Continuing on from the premiere adventure An Unearthly Child Loosetooth’s exploration of Doctor Who continues with the adventure which would introduce The Doctor’s most deadly foe.
Want to see what you’ve missed first? Then check out An Unearthly Child parts One, Two, Three and Four.
Now onto the next adventure…
The Daleks part 1: The Dead Planet
As The Doctor and his companions prepare to leave we see the needle on the radiation monitor rise. The foursome step out of the Tardis and into a petrified forest. While Susan and The Doctor walk off to investigate Ian and Barbara come to terms with the fact The Doctor may never be able to take them home again.
The travellers discover a petrified creature unlike anything they’ve ever seen, and realise they can no longer be on Earth…and then in the distance Ian spots a city, which appears to show no signs of life. While The Doctor wishes to investigate Ian insists they go back to the ship before it gets dark.
Susan gets separated from the group and begins to hear movement, a hand reaches out for her, with a scream she runs in the direction of the Tardis and into Ian. The other travellers are sceptical there was anything in the forest.
While the travellers have something to eat (from a machine reminiscent of a Star Trek replicator, which produces food bars of a specified flavour. Ian for example chooses Bacon & Eggs) a tapping can be heard from outside.
Ian, Barbara and Susan insist they leave, and The Doctor begrudgingly sets the Tardis in motion, but not before he tampers with something inside the control console. The Tardis makes all the right noises but refuses to move. A quick assessment shows a component called a Fluid Link has come loose and drained itself of Mercury. The Doctor says he has none spare aboard and they’ll have to venture into the city to find some.
Upon leaving the Tardis the travellers discover a small metal box filled with glass vials, The Doctor instructs Susan to leave it inside the Tardis so he may conduct some tests on it later.
Inside the city The Doctor says he is feeling weak from the journey, but Ian says he also doesn’t feel “to good”. The travellers then separate to cover more ground, while lost Barbara encounters a strange creature coming towards her.
The second serial, which was directed by long-time collaborator Christopher Barry, almost didn’t happen. The Daleks story was originally planned to be the fourth serial of the series after Marco Polo (which was also rescheduled), but issues with the intended story meant they had a gap to fill and The Daleks was the only story ready.
The ratings for Doctor Who hadn’t been as high as hoped, so much so the series was considered for cancelation. By the end of The Daleks the ratings had rocketed up to 10.4 million, meaning approximately a fifth of Britain circa 1963 were now tuning in, and a British icon was born.
Next Episode: The Survivors
