The Daleks' Master Plan
Here's my thoughts on "The Daleks' Master Plan" and a link to my photo bucket album where I made nearly 60 screen captures from the existing episodes and surviving clips.
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z255/impossiblecase/Doctor%20Who/021_Masterplan/
As epic stories go, "The Daleks' Master Plan" is one of the very best. It starts with a bang and doesn't let up. "Mission to the Unknown" is a dark little prologue which ends with everyone dead, after which the main story hits the ground running. The stakes are high from the beginning, with the Daleks plotting to destroy the Solar System and the Doctor fighting to save Steven's life from wounds sustained in "The Myth Makers".
Terry Nation, Dennis Spooner and Douglas Camfield pull no punches with this one, the death toll being grim and unparalleled in Doctor Who. Katarina's death is heart breaking, particularly with the Trojan handmaiden wishing to see more "mysterious wonders" only minutes beforehand. Bret Vyon is gunned down with shocking abruptness as we were just getting to know and like him. His sister and new companion Sara Kingdom is his murderer, and then she is snatched nastily away from us at the very end. Unbelievable!
William Hartnell is superb throughout, proving adept at both comedy and drama. There are so many standout scenes with his Doctor - his sadness over Katarina's self sacrifice, being righteously moralistic and disgusted at the Daleks' actions, facing off against Mavic Chen, his banter with the Monk, and the final scene with him and Steven musing over the death and destruction they've witnessed - all are played to perfection by Hartnell.
Peter Purves is excellent as ever as Steven, particularly the way that his robustness and courage compliments the Doctor. The idea of Katarina as a companion was an interesting one, which was used as much as it could have been in the context of the story. To the credit of the late Adrienne Hill, she was played very well. Nicholas Courtney and Jean Marsh give strong performances that bring their characters to life and make the audience feel genuinely sad at their deaths. The revelation that Bret and Sara are siblings is highly effective, although it is not developed as well as it could have been.
Kevin Stoney, however, steals the show, with his portrayal of the cold, calculating Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System. Watching his arrogance grow as the story progresses is a real treat. His interrupting the Dalek Supreme, and the Dalek getting more and more agitated as it tries to talk over him, is a sure sign that he will soon overstep the mark. Also, his swatting aside of a Dalek's eye-stick in "Escape Switch" is brilliant and adds to that scene beautifully. His descent into insanity at the end of the story is quite disturbing as well.
Special mention must also be made of Maurice Browning, who plays Chen's Peter Lorre-esque sidekick Karlton. Scary and intense, he dominates virtually every scene he is in, and I wish we'd seen far more of him.
The Daleks are at their absolute best here. They're cunning, ruthless and more ambitious than in any earlier story. Their callousness is best demonstrated in "The Traitors" when the Dalek Supreme orders the destruction of a Dalek pursuit ship for failure. The cold way in which they execute so many of their alien allies, even those such as Trantis who have contributed nothing to the immediate failure at hand, shows how little regard they have for non-Dalek life. Oh, and I love the Dalek Supreme's line to Chen: "You make your incompetence sound like an achievement" - Terrific stuff!
The final episode - "Destruction of Time" - is superbly tense. The scene in which Chen gives the Daleks an order and they all stand silent and impassive is very chilling. Sara's demise is shocking, and her bravery very moving.
THE DOCTOR: The Time Destructor is affecting you!
SARA: Do you think I don't know?
It's very refreshing, too, for a sixties story to have the male companion stand on the sidelines while the female companion takes the initiative and rescues the Doctor. Sara was an amazing character, way ahead of her time, and clearly based on Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale from "The Avengers", which is no bad thing. It's a shame this would prove to be her only story.
In all honesty, the Christmas episode - "The Feast of Steven" - is superfluous, providing a bit of light relief. It feels out of place, and the scenes set in the Hollywood film studio are more grating than enjoyable. Having said that, I really like the Doctor's infamous "And a Merry Christmas to all of you at home" to camera at the end. In fact, it's the highlight of the Christmas episode for me.
Quite possibly the most successful of all the Hartnell Dalek stories, "The Daleks' Master Plan" is a bleak and highly entertaining tale - the more so for featuring the return of Peter Butterworth as the Monk, who really should have been brought back for a rematch with Patrick Troughton's Doctor. Douglas Camfield's direction is exemplary throughout the entire epic, Barry Newbery's design work is excellent, and Tristram Cary's incidental score provides a suitably atmospheric mood to the proceedings. All in all, this is a production that has had much attention on it to produce a highly effective and memorable adventure.
4 ½ / 5 stars
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z255/impossiblecase/Doctor%20Who/021_Masterplan/
As epic stories go, "The Daleks' Master Plan" is one of the very best. It starts with a bang and doesn't let up. "Mission to the Unknown" is a dark little prologue which ends with everyone dead, after which the main story hits the ground running. The stakes are high from the beginning, with the Daleks plotting to destroy the Solar System and the Doctor fighting to save Steven's life from wounds sustained in "The Myth Makers".
Terry Nation, Dennis Spooner and Douglas Camfield pull no punches with this one, the death toll being grim and unparalleled in Doctor Who. Katarina's death is heart breaking, particularly with the Trojan handmaiden wishing to see more "mysterious wonders" only minutes beforehand. Bret Vyon is gunned down with shocking abruptness as we were just getting to know and like him. His sister and new companion Sara Kingdom is his murderer, and then she is snatched nastily away from us at the very end. Unbelievable!
William Hartnell is superb throughout, proving adept at both comedy and drama. There are so many standout scenes with his Doctor - his sadness over Katarina's self sacrifice, being righteously moralistic and disgusted at the Daleks' actions, facing off against Mavic Chen, his banter with the Monk, and the final scene with him and Steven musing over the death and destruction they've witnessed - all are played to perfection by Hartnell.
Peter Purves is excellent as ever as Steven, particularly the way that his robustness and courage compliments the Doctor. The idea of Katarina as a companion was an interesting one, which was used as much as it could have been in the context of the story. To the credit of the late Adrienne Hill, she was played very well. Nicholas Courtney and Jean Marsh give strong performances that bring their characters to life and make the audience feel genuinely sad at their deaths. The revelation that Bret and Sara are siblings is highly effective, although it is not developed as well as it could have been.
Kevin Stoney, however, steals the show, with his portrayal of the cold, calculating Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System. Watching his arrogance grow as the story progresses is a real treat. His interrupting the Dalek Supreme, and the Dalek getting more and more agitated as it tries to talk over him, is a sure sign that he will soon overstep the mark. Also, his swatting aside of a Dalek's eye-stick in "Escape Switch" is brilliant and adds to that scene beautifully. His descent into insanity at the end of the story is quite disturbing as well.
Special mention must also be made of Maurice Browning, who plays Chen's Peter Lorre-esque sidekick Karlton. Scary and intense, he dominates virtually every scene he is in, and I wish we'd seen far more of him.
The Daleks are at their absolute best here. They're cunning, ruthless and more ambitious than in any earlier story. Their callousness is best demonstrated in "The Traitors" when the Dalek Supreme orders the destruction of a Dalek pursuit ship for failure. The cold way in which they execute so many of their alien allies, even those such as Trantis who have contributed nothing to the immediate failure at hand, shows how little regard they have for non-Dalek life. Oh, and I love the Dalek Supreme's line to Chen: "You make your incompetence sound like an achievement" - Terrific stuff!
The final episode - "Destruction of Time" - is superbly tense. The scene in which Chen gives the Daleks an order and they all stand silent and impassive is very chilling. Sara's demise is shocking, and her bravery very moving.
THE DOCTOR: The Time Destructor is affecting you!
SARA: Do you think I don't know?
It's very refreshing, too, for a sixties story to have the male companion stand on the sidelines while the female companion takes the initiative and rescues the Doctor. Sara was an amazing character, way ahead of her time, and clearly based on Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale from "The Avengers", which is no bad thing. It's a shame this would prove to be her only story.
In all honesty, the Christmas episode - "The Feast of Steven" - is superfluous, providing a bit of light relief. It feels out of place, and the scenes set in the Hollywood film studio are more grating than enjoyable. Having said that, I really like the Doctor's infamous "And a Merry Christmas to all of you at home" to camera at the end. In fact, it's the highlight of the Christmas episode for me.
Quite possibly the most successful of all the Hartnell Dalek stories, "The Daleks' Master Plan" is a bleak and highly entertaining tale - the more so for featuring the return of Peter Butterworth as the Monk, who really should have been brought back for a rematch with Patrick Troughton's Doctor. Douglas Camfield's direction is exemplary throughout the entire epic, Barry Newbery's design work is excellent, and Tristram Cary's incidental score provides a suitably atmospheric mood to the proceedings. All in all, this is a production that has had much attention on it to produce a highly effective and memorable adventure.
4 ½ / 5 stars