138 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 138
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 26 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four

"We understand the human mind."

Lesterson cuts the Daleks' power reminding them that they get their power from him and seemingly regaining their obedience before reconnecting it. The Doctor & Ben go to see Bragen with their worries about Polly but he is far from helpful. A Dalek arrives to serve him drinks and they leave. However in the corridor they are passed by three more Daleks which arouses the Doctor's suspicions as there were only four in the capsule. Bragen too is slightly suspicious of the one in his office. The Daleks have requested more materials from Lesterson which worries him. He intends to seek the Examiner's advice but Janley persuades him otherwise by revealing Resno's death to him and using that as a hold over him. Ben & the Doctor arrive at the lab to enquire of Polly and to tell Lesterson about the increase in the number of Daleks, which further disturbs Lesterson and he collapses. Janley throws them out but while Lesterson sleeps she summons Valmar to install another Power Cable for the Daleks. The Doctor cracks the code the rebels have been using to display messages on a public board and he & Ben lie in wait for them in Rocket Room P. The rebels, and their shadowy hidden leader, enter and watch Janley and Valmar demonstrate a fully armed but controlled Dalek to them. Ben knocks the boxes they are hiding behind over and is dragged away. When the rebel leader calls the Doctor out too, he is revealed to be Bragen. Bragen has the Doctor arrested and thrown in a cell next to Deputy Governor Quinn. The Doctor tries to use a dog whistle to trigger the sonic lock but only succeeds in aggravating the colony's dogs. Lesterson ventures into the Daleks capsule and discovers a production line within producing many new Daleks.

Fabulous stuff. The Daleks in the corridor revealing there are more of them than there should be is great. At the start we've got three disarmed Daleks, and by the end there's an army of fully armed ones. Polly is absent for this episode: kidnapped half way through the last one Anneke Wills gets a week off this week. Since Ben gets hauled off half way through this one you'd be correct in thinking that it's Michael Craze's turn for a turn for a trip to the seaside next week.

The Doctor makes a lot of fuss about how the Daleks need a metal floor to move about, a limitation they had in their first few stories, all script edited by Power's writer David Whitaker. Since the Chase they've had no problem at all, generally attributed to the "power slats" that now adorn the Daleks' waist. Indeed they seem to be moving round the colony OK for the story so far. So why raise it as an issue now? And if it's become an issue how were they moving round OK before?

There's the start of a short lived running joke in this episode: seeing Bragen in his office in a new uniform the Doctor comments "I would like a hat like that". The phrase crops up again in his first few stories.

The Dalek Capsule represents a small mystery. Obviously there's more of it's insides seen than can possibly fit into the space shown sitting in the lab. 2 solutions exist to the problem: the capsule is the tip of the structure and the lab & colony have been built round it OR the capsule, like the Tardis and Dalek time ship, is dimensionally transcendental.

Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD contains two clips which they attribute to this episode: the first is of a a pair of Daleks and includes the quote "We are not ready yet to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!" Turns out this is in fact from episode 5! The other clip is from this episode and is a short section of the assembly line footage which was found in 1985 when Restoration Team member Steve Roberts investigated rumours some Dalek footage was shown in an Australian program entitled C for Computer. It emerges that that title is the name of an episode of a show called Perspective and that it did indeed contain Dalek footage from episodes 4 and 5 of Power of the Daleks.

Steven Scott plays the rebel Kebble in the last 3 episodes of this series. He's got several appearances in The Avengers to his name.

Of the guards that appear in this episode Peter Forbes-Robertson will be back as a Time Lord in Colony in Space, and the Chief Sea Devil in The Sea Devils. He's also got an appearance as Schenker in the first episode of the second series of The Tripods to his name.

Robert Russell later plays the Caber in Terror of the Zygons. He'd previously been in Out of the Unknown, appearing in Thirteen to Centaurus as Sgt. Burke. This is the same episode that features Robert James, playing Lesterson here, as Dr. Kersh and can be seen as part of the Out of the Unknown DVD set. Other genre appearance include Space: 1999: Mission of the Darians as Hadin and Blake's 7: Cygnus Alpha as Laran.

A third guard is played by Robert Luckham. His father, Cyril Luckham, appears in Doctor Who some years later as The White Guardian

It's a Dalek story so there's a few familiar names on the credits: Gerald Taylor, Kevin Manser, Robert Jewell and John Scott Martin are all back inside the Dalek shells while Peter Hawkins provides all the Dalek voices solo for the first and only time.

137 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 137
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Three

"We will get our power. We will get our power. We will get our power!"

Hensell is pleased with the potential offered by the Daleks. The Doctor orders the Dalek to shut itself down which it seems to do only to reactivate when he leaves the room claiming that the order would have prevented it serving. The enquiry into Quinn's behaviour continues: he is found guilty and imprisoned, with security chief Bragen being made deputy governor in his place. The Doctor builds a device to interfere with the Dalek and brings it to the laboratory. It works but Lesterson smashes it and sends the doctor away before he can permanently harm the Dalek. Hensell departs for a tour of the perimeter leaving Bragen in charge. Janley meets Bragen: she is leading the rebels and he has been assisting them for his own means. She has obtained the Dalek gun that Lesterson removed and believes it will help them take over the colony. Bragen needs the Examiner restrained so Janley and fellow rebel Valmar kidnap Polly. Ben notices Polly's disappearance and worries. The Dalek pleases Lesterson with it's knowledge and persuades him to order some equipment to build a device to help the colony. When he leaves the room the Dalek activates the power to the capsule and goes inside. The Doctor & Ben discover the power connected and confront the unarmed Dalek. They are forced to leave when the other two armed Daleks appear activated. Bragen confronts the Doctor saying they have found a body in the swamps and suggesting he may not be the Examiner. The Doctor retorts that the only way he could know for sure was if Bragen was the real Examiner's killer. Bragen tells The Doctor to leave Lesterson and the Daleks alone. As he leaves a note about Polly is pushed under their door. Lesterson sees his now trio of Daleks who are pleased that "we will get our power!"

This episode moves like a piece of well oiled machinery. It does exactly what you guess it might as the Daleks slowly advance their plan, the rebels start to move and the Doctor finds his progress obstructed. Lovely scene between the Doctor & Bragen as they each call the other's bluff, and at the end as the Daleks' guard starts to slip in front of Bragen. I said last episode that you feel this isn't going to end well and you feel it even more in this episode.

The Doctor hits the nail on the head regarding everyone's motivation:

DOCTOR: Greed and ambition, that's all it is. Wait till they find out what their precious production figures have cost them!

Hensell wants the Colony to be a success, and thus for it to reflect well on him. Lesterson uses the usefulness of the Daleks on Hensell to let him continue his work:

HENSELL: So, Lesterson, they're even capable of speech.
LESTERSON: Yes. But then, why not? After all, they have a certain intelligence.
HENSELL: Yes, I know, but
LESTERSON: But it is an intelligence that we can control.
HENSELL: So what you want is permission to continue your experiments?
LESTERSON: Governor, think what it would mean if we were to set it to work in the mines. It could double our production overnight.
BRAGEN: Consider the effects it could have on our whole economy.
HENSELL: Yes, and the effect of that on Earth. Yes, yes, they could be very grateful.

Lesterson in turn pursues the scientific discovery that the Daleks represent, and presumable the fame and renown that will bring him. The Daleks use that as a lure to get the materials and power they want.

DALEK: What is this machine?
LESTERSON: It computes meteorite storms as they approach our weather satellites.
DALEK: How accurate is it?
LESTERSON: About seventy percent. It helps to cut down on our satellite losses.
DALEK: Daleks can build computers with one hundred percent accuracy.
LESTERSON: One hundred percent?
DALEK: If you provide materials and our own power unit, a computer will be built.
LESTERSON: A hundred percent? But that would be an enormous saving for the for the colony.
DALEK: Then you will get the materials?
LESTERSON: I'll go and speak to the Governor at once.
DALEK: I will be ready to dictate the blueprint when you return.
LESTERSON: Oh, that's marvellous.

Bragen, revealed as the power behind the rebels, simply wants control of the colony:

BRAGEN: You were able to get away then?
JANLEY: Yes. Lesterson's with the Examiner. And Hensell?
BRAGEN: At a meeting of production managers. He left me in control.
JANLEY: We could take over the colony now.
BRAGEN: No. No, it has to be absolutely right. I don't want to take over a colony full of rebels do I, Janley?
JANLEY: I don't know. You're making me help them.
BRAGEN: Only to stir them up to create enough trouble to get rid of Hensell, and then, then we crush them. The whole colony will be grateful, and I'll be Governor.

Janley's really the only main character who's motivation isn't clear. She's seemed to be very much part of the rebels but here she's distinctly helping them because Bragen's told her to. Is she involved with him? Is she an agent working for him?

Having dealt with the characters & actors who didn't trouble the scorers much in earlier episodes let's look at the rest of the cast.

I'd previously quite liked Hensell but now I've discovered he's played by Peter Bathurst who goes on to play the civil servant Chinn in the Claws of Axos who is possibly the most annoying character in Doctor Who. He'd previously been in the Out of the Unknown episode Andover and the Android, sadly one of the two missing episodes from the show's first season, as Barnaby and would appear in three Moonbase 3 episodes as the Director General: Departure and Arrival, Achilles Heel and Castor and Pollux.

Bragen is played by Bernard Archard who you'll see again as the possessed cadaver of Marcus Scarman in Pyramids of Mars. He too has been in Out of the Unknown as Dr. Giddy in Frankenstein Mark 2, one of the missing episodes from the second season. I saw him onscreen as a child playing Eirig in the sci fi/fantasy Krull.

Lesterson is played by Robert James who will be back as the High Priest in the Masque of Mandragora. He's also in the very first episode of Blake's 7, The Way Back, playing Blake's friend Ven Glynd. I spot that the same episode also features Robert Beatty, who was General Cutler in the previous Doctor Who story The Tenth Planet. James has two Out of the Unknowns to his name: he was Dr. Kersh in the first series episode Thirteen to Centaurus, and that one does exist and is available on DVD. He return in the missing third season episode Liar! as Kelvin Brooke. He was in two episodes of Doomwatch as Barker in Project Sahara and Halliday in Flood.

I've seen Richard Kane, who plays Valmar, in the Inspector Morse episode Masonic Mysteries as Chief Inspector Bottomley.

Nicholas Hawtrey plays second in command Quinn. He seems to have spent most of his subsequent career working in France!

Finally Janley is played by Australian Pamela Ann Davy. She's got two appearances in The Avengers and a couple of ITC series to her name but doesn't seem to have appeared on television after 1970!

The "Daleks posing as your servants" idea is re-used in the new series story Victory of the Daleks, where it works fabulously well again. It's after the bit where they're busy being servants that Victory of the Daleks falls apart.

136 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 136
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 12 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Two

"I am your servant! I am your servant!"

The time travellers suspect that Lesterson may have removed the third Dalek. Deputy Governor Quinn comes to the Examiner's quarters to speak to him but he's not there and ends up in a confrontation with security chief Bragen. Lesterson finds the Doctor in the lab as Bragen arrives searching for the Doctor. The Doctor wants the Daleks melted down and leaves to get permission from the governor. Lesterson retrieves the missing Dalek from a hidden compartment in the capsule and starts to reactivate it with his assistants Janley and Resno. Bragen tells the Doctor about a rebel movement but is then obstructive when the Doctor tries to see the Governor. The Doctor goes to the communication room to contact Earth but finds it smashed with the operator unconscious and Deputy Governor Quinn present. Bragen arrests him on very circumstantial evidence but it's noted that Quinn has a button missing that would match the one the Doctor has. The experiment with the Dalek succeeds in reactivating it but Resno is killed by it. Janley lies to Lesterson and says he is merely unconscious. The Doctor, as the Examiner, and friends attend the enquiry into Quinn's conduct which is interrupted by and excited Lesterson. He brings the now disarmed Dalek into the room. It seems to recognise the Doctor and surprises the humans when it speaks. The Doctor pleads for it's destruction but the Dalek repeatedly intones that "I am your servant. I am your servant."

Great episode but you have to hold your head in your hands and despair at the Vulcan colonists. We, like The Doctor, know that the moment the Daleks appear this isn't going to end well for the colonists. Lesterson however hasn't got the experience with the Daleks that we and the Doctor have:

LESTERSON: Yes, yes, but the wonderful thing, Janley, is that we don't know the full scope of this experiment. Who knows where we may go from here. Who know what this Dalek may do?

So they reactivate the Dalek, and the first thing it does is exterminate someone. Like you couldn't have predicted that! Then by the end of the episode a Dalek is telling us "I am your servant" at which point we automatically know it's lying. We and the Doctor know otherwise:

LESTERSON: Stop. You see? Well, just think what this could do for our mining program, our processing, packaging. Dozens of labour jobs, Governor. It may even supply the end to all this Colony's problems.
DOCTOR: Yes, it will end the colony's problems, because it will end the colony.
DALEK: I am your servant.
LESTERSON: It, it spoke! Janley, did you hear it? It can actually talk.
DOCTOR: It can do many things, Lesterson. But the thing it does most efficiently is exterminate human beings. It destroys them, without mercy, without conscience. It destroys them. Utterly. Completely. It destroys them.

So while Lesterson is predicting a glorious future I, and I don't think I'm spoiling the story for anyone here, am predicting a bumper round of exterminations is soon to follow.

So why don't they take the Doctor's word for it? The simple answer is that they don't know what a Dalek is. We know from watching television but for them not to know then this story must take place before Dalek Invasion of Earth which seems to be humans first public contact with the Daleks and is frequently referred to in other stories. So DIOE takes place c2164, the date on the calender that the Doctor and Ian find in the warehouse, which mean Power of the Daleks must predate that. The question then becomes do we think that's a long enough time period from now for man to be colonising other worlds? They certainly thought so in the 1960s where it was expected that moon landings would be the first step of man to the stars, but unfortunately it hasn't quite happened like that. So I dug out my seldom used, but still very good copy of Lance Parkin's History of the Universe (There appears to be an updated edition out). That dates Power of the Daleks to 2020, which was given in press material at the time. Conceivable in the 1960s you have to cast doubt on it now from a point where it looks unlikely we'll have another manned lunar flight before 2020!

Resno, who gets to be the Vulcan Daleks' first victim here, is played by Edward Kelsey who was previously a Slave Buyer in The Romans and will later be Edu in The Creature from the Pit. Christopher Barrydirected all three of his appearances in Doctor Who. He's the voice of Joe Grundy in The Archers, not the last Archers cast member to be involved with Doctor Who and the Daleks either, and voiced Colonel K & Baron Silas Greenback for Dangermouse! He's also got an appearance in Doomwatch to his name as Captain Tommy Gort in The Red Sky.

Another 50 seconds of 8mm film clips from this episode exists including Resno's extermination and the "I am your servant" climax of the episode.

135 The Power of the Daleks: Episode One

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 135
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 05 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.9 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode One

"Ben, Polly, Meet the Daleks!"

The new Doctor shakily rises to his feet. Ben & Polly are suspicious as to whether he is the Doctor or an intruder that has taken his place, and these suspicions are not helped by his habit of referring to the doctor in the third person. Rummaging in a chest he finds the Doctor's 500 year diary and a piece of metal obtained from the Daleks. Leaving the Tardis they find themselves in a world of mercury swamps. A man, saying he is the Examiner, approaches the Doctor but is shot. The Doctor takes his identity badge before he sinks into a mercury pool. The Doctor is knocked unconscious by the assassin and as he falls a button is pressed into his hand. Ben and Polly are overcome by mercury fumes but all three are rescued by staff of the Vulcan Colony and taken to the Governor Hensall. The Doctor poses as an Examiner and goes to see the space capsule unearthed by the colony's scientist Lesterson. The Doctor opens the hatch gaining access to a chamber within. Returning later at night the Doctor opens an inner door showing Ben & Polly what lies within: a pair of Daleks! The Doctor notes that there was a third, now missing, Dalek casing within the space. A Dalek mutant scuttles across the floor scaring Polly and causing her to scream.

Clever episode this: Any doubts the audience might have about the new Doctor are echoed by Ben & Polly, turning the story into a demonstration that this is the Doctor for both them and us.

POLLY: His face, his hair, look at it.
BEN: He's breathing, and the Tardis seems to be normal.
POLLY: Ben, what are we going to do? We can't just leave the Doctor there.
BEN: What, him? The Doctor?
POLLY: Well, that's who came through the doors. There was no one else outside. Ben, do you remember what he said in the tracking room? Something about 'This old body of mine is wearing a bit thin.'
BEN: So he gets himself a new one?
POLLY: Well, yes.
BEN: Oh, do me a favour.
POLLY: Then whatever happened, happened in here.
BEN: But it's impossible.

There's no better way to prove that this is the Doctor than to put him up against his arch nemesis so out come the Daleks. In the background we have a murder mystery to occupy the Doctor and hints at discontent in the colony as a set up for later.

Mercury - the liquid in the swamps - is a favourite plot element of David Whitaker, the first Doctor Who script editor who returns to write this story. It's used in The Daleks, the second story he script edited, here and The Wheel In Space. You have to wonder if Whitaker or writer Terry Nation was responsible for it's insertion in the Daleks....

Joining us this episode is Patrick Troughton, replacing William Hartnell as The Doctor.. Born 25 March 1920, he served in the Navy in the Second World War before commencing an acting career which found him as the first television Robin Hood. He took to acting on television, much preferring it to theatre work, or "shouting in the evenings" as he famously put it, becoming a regular face on the small screen. He was approached to take a part in the Gunfighters but had to refuse due to a film he was contracted to work on. However when the BBC needed a new Doctor Who his name was on their list and being attracted to the prospect of a regular income to pay his sons' school fees, he accepted. We'll hear more from his sons later but one of them, Michael Troughton has written a great biography of his late father.

The real Examiner, making a brief and final appearance this episode, is played by Martin King who provided voices for two of the later Gerry Anderson Puppet Series: Captain Scarlet & Joe 90.

For a missing episode there's an awful lot of Power of the Daleks 1 in existence. For a start there's nearly a minute of 8mm film material recorded by pointing a camera at a broadcast of this serial in Australia. This mainly covers the earlier portion of the episode, with the newly regenerated Doctor and includes the moment where the Second Doctor sees the First Doctor's reflection in a mirror. Sadly the transition from second to first Doctor's faces is missing but a comparison with the telesnap show that the 8mm film is slightly zoomed in.

Then in 2001 Andrew Martin, a BBC employee, found a nearly complete trailer for episode 1 attached to the end of a film recording of a different program. This trailer includes the moment where The Doctor finds the Daleks in the Space Capsule and, like the 8mm film above, can be found on Doctor Who - Lost In Time.

As you can see from the above photo one of the Daleks in the capsule is out old friend with the broken neck ring, aka Dalek 2!

Power of the Daleks is a six part story, the first since the mammoth 12 part Dalek Masterplan in the previous season. Since then we've had

The Massacre
The Ark
The Celestial Toymaker
The Gunfighters
The Savages
The War Machines
The Smugglers
The Tenth Planet

After this it's another run of 4 parters:

The Highlanders The Underwater Menace The Moonbase The Macra Terror

Till the end of the season gives us the six part Faceless Ones and the seven part Evil of the Daleks.

We noted that Star Trek started broadcasting just before this series of Doctor Who starts. I don't have any classic Trek DVDs to check, but I'm assuming that Spock's home planet of Vulcan was mentioned before Doctor Who showed their version planet Vulcan. However since Vulcan isn't shown in Star Trek till the second season opening episode Amok Time, Doctor Who can genuinely claim to have got to Vulcan first!

In August 2016 reports began circulating that the BBC was going to animate Power of the Daleks. This is something that had been suggested by fans for a long time and generally thought to be beyond the means of the BBC's commercial wing following the lack of animations for the missing episodes on the Web of Fear and Underwater Menace DVDs. However on the 7th November the BBC announced that Power of ther Daleks had been animated with the first episode available on the BBC store at 17:50 today, the 50th anniversary of it's release. A DVD is due to follow on the 21st November, 2 days before Doctor Who's 53rd anniversary.