Synopsis:
Trapped by Robomen, the Doctor and Ian turn towards the river - intent on swimming to safety. However, they are confronted by the sinisterly familiar shape of a Dalek rising up out of the water...
As the Dalek demands to know how the prisoners were allowed to get so close to the river, Ian asks the Doctor how it can be that the daleks are here. They had seen them destroyed on Skaro.
The Doctor deduces that this must be the middle history of the Daleks, and the events on Skaro lay in the far future. They note that the Dalek has a dish attached to the back of its casing - presumably the way they now obtained their energy as before they relied on static electricity generated through the metal floors of their city.
When the Doctor is overheard talking about fighting them, the Robomen are ordered to take them away to the Dalek saucer.
David Campbell has witnessed this from the warehouse. He reports back to Barbara and Susan who are now helping in the resistance hideout. They meet a young woman named Jenny, who explains that her brother was turned into a Robomen a year ago. David explains that there aren't many Daleks on Earth, and so they rely on captured humans who they robotise - turning them into mindless slaves. The process does not last long, however, and the Robomen eventually become insane and destroy themselves.
The operations take place in the Dalek saucer which lands at Chelsea heliport.
This is where the Doctor and Ian have been taken. They are placed in a cell with a fellow prisoner named Craddock. From him they learn of how the Earth was bombarded by meteorites some ten years ago - but these proved to be plague bombs. Millions died, and six months later the Daleks landed and took over.
In the hideout, the scientist Dortmun meets with Tyler and informs him that he has perfected a bomb which will destroy a Dalek's casing. An attack on the saucer that night is proposed. Barbara helps with this by suggesting they make use of captured Roboman helmets. They can pretend to be prisoners and escort and so get close to the saucer without arousing suspicion.
In the saucer, the Doctor has noticed some strange equipment in the cell, and he deduces that it is there to be used by a Dalek as a means of escape should it become locked in.
He uses it and the door opens - but they emerge to find Daleks waiting for them. It was a trap to identify prisoners suitable for the robotising process.
The Doctor is taken away, just as the rebel attack commences. The Dalek saucer commander orders Robomen into action, but instructs that the operation on the Doctor proceed...
Data:
Written by: Terry Nation
Recorded: Friday 25th September 1964 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:40pm, Saturday 28th November 1964
Ratings: 12.4 million / AI 59
Designer: Spencer Chapman
Director: Richard Martin
Additional cast: Ann Davies (Jenny), Michael Goldie (Craddock), Michael Davis (Thomson), Richard McNeff (Baker).
Gerald Taylor, Nick Evans, Kevin Manser, Peter Murphy and Robert Jewell (Dalek Operators).
Peter Hawkins. David Graham (Dalek voices).
The BBC had retained two Dalek props at Ealing, along with some of their machinery from The Daleks, and for this story they borrowed back the pair of Daleks which had been donated to the Barnardo's home in East London. Taking their number up to six, two new casings were commissioned from Shawcraft Models. To swell numbers further, photographic blow-ups were once again used, as can be seen in the saucer landing set image below.
The Daleks have undergone a few changes since their debut, which viewers won't have noticed in the previous episode due to them being placed on parts of the casing that weren't on show.
Knowing that the props would be heading out on location around central London, Spencer Chapman had the fenders built up, raising the height of the Dalek and so allowing the addition of a small tricycle for the operator. Ray Cusick had hoped to use such a thing in his original designs, but had not been able to find anything suitable without losing their short stature.
The other change was the addition of an energy collection disc on the rear of the casing, to cover why the Daleks could now move around anywhere.
We have a new addition to the Dalek ranks. Up to now, all Daleks had been of the same colour scheme - predominantly silver with blue hemispheres. Here we get a senior Dalek which is mainly black, but with alternating black and silver skirt panels.
Fandom has christened this design the "Saucer Commander", as it is only ever seen in this one episode, seemingly in charge of the spacecraft.
Rumour often has it that this is an unfinished version of the future Black Dalek, AKA the Black Dalek Supreme, but it may simply be a colour scheme which the production team weren't happy with, so they amended it for the third instalment.
Peter Hawkins was often present in studio to provide his Dalek voices, but David Graham had his recorded in advance and played in on tape.
Last week we spoke about this being the first invasion of Earth story, but here we discover that - unlike nearly every invasion story hereafter - the invasion has already taken place. The Daleks have already won. If there is a parallel with World War II then it is with the Nazi occupation of much of Europe.
If the Daleks are the Nazi stormtroopers, then Tyler, David, Dortmun et al. are the Maquis and other resistance groups. As with the Germans, we hear the Daleks broadcast propaganda to try to break the rebels' spirit, encouraging them to surrender with false promises.
The Doctor makes the claim that this is the middle history of the Daleks, and their destruction which they witnessed on Skaro in The Daleks took place in the distant future.
However, as he has only ever met them on the one occasion, apparently for the very first time, he is unlikely to know the ins and outs of their history and so has to be guessing. It is now generally understood that events of The Daleks belong to the beginning of their history, when they lacked the ability to leave their city, let alone go conquering across the galaxy.
A later story will suggest that he did know all about the Daleks before he even fled from Gallifrey, but if this is the case then he managed to keep it very well hidden. There is absolutely no hint of him recognising them in their first story. Terry Nation certainly intended it to be their first ever encounter.
A couple of minor hiccups during the recording this week: in the scene in which the Doctor and Ian are waiting to be taken inside the saucer, a member of the production team can be glimpsed behind them.
In throwing one of her bombs, Jacqueline Hill grazed her knuckles.
William Hartnell had worked with Bernard Kay (Tyler) before - on Carry On Sergeant. Then, Hartnell had taken a dislike to him and tried to get him sacked from the production. During the recording of this story, Kay was jetting back and forth between the UK and Spain, where he was filming the epic Dr Zhivago. According to Kay (as recounted on the DVD documentary) Hartnell claimed that he had been offered a very good part in that film, but couldn't take it due to his Doctor Who commitments. Kay clearly thought that the star had made this up.
Many people have questioned why the Daleks should identify the smartest prisoners, only to turn them into mindless zombies. Presumably their test is to identify people whose intelligence might threaten their plans, and so they are getting them out of the way.
Another question is: What was that Dalek doing at the bottom of the Thames? We have seen how dangerous the bridge is, and indeed a section of it has just collapsed onto the TARDIS. At this point in the series, there are no flying Daleks. If this Dalek was the closest, but on the opposite bank of the river, then perhaps it simply took the quickest route to capture the prisoners - by crossing the Thames along the riverbed.
- This episode saw a rise in viewership of one million but - oddly - the appreciation figure fell four points. The audience numbers were enough to place the episode in that week's Top 10 (at No.10).
- Among the members of the human resistance group is actor Pat Gorman - his very first appearance in the series. He will feature in many stories up until the mid-1980's, on one occasion (Colony in Space) playing three different characters. Terrance Dicks used to joke that it was in the BBC Charter that all dramas had to include Gorman in the cast, such was his ubiquity.
- Michael Goldie plays Craddock. He will return to the series to play technician Laleham in The Wheel in Space. That story also features actor Kenneth Watson, playing Bill Duggan. It was Watson who played Craddock in the Aaru film version of this story.
- The equipment used by the Doctor to escape from the cell was not produced by Shawcraft. It was actually made by director Richard Martin's pathologist brother.
- Dalek operator Peter Murphy will become better known as Murphy Grumbar in the credits of future Dalek stories.
- Carole Ann Ford, who had now left the series, spent the day of broadcast at Gamages bookshop in London, signing copies of Dalek books.
- The riverside scene was recreated for the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure In Space And Time:
- Below, a colour view of the studio set featuring the saucer landing site. Note how the air traffic control tower is not in scale with the surrounding houses - and you would never have helicopters landing and taking off so close to those residential buildings.
No comments:
Post a Comment