Day Five — January 5th 2021
The Expedition and The Ordeal
The Expedition (The Daleks — Episode Five)
I always think of the later episodes of The Daleks — basically anything after our heroes have teamed up with the Thals — as being a bit dull. That’s probably unfair of me, because while today’s episode hasn’t been as enjoyable as the last few, there’s still plenty in here to enjoy.
For starters, there’s Ian talking the Thals into fighting to help them recover the Fluid Link, culminating in that brilliant ‘So there is something you’ll fight for’ line. And this comes on the back of Ian wrestling with his own conscience over the request.
And then there’s the fact almost the entire episode takes place in the Petrified Forest, and we get a chance to really admire the set. It’s a beautiful design, so different to the more ‘real’ forest we had a few episodes back during An Unearthly Child.
I’m also quite partial to some of the effects work in this one. The creature rising from the swamp looks fab, and the whirlpool effect at the end holds up pretty well, too. This story has had several instances of splitting the screen like this — the TARDIS crew seeing the Dalek city in The Dead Planet, and a Dalek ray blistering a wall in yesterday’s episode — and it’s nice to see this sort of thing creeping into the series already. Doctor Who is famed for some pretty ropy effects throughout the years, so it’s nice to see them starting out well.
Once effect in this episode that does tend to some in for some stick is the use of cardboard cut outs to swell the number of Daleks in their control room. It has to be said that watching it in 2021, with a restored picture and on a great big flatscreen, the effect does look naff. It doesn’t help that instead of placing the cut outs carefully in the back of the set, in some cases they’ve been leant up against walls, or even turned slightly sideways to you get a clear shot of their lack of depth!
But when remembering that when this episode went out it was being watched on pretty small screens and with less than ideal picture quality… well, it’s quite a clever way around a problem! They’ll do the same thing in a few episodes’ time with the TARDIS prop, and it works so well there — visible now only in tele-snap for, of course — that you can see why they went for it here!
6/10
The Ordeal (The Daleks — Episode Six)
Now with this episode, I’m recalling why I wasn’t a fan of the latter part of the serial. There’s nothing actually wrong with it, I’ve just found it’s the first one where I’ve struggled to pay attention. There’s plenty to like in here — some decent action in the caves with Ian, Barbara and the Thals, and the Doctor and Susan being captured by the Daleks again — but none of it’s really clicking with me.
One thing I did enjoy is the first glimpse of the Hartnell Doctor Who that we’ll come to know as his episodes go on; the cuddly, grandfatherly figure, rather than the sterner, angrier one we’ve had up to now. His giggles of delight when he manages to overpower the Daleks’ machinery is great fun, and it bothers me that Hartnell is remembered as crotchety more than as the figure he really is for so much of his run.
Only one other thought for today. By my reckoning, The Ordeal is the first episode of Doctor Who to feature neither the TARDIS interior or exterior. If I’ve been keeping count right — and I hope I have, I started a spreadsheet specially — we’ve seen one or the other in every episode so far. Indeed, in the majority of episodes so far we’ve seen both of them, with only Forest of Fear, The Ambush and The Expedition featuring the exterior only. The interior technically appears in The Escape, but only in the cliffhanger reprise at the beginning, rather than in newly-shot footage, so I’m borderline as to whether that counts.
4/10
