074 The Chase Part 3: Flight Through Eternity

EPISODE: The Chase Part 3: Flight Through Eternity
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 074
STORY NUMBER: 016
TRANSMITTED: 05 June 1965
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Richard Martin
SCRIPT EDITOR: Dennis Spooner
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Space Museum/The Chase

The Doctor's Time Path detector shows that there's another Time Machine on the same route as them. It's the Daleks pursuing them. The Doctor believes they have a 12 minute lead. Oooh, a lovely shot of a Dalek being moved in an open lift opens our look at the inside of the Dalek time machine which contains two movie Daleks, minus their oversized basis, to make up the numbers - look either side of the ramp. The Tardis materialises in the present day in the viewing gallery of the Empire State Building in New York. A tourist from Alabama, Morton Dill, tells them they're in 1966. He's convinced they're making a movie. The Tardis crew don't stay long not wanting to imperil New York's residents, but Shortly afterwards the Daleks arrive and showing surprising restraint don't exterminate Dill,leaving promptly. The Tardis next materialises on a sailing ship. Barbara wanders off and is found by the crew thinking she's a stowaway. Vicki knocks Barbara's captor out and then accidentally clouts Ian too! They carry him back to the Tardis which dematerialises leaving the crew searching the ship for their missing stowaways. The Daleks arrive scaring the crew who jump overboard - we have our first instance of someone running upstairs to escape a Dalek yet a few moments later there's a Dalek standing on the upper deck only accessible by stairs. A Dalek is lost when it falls into the sea pursuing a crew member. The ship's name is revealed to be the Mary Celeste. The Doctor reveals their lead is reduced to eight minutes and that the Daleks are closing in.

Essentially a comedy episode it's just a bit of light fun. But in the episode we see Peter Purves playing tourist Morton Dill. He obviously made an impression with the production crew because they invited him back four weeks later to play another role....

This story marks the first time another race gains time travel. There's nothing to date the Aridus episode at any time different to that in the Dalek control room or other than the 1966 of the Empire State Building but we know that the second half of this episode occurs before the first confirming the Daleks time travelling ability. Straight away they provide science fiction element inserted into a historical context: we have the Daleks responsible for the real life unexplained disappearance of the Mary Celeste crew. Yes that's the correct spelling of the ship's name! The Daleks will continue to time travel using the technology in The Dalek Masterplan, Day of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks.