The Ice Warriors

Well, it's been a long time since I continued my marathon, but I'm back now, and kick off my continuation with The Ice Warriors. This is quite a good serial, in my opinion, although it is a bit too similar to other Troughton serials, as it takes places mostly in a single area with no venturing outside.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrive at the Brittanicus Base, the base of a large weather-controlling system which is holding back a large Glacier which is almost on top of the base. However, the scientist Arden uncovers a strange warrior in the ice and brings it back to the base, where it wakes up and kidnaps Victoria. Back outside in the ice, the Ice Warrior starts to dig out the rest of it's spaceship crew, and the rest of the story is a struggle between the Ice Warriors and the base staff.

There's another plot going on at the same time, which makes things far more interesting. Leader Clent has dismissed chief scientist Penley who is needed on-site to deal with all the problems, and the Doctor facilitates their reunion and it's a great moment when they put aside each others' differences and agree to work as a team.

This is a rare moment of character over plot in early Doctor Who, and it is most welcome. Otherwise, the Ice Warriors themselves are quite impressive, and it's slightly unfortunate that they spend most of the serial out in the ice, isolated from much contact with the other characters.

However, overall, it's a good story, lots of running around, an awful computer voice, some interesting characters, and the Doctor on top form as usual.

The Tomb of the Cybermen

The Cybermen are back, and this time in a completely original, never-before-seen story idea. The Doctor, along with Victoria and Jamie, lands on the planet Telos, where an archeological expedition from Earth is in full swing to find the remains of the Cybermen and their civilization. This story succeeds, I feel, because it's absolutely nothing like each of the previous cybermen tales. In both "The Tenth Planet" and "The Moonbase", the base in under siege, and the plot progression is pretty similar. Here, they uncover the tombs, and it is revealed that two of the expedition members: Klieg and Kaftan are looking to ally with the cybermen.

It's an interesting setting for a serial, tombs, in a dead city, but it's extremely well put together, with great sets, an amazing cast, and a superb plot. Every cast member has a story to tell, and in the four episodes, there is a perfect balance between action and exposition. I only wish we could have seen more of the cybermen city, instead of being limited to an entrance hall, the tomb, and one or two other unimportant rooms.

The cybermen themselves have once again been redesigned: with futuristic voice effects and now being led by a cyber controller.

Eventually, Klieg and Kaftan get what they deserve, although too many lives are lost in the process. The Doctor reseals the tomb, and locks the doors to the city, but not before a mouse-like cybermat escapes to the open.

The Evil of the Daleks

Patrick Troughton's final adventure in his first season is, in my opinion, the wildest and most extravagant yet. Not only is it set in three completely different areas, it's also filled with some massive sets, location shooting, and lots of explosions.

Basically, when the Doctor and Jamie return to the TARDIS in the airport, they find that someone's stolen it, and a trail has been left for the Doctor to an antique shop, where the owner:  Mr. Waterfield, has been traveling in time back to the victorian era. Taking the Doctor and Jamie back with him, he and his friend Maxtible explain that they were forced to by the Daleks. The Daleks want the Doctor to figure out what makes the humans defeat the daleks all the time, and to do so, he must use Jamie in an experiment. The Doctor willingly proceeds but is deceived as the Daleks take his calculations and formula and reverse them. They then follow the Daleks back to Skaro in order to stop them from using 'the Dalek factor' on all of humankind.

It's complicated, yes, and it is quite a large expansive plot, but it is executed perfectly. Fast paced and filled with suspense, danger, and character, there is pretty much nothing to fault at all. From the start, you can see the story looks great and is acted brilliantly. The modern day guest stars are brilliant, and the victorian actors are as well. Waterfield expertly conveys a man under pressure, and Maxtible's got the mad scientist look and voice perfectly. Victoria Waterfield is great too, and there's a lovely subplot involving Kemel, a jamaican slave, having feelings for her. It's believable, as is the bond between Jamie and Kemel.

The Doctor however, shows a different kind of acting towards his companion. Here, he plays the audience into questioning his allegiances and friends, all while having great fun doing so. It's a testimonial to Troughton's skill that he can go from being delighted and enthralled by a tune on his recorder to being dark, serious, and scarily morbid about a situation or subject.

I could go on for hours, days even, on "The Evil of the Daleks"; there's simply so much to write about and discuss, and there are so many interesting themes, from slavery and the class system, to friendship, obedience, and despair. It doesn't get much better than this.

As an afterthought, I'd like to add that the human Daleks are hilarious and a delight to watch.

The Macra Terror

The Macra Terror sees the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie arrive on an unnamed planet where an insane man claims to have seen the Macra, crab-like creatures everyone else says don't exist. The Doctor believes the man, and soon sees a Macra for himself. It becomes apparent that the Controller of the planet has hypnotised everyone else in the Colony to obey commands and believe that the Macra don't exist. Ben succombs to the hypnotism and lands his companions in trouble for their meddling. Sent to work in the mines, mining for poisonous gas, they discover that the Macra are in control of the leaders of the Colony and need the gas to survive. The unearth the Macra, free the population, and leave before they can be congratulated.

The officials: Ola, and the Pilot, are great characters with some great lines, and with them, the plot moves quickly along, with never a boring moment. It's important that it does this, or you might notice that the Macra don't have that much to do with the serial at all, the plot instead revolving around overthrowing the hypnotism and freeing everything.

Therefore, it isn't as you'd expect, and could have been a lot scarier and interesting.

The Moonbase

The Moonbase is one of my favourite early Doctor Who serials. In my opinion, it's the best 1960's Cybermen story, and it's a great pity two of the four episodes are missing.

The TARDIS crew land on the moon, where a team of scientists operate the Gravitron, a giant machine that can control the Earth's weather. But, soon, people start falling ill and it's revealed that the cybermen are to blame. They want to use the Gravitron to wipe out humanity and things are looking bleak.

This is certainly an action-oriented serial: perhaps the first of it's kind, and it's brilliant. The sets are limited but the cast is great, and it's got the right amount of plot, action, and scary moments to make a great story.

The characters of Hobson and Polly shine in this story, and it's just a pity that Jamie spends the first three episodes lying in bed moaning about an old Scottish legend. Once he gets involved in the story though, he does it with gusto and The Moonbase is better for it.

Finally, the cybermen are the scary monsters they're supposed to be, with a much improved look and better voices. Luckily, this style of cyberman continues to be used for quite a while to come.

The Power of the Daleks

So Patrick Troughton is the Doctor's new body, and he's lovable and insane. His recorder playing in the first episode is hilarious and serves as a lightweight introduction to his character before the main plot gets going.

The Doctor gets involved in a struggle of power between the citizens of Vulcan and rebels. However, one of the government's scientists has found a capsule in a swamp, which contains old, deactivated Daleks. After reviving them, they plot to overthrow both the Rebels and the Guards, and the serial ends in a climactic duel.

I must say, this has been one of my favourite serials so far. The Doctor is on top-form, the Daleks are great, and the characters of Bragen, Lesterson, and Henshall are all great to watch. Complementing them is a fast-paced plot which is more action orientated than previous stories have been, and this is a breath of fresh air.

Did I mention the Daleks are back? They're scary, and it's even more scary to see Daleks pretending to be under human control but actually plotting themselves. It's gripping stuff.

Overall, a great serial for the introduction of Patrick Troughton, and the story is insightful as to the direction Doctor Who is taking.

The Savages

I must say, I really enjoyed this serial. It was something quite a bit different in comparison with the Celestial Toymaker and the Gunfighters. The Doctor and companions land on an unnamed planet in the future, where sophisticated humans living in the glorious city are using lesser humans from outside in the wild to fuel their existence. The Doctor vows to put a stop to this, and while Steven and Dodo make friends with the Savages, he is drained of his life energy which is given to the leader of the city: Jano. Jano inherits the Doctor's consciousness and smashes up the equipment used for suffering, and Steven departs the TARDIS to oversee the reconstruction of the civilization. 

You really feel sorry for the Savage humans in this story, they lead terrible lives of fear and repression, and this serial highlights the wonders the Doctor does for those who deserve them. Meanwhile, the city itself is rather impressive, and the first episode shows that the majority of it's people are simple; the two guides that show Steven and Dodo around appear to be very nice and pleasant people, whose only faults are that of their leaders who allow the cruelty to continue.

I think the plot is rather ingenious and well-thought-out in terms of how it is paced. Each character is given decent screen time and the departure of Steven is dealt with in such a way as to leave a huge smile on my face as the TARDIS dematerializes at the end of the serial. With this great story straight after another, and, in my opinion, William Hartnell doing so well as the Doctor, it's strange to think he only has a few more serials to go before his time is up.

The Ark

So after the historical adventures of "The Massacre" and the introduction of new companion Dodo, the TARDIS lands on a spaceship taking the last survivors of Earth to a new planet, along with the Monoids, a race of cyclops who are much more intelligent than they look.

The story is split into two sections which is pretty interesting: the first is about Dodo giving a cold to all the people onboard the Ark, which the Doctor then cures, and the second deals with the Ark at the end of it's voyage and the Monoids' enslavement of the remaining humans.

In the first half of the story, you feel sorry for the Monoids and the humans are the villains, and this concept is reversed for the second part of this serial, which shows the good and bad sides of all races. The climactic battle is interesting, and the final scene of the Doctor disappearing links in with the next serial: "The Celestial Toymaker".

The Daleks' Master Plan (Episodes 7-12)

The second half of this serial is a lot better than the first, in my opinion. However, the Feast of Steven is a bit of a wasted episode, as nothing important happens in that episode, it just serves the purpose of wishing all the viewers a merry christmas.

I can't really think of much else to say about this story except that it really is epic, and features some great moments, such as the confrontations between the monk and the doctor in Egypt and the thrilling conclusion.

Roll on the Massacre!

The Daleks' Master Plan (Episodes 1-6)

It's been a while since I last watched a story in my Doctor Who marathon. However, I've decided to get going again and continue from where I left off. I'd stopped after episode five of this story in October, so some aspects of it are a little foggy in my mind.

I enjoyed this immensely, which the characters of Mavic Chen and Bret Vyon being some of the best single-story characters yet. The death of Katarina is a powerful moment as it shows the Doctors do not always win confrontations.

I felt that the story was just about to kick off at this point, so I'll save the rest for the second part of this story review.

Mission to the Unknown

"Mission to the Unknown" is unique among Doctor Who episodes in that it is the only one not to feature the Doctor or any of his companions. Instead, this episode serves as a prequel to the massive serial yet to come: "The Daleks' Masterplan".

In this prequel, we meet the crew of a spaceship who have been investigating the Daleks but have become stuck on the planet Kembel. After failing to send a distress signal, all of the crew members are killed. We also see the Daleks forming an alliance with aliens from 'the outer galaxies' before discussing their plan to destroy the solar system.

Contrary to what I thought before watching this, I didn't miss the Doctor nor his companions at all. Instead, the doomed crew hold together the episode well, with ample amounts of drama and suspense to keep the viewers on the edges of their seats. The characters all have backstory and strained relationships so it's interesting to watch them.

"Mission to the Unknown" is one of the darkest serials yet, in my opinion. None of the good guys reach the end credits, and as they roll, you're left with a sense of dread as to what the Daleks will do next.

The Chase

"The Chase" is the third Dalek story, excluding "The Space Museum", which did not feature the Daleks as enemies. In this serial, the Daleks pursue the TARDIS crew through space and time, stopping off for an amusing scene at the Empire State Building and explaining the mystery of the Mary Celeste.

This story has a lighter feel in comparison with some of the earlier stories in this season, and it greatly benefits this story; you don't feel like anything is repetitive. The Daleks make their comeback, and as always, they're better than ever.

The first couple of episodes see the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki held captive on an alien planet while their captives reason with the Daleks. These episodes start off "The Chase" by giving it a dark tone, but that's lost as the travelers escape. Following up are great scenes about the Mary Celeste and on the Empire State Building. The latter is the high-point of this particular serial, as it's great to watch, and feature the great Peter Purves (who later appears in the same serial as Steven).

It's an upsetting moment at the end of the last episode as Ian and Barbara return to Earth, leaving the TARDIS at it's lowest passenger count yet. Now it's only the Doctor and Vicki left to tour the universe, but the mysterious disappearance of Steven suggests that the TARDIS might be picking up a new recruit sometime in the new future.

The Space Museum

"The Space Museum" is in essence a giant labyrinth story, where the characters all get lost and are being hunted for by the villains. However, what makes this serial unique is the fact that it throws in a subplot about changing the future except, this time, the TARDIS crew are trying to change the future, not prevent change.

I don't have much to say about this story as a whole, but I thought that the characters weren't that interesting, aside from our regulars, of course. The story begins to drag on a bit after the second episode, and it seems to me that the writer just ran out of steam.

Nevertheless, the first episode is one of the best yet, in my opinion, and I can't wait to see what the Daleks have in store for the TARDIS crew in the next serial...

The Rescue

Following on from the Dalek Invasion of Earth is this short two-parter, which serves only as a means to replace Susan with the much less annoying character of Vicki. This serial accomplishes this well, and Vicki bonds with the Doctor straight away. Her relationship with Barbara does develop lots in the two episodes and some of the dialogue shared between them is excellent.

As for the plot, it isn't the most important aspect of the story. There's a small cast, and a tiny sense of unease about the planet of Dido. A plot twist added near the end of the second episode is welcome, but the plot isn't wrapped up properly. You don't really notice all the errors though with all the great acting and dialogue. It's a little obvious that this serial offers breathing space after the intense and epic adventure of the Dalek Invasion of Earth. 

The Rescue is worth watching purely for the dialogue and character interactions, which are all superb. Even if you don't pay much attention to the story progressing, it's still an enjoyable fifty minutes.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

So, the Daleks are back, and they're better than ever. Expansive sets, lots of location work, and our four regulars all make this, quite possibly' the best Doctor Who serial yet.

The Doctor, Ian, Susan, and Barbara land in London in the the 22nd century to find it deserted. Soon, they discover that the Daleks have invaded the whole planet, and the few humans left are either held prisoner or are part of small resistance groups. Obviously, the characters all join a London resistance group, but not before Ian and the Doctor are captured. The story is strong, and there is never a dull moment.

The characters of Jenny, Dortman, and David all bring life to the dead city, and in the presence of these actors, you almost forget that Earth is supposed to be in danger. As the plot moves forward, we are constantly aware of the terror the Daleks bring, and this makes the story seem more 'believable' than any other.

The serial itself was obviously expensive to produce, as the level of detail in every set is great and you completely forget that the invasion never happened. This is helped by Doctor Who's first major use of locations. The London streets deserted is quite a memorable image.

In spite of the dark undertones and fast pace, the cast still inject humour into the script, and have time for some witty banter and dialogue. One thing I found particularly funny was Barbara driving a 1950's lorry through some Daleks during her escape from London.

I think that towards the last two episodes, the plot begins to weaken and the flaws in the script shine through the production values, but at the last moment, before the next adventure begins, something happens that makes us forget anything we ever thought was bad about this epic journey. Susan, who throughout the programme had almost no character development whatsoever, leaves the TARDIS crew to stay on Earth with David. William Hartnell plays this scene fantastically, and you might even shed a tear as the TARDIS dematerializes on Susan.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is the most expansive serial yet, with high production values and a generally strong script. Great supporting cast members portray a sense of believability about this whole adventure, and we end on a sad note as the TARDIS crew leaves Earth with one less member than 6 episodes ago.

The Sensorites

The Sensorites was the final science fiction adventure in season one. The TARDIS crew have landed on a spaceship which is being held prisoner by the Sensorites, a species which communicate through the power of thought. They negotiate with the Sensorites and are allowed down to the surface where they help the species fight a poisoned water source. To provide obstacles, one parliamentary Sensorite doesn't trust the newcomers and wants to seize power.

It's quite a strong story and the tension builds up nicely in the first half, with a battle of wits between the humans onboard and the Sensorite captors. I think that in the second half, the story starts to go downhill a little, but by the end, it perks back up into quite a neat little adventure.

The Keys of Marinus

The Keys of Marinus is one of the strangest serials. Basically, the Doctor and his companions undertake a quest to find keys situated in different areas on the planet of Marinus. Because of the nature of the story, it is split up into what I think of as 'mini-stories' where one or two episodes are set in a specific place before the characters move to somewhere completely unrelated. There are some clever ideas such as when Ian is convicted of murder and the legal system is based around the concept of 'guilty-until-proven-innocent'. This is very entertaining whodunnit and would be great to watch on it's own, let alone as part of this serial.

There are also some incredibly cheesy and boring moments like the ending, which is nothing but anticlimactic and feels rushed compared to the entire epic. The alien Voords are nothing special and definitely not one of the great monsters you'll remember. Luckily though, most of the story doesn't involve them, and when they do appear, they do so sparingly which is a blessing.

'The Keys of Marinus' is one of my favourite early serials because it isn't afraid of being different and it certainly makes for a great piece of thought provoking entertainment.

The Daleks

The second serial in Doctor Who's history introduced one of Britain's most well-known cultural icons: the Daleks. This race of mutants was the first of thousands to face the Doctor and they have returned to the television series in more than 50 episodes.

'The Daleks' carries straight on from 'An Unearthly Child' and as the characters develop, the story unfolds into an epic adventure that just goes on for far too long. This serial is more than two hours long and by the end of it, you'll either be gripping the edge of your seat, or falling asleep on it. The first couple of episodes are incredible to watch, but as the episode count rises, so does the number of times you'll nod off to sleep. Yes, there are some hilarious moments like Barbara's over-exaggeration to the appearance of a plunger to the odd sets and amusing costumes, but these barely cover the dark underside to the story which conveys themes of nuclear devastation and Nazi leadership.

But, 'The Daleks' offers something for everyone, whether you like disaster movies, enjoy a good night in, or if you just want to cringe at the production values.