Synopsis:
The Daleks begin to emerge from their space capsule and take up position prior to their extermination of the human colonists.
The Doctor, Quinn and Polly have been arrested by Bragen and sent under guard to the prison block. In the corridor they are confronted by armed Daleks which bar their way. The Doctor leads everyone away from the area.
In the Governor's Office, Janley tells Bragen that the revolt is already a success. He tells her that it is now time to dispose of her fellow rebels, like Valmar and Kebble. They have been useful, but now pose a risk to his new authority. He is prepared to kill Janley if she disagrees.
Valmar has overheard their discussion. He goes and frees Ben, taking him to the guest quarters, then sets off in search of Quinn and the Doctor.
Bragen orders his guards to make sure that the rebels remain isolated, then announces to the entire colony that it is they who have killed Governor Hensell, but he has assumed command and reimposed order.
Having evaded their guards, the Doctor and Polly are reunited with Ben as the Daleks give the order to turn on the humans and begin killing everyone.
Valmar confronts Janley in Lesterson's laboratory and tells her he knows of her talk with Bragen. She still believes that the Daleks can be trusted to act as their weapons, this time against the new Governor and his men.
Bragen learns that the Daleks are now killing his guards, whilst Janley witnesses them exterminating her rebel friends.
The Doctor and his companions decide to hide in the lab where they find Lesterson, his mind gone. He claims that Daleks will take over from humans as the dominant lifeform.
The Doctor learns that the Daleks will shortly no longer need the static electricity supply they laid. The scientist tells him that only Valmar knows where their power supply connects to that of the colony.
Valmar, meanwhile, sees Janley killed by a Dalek, and Kebble is also dead. He rushes to the lab.
Bragen begins to plead with the Daleks to help him, unwilling to face the truth of what is going on. Quinn arrives and confronts him. He convinces him to call upon more security forces from the perimeter to come and fight the Daleks.
Daleks enter the laboratory as everyone hides - apart from Lesterson. He offers to help them, but is killed.
The Doctor has been shown the controls which were set up by Valmar and he engineers a power overload, getting knocked out in the process.
All over the colony, the Daleks begin to explode as they are overloaded with power.
Bragen overpowers Quinn, but is then shot dead by Valmar.
When he wakes up, the Doctor finds that the Dalek threat is over, but Valmar is furious that he has wrecked the colony's power supply to achieve this. Quinn and he will now work together to restore the colony.
The Doctor decides that a discreet departure is called for, and he and his companions slip back to the mercury swamp to find the TARDIS. They see a wrecked Dalek standing outside the ship.
As the TARDIS dematerialises, the eyestalk on the Dalek slowly rises to watch it disappear...
Next time: The Highlanders
Written by David Whitaker
Recorded: Saturday 26th November 1966 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 10th December 1966
Ratings: 7.8 million / AI 47
Designer: Derek Dodd
Director: Christopher Barry
In developing the character of the new Doctor, it had been decided that he would use any means necessary to defeat his enemies - even if it meant leaving a trail of destruction himself in doing so. Confronted by the chaos he had wrought, he would feign surprise, quickly excuse himself, then slip away - running away rather than staying to face the consequences of his actions.
This is certainly the case with this story, and it will be a feature of the final episodes of many Troughton adventures. This was one of the elements of a new character breakdown for the Doctor, released by the production team after this episode had been recorded.
This also highlighted the Doctor's use of disguises, preference for cryptic remarks over plain speaking, use of humour to disarm, and his unpredictability. It was also suggested that he might find himself rejected by the people he has saved - inspired by the Pied Piper fairy tale - but he preferred people to think for themselves anyway, rather than treat him as a hero.
Wednesday 28th September saw the filming of the Dalek destruction at Ealing Studios. The four main props were used, along with a number of lightweight mock-ups put together by Derek Dodd and his team. One scene was to feature a pair of Daleks, operated by John Scott Martin and Kevin Manser, collide. The operators had to wear respirators as smoke cannisters were set off. A spark from one cannister burned a hole in Manser's nylon shirt.
Other Daleks were seen to spin out of control or to crash into walls and machinery.
The conveyer belt model was used again - with Daleks flying off the end before the whole thing was blown up.
Photographers from the Observer Colour Magazine had been present throughout the Ealing filming.
The BBC were unhappy when a number of colour photographs were subsequently published, as some featured the operators sitting in their Dalek casings. Whilst the operators had always been credited on screen, the Corporation had never talked about how the Daleks functioned, leaving many to think that they might actually be remote-controlled. These photographs rather spoiled the illusion.
Michael Craze re-joined his co-stars for rehearsals after Ben's absence from the previous episode, but not before the trio returned to Frensham Ponds on Monday 21st November to record a new ending scene for The Highlanders.
Unusually, the episode was not recorded onto 405-line videotape, as was the norm. Instead it was recorded directly onto 35mm film as the climactic scenes would require considerable editing.
The studio recording time was also scheduled from 8:30 - 10pm due to the amount of physical effects that would be required in studio.
Kevin Manser was not available for the studio recording, so his place was taken by Nicholas Evans, who had operated a Dalek in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. In that, he had also played the Slyther and, for Christopher Barry, had portrayed slave trader Didius in The Romans.
Five recording breaks were required, mainly to move cast members from set to set, but also to arrange the dematerialisation of the TARDIS in the final scene - achieved through the use of inlay and a still photo of the Police Box superimposed over the swamp set.
The circular camera mask was used frequently throughout the episode to give Dalek POV shots, especially in the battle / massacre scenes.
Troughton once again played Mr Sludge The Snail on the recorder.
Oddly, the sound of his playing continues after the TARDIS has faded away.
As well as the Doctor's "Did I really do that?" reaction, as mentioned above, an added dimension to his character this week is his tacit approval of the use of the reinforcement guards to fight the Daleks - despite knowing that they are sure to be slaughtered. He sees them only as a diversion to give him more time to defeat the Daleks - exhibiting a new ruthless streak.
The Second Doctor is often defined as a clown - the Chaplinesque "Cosmic Hobo" - but he is actually a darker, more manipulative character right from the outset.
Whilst preparing material for the 30 Years In The TARDIS documentary in 1993, Kevin Davies discovered some film footage from this episode in a BBC Radiophonic Workshop piece - shots of the exploding Daleks. This came from the children's magazine programme Tom Tom, broadcast in November 1968.
The last sighting of complete episodes of The Power of the Daleks was in Singapore in 1972. These were the film copies originally sent to New Zealand.
- The ratings end on a high note, with the episode coming in at 37th most watched programme for the week.
- It had been intended that new opening titles would be recorded at Riverside during the recording of this episode, but this was then deferred to 9th December, for recording at Television Centre.
- Two days after broadcast, the BBC produced an audience research report on the story's third instalment. Overall reaction was not terribly enthusiastic, though the return of the Daleks remained popular - with only some thinking their novelty value wearing thin. Reaction to the new Doctor was mostly negative - "didn't seem right somehow" - and the comedy and costume were disliked. Troughton himself was well enough regarded, but thought wasted in this new role. A small number were prepared to wait and see how he settled into the role.
- It was during the production of The Power of the Daleks that Terry Nation approached the BBC about developing a stand-alone Dalek series, provisionally titled "The Destructors", using elements from The Daleks' Master Plan. In the week that this episode was in rehearsal, the BBC formally declined to take up the project - leaving Nation to look to the USA for support and finance.
- As a missing story, The Power of the Daleks was selected for an animation release in 2016 to coincide with its 50th anniversary - which of course was also the anniversary of Patrick Troughton's debut. A special edition was released in 2020, which took the opportunity to improve some of the animation sequences - namely the opening TARDIS scenes and the Dalek production line sections. Unlike some of the animated releases, it was very faithful to the original episodes in terms of sets and character likenesses. The Special Edition was also only made available in B&W.
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