Destruction of Time (The Daleks' Master Plan Episode 12)

The one where the Time Destructor is activated, and takes its deadly toll...

And so here we are, at the end of a mammoth 12-part epic which ran for three months and was such an exhausting production experience that it led to the resignation of both new producer John Wiles and script editor Donald Tosh, and caused director Douglas Camfield to take a two-year break from Doctor Who. The climactic scenes of Destruction of Time are probably representative of what it was like making the show by this point!

But what a corker of a finale this is, one of the very best episodes of Doctor Who, and it's an immense shame we cannot see it. If we could, I suspect it'd go down as an all time classic. At the start of the episode we have a cracking performance from Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen begins to unravel, and his megalomania mutates into madness. Stoney sounds unhinged, and takes the character to new heights of melodrama and self-aggrandisement. You can tell his mind's gone when he starts saying "I, Mavic Chen!" all the time.

In the end of course, Chen suffers the same fate as Zephon and Trantis and is mercilessly exterminated by the Daleks, although they are very careful to make sure they kill him away from the control room in case their mass gunfire damages their instruments! The scene before Chen's death drips with tension as he demands the Daleks do as he commands, and they just stay still, watching him impassively. The quiet stillness of this scene, even on audio, is palpable and I imagine the cold impassiveness of the Daleks was equally as disconcerting to watch.

The Doctor steals the Time Destructor again (the Daleks need to revise their security protocols I think), but instead of running away, this time he activates it. I'm not sure why he does this as it will obviously have a terribly damaging effect on its environment, including himself. He uses a Dalek as a shield to escape from the control room, then sends Steven and Sara ahead to the safety of the TARDIS while he finishes the job he started.

What happens next is remarkable. Steven does as he's told and goes back to the Ship, but Sara refuses to let the Doctor fight alone, and goes back to help him. This is a real act of selfless bravery on her part, and finally the character begins to breathe again. The sound of the Time Destructor and its effect on Kembel is unsettling, like the constant moan of an approaching hurricane, coupled with the incessant tick-ticking of the countdown. Time is literally running out as it accelerates forwards, and both Sara and the Doctor are being slowly destroyed by the process.

Luckily we have photographs of the effect of the Time Destructor on Sara Kingdom. She ages horrifically before our eyes, thanks to some effective make-up from Sonia Markham and the substitution of actress for the end result - Jean Marsh is replaced by 74-year-old May Wardon. The photos show Sara struggling through the maelstrom, and finally collapsing into the dust as she ages to death. It sounds truly horrible. In the final act, Sara Kingdom - a character who started off strong but degenerated into a generic runaround companion - is vindicated, sacrificing herself to help the Doctor reach the safety of the TARDIS. It's really sad and tragic, particularly as she does not succeed in saving him herself. That job goes to Steven, who leaves the TARDIS to help his struggling friend. Luckily, Steven manages to reverse the Time Destructor, so that time stop rushing forward, and begins to flow backwards.

The effect on Kembel is devastating too, with the lush jungle turning to lifeless, dusty desert. The plants wither, the foliage decays. It is a truly apocalyptic finale. The Daleks are also affected by the Time Destructor, and we witness them regress to their most basic evolutionary form, the icky clawed embryos we first glimpsed in their very first story.

In the aftermath, the Doctor and Steven assess the devastation. There is nothing left. Sara Kingdom has become dust on the wind, and all that remains of one Dalek is a piece of twisted metal. Peter Purves is the first to bring gravitas to this final scene, saying: "Let's go Doctor, I've seen enough of this place." The Doctor seems buoyed by the fact the Daleks have been destroyed, but Steven reacts with outraged shock: "Bret! Katarina! Sara." It's a very New Who treatment of the situation, with the companion being taken aback by the Doctor's apparent inability to reflect the true loss. Human lives have been wiped out, including some good friends of the Doctor's. I don't think this Doctor is incapable of feeling the loss of an individual (his reactions to the loss of Katarina and the departure of Ian, Barbara and Susan prove this), but future Doctors would struggle with fully understanding human emotion.

"What a waste. What a terrible waste..." confirms the Doctor, before they both silently depart in the TARDIS, and the credits roll.

It's a devastating finale, and perhaps one of the finest 25 minutes of the entire Hartnell era. If it looked half as good as it sounds, it must have been amazing. Directed with pace and tension by Douglas Camfield, Destruction of Time is a far better finale than the likes of The Key to Time or The Trial of a Time Lord had. In Studio 3 of BBC Television Centre on Friday, January 14th, 1966, the Doctor Who production team set a bar so high that its scale would not be topped for decades yet.

The Daleks' Master Plan is a landmark serial in Doctor Who history. Yes, it's far too long, it meanders at times, and characterisation and incident definitely suffer once Dennis Spooner takes over writing duties (episodes 7-9 really let it down). But the scale of it, the ambition in the writing, is astonishing. It's epic in length and epic in narrative, and stands as one of the greatest achievements of early Doctor Who. We would not see its like again for many a year.

First broadcast: January 29th, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: That apocalyptic ending, with the horrible death of Sara Kingdom and the devastation of Kembel, is fantastic.
The Bad: There's not a thing wrong with it.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★ (story average: 7.17 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: War of God...

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); Coronas of the Sun (episode 6); The Feast of Steven (episode 7); Volcano (episode 8); Golden Death (episode 9); Escape Switch (episode 10); The Abandoned Planet (episode 11)

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