Episode #21 : The Daleks' Master Plan

"I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot!"

 

 

Episode 21:    The Daleks' Master Plan.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Katarina, and Steven Taylor..
Air Date:        Twelve episodes. 13th November 1965 to 29th January 1966.

 

In the year 4000, the Daleks conspire to conquer the Solar System. Their scheme involves treachery at the highest levels and a weapon capable of destroying the very fabric of time. Only the Doctor and his friends can prevent catastrophe — and there is no guarantee they will escape with their lives.

A massive twelve part story! Unfortunately only three parts of this remain in the hands of the BBC. The Daleks' Master Plan is a sequel, sort of, to the one off story entitled Mission to the Unknown. In this tale we find that the Daleks are working with a handful of aliens to destroy Earth's solar system using a device called the Time Destructor. Seems unusual for the Daleks to be working with non-Daleks but I guess the Dalek hatred for everything else wasn't quite in the show canon as yet.

The story follows a similar pattern as was used in The Chase with the characters pursued across space and time by the Daleks and their agents. Quite why this was done I can't say but the story synopses reads as a rather chaotic jumble that doesn't make a lot of sense anyway. We also have the brief return of the Meddling Monk, who has escaped Earth's past but his presence in the story doesn't add anything and he isn't actually part of the overall plot.

During this story we lose Katarina. The first companion to die while travelling with the Doctor. Apparently it was decided that her character didn't quite work so they killed her off very very quickly.

This story also features a rather odd and random element. One episode fell on Christmas Day 1965. At the time it was customary to make an episode that did into a comedy, and in this case the entire episode has nothing to do with the story at all. The Doctor even breaks the "fourth wall" to wish everyone at home a Merry Christmas!

All in all reading this story it just seems terrible. Only one interesting element to the canonical universe comes from it. The Doctor ends up being drained of life energy by the Time Destructor, and it has become part of the reason why his body is so worn out at the end of his run and a possible cause for his regeneration.

Episode #20 : The Myth Makers

"Woe to Troy!"

 

Episode 20:     Mission to the Unknown.
Companions:   The 1st Doctor, Katarina, Vicki, and Steven Taylor..
Air Date:         Four episodes. 16th October to 6th November 1965.

 

When the TARDIS arrives on the plains of Asia Minor not far from the besieged city of Troy, the Doctor is hailed by Achilles as the mighty god Zeus and taken to the Greek camp. He meets Agamemnon and Odysseus. Forced to admit he is a mere mortal - albeit a traveller in space and time - he is given two days to devise a scheme to capture Troy.Steven and Vicki, meanwhile, have been taken prisoner by the Trojans. Vicki, believed to possess supernatural powers, is given two days to banish the Greeks to prove she is not a spy.

The Myth Makers is another story that doesn't exist. It was a pure historical story explaining the battle of Troy and the legend of the wooden horse. In this case the idea is that of the Doctor's even though later on in his fourth incarnation he will deny the idea being his.

This story sees the departure of Vicki. Her character was beginning to grow on me a little bit even though she feels like a poor replacement for Susan. We do get the arrival of the companion Katarina though she isn't in the series for very long.

Unfortunately The Myth Makers does read in synopsis as another extremely dull historical tale.

Episode #19 : Mission To The Unknown

"Kill! Kill!"

 

Episode 19:     Mission to the Unknown.
Companions:   None.
Air Date:         One episodes. 9th October 1965.

 

On the planet Kembel, Space Security Service agent Marc Cory is investigating a recent sighting of a Dalek spaceship. His suspicion that the creatures may have established a base proves well-founded. He learns of a plot by the Daleks to invade and destroy the Solar System, but he is discovered and exterminated. The Daleks and their allies vow to conquer the universe, beginning with the planet Earth.

Mission to the Unknown no longer exists and was unique in that it does not feature any of the established cast. Instead this story was a cutaway episode acting as a prequal for an upcoming story called The Dalek's Master Plan.

Unfortunately there isn't much more that can be said for this story.

Episode #18 : Galaxy 4

"Oh, we have a small number of men - as many as we need. The rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function. And these are not what you would call human! They are cultivated in test tubes. We have very good scientists. I am a living being. They are products - and inferior products! Grown for a purpose and capable of nothing more."

Episode 18:    Galaxy 4.
Companions:  The 1st Doctor, Vicki, and Steven Taylor.
Air Date:         Four episodes. 11th September to 2nd October 1965.

The Doctor, Vicki and Steven arrive on an arid planet where they meet the beautiful Drahvins and the hideous Rills. Each has crash-landed after a confrontation in space. The Rills are friendly, compassionate explorers. The Drahvins are dull-witted, cloned soldiers, terrorised by the intelligent, warlike matriarch Maaga.

Galaxy 4 is another story that I have been unable to watch, though I believe that some elements of it have survived. Once again I am doing this review from reading episode synopses.

From the episode guides I have read I get the feeling that this isn't a very enjoyable story partly because it seems to take on a very feminist approach which leaves me cold. The attractive female Drahvins are evil fascist types who have eliminated the need for men on their world. Meanwhile the Rills are a hideous but friendly race of aliens, throwing a spin on the usual ugly equals evil approach. In other words it is a very cliched story. Throw all that together on a planet about to explode at any moment and you have your conflict.

Although this is a bit of a throw away filler story, the Drahvins do get a mention in The Pandorica Opens as one of the races whose ships appear in that episode.

Episode #17 : The Time Meddler

"That is the dematerializing control, and that, over yonder, is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner; those are the doors; that is a chair with a panda on it. Sheer poetry, dear boy! Now please stop bothering me."

Episode 17:   The Time Meddler.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Vicki, and Steven Taylor.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 3rd to 24th July 1965.

The Doctor, Vicki, and new companion Steven Taylor arrive in Saxon Northumbria on the eve of the Viking and Norman invasions. It is 1066, a pivotal moment in British history. The hand of a mysterious Monk is at work in the nearby monastery, intending that history takes a different course.

The Time Meddler is the sort of story that fits the show perfectly. A fellow time traveller seeking to alter the course of history in a significant way. In this case we are introduced to a new individual villain, a fellow Time Lord refered to as the meddling monk (though the term Time Lord isn't used for a few years yet). I am surprised that this sort of thing didn't crop up more often.

The Monk is somewhat different adversary for the Doctor in that really he isn't that much of a villain. He's a meddler trying to alter history to make things better and more interesting under his guiding hand. You can certainly see him as a precurser to the villianous Master later on in the show. The Monk was played by Peter Butterworth who would go on to become famous in the Carry On movies.

Despite all the references to non interference in the time line there is one small issue in the story that never gets resolved on screen and is thus open to interpretation. At one point Vicki and Steven find a futuristic atomic cannon set up overlooking the coast, but never tell the Doctor so there is every chance that it was left there.

All in all a very enjoyable tale. The mix of science fiction and historical combined works very well and is far better in my opinion than the pure historical stories.

Episode #16 : The Chase

"We're trying to defeat the Daleks, not start a jumble sale!"

 

Episode 16:   The Chase.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Vicki, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.
Air Date:        Six episodes. 22nd May to 26th June 1965.

 

The travellers learn from the Time-Space Visualiser taken from the Moroks' museum that Daleks equipped with their own time machine are on their trail with orders to exterminate them. They flee in the TARDIS.

The Chase starts off immediately after the events of the prior episode with the characters learning that the Daleks are chasing them down for extermination. Fleeing through time and space they land in one location after another and so on. This seems a little facical but it actually works in an odd kind of way.

No explanation is giving as to why the Daleks are doing this as chronologically all the companions have done thus far is thwart a handful of Daleks on Skaro and stop their conquest of Earth. Even for Daleks it seems a little extreme at this point in the Doctor's experiences with them.

The first landing point for the companions is the desert planet of Aridius. Once an ocean world the presence of two suns has evaporated the planet into a sandy desert. The natives having moved underground. This sequence plays out nicely expecially the interaction between the natives and the Daleks.

The second stop off point is atop the Empire State Building in New York 1966. This is a very silly segment that plays more for fun than anything else. The Daleks just end up wandering around asking the tourists where the time travellers are. Peter Purves who would join the TARDIS crew at the end of this story in the role of Steven Taylor plays a rather clueless American tourist character in this scene.

Thirdly, the time travellers land on the deck of the Mary Celeste and shows us that it was the sudden presence of Daleks on board that caused everyone to leap over the side. One historical mystery solved by Doctor Who. This is another scene that just plays out as a tad silly.

Then both groups land in a bizarre haunted house, home to Frankenstein's Monster, a ghost, and Count Dracula. Neither side realise that they have arrived in a fun fair haunted house in 1996. Once again, a very odd section of the story.

Finally they land on the jungle world of Mechanus and are rescued by the strange Mechanoids who go on to fight the Daleks. The companions defeat the Daleks. Ian and Barbara convince the Doctor to let them use the Dalek time machine to return home and after some argument, he agrees but they end up home two years after they first left. Meanwhile, Steven has snuck on board the TARDIS.

It is a real shame that we lose Ian and Barbara here as I have found them both to be excellent companions who grew on me quickly. With the departure of Susan a while back we now only have the Doctor as an original character.

This story is entertaining despite the silliness throughout, but could have been so much better.

Episode #15 : The Space Museum

"Time, like space, although a dimension in itself, also has dimensions of its own."

 

Episode 15:   The Space Museum.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Vicki, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.
Air Date:       Four episodes. 24th April to 15th May 1965.

The TARDIS jumps a time track and the travellers arrive on the planet Xeros. There they discover their own future selves displayed as exhibits in a museum established as a monument to the galactic conquests of the warlike Morok invaders who now rule the planet. When time shifts back to normal, they realise that they must do everything they can to avert this potential future.

The Space Museum puts the show back on course with some good old fashioned science fiction. In this case the companions end up arriving ahead of themselves where they must then undo what they have seen before it happens. Coupled with assisting a revolution to reclaim a planet and we have a really good story.

In this story you get more of a hint that the Doctor is beginning to see that time can be altered in small ways. Perhaps setting up for his future adventures.

This story features Jeremy Bulloch as one of the Xerons. He is more known to us as the body actor for Boba Fett in the original Star Wars movies.

The Space Museum is a good story that I recommend for new viewers looking to see the history of the show.