Volcano (The Daleks' Master Plan Episode 8)

The one where an enemy from the Doctor's past takes revenge...

Yay, the Daleks are back! After our brief sojourn into farce for last week's Christmas episode, the New Year's Day episode brings new excitement as the metal meanies find out that their taranium core is faulty. The Daleks, behaving as ruthlessly and efficiently as ever, decide to test the Time Destructor before they put Plan A into action, and it's poor old Trantis who becomes their guinea pig. Luckily for Trantis, the Time Destructor won't work because the Doctor gave them a false taranium core, but that doesn't stop them from exterminating the fang-toothed delegate all the same.

The Daleks really are nasty in this story, and it seems, judging by the conversation between Mavic Chen, Trantis and hissy old Celation, that only the Daleks have broken the barrier of time (other than the Doctor). Celation's people are experimenting with time travel, but only the masters of Skaro have developed time travel technology. We first saw the Daleks' time machine in The Chase, which was apprehended by Ian and Barbara in order to get back to their own time. Here, Skaro HQ sends another time machine to the Dalek Supreme on Kembel so that they can pursue the Doctor's TARDIS and recover the taranium core. The chase is on... again!

Volcano is a blessed improvement on the slapstick shenanigans of last week, but it's still not back to the dizzying, epic heights of Terry Nation's earlier episodes. Dennis Spooner's writing style is more whimsical and definitely more pedestrian, and doesn't have the schlocky Boy's Own sensationalism of Nation. Episode 8 starts off well with the chit-chat between the delegates, and then the Daleks' frustrated experiments, but then tails off into an inconsequential runaround that smacks of treading water.

The TARDIS first pays a visit to the Oval during a cricket match between England and Australia, and we're subjected to some fairly humdrum discourse between commentators Trevor and Scott (Trevor's played by the same actor who voices the robot Drathro in 1986's The Trial of a Time Lord, fact fans!). It's not amusing, it's just pointless and dull (rather like cricket itself) and just makes me want to scream "GET ON WITH THE STORY!"

William Hartnell sounds a little throaty in this episode, perhaps a little under the weather. The TARDIS next lands on the volcanic planet Tigus - a "new planet cooling down" says the Doctor - and in these scenes, Hartnell seems distracted, as if he's fumbling through his lines. It's the first time I've seen/ heard him failing to grasp the moment. It's hard to say as we can't see the performance, but there are moments where it seems as if he's a little lost. Maybe this is the period where it's said Hartnell was ill during production of this serial, because he certainly isn't himself.

It's lovely to have Peter Butterworth back as the meddling Monk, just five months after we left him marooned in 1066 in Checkmate. The Monk is Spooner's own invention so it's apt he should bring him back, and it's also the first time the Doctor has faced an enemy more than once (other than the Daleks). The Monk (quite rightfully) wants revenge on the Doctor, who left him stranded in the 11th century without use of his TARDIS. Now he's got his time machine back in working order, he's pursuing the Doctor to serve up his just desserts. The Monk uses what's described as a "pencil laser" (an early example of a sonic device?) to scupper the TARDIS lock and stop the Doctor from getting back into his Ship. To be honest, it's a simple but highly effective plan...

I love the genial pleasantries exchanged by the two time travellers as they size each other up once more - "Hello Doctor, keeping well?"; "Oh, no complaints, no. You?"; "Oh, so-so, you know, just so-so" - and the Doctor realises that the Monk's intention is revenge. He even asks him if he has any plans, and the Monk confirms they are all carried out. It's like a kindergarten version of James Bond and Blofeld. There's some lovely symmetry in Spooner's dialogue though, with the Monk signing off by telling the Doctor he might return one day to rescue him, which is what the Doctor put in his letter to the Monk at the end of Checkmate.

The solution to the Doctor's predicament is lame. He uses his enigmatically magical ring to filter the sun's rays and fix the TARDIS lock. "The sun in that particular galaxy has very unusual powers," explains the Doctor. "I merely reflected its powers through that ring... [The ring] has certain properties. The combined forces of that sun, together with the stone in that ring, was sufficient enough to correct the Monk's interference." All very convenient, if you ask me, that the TARDIS just so happens to land on a planet where the sun's rays have the powers required to counter the Monk's interference. What if they'd landed on Earth, or anywhere with a perfectly normal sun? I have three words for Dennis Spooner here: deus ex machina.

At the end of the episode the TARDIS randomly lands in Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve 1966 (incidentally, the day of transmission for The Highlanders Episode 3), and it seems neither Steven or Sara (who is particularly poorly written in this episode, by the way) is aware of what New Year celebrations look like. The revelries remind the Doctor of the relief of Mafeking during the Second Boer War.

At this point I am screaming in my head: "GET ON WITH THE STORY!"

First broadcast: January 1st, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Daleks experimenting on, and then coldly exterminating, Trantis.
The Bad: Cricket matches, New Year celebrations, magical sunshine...? This is not classic Doctor Who!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Golden Death...

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); 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