Recap-like thing of The Mutants, with pictures for lolz
I have now finished watching the old Doctor Who adventure "The Mutants", later renamed "The Daleks". This is the second-ever adventure of the First Doctor, and it's the very first appearance of the Daleks. I had a pretty good time watching (though not necessarily for the right reasons), and have decided to post about my impression. With pictures, to give you an idea what I'm talking about. :-)
All right. So, our four heroes land in a petrified forest close to a seemingly abandoned city. The Doctor wants to go exploring and the others want to go home, so he pretends that the TARDIS is broken and that he needs to go down to the abandoned city to get some mercury so he can fix it.
Let me here take a moment to reflect on how I love the first Doctor. He's cranky, contrary, and not particularly admirable. Yay First Doctor!
Unfortunately, the planet is radioactive. Even more unfortunately, the city is in fact not abandoned, as Barbara discovers during the first cliffhanger:
In the beginning of the next episode, the other three get to meet the Daleks too, and they're understandably cowed:
Well... they are at first. Because to those of us used to the new school Daleks, there's something a tad off with these ones. They hold conversations with each other, discussing strategy. They take our heroes prisoners. (WutLOL?) When Ian fights back, they temporarily paralyze him. (Daleks: The paralysis is temporary. Ian: My legs aren't working! Audience: Yes, we know. You're not too smart, are you?) They even send Susan out on a mission to get anti-radiation pills from a boring tribe of humans called the Thal, and to negotiate a treaty between Daleks and Thals. Sure it's a clever ruse (Whodathunk the Daleks were so treacherous?) but to even make the effort is rather un-Dalek-like. *g*
Also, these Daleks don't say "exterminate" until part 4, and even then it's as part of a full sentence: "They are to be exterminated." "Exterminate!" as an imperative is not used in the entire adventure.
Our heroes, who understand that they're dealing with the sweet, cuddly kind of Daleks, soon begin to fight:
Putting your hand on a Dalek's eyestalk is a completely viable option:
They actually manage to wrestle down the Dalek, and Ian opens it up. What he sees makes him so seasick that he asks Barbara and Susan to "stand guard" so they won't have to see it. (And credit to the actor here: even though the show is in black and white, I could practically see him go green. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good screen cap of his expression.)
The Doctor and Ian remove the Dalek-creature from the Dalek-hull, and Ian decides to jump inside and have a drive:
Ian then spends a good portion of time driving around in a Dalek hull, and somehow our heroes escape their prison and go off to have a nice chat with the Thal. (I'm sorry, you can't expect me to pay much attention to plot among all these cuddly Daleks!)
The Thal used to be warriors before the big radiation thingy, but have somehow mutated full circle and are now serene and pacifist and blonde and utterly insufferable. I want their extermination now, please.
Our heroes manage to convince the Thal that pacifism + Daleks = not a very good combination. They bring them to fight the Daleks, which also means they have to cross the lake. The lake is full of scary things:
Shut up! That is too scary. It eats people. Watch this Thal scream before he gets eaten:
A couple of Thal die along the way (yay!), but the rest come with our heroes to fight the Daleks. This can be done in a multitude of ways. You can, for instance, have one of them give you a piggyback ride until he tires (a'la Fezzik and Westley):
The Daleks are still capable of zapping you:
But their zap isn't very effective, and after you've been zapped you can still continue fighting Daleks with your bare hands:
Even these completely inefficient, adorable Daleks might have exterminated the Thal if it wasn't for one thing: the Daleks need the radiation to survive. At the end of the adventure, the radiation levels go down to normal, which means all the Daleks spontaneously lie down and die:
Our heroes take farewell of the Thal. The Doctor does it through speechifying. Barbara does it through flirting:
Personally, I think she's better off with Ian. Or Susan, for all that she's a complete bimbo half the time. Or even the cranky old Doctor.
In conclusion, TARDIS interior:
So, what did I think of this episode? I really enjoyed it. Yes, most of my enjoyment was about how silly these Daleks are, but I also thought the ep was better paced than a lot of old school ones (despite having seven parts), and I love this TARDIS team. They play well off each other and are likeable. (Although Susan is a bit of an idiot.)
I really didn't like the Thal though. They're like elves without the badassery.
And I do have the feeling that the surviving Daleks from wherever saw what happened here and went, "Frickin' humans. Next time we'll exterminate them on sight."
Thanks for that one, Doctor!
All right. So, our four heroes land in a petrified forest close to a seemingly abandoned city. The Doctor wants to go exploring and the others want to go home, so he pretends that the TARDIS is broken and that he needs to go down to the abandoned city to get some mercury so he can fix it.
Let me here take a moment to reflect on how I love the first Doctor. He's cranky, contrary, and not particularly admirable. Yay First Doctor!
Unfortunately, the planet is radioactive. Even more unfortunately, the city is in fact not abandoned, as Barbara discovers during the first cliffhanger:
In the beginning of the next episode, the other three get to meet the Daleks too, and they're understandably cowed:
Well... they are at first. Because to those of us used to the new school Daleks, there's something a tad off with these ones. They hold conversations with each other, discussing strategy. They take our heroes prisoners. (WutLOL?) When Ian fights back, they temporarily paralyze him. (Daleks: The paralysis is temporary. Ian: My legs aren't working! Audience: Yes, we know. You're not too smart, are you?) They even send Susan out on a mission to get anti-radiation pills from a boring tribe of humans called the Thal, and to negotiate a treaty between Daleks and Thals. Sure it's a clever ruse (Whodathunk the Daleks were so treacherous?) but to even make the effort is rather un-Dalek-like. *g*
Also, these Daleks don't say "exterminate" until part 4, and even then it's as part of a full sentence: "They are to be exterminated." "Exterminate!" as an imperative is not used in the entire adventure.
Our heroes, who understand that they're dealing with the sweet, cuddly kind of Daleks, soon begin to fight:
Putting your hand on a Dalek's eyestalk is a completely viable option:
They actually manage to wrestle down the Dalek, and Ian opens it up. What he sees makes him so seasick that he asks Barbara and Susan to "stand guard" so they won't have to see it. (And credit to the actor here: even though the show is in black and white, I could practically see him go green. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good screen cap of his expression.)
The Doctor and Ian remove the Dalek-creature from the Dalek-hull, and Ian decides to jump inside and have a drive:
Ian then spends a good portion of time driving around in a Dalek hull, and somehow our heroes escape their prison and go off to have a nice chat with the Thal. (I'm sorry, you can't expect me to pay much attention to plot among all these cuddly Daleks!)
The Thal used to be warriors before the big radiation thingy, but have somehow mutated full circle and are now serene and pacifist and blonde and utterly insufferable. I want their extermination now, please.
Our heroes manage to convince the Thal that pacifism + Daleks = not a very good combination. They bring them to fight the Daleks, which also means they have to cross the lake. The lake is full of scary things:
Shut up! That is too scary. It eats people. Watch this Thal scream before he gets eaten:
A couple of Thal die along the way (yay!), but the rest come with our heroes to fight the Daleks. This can be done in a multitude of ways. You can, for instance, have one of them give you a piggyback ride until he tires (a'la Fezzik and Westley):
The Daleks are still capable of zapping you:
But their zap isn't very effective, and after you've been zapped you can still continue fighting Daleks with your bare hands:
Even these completely inefficient, adorable Daleks might have exterminated the Thal if it wasn't for one thing: the Daleks need the radiation to survive. At the end of the adventure, the radiation levels go down to normal, which means all the Daleks spontaneously lie down and die:
Our heroes take farewell of the Thal. The Doctor does it through speechifying. Barbara does it through flirting:
Personally, I think she's better off with Ian. Or Susan, for all that she's a complete bimbo half the time. Or even the cranky old Doctor.
In conclusion, TARDIS interior:
So, what did I think of this episode? I really enjoyed it. Yes, most of my enjoyment was about how silly these Daleks are, but I also thought the ep was better paced than a lot of old school ones (despite having seven parts), and I love this TARDIS team. They play well off each other and are likeable. (Although Susan is a bit of an idiot.)
I really didn't like the Thal though. They're like elves without the badassery.
And I do have the feeling that the surviving Daleks from wherever saw what happened here and went, "Frickin' humans. Next time we'll exterminate them on sight."
Thanks for that one, Doctor!