Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, but it’s been a couple of years since I’ve actually watched anything but the newest episodes. Before that, I was making a respectable run at getting through the original series, most of which I haven’t seen for decades. For various reasons, lately it has felt like it’s time to get back into it. \

The Power of the Daleks

Starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor
Companion: Anneke Wills as Polly and Michael Craze as Ben Jackson

Written by David Whitaker.  Directed by Christopher Barry. Produced by Innes Lloyd. Script edited by Gerry Davis. Animated restoration directed and produced by Charles Norton.

Format:  6 episodes, each about 25 minutes long
Originally Aired:  November – December 1966 (Episodes 9-14 of Season 4)

The Power of the Daleks is a serious contender for one of the most important serials in Doctor Who’s history–the first time that the show demonstrated it was capable of continuing without its original lead. Unfortunately, the story is entirely missing from the archives, a victim of the BBC’s policy back in the day of saving resources by reusing its old video tapes. But the good news is that thanks to off-air audio recordings and the massive interest in every corner of the show, people like me can watch animated versions of a lot of those stories, including this one.

Spoilers Ahead!

The Doctor’s first ever regeneration (though it wasn’t called that) was almost a non-event in The Tenth Planet, something that just happens kind of abruptly and without much build up at the end of the story. So I was curious to see how the show actually handled the immediate follow-up to this historic transition, especially given that all of this predated any references to Time Lords or Gallifrey.

Well, it turns out the answer is, mostly, by being incredibly vague and oblique about the whole thing. The new Doctor just gets up and stumbles around the TARDIS, mumbling at times about “the Doctor” as if he is a different person, while companions Ben and Polly stand agape wondering what in the world is going on. Polly is ready to believe that this is the Doctor, while Ben is a lot more suspicious–but this doesn’t last long. By the time we’re in the second or third episode, concern about the Doctor’s identity has given way to concern about the Daleks.

And rightly so! The main plot of The Power of the Daleks is excellent, with the threat of the Daleks having one of the best build-ups that I’ve ever seen. Things develop slowly but relentlessly; the site of the Daleks being slowly re-activated and experimented upon by unsuspecting humans is gripping, especially with the various instances of them looking at people with what is to us in the audience obvious malice. The sequence that builds up to the death of the technician Resno is particularly chilling. And of course later the dramatic irony is thick with the Daleks pretending to be obedient servants and nobody but the Doctor knowing the truth. This, I believe, is the earliest we’ve ever seen this trope played out on Doctor Who, while it’s certainly a cliché now, it’s dynamic and original here.

At the same time, the human story of the colonists is also effective. There is a lot of interest to be found watching things unfold, both with the murder / rebellion plot, and in the way that various characters are driven allows the Daleks to insinuate themselves into the colony. Lesterson, Quinn and Bragen are all well-developed characters who are fun to watch, but my favorite by far is Janley, played by Pamela Ann Davy.

When you find out she lied to Lesterson and that Resno was in fact killed by the Daleks, you realize you are dealing with someone frighteningly calculating. She’s not as outright crazy evil as Bragen, but she’s tricky and clever, which makes her interesting.

Of course, all of these people turn out to be completely out of her depth when facing the Daleks. The absolute ruthlessness of the creatures is brought to life in way that is more vivid and effective than maybe any other story I can remember. After five episodes of build-up, the last episode of the serial just has them cut loose on the colonists. There are lots of deaths as they relentless roll through the colony on a mission to basically exterminate everybody, and even when we are not watching them, we are hearing them, and hearing the dying screams of their many many victims. It just keeps going on and on in the background of all the rest of the action, making for one of the most compelling horrific sequences that Doctor Who has ever brought us.

Maybe I’m overstating it, but I really think this might be the show’s best Dalek story. I’ve never been the Dalek’s biggest fan, but the reason they work here so well is because you really get a sense that their victory against the colonists (if we were to take the Doctor out of the equation) was not inevitable. They are having to work hard and be clever, to struggle even against their own vicious nature, in order to get the upper hand against the humans that they hate so much. This is in stark contrast with stories like Dalek or The Parting of the Ways in 2005–both of those tales highlighted the Dalek’s absolute might more prominently, but that was done by just making them unbeatable from the get-go. In those cases, it’s a foregone conclusion that nobody has a chance, which makes the extended sequences of mayhem in those episodes feel like tiresome, repetitive spectacle (as I said, I’m not typically a Dalek fan).

The Power of the Daleks has a completely different sense about it. When the Daleks start slaughtering the colonists here, it’s like they’ve earned their supremacy. Not that I want them to be doling out death and cruelty of course, but dramatically they’ve justified it. And as a result, it makes their ultimate defeat by the Doctor all the more satisfying.

Which brings us back around to Patrick Troughton, who in recent years has become a strong contender for my favorite classic-era Doctor. People give William Hartnell a lot of the credit for the show’s longevity, and I’m glad to add my voice to that crowd, but I think arguably Troughton had the harder job. When he came on the scene, audiences weren’t just watching a new series with a new concept and a new world. No, they were seeing the beloved lead of a show suddenly change out to someone else, someone who bore almost zero resemblance to his predecessor in any meaningful way. Troughton had to prove that the show could continue with, in essence, a brand new lead character, and he did it without any fanfare or broader media coverage that we expect from the show today.

And I think, obviously, that he pulled it off. So, one presumes, did most of the viewing public, since the series didn’t die off immediately after. Troughton brings a fresh energy to the series that really becomes the template for so much of what we know as the Doctor’s personalty now. He takes full ownership of the role very quickly in The Power of the Daleks, proving himself a capable and cunning enemy to monsters and murderers alike, and a trustworthy lead for the show to continue with.

My only real caveat to all my praise for The Power of the Daleks is that the original episodes don’t exist any longer (or at least, are not in the archives), so that all my experience is based on animated reconstructions (done to the original soundtracks, recorded off-air by fans). Because I know all this and I know this was not intended to be an animated story, I know I am, to some degree, automatically filling in the gaps a bit as I watch the story. I’m imagining what it would all look and feel like if we had the original episodes, and some of my reaction is based not that. As much as I admire and appreciate the animations, we lose a lot of what went into the episodes originally–much of the performances, the direction, the pacing, everything. So I have no idea if the original story is quite as good as I think it is, and if I were truly treating The Power of the Daleks as a big long animated story, I’d probably be less enamoured of its virtues and more aware of its weaknesses. So all that to say, your experience may vary (even more than that statement is always true).

But I really enjoyed it. There are other Dalek stories that I like--The Dalek Invasion of the Earth, Genesis of the Daleks, Journey’s End–but this is almost certainly the one I like best for the Daleks themselves. Given my longstanding disinterest, I think that’s quite a thing for me to say.

Other Thoughts

• The story is set on the planet Vulcan, which of course is better known in science fiction circles as one of the most important planets in the Star Trek franchise. The common names are apparently just a coincidence. The more famous Star Trek Vulcan debuted earlier, having been mentioned in the very episode of the show aired, The Man Trap (September 8th, 1966), while The Power of the Daleks didn’t premier until almost two months later on November 5th. However, Doctor Who‘s Vulcan was seen first, as Star Trek didn’t actually visit the planet until Amok Time, which only aired on September 15, 1967, at the start of the show’s second season.

• I haven’t had much to say about Ben and Polly in this story. They are both fine and likeable, and it’s interesting to see the one original Second Doctor story that didn’t have Jamie in it to see how the character worked without his most prominent companion. But it’s also easy to see why Jamie became such a beloved character. Ben and Polly are perfectly enjoyable as I said, but they don’t spark with the Doctor in the same way that Jamie will come to, and so there is a side of this Doctor that we don’t get without Jamie around, and that is missed. My next Second Doctor story is probably the animated reconstruction of The Abominable Snowman, with Jamie and Victoria (both favourites of mine), so I’m excited to see that!