The Waking Ally (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 5)

The one where Barbara and Jenny are betrayed for a bag of sugar...

Let's get it out of the way straight away, shall we? Who or what exactly is the waking ally? The obvious (and possibly only) answer is that it's the Doctor, because he spent all last episode ill or unconscious, and now he's back. But if that's the case, it suggests the name of episode 5 was changed to reflect what was a late alteration to the story, owing to William Hartnell's back injury. That would be fine if it weren't for the fact so little is made of the return of the Doctor. In fact, there's barely any mention of him having been absent, and the first we see of him he's already reunited with Susan, David and Carl with no explanation. As if it never happened!

Pretty lame, really, but it does pique my curiosity as to what episode 5 was originally going to be called before Hartnell went off sick. Perhaps The Day After the End of Tomorrow or something similarly abstruse?

Our old friend the slyther looks a little different this week, the costume having been tweaked between episodes because it looked, to be blunt, ridiculous. To be honest, it doesn't look much better now, and I had to laugh when Ian and Larry leapt into a mining bucket to escape it and Ian says: "It's still coming! I hope it can't jump", and then Larry adds: "It's gonna try!" Sadly, it seems the slyther cannot jump, and it falls down the shaft to its doom with a pathetic whimper. The fact it's not at the bottom of the shaft when Ian and Larry get there perhaps suggests it survived, but seeing as it takes 20 minutes for the bucket to reach the foot of the shaft (over a mile and a half deep), this is unlikely. Poor slyther.

When the boys reach the bottom, the bucket halts 12ft shy of the floor, so Ian decides to jump for it, but as any good Boy Scout knows, if you're leaping from a great height (such as a first floor window), you don't jump from the level, you dangle yourself as low as you can from the ledge to lessen the drop, which in this case would probably have halved Ian's fall. Ah well, his science is probably a little rusty.

One of many little moments of tragedy in The Dalek Invasion of Earth is the death of Larry Madison. He's accompanied Ian on his adventures ever since leaving the saucer in Day of Reckoning, searching for his brother, and here, in the mine workings, he finally finds him. Sadly, Phil Madison has been robotised and fails to recognise his brother. It's sad to see Larry desperately trying to get through Phil's conditioning by mentioning his wife Angela, but it's to no avail, despite a flicker of conflict on actor Peter Badger's face. It ends with the inevitable, the conditioned Phil gunning down his brother at point-blank range, with Larry's final words urging Ian to "run, run...!" Such a well done scene, so it's a real shame that William Russell doesn't show a bit more sorrow at the loss of Ian's comrade. Poor Larry.

Barbara and Jenny, meanwhile, seek shelter at a hut in the woods belonging to two peculiar women, both of whom seem instantly untrustworthy. Indeed, these two harridans end up shopping Barbara and Jenny to the Daleks in return for provisions, but it adds colour to the desperate existence the world has become that humans would betray fellow humans to their oppressors just for some bread, oranges and sugar. Where the Daleks got oranges from, I don't know, but more disturbing is the way the younger, apparently "simple" woman victoriously licks sugar from the packet.

I do love this oh-so-brief encounter with the women in the woods, though. Who are they? Are they related? They claim they help the Daleks by making clothes for the slave workers, but it surprises me that the Daleks care whether their slaves have clothes or not. The older woman (Meriel Hobson) also gives a glimpse into what London life in the 22nd century was like when she recalls the capital's moving pavements and astronaut fair, although Barbara looks thoroughly bored by this going by the look on her face!

It's worth mentioning another sad aside here about actor Jean Conroy, who played the younger woman. Jean has the unfortunate honour of being the first person to appear in Doctor Who to die, as she was tragically killed in an accident in the street on November 14th, 1964, just four weeks after she'd recorded the episode.

But that's not all: Jean was killed five weeks before The Waking Ally was broadcast, so she was dead before she even appeared in Doctor Who. She was just 29 years old. Poor Jean.

Barbara and Jenny are put to work by the Daleks in the mine, but Babs has the clever idea of trying to get to Dalek Control by using Dortmun's scientific notes as a bargaining chip. I stifled a titter when the Dalek read the notes, then turned to camera to explain to the viewers: "Details of the acid bomb used in the unprovoked attack on the London saucer landing area." It's like one of those moments in The Caves of Androzani when Morgus breaks the fourth wall and shares his thoughts with the viewer, or when Francis Urquhart confides his innermost machinations with those at home in the BBC adaptation of House of Cards! As for the Dalek's cheeky claim that the acid bombs were unprovoked... I think bombarding Earth with meteorites, releasing a deadly plague which wipes out tens of millions of people, and enslaving the surviving population with an ultimate aim of hollowing out the planet's magnetic core to use it as an intergalactic bus service is enough of a provocation!

Meanwhile, David Campbell thinks that a great way to endear himself to Susan is to slip something cold, wet and slimy down the back of her neck. His playful assault on Susan with a raw fish is undoubtedly the most unorthodox courting ritual in Doctor Who's history, but when they collapse into each other's arms and begin to kiss... It's a game-changer! When the Doctor interrupts this tryst, it becomes all too obvious that he realises what's been going on. David stutters out an explanation that they were preparing supper, but the Doctor observes: "I can see something's cooking", which Hartnell delivers beautifully. And then that telling little remark when the Doctor informs David that Susan is a very good cook. This is the Doctor letting go of his beloved grandchild as gently as he can.

And on the subject of the Daleks and their dastardly scheme to pilot the Earth around the universe as a gigantic spaceship... They can do it by controlling the flow of living energy, to which David responds: "They dare to tamper with the forces of creation?" And then the Doctor's killer line, which sums up his character perfectly: "Yes! They dare! And we have got to dare to stop them!"

The cliffhanger involves Ian getting trapped inside the Daleks' bomb which they are about to drop into the Earth's core, but all I can say is it's his own fault for climbing in there. I mean, what a silly place to hide, Ian!

First broadcast: December 19th, 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The campfire scene between the Doctor, David, Carl and Susan is marvellous.
The Bad: Poor slyther. Poor Larry Madison. Poor Jean Conroy...
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Flashpoint...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: World's End (episode 1); The Daleks (episode 2); Day of Reckoning (episode 3); The End of Tomorrow (episode 4); 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