The Chase is a story that isn’t well regarded by a lot of fans. It was ranked 157th in the DWM Mighty 200 poll from 2009. A lot of people see it as a massive wacky race across time and space and yes it might look like that but to be honest it’s a damn good adventure. It was Terry Nation’s fourth script. It’s a curious story which sees the Daleks chase the Doctor and company across time and space. More for the fact that they can than for anything else. It’s a story that also marks the departure of Ian and Barbara.
It’s unusual to spend just over 10 minutes in the TARDIS with the business of the Tele-Visualiser. We get an Abraham Lincoln speech, a meeting between William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I and a clip of the Beatles on Top of the Pops. This story sees the Daleks using a time machine and this is how the Daleks are able to keep up with them. The story starts on the planet Aridian and whilst the planet itself is quite interesting the inhabitants are not. The outfits look cheap and they have those stupid things on their heads. I just didn’t care about them. It does look at the half way stage that it’s starting to run out of steam. When the TARDIS lands in the haunted house/fairground it’s clear that their just filling air time. There is also the blatant appearance of a Dalek well before it should be there. Had it been there intentionally then everyone in the room would be dead. Instead it just looks embarrassing to any new series fan who is trying to get into classic Who. Another thing that I found hard to watch was the fake Doctor. They don’t get William Hartnell to play both but someone else. The person they got to play the fake Doctor was particularly bad at it and also looked nothing like Hartnell. It doesn’t seem too much to expect for them to have recorded the fake Doctor’s stuff before they did the real Doctor lines and edit it together. Perhaps using the actor who plays the fake Doctor in long shots.
For the rest of the story I really liked. The ending to Episode 1 was very well created. The idea of the Dalek rising out of the sand was a wonderful image and was better realised than the Dalek coming out of the Thames river in Dalek Invasion of Earth. The stuff on the Mary Celeste was actually quite good. I was going through a history phase in my life when I first watched this story (mid or late 1993) and I had heard about the Mary Celeste and to think that the Daleks were responsible was something that made me chuckle. The Mechanoids are also another great creation. It’s a shame that it wasn’t until the 2005 Big Finish adventure ‘The Juggernauts’ that they returned in a Doctor Who adventure. Ok so they are big and don’t really say much but I think that created a bit of mystery about them.
This was the story that saw Ian and Barbara leave Doctor Who. Two of the original three companions were about to leave after spending the last two years trying to get back to 1963. I always enjoyed watching these two because I felt I could connect with them more than Vicki or Susan. Their departure was very underplayed, it was sad but not gushing. Every time I watch this story I hope that something changes and they don’t leave the show, its sad but I don’t care. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill played these two characters brilliantly but in many ways was the beginning of the end for the First Doctor. Apart from the Daleks Master Plan when he had Sara and Steven, the First Doctor would not have any strong companion combinations. The Chase in many ways is a series defining story.
The Chase isn’t as bad as people make out. Instead at worst it could be described as average.
It’s unusual to spend just over 10 minutes in the TARDIS with the business of the Tele-Visualiser. We get an Abraham Lincoln speech, a meeting between William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I and a clip of the Beatles on Top of the Pops. This story sees the Daleks using a time machine and this is how the Daleks are able to keep up with them. The story starts on the planet Aridian and whilst the planet itself is quite interesting the inhabitants are not. The outfits look cheap and they have those stupid things on their heads. I just didn’t care about them. It does look at the half way stage that it’s starting to run out of steam. When the TARDIS lands in the haunted house/fairground it’s clear that their just filling air time. There is also the blatant appearance of a Dalek well before it should be there. Had it been there intentionally then everyone in the room would be dead. Instead it just looks embarrassing to any new series fan who is trying to get into classic Who. Another thing that I found hard to watch was the fake Doctor. They don’t get William Hartnell to play both but someone else. The person they got to play the fake Doctor was particularly bad at it and also looked nothing like Hartnell. It doesn’t seem too much to expect for them to have recorded the fake Doctor’s stuff before they did the real Doctor lines and edit it together. Perhaps using the actor who plays the fake Doctor in long shots.
For the rest of the story I really liked. The ending to Episode 1 was very well created. The idea of the Dalek rising out of the sand was a wonderful image and was better realised than the Dalek coming out of the Thames river in Dalek Invasion of Earth. The stuff on the Mary Celeste was actually quite good. I was going through a history phase in my life when I first watched this story (mid or late 1993) and I had heard about the Mary Celeste and to think that the Daleks were responsible was something that made me chuckle. The Mechanoids are also another great creation. It’s a shame that it wasn’t until the 2005 Big Finish adventure ‘The Juggernauts’ that they returned in a Doctor Who adventure. Ok so they are big and don’t really say much but I think that created a bit of mystery about them.
This was the story that saw Ian and Barbara leave Doctor Who. Two of the original three companions were about to leave after spending the last two years trying to get back to 1963. I always enjoyed watching these two because I felt I could connect with them more than Vicki or Susan. Their departure was very underplayed, it was sad but not gushing. Every time I watch this story I hope that something changes and they don’t leave the show, its sad but I don’t care. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill played these two characters brilliantly but in many ways was the beginning of the end for the First Doctor. Apart from the Daleks Master Plan when he had Sara and Steven, the First Doctor would not have any strong companion combinations. The Chase in many ways is a series defining story.
The Chase isn’t as bad as people make out. Instead at worst it could be described as average.
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