Synopsis:
The Doctor returns to the TARDIS but is shocked to find it guarded by Daleks...
He discovers that Steven and Katarina have been talked into leaving the ship by Space Security agent Bret Vyon, and they are hiding in the bushes nearby. The Doctor scolds them for having left the TARDIS as they would have been safe there, and he and Bret argue about what their next move should be.
In the city, the Dalek Supreme orders that the jungle surrounding the complex be burned down, to kill or flush out the enemy aliens. Daleks armed with pyro-flame attachments spread out and set light to the vegetation.
Seeing what is happening, the Doctor decides that the city is the best place for them to make for. It takes them away from the fires, and the Daleks won't think to look for them there.
Mavic Chen is watching the fires from the city with a fellow delegate named Zephon. He is Master of the Fifth Galaxy, and appears to be a bipedal plant-based creature, clad in black robes and cowl. The pair spar verbally, with Zephon unable to conceal his arrogance. When it comes time to gather in the main council chamber, Zephon elects to keep the Daleks waiting.
Bret spots Chen's personal spacecraft and realises that his superior is in league with the Daleks. With the TARDIS unreachable, they decide to steal it since the agent knows how to pilot it.
Seeing Zephon alone, Bret knocks him out and the Doctor decides to borrow his robes in order to infiltrate the city and find out what the Daleks are up to.
He finds himself in the council chamber, and learns of the Time Destructor. This awesomely powerful weapon can manipulate time - capable of ageing enemies to death. It is powered by one emm of the ultra-rare mineral Taranium, which has taken fifty years to mine on the planet Uranus. This has been Chen's contribution to the Dalek masterplan to conquer the Solar System.
As Bret, Steven and Katarina break into the Spar 7-40, Zephon frees himself from his bonds and activates an alarm.
The assembled delegates panic, and in the confusion the Doctor is able to pocket the Taranium Core.
On hearing the alarm sound, Bret informs Katarina and Steven that he cannot wait any longer for the Doctor, and prepares to take off...
Next episode: Devil's Planet
Written by: Terry Nation
Recorded: Friday 29th October 1965 - Television Centre Studio TC3
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 20th November 1965
Ratings: 9.8 million / AI 52
Designer: Raymond P Cusick
Director: Douglas Camfield
Additional cast: Julian Sherrier (Zephon), Roy Evans (Trantis), Jack Pitt (Gearon), Ian East (Celation), Brian Edwards (Malpha), Gerry Videl (Beaus), John Camm (Technix Engineer), Dennis Tate (Technix Pilot)
Day of Armageddon is the first of three episodes from this story which survive in the archives. They permit us to see the alien delegates which make up the "United Galactic Headquarters", and so we can see how they have changed, often significantly, since Mission to the Unknown.
Malpha remains the same, though played by a different actor. Other costumes are amended. Some of the figures - such as the tall black chess piece-shaped character - have disappeared altogether. Celation, who has an odd floating movement and is covered in black spots, is new. Trantis is similar to his previous appearance, but no longer has facial tendrils, and he too is played by another actor.
Zephon was supposed to feature in the single episode story / prequel, but in the end there was no place for him. His absence is explained in this episode by him stating that he attended another conference, to allay suspicions.
In practical terms, the differences can be explained by this having a different director, with a different creative team behind him. Mission to the Unknown was also produced during the second season, but held over to this one. To the viewer, the changes occur after just six weeks, but several months separate the appearances in production terms.
Within the context of the narrative, the changes can be explained away as the names being the planets or galaxies which the delegates represent (such as we later see in the Peladon stories) - and these might have a diverse range of inhabitants.
The episode's survival also allows us to see Adrienne Hill as Katarina. For many years we only had a brief clip of her from The Traitors - the fourth instalment - courtesy of its inclusion in an edition of Blue Peter.
Another survival, prior to the rediscovery of the episode, had been some Ealing filming footage of the Daleks setting light to the jungle.
Day of Armageddon was returned to the BBC by one of its own former engineers - Francis Watson - in January 2004. He also possessed a copy of an earlier Dalek episode - The Expedition.
In Nation's first draft, the episode saw the time-travellers steal Banhoong's space yacht, and the Daleks set off in pursuit. The cliff-hanger was the crashing of the yacht.
It was specified that the Time Destructor would be used not to age enemies but to regress them into the past.
In a later draft, Chen's motivation for allying with the Daleks was outlined as a wish to reset Earth's history so that he could guide it down a new path, under his leadership (shades of Operation Golden Age).
Zephon was going to be President Elect of the Fourth Galaxy rather than the Fifth - changed, presumably, after Galaxy 4 came along. He was described as having incredibly long fingers. The robes were there from the start, as the Doctor needed a disguise to infiltrate the conference.
In studio, it was these costume changes between Hartnell and Sherrier which determined the recording breaks.
The Ealing filming of the pyro-flame-wielding Daleks had taken place on Friday 1st October. Three casings had been fitted with butane gas cylinders. A smoke effect was superimposed over some jungle studio scenes.
There was a slight technical fault at the close of recording when the end credits wouldn't run at the correct speed.
- The ratings increase significantly, almost hitting the 10 million mark, though the appreciation figure drops slightly on the opening instalment.
- The Core's mineral was originally going to be called Vitaranium. Donald Tosh realised that William Hartnell might have trouble pronouncing this, so Nation agreed to it being shortened to Taranium. The writer favoured words or names which were contractions of his own name - Taron, Tarrant etc.
- There was a cut to the episode in which Katarina explained to Steven that she and Bret had taken him to a clearing which was free of Varga Plants. These creatures do not feature in this episode. They had only been seen as static props in the opening instalment.
- Roy Evans will return to the series twice in the Pertwee era, playing miners on both occasions. He's Bert in The Green Death and Rima in The Monster of Peladon.
- Zephon's chunky square amulet will later be sported by rogue Time Lord the War Chief in The War Games.
- Chen claims that Zephon's position is under threat from the Embodiment Grise. This was inspired by the "Eminence Grise" - someone who wields power behind the scenes. The title was first used to describe Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, the right-hand man of Cardinal Richlieu.
- With Christmas on the horizon, The Times published an item about Dalek merchandise on Monday 22nd November.
- The programme had a short feature in Radio Times for the second week running. This included an image of Chen with a Dalek:
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