050 The Dalek Invasion of Earth Part 5: The Waking Ally

EPISODE: The Dalek Invasion of Earth Part 5: The Waking Ally
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 050
STORY NUMBER: 010
TRANSMITTED: 19 December 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Richard Martin
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Dalek Invasion Of Earth

Ian & Craddock jump into an excavator bucket overhanging the drop and the pursuing slither plummets to it's death as the bucket starts moving downwards. David & Tyler struggle with Robomen who've pursued them into the sewers. The survive with a little help from the Doctor & Susan, who then leave with them for the mine. Barbara and Jenny shelter from a storm in a house with two women living in it. The women works making clothes for the slaves in the mine, they give the Barbara and Jenny shelter in exchange for food. The elder one looks after them while the younger goes to deliver some clothes. Ian & Craddock are transported into the depths of the mine, but Craddock is injured leaping out of the excavator bucket. Barbara talks to the older woman about the ruin of London as the younger one returns with Daleks: Barbara and Jenny have been betrayed by the women in return for food. Ian is worried about the mine and wonders what it's for. Craddock tells him that his brother, obsessed with the mine, had a theory that they were mining for Earth's Magnetic core. They encounter Wells who tells them to move because they're hiding place is being cleared. Joining Wells' working party they are stopped by a Roboman who recognises the party is too large, but Craddock is shocked to see that it's Phil, his brother, who has fallen victim to the Daleks transfer process and is now a Roboman. Larry Craddock talks to Phil about his family but they end up struggling and kill each other. Phil's death sets off an alarm: Wells hides the body while Ian escapes. Susan is cooking a meal of rabbit for their party when she is surprised by David and they struggle playfully before discussing the Doctor. They've completed their journey to the mine: The Doctor thinks the mine is the reason why the Earth was invaded and think they are digging for something unique to Earth.

"Is that what it is? They dare to tamper with the forces of creation?"
"Yes. And we must dare to stop them!"

Ian spots Barbara in a work party in the tunnels. Jenny is despairing of them ever escaping. It's Wells' party and Ian asks him to tell her that he's here. However before Wells can speak to her, she approaches the Dalek guard claiming to have information on a forthcoming uprising presenting the information on the bombs as evidence. She and Jenny are taken to the Black Dalek. The Daleks report that they are within four miles of the Earth's outer core and need to place their explosive in position to release the core eliminating it's gravitational & magnetic forces - during this sequence the Black Dalek is described as the Supreme controller. He announces that this will allow the Daleks to pilot the Earth anywhere in the Universe. Ian has sneaked into the chamber where the bomb is being prepared. Seeking to hide from the Dalek he hides in the bomb's capsule and is trapped within it as it is moved out ready to be dropped into the mineworking fissure....

This is the Fiftieth Doctor Who episode. Our episode title relevance meter wonders who or what the Waking Ally was? The episode rolls along nicely but the science is dreadful. I'm not sure if it was known at the time if other planets have a magnetic core but it's a big leap to assume Earth is the only one. I wouldn't have thought that Bedfordshire was the best place to drill through Earth's crust, I thought the UK was on a pretty thick and stable part of the crust and that there were much thinner points. Yet the Daleks are drilling here and we get another project drilling into the Earth in Inferno.

As well as being the first Earth Invasion this story gives us the first glimpse of an Earth in the future. OK apart from the calendar in the first episode there's little to date this serial any later than the date it's filmed. All the characters look like they're dressed straight out the sixties. We've already met future humans in space in The Sensorites and we'll meet them again in the Rescue (next up), the Chase and Mission to the Unknown before seeing the Earth of the year 4000 in The Dalek Masterplan. The Earth's destruction is seen in the year 10 million in the Ark. The Tenth Planet offers an Earth of 1986, at the time a futuristic setting but one the series would eventually overtake, but Troughton visits the near future Earth several time plus a visit to a far future Ice Age. Pertwee's visits without the aid of the Tardis in Day of the Daleks and again with the Tardis during Frontier in Space, but Tom, surprisingly, only turns up once in the Sontaran Experiment. Davison visits in Earthshock & Warriors of the Deep, Colin during Trial of a Timelord and Sylvester McCoy in Paradise Towers and the near future (and quickly overtaken) Battlefield. However coupling these visits with encounters with humanity all over the Universe presents some problems resolving a future history for humanity. However in several of these stories The Dalek Invasion of Earth remains a crucial event.