The Daleks (1963/64)

EPISODE 1 – THE DEAD PLANET
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 21 December 1963

So this is the story that sealed Doctor Who’s fate. After 4 weeks of fighting cavemen, the Doctor and company fight the most popular monsters in Doctor Who. It’s the first visit on an alien world and whilst we don’t know the name of the planet (well they didn’t at the time), its another congratulations that go to set designers who have done well in creating an impressive cave/jungle set and now create a very atmospheric dead jungle. It’s the first episode to be written by Terry Nation. A comedy writer writing for what was considered a children show much have seemed like a bizarre thing at the time.

The baron landscape is curious to the Doctor and his scientific mind is again on show here. The effect used to achieve the first alien world is quite good as it’s meant to represent night its noticeable when the effect is faded out and the studio lights act for the daytime.  Music does a lot of good in the early stages of the episode. It’s noticeably different from ‘An Unearthly Child’.  There is a bit of pottering around in the opening minutes with everyone making a comment about where they are but at 4 minutes and 31 seconds is when we witness our first alien in five weeks. Ok so it’s not a mobile one and it looks a bit silly but its an important milestone in Doctor Who history.

The friendship between Barbara and Ian is very moving in one their earlier scenes. They have been forced into their adventure and they take comfort in knowing that the other is just as scared as they are even if they don’t show as much as the other does. Things seem to be heading towards them going abck to the city before Ian discovers the city and the first shot is really good and that twined with the regulars makes for a great shot. The Doctor’s determination to investigate the city is what moves the story on and we see a sneaky side to the Doctor. The determination is made even stronger when they hear the tapping on the TARDIS door. I do find it odd that no one saw the Doctor duck out of sight just moments before the TARDIS becomes faulty. The fault is a lack of mercury and by a strange coincidence the only place that might have it is in the city.

I like all the scenes in the TARDIS as it makes it seem more than just a vehicle to go from time to time but actually somewhere that the Doctor and Susan call home. There is another great scene between Ian and the Doctor in the fault locator which starts off with Ian being friendly but soon descends into a less than friendly encounter. The food machine is one of those gems that sadly doesn’t get used much after this era of the show. Being the BBC they cant do product placement so instead go for what look like blocks of cheese in tin foil but it’s a fun to think this is how people eat food in the future by mixing food components like you mix two colours to make a third. Another fun thing that we discover in the TARDIS is the fault locator. Again like the food machine it doesn’t last very long but it helps make the ship seem more than just a ship.

The headache is something that seems quite trivial. It’s rested for a while and then when they start to investigate the city they all start to become tired. This isn’t given much time as it will be important in future episodes but these points are placed in the viewers mind to festered until they are mentioned again.

The central performances are all good on the whole. William Hartnell has mellowed some more but there are flashes of defiance at several points during this episode, they are usually aimed at Ian or Barbara and its good how its down to the Doctor’s meddling that affects what happens in the remaining six episodes. Barbara is exasperated at not being back on Earth. She is the one who should refusal to go down to the city and seems to pick up in the scene where she is talking to Susan. Jacqueline Hill really impresses me when she is walking around the corridors and the fear and other emotions are etched on her face and it’s a really good performance from her. Ian is a lot stronger and seems to be keeping it together. He gets to be a bit of an a hero when he taps a container with a stick. William Russell keeps it relatively calm throughout the episode and doesn’t really have a great deal to do in this story. Carole Ann Ford moves from good to bad in this episode the scene where Susan is on her own as they are making their way back to the TARDIS and she is looking at a flower was a lovely moment and was well acted by Carole Ann Ford. The mystery of who the hand belongs to on what was called a dead world is one of the first mysteries in the story and is made more dramatic by Ford’s performance but then some of Susan’s body language and the way that Carole Ann Ford’s delivery of some lines is quite child like and its frustrating because Carole Ann Ford is reduced to sitting at a desk drawing like a naughty child and being looked down at by Barbara.

Some of the directing is really well done and its helped especially by the sets of the city. There’s a shot with Barbara walking through the corridors where the camera appears to be at an angle and then when she’s investigating a room she puts her hand on the camera to convince the viewer that she’s not in a studio. Christopher Barry’s debut episode in Doctor Who . Something I haven’t noticed really until now is that like the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ its really just the regulars that appear and no one else. The fact that its just the regulars is not noticeable really because their performances are so good and the writing and directing don’t allow you think that.

The cliffhanger is the one that is most iconic in the show’s history and whilst it might look very impressive on TV (and it does), it loses a certain amount of mystic when you realise that it was just a sink plunger being held by someone out of shot. That said it is an impressive cliffhanger that is matched only by the cliffhanger from ‘An Unearthly Child’. It’s an episode that doesn’t really get going until the 15 minute mark in which case it builds up nicely and reaches a fitting end to the episode.

EPISODE 2 – THE SURVIVORS
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 28 December 1963

After the last episode, people up and down the country must have been wondering what was on the end of that sink plunger. However they decided that we would have to wait a little longer to find out as we return to the Doctor, Ian and Susan who are still looking for Barbara. They are much weaker than they were in the previous episode and it’s not long before they discover the Geiger counter (or the Skaro equivalent) and figure out that they are suffering from radiation poisoning. It’s also at this point that the Doctor confesses that there is nothing wrong with the fluid link like a child confessing to their parents that they have broken the family vase.

It’s nearly 5 minutes before we get our first site of the Daleks. But when we do we’re not just treated to one, but to several and their monotonous voice must have struck fear into many people. We are also treated to what happens when people don’t follow their instructions and William Russell becomes the first person ever to feel the effects of the Daleks’ gun. It’s a shame they didn’t have the catchphrase ‘Exterminate’ yet. The effect was simple but effective.

After Ian has been struck down we are told that it’s not permanent so it’s nice to know that they can change the setting on their gun. Barbara is reunited with the Doctor, Ian and Susan and their cell is quite big but sparse. Nice bit of humour when Barbara notes that there isn’t much furniture and Ian responds by saying that it doesn’t help very much.

We find out that there are the metal creatures and they are fighting against Thals. We get a nice bit of history about the war and when the Daleks are talking about the Thals we learn just as much about the Daleks as we do about the Thals because the Daleks tell the Doctor that the Thals must be horribly mutated and this creates a nice bit of drama as one of the regulars are being told to go back into the forest. This is done during the first encounter between the Doctor and the Daleks. Quite a historical episode yet its wonderfully standard. The Doctor is weak and yet the Daleks don’t really care. 

The central performances are all very good. I love how William Hartnell’s hair seems to have a mind of its own. It’s all up in the air in an attempt to show the viewer that he’s affected by the radiation. Hartnell is good in this because the Doctor has to take some responsibility for them being sick and captured and he does this very well. The Doctor seems to be affected the most by the radiation. Apart from his scene with the Daleks, he doesn’t really do very much in the episode. William Russell puts in another good performance. Despite being sick, Ian is willing to go out to get the anti-radiation drugs. He feels like it should be his responsibility to get the drugs even though he can barely walk. Carole Ann Ford is very good in this episode and it might be more to do with how childish Susan has been in recent episodes. Apart from her reaction to the Daleks (which is a perfectly natural reaction), she is perfectly fine and Carole Ann Ford is given something decent to do. She’s given the cliffhanger all to herself which she does well with. Sadly Barbara isn’t given much to do in this episode. She spends all of it locked up and when they are reunited, she has got worse. Jacqueline Hill has to basically do capture and suffering from radiation sickness type acting which she does perfectly fine but it wasn’t her finest episode but it’s more to do with the writing than the actress herself.

Despite this being the sixth episode in the show we learn that there is a defence mechanism on the TARDIS lock. This plot point serves a purpose here but it’s never mentioned again. It means that Susan has to go and it forces the character to do something she probably wouldn’t have done normally.

This is another well directed episode. There are some shots in the Dalek Command Room where the camera is sitting on the floor means that we are looking up at the Daleks. There were a couple of shots like this. The shot where it starts on the regulars but pulls back to show them surrounded by many Daleks is one of my favourites.  There is a curious return of the static shot whilst the actor is running on the spot. This time its Carole Ann Ford and I still think it’s a rather curious way of filming.

The final couple of minutes are focused on Susan as she makes her return to the TARDIS. It’s perhaps the most screen time she’s had to herself since the show started and together with the directing it’s a scene.  As cliffhangers go, it’s the weakest one so far. Susan exiting the TARDIS and then it fades to black. It’s not the worse cliffhanger in Doctor Who history but after 5 cliffhangers which have all been strong it’s a shame that this one falls a bit short of what we have come to expect. As an episode it only really has one selling point and that was finding out what was on the end of the sink plunger and there was an awful lot of sitting around talking with not much in the way of activity. A good episode but not as much fun as the previous episode

EPISODE 3 – THE ESCAPE
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 4 January 1964

The next instalment is where the story really picks up as we get a full sense of the conflict that happens on Skaro. After the rather ordinary cliffhanger the story picks up quickly when Susan encounters her first Thal. We get our first look at the Thals and its at this point that learn that the Thals aren’t mutants but are human looking. Alydon is the name of the first Thal and the handing over of the cloak seems like a gentlemanly act but it becomes a subtle plot device. It’s not long before the TARDIS crew are getting better. It’s perhaps the best because we couldn’t really have had more time given to them suffering from radiation sickness.

Susan wants to help the Thals even when she’s locked up. I thought it was a nice selfless moment because even though she’s trapped she wants to help others which is a nice character trait.

I thought a good scene took place between two Daleks as there is a bit of team bonding going on. Nice bit of complimenting each other on letting the TARDIS crew live. The Daleks don’t seem to be particularly menacing as all they really do is talk and bring food in to the prisoners. They shoot themselves in the foot (if they had one) when they let slip that they know the TARDIS crew want to help the Thals.

The Thals are quite naïve, still believing that they can work with the Daleks. At time they are quite annoying with only Alydon being good on screen. John Lee is a good on screen presence and is the best one out of the speaking Thals that we encounter. It’s quite good writing by Terry Nation to make it seem like a totally one sided battle as the Daleks have technology and weapons that can kill without them getting a scratch whereas the Thals are the exact opposite.

The scene where they fake an argument and break the camera in their cell was comedic.  Hartnell’s attempt at acting up is quite amusing. The whole sequence where they finally get to put the Dalek out of action was a nice scene and after a lot of sitting down we got something to enjoy. We don’t get a proper look at the creature inside the casing but William Russell and William Hartnell both do a good job in conveying the horrible mess that must be in there. It’s probably best not to have seen something because it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as it would be in our imagination.

At the half way point they stumble across the fact that the floor is metal and it’s the way that the Daleks move about. It’s a good moment as it shows that there is a way of defeating the Daleks or Dalek in this case and its not long before they become unstuck.  It’s the first time since ‘The Cave of Skulls’ that they have had to work together to solve the problem. Ian comes up with a plan to get their way out of the cell.  Barbara is quite resourceful here by making mud with the dirt on Susan’s shoe.

No one really stood out as far as the regulars were concerned. William Hartnell’s hair doesn’t seem as mad as previous episodes but again he doesn’t do a great deal. He becomes more involved in the latter stages of the episode but he wasn’t the best one in the episode. This was Carole Ann Ford’s episode as she stopped being told to be child like and acted more mature. Jacqueline Hill suffered like the Doctor and only really came into her own once the plan to escape started. William Russell got to be a bit heroic when he had to help the Daleks’ sucker arm reach his neck but at least he got to do something apart from sit down. Nice moment with Ian and the Doctor working together. It makes a change from previous episodes and it shows that things are changing between these two.

It’s another disappointing cliffhanger I’m afraid. All that we have is the claw of whatever was inside and then it fades to black. Rather lacklustre after the dramatic attempt to escape the cell. As an episode it was quite a good one as we are introduced to some more characters and the circumstances of both sides became a lot more interesting.

 

EPISODE 4 – THE AMBUSH
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 11 January 1964

After a less than impressive cliffhanger the story starts with the regulars trying to get out of the city. The first bit of tension comes when the Doctor, Susan and Barbara are trying to get Ian out of the empty Dalek. They can’t get it open and this is whilst the daleks are trying to burn their way through the door. The first thing they try to do is to move Ian into the lift but we learn that they can magnetise the floor. The next few moments are quite good as there is the possibility that the Daleks will get through before he can get the latch open. There is some noticeable special effects in this episode. The effect of the regulars in the lift is rather well done.

I described the Thals as naïve but to be fair they are more desperate that naïve because they are desperate for food. They are reluctant to get involved in any fighting which is quite nice but when its against something as cruel and twisted as the Daleks then it effectively means that they have no hope. Ian summed it up best when he thought the reason why the Daleks were the way they were was because of dislike for the unlike.

It’s very much an ensemble piece this episode because no one really stands out in any way. Susan does go a bit like a child when she shrieks that they should go back down the lift to get Ian. She seems to take a step back after the previous episode. It was good when she tried to create a diversion for fearing that the Daleks would rumble their plan. William Russell gets to be a hero again as he decides to go and warn the Thals however it’s a bit unfortunate he leaves it for as long as he does before warning them. Jacqueline Hill puts in a perfectly fine performance but doesn’t really have much to do. It’s a shame really but

The scene where the Daleks are waiting for the Thals is actually my favourite part of the entire episode. It’s so well done as the directing makes it more dramatic along with the music. You are instantly aware of what’s about to happen and the impending inevitability of what will happen makes for a great scene. Christopher Barry returns to the directing chair for this episode and it shows as at one point the camera is behind a Dalek that seems to be looking out behind the wall which is seeing the Thals wonder into the room.

The security in the city isn’t very good as the regulars can run about without encountering a single Dalek. There have been four or five Daleks on screen yet no attempt has been made to make it seem like there are many more. As for the Daleks themselves they don’t feature as much as they have previously as the action takes place between the regulars and the Thals. After learning a bit about their history and talking the Thals into fighting the Daleks they decide to leave but they realise that Ian doesn’t have the fluid link and it’s still in the city.

The cliffhanger for this episode was much better than the previous two. There is a real sense of dredd knowing that they will have to go back into the city and the attempt to try and get the Thals fighting will have more importance in future episodes. The episode was another one where there is an awful lot of sitting down or walking from one place to another. The title was very apt and related very well to the episode. It’s only the section where Ian is in the Dalek and they are trying to get out of the city that really seemed any good but it wasn’t a terrible episode as we learnt a bit more about the history of Skaro.

 

EPISODE 5 – THE EXPEDITION
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 18 January 1964

As the title suggests, this story is about an expedition and its where the regulars attempt to retrieve the fluid link from the city.  The first half is basically the regulars arguing with each other about whether Ian should try to talk the Thals into helping them and then decide that the Thals can only help them if they want to help them.  Ian isn’t willing to push too hard in convincing the Thals to sacrifice their lives as he doesn’t want the deaths on his conscious. It’s quite funny when they are trekking through the jungle when its clear that Ian hasn’t exactly dressed for a journey of this. The plan to try and retrieve the fluid link is to split into two parties. This is the first time that the regulars have been split up. Ian and Barbara go through the caves and the Doctor and Susan have the seemingly easier job of going to the front of the city.

I was really impressed with William Russell. The scene where he’s trying to convince the Thals to fight and provoke Alydon into combat was a good scene.  The most surprising thing about Susan in this episode is that she climbed the tree and didn’t sprain her ankle. Apart from Carole Ann Ford didn’t really have much to do which is presumably why the best thing they could get her to do was to climb a tree. Jacqueline Hill starts off with not much to do but there is a romance that starts in this episode between Barbara and Ganatus. William Hartnell has a good scene where he acknowledges that his little attempt to see the city has backfired spectacularly. Thought it was a good moment from Hartnell and it was well supported by Russell.

It’s good that we get a bit more from the Daleks in this episode. The Daleks figure out that the anti-radiation drugs are lethal to them so they decide that the only way to survive is to drop another bomb. I think that its gives the journey of the regulars and thals a greater sense of urgency. I noted in the previous episode about the lack of Daleks in the story and they do seem to have addressed that issue to a certain degree but its not as successful as it was perhaps intended to be.

Alydon is a character of principal and despite striking one of the main characters, its not enough to dislike the character. He gives a great speech where he talks about not being ashamed to die but being ashamed to fight. The fact that the rest of the Thals are willing to support him without any sense of dissension shows that he is very strong character. My opinion of Dyoni has improved quite a lot as I thought that her reaction to Alydon hitting Ian was quite good. Virginia Wetherell has been given a pretty standard role and she has done well with it.

There is another unusual shot with the camera positioned right by the sucker arm. It’s another Christopher Barry episode and another episode where his distinct style is on show here. There is the moment where a Dalek is reacting badly to the drugs and the camera is zooming in and out. It’s quite a good effect though its slightly ruined by the shot of the cardboard cut out daleks.

The cliffhanger was a good one. Elyon is at the lake and the weird looking monster is about to grab him. We don’t see that as presumably the BBC budget wouldn’t have stretched to it. There is an awkward where Ian and Ganatus don’t seem to move until they do spring into action and thus the episode ends. I quite like this episode. It’s like the Daleks story is split into two sections and the section part is now starting with the long trek, I thought that the dialogue was very good and the directing something to behold. With the final two episodes coming, I think that my opinion of this story hasn’t really changed. I’ve appreciated the directing a lot more and whilst I have always thought that Christopher Barry is a good director but these couple of episodes have confirmed it. The writing has also been quite good if the action has been a little slow at times but I’ve been pleased with it so far.

EPISODE 6 – THE ORDEAL
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 25 January 1964

The penultimate episode is where the trek really gets interesting. The long pause before the they react has been cut down which I’m glad because it was a really odd moment. Now we get to see the other party but at the beginning all they don’t seem to achieve as much in this episode as Ian’s party. I prefer the Doctor’s party because no one is annoying. The party that Ian and Barbara are with is filled with slightly annoying people. I’m not a big fan of Antodus. I think he always been a bit wet and does nothing but bring everybody down. It just gets worse when part of the cave comes down. It’s not necessarily the fault of Marcus Hammond but the character doesn’t really serve a purpose. His falling off the cliff and having trouble to hold is the beginning of the end for the character and Antodus isn’t a Thal that will be missed. Ganatus and Barbara’s romance continues to grow. When he has fallen to the bottom of the cave he seems more concerned with Barbara’s wellbeing.

There are something’s in this episode which make me go mmmm. I always find the line “We wont use one of the customs on your planet…..ladies first!”. We never hear anyone use it so it’s a bit odd that someone from Skaro knows this. Either it was in a deleted scene or other people from earth have been on Skaro. Another thing that I find odd is the scene where the Doctor and Susan are shortening out the circuit and whilst the Doctor is praising himself at what he has done, they don’t seem the Daleks coming towards them.  The Daleks are tiny things that blend into the background so it’s a bit hard to believe that they didn’t see them coming.

The Daleks are menacing in this episode as their plan to nuke the planet for their own ends starts to gather pace with the only issue being time. There is a moment where they are doing the Nazi salute and it’s a powerful image and one that matches up with their opinions on the thals. This doesn’t come until near the end of the episode but at least we don’t get the cardboard cutout Daleks.

William Hartnell is great in this episode, his particular gem of a scene comes when the Doctor and Susan have are sitting on the floor and the Daleks tell them the plan and he says “That’s sheer murder”. After a couple of episodes where he’s not had much to do he finally gets given something good from the start of the episode to the end and he very good. Even his hair has calmed down since the early episodes. William Russell doesn’t have much heroic things to do but he is still a good presence in the episode. Leading the party through the caves he has become the leader of the ‘B Team’. Carole Ann Ford is good in what is becoming a wildly inconsistent character. Susan doesn’t come across like a child and instead acts perfectly normally. Granted she does spend a large portion of the episode attached to William Hartnell’s arm but as a performance it can’t be faulted. Jacqueline Hill has some more stuff to do in this episode and its not just to become love interest but there’s a nice moment where she says that Ian told them something and Ganatus says “Do you always do what Ian tells you to?” and it’s the reactions that she gives which seems to suggest that she has been blindly following his orders and Ganatus has made her realise.

Some clever directing shots where the shot of looking down at Ganatus is done by placing a mirror above the actor at the appropriate height and just moving the camera and filming up. Then there the shot of Ian’s party walking through the cave, the shot is simple but still impressive. The cave scenes are wonderfully dark and atmospheric. I thought that it was a Christopher Barry episode but it was actually a Richard Martin episode and he does very well.

The cliffhanger is literally a cliffhanger. The last shot is of Ian struggling to keep a grip of a tiny rock. It’s the best cliffhanger since ‘The Dead Planet’. As an episode it’s a lot more active than the previous episode. Whereas in ‘The Expedition’ there was a lot of sitting around talking, here they are always on the move and the plot seems to move on a lot more than in previous episodes. The writing and directing were all very good in this episode. Looking forward to the final episode.

EPISODE 6 – THE RESCUE
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 1 February 1964

The final episode and we left Ian literally on a cliff trying not to get pulled down with Antodus. Despite being thoroughly annoying, Antodus gives his own life, whether he knows that he has no hope or he’s trying to save Ian’s life is unclear but it’s a nice end to a character that I haven’t rated very highly. Ian’s party have suffered loss and despite being on the verge of heading back, they discover that they have been travelling near the pipes all the time. When they get back into the city, it’s not long before their presence is felt. This is also the first episode that a Dalek has been seen moving about the corridors.

The Daleks want to go out of the city and think that the bomb will be their best chance. That’s basically their goal in this episode and all is going well until Ian and company storm the room. After the bomb has been stopped their source of power has been also been knocked out and just a they are about to die they plea with the Doctor to help and the Doctor tells him that even if he wanted to he doesn’t know how.

The Doctor and Susan are now tied up in the Daleks control room. In a last final desperate attempt, the Doctor tells the Daleks about the TARDIS. This doesn’t work and what we get is a wonderful bit of tension as the countdown continues and Ian and the rest have to try and disrupt the countdown whilst not being killed by the Daleks. Neither William Hartnell or Carole Ann Ford do much for large chunks of the episode as they are tied up. What little they do is good but it’s Hartnell who has the better dialogue. Carole Ann Ford almost gets a child-free like performance in this episode. But there is a moment where she is wearing something from the Thals, does a spin and then childishly falls to the floor.

William Russell is very good in this episode being the driving force of the party to get through the last bit of the cave. The look on his face when he’s peering through the wall into the room with the pipes was fun too see. Jacqueline Hill was also very good in this episode as she throws herself into some of the more dramatic moments such as when the doors are about to slam down and manages to squeeze herself through the small gap. The romance between herself and Ganatus is short lived and sadly comes to an end and it’s a shame because even though it’s never really been looked at in any way it’s been a nice thing that they have both performed well with.

As a final episode it seems almost like the journey for the fluid link was almost forgotten as the rescue took centre stage. It’s only referred to at the very end of the battle in the control room. Even then it’s not a big thing that the last four episodes have been about getting this fluid link. The battle was rather well done, it was your typical fight with Thals coming down from the ceiling before being gunned down. There is a wonderful final shot of the dead Daleks in their control room it’s the first time there has been any real silence in the story and it’s a wonderful moment, it shows that even in a mini war like what we got there is still losses on both sides even though the Thals came out on top.

The cliffhanger was a fantastic one. Everything is seemingly carrying on as normal but then the Doctor, Ian and Susan (Barbara walks off screen) are thrown to the floor with a white light blinding the screen. At the time it must have been as impressive ending as ‘The Dead Planet’. As an episode ‘The Rescue’ is a really good episode with some good scenes and good performances. Over the course of the last seven episodes the characters have developed nicely with some strong performances from all four regulars. Even the supporting cast have been good even though they aren’t quite given the best costumes in the world. The first encounter with the Daleks is what every Doctor Who story after it will be compared against.