EPISODE: The Daleks Part 7: The Rescue
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 011
STORY NUMBER: 002
TRANSMITTED: 01 February 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Richard Martin
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD - The Beginning Boxset
Oh the Thals is attached to Ian by a rope and he's getting pulled in too.... hadn't spotted that. The Thal slices the rope and plunges to his death saving our hero. Ian & Barbara find their way into the city from it's rear entrance while the Doctor tries to bargain the Tardis with the Daleks for not releasing the radiation. The Thals are in the city but we've got a countdown to the Daleks releasing the reactor which gives the episode a sense of tension,leading to an action sequence to save the day with minutes to spare.
"If only there had been some other way"
You feel that the Thals really would want it to be different. Both sides are interested in their survival. The Thals are willing to work with the Daleks, the Daleks don't give a stuff.
At the end of the story, Nation kills his creations off good and proper..... little imagining they'd be back again in a year!
This episode was repeated in Doctor Who night on 13th November 1999. The whole story was repeated 5 April to 9 April 2008 on BBC4 as a tribute to Verity Lambert.
The success of the Dalek story caused the BBC to commission another story, The Keys of Marinus, from Terry Nation very quickly and then a sequel the following year, The Dalek Invasion of Earth. In 1965 the TV version was adapted as a feature film, Doctor Who and the Daleks, which would be many peoples first exposure to this story. Indeed it still turns up on UK television to this day. I'll have a look at the Dalek films when I get an opportunity and do them as bonus features
I wasn't expecting much out of the first dalek story, but there is something eerily effective about the end of this one which I just can't put my finger on. The daleks are dead, and it is a a terrible waste. We won't see that again!
ReplyDeleteThe sense of regret at the end of the episode at having wiped out an entire species, no matter how bent they were on the destruction of everyone else, is quite effective I think.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the rest of the climatic episode is somewhat limp - with the siege of the Dalek control room being a prime example. Sadly I would have to say I suspect that the main problem with the last couple of episodes is, in my opinion the Director. He was, by all accounts, popular with cast and crew I'm just not sure that he was a particularly good match for an adventure serial.