Synopsis:
Lesterson looks on in horror as he witnesses a new race of Daleks rolling off a production line within their space capsule...
His already fragile mind finally snaps. Rushing out he meets Janley and tries to warn her - claiming that he intends to melt the Daleks down. He turns off their power supply, but discovers that they are now able to store energy. Lesterson runs off to find the Examiner. Janley is determined that he will not harm the Daleks as her rebel group plans to use them in their uprising.
Kebble and Valmar are going to be working in the capsule to provide the Daleks with their power supply, and Polly is brought there so that they can keep an eye on her.
In the prison block, the Doctor is attempting to find the right sonic frequency to operate the cell locks. After trying his recorder, he is now using water in a glass.
Lesterson bursts in and tells him about the Daleks duplicating their numbers. A guard drags him away to see Bragen.
At the Governor's office, the scientist is not believed - Janley helping convince Bragen that he is mentally unbalanced. Bragen refuses to call Governor Hensell back early from his tour of the outlying areas of the colony.
In the capsule, Polly tries to convince Valmar and Kebble that the Daleks will turn on them at the first opportunity - and they should not trust the ambitious Janley either.
Hensell returns from his tour, and is irritated by the work going on to set up the Dalek power circuit - and the sight of Bragen's armed guards everywhere.
The Doctor finally manages to open the cell locking mechanisms, freeing himself and Quinn.
Hensell confronts Bragen and learns that he no longer follows his orders, and all of his own people have been replaced. Bragen offers him the chance to help with his rebellion by appearing to sanction it. This will avoid bloodshed and lead to a smooth transition of power.
The Governor flatly refuses - and Bragen has a Dalek exterminate him.
The Doctor and Quinn sneak into the laboratory and learn that the rebels have been duped into setting up a static electricity circuit covering the entire colony - and it is almost complete.
Kebble attacks them but Quinn knocks him out and Polly is freed.
They flee the room as armed Daleks emerge from the capsule.
The Doctor, Quinn and Polly come upon Hensell's corpse and Bragen announces that his revolution has begun. The Daleks will obey only him.
However, back in their capsule, the Daleks are waiting for the humans to destroy themselves before exterminating the survivors.
They begin to stream out of the vessel, chanting: "Daleks conquer and destroy!" over and over and over...
Written by David Whitaker
Recorded: Saturday 19th November 1966 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 3rd December 1966
Ratings: 8 million / AI 48
Designer: Derek Dodd
Director: Christopher Barry
Additional cast: Robert Russell, Robert Luckham (Guards)
Michael Craze was on holiday during the production of this episode as Ben did not feature - though Anneke Wills returns from her break.
Both actors, along with Troughton, missed two days of rehearsal for this episode as they were working on the Frensham Ponds location filming for the next story. It wasn't much of a holiday for Craze, as he had a third day spent at Ealing on other scenes for The Highlanders.
Four Dalek props were required in studio, along with 10 photographic blow-ups - noticeable in the surviving clip from the close of the episode.
For the scene where Bragen inserts the gun into the servant Dalek, just before it killed Hensell, the recording was allowed to run on and later edited.
The usual mix to negative was used for the Governor's extermination.
The circular camera mask was once again employed to give the Dalek POV shots - including the sequence where Lesterson chases one from Hensell's office.
Now the sole Dalek vocal performer, Peter Hawkins' voice was overlaid multiple times and echoed for the closing sequence, which had involved the four Dalek operators going round in circles to replicate greater numbers - an old trick first used for the Daleks entering their time machine in the opening episode of The Chase.
The Daleks have very much been kept to the background so far, but in this episode they begin to make their mark. We have some well known lines, which just happen to survive in clips (see below), and we also have an interesting philosophical scene in which a Dalek asks of Bragen why humans kill each other. This comes across as a genuine wish to know something of human nature, rather than the on-going servitude deception.
Execution of their own kind is not unknown to the Daleks, of course. We saw the Black Dalek order the destruction of a pursuit ship crew in their last outing.
Two clips from this episode survive thanks to their inclusion in other programmes. The first is a scene of a Dalek moving towards the camera, claiming that "We are not ready yet to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!". The Dalek bumps over a camera cable - an incident which the animators elected to retain in the DVD / Blu-ray release. This clip derived from the same source as the production line sequence - the Australian Perspectives documentary episode C for Computer.
The closing sequence, featuring the Daleks chanting "Daleks conquer and destroy!" as they pour through a doorway, had been featured in two programmes - an edition of Blue Peter from 27 November 1967; and the Whicker's World instalment I Don't Like My Monsters To Have Oedipus Complexes, from 27th January 1968.
The latter programme can be seen in its entirety on the Special Edition release of the animated The Power of the Daleks.
- This is the highest rated of the story's six episodes - both in terms of actual audience numbers and in the appreciation figure.
- Robert Russell, playing a guard here, is best known for his supporting role in Witchfinder General, in which he plays Vincent Price's henchman John Stearne. To Doctor Who fans, though, he is remembered as the Caber in Terror of the Zygons.
- On the evening before recording this instalment, the BBC Light Programme broadcast an edited soundtrack of the second Peter Cushing Dalek movie.
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