Written by Terry Nation | Durected by Christopher Barry | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 01/11/64
Ian randomly figures out how to operate the Dalek machine he's in at the beginning of this episode. He whispers - in the Dalek voice, adorably - for everyone to go ahead of him, to act as though the Doctor, Susan, and Barbara are his prisoners. When they encounter the first real Dalek, it doesn't seem too concerned that there are only three of the prisoners, and doesn't bother to check with his superiors until after the group has left (surprising the Dalek didn't insist on calling it in). But I suppose it's because before it can report, Susan leaps in front of both the real and fake Dalek, turns away from the real one, and winks at Ian to play along (Susan is so inconsistently written. She seems fearless in the face of the Daleks, but wouldn't even run when she saw the Thal outside the TARDIS. Of course, maybe she wasn't afraid of him, she just fancied him, like I suggested before, so she opted not to run...).
When they try to board the lift in the next room - after the Doctor breaks the door they just went through - Ian can't get out of the Dalek because the upper half is stuck. The other three go up the lift with the plan to send it back down for Ian as they notice the Daleks are cutting through the door the Doctor broke. I'm not sure what the plan is, when they go up to the top floor of the city. Why not stop a few floors below that? What is at the top? Do they just want to see where they are through a window then find a way out? Do they have time to do that with the Daleks cutting through the door below? I realize they're winging it, but it just seems a bad plan all the way around.
Then again, this is Doctor Who written by Terry Nation. The door is finally cut through and the Daleks immediately shoot Ian's Dalek... only to discover he's not in it. He was able to get out and into the lift just before they got through the door (incidentally, shouldn't the lifts have safety doors on them, what with the Daleks having eyestalks, plunger arms, and a whisk-gun, all at risk of being lopped off if they don't back themselves far enough into the lift? I suppose lift safety is not a priority for Daleks). When the Daleks start heading up the lift, Ian, Barbara, and Susan push what looks to be some abstract art down the shaft to destroy the lift (seriously guys, get safety doors). The Daleks having abstract art lying around is weird, too. Did they make it before they mutated? After? If after, how did they make it? What is it even doing there? Also I hope the TARDIS crew can find another way down to the ground floor so they can escape, hopefully that lift wasn't the only way up or down (since these Daleks most definitely can't use stairs, what with them needing static electricity floors and all. Perhaps there's a ramp/slide they can use if the lift is broken that we sadly don't get to see).
We then see the Thal Temmosus speaking to Alydon before he enters the city, chastising him for being afraid the Daleks are going to attack them: "Fear breeds hatred - and war." Clearly Clara hasn't been under this guy's bed.
The TARDIS crew seem to have found a way to the ground level, and are debating what to do. The Doctor wants to head immediately back to his ship: "We cannot jeopardize our lives getting involved in an affair that is none of our business." The Doctor's continual arguing about not getting involved is jarring, coming at this having seen future episodes first, but that's unfair to the Doctor here. He's not unreasonable for a normal person, but he's just not Hero Doctor yet. Barbara insists that it is their business since the Thals saved them all with their anti-radiation drugs. Ian stays to warn the Thals while everybody else heads back to the TARDIS.
Temmosus offers peace with the Daleks, shouting his intent before they emerge from their alcoves and kill him and a few other Thals (Ian shouts a bit to late that it's a trap). One of the Daleks shoots at Ian and misses, causing the wall it hits to bubble as though melting (pretty neat effect, it has to be said).
We then cut to the Thal camp, where Ian and the rest of the TARDIS crew are. The Doctor is reading up on the history of the planet, which is called Skaro. The Thals have 500,000 years of Skaro history on hand (I wonder if the Doctor came across any entries about Davros or the Time War?). Ian urges the Thals to fight the Daleks, but the Thals don't want to, as they've become pacifists. They can't comprehend why the Daleks would attack them. Ian says it's "a dislike for the unlike." I assume Ian took this from his experiences growing up in WWII England (I think that's where that phrase comes from, anyway. Googling it brought up some... questionable sites, so I didn't investigate that very much, my apologies). The Doctor explains that the Thals have mutated, but their mutation has "come full circle" and they are now back to the way they were. Uh, Doctor, that's not how mutation/evolution work (though, given the episode "Full Circle" years later, perhaps that is how evolution works in the world of Doctor Who). Regardless, he still wants to leave, and insists they do so, when Ian realizes he left the mercury fluid link in the Dalek city, and the episode ends.
That episode sure was written by Terry Nation, ayup. I don't want to make it seem like he's a total hack (yet) though, since again, he wrote these episodes very quickly, and knowing that, they come off pretty well. Like many Doctor Who episodes, if you look too closely, plot holes (or maybe just a lack of plot logic) abound, but oh well. I still largely enjoyed it.
"Doctor Who" puns: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Expedition"
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