Coronas of the Sun (The Daleks' Master Plan Episode 6)

The one where the Doctor mocks up a fake taranium core...

Coronas of the Sun. What exactly does that mean? Well, it doesn't make much sense to me, either in the context of the episode or as a grammatical statement. Firstly, no suns feature in this episode. I suppose it could be referring to how hot and bright the taranium core is, but that's a bit obscure. Secondly, a sun (or a star) only has one corona, so why pluralise it? It's just nonsense - there's no sun and no corona, so why is the episode called Coronas of the Sun? Argh!

Let's move on... This episode is pretty action-packed, starting off with an assault on the Daleks by the invisible Visians. It's not clear why the Visians decide to attack the Daleks, but at least their timely assault allows the Doctor, Sara and Steven to escape (and by the way, the Doctor finally refers to Sara by name in this episode, despite her not introducing herself!). The narration on the BBC CD soundtrack states that when a Visian is killed, it briefly becomes visible before dying (exactly the same as the people of Spiridon!). Obviously we cannot watch this lost episode so we're unable to see what form they took, but it's believed they were "roughly humanoid". The novelisation of this story also states that the Visians appeared "thin, bony, with two long, clawed arms, feet like birds' claws and a narrow head with a beak". I wonder how they actually appeared in the episode?

The battle between the Visians and the Daleks sounds pretty epic, and includes a scene where a Dalek is pushed into a bubbling mud pool (this episode might have been written by Dennis Spooner, but it's from an idea by Terry Nation - and you can tell, because he reused a number of these ideas eight years later for Planet of the Daleks!).

The Daleks in this episode are gloriously ruthless, especially the Dalek Supreme, who I'll come on to soon. When the Doctor asks what guarantee there is the Daleks won't fire their guns if he hands over the taranium core, the Dalek replies simply: "There is no guarantee!" This snippy Dalek is pretty no-nonsense: "You will surrender it! Silence! You will not speak! There will be no more discussion!"

Our heroes' attack on the guard outside the Dalek ship also sounds action-packed. Steven covers its eyepiece with mud (borrowing an idea from The Daleks) and when the Dalek begins to fire blindly, it hits some of the Dalek pursuit force returning to base. There's a cacophony of staccato panic as the Doctor, Sara and Steven steal their ship and leave them stranded on Mira. When they report their failure to the Dalek Supreme on Kembel, he sends a ship to fetch them, but vows that their failure will be punished. The Dalek Supreme wiped out the last pursuit squad of Daleks for failing him, so he's a pretty ruthless operator.

The Dalek Supreme's verbal sparring with Mavic Chen is a real delight. We're not used to Daleks being quite this conversational, but it allows for some classic dialogue as Chen tries to save his skin by shifting the blame from himself to the Daleks themselves. "You make your incompetence sound like an achievement," bitches the Dalek Supreme. The scenes between these two are ripe with tension as first the Dalek Supreme, then Chen, gets the upper hand (or sucker). "I sincerely hope there's not been any further bungling?" teases Chen when the Daleks learn of the Doctor stealing their pursuit ship. It's an amusing game of verbal chess which it would be great to be able to see as the human and the alien stare each other out!

When the Doctor's party finally reaches Kembel, they cleverly hand over the fake taranium core and manage to escape into the TARDIS before the Daleks exterminate them. Spooner fails to have Sara express any kind of surprise or curiosity about the fact the TARDIS is bigger on the inside. In fact, after being introduced as a cold, heartless ice maiden in episode 4, Sara has become something of a common cipher, very quickly and all too easily filling the companion role against all reason. Why do the Doctor and Steven automatically trust Sara so soon after she tried to kill them? After being introduced with such potential (her hard exterior, the fact she killed her brother for a greater cause), Sara Kingdom has degenerated into just another "girl" who's tagging along for no real reason. It's such a shame because Jean Marsh is capable of much better than this, given the chance.

The cliffhanger sees the TARDIS land on a planet where the atmosphere outside is totally poisonous. It should be an interesting episode, as it was Doctor Who's first ever Christmas special, and the last for another 40 years. Pass the sherry...

First broadcast: December 18th, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Plenty of action, a stroppy Dalek Supreme and a sarcastic Mavic Chen.
The Bad: Sara Kingdom has become a generic runaround girl. Such a shame.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: The Feast of Steven...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Mission to the Unknown (prelude); The Nightmare Begins (episode 1); Day of Armageddon (episode 2); Devil's Planet (episode 3); The Traitors (episode 4); Counter Plot (episode 5); The Feast of Steven (episode 7); Volcano (episode 8); Golden Death (episode 9); Escape Switch (episode 10); The Abandoned Planet (episode 11); Destruction of Time (episode 12)

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/2013/09/mission-to-unknown-aka-dalek-cutaway.html

The soundtrack to The Daleks' Master Plan is available on CD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-original-television-soundtrack/dp/0563494174