The Power of the Daleks Episode Six

The one where the Daleks massacre the colonists...

After weeks of plotting and scheming and biding their time, the Daleks finally put their plans for domination into action in the only way they know how - by exterminating every human they see. This sixth and final episode is a real bloodbath, directed with great energy and style by Christopher Barry. This is a finale 1960s Doctor Who should be proud of, in the vein of Destruction of Time, The Evil of the Daleks Episode 7 and The War Games Episode Ten.

The episode is packed with incident, set-pieces which sound phenomenal - if only we could watch it! Cartoons just aren't the same at all. There are pitched gunfights in the colony corridors between the rebels and the guards, and when the Daleks join in, nobody is safe. First Kebble, then Janley are massacred by the Daleks in a series of merciless killings which turn the Vulcan colony into a battlefield... and then a graveyard.

The Daleks are at their ruthless best here. They seem indomitable, unaffected by relentless gunfire. They swarm through the colony killing all before them, except the scene where they bump into the Doctor and his friends, who they inexplicably allow past, saying to themselves afterwards that they will be exterminated (just not yet!).

Amidst the killings there is Bragen desperately trying to hang on to power, refusing to concede that he's lost and that the Daleks have taken control. Earlier, Bragen had threatened to kill Janley if she didn't cooperate with his plans, and after she is killed, it is Valmar who guns Bragen down in cold blood. There's a twisted poetry to it, as Valmar and Janley seemed to be an item. It would've been better if this romance had been demonstrated a little earlier in the story to give it greater impact and meaning, but Valmar didn't appear until episode 3 as it is.

Lesterson has totally lost it by now, gibbering like a naive child, and his final end is so tragic. He tells the Daleks he wants to help them - "I am your servant" - but they merely gun him down in cold blood. He is no longer useful to them. It's the ultimate expression of what a Dalek is. David Whitaker knows these creatures so well, and depicts them as heartless, merciless, ruthless, cold killers. They don't always come across this well in past or future stories, so we must give credit to Whitaker for realigning the Daleks as he did. It's such a pity we can only watch one of the 13 Dalek episodes he wrote.

At the end of everything it is just Valmar and Quinn left to clean up the carnage left behind by the Dalek massacre, and the Doctor's destruction of the aliens. Human and Dalek bodies lie strewn everywhere, and there has been immense damage caused to the base itself by the Doctor cranking up the power surge. Valmar isn't very grateful at all to the Doctor for basically saving the base, as highlighted by Ben at the end when he says he didn't expect a brass band, but a simple thanks would have done.

The Power of the Daleks is a superbly written and paced base-under-siege thriller with some nicely drawn characters (some better than others) and an almost universally good cast. David Whitaker has to be handed much of the credit for coming up with such an engrossing debut for the new Doctor, one which doesn't linger too long on the elephant in the room, and just asks the audience to forge on and accept change. Having the Daleks was a clever distraction technique too. Patrick Troughton takes a couple of episodes to grow into the part, but by the end he seems to be quite different to how he started the serial, and much closer to the Second Doctor we know and love. It's a shame the companions are almost completely sidelined, but seeing as the actors each took a week off in the middle of recording meant that perhaps they couldn't take a more forthright role.

The Power of the Daleks is a lost classic of Doctor Who, and fandom would be much richer if even one of the six missing episodes were to be recovered. As I said earlier, cartoons just aren't the same...

First broadcast: December 10th, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Christopher Barry directs the action sequences with confidence and skill. It sounds incredible!
The Bad: Defeating the Daleks by affecting a power surge is a little too pat for me.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★ (story average: 8.5 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: The Highlanders...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5

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