The Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 2)

The one where we learn what good invaders the Daleks are...

The Daleks are back! The popularity of the pepperpots from Skaro at this point in Doctor Who's history was immense. The public had been demanding their return ever since they faded from TV screens nine months previously, and the only way to do that was to have an adventure set before their ultimate destruction on Skaro as seen in The Daleks.

The Doctor is wise to them this time though, and William Hartnell plays it with a healthy dollop of outraged, and perhaps over-confident, defiance which will come to typify the traveller's clashes with the Daleks. No longer is he afraid or keen to turn tail and flee. "I think we'd better pit our wits against them and defeat them," he tells Ian. That's the Doctor we know and respect.

But what's this? An eavesdropping Dalek! "Stop! I can hear you," it grates. "I have heard many similar words from leaders of your different races. All of them were destroyed. I warn you, resistance is useless... We are the masters of Earth." There's a great shot from director Richard Martin here with the Dalek slowly approaching the camera with its domineering refrain (but, as so often with Martin, it's not as well executed as it could have been, with the Dalek off-centre).

Barbara and Susan are getting to know the rebels a bit better, so that we can too. There's wheelchair-bound leader Dortmun, who believes his new grenades will destroy the Daleks by blowing up their casings; there's the world-weary Carl Tyler (perhaps a descendant of the Tylers of the Powell Estate?); there's the energetic young hero David Campbell. And then there's Jenny.

Jenny (played very naturally and convincingly by Ann Davies, Jacqueline Hill's best mate, and Mrs Richard Briers no less!) is a brusque, matter-of-fact, no-nonsense kind of woman, aptly mocked by David as "a model of charm and patience". She gets things done, wastes no time, all hands on deck. She says herself, she has no time for sentimentality, ably demonstrated when she insists that there's no hope for anybody taken aboard the saucer, much to Susan's horror. We can only assume she has this emotional guard because of what happened to her brother, who was turned into a mindless Roboman by the Daleks. This has hardened Jenny, and made her a stronger but brittler woman. Jenny is by far my favourite guest character in The Dalek Invasion of Earth because she feels so real.

We see the Daleks as soldiers and sentries in this episode, guarding the saucer and parading the prisoners around like jackbooted Nazis. Each prisoner is branded with their strange alien wording, an obvious play on Hitler's use of the Swastika in the 1930s and 40s. However, action scenes are directed with Martin's trademark clunky charm - when Thomson attempts his escape, it's unconvincing because nobody seems to be rushing to do very much. He runs this way, then that way, then gives up and waits breathlessly for the Daleks to trundle over into the right camera shot to exterminate him.

Proceedings are similarly confused at the end of the episode when the rebels attack the Daleks with the bombs outside the saucer. The set-up's great - it's night-time, with roving spotlights raking the ground like a POW camp, all shot from up high - but the clumsy choreography of the Dalek props makes everything so laboured and confused. By the end of the episode, the rebels are supposed to be running riot through the saucer freeing prisoners, but what we see is a few actors bumbling about in the background while the chief Dalek ploughs on with his intention of operating on the Doctor's mind. Echoes of Martin's disappointing work on The Rescue, I fear.

I'm loving that multi-coloured Dalek, by the way. I wish I could see it in colour. It has a dark dome and alternately coloured body slats. It's obviously in charge, and it also has a fabulous sense of presentation, because when it approaches the microphone to broadcast to the rebels of London, it clears its throat first!

The Doctor and Ian learn from Craddock how the Dalek invasion came about. First the planet was bombarded with meteorites which turned out to contain a deadly germ which wiped out whole continents of people, including Asia, Africa and South America (basically, anywhere non-Caucasians lived). Six months later the Daleks landed and enslaved the remaining humans, setting them to work underground and turning the county of Bedfordshire (all 477 square miles of it) into a giant mine. Good plan, but what are they digging for?

"Suppose we forget all this blab about Bedfordshire?" snaps the Doctor, who's more interested in getting out of the cell. His increasing frustration with the pessimistic Craddock is lovely, Hartnell hitting the right notes of irascibility and eccentricity. The Doctor obviously does not suffer fools, or defeatists, gladly! And what a lovely little exchange between Hartnell and William Russell: "Did you take three-dimensional graph geometry at your school?", to which Ian replies: "No, only Boyle's Law", to which a gleefully chuckling Doctor replies: "We shall have to boil this down now, shan't we?" in reference to the test. It feels like a Hartnell ad-lib, because Russell seems most amused!

The Daleks have actually set an intelligence test to see if the Doctor is clever enough to get out of the cell, and have conveniently left a magnifying glass and a prototype version of Orac from Blake's 7 in the cell. It isn't long until the Doctor has demagnetised their way out of the cell, only to fall straight back into the clutches of the Daleks (who shout something in unison at one point, something about setting a test, but the dialogue is delivered so haphazardly that it's virtually incomprehensible).

The episode ends with the Doctor flat out on an operating table with some sort of hairdryer or MRI scanner swooping away above him. Will the Daleks succeed in turning the Doctor into a Roboman?

First broadcast: November 28th, 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Richard Martin's staging of the Daleks and their saucer landing area is pretty impressive, again shot from above to create space and size. It's just a pity the execution lets his ambition down.
The Bad: There's not much to do for Ian or Susan, particularly the latter. Carole Ann Ford was no doubt itching to leave by this point.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Day of Reckoning...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: World's End (episode 1); Day of Reckoning (episode 3); The End of Tomorrow (episode 4); The Waking Ally (episode 5); Flashpoint (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/2013/06/the-dalek-invasion-of-earth.html

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is available on DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Dalek-Invasion-Earth/dp/B00009PBAN