Journey Into Terror (The Chase Episode 4)

The one where Vicki gets left behind and hitches a ride with the Daleks...

Have you ever noticed that Barbara is first out of the TARDIS doors every time they land in this story? She's first out on Aridius, first out in New York and on the Mary Celeste, and she's first out here, when they arrive in a nightmarish haunted house. She's leading the way throughout, unafraid of what might lurk outside. That's our Babs!

Well, I say unafraid, but within minutes of the TARDIS crew arriving in this strange house they're all gibbering like children, scared of the cheapest of props - "vampire" bats on string, thunder and lightning, creaky floors and even a fireplace with glowing eyes (OK, I admit that last one's a bit weird). But after everything these people have been through you'd think they'd be mature enough to take these tropes in their stride, but instead we get more of the comedy which is a hallmark of Season 2.

Don't get me wrong, I like light-hearted, but of late the TARDIS travellers have become figures of fun. Ian especially has been considerably diluted as a character, pretty much since The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Ian was once the programme's lead character, the hero to the Doctor's wise old sage, but these days he's become largely light relief. The Ian of An Unearthly Child would not be so reticent about climbing a flight of stairs as he is here. It's a real shame.

The four unwisely split up, the girls staying near the TARDIS and the boys investigating upstairs, where they encounter a spooky apparition (quite a good effect) and Frankenstein's monster. Oh, and there's also a Dalek lurking in the shadows of Frankenstein's laboratory, but nobody seems to notice it, and I don't think the audience is supposed to either seeing as the Daleks have yet to actually arrive!

The pacing of the scenes in the haunted house are pedestrian at best, so it's no surprise to learn that Richard Martin is at the helm, probably my least favourite director of early Who. He comes up with some fantastic camera angles (the high shot looking down the staircase, Frankenstein's monster lurching at the camera, the high shot overseeing the Dalek time machine interior), but he was far from adept at directing action and giving it life. The stilted pace of Barbara and Vicki's encounter with Dracula, and then Barbara's disappearance into the tunnel, is jarring, and although it all leads up to a rewardingly surreal climax - a screaming grey lady, Dracula asking the Daleks not to go, Frankenstein's monster throwing Daleks around like he's a WWF wrestler - it's also confusingly orchestrated. Maybe that was Martin's aim, but somehow I doubt it. As Ian says, it certainly stimulates the phagocytes.

I love the Doctor's theory about where they've landed. Faced with so many Universal horror film tropes he believes that they have landed in "an area of human thought", a part of the human mind created by mass fear of such hallmarks of horror - "We're in a world of dreams," he says. "Creaking doors, thunder and lightning, monsters and all the things that go bumpity-bumpity in the night!" It's a fascinating possibility (and surprising that the Doctor believes such a place is even possible or able to be visited by the TARDIS) which hints at future "unreal" realms such as the Toymaker's world, the Land of Fiction or the Matrix. It's a consensus reality based upon the darkest parts of the human imagination. I wonder if the Valeyard lives there?

Sadly, it turns out the TARDIS hasn't materialised inside human imagination, but at Frankenstein's House of Horrors at the Festival of Ghana in 1996. The fact the Doctor never learns this, but the viewer does, I find very amusing.

But what's this? The TARDIS has departed without Vicki, and she is left to hitch a ride aboard the Dalek time machine. This is a neat trick on writer Terry Nation's part, splitting the regulars up and placing Vicki in the most dangerous place she could be - among the Daleks! She explores the Dalek ship and tries to contact the TARDIS using the Daleks' unwieldy radio device, but something much more disturbing lurks in the cabinet behind her. The Daleks are manufacturing a robotic double of the Doctor, with a plan to infiltrate the enemy group and destroy from within! Genius!

A genius idea, at least. But then we see the robot double and any belief that this could be the Daleks' victorious master stroke are shattered because he looks nothing like William Hartnell! Edmund Warwick is caked under a brave amount of make-up to try and make him look like Hartnell, and he's dressed the part too, but it simply does not work (it's much more effective when seen only faintly through the cabinet door). Even on an old scratchy telly from 1965 viewers would surely have seen that this was in no way an accurate robot double. The whole affair is made even worse when the Daleks announce proudly: "Paramount success! It is impossible to distinguish from the original!" Erm, yes it is! And when Warwick tries in vain to mime to Hartnell's overlaid words, the whole "illusion" crashes and burns. Then we cut to the real Hartnell in close-up pretending to be the robot double, even though he's not even standing on the same set. It's a shambles.

It takes some time for the Doctor, Ian and Barbara to notice that poor Vicki is missing, which says a lot about how much they must think of her. It's interesting that the Doctor blames himself for leaving her behind (which is only right seeing as it is his fault!), but the Doctor of Season 1 might have tried to blame his companions, so this is a nice little reminder that the Doctor's changed over the last 18 months. He's humbler and has found humility since those early days in 100,000 BC.

The Doctor claims that the TARDIS cannot go back to fetch Vicki, that the Ship cannot land in the same time and place twice. This is a puzzling revelation, especially considering our old friend the Fast Return Switch, which essentially allows the TARDIS to do exactly that. Nevertheless, Ian comes up with the clever plan of capturing the Dalek time machine and using that to go back and rescue Vicki, although quite how the Doctor imagines he's going to navigate to a supposedly fixed point in "an area of human thought" isn't brought up.

Journey Into Terror is yet another episode in which nothing very much happens, and in which story is set aside in favour of messing about and having fun. Doctor Who was one of the very few programmes which could visit different locations and times within the space of 25 minutes, every single week, and so the idea behind The Chase is brilliant. However, Nation is writing with little thought for quality and isn't getting the best out of the situations. The only story to speak of was in episode 2 with the Aridians, while everything else essentially boils down to corridor-running on different sets. Yes, the Mary Celeste and House of Horrors sets look great, but what happens on these sets is fairly inconsequential, often silly and usually pointless.

With the arrival of the robot Doctor, maybe it's finally time for some actual story? Let's hope so.

First broadcast: June 12th, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The House of Horrors set is a beautifully designed, multi-level creation.
The Bad: Robot Dr Who. 'Nuff said.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: The Death of Doctor Who...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Executioners (episode 1); The Death of Time (episode 2); Flight Through Eternity (episode 3); The Death of Doctor Who (episode 5); The Planet of Decision (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/2013/08/the-chase.html

The Chase is available on DVD in a box set with The Space Museum. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Space-Museum-Chase/dp/B0033PRJWQ