Category: Science Fiction

The 1964 story about the Doctor meeting Marco Polo is one that’s completely lost. The BBC, more concerned in those days with economy than with archiving the shows they broadcast, taped something else over it. All that survives are a soundtrack recorded and a few still photos taken by a dedicated fan; these are used to re-create a half-hour long synopsis of the 7 missing episodes as an extra feature on the The Edge of Destruction DVD.

The footprints Susan and Barbara found at the end of the previous episode have nothing to do with this story, except that they’re in a snowy mountain pass in the Himalayas.

The Doctor’s group is briefly menaced by some Mongols who think that the strangers are evil spirits, but they are almost immediately rescued by that well-traveled and famous Venetian gentleman whose name has become a popular children’s swimming game. He invites them to the safety of his caravan. Since the Tardis is still experiencing some malfunctions from the last story, they agree.

I was puzzled the first time I watched this two-episode story. It comes in the same DVD set as the Doctor Who pilot, the Stone Age story, and the introduction of the Daleks, and yet I’d never heard a thing about it.

It’s a curious little story to come so early in the show’s development, featuring no actors except for the show’s four stars and no scenes set off the Tardis. A bottle show, primarily of interest for some character development and for our first look around Tardis beyond the control room. If you’re wondering how they eat and sleep and other science facts, this is the opportunity to find out.

The final episode of this story that introduced us to the Doctor’s longest standing (or rolling) baddies.

The Rescue

Eventually, Ian, Barbara, and the surviving Thals who accompanied them through the mountain do make their way into the Dalek city via the city’s water supply. Around the same time, Thal leader Alydon realizes that the Doctor and Susan have been captured by the Daleks (again) and gets another group of Thals to go into the city from the other side to try and rescue them.

The Expedition

Back in their underground city, the Daleks have duplicated the sample of Thal anti-radiation medicine they took from Susan a couple of episodes ago, and are testing it on a small number of their own. Monitoring the escaped prisoners in the radioactive forest, they have also observed that the Doctor and his companions have met up with the Thals. After their ambush on the Thals who came to the city for peace negotiations, they expect a retaliatory attack.

Not that the Daleks are wrong about the anticipated attack, but it’s not the Thals who are making battle plans.

The Doctor’s group need the help of the Thals to retrieve the fluid link, a little piece of machinery that makes the Tardis run, and which Ian had taken away from him when the Daleks captured him. They must go back into the Dalek city for it, but they need reinforcements. The Doctor is certain that the Thals “will triumph, with me to lead us,” and doesn’t see why he shouldn’t use them for his own ends. Barbara agrees that they need the Thals to fight to aid them in leaving this planet. Ian, on the other hand, is against asking these people to sacrifice their lives for a little gizmo that means nothing to them. There’s much debate on the subject.

The Thals have become firm pacifists since they wiped out nearly all life on Skaro with their neutron-bomb war 500 years ago, so they’re going to be tough to convince to go back to their old warrior ways.

The Ambush

At the end of Part 3, Ian became the first Doctor’s companion to hide inside a Dalek’s armor so that he, the Doctor, Susan, and Barbara can escape from their cell far underground in the Dalek city and make their way back to the surface without being stopped by the Daleks rolling around all over the place.

The foursome have a few close calls along the way, including an encounter with one Dalek who offers to help Dalek Ian escort the prisoners. It’s due to this conscientious Dalek making a report that the others catch on, and the Daleks attempt to keep the escapees from getting to the lift and going up to the surface–over 100 levels.  Now, finally, they’re all “Exterminate! Exterminate!” like proper Daleks. No more pretending to be nice and bringing people lunch on a tray.

The Escape

That’s a reassuring episode title.

At the end of the previous episode, the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan had just reached the Tardis to retrieve the box containing vials of medicine that will save him and her schoolteachers Ian and Barbara from a horrible death by radiation sickness. Just as she steps out of the Tardis to return to the Dalek city, she runs into one of those “disgustingly mutated” Thals the Daleks spoke of.

By “disgustingly mutated,” of course they meant strapping blond Aryan types.

Or, as Susan says once she realizes who this guy must be, “But you’re perfect!” (After he says “Don’t be afraid,” and she cowers and says “Don’t hurt me!” several times.)

He introduces himself as Alydon, apologizes for having frightened her when he touched her yesterday–although they never explained why she didn’t notice the big blond man in a cloak standing near her at the time. He wasn’t invisible; you can glimpse his hand when he touches her shoulder. He also reveals that he left the drugs outside the Tardis last night for her and her friends to use. Yes, left, not dropped. He’s horrified that they haven’t taken them yet.

When he hears Susan’s story about the Daleks, he asks she trusts them, and thinks that the Daleks probably want the medicine for themselves. “If they call us mutants, what must they be like?” Just in case, he gives her another box of medication for her companions, and also his cloak, before he sees Susan off to the city.