The Power of the Daleks: Episode One

(Note: This Is A Review Of All Six Episodes Of The Story.)

Imagine the following for a moment would you?

It is November 5th, 1966 and you have just tuned into the BBC's successful series Doctor Who. William Hartnell, who has played the role of the mysterious time traveling alien known as the Doctor since November 1963, has just vanished in a glow of light and Patrick Troughton appears as the second actor to play the Doctor. Over the next few weeks this new Doctor and his companions (Ben and Polly played by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills) find themselves on the Earth colony Vulcan facing off against the Doctor's oldest enemy the Daleks in the midst of political intrigue. Sounds like a great story to watch right?

Well because of BBC policy in the 1970's Power of the Daleks no longer exists in its visual form. The good news is that thanks to fans with tape recorders, telesnaps, publicity images and a few clips of surviving footage used in other BBC programs that it is possible to judge (somewhat) The Power of the Daleks.

Power of the Daleks is easily one of the strongest Doctor Who stories of the 1960's. On the distant Earth colony Vulcan where a scientist named Lesterson (played expertly by Robert James) finds a space craft. Upon opening it he discovers three Daleks inside and, against the Doctor's advice, brings back to life with hopes for them becoming servants for the colony. The Daleks promise to be servants, but soon begin using materials and power to begin creating an army. Meanwhile the political intrigue heats up and the Daleks go from benevolent to malevolent as first they fight for the rebels and then against everyone. Only the Doctor can hope to defeat the Daleks before the complete destruction of the colony.

Judging from all the existing material this story is first rate. The story is a well-performed and well produced piece of science fiction drama with terrific performances from the cast. The story is at its heart a political thriller with two factions vying for control of the colony with the Doctor and the Daleks landing in the middle and making matters worse. In fact this is one of the Daleks most menacing stories with them rallying to phrases "Annihilate! Exterminate! Destroy!" and "Daleks conquer and destroy!" while pretending to the servants of the humans on Vulcan.

In short, Power of the Daleks is classic Doctor Who. From its political thriller heart to classic moments with the new Doctor facing his oldest enemy, this story is one of the strongest stories of the Troughton era even if it is his first story. It is shame that this story has become lost because it is one of the strongest Doctor Who stories of the 1960's.

"The Power of the Daleks" was the first "Doctor Who" story to feature Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. The Doctor and his companions Polly and Ben arrive on the the planet Vulcan. (The serial went out at around the same time as "Stars Trek" which of course also features a fictitious planet Vulcan). At first Polly and Ben do not recognise the newcomer as the real Doctor, and need a lot of persuading.

Vulcan has been colonised from Earth; this is one of a number of "Doctor Who" serials which use the idea of the colonisation of outer space as a parallel to colonialism on Earth. (The British Empire was just coming to an end around the time that the early serials were broadcast). The plot is quite a complicated one, involving a rebellion against the leadership of Hensell, the Governor of the colony, and the Doctor posing as an Inspector from Earth.

Lesterson, the colony's leading scientist, has found an old capsule containing three inactive Daleks, which, motivated by scientific curiosity and by the benefits he believes these strange machines might bring to the colony, he plans to revive. The Doctor warns him that the Daleks are not mere machines but sentient beings, and that to revive them would be extremely dangerous. Predictably, the Doctor's warnings are ignored. Lesterson is a common figure in science fiction, not so much a mad scientist as an over-idealistic scientist, so dazzled by the potential benefits of his work to humanity that he is blind to its dangers.

And, of course, Lesterson's plans do go wrong. The revived Daleks pretend to be the obedient servants of the colonists, but in secret they are multiplying, plotting to seize control of the planet and wipe out the humans. Bragen, ostensibly a high official of the colony but secretly the leader of the rebels, plans to use the Daleks to help him overthrow Hensell and make himself dictator, but he finds that he can no more control them than could Lesterson. It falls to the Doctor, Ben and Polly to foil the evil schemes of both Bragen and the Daleks.

"The Power of the Daleks" (like so many Second Doctor adventures) fell victim to the BBC's policy during the sixties and seventies of wiping old tapes. I watched it in a recent animated version, based upon the surviving soundtracks, and realised why this is, for several reasons, one of the most regretted victims of the Beeb's cultural vandalism. The first reason is that this was the first serial to feature Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor. I know that William Hartnell's First Doctor has his admirers, but I have always preferred the Second. The First, in the early episodes, could often be a quite unpleasant old man, and even when his character was softened towards the end of his tenure, was not someone I could really warm to, too remote and adult.

Although Troughton was not a particularly young man when he took over the role, his Doctor was nevertheless someone with whom children could identify, probably because there was a childlike side to his personality, revealed in his often whimsical nature and his eccentric dress. He even played the recorder, an instrument which every primary school child in sixties Britain seemed to be learning.

The second reason is that this was the first serial to discuss the concept of "regeneration" which was to play such an important role in keeping "Doctor Who" going through a succession of actors, even though the actual term "regeneration" was not used until the Third Doctor transformed into the Fourth; the phrase used in 1966 was "renewal". The main reason why the loss of this serial is so regretted, however, is that it is a cracking good story- well written and full of tension and excitement. (The Daleks always seem to make for a good yarn).

The last "Doctor Who" adventure which I saw in wholly animated form was "Galaxy 4", which I must admit I did not enjoy very much. The animated version was made in colour, even though the original was in black and white, and the animation seemed crude and unconvincing, especially in its depiction of movement. The animation of "The Power of the Daleks", done in a black-and-white style closely matching the look of sixties "Doctor Who", was far better and almost made me think I was watching the real thing. 9/10. (I reserve the right to increase that to a perfect 10 should the original live action version ever be rediscovered).

Review of all 6 episodes:

This 6 part story is the first with Patrick Troughton following the Doctor's first regeneration. If Troughton had failed to work as the Doctor the series would have died so he really is of as much importance in establishing Doctor Who as William Hartnell. The characterisation is interesting to say the least and flirts with disaster in many ways. To make the Doctor SO incredibly different to Hartnell's Doctor that preceded him was astonishing in its bravery. He is a scruffy, strange acting, clownish figure who plays the recorder to 'help him concentrate'! At the start of the story they even have him behaving extremely evasively and mysteriously, making it even harder to cope with the change in lead actor. Nowadays we are more used to coping with huge changes in the Doctor's behaviour after regeneration and it still is difficult so to imagine viewers at the time being thrust into this change so dramatically is mind boggling.

I think what really makes it work are two things. Firstly Troughton's quality which comes through as he begins to establish himself later in the adventure, but this is slow to have an impact. The second is the truly excellent quality story from David Whitaker featuring Daleks which are at their very best.

The adventure is thrilling as the Daleks pretend to be harmless servants to unsuspecting human colonists whilst secretly creating a huge production line of Daleks to conquer and EXTERMINATE the humans. This story has certainly been very influential to Doctor Who since its return in 2005.

The whole story is top quality with strong performances and continuity provided by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as companions Ben and Polly, really good human guest characters such as Lesterson (Robert James), great dialogue and brilliant Daleks which are the best yet with better voice performances than earlier stories and devious, threatening plans.

Great stuff! All 6 episodes 10/10.

It was far from being all over William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton I found this funny, imaginative and exciting I love Patrick Troughton, my nanna watched this when it first bradcast its a shame the episode is missing but has been regenerated with animation and doesn't feel different from a normal 60s doctor who episode I thank david whittaker for this

After the recent events with the Cybermen something big has happened to the Doctor, he's transformed into another man. Ben and Polly struggle to believe what's happened. The TARDIS lands on the planet Vulcan, a man is shot dead by an unknown assailant, turns out to be an Earth Inspector, a role which The Doctor assumes. Vulcan is full of conspiracies, lots of plotting and pressure groups. Worse though is the presence of a Space Craft buried on the planet, which contains Daleks.

It's a wonderful start to the opening episode, the sequences at the beginning would become part of the show's everyday culture. I can only imagine what the show's fans made on The Doctor's regeneration, today we accept and sometimes look forward to the Doctor's transformation, but back then it was a more then brave decision to change the lead actor on a show, it was a huge gamble, one that very much paid off. It could have been a disaster, but the brilliance of Patrick Troughton, well, it was never really in doubt.

Great use of music on the episode, it helps add to the wonderful atmosphere which the episode has.

Pat is wonderfully madcap in his earlier episodes, he did mellow quite a lot as his time went on, but he was a bundle of energy and fun from the very first.

Absolutely brilliant episode, you could not ask for more (only for it to appear!) 10/10