Doctor Who: The Daleks
Yes, this is the ep we officially get introduced to the Dalaks and in just the second episode!
After the events of The Unearthly Child, Doctor and company take off in a bit of a hurry from the unhappy cavemen and as it seems to go, end up somewhere very randomly. It is in the future and not Earth, much to Ian and Barbara's dismay and, now, turning into annoyance. At the end of TUC, the Doctor had Susan check the radiation levels and they were fine only for them to walk away from the control console and the reading spike into DANGER complete with flashy light which NOBODY NOTICES! Oops!
They go, clean up and then head out to find a petrified jungle and marvel at the fact EVERYTHING IS DEAD (you'd think they would take this a warning sign!). They look around a bit and find it completely unsettling, Barbara screams a good bit being startled by things. They make it to the edge of the jungle and see a futuristic city down below them and despite the Doctor wanting to explore, the group heads back to the TARDES. Susan, lingering behind the others, gets frightened by movement in the forest, which her Grandfather dismisses as her imagination. Barbara seems to be the only who believes Susan that she saw movement. Between Susan and Ian, they finally pursued the Doctor into agreeing to leave. The Doctor fiddles around in the works of the console checking things (this is an important plot point later!) and then takes off, only to have the TARDIS land itself moments later and they can't leave. The Doctor checks the same panel again and declairs the fluid link is out of mercury and they will have to refill it, but that's not a big deal, other than the fact they don't have mercury, but (bright idea!) the city should have some! Ian sees right through this, but there isn't anything to be done about it. They will wait until morning and then head out. They then go to eat and there is a food processing unit that makes food. These foil wrapped squares that taste one bite bacon and next eggs. The texture looks like dough. That answers the question of what do you eat on a TARDIS.
Next morning, they head out to the city. As they leave the TARDIS, they find a metal box full of glass vials. Susan see this as proof that she had seen something. The box is put on board the TARDIS and they leave. Ian is expecting this to only take a couple hours (famous last words). Susan has a couple days worth of food packed. (Hmm, Doctor is up to something). They head into the seemingly deserted city. It has still got power and doors open when they wave their hands in front of the door sensor. They split up looking for Mercury. Ian one way, Barbara another and The Doctor and Susan another. Ian comes back not finding anything. Same with Doctor and Susan. Barbara meanwhile has been wandering with door quietly closing behind her, which she didn't notice until one closed right in front of her. She starts to panic and then screams as something comes at her--with a plunger!
Back with the others, they decide to go looking for Barbara in their looking, they find a storeroom that happens to have a working Geiger counter, which is chattering away with the needle pegged in the "DANGER" zone. By this time, they are all feeling ill, especially the Doctor. He and Ian have words and Ian takes the fluid link from the Doctor, threatening to not give it back if he won't help look for the missing Barbara when the Doctor tells Ian to find her and he and Susan are headed back to the TARDIS. They go looking again and find themselves surrounded by these large robot looking things with a big eye stalk, rolls on wheels, one plunger arm and a gun. They order the Doctor, Ian and Susan to come with them. The Doctor and Susan go quietly, but Ian tries to run and gets shot. The shot paralyzes his legs and the Doctor and Susan have to carry him to the cell which holds Barbara. It is very clear now they are all sick with radiation poisoning. Susan seems to be the least effected of all of them.
Their captors which they finally find out are called Daleks want their drugs for keeping off radiation sickness. They must be Thals, the Dalek's traditional enemy. Centuries before the Dalek and Thals were locked in a war of mutual destruction and the Daleks set off a neutron bomb that killed nearly everyone and destroyed their world. The Doctor had suspected a neutron bomb when they found all organic life dead and the buildings intact. The Doctor finds this all out when the Daleks interrogate him. They take him back and they suddenly realize the metal box with vials must have been some kind of kit with the needed anti-radiation drugs. The Daleks want them to go back for them. By this time, Susan is the only one well enough to go. The Doctor is gravely ill, Ian's legs are still too weak, though feeling returning and Barbara isn't doing well. Susan is terrified and Ian and Barbara don't like it, but Ian sends her off.
The Daleks let her out and she travels back through the petrified jungle. She panics when she hears something moving and runs to the TARDIS. She finds the box and the drugs, but is terrified of going back, but she does. She runs into a man outside the TARDIS. It turns out to be a Thul and despite the Daleks telling them the Thul were horrible mutated, they look fine. The men are quite attractive and the women beautiful. Alydon, the Thul the Susan has met, apologizes for frightening her earlier. He had only meant to give them the drugs and explain how they worked. Susan tells him what is going on and he is shocked to find out the Daleks are still alive as well. The Thul who had been great warriors are now simple farmers. They wish peace with the Daleks and food. Alydon sends a message back with Susan and wonders if the Daleks will really let them have the drugs or just keep them for themselves. He gives her a second set and sends her on her way with a message for the Daleks that they want peace and need food. Alydon wraps his cloak around Susan to keep her warm and sends her on her way.
Susan takes it back and Daleks take the first box from her, but let her keep the second box to give to the others. The anti-radiation drug works quickly and Doctor and others are soon fine. They wonder what the Daleks are up to.
Meanwhile, the Daleks are watching and listening to them. They let them keep the drugs because they realize they might be of use to them later. Sneaky Daleks!
The Thuls talk back at their camp and are excited to get a chance to meet the Daleks. They want peace and to live in harmony with them. The Thuls are now opposed to violence and conflict in anyway. (They are so doomed!) The Thul have come down from the safety of their plateau due to the rain which comes every 4 to 5 years being 2 to 3 years late. They are looking for food.
The Daleks get Susan to come back with them and have her write a letter to the Thuls that tells them they wish peace as well and will give them food if they can make the land around the city fertile again. Susan signs it and the Daleks question her what the word “Susan” means. She giggles and they snap at her to stop making that noise. She explains they told the Thul that they were only to believe a letter from the Daleks if her name was signed to it. The Daleks seem very pleased at this and send her back to the cell. While she was with the Daleks, she realized they could see in the cell and hear everything they said. By this point, the Doctor and others realize that this is a trap for the Daleks to get the Thul and they have to try to help them.
Barbara takes the dirt from Susan’s shoes and the water they are being brought and make mud. The Doctor and Ian quarrel and Susan jumps on Ian to keep him from hitting her Grandfather and Ian uses this to give her enough height to pull down the camera spying on them. It was all staged to take out the camera and listening device. The Doctor and Ian have also realized by this point the Daleks run off static electricity they pick up from the floor and the cloak that Susan was given by Alydon in the jungle will insulate it from the floor if they can get it under one.
The Daleks bring them food again and Ian wedges the door with the camera and they put the mud over its eye stalk. The Doctor and Ian pop the top on the Dalek and send the women into the hall not to see what the Dalek inside looks like. They wrap it in the cloak and then Ian climbs in the Dalek’s robot. He really has to squeeze to get in and can’t figure out how to operate it. Once the eye stalk is cleaned, he can see again. The Doctor pushes him along with the Susan leading the way and Barbara with her to look like they are being prodded by the Dalek. Partway down the hall, Ian figures out the controls and has the Doctor join the women. They head out through the city to find a lift to get to the surface and try to escape. They run into a Dalek guard and bluff their way into the lift and off they go, but the other Dalek calls the control room and they quickly are found out. They make it up the lift, but Ian gets stuck in the hall magnetized to the floor and they can’t get the lid off the Dalek. He sends the others up the lift while he struggles with the catch. The Daleks are at this point cutting through the other door. The Doctor, Barbara and Susan get to the top of lift and worry about Ian. Just as the door is cut open and the Dalek Ian was in is shot, the lift starts up again and Ian gets there just before the Daleks get control of the lift and bring it back down. Ian, Barbara and Susan push a decorative statue down on the lift stopping the Daleks.
By this time, they can see down in the city and the Thuls coming to meet the Daleks and walking into a trap. They try to beat on a window to warn them, but it is sound proofed. The Doctor wants to head back to the TARDIS directly, but Ian can’t let the Thul walk into a trap they were forced to help make. He goes off to warn the Thul while the Doctor and women head out of the city.
The Thul thinking the Daleks only have good intentions walk into the trap and their leader gives a moving speech about peace and cooperation and the Ian shouts a warning as the Daleks open fire. So much for giving peace a chance. The Doctor, the woman, Ian and most of the Thul managed to escape. Their leader is killed, but Alydon is among the Thul that escaped.
Back in the Thul camp, the Doctor learns the Thuls’ story and finds their version of star charts which will let him figure his position and take them back to Earth. The Thul abhor violence and won’t fight with the Daleks even to save themselves.
The Doctor tells Ian, Barbara and Susan they should leave and let the Thul sort this out for themselves and he asks Ian for the fluid link. Ian realizes he doesn’t have it. The Daleks took it from him when they were captured. The fluid link which they need to fly the TARDIS is still down in the Dalek city and they will have to go back for it. They need the Thul’s help if they are to do this.
Ian decides to push the point to see if the Thul are cowards or are just against fighting as principle. He threatens to give their treasured records to the Daleks and when that doesn’t do anything, he threatens to take the woman Alydon cares for to them. Alydon can’t take this and grabs the girl back and punches Ian in the face.
This leaves Alydon with a dilemma as the new leader of the Thul what to do. He asks Dioni, the girl, if she hates him for fighting for her. She tells him, she would have hated him if he had not. This helps him make up his mind and in the morning, he tells the others he is going to go help The Doctor and it is up to them if they want to help them. All the rest of the Thul agree to help them.
Meanwhile, the Daleks have been trying out the anti-radiation drugs they got from the Thul. They want to use them to be free of the city and take over the rest of the planet. The first batch of Daleks take it and suddenly, they are running around in circles screaming in panic for help. The drug is killing them! The second batch have already been given the drug by this point and they suddenly realize that instead of the radiation killing them, they have mutated to the point they NEED the radiation to survive! Thy stick the second batch of Daleks in a chamber and flood it with radioactively contaminated air from their power plant and they start to recover. The Daleks quickly change gears and plan to flood the rest of the planet with radiation so they can live there. They don’t care if it will kill the Thul or not, only the Daleks goals are the ones that count. They want to use another neutron bomb, but it will take far too long and they decide to flood the planet with the waste from their power plant.
The Doctor and the Thul come up with a plan to split into two groups. One with the Doctor and Susan that will create a diversion against the city wall and keep the Daleks focus there while Ian, Barbara and the other Thul will travel through a swamp filled with mutated creatures and around the lake to come to the back of the city and break in that way. The Daleks wouldn’t expect an attack that way and wouldn’t be watching for it.
Ian, Barbara and Ganatus with his brother Kristas, two of the only Thul who have ever been through the Swamp and a few other Thul head over the mountain and through the swamp. They spend a night in the swamp and one of the Thul gets eaten by something from a whirlpool the next morning getting them water. They go around the lake and come to pipes that are bringing water to the city. They follow them and find a cave and start to explore. Ganatus and Barbara start to bond as they split from the others to explore the cave, hoping to find a way through the mountain into the city. After falling down a hole, Ganatus finds a way that they think may work. Kristas starts to panic the farther they go into the caves and wants to go back, but the cave behind them collapses and keeps him from going back. They go on and find their way blocked by a deep chasm. It’s too far to climb down and then back up in the 2 ½ day limit they have to get to the city to meet with the Doctor and Ian decides to chance it and jumps. He makes it and then Ganatus joins him. Ganatus finds a passage around the backside of the cliff and the others start to jump one at a time across. Kristas being the last. He panics when he jumps and misses, pulling Ian nearly off the cliff by the rope they are connected in the process. Ganatus comes to help Ian, trying to pull them both up. Kristas realizes this is hopeless and cuts himself off, falling to his death in the chasm. Ganatus pulls Ian up and then tells them about how afraid Kristas had been. They go on, but the way seems hopeless and their light s are failing.
Back at the city, the Doctor, Susan and Thul have been knocking out the Daleks sensors to mask their movements for when they are going to go into the city. The Doctor finds one of the main sensors that runs an antenna that keeps track of that part of the city and he and Susan work to short it out using Susan’s TARDIS key to short it out after the Doctor smashed it with his cane. The Doctor gets very cocky here and starts to gloat to Susan about how clever he’s been only to turn and find they are surrounded by Daleks.
Back in the cave, Ian and the others are getting pretty desperate and they turn off their lights to save power to find that they can see light. They move some stones and find they have been following under the pipes and have made their way to the Dalek water station. They make their way into the city from here and start to creep through. Alerts are going off about movement in another level of the city and Ian realizes the others must be there as well. They go off in search of the control room.
The Doctor and Susan find themselves in the control room and the Daleks have cuffed them to the wall by their hands and feet. The Doctor tries to reason and to bargain with the Daleks. The Doctor tells them what the fluid link was and about his ship, offering to teach them the technology if they let them go. The Daleks refuse this, simply stating they will find the ship and figure it out for themselves. The Doctor and Susan are horrified to find out that the Daleks are going to flood the surface with lethal amounts of radiation and they don’t care what it will do to the Thul. The countdown begins at 100 as the Doctor and Susan struggle to free themselves.
By this time the group of Thul lead by Alydon are nearly to the control room. One of the Thul from their group makes the control room and gets killed by a Dalek shouting “Exterminate!”
Ian and the others have started to make their way through the city to the control room, ducking around corners and out of the way so the Daleks don’t see them. (Obviously, none of the Daleks are watching the internal scopes or they would have been seen.) They get to the control room just as the countdown is working its way down. Ian and Ganatus sneak forward and see the Doctor and Susan and then duck back as the Daleks roll into view. Barbara lets out a shriek and darts around, this time being a planned, useful distraction, drawing the Daleks after her and away from the others. Ian and Ganatus use this to grab a Dalek and opening it to kill the Dalek inside. They repeat this with another Dalek while one of the other men charges another and gets shot, but still manages to pull the Dalek doing the countdown away from the controls stopping the Daleks from dumping the radiation. The Daleks are quickly dealt with and are soon dead. The shot Thul is still alive, but badly injured. Ian and Ganatus free the Doctor and Susan and Ian heads off with the Doctor to make sure the radiation won’t get out.
Back in the Thul camp, the Doctor walks up to Alydon as he studies the interworkings of one of the Daleks and encourages him not to turn his back on technology simply because the Daleks abused it. He then leaves for the TARDIS with his samples from the planet he wants to study. Susan is exatic being Dioni gave her a lovely Thul cloak for her. Ganatus spends a moment with Barbara giving her some beautiful fabric for her to make a dress from. They are obviously attracted to each other, but Barbara makes the choice to go with the Doctor and Ganatus doesn’t ask her to stay, simply kissing her hand warmly before she leaves.
Alydon and Dioni tell Ganatus not to feel sad she is leaving. He tells them he doesn’t, but he won’t ever forget her as the TARDIS fades from view.
This episode was an interesting introduction to the Daleks. Their flat mechanical voices and squeaky “EXTERIMATE!” when they got excited was fun to hear in the context of the first time it being said. They were just as amoral and without mercy as later incarnations were. The design of their bodies has surprisingly not changed much since the first ones. The eye stalk and plunger arm were more wobbily, but still very familiar.
It’s been interesting seeing the growth of the characters too. Ian going from imperiously bossy to actually being the leader type without bossing. Barbara was pretty pathetic at the start, but grew a backbone partway through and started dealing with the danger and not needing to be coddled. The Doctor is finally starting to warm to the two humans towards the end. He was surprisingly cavalier about their safety to get what he wanted to go down to explore the city, even to the point of lying to them about the fluid link, but then again, we later learn rule number one: The Doctor always lies. His coldness to the fate of the Thul before Ian went to warn them in the Dalek city was chilling. As was his response when the Geiger counter was going off in the city and he was all for leaving Barbara behind to save himself and Susan. He simply didn’t care beyond what affected him. He also is bad about gloating in this episode to the point of getting he and Susan captured by the Dalaks. Susan could see the danger they were in and tried to stop him, but he couldn’t help himself. He was very taken with how clever he was. Susan is very much the bridge between the Doctor and Ian and Barbara. By the end of this episode, the group is slowly starting to learn to work as a team.
Costumes in this episode were just silly for the women. The Thul men didn’t look too bad. Vaguely Greek/Trojan vest things that laced and were open sided and leather pants. Kind of funny to see men with chest hair on TV with how many men are shaved or waxed now, I’m not complaining. The Thul women looked like they were wearing what looked like placemats of foam on their fronts and skirts of something stiff with large holes in it. Just-distracting.
The sets were pretty standard Doctor Who sets, which are pretty simple, but fun.
All in all, a very well done episode, but then again, it was written by Terry Nation and I pretty much adore anything he wrote since getting introduced to him via Blake’s 7, which incidentally was written after his first stint on Doctor Who. He also wrote some episodes of MacGyver. I need to find out which ones!
I did enjoy this story arc which was longer than The Unearthly Child. TUC ran 4 episodes long. The Daleks was 7 episodes long. The episodes are about 24 minutes long. I had forgotten that the episodes were so short.
Next: The Edge of Destruction