Tuesday 9 March 2021

The Dalek Invasion of Earth



Dalek Invasion of Earth
Worlds End (part 1)


Been a while, hasn't it?




We start with a sign saying it is forbidden to dump bodies into the river, and then a man walks towards the river and drowns himself. Already that Terror Nation is doing a number on the nations sleep pattern.

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor does some cleaning and sighing. It being William Hartnell, this is a magical waste of 20 seconds.

The crew are delighted to find they have landed in London, but Susan is the first to twig something is up as Ian casually yells out hello. No one answers. "Probably Sunday!" he quips.

The Doctor thinks the area has been abandoned but Ian think its just a construction site.

Then Susan bashes her ankle, which causes a bridge to fall on the TARDIS, trapping them. Ian tries to lift some of the debris to no effect.



IAN: We're going to need help to shift this.
DOCTOR: Yes, it's going to be very difficult, but remember we're in London.
IAN: What's that got to do with it?
DOCTOR: Well, the people, they'll all be curious. They'll want to know why we're trying to break into a police box.
IAN: Yes. If they don't ask what a police box is doing under a bridge in the first place.


Ian and the Doctor plan to head off to a nearby warehouse to find cutting tools.

IAN: There's a warehouse over there, Doctor. I might be able to find a crowbar or something.
DOCTOR: You know, my dear boy, I never fail to be impressed by your optimism. You can't move that by sheer brute force. You were right, you need a cutting flame.
IAN: I know one thing for sure, Doctor. We'd better make sure we can get back into the ship before we start looking around, just in case there's trouble.
DOCTOR: It's intelligent. That's good. But you know, young man, I have a feeling, or call it intuition if you like. I don't believe we're anywhere near your time, the 1960's.


Incidentally, the view across the Thames shows us the old factories of Butlers Wharf, a sort of loading bay for the Port of London in the early 20th Century. Unlike too many of its equivalents, when it fell into disrepair it became a listed building, which is why you can find it in London today, converted into posh flats.

DOCTOR: Yes, well, ask yourself. Here we are, standing by the Thames and we've been here quite a while, how long? Quarter of an hour, twenty minute?
IAN: Easily, but what about it?
DOCTOR: Well, what have we heard? Nothing. Precisely nothing. No sound of birdsong, no voices, no sound of shipping, and not even the chimes of old Big Ben. It's uncanny. Uncanny.


I wonder what could be going on...

The Doctor has a go at Susan. Ian announces for the third time he plans to head over to the warehouse. They leave Susan twiddling her toes.

Some nice shots of the creaking old staircase as the Doctor and Ian enter the warehouse. Its as if Richard Martin is more interested in the location shots than in the SF bits.

Barbara twigs this isn't the 1960s due to the lack of traffic. If it wasn't for their extermination policy, the Daleks would get more lauded for their green energy plans... right up to the bit where they explode the planet.

There's then a magical moment when the Doctor and Ian look out of a window and see Battersea Power Station... which is four miles away. It's lost one of its iconic chimneys. Something is up- geographically and plot wise.

LOL at Ian - "Somethings up - they must have switched to nuclear power!"

Luckily a calendar is right there with the date 2164 on it.

Barbara is confronted by a man who says "Want to get killed?" He's actually one of the good guys, believe it or not.

The Doctor moves a box over and finds a dead man with a robotic device attached to his head.

DOCTOR: It looks like some sort of adornment, but what for?
IAN: I don't know. Do you think it could be some sort of medical aid? You know, if he'd fractured his skull, something to knit the bones together?
DOCTOR: No, I think there's something more to it than that. You know, I think that this is an extra ear, ideal for picking up high-frequency radio waves.
IAN: You mean these people have invented some form of personal communication?
DOCTOR: Yes, something like that.
IAN: What's this? A whip. Why.
DOCTOR: Well, whatever it is, I wouldn't like to meet one of these fellows, you know.


Give it 5 mins, Doc.

It turns out the chap got knifed in the back.

Ian and Doctor investigate a noise. This leads to Ian nearly falling through a lost floor

Meanwhile the noise belonged to a man hiding.

Susan and Barbara are taken to an underground bunker with their man stopping tem at various points as if he's just seen something off camera.

The Doctor and Ian see a spaceship in the sky.

Barbara runs right into a tin can. Not sure if that was deliberate. It looked sore.

And we get a full look at the man carrying Susan for the first time and its TV legend Bernard Kay!

The Doctor and Ian find Barbara and Susan gone and Ian sighs loudly.

IAN: Barbara? Susan? Why? Why do they do it?
DOCTOR: It might have been something to do with that gunfire we heard across the river.



The Doctor is so matter of fact and nonplussed about that gunfire.

IAN: That body. You know, I want to get away from here.
DOCTOR: Yes, but aren't you even a bit curious? After all, it's your city, you know. Don't you want to know what's happened to it?
IAN: No. No, I don't want to know. Where the devil are those two?


That line by the Doctor is funny because Hartnell's accent completely slips back into a southern lilt briefly.

Back at worn out human base, Tyler (Bernard Kay) is very quick to believe someone living on the planet might not know about the whole invasion thing. David's more interested in getting a cook.

Dortmun shows up in wheelchair to ask where everyone was.

DAVID: She says she can cook.
DORTMUN: Oh, can you?
DAVID: And what do you do?
SUSAN: I eat.


Hahaha

Dortmun is quite excited about dealing with the new spaceship landing. He's clearly the boss of this group, and shows easy frustration at not being as active as David or Tyler with very little dialogue. We appear to have some good character actors on board for this one.


Doctor and Ian sit idly by the Thames waiting for the cliffhanger. Well that's what it looks like...

Ian has only just noticed the sign from earlier.

DOCTOR: Well, I repeat, it's stupid. A stupid place to put a poster. Right under a bridge where nobody can read it or see it.
IAN: I don't know. If you have a body to get rid of, I should think it's a very good place to come to.
DOCTOR: A dead human body in the river? I should say that's near murder, isn't it, hmm?
IAN: Bring out your dead.


David finds them but so do some men with robotic helmets.

Then the Doctor and Ian casually walk into a robotic helmet men patrol.

So they turn to the River Thames to see...

A swimming Dalek rising from the Thames waters.

Nice.


Dalek Invasion of Earth (part 2)
The Daleks


It's a Dalek, in the Thames. The Doctor and Ian are amazed to see a Dalek in London, but the script very quick sums up the next 60 years of Doctor and Daleks:

DOCTOR: I think we'd better pit our wits against them and defeat them.
DALEK: Stop. I can hear you. I have heard many similar words from leaders of your different races. All of them were destroyed. I warn you, resistance is useless.
DOCTOR: Resistance is useless? Surely you don't expect all the people to welcome you with open arms?
DALEK: We have already conquered Earth.
DOCTOR: Conquered the Earth? You poor, pathetic creatures. Don't you realise? Before you attempt to conquer the Earth, you will have to destroy all living matter.


Maybe don't give the psychotic with the ray gun any mad ideas, Doc?

And being told they are the Masters of Earth, the Doctor mutters "not for long". No longer is he the man who tried to run away from a caveman last series, now he's Doctor Who Punches Fascist Cyborgs!

The Doctor and Ian are taken to the Dalek spaceship.

Meanwhile, the human survivors listen to the radio, only to find the Tony Blackburn Show has been replaced by the Dalek Lord Haw Haw. Borussia Dortmun gets a laugh calling them motorized dustbins. My old mans a dustbin... no, hang on, Terry Deary got that gag in first...

Newcomer Jenny goes to check Susan's foot, and Carole Ann Ford is forced to do some undignified "ow" acting. This is the sort of thing on which stereotypes of companions are made! Jenny decides from one touch that no bones are broken, using the same trick every parent does on a stroppy toddler claiming to have broken their foot kicking a toy. It works just as well on a time lady.

DORTMUN (paraphrased) - We can attack them, Bernard Kay!
KAY (paraphrased) - I've only got 15 extras, mate!


DORTMUN: Ample.
TYLER: Oh what are you talking about, ample. A handful of unarmed men against Daleks?
DORTMUN: Sometimes I wonder about you, Tyler.
TYLER: This isn't the twentieth century. Dortmun, when thousands of men with bayonets charged machine guns.
DORTMUN: Don't lecture me.
TYLER: Then don't ask the impossible. You've not been out there for ages. It would be suicide.
DORTMUN: Oh, yes, all right, I know. I'm in this wheelchair so I can't go myself.


Watch the immediate foul look Alan Judd gives Kay at "you've not been out there for ages", his character instantly showing the frustration. He so longs to be Custer on the Last Stand, but is immobile from some off scène attack before the story started. Doctor Who is never shied away from warning us about frustrated leaders who want action. Judd was a much in demand actor of the 1950s and 60s, who played the first BBC Mr Hyde against Desmond "Q" Llewellyn's Dr Jekyll. Bernard Kay was justly famous for being an incredible actor. They clash together well here, idealism v realism, gung-ho die trying spirit v crushed trying to survive. Tyler might survive the story, but Dortmun is the Blitz myth come to life.

Dortmun shows Tyler his new bomb and says it doesn't need tested as his formulas prove it will defeat the Daleks. In later life, Dortmund was a government advisor on coronavirus...

Davey C shows up to tell everyone the Daleks have captured Ian and the Doctor. Dortmun is all "Oh noes, they could have taken part in my glorious charge of the Light Brigade!" David reveals the terrible news, the Daleks have transferred the Doctor and Ian to Chelsea, on a swap deal with Pulisic and Zouma.

Oh, no, it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea


In Chelsea, dour football awai... half a dozen Daleks await! The Doctor and Ian talk about the destruction on Skaro but the Doctor handwaves it as being far in the future.

They have discs on their backs that allow the Daleks to travel on normal ground.

The Daleks caught two other men. One looks like he walked off the set of Callan, the other like he was found at the Deer Stuck in Headlights Agency. The latter makes a break for it and the Daleks slowly close down all his escape options, and then exterminate him. Bit sadistic.

The Daleks march Doctor, Ian and non-dead other prisoner onto their ship.

Susan is already snuggling up to Davey C.

Jenny and David are typical Nation characters.

JENNY: There aren't that many Daleks on Earth. They needed helpers so they operated on some of their prisoners and turned them into robots.
BARBARA: I see.
DAVID: The transfer, as the Daleks call the operation, controls the human brain, well at least for a time.
SUSAN: What happens then?
BARBARA: Do they revert and become human again?
JENNY: No. They die.


Welcome to the long list of cheery female Doctor Who roles, Jenny.

David Campbell reminds me a bit of a 60s pop singer. Davey and the Pacemakers? (RIP Gerry)

The Doctor admires the architecture of the Dalek spaceship.

The Daleks still haven't done much yet.

The Doctor and co are ordered into cells. The Daleks then watch them excitedly on CCTV.

BLACK DALEK: Is that the one?
DALEK 2: Yes. He spoke of resistance.
BLACK DALEK: His words betray greater intelligence than normal in human beings.



Its like loath at second sight.

The Doctor works out how to open the cell door, and has beaten the test to "become a Roboman!" That's a worse prize than Bullseye...

CRADDOCK: Well, meteorites came first. The Earth was bombarded with them about ten years ago. A cosmic storm, the scientists called it. The meteorites stopped, everything settled down, and then people began to die of this new kind of plague.

Doctor Who keeps predicting that when a future pandemic hits, the worlds governments will be ¤¤¤¤ing dire dealing with it. Oh hell - everyone, look out for spaceships, Jesse Ventura was right!

Ahem.

Craddock expositions the entire backstory for everyone.

CRADDOCK: Oh, well, they came up with some new kind of drug but it was too late then.

Stop scaring my readers, Craddock!

The Daleks listen into the radio. Now on the charts, The Final Countdown.

"You will be fed and watered AND EXTERMINATED. OOPS WE SAID THE QUIET BIT LOUD!"

They do say they will exterminate everyone, including people not yet born.

DORTMUN: Listen carefully. They've issued an ultimatum. We'll give our answer tonight. Tyler and I both agree that the best place for an attack is the heliport where they land the flying saucers.
JENNY: A frontal attack?
TYLER: Yes, a frontal attack.


"Tyler and I" in the same way most managerial sackings are "mutual consent" going by Bernard Kay's face.

DORTMUN: Of course, we have the superior weapon now. One success will give our people hope again. One victory will set this country, the whole of Europe, alight. That's all we need, one victory.

Churchill gets a big cheer. Come to think of it, when this was broadcast Churchill was still alive!

Some of the resistance start fighting the Daleks after a ploy involving pretending to be Robomen. Inside the Spaceship, the Doctor's Robotic operation is about to begin...


Dalek Invasion of Earth (part 3)
Day of Reckoning


Wasn't that the name of a WWE video game from about 20 years ago?

Anyhow, the rebel alliance have attacked the Dalek ship, but the Doctor has been sent to be turned into a roboman (or Rob Orman as my auto-correct keeps trying to tell me). Will the Daleks succeed? (Stop looking at the number of years this show has run for, you!)

Baker (a seemingly resourceful chap) and Tyler (our Mr Kay) lead the rebels into the spaceship.

There is an odd scene cut that makes it look like Tyler is right next door to the Doctors operation room.

Meanwhile Dortmun is playing with a miniature chess set, which I like on a character, a subtext and a bit of filming level.

Amused by the fact the Daleks have left the Doctors coat by the side of the operating table. They might be turning him into a zombie but they don't want him to overheat!

Two Robomen are guarding him, one takes off his helmet to reveal a rebel, and then Tyler casually walks in and stabs the actual roboman in the back with the ease of someone whose done that more often than eat hot meals. They save the Doctor.

Davey C rushes off to help everyone, and then Susan tells Jenny to "Shut up" with the vigour of someone waiting a whole year to be allowed to do that to anyone. Barbara rushes after David. Everyone runs away, leaving Baker to single handily carry the unconscious Doctor away from the ship. Some extras slowly topple a Dalek then get exterminated.

Between the Daleks firing and the smoke and people falling about, it does look suitably chaotic.

Ian hides on the Dalek ship, which takes off with him inside.

Tyler tells a man to go down the drains, but he takes just enough time so a Dalek can catch up on him and exterminate.

At rebel base camp, the survivors struggle in, while the camera focuses on the concerned but unmoving Dortmun (with Alan Judd making the most out of limited camera time here). And in rushes a highly stressed and injured Tyler who thinks he was the sole male survivor of the attack on the ship. Dalek massacre.

TYLER: Your bombs were useless, Dortmun.
DORTMUN: How many men were killed?
TYLER: We hadn't a chance.
DORTMUN: How many?
TYLER: I don't know. I think all of them.
...
TYLER: We got separated. We'll have to get out of London.
DORTMUN: What for? The Daleks will never look for us down here.
TYLER: They'll look everywhere now. They'll search every inch, they'll destroy every inch. We've made an attack on one of their machines. Your show of force.
DORTMUN: I must stay here and work on the bomb. It only needs work, Tyler.
TYLER: It's a waste of time.
DORTMUN: It's the only answer.
TYLER: Who's going to use it for you? Me? One man? These two? Use your intelligence.


I can't stress how important casting was here to get the frission between Dortmun and Tyler's approaches, and yet Tyler's clearly the biggest survivor of the lot. Unless that Craddock ever shows up again.

Jenny agrees that it is utterly hopeless.

Tyler's heading north, as presumably Daleks are scared of Scottish weather.

Dortmun on the other hand wants to go to "the museum", the "other place" where all the rebels will be and he can work on his big Dalek defeating bombs. And naturally Barbara will have to wheel him there. Wants all the credit, does Dortmun.

"People may start collecting at the Civic Transport Museum" says Jenny. Well, I would go and look at the old buses for sure.

The Daleks travel to central England. Ian is, as mentioned prematurely, still on board in hiding.

All of this has taken part in seven minutes so far.

Craddock shows up...but he got turned into a roboman. I guess all his great survival was a bit of tell don't show. Anyhow Ian casually kills Craddock by electric shock and saves the prisoner. The new guy suggests putting the dead Rob Orman down a waste disposal shute.

IAN: Thanks.
LARRY: Thank you. I was hiding in the storeroom when he found me. I smuggled myself aboard.
IAN: You did what?
LARRY: The saucer's going to the mine workings in Bedfordshire and my brother's there. I'm going to find him.



Oh Larry, I remember reading the TARGET novel as a kid and his storyline making me so sad. Spoiler alert.

Davey C and Susan hide in the bushes from the Daleks. They then overhear offscreen one of the eeriest Dalek scenes ever recorded, as a man having a nervous breakdown screams at a Dalek until they put him out of his misery...

DALEK [OC]: Stop! Stop! Stop!
MAN [OC]: Why?
DALEK [OC]: Stop!
MAN [OC]: Why? You killed my mother and my brothers!
DALEK [OC]: Stop!
MAN [OC]: Get away from me! No!
(We hear the Daleks kill him)


When they aren't goofing around, these Daleks are quite grim. Susan cries into David's arms. She's already very touchy feely with him and wants him to join the TARDIS crew.

SUSAN: David, David, perhaps you could. I could ask Grandfather. I'm sure he'd let you come. We could go to a place that had never even heard of Daleks.
DAVID: And what happens if there's something unpleasant in the new place?
SUSAN: We'll move on somewhere.
DAVID: No, Susan, that's not for me.
SUSAN: Why not?
DAVID: Look, things aren't made better by running away.
SUSAN: Well, it's suicide to stay here.
DAVID: This is my planet! I just can't run off and see what it's like on Venus!
SUSAN: I never felt there was any time or place that I belonged to. I've never had any real identity.
DAVID: One day you will. There will come a time when you're forced to stop travelling, and you'll arrive somewhere.


So she just admits she's an alien to her new boyfriend and he completely takes it like she said she was Welsh. Campbell is set up as the obvious Susan other half much more than I remembered from early on.

Baker finds Susan and David and hands over the still unconscious Doctor. In real life, during the scene of the Doctor being removed from the ship, the ramp fell away during recording and William Hartnell took a nasty bump to his back landing on a camera. He recovered enough to do his scenes for this episode, but was given the next episode off to recover. (And it was a lucky escape that he could recover so quickly, he had to get sent for scans to make sure no permanent damage was suffered...)


Baker immediately leaves for the Cornish coast, and David gives him a water hip flask for his journey. He walks directly into two Daleks, and surrenders, only for them to immediately kill him on the spot. So far he was portrayed as one of the nicest humans left (bar Davey C) and the Daleks treated him like he was Extra Number 4.

And the rest of the cast seemingly never know he just got killed. Very grim.

Barbara and Jenny wheel Dortmun along the banks of the Thames, at Embankment, and I've never noticed the Thames is quite clearly full of 60s boats before! But never mind that, here's some Daleks crossing Westminster Bridge! Get your political satire in now!

Also, quite speedy Daleks on Westminster Bridge!




(Pictured - ne'er-do-wells, and a Dalek too?)



We also see the Daleks at famous landmarks as Barbara and Jenny bolt it. Although the Daleks at Nelsons Column look like they're having a coffee break.

This is all Doctor Who becoming iconic by the second, however. Setting the template for the rest of time.

Dortmun announces his bomb is finished, that the Daleks are mining, and Jenny says that the vetoed signs everywhere are rebel code for people moving out to the Southern coast. Like how Baker intended to do.

DORTMUN: She's not callous really, you know. When people fight, they have to fight the Daleks in their own way. Barbara, I should like you to find your friend the Doctor, and give him my notes.
BARBARA: But I thought you said you'd finished the bomb.
DORTMUN: I have.
BARBARA: Well, then, why can't you give it to him yourself?
DORTMUN: I can, I can. But, well, I'd like you to take care of them for me if you will. I'm not exactly mobile in this thing, am I.
BARBARA: I'm not leaving you.


They give Dortmun a bit of personal humanity and use it to frame Barbara as even more just. Jenny continues to snark. Everyone misses the obvious subtext that Dortmun isn't planning to reach episode 6...

He takes the bomb and his walking sticks, leaves his scientific notes, and wheels off.

The women realise that he's gone outside to face down a Dalek patrol all by himself. Well he did always want to be a man of action again.

The Daleks watch him, and watch him, and let him slowly get up from his wheelchair and just throw his bomb, then they exterminate, just so he has time to see that his big bomb project is useless. They didn't have to, but they wanted to. What complete bastards.

Poor Dortmun. He was blinkered and unrealistic but like so many tragic character it came from a noble beginning. And Alan Judd, who played the role so much more vividly than some of the material at times, we don't have so much of his career left now, as it flourished in the 50s and 60s when everything got deleted. Like his Mr Hyde. Judd retired in his 70s and died in 1988. Of all the guest cast, he's got the role of second best guest actor in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and if history tells us anything, its that second place to Bernard Kay was no disgrace.

The Doctor replies to Susan but sounds quite winded, and this is probably not William Hartnell acting. Or that grimace of pain. Poor guy.

Daleks interrogate a tailors dummy at the museum. You either find this amusing or a disgraceful treatment of the Daleks. I found it amusing. It's not like they're short of strong character build in this story so far!

Hobbling Hartnell gets in a great bit where he disagrees about Davey C taking control to Susan, only to completely agree to David that he should take control while Carol Ann Ford tries not to corpse. Even injured, William Hartnell could steal his own show.

On the spaceship, Ian and Larry plot.

The Daleks trundle down the ramp. None of them fall on a camera.

Meanwhile, because we're out of time for this episode, two robomen plant a big bomb right next to the Doctor and Susan!

One of the longer episodes so far, and yet the most influential on shows history to come. Update the dialogue and SFX and you could easily see this being an RTD series finale part 1.


Dalek Invasion of Earth (part 4)
End of Tomorrow



Now we're into Roland Emmerich titles.

Susan finds the bomb, and Davey C defuses it pretty much instantly. Prime Terry Nation insta-cliffhanger/insta-resolution there!

David then ruins his snuggle by suggesting they leave the Doctor alone.

Barbara and Jenny get a museum piece tanker going, then Ian and Larry see Dalek slaves carry equipment into a makeshift mine. We get a new crane shot of mine cable cars which must be stock footage.

Ian and Larry bump into a new guy and then save him from some Robomen. It's Nicholas Smith in an early role!

Ian whacks the roboman in the head, and Wells the new guy reveals he is waiting to meet up with a black marketer named Ashton.

JENNY: No Daleks about that I can see. They must have thought Dortmun was on his own.
BARBARA: I remembered to get his notes.
JENNY: Why did he do it?
BARBARA: Oh, many reasons. Mainly because he wouldn't give in.
JENNY: What's the point of that? He just threw his life away. It was so senseless.
BARBARA: It depends on how you look at it.
JENNY: You've got this romantic idea about resistance. There is nothing heroic about dying. There's no point in throwing lives away just to prove a principle.
BARBARA: If Dortmun hadn't thrown his life away, we would all be dead. He knew exactly what he was doing. He sacrificed himself so that you and I would have a chance. Come on, we're ready to go.


I mean, strawman Jenny has a point here. But how quickly the vainglorious (seen dead on the ground here) get eulogised.

Barbara and Jenny drive off, and a man with a gun holds up Davey C and Susan.

Barbara drives right through a Dalek patrol, which presumably had kids cheering.

The two women then jump from their vehicle before the Dalek saucer shoots it.

The man with the gun was Tyler. I know, yer shocked, right?

TYLER: You don't know how lucky you were. At first I took you for scavengers. I met a couple down here already but this kept them off.
SUSAN: You shot at one of them, didn't you. I found this. (the cartridge case)
TYLER: I wasn't shooting at a man. These sewers are full of alligators.
SUSAN: Alligators? In the sewers of London?
TYLER: A lot of animals escaped from zoos during the plague. Most were killed but reptiles thrive down here.
DAVID: Well then, I think the quicker we get going, the better?


Sleep tight, kids!

Ian meets Ashton.

IAN: We're hungry, but we're not starving. I want to go to London.
ASHTON: Why die there?
IAN: I don't intend to die anywhere.
ASHTON: Can you pay?
IAN: Pay? What are you talking about?
ASHTON: Are you one of these brotherhood of man kind of people?




Oh, oh figaro he's a romeo, oh
See him down on the beach
He'll be looking for someone new
Searching down on the beach,
Figaro, Figaro. ​

I do apologise.

There's another Dalek pet called a Slyther outside.

Susan is scared by stock footage of a baby alligator.

She hangs off a ladder too. It's a cliff... hanger.

Will the friendliest looking baby reptile in the world hurt Susan? No, because Tyler shoots it.

Meanwhile Ian and Wells are threatened by...the Slyther!

Duh Duh DUH!


Dalek Invasion of Earth (part 5)
The Waking ALLY



An ally will wake up, I think.

But first, Ian and friends casually evade the Slyther, which falls to its doom. Poor thing. I remember the Behind the Scenes doc going big on the Slyther who is on screen for about 20 seconds in 6 episodes.

It does look a bit like a baby Krynoid?

Elsewhere, the Doctor has woken up. Aha, its a literal title!

DOCTOR: Oh, dear. Ghastly. Well I must say this is a nice state of affairs. We've barely covered a mile and here we are hiding down the sewers again.

Doctor wakes up, complains, god bless the Doctor.

Tyler and the Doctor try to out grumpy each other, while Susan and Davey C flirt.

David and Tyler fight some Robomen. Or, David gets half heartedly involved and then Tyler rolls his sleeves up and starts the killing. Top marks for the Doctor walking into the scene, seeing Tyler and a Robman on the floor fighting, and casually whacking the Dalek servant with his cane. That looked like it hurt!

Then we get a great Doctor moment as he stops Bernard Kay killing one of the robot men.


DOCTOR: No, Tyler, no. I never take life. Only when my own is immediately threatened. Now then, let us make our way to this mine and then we shall know how to deal with these Daleks. Leave this creature to his own devices and salvation. Come along. You lead the way, my boy. Come along.

Jenny and Barbara walk into a hut run by two women. Jenny senses danger. The younger of the two new women, Jean Conroy, was dead aged 29 before this episode was even broadcast, in a traffic accident.

The older woman tells them to rest. The younger woman leaves for food.

Ian and Larry climb down into the mine.

The younger woman brings a Dalek to capture Jenny and Barbara. Turns out they were collaborators.

Larry hurt his leg. Ian is confused by the layout of the mine not making sense.

LARRY: Who knows what the Daleks are up to? I told you what my brother Phil said, all they want is the magnetic core of Earth.
IAN: Yes, but why find it in such an old fashioned way?
LARRY: It's probably a clearance area. Perhaps we haven't found the main shaft yet.


But then a robo man finds them and... its the brother Larry was looking for all along.

LARRY: Phil! It's my brother. Ian, it's my brother.
PHIL: Too many in working party. Dalek Supreme Control recheck. Who are you?
LARRY: Phil? Phil, it's Larry. Your brother Larry. Think, Phil! Remember me!
PHIL: You are both runaways.
LARRY: Angela. Your wife, Angela! I'll take you to her.
PHIL: You must both be punished.
IAN: It's no good, Larry.
LARRY: No, no! No, Ian!
IAN: Come on!
LARRY: Ian, get clear. Run while you've got the chance! Run, Ian. Run.


Larry tries to get the robo stuff off Phil, Phil shoots his brother, both die. And as Phil falls down, his zombie calls out for his brother. Grim, grim, grim. But not Attack of the Cybermen grim.

Poor Larry. He was too nice for this story.

Some badly acted extras then run away.

Susan tries to cook some food over a stove, but David sneaks up on her and they start getting very happy to see each other indeed, which leads to them kissing.

And the Doctor saw it.

DOCTOR: Smells familiar round here.
SUSAN: Just in time for food.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes, my dear.
DAVID: Ah, we were just, er, well, I was just, er.
DOCTOR: Quite, quite. I can see something's cooking.


He knows.

Carole Ann Ford is playing Susan with the vigour of someone who either is excited her contract is up, or that she's finally got something to do instead of hobble around and looking sad.

The Doctor discusses the plot with David, Susan and Tyler and decides the mine is the key part of the story.

Robomen tell everyone to MOOOOOOVE. They sound a lot like the Gumbys from Monty Python. "Tonight I will mostly be invading Earth. Ouch. Ouch."

Jenny and Barbara are now Prisoners of the Daleks.

They have to fill a straw bucket with some stones.

Barbara decides sod this and tells the Daleks she's an important prisoner who knows all about the plans to attack them.

Ian shows up just too late to get Barbara. Wells is all "Hi again, OK bye!"

The Daleks have armed a bomb to blow up the bottom of the mine. Of course Ian is right next to the bomb. That guy is attracted to danger like a moth to flame.


Dalek Invasion of Earth (part 6)
Flashpoint


Daleks talk about their big bomb. Ian is locked in with it. Ian rips out some of the bombs wires and it just stops where it is.

Cut to some Robomen monotonously playing tug of war with the capsule which is very funny.

Ian makes a hole in the bottom and uses it to escape.

BLACK: Every error must be corrected. The penetration explosive must strike the fissure correctly if we are to extract the molten core. Have all work tasks been completed?
DALEK 3: They have.
BLACK: Then arrange for the extermination of all human beings.
DALEK 4: Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
DALEK 5: The final solution! Clear up this planet!


Daleks get excited about going full Nazi but don't actually get round to much of the killing.

The Daleks interrogate Barbara, which leads to, well, this:

BARBARA: Right. This revolt is timed to start almost immediately. As in the case of the Indian mutiny, which I am sure
BLACK: Indian mutiny? We are the masters of India!
BARBARA: I was talking about Red Indians in disguise! The plan will run parallel with the Boston Tea Party. Naturally, you already have information about this.
BLACK: Wait! Why have I not been informed of this?
DALEK 2: There has been no information.
BARBARA: Good! That means the first part of the plan is a success. Now, I warn you, General Lee and the four, the fifth cavalry are already forming up to attack from the north side of the crater. The second wave, Hannibal's forces, will of course come in from the Southern Alps. The third wave
BLACK: Attention! Attention! Mobilise defence forces!


The Daleks go off to defend Mafeking leaving Barbara.

Also, spot the subtle critique of colonialism...

Who doesn't want to see Hannibal vs Daleks now?

Daleks decide not to kill Barbara but instead leave her to die in an overly complicated plan while they sod off. Daleks had not watched Dr No...

The Doctors group plan to blow up the mines. The Doctor tells David and Susan "not to stop and pick daisies on the way". He knows.

Ian opens a door, sees a Roboman and hides again. That was funny.

The Black Dalek spins in a circle.

TYLER: I'll say one thing, Doc. Life's never dull with you around.
DOCTOR: Thank you, but don't call me Doc, I prefer Doctor. Do you mind?


Could have easily had a season of Hartnell and Bernard Kay's world weary TARDIS companion.

Ian continues to block the Dalek bomb all by himself.

The Doctor and Tyler hide in plain sight as the Black Dalek walks past, but then it probably is a bit dizzy from all that spinning. One of the Daleks eye stalks is pointing right at the Doctor but it doesn't give a toss.

The Doctor and Tyler free Barbara and Jenny.

Barbara and the Doctor use the equipment the Daleks left in direct access for Barbara. Oops. They order the Robomen to attack the Daleks. Barbara gurns it up before a disapproving Doctor just orders them.

Robomen and Daleks attack each other.

Ian shows up again and the TARDIS allies reunite.

Everyone runs out of the mine and up out of the valley to the cliff top.

Bomb goes boom, stock footage lava.

DOCTOR: The saucers were caught in the upward thrust of that explosion.
JENNY: Do you think any Daleks escaped?
DOCTOR: In that, my dear? Impossible. There's something new for you, Tyler. A volcanic eruption in England.
TYLER: It's unbelievable.
DOCTOR: Yes, it's unbelievable.


Jenny, David, Tyler and Wells all survived. So both pessimists lived to fight another day.

Anyhow, Wells and Tyler thank the Doctor for defeating the Daleks by getting the TARDIS away from the mess from Part 1.

The chimes of Big Ben sound.

Susan and the Doctor talk about thinking.

Tyler plans to stay in London, but David is heading up north (Scotland). The Doctor hugs Susan and goes to check something in the TARDIS.

SUSAN: Goodbye.
DAVID: Susan?
SUSAN: Yes, David?
DAVID: Please stay. Please stay here with me.
SUSAN: I can't stay, David. I don't belong to this time.
DAVID: But I love you, Susan, and I want you to marry me.
SUSAN: You see, David. Grandfather's old now. He needs me. Oh, don't make me choose between you and him, please!
DAVID: But you told me! You said that you'd never known the security of living in one place and one time. Look, you said it was something that you always longed for. Well, I'm giving you that, Susan. I'm giving you a place, a time, an identity.
SUSAN: No, David! (crying) I've lost my shoe. Oh David, I do love you! I do, I do, I do!


And...the Doctor locks the TARDIS doors. Susan is the last to twig what is going on, and then we get that William Hartnell speech. You know the one:


DOCTOR: I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you'll be able to find those roots and live normally like any woman should do. Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David, and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan, goodbye, my dear.

The TARDIS takes off, minus one of its original stars. And Susan walks off, hand in hand with Davey C, dropping her TARDIS key on the ground.

And so the team we have watched for 51 episodes is done and dusted. (Bonus points for Jackie Hills look towards the Doctor right as he locks the doors - she knows, and understands.)

Dalek Invasion of Earth changes everything. Didn't we say that with every Moffat two-parter? But showing us aliens on EARTH, changing the TARDIS team, the entire dynamic of the show is changed from now on.

There may be better invasions of Earth in Doctor Who, but this is the most important, because if it wasn't a success you wouldn't have seen all the other ones.




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