Despite being missing from the BBC’s vaults since the purges of the early 1970’s, ‘The Power of the Daleks’ remains top of many a Doctor Who fan’s wishlist.
Thanks to BBC Worldwide, the story has been granted new animated visuals to accompany the lovingly recovered soundtrack and is available to purchase in the UK from BBC Store, with a DVD release and a limited edition Blu-ray steelbook on their way in November and February.
As CultBox is (of course!) far too youthful to have seen the original airing, and we were in short trousers when the novelisation appeared, we have decided to treat the story as new episodes – which to our eyes they pretty much are…
Returning to where we left them in the Dalek capsule, after a glimpse of one of the monsters out of its shell, the Doctor hunted to no avail. However, it appears that his discoveries did not go unnoticed, as Ben was observed fetching a torch and the Doctor is sure there should have been three Daleks in there.
As we got into the story, which understandably picked up the pace from last week’s opener, it transpired that scientist Lesterson had already been inside and has been experimenting on a Dalek.
Patrick Troughton’s Doctor seems a little less erratic in this second episode; he still fools around a fair amount and is easily distracted, but in one case it was craft to cover his search for a listening bug. When he warned that a single Dalek could destroy the colony, there was a real flash of power in his voice.
Ben still insists that the new Doctor is a phoney, but we are not sure that he still believes it, and Polly is warming to him rapidly, joining in with his daft tongue twister “Lesterton listen”. To remind us we are still watching the same man, writer David Whitaker provided a name check for ‘Marco Polo’, met on one of Doctor Who’s earliest trips back into history.
The political situation continued to escalate, with Deputy Governor Quinn accused of sabotage and already under orders not to contact the Examiner, though without any reason given. The governor clearly does not trust him, and this was evident in the enmity between Quinn and Security Chief Bragen.
Perhaps Quinn is simply a sloppy saboteur, and he was caught red handed with the radio operator unconscious and cutters in his hand, but it is all rather convenient – and even if he is the murderer, we are still none the wiser as to who summoned an Earth Examiner in the first place.
Robert James’ performance as Lesterton was fascinating in the scenes where he is repowering the Dalek; he plays the scientist so engrossed and focussed on a breakthrough that he hardly seemed bothered to enquire about poor old Resno the lab technician after he was shot.
We loved being granted the Dalek’s eye view and it was used again to great effect later when the creature seemed to recognise the Doctor, as it was showcased to the Governor, promising to be the answer to all their problems.
Its proclamation “I am your servant” was a great twist to end on, and we love the conceit that only the Doctor knows the truth of their deadly nature.
Aired on Saturday 12 November 1966 on the BBC.
Buy ‘The Power of the Daleks’ on DVD on Amazon here.
Buy ‘The Power of the Daleks’ limited edition Blu-ray on Amazon here.
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