World's End (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 1)

The one where a Dalek rises out of the River Thames...

World's End opens with a cracking teaser which would work well as a pre-credits sequence if it was a 21st century episode (I've always wanted to re-edit 20th century Doctor Who episodes to include pre-credits teasers in the style of the new series; there's usually a scene that can be pulled out). It seems to show a deranged man (wearing what appears to be a neck brace) staggering into the river, apparently committing suicide. A less than cheery but intriguing way to open a new story!

And then the TARDIS materialises silently in front of the most chilling bill poster ever to appear in Doctor Who - IT IS FORBIDDEN TO DUMP BODIES INTO THE RIVER. Straight away we're getting a keen idea of what sort of a world this is, and it isn't pleasant. Following a rather shaky TARDIS interior scene in which it seems everything pivots on exactly when William Hartnell is going to deliver his line of hanky-waving exasperation, our heroes scamper outside into their first ever location filming (remember: that wasn't Hartnell on location in Guests of Madame Guillotine).

And wow, isn't it refreshing to see the stars in a real location, albeit very briefly? If I didn't know better I'd be convinced Hartnell wasn't actually on location with the others, as we only get the briefest glimpse of his face before the camera moves behind them. It could for all the world be a bunch of stand-ins, but later footage proves this not to be so.

The TARDIS has landed on the banks of a river under a bridge, surrounded by debris. It's quiet, prompting Ian to suggest it might be Sunday (foreshadowing Survival by 25 years there!). The Doctor doubts they have returned to 1963, but Ian rather rashly says he isn't bothered if it's a few years out either side. Well, actually Ian, returning to 1961 or 1965 could be pretty serious. If you return to London before you've left, there'll be two of you running around at Coal Hill, and if you go back years after you disappeared, there'll be questions from the police to answer about why you vanished without a trace at precisely the same time as one of your school pupils! Whenever Ian and Barbara do get back to their own time, it's going to have to be mere hours after they left in 1963...

This episode is directed with quite some panache, so it surprised me when I saw it was Richard Martin in charge, whose work on The Daleks left me distinctly unimpressed. I might add that it is principally the location filming which impresses most, but even the studio scenes are shot with some vision, such as the frequent high shots looking down on the scene to create space in the frame.

The TARDIS is buried in rubble thanks to Susan mucking about, and our heroes can no longer return to the safety of the Ship. The Doctor is not pleased, berating Susan for causing the landslide, and adding that she deserves a "jolly good smacked bottom!" A comment like that raises eyebrows these days of course, but back in 1964, corporal punishment was an acceptable way of keeping youngsters in line, even if those youngsters were usually younger than Susan's 15 or so. Corporal punishment in state and government-funded schools in the UK wasn't actually banned until 1986! Still, I think we can safely assume the Doctor would never physically harm his granddaughter, and I do love the way William Russell affectionately rubs Carole Ann Ford's head in reassurance as they leave.

So, the TARDIS crew have been at their new destination for less than 20 minutes (less than seven on screen), and already Susan has twisted her ankle and become a liability. So far, so normal. The Doctor and Ian venture off to look for an acetylene torch to cut through the girder blocking their way back to the TARDIS, and the location filming at St Katherine's Dock is the first time we get a proper view of the Doctor on location. It feels almost wrong to see Hartnell in a real place (I get a similar feeling watching The War Machines) because we're so used to seeing him in studios on mocked-up outdoor sets, but I'm so glad we can see it here, because it's a rare occurrence indeed.

This exploration of the warehouse is accompanied by some fantastically atmospheric music by Francis Chagrin which wouldn't be out of place in a Hammer horror film. A spooky organ makes these scenes tense and dangerous, and later in the episode, when Barbara is running to join the freedom fighters, Chagrin gives us a more regimented, militaristic score punctuated by hammer-into-anvil sampled percussion. It's remarkable stuff which really sets a mood, and Doctor Who was lucky to have him on board (indeed, The Dalek Invasion of Earth was one of the very last scores Chagrin would write for film or TV, having previously worked on such movies as The Colditz Story and Alistair Sim's An Inspector Calls).

There's a very odd exchange between Susan and Barbara where Susan seems to be blind to the fact that situations, people, places and locations can change, which is a bizarre point of view for a super-intelligent alien who travels through time and space. "Is it selfish to want us all to stay together?" she asks Barbara, who says "of course not". Then: "Things have to stay as they are, don't they? They can't change." Of course, it's a timely foreshadowing of what happens in the final episode of this serial, but on the face of it, it's a very odd thing for Susan to say.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Ian spot Battersea Power Station across the river and see that it has lost two of its iconic chimneys, causing Ian to wonder if this future London has moved to nuclear power. Britain's (indeed, the world's) first nuclear power station was Calder Hall in Cumbria, which was connected to the National Grid in 1956, so Ian was well aware such a future might come about. The Doctor finds a calendar labelled the year 2164, but this does not mean they are in that year, just that it's most probably a recent year. There's gunfire in the distance, and they find the body of a man stabbed in the chest. The intrigue is really built up by writer Terry Nation as we begin to question why there was a body hidden in a cardboard box, a body with a strange contraption on his head and clutching a whip. And who is the handsome stranger watching them from behind the rubble? Nation may not be so great at characterisation, but his episode ones are often exceptionally good at ramping up the mystery (see The Dead Planet, Death to the Daleks Part One, The Android Invasion Part One and Destiny of the Daleks Episode One).

After Ian kicks down a door and almost falls to his death through a hole, they return to the TARDIS to find Barbara and Susan gone. They're distracted (as is the viewer!) by the appearance of a flying saucer in the sky above London. It's an appallingly poor model effect best overlooked (it looks like a bin lid or a car hubcap, and probably was!).

Barbara and Susan meet a whole raft of new characters in quick succession, and we don't really get to know who they are and what they're doing, but it's refreshing to see someone in a wheelchair, Doctor Who's first disabled character. The programme didn't do diversity so well in its first couple of decades, but it begins here, with Dortmun. These people seem desperate and scared of something, and living on the edge. The devilishly handsome David is pleased to learn that Barbara can cook, then asks Susan: "What do you do?", to which she defiantly replies: "I eat!"

At the riverside, the Doctor and Ian fear the water may be infected by plague-riddled bodies, but this doesn't stop Ian suggesting they dive in to the Thames to escape the approaching zombie-like drones, which look beautifully incongruous on location at Irongate Wharf (they also look remarkably like Cybermen when shot from above). And then there's Doctor Who's first stone cold WTF cliffhanger when a Dalek emerges from the Thames to corner them! I mean, WHAT?! If Strangers in Space has Doctor Who's first properly scary cliffhanger (that spacewalking Sensorite), then World's End is the first time the viewer has the rug pulled from under them with an unexpectedly fabulous yet iconic image. Quite why there's a Dalek in the Thames we'll have to wait to find out!

First broadcast: November 21st 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Richard Martin's location filming is energetic and tense, lifted by Francis Chagrin's atmospheric music.
The Bad: The less said about that Dalek flying saucer, the better...
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

NEXT TIME: The Daleks...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Daleks (episode 2); 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