know they are Nazi expys yet. The Daleks are just a new bunch of characters who are paranoid, bitchy and just happen to be in metal gliding suits.
Well, that was glorious.
Doctor Who
The Daleks episode 3
The Escape
Susan leaves the TARDIS and walks right into a Thal who waits for a daft amount of time before announcing he is friendly. Susan mumbles her dialogue only for the Thal to say she speaks too fast for him to understand her. Well, I laughed.
And after 3 minutes of that, we jump cut to the Daleks saying Susan returned to her cell hours ago. You know, I think Terry Nation might be more interested in his new creations than in the TARDIS crew. As for William Hartnell, he's getting his first wee lie down for an episode, it won't be the last. I still don't get why the character who should have the most tolerance to the conditions is portrayed as having the least.
Then Susan gives us the Thal potted history. Which she learned off screen. But then we find out the Daleks are snooping on the potted history lesson for themselves. Talky Dalek already sees a good way to exterminate lots of people via pretending to be humanitarians.
A Dalek shows its kindly side by offering the Doctor some water.
The Thals are a dull bunch in their introduction, although Alan Wheatley as Thal king Temossus seems to have walked in off an RSC production. First actor in history to accept a role on the "fancy getting bumped off in Doctor Who?" gambit, by the way. Well, that's what Peter Haining once claiming and when did that man ever lie? (Irony, people, I am a horror fan after all...) Wheatley is hilariously better than all the other Thals though. "So there is a future for us" he says about to walk into a trap.
Lots of talk about the Daleks intentions, somewhat ruined by their twirling of mustaches a scene earlier. Perhaps the ambiguity might have made the next episode work even better? It also makes the Doctors wish to see the good in them look naive. Who knew Terry Nation needed a few edits? Daleks being creeped out by laughter is a nice touch.
Very little Williams Russell, Hartnell and Ms Hill in this one so far and it shows.
Dalek says Exterminate Them for the first time in Who. Drink!
William Russell gets to talk for 5 seconds and immediately comes up with an escape plan.
Just realised its the Dalek who offers them food and drink that they kill off for their escape. See, that's why Daleks never offer food and drink ever again. No more "food, drink, a bit of Beethoven then we shall EXTERMINATE IN GOOD TIME...."
William Russell also treats the sucker part as being as dangerous as the gun arm, because he's a brilliant actor.
And then as they escape with Ian in a Dalek, something creepy crawls away from under the Thal cloak. Cracking cliffhanger.
An episode of two halves. The bits with Susan and the Thals drags, the bits with the Doctors and regulars, or the Daleks is engaging.
Doctor Who
The Daleks part 4
The Ambush
"Susan can lead us, she knows the way" says Ian with a confidence the series has hitherto not shown in her. Meanwhile Ian gets to play at being a Dalek, slightly ahead of the curve of every single child in Britain on the playground. The plan goes haywire when they walk into the first Dalek guard. Luckily Ian foresaw this coming and gets out of the Dalek suit before anyone can exterminate him.
But horror - Ian cant get out of the Dalek casing and the others have to go without him. Not to worry, its a Terry Nation tease, as the empty casing is exterminated, revealing Ian escaped off screen in the nick of time from an impossible angle. Thank god for off screen escapes!
"Make no attempt to capture them. They are to be EXTERMINATED." And thus a catchphrase was born.
That bit where Ian and Barbara knock a heavy statue down on the lift got used in the film too, I think. I have to assume the Daleks love a bit of pop art sculpture, and why ever not? If you think you're getting a comment about problematic statues here, you'll be sadly mistaken.
Temmossus gets to do some grand Shakespearean chat, and then everyone gets to the main square fo Temmmossssus to do a big grand speech about peace, before the Daleks decided to give peace a chance, or to be more accurate, give pieces of Temossus a chance by exterminating him. Fare ye well, Temosus, however you spell your name. Doctor and Ian did let him finish his speech before even warning him. The sods.
Daleks hiding in plain sight is bloody funny. You can't see the bloody things hiding behind that small alcove in a corridor.
"The Thals are no concern of ours" says the Doctor who cant decide what characterisation he has. I've just noticed this story could be seen as very pro-colonialism with the regulars being the Brits who stir up the natives for their own interests.
Dalek gun just misses Ian and scorches the wall, showing just what it probably did to poor old Temmy-sus-us, left dead with his face in a bunch of food.
"Why kill him, they didn't even know him?"
Mate you live 2 centimeters away from the Daleks? Its like they don't even speak to their own neighbours.
The Thals don't want to go to war, and the regulars want to run away. But what's that? The mercury fluid link is still in the city! Well, that's the Doctor hoist on his own petard.
With colonial over approaches, a discourse on racism ("they hate you because your different" says Ian before suggesting his answer to racism:"teach them to respect you"), the toppling of a statue into the abyss, and the concept of owning your own history, this episode is shockingly topical to watch right now.
Doctor Who
The Daleks part 5
The Expedition
Sounds jolly.
So having just watched the depressing end of Assignment Two in Sapphire and Steel, and the far right in London, lets cheer ourselves up with a Nazi analogy. This episode has Ian teaching a bunch of farmers that pacifism is for pussies and they should kill or be killed by their disabled neighbours. Hang on a minute...
"What argument can you use to make a man sacrifice himself for you?" says Ian, at his most colonialist so far. Actually Ian started off this way last episode then he went to the anti-action route when Terry Nation needed someone to talk, and then he changes again. Which says a lot about the scriptwriters interest in everything that isn't a Dalek.
Now the Doctor has gone from peace to war in the course of a sentence too.
"We must help the Thals to save themselves" says Susan. Now Ian is the Good Cop again. This scene is very messily written but William Russell is still trying his best. But Ian gives up on his Good Cop routine after another sentence and goes back to trying to get the Thals to go to war. He then pretends to kidnap one of the Thal women just to teach them a lesson about fighting back. The hypocrite's a bigger git than the Doctor!
Meanwhile a Dalek takes an overdose of anti-radiation drugs and goes into a post high downer, crying for help. Poor little Dalek. All Daleks in Section 3 die, so the Daleks plan to explode a nuke to feed off the radiation. As you do.
The Thals are in a huff with Ian, and who can blame them? Dyoni and Alydon have a chat so full of Ikea Chat even Chris Chibnall laughed at it.
Some nice Dalek POV shots. The Daleks have no humans around so are left to plot to each other, and apparently Daleks in Section 2 are forced to undergo tests. There's a whole society of underlings being forced to take on herd immunity so the government can surv... bloody Terry Nation keeps predicting 2020.
"Daleks are strong and they hate us" says Alydon. Bad double act, that one. Weak line too.
Philip Bond looks awfie like his daughter Miss Moneypenny (90s version) tbh. Poor show to flirt with someone right in front of their other half, mind you.
All Daleks in Section 2 got herd immunity except one poor sod who died. Don't let Boris see this one...
Meanwhile: a swamp. Its weird how so many interior building looks like a set in Who (because they are) but anytime they do a jungle, its like all the ingenuity in the BBC drama department joins together to suspend your disbelief. Animal noises, bubbling water, wind, it sounds like a living breathing location. "I'm glad the mountaineering's over" (we didn't see any of this) says Barbara and brilliantly Jackie Hill is out of breath. It's the little things we've been missing so far this episode. And they use some nice quick cut shots to suggest a massive sense of scale to that puppet crab thing.
So the Thals have traveled all year to escape the Daleks, who cannot move from their city, and yet they have traveled right back to the edge of the Dalek city. Couldn't they have stopped, you know, anywhere else in the planet knowing it was safe from Daleks?
And then Elyon who has said and done very little goes to the lakeside in time to see a majestical Special effect which is meant to be a thing coming to the surface but just looks like a whirlpool of Lovecraftian descent.
If that episode had been more like its last 6 or so minutes, it would have been far better. Terry Nation excels at People Doing Stuff. He does not do so well with People Waiting to Do Stuff. He's also blatantly more interested in the Daleks. The Doctor had feck all to do this week!
Doctor Who
The Daleks (part 6)
The Ordeal
Hopefully not the ordeal for those who watch!
We return to the nice whirlpool SFX, but the poor Thal red-shirt is gone, munched by a hidden animal. Some terrible Thal acting follows.
Meanwhile the Doctor, Susan, Dyoni and Alydon form the least impressive strike force in history, and have taken a far easier path to the Dalek city.
And the Daleks are in shadow, presumably as the night time outside is shining in through the out of shot windows. That's a surprisingly effective decision by Richard Martin.
We move from jungle to dripping caves and Ganatus is still flirting with Barbara. Philip Bond is however easily the best of the Thal actors, and its no surprise he went onto a lengthy regular TV career pretty much until he died in 2017, while on holiday in Portugal.
Ganatus falls down a hole, finds a mystery opening to the city, and still asks after Barbara even when Ian's right there. An odd scale shot manages to show the perspective of how low the ceiling on the cave is, and how long and difficult to cross it must be.
Richard Martin likes to frame everyone in close up, so that the characters all seem like they are conspiring. This gives William Hartnell some prime Hand on Face Acting, which he loves.
On the other hand, Antodus gets to tell everyone he's feeling scared, and because this is a Terry Nation script, he says what he means.
Again the Daleks are filmed in a shadowy room. It makes them look more menacing and plotting, its completely different from the brightly lit interrogation style rooms of Episode 2 and 4.
Doctor smashes a power supply with a hammer and giggles. That might be the most Doctory thing he's done so far. He even adds in an "Dear dear dear" for added effect. Even Susan starts giggling, Carol Ann Ford clearly loves working with Hartnell like this.
OH dear, the Daleks caught them. That power supply must have been switched to Ninja.
Ian and Ganatus come to a crevasse and test it by dropping a stone which eventually makes a thump after a good 20 seconds. So everyone needs to jump across. It's an ordeal. Oh, right, yeah. Now I get it. Ahem.
I mean, so far we have people Doing Things, and the director filming People Doing Things quite engagingly, so we can't complain.
Ian and Ganatus get over the hole first, and Bond adds some strenuous acting to getting round the set, helping with the suspension of disbelief that its a cliff face and not a set.
"You have destroy our videoscope" says an angry Dalek to the Doctor. He's got rid of Stranger Things, and the Daleks threaten extermination as retaliation. Now they say extermination a lot. Terry Nation has found a word he likes. He's also decided he likes Daleks who shout "DO NOT MOVE!" to folk who aren't moving. Its weird, they are better shot, but worse scripted.
Its really daft tactics to leave the scared chap to last however. When I was on a school mountaineering thing, the guide wisely twigged I am not keen on the whole grip a rock face , climb over a big hole, bit of the thing, and so got me to do it first. This was two fold - one, it got it over for me before I became a liability. And two, then he could say to everyone else "look, Michael managed it, so can you."
Instead, Antodus never went up Ben Nevis on Outward Bound and gets to have his own Ordeal, he falls down the hole and as Ian tries to hold on to him, he is dragged by his finger nails close to the abyss.
That's the longest episode of Doctor Who so far, and despite that, the pace held up quite well. Every character had a reason for being there, even if some had them invented solely to create a cliffhanger. I was left heavily entertained by this episode. Not an ordeal in the slightest.
Doctor Who
The Daleks (part 7)
The Rescue
Ooh, Vicky's here already?
Our scaredy Thal chap cuts the rope to sacrifice himself and save Ian. That hole looks far more like a set than it did last week, but Antodus falls to Earth with a resounding thump. And Philip Bond looks suitably sad. And after all that, theres a rockfall blocking the way, but after they turn off the torch, there's natural light.
Daleks interrogate The Doctor. They've lit up their living room this week.
The "action packed one week/slow as treacle" route to Doctor Who continues as ¤¤¤¤ all of note happens for a good 5-10 minutes.
Back in the forest, which now looks like a set, some Thals talk to each other. They decide to attack. Farmers With Weapons. They could have got Rutger Hauer for that one.
The Doctor tells the Daleks he has a time machine, and thus presumably lets them know about space travel in the bargain, thus dooming billions of lives. Good job breaking the universe, Doctor.
DALEK 1: Where is this machine?
DOCTOR: In the petrified forest outside the city.
DALEK 1: Good. When the neutron operation has been completed, we will find a way to travel outside the city limits.
DOCTOR: No.
DALEK 1: We will examine your machine.
DOCTOR: No. Not unless you stop what you're doing. Otherwise I won't explain its secrets to you and its philosophy of movement.
DALEK 1: Now we know of the machine, we can examine it for ourselves.
DOCTOR: But you can't operate it without me.
DALEK 1: Every problem has a solution.
I think thats a bit of Classic Dalek Humour.
Ian's group have broken into the Dalek city now. It must be the final episode. They hide in plain sight, and the Dalek there immediately.... drives right past them. The Daleks then get into the Doctor Who spirit by starting a bit bomb countdown from 100.
The Thals all meet up and decide to converge on the control room.
The Daleks try and shut the Doors but Barbara dives under to stop it, and the others get through. A Thal is exterminated, but none of the ones who have names.
Countdowns got to 23. And another Dalek completely ignores Ian hiding in plain sight. For a man who loves his Daleks, Nation is writing them as bloody thick just because its the end. Barbara bungs a rock at one. No, seriously. Kristas is exterminated but completely ignores it and attacks a Dalek. Unexpectedly he must have been the toughest bastard in the entire universe.
Then suddenly the Daleks start to die, and Ian gives one Dalek a big old boot to the face Drew McIntyre would be proud of.
The Dalek leader begs the Doctor for help, but the Doctor coldly goes "even if I wanted to, I don't know how", and the Dalek leader crawls into a corner, cries and dies. No, seriously. Thats a bit dark. No wonder when they got mysteriously better for the sequel, they bloody hate the Doctor.
Thal says "bah, all this technology, me not like" and immediately goes to vote for the Luddites. "If only there'd be some other way" - the Doctor heard that line and banked it for another opportunity.
Somewhere off screen, the Doctor got his fluid link back.
ALYDON: Where do you get your knowledge, Doctor? You know, there never seems to have been time to ask, but we don't really know where you come from, or why.
DOCTOR: To rebuild a whole new world. How I envy you.
ALYDON: But you must stay and help us. We could learn from you.
DOCTOR: Oh, no, no. I'm afraid I'm much too old to be a pioneer. Although I was once amongst my own people.
The Doctor teases. Then he says he never gives out advice, which is a blatant lie. Everyone exchanges gifts, Ganatus gets a kiss off Barbara (Ian is right there!) and the Thals shall need to invent smile surgery to remove that grin.
And so that's the Daleks defeated forever and ever and ever. Shame, they were entertaining characters. Far more than the Thals, Philip Bond excepted. Overall, a story of peaks and lows, but the creation of such a vitally important pop culture icon, the further thawing out of the Doctor, and some well put together set pieces allowing Ian and Barbara to shine surely more than count for this being a well above average adventure in time and space.
The Daleks episode 1 (The Dead Planet)
The Doctors already in an inquisitive mood, wanting to find out why the forest they land in is petrified. Ian has the feeling something is wrong with this new location. Barbara shows early prejudice against friendly reptile creatures (beware Vicki!). The reveal the creature was a robot makes Barbara sad this isn't Earth, because Earth getting nuked to death would be so much better.
"There's nothing here to rely on" says Barbara, crushing poor old Ian.
"The planet is totally dead" says The Doctor, 10 seconds before seeing a big alien city. That city is bloody huge though, to scale. You can just picture poor old Dalek Kindergarten Teachers: "Tommy, DO NOT EXTERMINATE THE TOYS!"
Quite a lot of people have mentioned "setosolidified" as a Hartnell Fluff but hell, its not that long until Pigbin Josh invents 57 new words to the English language per minute of screentime.
You know, given the Thals are implied to be watching Susan, you'd assume at least one would go "Hi, pacifists, please don't go down to the Dalek city, they're mean." But they don't because they are gits. Ok, a bit later one of them half heartedly knocks at the TARDIS door then runs away. Not exactly a warning note, though.
Doctor continues to grow as a character, saying he'd be grateful if Barbara could talk to Susan as he struggles to "given the age gap".
Very little happens in this, but what doesn't happen happens in a very effective manner.
Ian and The Doctor have a continuity argument to fill up time. We even get to see the TARDIS food machine.
IAN: My bacon's a bit salty.
DOCTOR: It shouldn't be. It's English.
I laughed. I also laughed at the Doctor's shameless dive under the console to sabotage his own TARDIS so he can get to investigate the city. Its funny how last story was based around the Doctors entire lack of interest in the curiosity of his surroundings and yet this one is entirely based around them. Terry Nation accidentally rewriting the show through doing a Terry Nation first episode.
Aren't the Dalek City sets lovely?
Although everyone showing mysterious headaches is straight from the Nation School of Foreshadowing.
First use of the Dalek door noise, one of my favourite regular returning Doctor Who sound effects.
And then Barbara just casually strolls right into the place. For a history teacher she is remarkably lacking in common sense so far in the series. And promptly gets herself lost. Luckily a friendly local shows up to guide her with his friendly sink plunger arms, but instead of saying thanks, Barbara screams a lot and the episode ends.
Really the episode before the episode that changes Dr Who forever is an exercise in atmosphere and little else. The regulars are still developing their roles. The big heroes are the sound effects (the howling wind being a nice added extra) and the sets.
Still, I presume next week we'll see who that thing Barbara saw was...
The Daleks episode 2 - The Survivors
Terry Nation liked to repeat his titles, didn't he?
The Doctor, Ian and Susan explore the city far more tentatively, find some measuring equipment measuring the radiation at dangerous levels, and then walk straight into...5 or 6 Daleks, and don't they look bloody fantastic.
William Hartnell and William Russell are quite good at playing weakened versions of their characters, radiation sickness displayed with shortness of breath and some sweat.
One of the Daleks immediately shoots Ian, but he's very lucky they only set their guns to paralyze, for the first and only time in their history. Barking orders, looming impressively over the regulars, shaking with anger at every statement, the talking Dalek is instantly the most exciting thing to turn up in the series. I mean, obviously now we all know Daleks are one of the most famous things in pop culture but I suppose if you were a kid in 1964 and saw that, your mind would have been blown.
I don't know why the Time Lord gets so sick with the radiation levels quicker than the humans tbh.
Daleks chat to each other about the plot. They mention the Thals, who live on the surface but are "immune to radiation". Chatty and paranoid, the Daleks question the Doctor, and even take the piss out of him. "He is becoming delirious, I do not understand his words."
Nice of the Daleks to give the Doctor a quick history lesson too. They are wonderfully moody bastards here.
William Russell gives a good look of horror at "they must be radiation gloves...drugs" but hell, this was AS Live. I know only too well have much the throat can trip you doing a live performance, one time I meant to say the "actor fluffed it" but said "the actor ¤¤¤¤ed it" by accident. Which wouldn't be an issue but for the fact I was reading to a Primary class at the time. Even by the 1980s, things had changed considerably, as you can see on the outtakes on any Peter Davison DVD with people fluffing all over the place for takes. Hartnell was a wonderful and fully faceted actor who played a character, and managed to fit most of the as live take issues into his character. If he had the opportunities given to modern actors he'd have probably nailed the character 100% to his liking without slips but technology, time and money didn't exist. Do any of the 60s fluffs really take you out of the show? I'd suggest not.
Susan is sent off on her own to get the radiation drugs, as Ian's legs aren't working yet from the whole being shot fiasco. And the Daleks sneakily review to the audience they want the radiation drugs for themselves ie they too are struggling with the radiation. Terry Nation could be a lazy writer at the best of times but so far hes knocked it out of the park on the one day of his life he was setting himself up, financially and in career, for the rest of his days.
More shoutouts to the sound department, the unsung heroes of the BBC. Making a set look like a forest with a wind, lightning and strobe lighting. And a bit of running on the spot.
Meanwhile, the Doctor is gravely ill. Will he recover, or will Doctor Who be cancelled after six weeks?
Despite being scared of her own shadow, Susan makes it to the TARDIS.
DALEK 2: I have just come from the prisoners. The old man is dying.
DALEK 1: Then he must die. There is no help we can give him. How are the others?
Hahaha they are gits.
We don't know they are Nazi expys yet. The Daleks are just a new bunch of characters who are paranoid, bitchy and just happen to be in metal gliding suits.
Well, that was glorious.
Doctor Who
The Daleks episode 3
The Escape
Susan leaves the TARDIS and walks right into a Thal who waits for a daft amount of time before announcing he is friendly. Susan mumbles her dialogue only for the Thal to say she speaks too fast for him to understand her. Well, I laughed.
And after 3 minutes of that, we jump cut to the Daleks saying Susan returned to her cell hours ago. You know, I think Terry Nation might be more interested in his new creations than in the TARDIS crew. As for William Hartnell, he's getting his first wee lie down for an episode, it won't be the last. I still don't get why the character who should have the most tolerance to the conditions is portrayed as having the least.
Then Susan gives us the Thal potted history. Which she learned off screen. But then we find out the Daleks are snooping on the potted history lesson for themselves. Talky Dalek already sees a good way to exterminate lots of people via pretending to be humanitarians.
A Dalek shows its kindly side by offering the Doctor some water.
The Thals are a dull bunch in their introduction, although Alan Wheatley as Thal king Temossus seems to have walked in off an RSC production. First actor in history to accept a role on the "fancy getting bumped off in Doctor Who?" gambit, by the way. Well, that's what Peter Haining once claiming and when did that man ever lie? (Irony, people, I am a horror fan after all...) Wheatley is hilariously better than all the other Thals though. "So there is a future for us" he says about to walk into a trap.
Lots of talk about the Daleks intentions, somewhat ruined by their twirling of mustaches a scene earlier. Perhaps the ambiguity might have made the next episode work even better? It also makes the Doctors wish to see the good in them look naive. Who knew Terry Nation needed a few edits? Daleks being creeped out by laughter is a nice touch.
Very little Williams Russell, Hartnell and Ms Hill in this one so far and it shows.
Dalek says Exterminate Them for the first time in Who. Drink!
William Russell gets to talk for 5 seconds and immediately comes up with an escape plan.
Just realised its the Dalek who offers them food and drink that they kill off for their escape. See, that's why Daleks never offer food and drink ever again. No more "food, drink, a bit of Beethoven then we shall EXTERMINATE IN GOOD TIME...."
William Russell also treats the sucker part as being as dangerous as the gun arm, because he's a brilliant actor.
And then as they escape with Ian in a Dalek, something creepy crawls away from under the Thal cloak. Cracking cliffhanger.
An episode of two halves. The bits with Susan and the Thals drags, the bits with the Doctors and regulars, or the Daleks is engaging.
Doctor Who
The Daleks part 4
The Ambush
"Susan can lead us, she knows the way" says Ian with a confidence the series has hitherto not shown in her. Meanwhile Ian gets to play at being a Dalek, slightly ahead of the curve of every single child in Britain on the playground. The plan goes haywire when they walk into the first Dalek guard. Luckily Ian foresaw this coming and gets out of the Dalek suit before anyone can exterminate him.
But horror - Ian cant get out of the Dalek casing and the others have to go without him. Not to worry, its a Terry Nation tease, as the empty casing is exterminated, revealing Ian escaped off screen in the nick of time from an impossible angle. Thank god for off screen escapes!
"Make no attempt to capture them. They are to be EXTERMINATED." And thus a catchphrase was born.
That bit where Ian and Barbara knock a heavy statue down on the lift got used in the film too, I think. I have to assume the Daleks love a bit of pop art sculpture, and why ever not? If you think you're getting a comment about problematic statues here, you'll be sadly mistaken.
Temmossus gets to do some grand Shakespearean chat, and then everyone gets to the main square fo Temmmossssus to do a big grand speech about peace, before the Daleks decided to give peace a chance, or to be more accurate, give pieces of Temossus a chance by exterminating him. Fare ye well, Temosus, however you spell your name. Doctor and Ian did let him finish his speech before even warning him. The sods.
Daleks hiding in plain sight is bloody funny. You can't see the bloody things hiding behind that small alcove in a corridor.
"The Thals are no concern of ours" says the Doctor who cant decide what characterisation he has. I've just noticed this story could be seen as very pro-colonialism with the regulars being the Brits who stir up the natives for their own interests.
Dalek gun just misses Ian and scorches the wall, showing just what it probably did to poor old Temmy-sus-us, left dead with his face in a bunch of food.
"Why kill him, they didn't even know him?"
Mate you live 2 centimeters away from the Daleks? Its like they don't even speak to their own neighbours.
The Thals don't want to go to war, and the regulars want to run away. But what's that? The mercury fluid link is still in the city! Well, that's the Doctor hoist on his own petard.
With colonial over approaches, a discourse on racism ("they hate you because your different" says Ian before suggesting his answer to racism:"teach them to respect you"), the toppling of a statue into the abyss, and the concept of owning your own history, this episode is shockingly topical to watch right now.
Doctor Who
The Daleks part 5
The Expedition
Sounds jolly.
So having just watched the depressing end of Assignment Two in Sapphire and Steel, and the far right in London, lets cheer ourselves up with a Nazi analogy. This episode has Ian teaching a bunch of farmers that pacifism is for pussies and they should kill or be killed by their disabled neighbours. Hang on a minute...
"What argument can you use to make a man sacrifice himself for you?" says Ian, at his most colonialist so far. Actually Ian started off this way last episode then he went to the anti-action route when Terry Nation needed someone to talk, and then he changes again. Which says a lot about the scriptwriters interest in everything that isn't a Dalek.
Now the Doctor has gone from peace to war in the course of a sentence too.
"We must help the Thals to save themselves" says Susan. Now Ian is the Good Cop again. This scene is very messily written but William Russell is still trying his best. But Ian gives up on his Good Cop routine after another sentence and goes back to trying to get the Thals to go to war. He then pretends to kidnap one of the Thal women just to teach them a lesson about fighting back. The hypocrite's a bigger git than the Doctor!
Meanwhile a Dalek takes an overdose of anti-radiation drugs and goes into a post high downer, crying for help. Poor little Dalek. All Daleks in Section 3 die, so the Daleks plan to explode a nuke to feed off the radiation. As you do.
The Thals are in a huff with Ian, and who can blame them? Dyoni and Alydon have a chat so full of Ikea Chat even Chris Chibnall laughed at it.
Some nice Dalek POV shots. The Daleks have no humans around so are left to plot to each other, and apparently Daleks in Section 2 are forced to undergo tests. There's a whole society of underlings being forced to take on herd immunity so the government can surv... bloody Terry Nation keeps predicting 2020.
"Daleks are strong and they hate us" says Alydon. Bad double act, that one. Weak line too.
Philip Bond looks awfie like his daughter Miss Moneypenny (90s version) tbh. Poor show to flirt with someone right in front of their other half, mind you.
All Daleks in Section 2 got herd immunity except one poor sod who died. Don't let Boris see this one...
Meanwhile: a swamp. Its weird how so many interior building looks like a set in Who (because they are) but anytime they do a jungle, its like all the ingenuity in the BBC drama department joins together to suspend your disbelief. Animal noises, bubbling water, wind, it sounds like a living breathing location. "I'm glad the mountaineering's over" (we didn't see any of this) says Barbara and brilliantly Jackie Hill is out of breath. It's the little things we've been missing so far this episode. And they use some nice quick cut shots to suggest a massive sense of scale to that puppet crab thing.
So the Thals have traveled all year to escape the Daleks, who cannot move from their city, and yet they have traveled right back to the edge of the Dalek city. Couldn't they have stopped, you know, anywhere else in the planet knowing it was safe from Daleks?
And then Elyon who has said and done very little goes to the lakeside in time to see a majestical Special effect which is meant to be a thing coming to the surface but just looks like a whirlpool of Lovecraftian descent.
If that episode had been more like its last 6 or so minutes, it would have been far better. Terry Nation excels at People Doing Stuff. He does not do so well with People Waiting to Do Stuff. He's also blatantly more interested in the Daleks. The Doctor had feck all to do this week!
Doctor Who
The Daleks (part 6)
The Ordeal
Hopefully not the ordeal for those who watch!
We return to the nice whirlpool SFX, but the poor Thal red-shirt is gone, munched by a hidden animal. Some terrible Thal acting follows.
Meanwhile the Doctor, Susan, Dyoni and Alydon form the least impressive strike force in history, and have taken a far easier path to the Dalek city.
And the Daleks are in shadow, presumably as the night time outside is shining in through the out of shot windows. That's a surprisingly effective decision by Richard Martin.
We move from jungle to dripping caves and Ganatus is still flirting with Barbara. Philip Bond is however easily the best of the Thal actors, and its no surprise he went onto a lengthy regular TV career pretty much until he died in 2017, while on holiday in Portugal.
Ganatus falls down a hole, finds a mystery opening to the city, and still asks after Barbara even when Ian's right there. An odd scale shot manages to show the perspective of how low the ceiling on the cave is, and how long and difficult to cross it must be.
Richard Martin likes to frame everyone in close up, so that the characters all seem like they are conspiring. This gives William Hartnell some prime Hand on Face Acting, which he loves.
On the other hand, Antodus gets to tell everyone he's feeling scared, and because this is a Terry Nation script, he says what he means.
Again the Daleks are filmed in a shadowy room. It makes them look more menacing and plotting, its completely different from the brightly lit interrogation style rooms of Episode 2 and 4.
Doctor smashes a power supply with a hammer and giggles. That might be the most Doctory thing he's done so far. He even adds in an "Dear dear dear" for added effect. Even Susan starts giggling, Carol Ann Ford clearly loves working with Hartnell like this.
OH dear, the Daleks caught them. That power supply must have been switched to Ninja.
Ian and Ganatus come to a crevasse and test it by dropping a stone which eventually makes a thump after a good 20 seconds. So everyone needs to jump across. It's an ordeal. Oh, right, yeah. Now I get it. Ahem.
I mean, so far we have people Doing Things, and the director filming People Doing Things quite engagingly, so we can't complain.
Ian and Ganatus get over the hole first, and Bond adds some strenuous acting to getting round the set, helping with the suspension of disbelief that its a cliff face and not a set.
"You have destroy our videoscope" says an angry Dalek to the Doctor. He's got rid of Stranger Things, and the Daleks threaten extermination as retaliation. Now they say extermination a lot. Terry Nation has found a word he likes. He's also decided he likes Daleks who shout "DO NOT MOVE!" to folk who aren't moving. Its weird, they are better shot, but worse scripted.
Its really daft tactics to leave the scared chap to last however. When I was on a school mountaineering thing, the guide wisely twigged I am not keen on the whole grip a rock face , climb over a big hole, bit of the thing, and so got me to do it first. This was two fold - one, it got it over for me before I became a liability. And two, then he could say to everyone else "look, Michael managed it, so can you."
Instead, Antodus never went up Ben Nevis on Outward Bound and gets to have his own Ordeal, he falls down the hole and as Ian tries to hold on to him, he is dragged by his finger nails close to the abyss.
That's the longest episode of Doctor Who so far, and despite that, the pace held up quite well. Every character had a reason for being there, even if some had them invented solely to create a cliffhanger. I was left heavily entertained by this episode. Not an ordeal in the slightest.
Doctor Who
The Daleks (part 7)
The Rescue
Ooh, Vicky's here already?
Our scaredy Thal chap cuts the rope to sacrifice himself and save Ian. That hole looks far more like a set than it did last week, but Antodus falls to Earth with a resounding thump. And Philip Bond looks suitably sad. And after all that, theres a rockfall blocking the way, but after they turn off the torch, there's natural light.
Daleks interrogate The Doctor. They've lit up their living room this week.
The "action packed one week/slow as treacle" route to Doctor Who continues as ¤¤¤¤ all of note happens for a good 5-10 minutes.
Back in the forest, which now looks like a set, some Thals talk to each other. They decide to attack. Farmers With Weapons. They could have got Rutger Hauer for that one.
The Doctor tells the Daleks he has a time machine, and thus presumably lets them know about space travel in the bargain, thus dooming billions of lives. Good job breaking the universe, Doctor.
DALEK 1: Where is this machine?
DOCTOR: In the petrified forest outside the city.
DALEK 1: Good. When the neutron operation has been completed, we will find a way to travel outside the city limits.
DOCTOR: No.
DALEK 1: We will examine your machine.
DOCTOR: No. Not unless you stop what you're doing. Otherwise I won't explain its secrets to you and its philosophy of movement.
DALEK 1: Now we know of the machine, we can examine it for ourselves.
DOCTOR: But you can't operate it without me.
DALEK 1: Every problem has a solution.
I think thats a bit of Classic Dalek Humour.
Ian's group have broken into the Dalek city now. It must be the final episode. They hide in plain sight, and the Dalek there immediately.... drives right past them. The Daleks then get into the Doctor Who spirit by starting a bit bomb countdown from 100.
The Thals all meet up and decide to converge on the control room.
The Daleks try and shut the Doors but Barbara dives under to stop it, and the others get through. A Thal is exterminated, but none of the ones who have names.
Countdowns got to 23. And another Dalek completely ignores Ian hiding in plain sight. For a man who loves his Daleks, Nation is writing them as bloody thick just because its the end. Barbara bungs a rock at one. No, seriously. Kristas is exterminated but completely ignores it and attacks a Dalek. Unexpectedly he must have been the toughest bastard in the entire universe.
Then suddenly the Daleks start to die, and Ian gives one Dalek a big old boot to the face Drew McIntyre would be proud of.
The Dalek leader begs the Doctor for help, but the Doctor coldly goes "even if I wanted to, I don't know how", and the Dalek leader crawls into a corner, cries and dies. No, seriously. Thats a bit dark. No wonder when they got mysteriously better for the sequel, they bloody hate the Doctor.
Thal says "bah, all this technology, me not like" and immediately goes to vote for the Luddites. "If only there'd be some other way" - the Doctor heard that line and banked it for another opportunity.
Somewhere off screen, the Doctor got his fluid link back.
ALYDON: Where do you get your knowledge, Doctor? You know, there never seems to have been time to ask, but we don't really know where you come from, or why.
DOCTOR: To rebuild a whole new world. How I envy you.
ALYDON: But you must stay and help us. We could learn from you.
DOCTOR: Oh, no, no. I'm afraid I'm much too old to be a pioneer. Although I was once amongst my own people.
The Doctor teases. Then he says he never gives out advice, which is a blatant lie. Everyone exchanges gifts, Ganatus gets a kiss off Barbara (Ian is right there!) and the Thals shall need to invent smile surgery to remove that grin.
And so that's the Daleks defeated forever and ever and ever. Shame, they were entertaining characters. Far more than the Thals, Philip Bond excepted. Overall, a story of peaks and lows, but the creation of such a vitally important pop culture icon, the further thawing out of the Doctor, and some well put together set pieces allowing Ian and Barbara to shine surely more than count for this being a well above average adventure in time and space.
No comments:
Post a Comment