The Power of the Daleks Episode One

The one where the Doctor becomes uncommunicative, but musical...

The Power of the Daleks marks the overdue, but much welcome, return of former Doctor Who script editor David Whitaker, whose last work for the series was writing The Crusade in 1965. Whitaker was a very capable and professional writer, particularly of character, and that skill is more than welcome after several serials where incident and spectacle often came before character.

Whitaker uses Ben and Polly's innately opposing outlooks on life to represent what the viewers at home would have been thinking. The characteristically optimistic and more open-minded Polly represents those watching who embrace change and renewal, whereas the more stubborn-headed and pessimistic Ben represents those at home who feel unsure about what's happened, those who aren't convinced about changing the actor playing the Doctor.

Ben is very sceptical about the Doctor claiming to have a new face and body, whereas as Polly seems more receptive to the idea. To be fair, Ben's reaction is by far the more realistic, because despite everything they've seen so far, a man completely altering the way he looks, speaks and acts is something far beyond their experience. It's lunacy! Your automatic reaction would be disbelief, and the assumption that this man was an imposter.

Polly latches on to the Doctor mentioning his old body getting a bit thin in The Tenth Planet and runs with it. "It is the Doctor, I know it is. I think..." she insists, but why does she tend to believe this outrageous transformation? This new chap is showing very few signs that he is anything like the Doctor they know already.

This Doctor is shorter, younger, darker, completely different in almost every way (even his vision is corrected). What is interesting is that his clothes seem to have changed along with the rest of him, morphing into a strange corruption of the First Doctor's outfit - the checked trousers and the dark jacket are intact, but they're baggier and scruffier. He looks like the Pied Piper or a leprechaun with his stovepipe hat and recorder. Are his regenerating clothes part of the TARDIS process? Well no, because they don't change when he regenerates in the TARDIS in later incarnations (perhaps it would've been better if the Ship had chosen the Sixth Doctor's new clothes for him). Also, if the change of clothes is something to do with the TARDIS's rejuvenation of the Doctor, why are they too big for him? Was the Doctor merely supposed to rejuvenate his existing body, or was he supposed to have a bigger frame?

This Doctor is instantly cold and unlikeable. Well, I say unlikeable, but perhaps what I mean is he's not likeable. It's hard to take against him, but neither is there much to find endearing in him. Apart from the odd toot on his recorder, he's altogether an uncommunicative soul, refusing to acknowledge that he is the Doctor and referring to himself in the third person ("I don't look like him"). Perhaps it's something to do with that god awful whistling and drumming sound he hears when he first wakes, like a demented football referee at a carnival. Or is it the faint sound of drums that the Master couldn't get rid of...?

Less than 10 minutes is spent on the Doctor's post-regenerative recuperation until the story kicks in when our heroes venture outside, into the bubbling, seething mercury swamps of the planet Vulcan. In later years the Doctor's regeneration would take up inordinate amounts of screen time, but Whitaker's no-nonsense treatment is probably more effective, basically presenting the audience with the cold fact that William Hartnell has gone, Patrick Troughton is here, and to prove he's the Doctor, let's have an adventure on an alien planet with some monsters. Simple. Eat your heart out 1980s Doctors!

The Doctor instantly gets himself into trouble. The very first new person he meets in this new body is murdered before he can even finish his sentence, and it's not long before the three of them are taken into a nearby Earth colony base, where the real adventure can begin. It seems scientist Lesterson has discovered a strange capsule in the mercury swamps, which he reckons must have been there for 200 years - yet its metal is undamaged. All very Quatermass.

Meanwhile, Ben continues to distrust this new Doctor, and gets very irate with him when all he seems willing to do is toot away on his silly recorder. He refuses to confirm he is the Doctor, or explain to his companions what's happened and why. In fact, he treats Ben and Polly pretty abominably, barely registering their presence most of the time. He keeps most of his thoughts to himself, sharing very little with his friends, who he surely knows he can trust. All very Seventh Doctor. I don't blame Ben for losing his rag with the old duffer.

The Doctor quickly and enthusiastically adopts the identity of the late Earth Examiner, seeing as everybody seems to think he is the Examiner. Perhaps he does this to reconnect with the "inner Doctor", the "true Doctor", the Doctor whose interest is always piqued, whose curiosity always gets the better of him, who can't help getting involved. It's the one thing all of the Doctors share, even if everything else changes. It's amusing that he carefully examines the tunics of the Earth colonists, looking for a missing button, which might explain why he had one thrust into his hand by his unseen assailant outside.

The plot very quickly focuses in on Lesterson's capsule, and director Christopher Barry leaves nothing to the imagination by using Tristram Cary's stock music and various sound effects (door mechanism etc) from earlier Dalek serials, rather giving away any element of surprise or tension well in advance of any revelations (yes I know we've already seen this is called The Power of the Daleks, but still...). It's a little too coincidental that the piece of Dalek metal the Doctor found in the TARDIS chest, and pocketed, now comes in very useful. There is a moment where the Doctor says he suspected the Daleks would be here, but surely he couldn't have known as far back as being in the TARDIS? I do have one theory: back in the TARDIS the Doctor was consulting his 500-Year Diary. Maybe he read something in there that prompted him to expect the Daleks? That would mean the First Doctor had some kind of foreknowledge, or that a future Doctor had written in it for the Second Doctor to find somehow?

The exploration of the Dalek capsule at night-time is spooky and eerie, directed like a haunted house film by Barry. The way the dormant Daleks are dressed with strings of cobwebs in the half-light is all pretty unsettling, and the moment where the sucker arm falls in a classic jump-scare is a perfect evocation of the cliffhanger to Imps and Demons, the third episode of Rudolph Cartier's production of Quatermass and the Pit in 1959.

"Polly, Ben... come in and meet the Daleks," says the Doctor ominously, almost as if he's enjoying showing off these foul creatures to his companions. And then they notice that a third Dalek has been here, but is missing... and then something moves in the darkened corner... it's a Dalek mutant creature scuttling away! Terrifying stuff!

First broadcast: November 5th, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: David Whitaker gets past the change of lead actor quite quickly and efficiently, demanding that the viewer simply accepts and moves on as soon as possible. However, he does keep Ben's scepticism intact, serving the doubtful viewers well. Oh, and that's a cracking cliffhanger too.
The Bad: Patrick Troughton does not present a very likeable Doctor on first appearance, and although much of that is in the writing (and perhaps a lot is lost by not being able to see the visuals), it's a shame he couldn't have come over as more acceptable to help the transition flow better. A foreshadowing of Doctors Six and Twelve?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5; Episode 6

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-power-of-daleks.html

The Power of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD in both animated form and as a telesnap reconstruction. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Power-Daleks-DVD/dp/B01LOC83Y2