021 - The Daleks' Master Plan

Broadcast:

13^th November 1965 - 29^th January 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Steven

Adversary:

Daleks

Written by:

Terry Nation, Dennis Spooner

Director:

Douglas Camfield

Music:

Tristram Cary

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh

Producer:

John Wiles

Average Viewers:

9.36m (9.1, 9.8, 10.3, 9.5, 9.9, 9.1, 7.9, 9.6, 9.2, 9.5, 9.8, 8.6)

Summary: The Daleks have formed an alliance and are intent on controlling the galaxy but they will have to catch the Doctor first!

The Daleks were big business in the UK. Fans were aching for more and boy were they about to get it! Unfortunately, international interest was not so hot and this epic twelve part story may have been too much for them to chew over, especially with its mature story elements (including what could be called the first and second companion deaths - more on that later) and consequently it became the only story never broadcast overseas (along with its prelude Mission To The Unknown). This all means that while it is among the most desired missing stories it is also among the least likely to be recovered, although viewing copies were sent to Australia so there is a tantalising thread of chance that they are still out there. Hope was renewed as recently as 2004 when a third episode was recovered but episode 7 "The Feast Of Steven" was regarded as a Christmas special, bore very little relevance to the story and was excluded from the international sales package so no viewing copy was ever made. Subsequently, when its video recording was among the first scheduled to be wiped in August 67 it was almost certainly lost forever.

While the Daleks were set on conquering the galaxy, the news was full of conflicts on Earth... The white-minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declared de facto independence of Rhodesia leading to trade embargoes and the breakdown of diplomatic relations and the Monday after the final episode was broadcast the UK ceased all trade. Central African Republic, Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Nigeria all suffered political troubles and Tanzania and Guinea severed diplomatic relations with the UK. Meanwhile on the other side of the world things were seriously hotting up in Vietnam as the first major engagement between regular US and North Vietnamese forces began, tens of thousands of protesters picketted the White House, the Pentagon advised President Johnson that his planned actions required four times as many soldiers and Philippines President-elect announced he would also send troops.

In lighter news, Craig Breedlove set a new land speed record (600.601 mph), The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe which would go on to become the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet (Venus), NASA's Gemini 6 and 7 performed the first space craft rendezvous (this should have been a docking mission but Gemini 6's intended target vehicle failed on launch so Gemini 7 became its replacement and docking was not possible). In Moscow the "glasnost meeting" became the first demonstration for civil rights in the Soviet Union - ignored by Soviet press but picked up by Western media, it became an annual event.

Back in the UK, the Death Penalty was suspended (and permanently abolished in 1969), The Race Relations Act became the first legislation to address racial discrimination, and the 70 mph speed limit was introduced. More importantly for Doctor Who, Mary Whitehouse founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association which would go on to criticise the show and thus proved some of its best publicity!

On television, "Camberwick Green" and "Jackanory" both débuted while cinemas were showing the likes of The Cincinnati Kid, Thunderball, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold featuring Claire Bloom (who would go on to appear as The Woman voting against Rassilon's plans to free the Time Lords in The End Of Time) and the music charts were again dominated by the Beatles, this time with double A "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out"

While it could be said that a lot of my reviews feature too much story retelling, the vastness of The Daleks' Master Plan means I should be quite safe this time! Indeed, at twelve episodes it is by far the longest Doctor Who story ever created and the writing had to be shared between Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner (Nation tackling the first half while Spooner took over for the second based on his initial ideas, though for some reason episodes 6 and 7 were the other way around) and the design work was also shared - not something I've focussed on before, but Raymond Cusick and Barry Newberry were the main designers used from very early on and they roughly took the first and second half of this story respectively. The Daleks' Master Plan is, in effect, The Chase revisited but the detail behind it and quality of story throughout makes it so much more. The Daleks take on their most devious and evil nature and with the exception of one episode the voices are the most foreboding and scary that I remember hearing and following his own concerns about them it seems that Nation really discovered their potential this time. At one point their suckers are replaced by flame guns (referred to as "Pyro-flames") as they brutally take on a jungle in one of the surviving film inserts. Indeed it is at the end of one of the pre-filmed inserts that they make their first appearance in the middle of episode 1. Their one failing, which isn't anything new, is their intent on having a stupidly long countdown before launching their pursuit ship. Starting at 100 it depletes the dramatic effect rather than adding to it and makes them look silly. Similarly, though it is a great one-off moment, their authority is undermined by Mavic Chen interrupting so the Dalek is left saying "It is... It is not... It is not an emergency!" Other nice touches include the re-use of their time machine to follow the TARDIS and the set/model looks far more solid and substantial than the one seen in The Chase, Dalek embryos are seen at the very end and at one point a Dalek even seems to be whispering!

But it's not just the Daleks that make this a great adventure. There is a sequence featuring Visians which are invisible creatures, described by the Doctor as vicious and 8 foot tall, and an idea that Terry Nation returned to in Planet Of The Daleks though in the form of a different creature developing powers of invisibility. The effect of them leaving footprints is pretty nice, though you could argue that they seem to walk very flat footed and the timing is a bit inconsistent. In one of the missing episodes there is a fairly long fight scene between the Visians and Daleks which must have been confusing to watch but the Loose Cannon reconstruction hints at them becoming at least partially visible when they are shot (I'm not sure if this is based on production documentation or if it's their own invention though)

The character of Mavic Chen is an interesting central guest. He is the Guardian Of The Solar System and despite my earlier beliefs it appears he is not from Earth - though perfectly humanoid in form his flesh has a curious colour, his eyebrows are more slanted and he has a curious way of holding a pen (and doesn't write in any Earthly script!) Perhaps this explains or excuses the slow and slightly awkward delivery of some of his lines. He's also quite a complex character, starting off as the Daleks' latest ally but later fearing their dominance and it's not clear where his motives actually lie having apparently spent 50 years gathering enough taranium for them he also seems to be aiming for his own advancement and actually slaps a Dalek at one point!

Other characters of note are Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom who both haver special places in the show's history. First of all they have the interesting detail of being brother and sister which adds an extra nuance to their opposing positions and indirectly suggests that she is married (a character detail that is normally over looked as irrelevant or stated outright but in this case merely hinted at by her different surname... or maybe they are from a broken family which contributes to their opposition...) They also both appear to be a danger to the Doctor but end up on his side. Bret is the first character to enter the TARDIS who is not part of the regular cast and doesn't go on to join them or at least make a trip in the TARDIS. He is captured by the Doctor and held in his 'magnetic chair' with a force strong enough to hold a herd of elephants but is subsequently released by Katarina when he offers medication for Steven. He is played by Nicholas Courtney in his first appearance in the show and his voice is unmistakable as he utters the call sign "50 Alpha, Charlo, Charlo, Egan" - Courtney would of course return as regular cast member and dear friend of the Doctor, and fans, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart who made a living out of uttering such call signs over the UNIT radio (though using the proper NATO phonetic alphabet!) Sara Kingdom, on the other hand, is played by Jean Marsh who had played King Richard's sister in The Crusade and would go on to play Morgaine in Battlefield. She is introduced to the story by her surname only before we see her, which effectively subverts the assumption that she will be a male agent, another minor detail being played subtly for extra depth. Sara is probably the closest any character comes to my list of companions without actually being included. She does take on some of the standard companion attributes and even travels in the TARDIS but she was only ever intended for this one story and Marsh probably wouldn't have been available for a regular role had they wanted her. Curiously, Katarina also features in this story and is the other 'companion' that is often included in lists but excluded from mine, perhaps unfairly. Katarina had been introduced at the end of The Myth Makers as a Trojan hand maid and was possibly a replacement for Vicki who left at the end of the story. However, her ancient ignorance and naivety would have been too pathetic for a regular companion so Terry Nation was asked to remove her as soon as possible (which he did with dramatic effect). She too takes on companion traits and travels in the TARDIS but really had no chance with the Doctor, unlike Sara.

And speaking of the Doctor, he has quite an interesting time here, dressing up as one of the delegates, fighting with the invisible Visians, playing with the Meddling Monk (who is the first person to return to the show, if you exclude the generic Daleks), jumping back to ancient Egypt and back to the future, experiencing a slight premature ageing (not for the last time) as well as taking an unexpected stop off in contemporary London (more on that later). Hartnell is in great form, both playful and fearful, devious and puzzled. He changes the Monk's TARDIS from a stone block (in ancient Egypt during the building of the Pyramids) into a motorbike, stagecoach, western wagon, tank, and finally manages to match his own Police Box to confuse him and protect his own TARDIS. He uses a device referred to as a 'diatrab' to work on the TARDIS lock (which in later years would have been his sonic screwdriver) and steels the Monk's Directional Unit to hinder him whilst helping himself... although, as predicted the difference between the two models are TARDIS mean that it only works the once before burning out! The Doctor's initial fix of his lock following the Monk's meddling is rather disappointingly explained though. He uses the sun's rays and presumably refraction from his signet ring and briefly explains it away with terms like "special powers" and "certain properties" and he will explain it all later, which of course he never does. Similarly the Monk says he was able to "bypass the dimensional control" following the Doctor's sabotage attempt in The Time Meddler, which doesn't really make sense considering the fact that he could barely get his head through the door! Meanwhile, the Doctor shows his playful side by calling the Daleks "my tin friend" and using the idiom "here's mud in your eye" when Steven has literally shoved mud over a Dalek eye-stalk, however Hartnell had a bit of a rough time with other lines. Other than being very croaky during episode 9, he fluffed or stumbled over 4 lines throughout - not the worst count for a story and when you consider the number of episodes it's not bad at all but he is really the only one fluffing so it is worth noting and they are sadly rather obvious:

"It's brain... or brawn, rather, versus brain. I've got you beat from the start young man"
"50 years to be surpi... to be precise" (referring to the time to gather enough taranium)
"The Daleks will stop at... anything to prevent us" (sounding like he is struggling to think of the word 'nothing' but is possibly thrown because he should have said 'will do')
"Magic... Mavick Chen"

The last is understandable and possibly deliberate but the first would have flowed fine without the correction. Interestingly both he and Sara vocalise their thoughts a couple of times when they are alone and it doesn't seem like they are specifically talking to themselves.

The pace of The Daleks' Master Plan is interestingly varied. It starts off very rapid with big time jumps between scenes and feels quite modern in that respect but by episode 4 it has slowed down to a much more focussed and dramatic feel as intrigue and treachery are introduced then it picks up again with action and farce (again, more on that later) before suddenly hitting the peace and emptiness of episode 11 "The Deserted City" which feels like the calm before the storm. Then their is the dramatic climax which resolves into a very sombre epilogue as the Doctor and Steven mourn for the many lives lost including Delegate Trantis who is killed for no apparent reason.

The delegates are an interesting point of discussion and confusion. With so many episodes missing, including Mission To The Unknown it is unclear which delegates appear when and how/when their costumes changed. The details are discussed elsewhere on the internet and they don't all seem to agree with what is presented in the Loose Cannon Reconstruction so I'll not go into it here but Trantis in particular either has droopy 'spikes' on his face or he doesn't and there seem to be more characters seen (though not together) than there should be from the script. They do seem to look better here than in Mission To The Unknown and the conference room set feels slightly more advanced and less thrown together too.

Other continuity points worth mentioning are the Doctor advising the Space Agents to look at their history books for the Daleks' invasion of Earth in 2157, finding Cory's tape recording from Mission To The Unknown (interestingly found in the first episode but not played until the third and then it is not the same message we heard being recorded!) and of course the earlier reference to those missing agents on Kembel and the Doctor discovering their skeletons.

There are a couple of interesting innovations along the way as well. As well as the invisible creatures, Steven becomes surrounded by "gravity force and reliance power" which provides protection from a single Dalek shot, which the Doctor describes as being similar to the TARDIS's protection field. The Daleks' main weapon is a Time Destructor which effectively screws around with time and ages the jungle and Sara into oblivion before being reversed by the Doctor and reducing the Daleks to embryos in the sand! Most visually flawed however is the "Molecular Disseminator" which is essentially a teleport device but we see Steven and Sara (but curiously not the Doctor) in the voids of space with weightlessness being represented by them bouncing rigidly on a trampoline! There is also a high contrast dissolve effect as well, similar to the images seen at the end of The Time Meddler but again the Doctor is not included and it all looks a bit freaky. Also freaky is the Doctor speaking over the TARDIS intercom (or is he just calling through the doors?) because by accident or design his voice is a bit Dalek'ised!

Finally, and deliberately left until last, I have to talk about "The Feast Of Steven" (episode 7). To be honest, I'd rather it never existed as part of this story and in a way it was designed not to be but nothing about the continuity surrounding it works. The preceding cliffhanger sees the Doctor declaring the atmosphere where they have landed as being highly toxic and dangerous but it is never mentioned again. The joke is that the readings are due to the smoggy streets of northern England at the time but this is never stated and had the story been aired outside of the UK without this episode (as was the intention) then the following episode makes no reference to it either as they arrive in Ancient Egypt. A "The Feast Of Steven" was broadcast on Christmas day it became the show's first Christmas special and thankfully there wouldn't be another for forty year by which time attitudes had changed enough for it to be done properly - that is, a Christmas themed story rather than a silly Christmas styled show loosely based on the regular characters. You see, the Doctor finds himself outside a police station and has an encounter with a man he recognises from Jaffa (played by the same actor who had appeared in The Crusade. Meanwhile Stephen ends up disguised as a policeman to rescue the Doctor before they are whisked off to a 1920s Hollywood studio and get into silly capers with various film sets and meet Charley Chaplin and Bing Crosby. For what it is, it's not actually too bad but it's noisy (and therefore a little hard to follow in a reconstruction made from very few original images) and silly and really not Doctor Who. The icing on the cake or straw to break the camels back (depending on which way you look at it) is Steven getting mixed up with a Keystone Kops sequence... brilliantly animated Terry Gilliam style in the Loose Cannon reconstruction. And it ends, of course, with a toast "Well it is Christmas" and the Doctor, or William Hartnell, turning to camera to toast the audience as was quite common at the time. The following episode was of course broadcast on New Years Day and also features a moment of contemporary celebrations and risks descending into farce again as the TARDIS lands at the Oval Cricket Ground for two and a half minutes where it's appearance features in the commentary as if odd things like this happen unexpectedly all the time! A similar moment to this would occur in future story editor Douglas Adams's book "Life The Universe And Everything", but that's another story!

It's hard to judge The Daleks' Master Plan because it is so long and so much of it is missing, yet the audio and LC recon present a really impressive story with great depth and the Daleks at their best. Consequently, I gave it 84%, well above average and the second highest. It really does give everything that one might expect from Doctor Who, both good and bad, in varying amounts. At twelve episodes, it goes on too long but everything generally holds together although the Christmas and New Year period gets a bit flabby (but then who doesn't?!) The viewing figures were both strong and consistent as you can see, except for Christmas day, and would have been a real boost for the production team but it wasn't going to last and with just one exception, the remainder of the third season and Hartnell's time as the Doctor would see viewers dropping off...