The Power of the Daleks
Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 5 to December 10, 1966.
Synopsis
Ben and Polly are still suspicious of the newly regenerated Doctor, who brings the TARDIS to the colony of Vulcan. There, the Doctor learns, to his horror, that a scientist has recovered three inert Dalek bodies from a crash and has reactivated them to serve the colony.Plot
Ben and Polly have just watched the First Doctor collapse to the floor and have witnessed him change from one person to another. Polly is convinced that the man is the Doctor, but Ben believes the man is an impostor. The TARDIS brings the newly regenerated Doctor, Ben and Polly to the planet Vulcan where, on arrival, the Doctor witnesses the murder of the examiner, the man sent from Earth to check on the human colony located on the planet. After checking the body the Doctor discovers a badge that gives him access all the areas of the human colony, no questions asked.
A security team lead by Bragen escorts the Doctor, Ben and Polly back to the colony. The examiner was summoned by Quinn, deputy governor to investigate the group of rebels. The governor regards the problem with the rebels as insignificant.
Meanwhile, Lesterson, the colony’s scientist has discovered a crashed Dalek space capsule. The Doctor goes to investigate the capsule and after having a quick look inside he says that’s enough for one night and goes off to bed.
Later that night, Ben and Polly see the Doctor heading towards Lesterson’s laboratory and go inside the Dalek capsule. They follow, and he opens an inner compartment to find two Daleks inside. He deduces that the third Dalek is missing from the capsule. Polly, who, along with Ben, had joined the Doctor in the capsule, spots a small mutant crawl across the floor. She screams.
The Doctor, Ben and Polly leave the capsule to find Lesterson, who immediately starts questioning them on why they are in his lab. The Doctor says that his badge (the examiner’s badge) says that he can go anywhere in the colony. The Doctor questions Lesterson on where he has put the third Dalek. He is afraid that Lesterson might be trying to reactivate it.
Once the Doctor, Ben and Polly have left, Lesterson opens a secret compartment were he has hidden the third Dalek. He gets his helpers Resno and Janley to help try and reactivate the Dalek. He is successful, but in the process the Dalek shoots Resno dead. Janley assures Lesterson that Resno will be fine, although she knows he is dead. At that point Lesterson removes the gun stick from the Dalek.
Meanwhile, Quinn has been accused of sabotaging the communication console and summoning the examiner. Quinn is put on trial and the governor has given Bragen Quinn’s old job. The Doctor, Ben and Polly attend Quinn’s trial, during which Lesterson arrives with the reactivated Dalek, who claims to be the colony’s servant. The Dalek recognises the Doctor and from that point on Ben believes he really is the Doctor.
Lesterson also reactivates the other two Daleks and removes the gun sticks from them. They also claim to be the colony’s servants, but one night when he goes inside the Dalek capsule he discovers that the three Daleks have designed a system that creates more Daleks.
After a long fight between the humans and the Daleks, in which Governor Hensell is killed, The Doctor destroys the Daleks by turning their own power source against them. It turns out that Bragen sabotaged the communication console and killed the real examiner. Quinn has the charges against him dropped and Bragen is arrested. Quinn is made governor and the Doctor, Ben and Polly return to the TARDIS and set off on another adventure.
Cast
- Dr. Who — Patrick Troughton
- Polly — Anneke Wills
- Ben Jackson — Michael Craze
- Bragen — Bernard Archard
- Hensell — Peter Bathurst
- Lesterson — Robert James
- Quinn — Nicholas Hawtrey
- Janley — Pamela Ann Davy
- The Examiner — Martin King
- Resno — Edward Kelsey
- Valmar — Richard Kane
- Kebble — Steven Scott
- Guards — Peter Forbes-Robertson, Robert Russell, Robert Luckham
- Daleks — Gerald Taylor, Kevin Manser, Robert Jewell, John Scott Martin
- Dalek Voices — Peter Hawkins
Notes
- Working titles for this story included The Destiny of Doctor Who and Servants of Masters.
- The planet Vulcan was theorised to be located within the Solar System, closer to The Sun than Mercury. This theory suffered a renewed burst of popularity in the 1960s. David Whitaker first listed it as a planet of the Solar System in the 1964 spin-off The Dalek Book. In 1966 Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry gave the name of Mr. Spock's homeworld and race as Vulcan (but placed it in another star system).
- Some fictional tie-ins, including Lance Parkin's A History of the Universe timeline, speculate that Vulcan is a rogue planet that entered the Solar System, so as to reconcile this story with others that do not mention the planet as existing.
- All six episodes were destroyed by the BBC. Several clips survive, most of which were released on the Lost in Time DVD in 2004. The audio soundtrack survives and has been released three times commercially by the BBC: the first version had narration by Tom Baker, the second by Anneke Wills. The third release presented the Wills-narrated soundtrack in MP3 format, in conjunction with tele-snaps by John Cura. This was released under the title Doctor Who Reconstructed.
- Following the release of the Lost in Time DVD, two further short clips from the story — along with a higher-quality version of one of the extant scenes — were discovered in an episode of the BBC science series Tomorrow's World from 1966. The clips only came to light when the relevant section of the Tomorrow's World episode was broadcast as part of an edition of the clip-based nostalgia show Sunday Past Times on BBC Two on September 11 2005.
- The remastered soundtrack to The Power of the Daleks was also released in a collector's tin called Doctor Who: Daleks which also included the soundtrack to The Evil of the Daleks and a bonus disc with My Life as a Dalek, a story presented by Mark Gatiss discussing the history of the Daleks.
- A novelisation of this serial, written by John Peel, was published by Virgin Books in July 1993. Although still published under the Target Books banner, this was the first novelisation to be published under the new format introduced by Virgin for the Virgin New Adventures/Virgin Missing Adventures series. The most notable difference is the increased page count.
- The next serial, The Highlanders, would introduce new companion Jamie McCrimmon, who would remain with the Second Doctor throughout the rest of his tenure, making The Power of the Daleks the only Second Doctor serial in which Jamie does not appear.
External links
- [The Power of the Daleks episode guide on the BBC website]
- [Photonovel of The Power of the Daleks on the BBC website]
- [The Power of the Daleks] at [Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)]
- [The Power of the Daleks] at the [Doctor Who Reference Guide]
- [Five-Minute The Power of the Daleks] — Parody version
Reviews
- [ }] reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- [The Power of the Daleks] reviews at [The Doctor Who Ratings Guide]
Target novelisation
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.