C030 The Power of The Daleks

Welcome PT. This is a pretty good story with some pretty standard characters in a nice setting. There’s the overbearing and militant 2nd in command, There’s the unstable obsessive scientist who is mad, then goes mad, there’s sir almost appeared in this episode, but was killed within the first minute, and there’s the all about the revolution crew who are totally oblivious to who is leading them. It’s a shame that the planet surface footage is all gone. BTW, is this another Terry Nationism? After all, the planet with the bubbling surface is called Vulcan. I don’t know, does acid count?
I liked that the first five minutes or so is PT almost silent. In fact he’s pretty quiet for almost the entire first episode. Perhaps his lungs are still forming. Also glad the stove pipe hat didn’t last. Loved the mirror and clock references, but the ring should have been handled differently, perhaps even played a part in the regen. It would have been a suitable end for it. The tardis scene really benefits from the latest recon improvements.
The story moves, but in the end I think it’s perfectly okay. There’s nothing majestically wrong with it, but there’s nothing Vulcan-shattering about it either. The scientist is the only standout OTT character. In the end I would spend more time covering the Daleks and less on the revolution plot. Their resurrection and breakout is much more interesting, and the coup would have been much more intriguing were it more subversive and less bloody. Still it kept me interested. 2.5

Here i my more traditional maxi review:

This pivotal serial began with a reprise of the Doctor’s first regeneration, from “The Tenth Planet” as the TARDIS took off. After the familiar title sequence, the DVD animation provided the unusual, overhead view of the time rotor during flight. Ben was skeptical and Polly was curious as they incredulously watched the new Doctor remark on his new body, its transformation, and the TARDIS’ critical role. Rummaging in a trunk, he found a dagger he’d acquired from Saladin during the crusades, a recorder, a mirror that showed both William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton’s reflections, and an alien piece of metal that filled him with foreboding. He described his experience as renewal and dismissed the fact the first Doctor’s ring didn’t fit, noting a butterfly with widespread wings wouldn’t fit in a caterpillar’s chrysalis. Donning a stovepipe hat to explore the planet Vulcan’s mercury swamp, the Doctor read his 500 Year Diary while avoiding bubbling puddles of hazardous vapors. Ben and Polly followed until Polly was overcome. The Doctor identified a murdered Examiner from Earth and gathered his credentials before being knocked out and deliberately given a button as a clue to the killer’s identity. Upon finding the Doctor; Ben; and Polly, colonists wondered whether the E`xaminer had come about the space capsule scientist Lesterson wanted to open or the rebels opposing Governor Hensell, including Lesterson’s assistant, Janley. Head of Security Bragen kept people, especially Deputy Governor Quinn, away from the Examiner until after Lesterson opened the space capsule’s entry bay. The Doctor, though, called a halt to Lesterson’s work for the night, returning later with Ben and Polly and using a piece of metal like the one he’d brought from the TARDIS to enter the ship’s interior. Two cobweb covered Daleks waited, but Ben found a third Dalek was missing. A mutant creature from inside a Dalek startled them suddenly before crawling away into the darkness.

Lesterson became proprietorial upon finding the Doctor and his companions had searched the capsule. The Doctor ended the argument about his authority as Examiner by pointing out, unlike Ben and Polly, discovering the Daleks didn’t amaze Lesterson. He admitted he’d been inside the capsule, but refused to reveal where the third Dalek was. The Doctor annoyed Lesterson further. demanding the Daleks be destroyed and decided to consult Hensell, who was unavailable. After the Doctor left, Lesterson had an aide, Resno, summon Janley to help them experiment on the third Dalek. In their quarters, the Doctor found a listening device in a fruit bowl and decided to contact Earth for help persuading Hensell to destroy the Daleks. Quinn and Bragen, who had both tried to see the Doctor, found him after he discovered the radio was sabotaged and its operator was unconscious. Quinn held a tool when Bragen found them, and the Doctor revealed the button he’d been given at the murder came from Quinn’s clothing. Bragen arrested Quinn, pending an inquiry. Meanwhile, Lesterson powered the Dalek, being baffled by the gun as he theorized about its appendages until Resno was killed. Janley, though, told Lesterson Resno had simply been injured and they kept working. At the inquiry, the Doctor described the death and devastation of which the Daleks were capable until Lesterson and Janley interrupted, presenting a working Dalek they had disarmed. It recognized the Doctor and obeyed Lesterson’s commands before speaking for the first time telling everyone, “I am your servant.”

The Doctor told the Dalek to immobilize itself. It hesitated, obeyed, waited for the Doctor to leave, and returned to mobility. Lesterson and Hensell were impressed at the Dalek reasoning Lesterson’s orders were right because it couldn’t serve the colony while immobilized. Quinn revealed he had sent for the Examiner because of the rebel conspiracy against the governor and minor sabotage. Bragen convinced Hensell Quinn was after his job, prompting the Governor to have his deputy arrested and appoint the security chief as his replacement before touring the colony’s perimeter. Lesterson tested the Dalek’s impressive knowledge until the Doctor arrived and tried unsuccessfully to feed it too much power. Unarmed, it could not exterminate the Doctor. The Dalek asked Lesterson about a machine and explained. with power and materials, it could build a vastly better model. Janley turned the Dalek gun over to the rebels, whom Bragen led. She also told him the Dalek had killed Resno and his death would enable them to blackmail Lesterson. Bragen explained he wanted a hold over the Examiner before the rebels took over. So, Janley arranged to have another rebel, Valmar, kidnap Polly. When Ben realized she was missing, the Doctor realized Lesterson had left his lab. There, the Doctor found a Dalek had powered up the ship and reactivated more armed Daleks. He and Ben fled. Bragen gave himself away to the Doctor as the Examiner’s murderer and the two realized their relative position was a stalemate. Lesterson returned to learn the armed Daleks had been disarmed and reported the Daleks would get whatever they wanted. So, the Daleks would get their power.

Ben and the Doctor reported Polly’s kidnapping to Bragen as a Dalek served him a drink. The Doctor was dismayed Daleks had the run of the colony and was surprised when three Daleks passed them in a corridor. He and Ben realized there were now four Daleks. So, they were reproducing. The Doctor noticed a rebel making notes at the notice board and spoke to Lesterson, who began having doubts about Daleks. Janley reassured him, though. As the Doctor and Ben grew more persuasive, she threw them out of the lab and sedated Lesterson. The Doctor decoded the rebels’ message enabling he and Ben to spy on their upcoming meeting. There, Janley demonstrated the Dalek gun. reassuring the skeptics by giving a Dalek the chance to exterminate her. When it did not, the rebels were convinced they could control the Daleks. Ben grew excited and got caught when rebels discussed Polly. Braggen, the rebel leader, told the Doctor to come out. When he did, he nimbly avoided getting killed by the Dalek. Bragen imprisoned him with Quinn, to whom the Doctor explained everything. Then, he began searching for the musical note that would open the sound-based lock. Lesterson overheard the Daleks conspiring and realized the Doctor had been right about them. Aboard their ship, he witness the new race of Daleks reproducing.

Lesterson retreated from the ship and closed the door before encountering Janley and quickly explaining the truth and his plans to destroy the Daleks. He tried to reach Hensell, who was still away; the imprisoned Doctor; whom he had to barge past guards to see; and Bragen. Janley though, claimed he was raving and had him him taken away and restrained to protect the Daleks. Meanwhile, the Daleks had rebels lay new cables all over the colony, claiming it was for an emergency power system. In reality, the cables generated static electricity to make the Daleks more mobile. Polly reveled the truth about the Doctor and Daleks to Valmar after learning Ben had also been captured. The Doctor’s efforts freed Quinn, who overpowered their guard before they found and freed Polly. In Lesterson’s lab, they realized the truth about the new cables and fled when armed Daleks arrived. The Daleks’ charade of servitude to humans was over and they blasted through the barred door. Hensell returned and learned Bragen took over, before vainly trying to regain control. He refused Bragen’s offer to work together and was exterminated by an a Dalek Bragen armed. A guard caught the Doctor, Quinn, and Polly before Bragen revealed his plan to impose Marshall law, at which the Doctor scoffed. The Daleks planned to conquer and destroy the colony by exterminating all the humans.

As the Daleks moved out to wipe out the colonists, Janley came to Braggen, excitedly saying the rebels had won. Bragen explained the Daleks woud wipe the rebels out to secure his position. As they talked, he was prepared to kill Janley, but she went along with him. Valmar overheard them and freed Ben. The Doctor, Quinn, Polly, and their guards fled armed Daleks, who wiped out the guards. The survivors encountered Ben and Valmar, who went for help. The others went to Lesterson’s lab as mass extermination ensued. As rebels fought Bragen’s guards, Valmar encountered Janley. They decided to use the Daleks as weapons agaist Bragen’s guards. The Doctor suggested the colony’s survival depended on a diversion and Quinn went to see Bragen, who could not communicate with his dead guards. Daleks wiped out the rebels, except Valmar, including Janley. The Doctor hid with Ben and Polly in Lesterson’s lab. The scientist had gone crackers. He believed Daleks knew everything and could not be defeated. The Doctor asked him about their power and learned only Valmar and the Daleks knew its source. Daleks found and exterminated him despite his promise serve them. Quinn persuaded Bragen to summon guards from the perimeter to the colony’s capital and was shot by Valmar before he could kill Quinn. Valmar arrived at the lab and told the Doctor where the crucial power cable for the Daleks was. Working feverishly and, dodging Dalek fire, the Doctor added the power from the colony, from which the Daleks had cut themselves off, to the Daleks’ power. Valmar realized added power overload the Daleks, destroying them, whereas just cutting their power would have shut them down temporarily. Indeed, Daleks exploded all over the colony badly dmaaged by the blowback. The Doctor hustled Ben and Polly back to the TARDIS to avoid the proverbial bill. As they took off, the eye stalk of a defunct Dalek raised.

The lead actor, portraying the title character, changed before the opening titles in “Power of the Daleks”, perhaps making it the most pivotal serial in the history of DOCTOR WHO. Ben and Polly, the Doctor’s companions, with whom viewers were intended to identify, mirrored the audience’ shock and awe at the impossible transformation in the first episode. Indeed, as Patrick Troughton’s new Doctor studied his reflection, which briefly transformed into William Hartnell’s face before showing Patrick Troughton’s again. The story’s first task was to convince the audience Patrick Troughton portrayed the same Doctor William Hartnell had been. He described what had happened as “renewal” since the term “regeneration” had not yet been invented. While sewing seeds for the story to come, the script made reference to the Doctor’s previous adventures, including Hartnell serials “The Crusade” and, in the next episode, “Marco Polo”. The problem of the new Doctor’s identity was finally resolved at the end of the second episode when his greatest enemies, the Daleks, recognized him, despite his changed appearance. Because the Daleks knew the Doctor, they knew he was impersonating an Earth examiner. Only the Doctor and one other person knew the real examiner had been murdered in the first episode. Nobody knew why the examiner had come or why anyone had sent for him. Both the killer and the Daleks had reason to remain silent.

Those mysteries dovetailed with acts of minor sabotage committed by rebel, pressure groups who published secret newspapers critical of the Governor and might have accounted for the Examiner’s arrival. Alternatively, the newcomers may have come about the space capsule Lesterson, a scientists, was eager to study in his laboratory, despite the Governor encouraging caution. Before opening the capsule, the Doctor knew the Daleks, his old enemies, would be aboard. Lesterson naturally wanted to study and learn about them and was too focused to consider the Doctor’s warning or question the rebels’ objections to the Governor’s leadership, which were not detailed at all. The more important conflict between the Doctor and Lesterson intensified once the Doctor realized Lesterson had entered the Daleks’ ship and removed a Dalek. The colony’s internal conflicts are woven into the struggle between Lesterson and the Doctor to study or destroy the cunning Daleks, who pretend to serve the colony while preparing, as the Doctor and the audience knew, to wipe everyone out. The pace at which mysteries are solved and conflicts are resolved kept the six episodes moving. The Daleks were more interesting, as moving around and serving the colony as they talked about their desire to be helpful. At the same time, they were unarmed and would almost slip up occasionally and come close to admitting they considered humans inferior and planned to exterminate them all when they were ready. To this end, episodes in the middle of the story concluded with the expected, slow scenes of numerous conspiring Daleks repeating their plans over and over again. The third episode had Daleks predicting, “We will get our power.” The fourth concluded as reproducing Daleks counted off until, “Dalek seventeen complete,” followed by the response, “Check.” The penultimate episode concluded, “Daleks conquer and destroy!” Lesterson realized the truth and the parties in the colony’s conflict learned Daleks required instant, unquestioning obedience before the story moved to its inevitable, bloody conclusion. It was up to the Doctor to stop the Daleks’ killing spree and save the colony, the planet Vulcan, and the rest of time and space.

Producer Innes Lloyd recognized lead actor William Hartnell’s declining health necessitated recasting the title character during DOCTOR WHO’s third season. He might have been replaced after the Doctor became both invisible and insubstantial when the TARDIS was drawn into the realm of “The Celestial Toymaker”. The required change did not occur until his encounter with the Cybermen concluded at the end of “The Tenth Planet”. Script Editor Dennis Spooner turned to the show’s original script editor, David Whitaker, to keep the show alive by pitting the new Doctor against his oldest and most deadly enemies. Subsequently, all six episodes were lost, but the soundtrack, which fans recorded from their televisions during the broadcast, had been returned to the BBC. The DVD incorporated the sound into animated episodes in both black and white and color as well as including a commentary and other bonus materials. Prior to its release, BBC Audio presented the soundtrack with actress Anneke Wills, who portrayed Polly, providing narration around the dialogue on CD and Fourth Doctor Tom Baker doing likewise on cassette. The story was also novelized by John Peel. Titan Books published the script in book form and there was also a fan produced photonovel whose proceeds went to charity.