It's a story written by Terry Nation, directed by Richard Martin, and starring William Hartnell as the Doctor - so the potential for things not going to plan is vast.
The Chase opens with a recap from the end of the previous story, so we once again get to see those oddly positioned pieces of Dalek equipment, which don't appear to have been designed with Daleks in mind at all.
We then have a lengthy scene in the TARDIS with the Space-Time Visualiser. A couple of oddities here, starting with how did the Doctor get a machine that big through the TARDIS doors? Why does it have the names of planets of our Solar System around its circumference, when in theory it can pick up images of any past time or place in the universe? If it originates in the Solar System, how did it end up on Xeros in the first place?
The cartridges which the Doctor inserts seem to know to go straight to the exact point in space / time selected by the companions. Ian never specifies Gettysburg, but it knows that's what he wants to see from only a rough geographical choice. Then we have Vicki professing to be the big Beatles fan, having visited their memorial shrine in Liverpool - yet she doesn't appear to be familiar with their music. (Which reminds me of something I neglected to mention when looking at The Space Museum. She knows all about the Daleks from books, but none of these tomes seemed to have a picture of them, as she said she didn't know what they looked like. Later in this story she'll mention having read about their destruction of 'Old' New York - again in a book with no pictures, apparently).
Ian then appears to know a Beatles song recorded more than a year after he and Barbara left contemporary England.
On to the planet Aridius, and Vicki's hairstyle changes between scenes shot in the studio and those done on film at Camber Sands, when she's played by an extra. It's in bunches in studio, and loose when on location. The sound effects don't match the action when the trap door opens and then closes in the dunes, and the Mire Beast tentacle is very slow to move in to shot. It is also very obvious that the trap door is made of rather flimsy wood, with the dune being a sand-covered tarpaulin. We'll see this again when the Doctor and company lure the Dalek into their trap later in the second episode.
Maureen O'Brien appears corpses when describing her childhood fears about the ring in the ground and the castle, clearly throwing William Russell.
As with last story, people cast shadows on supposedly distant backgrounds.
One of the Daleks patrolling the dunes is clearly being "walked" by its operator (something which we'll see again when we get to Destiny of the Daleks).
The explosion in the tunnel was also filmed outside the studio, so Vicki's hair is wrong again.
The sound effects are awry once more when the Mire Beast breaks through the wall, coming in far too early.
The shots of the TARDIS and the "DARDIS" in the Vortex are clearly photographic cut-outs, and you can even see the piece of dowling holding them at times.
The name-plate of the "Mary Celeste" is seen too early, giving the game away. We later get the very slow pan round the ship before alighting on it, plus Ian then telling Barbara about it in the TARDIS. It only needed one or the other reveal for the audience - not both. The Dalek which falls overboard splits in two, and we get a good view of its empty innards.
In the "DARDIS", we can see that two of the Daleks are Peter Cushing movie ones with the big fender removed. Some inlay work of a countdown clock is superimposed over a Dalek, when it is supposed to be on a monitor in the background.
Lots of problems in the Haunted House. The actor playing Count Dracula is a terrible mime. Nearly every sound effect is miscued - from bats to creaky floorboards. One of the bats clearly gets its strings entangled on the staircase.
There's a Dalek very obviously lurking under the stairs, long before they're supposed to have arrived.
We also have to ask why these automatons are still active when the fun fair is closed down, and why would the Frankenstein Monster one be so aggressive to visitors. And why does it change its clothes?
Barbara struggles with the revolving alcove.
To this day I still haven't worked out what the ghostly grey lady is supposed to be saying.
We then have the Daleks' android copy of the Doctor, which looks absolutely nothing like him. He's another terrible mime as well.
On to Mechanus, and the studio lighting is so bright that we don't see the difference when the path of lights are switched on. The Fungoids are supposed to be afraid of light, yet the rod-like weapon which Barbara finds has only a tiny pea-bulb, which is again hardly noticeable on screen.
There's another static movie Dalek in the jungle, but worst of all is a clear shot of Camera 5 in the background (see image above).
In the morning, everyone is amazed to see the Mechonoid city towering above them - but why didn't they spot it when the lights were turned on the night before?
Use of the word Mechonoid (and spelling thereof) is inconsistent. The Daleks seem to be using an older version of the script where they were called Mechons - changed as it sounded like the villain from Dan Dare.
We all know that one of the reasons that the Mechonoids failed to take off was that they were far to big for the studio spaces, and there has always been a rumour that Raymond Cusick deliberately made them far too big to spite Terry Nation, who was making a fortune from the Daleks - money he wasn't seeing any of.
Where on earth (or Mechanus) did Steven Taylor get all that wood and rope from? He can't have asked for it, as the whole point of the Mechonoids is that no-one can communicate with them.
The length of cable patently does not match the height of the building. Peter Purves is about to say 15 feet but quickly amends it to 1500 feet. When Vicki is supposed to be hanging from it, it appears very loose, almost as though there were no weight on it all... Ian almost pulls Barbara's trousers off in this scene.
The Doctor's much anticipated anti-Dalek weapon only kills one Dalek, yet somehow manages to set the entire city on fire.
Whilst some people might go back into a blazing inferno to save a real panda, would a hardened space pilot really risk life and limb to go back for a toy one?
The final scenes of the Doctor parting company with Ian and Barbara include one Hartnell's most famous fluffs, when he tells the school teachers they will end up "a couple of cinders floating around in Spain... Space...".
It's such a pity that we never got to see their explanation to the Coal Hill Head Master of where they had been for the last two years...
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