306 Day of the Daleks: Episode Three

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 306
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: 15 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: I'm watching a VHS: Doctor Who - The Day of the Daleks but by the time you read this the DVD will be out!
Episode Format: 625 video

Fleeing from the Dalek the Doctor is transported to the future with Anat & Boaz. Becoming separated from them he emerges onto the surface and sees the deprivation of the enslaved humans. The Daleks are enraged when they hear that the Doctor is in their time and order his extermination. Anat & Boaz report to their superior Monia who tells them of Jo's capture. The Doctor is swiftly apprehended by Ogrons and taken for interrogation while Jo is wined and dined by the Controller plying her for information. A more friendly Interrogator questions the Doctor but is interrupted by the Controller who takes the Doctor into his custody as "an honoured guest". The Interrogator reports what has happened to the resistance before being caught & killed by the Ogrons. Reunited with Jo the Doctor is also plied with food & drink but is critical of the future regime. Jo & The Doctor stage an escape but are swiftly recaptured. The resistance learn of his capture & decide to rescue him. The Doctor is strapped to the Mind Analysis to prove his identity.

Apart from the reprise this episode is entirely set in the future and thanks to some superb location work it looks a horribly bleak place. The Dalek looks superb in the tunnel at the start of the episode, I always think they look good when you put them in dark confined spaces. There's some similar shots in the Daleks in Manhattan which are one of the few things about that story which really work for me! Jo's "screams" to attract the guard's attention don't sound like she's afraid or scared ....... The Trike she & the Doctor escape on is obviously a gadget Pertwee sighted and wanted to use in the show but they are so slow that it makes the Ogrons ambling after them look completely stupid. As the Daleks announced what they intended to do to the Doctor Liz and I turned to each other and chorus as one "No,Not the Mind Probe!". A scene ruined by a future Doctor Who story, which is a shame as during it you get a glimpse into the Doctor's past with the faces of his former self appearing on the screen of the Mind Analysis Machine over the Pertwee end title sequence - a concious decision or a CSO keying mistake? Evidence suggests the latter as, uniquely, the music starts playing and Jon Pertwee's credit appears over the closing action. Like the previous episode this one starts with the reprise ending with the sting crashing in before the new action starts.

Scott Fredericks playing Boaz, will later return to Doctor Who as Maximilian Stael in Image of the Fendahl. He's been in Blake's 7, playing Carnell in Weapon, as has Aubrey Woods who is the Controller here and was
Krantor in Blake's 7: Gambit as well as the B Ark Captain in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV Series) episode 6 which also features former companion Caroline John's husband Geoffrey Beevers as Number Three. One of the Ogrons, Rick Lester, will reprise the role in Frontier in Space, while another, Bruce Wells was an English amateur boxing champion who was once the holder of the ABA Light Middleweight and European Amateur Boxing Championship titles.