The Underwater Menace

4 episodes

Aired between 14th January 1967 and 4th February 1967


Written by Geoffrey Orme
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Julia Smith

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Synopsis

As the TARDIS dematerialises, the group have fun explaining the ins and outs of space and time travel to their new companion, Jamie.  When they land, they go out to explore and find they're on another beach near some cliffs.  Polly expects they're in Cornwall again but Ben isn't so sure.

They decide to scramble up the cliff to see if there's anything around them, but Polly soon gets exhausted.  Ben, Jamie and the Doctor leave her behind to catch her breath whilst they go on.  As she rests, she finds a bracelet on the floor near some caves.  She soon enters the cliff side, and is accosted by some robed men.  She screams out which brings the boys running back.  They enter the cave and are soon accosted themselves and thrown into a small room where they find Polly, bound.  They tell themselves that it's fine so long as the Doctor's free, only to have him shoved into the room a second later.

The room turns out to be an elevator, that begins to descend below sea level.  As they go, a gas is released into the elevator and they are all knocked unconscious.

When they awake, they find they are alone in a compression chamber.  Together the group work out that they are in approximately 1970, as the bracelet Polly found is from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.

A guard enters and leads them to a dining hall where they are given plankton to eat.  The Doctor loves it, but Polly isn't keen.  They are shortly joined by a priest called Lolem.  He announces that their arrival has been prophesised by the goddess Amdo, and they are to be sacrificed.  Ben, Polly and Jamie are all taken away, but the Doctor buys them all some time by deducing from the plankton that the genius professor Zaroff is in this place.  He says that the Professor would be most displeased if the group were killed, but Lolem is skeptical.  He even refuses to pass on a note from the Doctor, but the Doctor manages to convince the serving girl, Ara to deliver it instead.

The Doctor is taken to join the rest and they are tied onto tilting platforms that lead to a shark tank.

When Ara finally delivers the note to Zaroff, he sees that it talks of a vital secret ,and so he rushes to stop the sacrifice.

Ben, Polly and Jamie are take away to labour, whilst the Doctor is taken by Zaroff to reveal his secret.  When they're alone, the Doctor confesses that he doesn't really have a secret, but manages to flatter Zaroff by bigging up his scientific achievements and the fact that he successfully disappeared 20 years ago and managed to get everyone to blame each other for it.  As a result, Zaroff decides not to overturn his decision.  Zaroff begins gloating about his work and reveals that they are all in Atlantis.  He reveals his goal to raise the sunken city once again.

Meanwhile, Zaroff's scientific assistant, Damon meets Polly, Ben and Jamie.  He is in charge of the labour force, and so orders that Jamie and Ben go to the mines, whilst Polly is to have plastic gills installed on her, so she can be a fish person and farm the plankton that they use for a food supply.

The serving girl, Ara discovers Polly's fate and rushes off to tell the Doctor in return for his kindness to her.  The Doctor asks Ara to go and help with Polly's procedure, but as soon as she has a chance, get her away from Damon before he can perform the surgery on her.  Unfortunately for them, Damon and his doctors have captured Polly and are holding her down on an operating table to sedate her.

As Ara goes off again, the Doctor is taken to Zaroff's lab to see his ongoing work.  Whilst there, the Doctor spots some conveniently placed wire cutters lying around and begins to secretly snip wires whilst Zaroff rambles on about his plans, which are to raise Atlantis by drilling a hole into the Earths crust so big, that the ocean will drain into it.  This will create lots of steam that will effectively blow Altantis sky high (thus raising it), but at the cost of everyone alive both in the sunken city, and across the entire world.

The Doctor's meddling trips the electric which make's Damon's lab too dark to operate on Polly.  In the confusion, Ara is able to slip away with Polly, whilst Damon storm in on Zaroff, demanding to know why he's draining so much power.  Zaroff denies it, and soon they work out it's the Doctor's fault.  The Doctor tries to bluff his way out of it, but Damon is furious.

Zaroff agrees to keep a careful eye on him from now on.

In the mines, Ben and Jamie come  across Sean and Jacko, sailors who were shipwrecked and ended up in Atlantis.

They quickly forge a friendship, and work together to hide a stolen compass from the guards. The compass is to help find their way through the tunnels when they try to escape through a shaft that they've discovered.  As the prisoners are being split up into work parties, the group manage to slip away unnoticed.

Back in the lab, the Doctor escapes by throwing a couple of chemicals together and creating a stink bomb, leaving Zaroff choking.  He runs into Ara who says that Polly is fine, They overhear a priest called Ramo talking to Damon about how they distrust Zaroff.  The Doctor gets Ara to lead Damon off on a goose chase to find Polly, whilst he approaches Ramo.  He manages to get the priest to listen to him, and demonstrates what will happen to the world if Zaroff's experiment is allowed to go ahead.
Ramo agrees to bring the Doctor to their ruler, King Thous, but warns that the king is a fan of Zaroff. Ramo finds the Doctor a set of ceremonial robes, and they go off together.

Meanwhile, Ben, Jamie, Sean and Jacko have made it through the tunnels until they come to a secret door.  When they emerge they find themselves back in the Atlantean temple, where they meet up with Polly.  They are all forced back into hiding however, as priests begin to enter the temple.

The Doctor and Ramo confront King Thous with the truth of Zaroff's plans, and the King is skeptical, but takes the word of his priest seriously.  He asks for some time to think and is left alone.  After a short while, he summons the Doctor and Ramo back, only to hand them over to Zaroff to do with as he pleases.

Zaroff orders them to be taken away and fed to the sharks.  When they're gone, Thous questions Zaroff, but the mad scientist assures him that the Doctor's claims were untrue.

The Doctor and Amdo are lead to the temple where Lolem begins a ritual to cut their heads off before feeding them to the sharks.  As they prepare to execute the traitors, a booming voice issues out of the stone face of the goddess Amdo, commanding all to bow their heads in reverence.

The priests all obey, allowing the Doctor and Ramo to escape into the secret compartment that's opened up.  When the priests arise and find the prisoners gone, they proclaim it as a miracle.  The group are all reunited inside the secret tunnels and reveal that their idol had a tube with a mouthpiece installed, used to fool the natives.

Zaroff is confirming to Thous that the raising of Atlantis will take place two days from now when they are interrupted by Lolem.  The high priest is very happy and explains the miracle to the King.  Zaroff sees through the ruse and is furious, demanding that the guards search for the Doctor.

King Thous is reluctant, but agrees.

Now they're all together, the group come up with a plan.  Sean and Jacko are sent to the fish people to convince them to strike (with no way to refrigerate the food, it cannot be stored therefore, striking farmers means that people will begin to starve).  The rest of them come up with an elaborate plan to kidnap Zaroff in order to ensure he cannot carry out his experiment.

Sure enough, Sean gets the fish people's attention by insulting them.  Then he convinces them that they're all slaves because of Zaroff and gets them to agree a strike.

Ben and Jamie don wet suits and disguise themselves as guards.  Polly dresses like Ara and the Doctor dresses like... well, you can see.

Working together, they all trick Zaroff into chasing the Doctor back to the temple where they kidnap him and take him into the secret tunnels.  Zaroff laughs at their plan and says the experiment will go ahead even without him,

The Doctor doubts it and sets off with Ben and Jamie to check the progress in the lab.  They see another ceremony underway and so disguise themselves as fish and hide until it's done.

Ramo and Polly are left to guard Zaroff.

It's not long before Zaroff fools Ramo and the pair fight, ending in Ramo being stabbed.

Zaroff grabs Polly and escapes into the tunnels.

The ceremony has just finished, and a dying Ramo comes out to warn the others of Polly's abduction.  The Doctor sends Jamie after Polly whilst he and Ben go to the lab.

Jamie rushes after Zaroff and finds him in the tunnels.  The pair fight and it looks like Jamie might lose until Sean and Jacko turn up.  Zaroff escapes into the tunnels, but leaves Polly behind.

Zaroff's totally bonkers now, but makes it back to the King's throne room where Damon is updating him on the  sudden strike of the fish people.  The King orders that they enter negotiations with the fish, but Zaroff denies it, insisting that any dissidents will be killed.  The King realises that Zaroff is stark raving mad, and goes to arrest him,  Zaroff laughs maniacally and shoots the King and his guards dead.

He then announces that "nothing in zi vorld can stop me now!" before rushing back to his lab.

The Doctor and Ben stumble upon the bodies as they go on their way to the lab.  Knowing that Zaroff has made it back to his lab, and seeing that Thous is only just alive, they decide to bring the King back to the temple.  Once there, the Doctor decides that the only way to stop Zaroff is to flood the lower portions of the city (where the lab is).  He tasks Sean and Jacko with evacuating all the civilians whilst the Doctor and Ben set off to instigate the flood.

They go to the generator room, bluffing their way past a guard to do so.  Once inside, they set the generator to overload (and presumably start the flood).  Once complete, they set off for the lab.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Polly are lost in the tunnels.  As they work their way through them, they see the walls start to crumble, and water come through them.  Frantically, they speed up their journey to avoid the flood.

As the city begins to flood, instead of evacuating people, Sean and Jacko decide to take Thous and leg it to the surface.  They're joined by Damon who is gutted at losing his life's work.

The Doctor and Ben make it to the lab, where they see that Zaroff has shifted the experiment forward, with detonation taking place in the next five minutes!  He convince's Zaroff's people of the true effect this experiment will have on the world, and the fact that the rumbling they hear is the city being destroyed.  The lab technicians all flee, leaving Zaroff, the Doctor and Ben alone.  The Doctor thinks he's won, but Zaroff brings down an iron gate, sealing himself in the lab so that the Doctor cannot stop him from pressing the big red button.

The sea is raging ever closer, which makes Ben anxious to the point where he drags the Doctor away to escape in time.  As they leave, the Doctor cuts the lights to the lab, making it harder for Zaroff.

The mad scientist cannot see anything, so he is forced to raise the gate to switch the light on.  As he comes out, Ben suddenly rushes back into the lab, hits the button for the gate, and ducks out of the lab as the gate comes back down, leaving Zaroff trapped away from his big red button.

Ben catches back up with the Doctor who is adamant that he wants to go back and save Zaroff, but Ben won't let him, saying it's too late and they've got to go now if they stand any chance of escape.

Zaroff is raging at the injustice of it all, and reaches desperately through the bars towards the button, but is slowly drowned by the rising water levels.

With no other option, Jamie and Polly are forced to climb their way out of the tunnels to the surface.  Polly has a hissy fit saying she can't do it, but Jamie forces her onwards until finally, they reach the surface.

Jacko, Sean, Thous Damon and Ara all made it outside too.  They lament the fact that the Doctor is likely dead.  Thous says that they will have a monument for the Doctor built in the new temple of their new city.  Damon says that there will be no new temples in the new city, suggesting a new age of Atlantis.

Likewise, as Ben and the Doctor make it to the surface, Ben is sad that Polly might not have made it.  He needn't have worried however, as they soon meet up with Jamie and Polly.  Ben gives Polly a big hug and they all set off back to the TARDIS.

As they wander on the shore, Sean and Jacko come across the Police Box and cannot believe their eyes.  Even more so when it dematerialises.

In the TARDIS, Jamie says that he likes it on board the ship as it feels safe, unlike outside!

They all make fun of the fact that they don't know where they're going, and the Doctor takes offense suddenly claiming that he can take them wherever they want to go.  He tries to prove it by taking them to Mars, but something goes wrong and the TARDIS begins to go out of control.

Trivia

• Episode 2 of the Underwater Menace was discovered at the same time as episode 3 of Galaxy 4, but has never been released to the public.

• The release of the Underwater Menace on DVD has been a bit of a debacle.  Proposed to have episode 2 on it, it's been tied up in what's called the omnirumour.  Last year there were pictures tweeted by the Dr Who restoration team stating they were working on T.U.M. and it's appeared on multiple release schedules from BBC worldwide....and then been taken off it.  The final release date of this DVD is still unknown.

• Anneke Wills, Michael Craze, Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton had already sparked up a great relationship, and as they entered this strory, they knew full well how cheezy it was.  To top it all, Troughton didn't get on with Julia Smith, the Director.  The result was that he took the whole cast on to give Julia as hard a time as possible - they even reduced her to tears at one point.  

• This was one of the most overspent episodes of Doctor Who made during the black and white era, going £2,000 over budget.  It would be nice to know where that money went, because it certainly didn't go to the costume department!

What worked

• Ok, a lot of the soundtrack has just weird buzzing noises at dramatic points, but at times, it feels like something from Jon Pertwee's era, like a precursor to the Sea Devils.

• The fish people's costumes may suck, but compared to the Arridian's (see The Chase), they are positively Hollywood blockbuster effects

• The bit where Polly is going to get operated on is suitably tense

• I'm stretching a bit here, but the temple and lab sets were a good effort, and the location shots were done well

• It was a lovely sight to see Ben care for Polly (I haven't really mentioned that every single story he's been in, he's always the one desperate to find Polly when they're separated).

What didn't work

• I didn't especially notice it, but apparently, Jamie takes a leaf from Dodo's book and starts changing accent to become more mainstream Scottish, rather than use the sing-song style Scottish accent that was typical of highlanders.  

• The shell costumes looked awful, and Anneke Wills said that they dug in to her terribly anyway

• Whilst I can forgive the fish people, I can't forgive their ballet style swimming on cords.  They go backwards and forwards for absolutely no reason.  I bet a significant part of the budget was spent doing this pointless scene too.

• The part where Sean goes to convince the fish people to strike is beyond awful

• Whilst we're on fish people, they must have had budget problems in that dept, because half of them just have cellophane finns at their waist, and then diving masks on.  Crap.

• It's never explained why Zaroff would choose to kill everyone on the planet (including himself).  Earlier scripts suggest that he's mad because of the death of his wife, but we're never told on screen

Overall Feeling

I went into this story with a feeling of utter dread.  I took a deep breath and prepared myself.  Why?  Just about the entire Doctor Who fandom decry this story as rubbish, but yet hold special mockery for the fish people, which they paradoxically most want to see on the DVD!  So, I heard all this propaganda and feared the worst.  When I actually watched it though, I came to a bit of a different conclusion.

First off I'll start with the bad - there's a lot of poorly executed stuff in it, and considering the budget that was spent on it, the effect of the money was negligible.  The production company needed much, much more money to make this story as epic as it should have been, so we're bound to think bad of it.

If you come at it from the angle of what you think the ultimate Doctor Who story should be, then the plot itself is "hokey" from the get go,  What I've found with the Underwater Menace, is although it's played serious, it really isn't meant to be.  This story is a homage to the Saturday morning serials like Flash Gordon; it has more than a vague resemblance to Stingray, and at times mirrors the Batman TV show that was running at the time in America.  To enjoy this story for what it is, you must put yourself in that mindset.  We're not just in Atlantis, we're in a world where the villains are obviously mad and obviously German.  We're in a world where a normal level of mad scheming isn't good enough, they have to destroy the entire planet; and why simply doesn't matter.  Likewise, the heroes schemes can't be mundane either,  They must come up with crazy Scooby-Doo level plots to disguise themselves and run around corridors, and flood entire portions of the city.

This is enjoyable only if you go into it celebrating its flaws, and with the mindset that it's on a par with the Romans, the Time Meddler, and other such nonsense.

Rating

5 out of 10

I liked it a little less than Galaxy 4, where there's also catastrophic events for no reason.

Rewatchability Factor

2 out of 10

There's only so much maniacal madmen and fishy antics I can take.  I could possibly watch it again, but not for a good long while.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Romans

• Galaxy 4

• Fury from the Deep

• The Time Monster

Consulting the Matrix

Is the Doctor a killer?  What was the point in flooding the city and surely dooming many citizens?  Also, what do you think happened to the fish people?

The Highlanders

4 episodes
Aired between 17th December 1966 and 7th January 1967

Written by Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Hugh David


Synopsis

In fields of heather, the battle of Culloden rages,  The lines of Sottish troops break, and the battle is over, leaving the wounded Laird Colin McLaren to flee the field with the help of his daughter Kirsty, his son, Alexander, and their piper: Jamie McCrimmon.

Landing nearby, the Doctor, Ben and Polly begin to explore the countryside, narrowly missing getting shot by a 10lb cannonball.  Escaping their brush with death, the Doctor is all for leaving again, but Ben is just glad that they've arrived back on Earth and goes off to explore, forcing the others to go after him.  They soon arrive at a cannon that has been spiked.

The Doctor picks up a nearby highland bonnet and tries it on, but decides it doesn't suit him so he casts it aside.

They are confronted suddenly by Alexander and Jamie and taken at knife point to a nearby cottage.

They are told that the bonnet belonged to Bonny Prince Charlie, and the group are mistaken for English looters.  Alexander and Jamie prepare to kill them, but are convinced to stand down after Kirsty hears Polly mention the word Doctor.  She begs the Doctor to look at her wounded father and try to help him.

Ben uses the distraction to snatch a pistol and points it at the Laird whilst the Doctor rounds up the other weapons.  Despite this, the Doctor agrees to take a look at Colin McLaren.

He sends Kirsty and Polly to fetch water, and makes Jamie and Alexander to promise not to harm them.  Once they've given their word, he makes Ben lower the gun.  Ben reluctantly agrees, but as he tosses the gun to the table, it goes off,

Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch, out rounding up Jacobite rebels hears the shot leads his Redcoats towards the cottage, surrounding it.  Alexander causes a distraction by charging them, but is shot and killed.  The Redcoats enter and capture Ben, the Doctor and the Laird.  They believe that Ben is an English deserter, and the Doctor cooks up a story that he is a German medical professional - Doktor Von Wer.  Ffinch doesn't really care who they are and prepares to have them all hanged.

Elsewhere, Solicitor Grey (acting as his Majesty's Commissioner of Prisons) and his assistant, Perkins, watch the remnants of the battle.  Grey comments that the killing of the Jacobites is all a terrible waste of manpower, as he believes they should be enslaved instead.  With that in mind, they head off to try and obtain some Scottish Prisoners for just that purpose.

Outside the cottage, Polly and Kirsty return, causing a distraction to the soldiers.  Ffinch takes a detachment of men after the girls, making sure that the Bonny Prince isn't trying to escape as a woman.

Ffinch leaves his Sergeant in charge of the prisoners, who orders them hanged in Ffinches absence,

Grey and Perkins show up, bribing the Sergeant to give them the men instead.  The Redcoat agrees and the prisoners are taken to Inverness prison.

Kirsty and Polly make it in hiding to a cave, where they can hide and rest.  Polly begins looking through their valuables for things they can bribe the guards with, but the only thing of value is a gold ring Kirsty wears.  The Sottish lassie won't part with it for anything, which annoys Polly no end.  So much so, that she storms off in a huff, despite Kirsty's warnings about being out on her own in the dark.

Sure enough, as Polly is wandering, she falls in an animal pit and can't get out.  The ominous shadow of someone leers over the pit, holding a dagger.  She needn't have been worried though, it's just Kirsty.  Then again, when Kirsty tries to help Polly out of the pit, all she does is manage to fall in it herself.  Their next plan is for Polly to climb on Kirsty's back and get out of the pit.  Whilst she does, she spots Lieutenant Ffinch nearby with a group of soldiers.  The officer chastises his men for letting two women escape them and sends them back down the hill for his horse.  As he waits alone, Polly and Kirsty call out, drawing him closer to the animal pit until he falls in.  They take him prisoner.

The Doctor, Ben, the Laird and Jamie meanwhile are taken to Inverness prison and placed in a damp cell.  The Doctor takes the time to treat the Laird as best he can and thinks he'll recover.  As he treats the man, the Doctor discovers that he's concealing the Bonny Prince's personal standard.  The Doctor convinces Colin McLaren to give him the flag, saying that he'll not escape the gallows if they find it on him,

The Doctor rouses the prisoners to singe a beloved Scottish song.  When the prison guards come to quiet them, the Doctor convinces the soldiers that he's discovered a plot to kill the Duke of Cumberland (insinuating that his fellow Scottish prisoners were preparing to bump the "German" doctor off for knowing their plan.).  The Doctor is freed and taken away, much to the disgust of Jamie, who considers him a traitor.

Back in the animal pit, Polly steals twenty Guineas from the officer, as well as a lock of hair and his identity disc.  Polly says that she will publicly humiliate him if he comes after them (announcing that he's been caught by girls).  With that, they leave him alone in the animal pit.

At an inn known as the Sea Eagle, Solicitor Grey meets a sea captain called Trask.  Grey instructs him to load the prisoners onto the Captain's ship: the Annabelle.

From there, they will be taken to the West Indies and sold as slaves.  As they discuss the plan, the Doctor is brought before Grey.  The Solicitor agrees to speak with the Doctor alone, but only if he covers the prisoner with his gun.

When they're alone, the Doctor says there was no plot to the Duke of Cumberland.  Instead, he shows Grey the standard and suggests splitting the reward with him for the capture of Bonny Prince Charlie.  Grey looks interested, but suddenly, the Doctor slings the flag over him, disarms him, binds the man and locks him in a cupboard.  Perkins arrives, but the Doctor uses his German accent to convince the poor man that he's in fact ill, going so far as to bang Perkins' head on the desk and then tells him he's got a headache.

He sits Perkins at Grey's desk and blindfolds him.  He tells him to get some rest and any noises he hears are all in his head.  Perkins stupidly agrees.

Back at the animal pit, Ffinch is finally found by his Sergeant and the men.  He orders the Sergeant to get him out, but the Sergeant blackmails the officer for money to allow his men to booze.  The Lieutenant cannot pay because Polly has taken his money,  All Ffinch can do is offer payment when they get to Inverness.

Thankfully for Grey, Captain Trask returns later and see's Perkins blindfolded and asleep at Grey's table.  He frees Grey from the closet and after berating Perkins, they all set off to find the Doctor.  They cannot find him however, as the Doctor has made his way to the inn's scullery and disguised himself as an old woman.  Trask eventually gives up and orders the prisoners to be taken to the Annabelle.  The Doctor watches them go.

They are taken by rowboat to the ship.  As they go, the mean Captain Trask orders one of the bound prisoners to be thrown overboard to drown.  He warns that this is the only way they will get off the Annabelle.

Once on the ship, Ben, Jamie and the Laird are thrown in the hold with the rest of the prisoners.  There they meet William Mackay (pronounced McKye) who is the true owner of the Annabelle until it was stolen from him by Captain Trask.

Polly and Kirsty have finally made it to Inverness and manage to obtain some dresses to wear, using the disguise of orange sellers.  Kirsty is unhappy about this, as orange sellers are commonly known as prostitutes, but Polly seems happy about the chance to get close to the soliders, to find out more information.

Poor old Lieutenant Ffinch arrives at the Sea Eagle, having marched all night.  He comes face to face with Polly and Kirsty and begins to yell that these were the girls they've been looking for.  He's forced to keep their secret however, as Polly slyly reveals the ID disc from around her neck.  The Sergeant and his men are paid and are happy to go off drinking whilst Ffinch, Polly and Kirsty are left to talk alone.

Polly questions Ffinch and finds out that they need to speak to Solicitor Grey, head of the prison.  Perkins arrives at the inn, and Ffinch directs them to him for more information.  In his disguise the Doctor sees all this, but is unable to reveal himself.

On the Annabelle, Grey visits the prisoners, and tells them that they have three choices ahead of them.

1,  Testify against their fellow Scots,
2.  Get hung, drawn and quartered,  or
3.  sign a 7 year contract to work in the West Indies for the crown.  After which they will be set free.

The offer sounds appealing, but Mackay shouts out that he's seen what goes on in the West Indies, and those that sign will not live to see the end of 7 years.  Many go to sign, but Ben holds back until the last minute where he asks to read the contract.  As it's handed to him, he tears it up.  Captain Trask smashes him over the head and knocks him unconscious.  A furious Grey orders him clapped in irons whilst he goes back to the mainland to draw up a new contract.

Polly and Kirsty spend some time with Perkins as they wait for Grey, but it becomes obvious that he's just stringing them along for the company.

As they try to leave, Perkins threatens them to stay and play a game of Whist with him,  As they begin to play, the Doctor (still dressed as a woman) turns up and puts Grey's pistol towards Perkins, commanding him to stay at the inn whilst they leave.  Before they can make a move however, Grey turns up and approaches Perkins.  He doesn't see through the disguises, but finds the situation weird.  He orders Perkins to leave the game and come with him to draw up new contracts.  The Doctor insist's that the "girls" leave first and quietly warns Perkins that he'll be shot if he attempts to follow.

The Doctor, Polly and Kirsty make it to a nearby barn where the Doctor reveals that the gun wasn't loaded anyway.

He fills the girls in on Ben, Jamie and the Laird's location, and eventually comes up with a plan to use Polly's extorted money to buy guns to smuggle to the prisoners.

Perkins (obviously scared of the Doctor) says nothing about the altercation at the inn, and he draws three new contracts up for Grey.  Together they go out to the Annabelle and start the process once again.  For Ben however, Grey orders a "ducking" before he's brought on deck.  Dutifully, Ben is bound and tossed overboard.

Back at the barn, Polly, Kirsty and the Doctor regroup.  The girls have only a pitchfork, and other knackered weapons.  The Doctor meanwhile has a bristling armory of rifles, pistols and swords.  He spots Kirsy's ring and identifies it not as her fathers, but as the Bonny Prince's own.  She admits that the Prince gave it her father for saving his life.  The Doctor convinces her to part with it, saying that he'll now use it in turn to save her father's life in a trap for a very greedy man.

On the Annabelle, Trask pulls up the rope to haul Ben back out of the water, but finds nothing on the end of it.  Sure enough, Ben has freed himself and swims through the icy water to the shore.  No sooner as he steps onto dry land however, he is captured again by a redcoat.  Exhausted, he happily gives himself up.

Luckily, the Redcoat turns out to be the Doctor in yet another disguise.

He takes Ben to the barn, where Ben then fills them in on what's happened.

The group come up with a plan to go back to the ship.  Ben will sneak around the ship to give the guns to the prisoners, whilst the Doctor distracts Trask and Grey.  Polly isn't happy with sitting back waiting, so the Doctor agrees to give Kirsty and Polly the job of delivering the weapons instead.

The group row to the ship, and the Doctor presents himself to Captain Trask, who takes him before Grey.  The Doctor shows Grey the Prince's ring, and claims he got it from the Prince himself, who is currently being held prisoner.  The Doctor says he's willing to tell them his whereabouts for 10,000 Guineas.

The plan is working, as Polly and Kirsty reach the hold and begin handing out weapons to the prisoners.

Grey agrees to the deal, but demands to know where the Prince is.  The Doctor says that Jamie McCrimmon is really the Prince.  Grey, Captain Trask and the crew take the Doctor to the hold.  There, he points out Jamie.  As the crew make their way through the prisoners, the Laird unleashes a battle cry and the fight begins.

As chaos spreads around them Mackay gets to face off against the traitorous Captain Trask.  They fight long and hard, ending up wounding each other, but Trask manages to escape above deck.  Ben turns up and confronts Trask too, but the sea captain bests him.  He's about to kill Ben, but Jamie saves him by swinging swash-buckler style into Trask, knocking him down and eventually overboard.
The ship is ultimately taken, and Mackay gains control of it once more.  He gives everyone free passage to serve on his crew, and says they will sail for France.  The only people not to go, are the Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie, Kirsty, the Laird and Solicitor Grey, who are all put in a rowboat to get back to shore.  Perkins is expected to go with Grey, but he begs Mackay to let him go with him to France instead.  Mackay shows mercy and they let him come with them.

When they get back ashore, the Doctor says he intends to use Grey to get past the guards and back to the TARDIS.  They are forced to hide in a boathouse when patrolling Redcoats come by, an opportunity that Grey uses to call out for help.  The Redcoats here and when they investigate, Ben and Jamie are forced to fight them.  In the chaos, Grey escapes and flees, leaving them with no bargaining tool.  The Doctor says they will have to find another "ally", and Polly smiles.

The group head to the Sea Eagle where they find that poor Lieutenant Ffinch has been roped into a game of whist with a Colonel.  Polly produces the ID disc again and they cook up a story that they've seen the bonnie Prince in the hills, and that they will lead the Lieutenant to him.  The Colonel is all for the plan and orders Ffinch to go along and capture him.  Reluctantly, Ffinch obeys.

The group travel all night and by morning, get back to the cottage where they met Jamie.  On the way they fill Ffinch in on all that's happened.  They are about to part ways, when Solicitor Grey turns up with a bunch of Redcoats.  He congratulates Ffinch on capturing the rebels, but Ffinch says he's on their side, having heard the truth of slavery and profiteering at the hand of the crown.  Grey objects and says that they signed contracts, so it's legal, but cannot find the papers.  Ffinch orders him taken prisoner and leads them away.  Polly graciously gives Ffinch back his ID disc and a kiss on the cheek before he departs.

Kirsty and the Laird are encouraged to go to France for a while until everything calms down, and Jamie is encouraged to come with them in the TARDIS rather than hiding in the highlands waiting to be killed.  The Doctor agrees to the proposition, but only if Jamie can teach the Doctor the bagpipes.  Jamie agrees and together they set off.

Triva

• This story was supposed to be written by Elwyn Jones, but (as notably happened with Terry Nation) when it came time to deliver, it turned out that Jones had been far too busy and hardly got any of it done.  Script Editor, Gerry Davis took what notes there were and set about hastily writing the thing

• Jones wanted to do the battle of Culloden, something that was obviously too costly, so Davis looked around to see what could be done.  He saw that they could hire Ealing Studio's water tank, and decided to rip off Robert Louis Stevenson's story - Kidnapped.

• One thing to note is that Frazer Hines had been a child star and worked with many people by the time he came into Doctor Who.  He had even worked alongside Patrick Troughton three years earlier and had the honour of starring alongside Charlie Chaplin.

• Although the reasons for this are greatly debated, Innes Lloyd decided that the TARDIS would work better if Jamie were to stay on.  At the point he'd made his decision, the ending had already been shot with Jamie waving goodbye to the TARDIS crew, so it had to be hastily re-shot when Frazer agreed to come on board.

• This is the last pure historical story (no alien intervention), until Black Orchid was shown in 1982

What worked

• Many think that the earliest example of feminism was Jo Grant strutting her stuff.  Here, Polly is allowed to show great resourcefulness and has as much girl power as the Spice Girls.  It's a shame she goes back to making tea for the blokes.

• As with the Power of the Daleks, the Doctor is full of japes here.  The bit where he's convincing Perkins' he's ill is particularly entertaining

• The complexity of the story makes it a little more intriguing for older audience members

What didn't work

• It's a great shame that the battle of Culloden wasn't shown

• Ships and smugglers again makes it a bit tedious

• Captain Trask is really a shadow of Captain Pike from the Smugglers

• It's not a fault of the production company, but now this story is lost, the battle at the end is very confusing

• Although it's happened before where someone has come out of nowhere to be a crew member on the TARDIS, Jamie McCrimmon is totally out of left field.  Surely Kirsty who took a more active part in the story would have been a better choice

• The Doctor's accents  

Overall Feelings

In 2015, I find it difficult to give the Highlanders a fair shot.  The reason for this is that it's only a couple of stories removed from the Smugglers which carries much of the same hallmarks, but in addition, the episodes are lost.  There's not even any decent reconstructions online to fall back on, so at times the show is confusing.

It's clear that this story is tackled in a different way.  Whereas violence and farce have been put together during Hartnell's reign, one generally comes after the other, and the harsh bits usually kept until the end.  This story, with quite a violent and oppressive time period by all accounts, takes the issues and blends them with the Doctor gallivanting around in drag, doing stupid accents.  Thankfully we're saved from the music to go with it.

If this is the case, you'd think I'd be jumping up and down with anger, but I'm not.  Looking back, it seems like the wrong move, but when you're in the moment, watching it, it feels natural, like the Doctor can laugh and jape his way through anything, but when it comes to the companions fates, the stakes are suitably high.

Ultimately, this is simpler to follow than Power of the Daleks, and even the story that it was based upon, and gives Polly some excellent opportunities to shine.  The problem is that it's more like a pirate story without the swash-buckling or people using pirate accents.  It's Braveheart without any battles. Oh, ok there's one battle at the end, but not having seen it, it just makes it harder to understand what's going on.

Rating

6 out of 10

This story is far from the worst, but others have done the same things better

Rewatchability Factor

3 out of 10

Now I've seen it, I'm just content to understand that Jamie is convinced to join the TARDIS and will probably skip over it from now on.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Reign of Terror

• The Smugglers

• The novel: Kidnapped

Consulting the Matrix

Do you think Kirsty would have made a better companion than Jamie?

The Power of the Daleks

6 episodes
Aired between 5th November 1966 and 10th December 1966

Written by David Whittaker
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Christopher Barry


Synopsis

Ben and Polly look on in amazement as the man on the floor of the TARDIS gets up.  They spend the next few minutes arguing over whether he is or isn't the Doctor.

The man has some kind of weird mental breakdown for a minute before it subsides and he is feeling better.

He wears different, yet similar clothes to the Doctor, and did wear the Doctor's ring, but it's too big for him now.  Despite Polly's assurance that it is the Doctor, the man refers to the Doctor in the third person, but that doesn't stop him going through "the Doctor's" luggage chest, picking out odds and ends like a magnifying glass, a recorder (the musical instrument kind) and his 500 year diary.

As the discussion goes on, the TARDIS lands, and the Doctor decides to leave, seemingly uninterested in Ben or Polly; more concerned with reading the book.  Ben even chastises him for not checking the readings before he left, but the man casually recounts the exact outdoor temperature etc.

The TARDIS has landed on Vulcan, a hot, desolate planet full of rocks and mercury swamps.

The man is content to simply wander off, jumping rocks and reading his book, until he hears someone calling to him.

He see's a man in white in the distance and decides to approach him.  Out of nowhere, the man in white is shot dead, but his killer stays hidden.  The man checks the victim's body, finding a badge that indicates he's an examiner from Earth.

Ben an Polly leave the TARDIS too, exploring the desolate landscape until they accidentally get too close to one of the mercury swamps, and get knocked unconscious by the fumes.

The man with the 500 year diary takes the Examiner's badge and is pursued by the murderer until he is knocked unconscious near the TARDIS.  The murderer places a button in the mans hand and mysteriously leaves.

A little later, the man, Ben and Polly are found by colonists: Quinn (Deputy Governor) and Bragen (Head of Security).  They mistake the man for the examiner, (a point which the man doesn't correct) and suppose he and his team are here to inspect "the space capsule".

Elsewhere in the colony two scientists: Lesterson and Janley are examining a strange non-corrosive metal.  Janley informs her boss that the Examiner has arrived, but Lesterson has no knowledge of any such Examiner being called for.  Janely shrugs it off and checks with her boss if she's ok to go to the lobby group meeting that night.  Lesterson agrees but warns her not to get too involved.

The Examiner, Ben and Polly are taken to see Governor Henshell who greets them kindly and gives them free reign of the base.  When the Governor is gone, the Examiner finally confides in Ben and Polly about the death of the real Examiner, and suggests they get to the bottom of it.

As Janley goes about her work, she sees Quinn in the corridor.  She greets him and during their brief conversation, remarks that he's missing a button.

Eventually, The Examiner, Ben, and Polly are taken to see the capsule by Hensell, Quinn, and Bragen.  They introduce Dr Lesterson, and Janley.  The Examiner works his way around the lab, picking up the strange metal and comparing it to a similar piece that he drew out from the Doctor's luggage.

Lesterson asks for permission to open the capsule, which the Examiner grants.  The door is opened, but it turns out to be only an outer door.  The Examiner keenly sees a slight opening in the inner door, but keeps it quiet, forbidding Lesterson to go any further until the following day.

That night, the Examiner sneaks back to the capsule with Ben and Polly and opens the inner door.  Inside, they find two inactive Daleks covered in cobwebs, and a space where a third one used to be.

 Out of nowhere, a hideous tentacled creature scuttles across the floor.

The Examiner recognises the machines as Daleks and thinks that Lesterson may have already been in here and taken the missing one.  He says that the Daleks can be revived by electricity.

Elsewhere, Quinn is looking for the Examiner who isn't in his quarters.  Bragen finds Quinn and begins questioning him about his missing button, but Quinn is dismissive of the security chief.

In the lab, Lesterson turns up and finds the Examiner, Ben and Polly inside the capsule.  He orders them out.  The Examiner notes that Lesterson isn't the least bit surprised at the sight of the Dalek's and decides to challenge Lesterson. When Lesterson denies it and refuses to destroy the other Daleks,, the Examiner storms off to see the Governor.  When they've gone, Lesterson retrieves the third Dalek from a hidden compartment in the lab and hurries to begin work to revive it before the Examiner can get approval to destroy them.

The group are led back to their quarters by Bragen, who agrees to arrange a meeting for them with the Governor.  In the meantime, he advises the Examiner to be careful in his investigation as there are rebel factions among the people in the base.  When Bragen leaves, Ben and Polly begin discussing the need to find the murderer, and work out who did call for the Examiner.

The Examiner finds a listening device in a piece of fruit.  Once it's crushed they're free to talk.  They believe that Lesterson isn't responsible because he wouldn't want the experiments messed up or stopped by Earth.  Similarly, the Governor wouldn't voluntarily ask to be put under scrutiny.  Ben gets fed up and just want's to go to the TARDIS, but the Examiner and Polly insist that they must stop Lesterson reviving the Daleks.

Bragen returns and tells them that they cannot see the Governor until the morning, but the Examiner isn't happy.  He says he's just going to contact Earth directly and goes off to find the communications relay.

Back in the lab, Lesterson, Janley, and an assistant Resno are working on the Dalek.  Janley and Resno seemingly hate each other, because Resno knows that Janley is a rebel.  Lesterson chastises them both and tells them to keep politics out of the lab.  They continue working and soon get the Dalek's eye stalk and sucker arm working.

The eye follows Resno wherever he goes, and when the gun comes online, it shoots Resno down.  Lesterson is shocked but Janley assures him he's only unconscious.  Lesterson rushes off to get help, leaving Janley to cover Resno's body over as if he were dead.  She goes and fully revives the Dalek on her own.

The Examiner reaches the communications relay but finds the equipment smashed and the operator has been knocked out.  Quinn appears from the shadows of the room and begins to talk to the Examiner, but Bragen turns up and decides to arrest Quinn for the whole lot of trouble including the murder (based on his missing button).  Quinn obviously protests, but is carried away by the guards.

With nothing left to be done, the Examiner, Polly and Ben return to their quarters until the next day.

In the morning, they are all escorted to Quinn's trial but are interrupted when Lesterson rushes in with a fully functional Dalek.  For safety he has removed the gun stick.  To everyone's surprise, the Dalek seems to recognise the examiner and tires to shoot him, being ineffectual without a gun.  Ben remarks that the Examiner must clearly be the Doctor because the Dalek recognised him.

The Doctor goes mental with Lesterson, saying it will kill them all, but to everyone's abject surprise, Lesterson shows that the Dalek is totally obedient, stating "I am your servant".

Despite the Doctor's insistence, the Governor see's the potential in keeping the Daleks functioning.  The Doctor tries to break their charade by ordering the Dalek to immobilise itself.

The Dalek does as it's commanded, although begrudgingly.  The Doctor vows to stop the Daleks and leaves.  As soon as he's gone, the Dalek reactivates.  When questioned as to why it did, the Dalek says that it obeys Lesterson, not the Doctor.

With all the disruption resolved, Quinn's trial continues.  Quinn confesses that it was him that sent for the examiner to deal with the rebels, and asks the Governor why he would want to kill the man he's sent for?

Bragen suggests that Quinn did it to make the Governor look ineffectual and take the role for himself.  The Governor believes the latter and imprisons Quinn, promoting Bragen to Deputy Governor.

The Doctor, Ben and Polly go back to their quarters where the Doctor jury rigs together a small electronic device.

They go to visit the lab, seeing Quinn being led away.  Polly protests, but the Doctor says it's better to let Quinn get wrongly imprisoned if they can focus on destroying the Daleks.

Once at the lab, the Doctor convinces Lesterson that he might have been a bit hasty condemning the Daleks, and tries to act all sweet and innocent until he attaches the device to the power supply.  The now two activated Daleks suddenly go bezerk, but luckily for them, Lesterson manages to stop it.

In shadowy corridors, Bragen and Janley meet.  It is revealed that Janley is one of the rebel leaders, but is working for Bragen who is using her to lure them into a trap where they will be crushed when they've done their job of making the Governor seem ineffectual.  Janley believes that they can use the Dalek gun technology to take over the colony and explains how potent it is, revealing that Resno, the assistant was actually killed by the Dalek, not wounded.  Janley dumped the body in a mercury pool.  Bragen congratulates her, but says he's unwilling to make a move on the colony whilst the Examiner is still around.

After leaving the meeting, Janley finds Polly snooping around and with the help of her assistant, kidnaps her.

Ben meets back up with the Doctor and is worries about Polly, but the Doctor casually dismisses his concerns.  He's more worried about the Daleks.  Ben gets angry and drags the Doctor off to confront Bragen about her disappearance.

In the lab, the experiments on the Daleks continue, and Lesterson is amazed at the amount of knowledge "the machines" have.  The Dalek boasts that it can vastly improve the colony's technology level by creating a great computer that could predict meteor swarms with 100% accuracy, if the materials are supplied.  Lesterson is most excited by this and immediately rushes off to get the materials.

Ben and the Doctor see Lesterson leave and waylay their trip to Bragen in order to look in the lab.  When they enter, they see a power cable leading from the generator into the space capsule.  As they try to turn the power off, they are confronted by two more fully armed Daleks who roll out of the ship.

The Doctor and Ben run out of the lab and straight to the Governor where they find Lesterson getting approval for the materials.  The Doctor argues with the scientist, but the Governor makes it quite clear that the Daleks are to be kept alive.  The Governor and Lesterson walk off, leaving Ben and the Doctor with Bragen.  They tell the now Deputy Governor of Polly's disappearance, but instead of helping them, Bragen announces that he knows they're impostors.  He makes a deal with them to keep their secret, so long as they leave the Daleks alone.

With little choice, the Doctor and Ben go back to their quarters, where a note is shoved under their door saying that also, Polly will be ok so long as they leave the Daleks alone.

Lesterson returns to the lab to see that the Daleks have now de-armed themselves.  They ask if they will be given the materials, which Lesterson confirms.  They begin chanting manically that "we will have our power" and begin closing in on Lesterson in a bit of a menacing way.  Lesterson reacts by cutting the power, incapacitating most of the Daleks.

He keeps the power off until they submit to his will once more.

The day after, Bragen takes over the work as Governor, whilst Hensell goes out to inspect the other parts of the colony for a day or two.  The Doctor and Ben turn up again, showing Bragen the note and reiterating their concerns about Polly.  Bragen says that because they are impostors, he's not interested and they will have to look for Polly themselves.

As they leave, the Doctor turns his mind back to the Daleks, wondering how long they can survive without static electricity.  As they walk, they count four Daleks moving about.  This is very concerning as there were only ever three.

Lesterson meanwhile is becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of materials the Daleks are consuming in their construction project.  He begins to doubt the voracity of the work and suggests that he might go and see the Examiner.  Janley takes the chance to blackmail Lesterson, explaining about Resno's death and forcing the scientist to keep quiet.

The Doctor and Ben arrive at the lab, wanting to talk to Lesterson about the extra Dalek that's turned up.  Lesterson bluffs and says they're just machines, but the Doctor assures him they are dangerous and if they're given enough resources, could cause major problems for the colony.  Those words strike home to Lesterson and the shock cause's him to pass out.  Janley calls a guard and makes up a story that the Examiner attacked Lesterson, forcing them out of the lab, leaving her to take over as a liaison with the Daleks.

Ejected from the lab, Ben and the Doctor go and examine a notice board that a shifty looking colonist was hanging around.  They find a hidden message in one of the notices that says a secret meeting will be held that night in Rocket Room P.  Together, the Doctor and Ben go and hide in the rocket room, hoping to find Polly's kidnappers.

Sure enough, that night, there is a meeting of the rebels.  The Doctor and Ben listen in from hiding as Janley brings in one of the Daleks with a control pack attached to it's gun arm.  She says that they can use the Dalek to take over the colony.  Everyone is skeptical until she orders for the Dalek to shoot her, using the control pack to make sure it cannot.

In her outlining of their plan. Janley reveals that they are holding Polly which (god knows why) surprises Ben into accidentally making a noise and giving up his hiding place.  He is knocked out and taken away.  The silent leader of the rebels - Bragen, calls the Doctor out from hiding and the Doctor obeys.  The Doctor threatens to tell the Governor about Bragen's treachery, but Bragen instead says that he intends to frame the Doctor and arrests him, placing in him in a cell next to Quinn.

Whilst in jail, the Doctor sees that the door is locked by sonics.  He begins running his finger around a cup to try and mimic the noise the key made..

Lesterson awakes from his trauma and makes his way inside the space capsule.  He find s a secret door that leads deeper inside, until he can see an expensive  factory making Daleks (the monsters as well as the metal case's).

He rushes out of the capsule and blocks the door before shutting off the generator.  He calls for the Doctor, but finds out he's been imprisoned.

The three usual Daleks emerge from the capsule and Lesterson is horrified.  He asks them how they can move without power, and they say that they can store electricity.  He runs off before the Daleks can do anything about him.

Janley turns up with Polly and instructs the Daleks that she's to be kept prisoner in the capsule.

Lesterson gets to the prison but he's told no one is to see the prisoners.  He bursts in and tells the Doctor what's happened before guards haul the scientist away to face Bragen.  As they reach his office, they see a Dalek laying power cables.  Lesterson demands to know what the Daleks are doing.  The Dalek replies that it's laying cable for a back up station, just like he ordered.  Lesterson says he gave no such order, but when Janley turns up, she makes Lesterson out to be a madman, leading Bragen to arrest him.

Inside the capsule, Janley's rebel friends: Valmar and Kebble have been convinced to help the Daleks with their work whilst they keep watch on Polly.  She ends up explaining how they're not really examiners, and that they should be more weary of the Daleks.  Her words seem to get through to them and they are more cautious.

In jail, the Doctor is worried by what Lesterson told him, but he's still imprisoned.  He gives up on the water idea, and plays his recorder.  Luckily for him, one of the notes matches the pitch of the sonic key and it unlocks the cell doors.  Finally free, Quinn disables the guard and they both sneak off.

Hensell returns from his trip, and begins questioning Bragen about all the cables around the complex, and asks where the Examiner is.  Bragen is quite arrogant and says that he's been imprisoned.  Hensell tries to take back his command, ordering the guards to arrest Bragen.  They don't, and Bragen gloats that they're his guards.  He offers the chance for Hensell to join him, but when he refuses, he is shot by a Dalek and killed.

The Doctor and Quinn rush to the lab, and free Polly.  They all run from the lab, pursued by Daleks. The Doctor jams the door with a spanner to hold them for a while and run off to stop Bragen.
Inside the lab, the Daleks regroup in the capsule and decide to simply help the humans start their revolution and begin killing each other, then they will turn on them and wreak destruction in the chaos.

When they reach his office, the Doctor, Polly and Quinn find Hensell dead.  They realise they're too late as Bragen has implemented marshal law, and captures the group again with his guards.

When the rebels give them the order to attack, the Daleks begin pouring out of the now open lab and begin chanting "Dalek's conquer and destroy".

Soon after, Janley meets with Bragen and says how happy she is that the Revolution is on.  Bragen is unhappy, and reminds her that the real plan is to wipe out the rebels once they've committed to the attack.  She reluctantly agrees.  Unknown to them, Valmar overhears them.  He takes their prisoner, Ben into the guest quarters and hides.  There he tells Ben about what he heard and goes off to find the Doctor and Polly.

Not long after Valmar leaves, Quinn, the Doctor and Polly manage to escape their escort back to jail.  The Doctor and Polly rush off and find Ben in the living quarters.  Ben fills them in on Bragen's full plan, and the Doctor tells them to wait whilst he goes off and sorts the problem.

As he makes his way through the corridors, he is confronted by Kebble and two guards.  They plan to capture the Doctor again, but Daleks turn up out of nowhere and begin firing on them.  The Doctor saves kebble's life by helping him escape.  Together they run off.  They make it back to the quarters and regroup with Ben and Polly.  They all try to escape out the window, but Kebble is killed in the process by the pursuing Daleks.

Elsewhere, Valmar has found his way back to the lab, and attaches three control units to the Dalek's weapons there.  Janley enters and Valmar confronts her with what he heard.  She convinces him that she wasn't going to betray the rebels, but Bragen.  The Daleks too seem to be adamant that they are the servants of the humans and seem eager to fight for the rebels, if they are only shown where to go.

Janley and Valmar lead the Daleks into battle but soon find that their "robots" are firing upon all humans, not just guards.  They luckily manage to escape before being exterminated themselves.

The Doctor and his friends make their way to the lab and find that Lesterson has gone there too,  He's clearly gone insane with it all, but has enough sense to hide the group, just as more Daleks emerge from the capsule.  When they're gone he tells the group that all is lost and that the Daleks are now the surpeme rulers of Vulcan.  Their only chance is perhaps using a secret power cable that Valmar installed in the capsule that also powers the rebel base.  The Doctor agrees and goes to find Valmar so he can reveal the location of the cable.

Out in the corridors, the Daleks continue their assault.  Quinn saves Valmar as Janley is exterminated, and the Doctor meets them both.

Valmar readily tells the Doctor where the cable is, and the Doctor scoots off again, charging Quinn and Valmar with finding Bragen and getting him to distract the Daleks in some way.

Everything's gone to pot for Bragen, and he is desperate.  Quinn enters and tells Bragen at gunpoint to order his guards back to the capitol, that should provide enough of a distraction.  Bragen agrees and carries out the order.

The Doctor makes it back to the lab and quickly finds the cable and power supply for the Daleks operations.  As the Doctor meddles with the supply, Polly yells that there are two Daleks approaching.  Lesterson provides a distraction, and is killed for it, but buys enough time for the Doctor to overload the power supply, supercharging all the Daleks and causing them to explode.  He also knocks himself out in the process.

Seeing the destroyed Daleks, Bragen seizes his opportunity and knocks the gun from Quinn's hand.  He grabs the gun, but Valmar kills him.

In the aftermath, Quinn is appalled at the sheer loss of life, and the destruction of the colony's entire power supply.  It will take months to repair.  The now conscious Doctor smiles sheepishly and suggests to Ben and Polly that they scarper, quickly.  They rush back to the TARDIS, which now has a destroyed Dalek by the side of it.

Ben asks if the Doctor really did know what he was doing when he destroyed the power supply, but the Doctor just smiles and remains tight lipped.  As the TARDIS dematerialises, the Dalek's eye stalk slowly raises itself up.


Trivia

• Bernard Archard, the actor who played Bragen, is also Marcus Scarman from Pyramids of Mars.  It was a very pleasant surprise to see him.

• As soon as Patrick Troughton turned up on set, the mood lightened massively.  He was fun and a bit of a joker, even if he still wasn't sure about his choice to play the Doctor.  As a bit of a prank one day, Annake Wills and Michael Craze (as well as some of the crew) decided to get T-shirts printed as a joke with the message "Come Back William Hartnell, All is Forgiven!"  Patrick took one look at the shirts and his face dropped.  He was really hurt by it, but soon perked up when they all explained.

• Originally, Patrick Troughton's Doctor was meant to be wearing a wig (possibly one of the reasons why he was having second thoughts about saying yes to the role).  The decision on the hair style hadn't been fully agreed, even close to the film date, which is why the regeneration scene is so close up on his face, showing no hairline at all.  Minutes before the initial shots were filmed for this story, Patrick borrowed Annake's comb, and combed his hair forward into a beatles style mop top.  The rest, as they say, is history.

What worked

• They kept the same noise for the Dalek doors - that's pleasing

• The music brings a lot of suspense when the Doctor is sneaking about the base

• The cobwebs over the Daleks is a nice and scary image, but what spiders live on a Dalek saucer?

• The fact that the Doctor hardly takes the time to explain anything is a bit of a double edged sword, but the change is refreshing,

• Right off the bat, Troughton is being funny in a Norman Wisdom kind of way.  Thankfully, it doesn't take anything away from the .tension of the story, because he does it in all the right places.

• Lesterson's scenes skulking about in the Daleks capsule

• In some ways, the complexity and agenda's of the supporting cast add a lot to the story

• The last episode where the Daleks begin to massacre everyone and Bragen takes power

What didn't work

• Because this is a lost episode, it's a bit difficult to understand who's doing what, especially when buttons are being handed out to people, it's just not clear at times who's doing what

• The loud chiming noise whenever something dramatic happens

• Spending seven minutes watching (or listening to) the Doctor go through an old chest whilst Ben rants and raves in the background.  Seeing it in 1966 might have been more acceptable though because this was the first ever regeneration, so people just didn't know what was going to happen and probably said similar things to Ben

• The Daleks are a bit too obvious in wanting to take over the world.  I mean, when one of them activates the others and removes their guns, they begin closing in on Lesterson in a threatening way, even though they've not got any weapons with which to deal with him and are still incredibly vulnerable to power loss.

• Why is there a rebellion anyway?   What's so bad about the current rulers of Vulcan, other than they can't understand that these alien machines might be a threat?

• Lesterson isn't the least bit curious to turn the Daleks off and look inside one?  Really?

• In fact, it's not only him, why doesn't anyone even ask the Daleks where they come from or who "built" them?

• Is the Dalek capsule really a DARDIS, because it's a hell of a lot bigger than the outside suggests.

Overall Feelings

This story is a complicated one.  It's a story about hubris, self appeasing ambition, and its consequences.

Taking it from the start, I usually have problems on the inaugural story of a new Doctor, and this makes no exception.  Troughton's acting is fine, but the character just feels uncomfortable, especially when he starts referring to the Doctor in the third person.  I'm sure that feeling is what the production team was going for, to cast doubt in your mind as to if this person is the character you love.  The problem is, doing all this deception makes you believe that it isn't, and therefore it makes me want to skip over the parts where he's bonkers and get to the bit where he's back to his old self.

This story isn't a nice easing in one for Patrick Troughton either.  It is a complex web of intrigue and mystery.  With more time, this could have really been a worthy contender for Game of Thrones, it's so complex, if not in ideas, then execution.  There are tons of scenes where people are going backwards and forwards to the lab, to the living quarters, all over the place getting waylaid from the purpose they were even going for.  It makes it confusing when we don't have the finished article to watch anymore.

The main problem with this story, isn't the plot.  It's not even the acting, as there are some great actors in this; it's the inconsistency of things, and the incompetence of the base staff, who very quickly agreeing to let "robots" from an unknown civilisation have the run of the place.  They give them all the materials they need for a project they know nothing about, and don't even oversee it!

It's inconsistent because from the Dalek Invasion of Earth onwards, we've established that the Daleks can move around independently, so why the need for electricity?  Why are the rebels upset?

Despite all the confusion, inconsistency and obvious dialogue, then there's a much deeper vein of science fiction horror here.  It has a feel of Terry Nation's attempt (see the Daleks).  Vulcan has a decent rounded out history, and everyone seems to have their own agenda.  The Dalek assault is as brutal and merciless as anything in the Daleks' Masterplan, and for that, a lot can be forgiven.

Rating

5 out of 10

Lots will irritate you about this story, but it's got a good tale at the heart of it, and the Daleks have rarely seemed so scary

Rewatchability Factor

4 out of 10

With the exception of the odd scene, episodes 2 - 5 are fillers but the story is worth an infrequent listen, because of the many character motivations

Watch this if you liked...

• Genesis of the Daleks

• Terror of the Vervoids

• The Victory of the Daleks (Doctor Who Series 5)

And if you like bad guys masquerading as good guys...

• The Daemons

• The King's Demons

• Castrovalva

Consulting the Matrix

Did the sheer amount of sub-plots add to, or detract from the story for you?