164 The Evil of the Daleks: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Evil of the Daleks: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 164
STORY NUMBER: 036
TRANSMITTED: 27 May 1967
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Lost In Time
TELESNAPS: The Evil of the Daleks: Episode Two

We have an episode to watch! On with the DVD!

The Dalek exterminates Kennedy. Waterfield enters and is horrified at what happens but is told to obey. The Dalek disappears, leaving Waterfield behind. He tears a photo of the Doctor placing half in Kennedy's hand and half in the edge of a box. The Doctor & Jamie enter the shop and examine the oddly new Victorian antiques. Jamie thinks Waterfield's invented a time machine but the Doctor says that's unlikely. They're met by Perry who has also returned to the shop. Entering the back room they find Kennedy's body. The telephone isn't working due to interference so Perry leaves to phone the police. The Doctor and Jamie find the hidden chamber but as Waterfield watches Jamie opens the box gassing him and the Doctor into unconsciousness. Waterfield activates the futuristic machinery in the room which vanishes taking Waterfield, the Doctor and Jamie with it.

The Doctor wakes in a Victorian sitting room. Molly Dawson, a servant, serves him a revitalising tonic and tells him that he arrived late last night from abroad with Mr Waterfield. The year is 1866. The house belongs to Theodore Maxtible, yet a picture of Waterfield's wife hangs over the fireplace. Waterfield's daughter, Victoria, is being held prisoner by the Daleks elsewhere in the house but refuses to eat feeding the birds her food. The Doctor is taken to Maxtible's lab where he & Waterfield explain their experiments with a cabinet lined with mirrors and subjected different charges of electricity. When they mention static electricity the Doctor is alarmed and a Dalek burst from the cabinet. The Doctor is needed to perform an experiment on Jamie. The Dalek enters the mirrored cabinet and vanishes. Jamie awakes and is served cordial by Molly. She goes to fetch him tea but a man, Toby, enters and knocks him out. When Molly returns she too is rendered unconscious and left on the sofa under a blanket. The Doctor & Waterfield return to find Jamie gone.

This episode is such a huge shift from the previous one. We know there's something odd about Waterfield but it's still a huge shock to suddenly find ourselves in the middle of Victorian England. It's a good episode to survive as we get to see two of the three major locations in the story, most of the major characters and it's the first appearance of Victoria Waterfield, Edward's daughter, who'll be staying with us when the story closes. The painting of her mother that hangs in the hall is somewhat of an oddity though: what's a painting of Waterfield's wife doing hanging in Maxtible's house? Is she some how related to Maxtible, an older daughter perhaps? Has Maxtible bought Waterfield's house and left the picture hanging there? Or had Waterfield relocated to Maxtible's and hung the painting in pride of place? There's an oddity in the lab too: Before the Dalek reveals itself to the Doctor it can be clearly seen through the gap in the doors of the cabinet. As well as Deborah Watling's first appearance as Victoria we also get to see well known actor Windsor Davis as Toby. The Dalek voices in this episode are credited to Peter Hawkins, but I could swear the Dalek that talks to Victoria and one of the two towards the end is Roy Skelton.

The Daleks have had time travel before now, using a Tardis like vessel in The Chase and Dalek Masterplan. Here though the technology moves people and objects from site to site, like Star Trek Transporter or Blake's 7's Teleporter. In later stories this, or something similar, is referred to as Time Corridor technology which the Daleks use in Resurrection and Remembrance of the Daleks.

Evil of the Daleks 2 was recovered in May 1987 from the same collector as Faceless Ones 3 - see that episode for details as to how they were returned. Nobody quite knows how this lone episode of Evil of the Daleks made it's way into private hands but there is an incident that's worth noting: While involved in the making the BBC Documentary Whose Doctor Who in 1976, former script editor Terrance Dicks recommended a list of clips to use amongst which was "The Doctor meeting the Daleks in Victorian England". Evil of the Daleks was last sold abroad in 1970 and is records show the film print as having been junked in 1974. So how, two years later, was Terrance Dicks able to recommend using a clip from Evil? Was there a print in existence at this time, possibly this very print of episode 2 that now survives, that he was able to see which then went walkabout? Terrance sadly can't remember what he watched as research so we will probably never know.

Evil of the Daleks 2 remains the only episode of this story in the BBC archives, so for the last 5 episodes of this story we'll be back on CD. Fans are keen to have Tenth Planet 4 back for the obvious reasons: Cybermen, last Hartnell, regeneration, historical significance etc. But if you took a straw poll of Doctor Who fans then Evil of the Daleks would probably be the story that they'd most like completed.