The Power of the Daleks Episode Five

The one where Lesterson snaps and Bragen takes control of the colony...

The Dalek production line has been very busy, reproducing creature after creature until there are at least 14 of them (you can hear the factory foreman Dalek counting that many amid the melee). These are very noisy Daleks too, trundling around like empty boxes on castors. Oh, hang on...

All this finally makes poor old Lesterson snap. He's seen too much, and the enormity of the situation is too great for him to process. Robert James makes Lesterson a gibbering wreck as he begins to make crazed plans to take back control from the Daleks and wipe them out. But it's all too little, too late. There's no going back now. "They're making themselves..." says Lesterson incredulously. It's an uncannily simplistic way of putting it, almost child-like. Well, you were warned...

The Doctor displays some more ingenuity when he uses a glass and water to reproduce the sonic key for his and Quinn's jail cell, and the two of them make tracks to find out what's going on with the Dalek capsule. In the absence of Ben (who was knocked unconscious last week, so that Michael Craze could take a holiday), and with Polly imprisoned by Valmar and Kebble, Quinn becomes the Doctor's temporary companion, and is played ably by Nicholas Hawtrey.

Polly has a lot to say for herself this week, as if making up for her week away, but I'm not sure it's all that wise or useful of her to tell Valmar and Kebble that the Doctor isn't really the Examiner, and has only assumed his identity. However, the information doesn't seem to bother or sway the two engineers, so perhaps it doesn't matter. I do like how Polly refers to Ben as a "real man" though, perhaps hinting at an underlying attraction she has for him. It's never explicitly expressed on screen, but it's pretty clear that Ben and Polly harbour some form of attraction for one another, otherwise why would they have been planning to go on a date in The War Machines? Besides, how could you not be attracted to Anneke Wills/ Michael Craze (delete as appropriate to your sexuality)?

When Hensell returns from his trip to the colony perimeter he finds that his newly appointed deputy has let the power go to his head somewhat. Bernard Archard oozes oily self-satisfaction in the scene with Peter Bathurst, calmly and smugly taking control of the colony from the Governor in the fine tradition of Doctor Who's greatest villains. When he arms the Dalek and orders it to exterminate Hensell, we really know that the cards are on the table and that Bragen means business (and that line from the Dalek - "Why do human beings kill other human beings?" - is genius).

A little later, when the Doctor and Quinn find Hensell's body, there's a moment of real mourning for the Governor by Quinn, a rare instance of an individual's death actually meaning something in a classic Doctor Who story. Too often characters are killed off for dramatic effect, or to prompt a cliffhanger, and everybody else just carries on with the story. But these are supposed to be real people, with real lives, families and histories. Those that live and work with them should be shocked and affected by their deaths, but that is so rarely depicted in Doctor Who (to be fair, other series were far worse in this respect - take The Avengers, for instance, which often made a joke out of a character's death). So I appreciate David Whitaker giving a moment to Quinn to mourn his old boss, and Hawtrey handles it really well.

As the episode draws to an end, it's back to the noisy Daleks, who just love a good chant to warm them up for a session of mass extermination. "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy... Exterminate all humans!" On and on, round and round, ad infinitum, ad nauseum... But it spells bad news for the colony, because at last the Daleks are breaking out and taking on the humans. And I'm pretty sure I know who'll have the upper hand (or plunger).

First broadcast: December 3rd, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I'm a big fan of consequences in drama, so for Quinn to mourn Hensell is a stand-out moment for me. A lesser writer might have just totally ignored his death, or the consequences of it.
The Bad: This is definitely a treading-water episode before the big finale. The Doctor has virtually nothing to do except escape and eavesdrop. The only really active character is Bragen.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode Six...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; 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/2013/12/the-power-of-daleks.html

The Power of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD in both animated form and as a telesnap reconstruction. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Power-Daleks-DVD/dp/B01LOC83Y2