367 Death to the Daleks Part Two

EPISODE: Death to the Daleks: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 367
STORY NUMBER: 072
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 02 March 1974
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Death To The Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Well, well, well. Daleks without the power to kill!"

The Daleks guns malfunction failing to produce any energy: they too are affected by the power drain and reluctantly join forces with the humans. In temple cavern the Exxilons have set a fire. The Daleks claim to have come to Exxilon because they need the Parrinium to treat sickness of their worlds but they actually have another motive and conceal that there are more Daleks in the ship than the four that emerged. While returning to the human dome the party is attacked, Railton is killed by an Exxilon arrow and one of the four Daleks is battered with Exxilon weapons to the point where it is destroyed. The captive Commander Stewart orders them to give up. Doctor, Humans & the two captured Daleks are taken to the caves where Sarah is being sacrificed. The Doctor attempts to rescue her and is beaten to unconsciousness. He wakes in a cage imprisoned in a cage. The Daleks try to bargain with the Exxilons. The third surviving Dalek from patrol has returned to it's ship and informed it's comrades of what has happened. The Daleks there have been equipped with new machine gun weaponry. Commander Stewart dies, promoting Hamilton over Galloway but Galloway refuses to pass his dying commanders wishes on. The Exxilons agree to co-operate with the Daleks after the sacrifice, now consisting of the Doctor and Sarah, but the ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of the armed Daleks who exterminate many of the Exxilons and allow the Doctor & Sarah to escape. The Daleks put the remaining Exxilons to work mining the Parrinium. The Doctor & Sarah hide in a cave tunnel, in which odd noises echo, and are pursued by the Daleks. The Doctor leaves Sarah at a junction while he explores but he encounters an odd robotic snake creature.

The concept of Daleks unable to kill is a superb one and sadly done away with far too quickly here as the Machine Gun Daleks (another fab idea) show up.

I love the testing target for the machine guns in the Dalek ship: a small Tardis model :-)

Sarah quickly cottons on that there's something odd if the machine like Daleks are still moving which the Doctor explaining that they

DOCTOR: The Daleks don't seem to be following us.
SARAH: Oh, those robot things, are they locals?
DOCTOR: Hardly. They're probably the most technically advanced and ruthless life form in the galaxy.
SARAH: But if they're robots, how is it their power's not affected? They can't half move.
DOCTOR: Because they're only half robot, Sarah. Inside each of those shells is a living, bubbling lump of hate.
SARAH: You mean they've got legs?
DOCTOR: No, they move by psychokinetic power.
SARAH: I see.
DOCTOR: Do you?
SARAH: No.

We'll have to assume that several of the other Dalek systems are also powered by the mutant inside, superbly described here as a "living bubbling lump of hate", as the eye lights seem to work as do the arms.... In which case is anything else other than the guns powered by another power source? Well possibly something structural or defensive judging by the way that Dalek went up when battered by the Exxilons' hand weapons.

The Doctor and Sarah are great together in the tunnel:

SARAH: Doctor! We were just playing the main part in a sacrificial ceremony, weren't we?
DOCTOR: Well, that seemed to be the general idea, yes.
SARAH: Well how are they going to sacrifice us just by dumping us down here?
DOCTOR: Yes, I knew that thought would occur to you sooner or later.
SARAH: You've got an idea, haven't you?
DOCTOR: Yes. And it's not one of my favourites. In fact I don't care for it at all.
SARAH: Well, you might as well share it.
DOCTOR: Oh, very well. I think they expect that sacrifice to be completed by something else. Something that lives down this tunnel.
SARAH: Next time you get an idea, keep it to yourself, will you.

Sarah is then unnerved by a noise....

SARAH: That sounded awfully close.
DOCTOR: Yes. Some sort of subterranean wind effect, I should think.
SARAH: Who are you kidding?
DOCTOR: Myself, chiefly.
SARAH: I just heard your wind effect gnashing its teeth.

The Daleks seen in this story are a selection of the usual suspects Michael Wisher made his Dalek Voice debut at the end of the Frontier in Space and continued that role into Planet of the Daleks. We first heard him providing voices in The Seeds of Death, directed by Michael Ferguson who then used in The Ambassadors of Death as John Wakefield. It would have been there that Barry Letts first saw him and he uses him in Terror of the Autons as Rex Farrel and Carnival of Monsters as Kalik . We'll hear his voice again as a Dalek, un-credited, in Genesis of the Daleks where ascends to Doctor Who superstardom as Davros, the Daleks creator. He's then back in the very next story as Magrik in Revenge of the Cybermen then two stories later in the Planet of Evil as Morelli and the voice of Ranjit. Producer & Director Barry Letts had previously used him on his Z-Cars story The Saint of Concrete Canyon and he later appears in Moonbase 3 as Harry Sanders in Departure and Arrival.

Regular Dalek Operator John Scott Martin has been in every Dalek Story since the Chase and, with one exception, will be till the end of the original Doctor Who series. He made his Doctor Who début in The Web Planet as a Zarbi graduating to Dalek Operator in The Chase three stories later a role he'd repeated in Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan,Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks, Day of the Daleks, Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks. He'll return as a Dalek in Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He has also played a Mechanoid in The Chase, the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie & a Coven Member in the Dæmons, a Mutant in the Mutants, a gell guard in The Three Doctors and a Mutant in Frontier in Space. After this story his non Dalek rolls include Hughes in The Green Death, a Ministry of Defence Guard in Robot, Kriz in Brain of Morbius, the Virus Nucleus in Invisible Enemy. His distinctive hair makes him a familiar figure amongst bit part actors in many television roles: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a T.V. Technician in The Wild Hunt and A for Andromeda as a Lab Assistant / Man in Pub in The Message. He appears in the missing Out of the Unknown episode The Naked Sun as a robot but misses out when The Daleks turn up in Get Off My Cloud. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders and e appears in the first episode of The Tripods as the Schoolmaster. Away from science fiction he was in I, Claudius as Julia's Lover in Waiting in the Wings and a Slave in Some Justice and appears on the big screen in Pink Floyd - The Wall as a Dancing Teacher.

Alongside him is his frequent colleague Murphy Grumbar making his final appearance as a Dalek in this story. He was first a Dalek, credited as Peter Murphy, in The Daleks & The Dalek Invasion of Earth, then as Murphy Grumber he's Dalek in The Space Museum, Mechanoid in The Chase, a Dalek in The Evil of the Daleks, a Dalek in Day of the Daleks, Arcturus in The Curse of Peladon, a Gell Guard in The Three Doctors, a functionary in Carnival of Monsters and a Dalek in Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks. Throughout his final role in the series he is mis-credited as Murphy Grunbar!

Like Michael Wisher the final Dalek Operator Cy Town made his Dalek debut in Frontier in Space, returning in Planet of the Daleks. He plays a Dalek again in Genesis of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He was also previously an Auton in Spearhead from Space returning as a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a technician in Inferno, a Prisoner, Audience Member & Medical Orderly in The Mind of Evil, a Gel Guard in Three Doctors and a Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Later he plays a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen part one, an Android Villager in Android Invasion, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, an Bi-Al member in The Invisible Enemy, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a Guest Gambler in Enlightenment, a Passerby in Attack of the Cybermen, Execution Victim Harold L/drone in The Happiness Patrol and a Haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. Outside of Doctor Who appears in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes Spam as a Surfer and - The Money Programme as a Trumpeter plus the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life as a Restaurant Diner. In Doomwatch he's a Man in Flood, he's a Technician in all six episodes of Moonbase 3, a Security Guard in The Sweeney Golden Boy, in Quadrophenia he's a hairdresser, in Blake's 7 he's a Rebel Technician / Federation Trooper in Blake, he's a Coach Passenger in Miss Marple: Nemesis and in Jeeves and Wooster he's the Vicar in Wooster with a Wife (or, Jeeves the Matchmaker). And if you want to know what he looks like outside of his Dalek shell then there's some screencaps of him on his Aveleyman page.

Three of the Exxilons don't return for the next episode: Roy Pearce was a Guard in The Massacre, a Soldier in Snow Camouflage / Engineer in The Tenth Planet, a Chameleon & Airport Policeman in The Faceless Ones, a Technician/Guard in Fury from the Deep, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, the Cyberman in The War Games episode ten, a Passenger/Plague Victims/Passersby/Ambulance Men/Policemen in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Villager in The Dæmons, a Submarine Rating/Naval Base sailor in The Sea Devils, a Solos Guard in The Mutants and an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. He returns as a Guard in Planet of Spiders, an Android in The Android Invasion, a Pikeman/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora and a Security Guard in Image of the Fendahl. In Blake's 7 he was an Armed Crewman in Space Fall, a Federation Trooper in Time Squad and a Scientist in Project Avalon while in Doomwatch he ws a man in Invasion & Flood.

Terrance Denville had previously been a double for Captain Blade in The Faceless Ones, a Cyberman in The Invasion, Foot Soldier & Alien Technician in The War Games, a Waxwork visitor/replica in Spearhead from Space, a Technician & UNIT Soldier in The Silurians, a UNIT trooper in The Three Doctors, a Cyberman again, briefly, in The Carnival of Monsters, a Guard in Frontier in Space and a Spiridon in Planet of the Daleks He returns as an Ice Warrior in The Monster of Peladon. He plays a Technician in Moonbase 3 Departure and Arrival, Behemoth and Outsider, appears as a Russian Security Council Member in the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film GoldenEye and appears in the Miranda episode Before I Die as an Old Man.

Nigel Wynder was a Roundhead in Time Monster and a A pair of Army Soldiers accompanying General Finch at the end of Invasion of the Dinosaurs episode 4.

These three actors only appear in the studio scenes featuring the Exxilons: Bob Blaine, Leslie Bates, David Rolfe and Derek Chafer also appear in the studio scenes but also appear on location: we'll look at them next episode. One of these seven Exxilons has some brief dialogue in this episode but it's not know which actor performed these.