While I’ve been struggling as of late I didn’t want to miss out on documenting the fact I watched two episodes of Doctor Who I was pretty sure were lost forever a month or two ago. Episodes 1 and 3 of The Daleks’ Master Plan was returned and released digitally back at Easter and given Episode 2 already existed watching three episodes of the serial one after the other was pretty amazing. Given I already have a review of Episode 7 up as part of my Christmas Who marathon a while ago I thought I’d continue on with the also-existing Episode 5 and photo recons of 4 and 6. I’ll hold off on the second half just on the off chance that more episodes or animations might be coming our way in the future. Let’s take a look!
The story picks up directly from the end of the previous episode, which saw Steven (Peter Purves) poisoned during the battle of Troy. As such The Doctor (William Hartnell) goes out to what turns out to be the planet Kembel to find aid while Katarina (Adrienne Hill) tends to Steven in the ship. Katarina, for the record, was a pretty random addition to the TARDIS crew, being a Trojan hand maiden who believes she is dead and on a journey to the afterlife. Anyway, during the opening moments we also see two things: Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney, in his pre-Brigadier days but essentially playing the same role, just in spaaaaace) is stranded on Kembel and the Daleks have killed many of his men, and that those same Daleks are part of a group of leaders scheming to take over the various galaxies they come from, and among them is Mavic Chen (Kevin Stoney) who is the “Guardian of the Solar System” and Earth’s leader, but they seem to mean the galaxy rather than just our Solar System… Either way he’s portrayed as saintly on the media so his betrayal and deal with the Daleks is shown as a shock when various characters find out.
The Daleks’ Plan something Masterfully.
Bret and The Doctor meet and it doesn’t go great, the former trying to rob the latter of his ship so he can warn his people of the Daleks, but the tables are soon turned and Bret is left magnetically held to a chair in the TARDIS. The Doctor does some more research into what the Daleks are planning and eventually finds out they plan to use an extremely rare mineral only found in Chen’s neck of the woods to create a weapon that can allow them to destroy any who oppose them (later revealed to be a “Time Destructor”) and while this is going on Bret convinces Katarina to give Steve some medicine he has in his pocket out of the goodness of his heart, leading to her freeing him. The Doctor comes back and soon he, Bret, Steven and Katarina are on the same page as The Doctor dresses up as a delegate and steals the Time Destructor core and then they all escape on Mavic Chen’s personal ship (though Bret tried to take off without The Doctor when he took too long) The ship isn’t easy to control though so they crash onto a nameless prison planet and before they take off they get some unwelcome guests on board, the last of which is still on the ship when it takes off…
If there’s one thing the Daleks’ Master Plan doesn’t do it’s slow down the pace. It’s the longest story in Doctor Who (unless you count “Trial of a Time Lord” as one story anyway) and it constantly changes locations and adds new cast members to keep things fresh. Even in these first six episodes alone barely any of the sets are used for more than a couple of episodes. It’s really fun to follow along with, the story is a good bit of classic sci-fi too and it’s not afraid to act a little more mature than a lot of 60s Who normally does…
The Continuity:
I’ve decided to ignore the out-dated “brownface” used for Mavic Chen here. I’ve commented before in other stories how unfortunate it is but should be kept for historical purposes. “It is what it is”, as the phrase goes.
Ignoring the prologue episode “Mission to the Unknown” and obviously the next episodes in the serial (starting with “The Feast of Steven”) if we’re talking the Daleks’ Master Plan in general then there are LOT’S of references, especially in Big Finish audio media. There are three Companion Chronicles featuring Sara Kingdom (“Home Truths”, “The Drowned World” and “The Guardian of the Solar System”) that partially take place in between these six and the next six (after Feast of Steven). The Fourth Doctor series of stories featuring Ann Kelso, later revealed to be Anna Kingdom, are sequels to this story and feature a lot of the Galactic Delegates as villains throughout its run, but especially “The False Guardian / Time’s Assassin” and “The Perfect Prisoners”.
The Tenth Doctor audio series “Dalek Universe” is a sequel to the Ann Kelso / Anna Kingdom stories and therefore also feature a lot of crossover with Master Plan stuff, especially the “Space Security Service”. The Second Doctor audio story “Daughter of the Gods” includes the team of The Doctor, Steven and Katarina from this story crossing over with the Second Doctor, Zoe and Jamie. The Time Destructor turns up in the War Doctor story “The Innocent”, as well. I think that’s all of them, audio-wise but I may have missed some, believe it or not… Otherwise not much to say, though I’m sure bits have appeared in Comics and Novels over the years…
Overall Thoughts:
Never before seen! … Or rather “seen by a few people at various points in the 60s but not seen by anyone else since! … Apart from the collector who hoarded it for himself for decades.” … That doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, mind…
The first half-ish of The Daleks’ Master Plan is really just The Doctor and co. running from the Daleks after having stolen something, but given the constant rotation of guest cast, locations and situations it doesn’t feel like a generic runaround. I’m so glad to be able to SEE so much of it now as well. Highly recommended, I mean the whole thing in general but also as a first half of a story…
As the random prisoner who snuck aboard holds Katarina captive the former handmaiden opens the airlock, sucking both him and her into outer space and becoming the first companion to die in service of the Doctor, and the last until Adric during the Fifth Doctor’s run! Anyway, heartbroken The Doctor, Steven and Bret take the ship to Earth to try and warn them about Chen and the Daleks but sadly Bret’s good friend Daxtar (Roger Avon) turns out to be in on it and instead informs Mavic Chen about everything. He sends some Space Security Agents after them, including Sara Kingdom, Bret’s sister. In a tense showdown Bret tries to convince her loyal and all-business sibling that he was doing the right thing but in a bit of a shocker she doesn’t listen to him and shoots him dead. Before they can react The Doctor, Steven and Sara are all taken to the planet Mira, where they are forced to work together to overcome the Daleks once more, and this time they escape in a Dalek Saucer, though it’s still under the control of the Daleks so they force it back to Kembel in hopes to finally steal the core back from The Doctor.
“That was quite a harrowing time. Who fancies a bit of a lark in 60s London?”
After some good old fashioned running around The Doctor creates a fake core and pretends to have no choice but to give it to his enemies, with Steve playing along (and Sara not being in on it until later) While The Daleks walk, or um, glide off with the fake core The Doctor, Steven and Sara get on board the TARDIS and dematerialise…