Day 70 — March 11th 2021
The Power of the Daleks — Episodes Three and Four
The Power of the Daleks — Episode Three
They do a really clever job in making you realise how different this Doctor Who is from the old one just from the way that everyone else reacts to him. Not everyone listened when Hartnell’s Doctor Who warned them of danger — you only have to look at the last story to see that — but he had a certain command to him that’s totally absent from Troughton’s incarnation here. There’s a moment early on where he’s baffled that they’re still approving Lesterson’s experiments even though he’s just told them what the Daleks are capable of. It’s a wonderful moment, and it feels like another where the mask slips a little, and we see the new man properly underneath it all.
There’s also some really cleaver plotting in this one, with Doctor Who discovering who the murderer was in Episode One, finding out who’s causing trouble behind the scenes, and having a bit of a confrontation with his human enemies. His disguise as the Earth Examiner gets foiled, and you’d think we’re heading towards a conclusion. What’s impressive is that this story never drags. I’m not usually a fan of the six-parters, and I’ve really enjoyed the run of four-part stories we’ve had throughout most of 1966 to now, but this one is a welcome return for the format. From this point on the story shifts focus. It’s less about the mystery and more about stopping the Daleks.
I feel like all I’ve done through this story so far is praise the way in which the Daleks have been handled, but I’m about to do it some more. There’s some great moments in this episode where they struggle to maintain their facade, and slip up a little when speaking to their ‘masters’. A particular favourite is the moment where one Dalek has to call itself Doctor Who’s servant, and it takes a moment to deliberate. And then there’s the exchange with Lesterson later on;
Lesterson: ‘You know, it’s amazing. You have an almost human interest and curiosity.’
Dalek: ‘A Dalek is bet — is not the same as a human. If I am to help, I must know everything.’
It’s a brilliant performance, and that’s not something I often think to praise when it comes to the Daleks. It’s also telling how well the idea of Daleks stuttering and faltering works here, when it’s the kind of thing I ripped into The Chase for. It just goes to show that the context can make all the difference. Here, the Daleks are presented as absolutely a threat, and a very credible one at that. Everything they’ve tried to do so far they’ve succeeded at. It feels a far cry from a Dalek being bamboozled by Doctor Who shouting ‘auntie’ from behind a sand dune.
That’s not to say that there’s no moments of levity in this one, though. I found myself laughing at Doctor Who showing his badge to a Dalek who tries to block his way (‘Entry is restricted,’ says the Dalek. ‘Not for me it isn’t,’ replies Doctor Who. ‘Accord every access. I’ve got a badge.’), and that’s the kind of humour I think you could absolutely get away with in the modern series. Again, it all comes down to the context, and David Whittaker has got that just right where I think Terry Nation struggled.
I would use this moment to talk about the cliffhanger again, which is another belter, but I’m going to hold off because I’ll be singing the praises of another cliffhanger in just a moment’s time, and I fear I’ll start sounding like a broken record…
I think I’m going to have to go with another 9/10 for this one, which I’m just loving so far.
The Power of the Daleks — Episode Four
I seem to spend a lot of time praising the cliffhangers in the programme’s early years and saying that they’re some of the best ever — especially in this story — but I reckon that this one probably has the claim for being the best cliffhanger in 1960s Doctor Who, and quite possibly in all of Doctor Who. The Daleks calmly creating new shells while Lesterson looks on in horror and realises what he’s done… it’s scary and effective, and I don’t think it’s ever been bettered.
Anneke Wills has said that she had nightmares about that sequence for years, such was the level of effectiveness, although in telling that story here I’ve realised that she must have seen it on a screen in the studio during recording, because when this episode was first broadcast they were in studio recording Episode Six of this story. The extent to which production was right to the wire in this phase of the series’ history is an interesting story, so I’ll have to remember to talk about that at some point.
It certainly helps that a few clips of this final sequence still exist, showing Lesterson looking on in horror as the Daleks come streaming down the production line. Yes, they’re toy Daleks and they don’t match up very well to the full-scale props, but I don’t think that matters. There’s something iconic about it all the same. For the recent Blu-Ray release of the animation the team at The Model Unit have recreated the models to shoot some additional footage, and I really must get round to checking that out.
It’s testament to how good the cliffhanger is that it works well on the narrated soundtrack, too, which isn’t always the case for sequences that are largely visual and lacking much dialogue. Anneke Wills’ narration is fantastic, and the moment where she describes the Daleks as ‘not just reproducing but mass producing’ really sells the scale of what we should be seeing here.
I think part of this cliffhanger’s effectiveness is how well it’s been developed throughout the episode as a whole. We’ve got a great scene with a Dalek delivering drinks early on, and then not long after Doctor Who and Ben realise that they’ve just counted four Daleks where there’s only been three up to now. They raise their concerns, are ignored, and then Lesterson starts to realise just in time for the cliffhanger. So often these moments come out of the blue simply because we’ve reached the point for a cliffhanger, so it’s always nice when a bit more thought and development has gone into it.
I always forget that Polly is absent from this episode, so it’s always a surprise to me. It’s impressive, though, that her absence doesn’t feel like she’s got the week off on holiday — her being kidnapped becomes a key part of the story. It also means that Ben is forced into working with Doctor Who despite his own misgivings. They work incredibly well together, and I’m saddened again that we don’t get longer in the company of this line up before Jamie comes along.
Overall a fantastic episode, and raised even higher by the final scenes. This one has to be a 9/10, and it’s even pushing slightly higher.
