Doctor Who Rewind - The Dalek Masterplan

When Doctor Who fanatic Neil Perryman, author of my only guide along this long and winding road, "Adventures With The Wife In Space", (in which he subjects his wife to every single DW episode), reached the daunting totally missing twelve part Dalek Masterplan he described it as, "...the Mount Kilimanjaro of Doctor Who stories…" And he's right. The journey to the summit will be fraught with all manner of plot twists, unnecessary diversions and shocks. Yes, buckle up, this one could cause internal haemorrhaging.

The Dalek Masterplan follows six months on from the events of Mission To The Unknown on planet Kembel. The devious Daleks have formed an alliance with the leaders of several other galaxies in order conquer our own solar system. Their closest alley being Mavec Chen, guardian of the solar system, who fiendishly tells his people he's going on a break, in order that he can nip off to Kembel and brown nose with the Daleks.

In order for the Daleks plan to succeed they need to acquire a rare mineral called
taranium, which powers a weapon they have devised called The Time Destructor. Chen has a sample of this material and is using it to bargain his way into a partnership with the Daleks.

The whole crux of the story then is the acquisition of this taranium. And the Doctors mission to keep it from falling into Dalek hands.

Only three episodes of this story have survived in the BBC archives, so like many before me, I'm watching the excellent Loose Cannon reconstructions, all of which can be found on youtube.

You can really split the story into two parts, before 7th episode, which was broadcast on Christmas Day 1965, and after. Once you've got past that Feast Of Steven, it's all down hill.

So, some highlights and low lights to mention. First of all the sound FX by the Radiophonic Workshop are superb throughout, otherworldly, atmospheric, lucid, machine like. I can't imagine watching the stills provided by the recons without hearing the background fx and bedding.

You may remember from that coming into this story Steven was injured by the Trojans. Well he receives medical help from Space Agent Brett Vyon who is on the run from the Daleks after his mate was exterminated by them when they were both investigating the disappearance of Marc Corey. He of Mission To The Unknown fame.

The Doctor manages to incapacitate one of the alliance, Zephon, and disguise himself enough to attend a meeting with the Daleks in which Chen proudly displays the taranium. Unfortunately the real Zephon raises the alarm and amid confusion the Doctor swipes the taranium for himself.

The Doctor, Brett, Katarina and Steven, nick Chen's ship and set course for the nearest planet, a convict prison world called Desperus, with the Daleks hot in pursuit. After touching down, a group of inmates try to force entry, so a speedy take off is organised. Unfortunately one of the men has broken into the airlock and holds Katarina hostage. Threatening to kill her if the ship doesn't take him to Kembel. Reluctantly the Doctor agrees but Katarina forces the air lock open and herself and the prisoner get sucked out into space.

It's a bit of a shock when this happens as carrying Katarina over from the previous story kind of gives you a false sense that she's going to be travelling with the Doctor for a while, but to have her killed off four episodes later while harsh, really gives a sense of the unpredictability of the story line, and that the writers were not afraid to take some drastic measures for the sake of the drama.

The replacement for Katarina comes in the shape of Sara Kingdom, she is part of Chen's security force who pursue the Doctor and crew on Earth when they go to visit Brett's friend Daxtar, who has sided with Chen. Brett kills Daxtar, and throws himself at Sara so that the Doctor and Steven can escape. Sara kills Brett and gives chase to the Doctor. Meanwhile her colleague, a bald Putin look alike takes great pleasure in looking moody and posing for the camera.

It's at this point that things start going a bit surreal. Stumbling into a laboratory setting the three of them get caught up in a Molecular Dissemination experiment with some mice. As you do.

They are all transported, with some pretty hilariously dodgy effects involving a trampoline and slow motion, to the planet Myra. There they are attacked by invisible beasts. Chen, his head swelling, claims this was all his plan and dispatches the Daleks to the planet, who surrounded the three fugitives. But, there are red faces all round as the Doctor and co escape and take the Dalek ship when the unseen creatures attack again.

The doctors next bright idea is to build a fake taranium core, yes it's the old fake taranium trick. He's so predictable. Steven, unable to keep still, decides to charge the core with gravitic energy, and ends up nearly killing himself. Neatly though, he is enclosed in a force field that not even the Dalek death ray can penetrate. This surprisingly comes in handy when Chen, instigates the hand over of the taranium and Steven is saved from a death ray as he scarpers with the rest back into the TARDIS and away.

So, 7 episodes in, only two being moving images and we reach Christmas Day 1965. When I put the recon on I am amazed that the TARDIS lands in 1960s England, outside a police station. After a lot of bickering between Steven and the Doctor about the polluted atmosphere, the Doctor gets himself arrested and taken away. One of the police men commenting that maybe the white haired old fellow is actually Father Christmas. Steven, in a very silly little sequence, tries to go in and rescue the doctor. Eventually they escape and materialise on the set of a silent film.

At this point I'd suspected something was up. No Daleks? No Chen strutting around full if himself?

The idea then of this episode was to provide a little light relief for Christmas. I mean, you can't go terrifying kids with Daleks on the big day can you? Well, I wish they had had. Cause anything would be better than this frankly embarrassing twenty five minute caper.

All hell breaks lose on the silent film set and after several attempts at humour akin to Carry On films, a slanging match ensues and I honesty have no idea what is going on as the shouting is much louder in the mix than the dialogue.

Eventually the TARDIS crew slip back into the ship and the episode ends with the Doctor raising a toast for Christmas to not only his crew mates but to us at home!

With the forth wall well and truly shattered, not to mention my brain, the madness ends and we can rejoin the Daleks again.

Chen, god bless him is having it large from the Daleks when they test the Time Destructor on Trantis (a representative of one of the galaxy's) and nothing happens. The fake taranium is discovered and Chen is really up to his neck in it.

A Dalek time ship is despatched to pursue the doctor and retrieve the taranium once again. This time the TARDIS lands on a volcanic planet and has been followed by none other than the meddling monk from a couple of stories back, who wants revenge on the Doctor.

After trying to destroy the lock on the TARDIS the monk follows it to ancient Egypt, where the Daleks and Chen have also descended to look for the taranium.

The monk bumps into the Daleks and Chen, and is left with no choice but to offer his services to them in capturing the Doctor. However, while snooping around, he's attacked by the Doctor, who throws him in a Egyptian box.

Sara and Steven find the monk, but are captured by Chen and the Daleks, who hold them as hostages, using them to bargain back the taranium from the Doctor, who has been fumbling around in the Monks TARDIS removing something.

With little choice the Doctor hands over the taranium, the Egyptians attack, and in the ensuing sequence render a Dalek useless by sticking a few well placed stones around it's base. The Doctor, Steven and Sara escape back to the TARDIS, while Chen and the remaining Daleks flee to there ship.

The Doctor reveals that he's taken the directional controller from the Monks TARDIS, who, after taking off, materialises on an icy world.

With the monks directional controller installed in the TARDIS, the three head for Kembel and barely make it before the circuit completely burns itself out.

Chen meanwhile has illusions of grandeur, with his plan to out whit the Daleks and become the ultimate supreme ruler of the universe. He kills another representative, and has the rest put in prison.

Arriving on Kembel the Doctor gets separated from Steven and Sara in the jungle. They press on to the Dalek city and find the prisoned council members who plead for their release in exchange for turning on the Daleks. Steven releases them and they all flee the planet back to their respective systems.

Back in the jungle Sara and Steven discover the entrance to a second underground city, and Chen who has followed them orders then to enter at gunpoint.

Chen, who by this time believes himself some kind of immortal superman orders the Dalek leader to obey him. But, the Dalek remains silent and resolved that their partnership is well and truly over. Chen fires at the leader but the shot does no damage. Daleks surround Chen and lead him outside where they exterminate him. Ha, about time.

At this moment the Doctor rushes into the control room and half inches the Time Destructor, which he activates. The Daleks, unable to retaliate, for fear of hitting the machine, retreat, and the Doctor orders Sara and Steven return to the TARDIS.

He himself backs out into the corridor and makes his way out into the jungle. Sara, wanting to help, rejoins him.

With the Time Destructor on full power, there follows a sequence which really does bring the whole story to a gloriously gloomy and dark ending. It's fantastically achieved to, as we see Sara and the Doctor battling their way to the TARDIS, while growing increasingly old and wrinkled, the Doctor much slower than Sara.

This would have been a fitting end to the first Doctor, and would have lent itself to a great regeneration, but Hartnell, the old boy, has life in him yet for a few more adventures.

The same can not be said for poor Sara, who has reduced to a skeleton and falls to the floor along side the Doctor.

At this point Steven rushes out from the TARDIS and tries to deactivate the Time Destructor, but what he does though, is put it into reverse, so that himself and the doctor revert to their previous ages.

The Daleks arrive and fire on the Doctor but their weapons have been affected by the machine and implode on themselves. All that is left of the Daleks then are small embryos lying on the ground.

The Doctor, remembering the names of the fallen, Katarina, Brett and Sara, takes Steven inside the TARDIS, which dematerialises.

This last 12th episode should have been the Christmas one without a doubt.

Overall then, some really patchy moments over the 12 parts. Some meanderings that shouldn't have ever been. Some episodes were definitely padding in a story that could have easily have been a six parter.

Kudos to Denis Spooner too, who turned Terry Nation's sketched scripts into something more substantial, but even so, sometimes that just wasn't enough.

Also some real flashes of brilliance in the direction and special fx. The impact of that final scene on Kembel, of Sara ageing to her death must be one of the most affecting images of early Doctor Who.

So then, with Masterplan all wrapped up, it's onto the next, a little adventure in which Steven and the Doctor get dangerously between Protestants and Catholics in 15th Century Paris. Mmmm.