A new year, a new Time Stream entry!
We go for the big guns this time around with the longest story (depending on
how you classify “The Trial of a Time Lord”) of the classic series, “The
Daleks’ Master Plan”. I actually finished watching this between Christmas and
New Year’s Day, but holidays being what they are, it’s taken a while to gather
my thoughts on this monolith of a story.
Following immediately on from “The
Myth Makers” we have the Doctor, Steven and (ho-hum) Katarina land on the
planet Kembel (last seen in “Mission to the Unknown”) where the Doctor is
searching for a cure for Steven, who still suffers from the poison he received
last episode. Right from the start, all hell breaks loose. There are Daleks!
There is treachery from Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen! More Daleks!
Nicholas Courtney! Oh, let’s do this one in a list, shall we…
1) Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen. I
always think of “The Invasion” first when I think of Kevin Stoney, but he’s
wonderfully over the top here as well. There are some moments when I wonder how
anyone could be fooled by him at all, and others where he plays it so subtly
that it’s no wonder he became Guardian.
2) Okay, let me get it out of the way
right here. Katarina was a TERRIBLE idea for a companion. Actually, I’ll amend
that: there is a nugget of a good idea in a companion from ancient Greece, but
Katarina was not it. Adrienne Hill was given nothing to work with, and comes
across as ridiculously wooden. As I mentioned in a previous post, there was NO
reason to have this new companion come on board, one that the Doctor would have
to explain every little thing to. She didn’t understand a KEY for crying out
loud. Katarina’s death in Part Four meant nothing to me as a viewer, and could
have had so much more impact if it had been Vicki sacrificing herself. Ugh,
everything about Katarina depresses me.
3) Nicholas Courtney. Even when he’s
not the Brigadier, it’s so good to see him with the Doctor. I’m a huge fan of
Courtney and it may just be nostalgia, but there are some of the trappings of
the Brig in his portrayal of Bret Vyon. My one complaint is that his death
seemed a little too “off-screen” for such a major event.
4) “The Feast of Steven” – probably the
MOST lost of the lost episodes, as copies weren’t made for overseas sale, thus
the only copies were most definitely destroyed. It really is a bit of fluff,
but just going by soundtrack and telesnaps, it’s a diverting bit of fluff. The
first “Christmas episode” has some enjoyable bits like the Doctor giving his “I’m
a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot!” line, the title cards
(which I assume are not part of the recon and were actually in the episode),
and of course the madness at the end of the episode where Hartnell wishes the viewers
at home a Happy Christmas. The whole episode just made me smile.
5) The return of the Meddling Monk. I
wasn’t entirely thrilled with the Monk back in his first appearance in “The
Time Meddler”, but I feel he was used to much better effect here, even if his
main role was to pad out the story a bit. He’s a little more sinister and
cunning, and lord help me, is the device he uses to disable the TARDIS lock a
sonic something? I’m going to say yes. Plus, the Doctor’s ring comes in handy
once more. I kind of want to see this ring show up again in the new series, but
that is me totally fanboying.
6) Finally, Sara Kingdom. It’s hard
for me to believe that Sara and Katarina were both in this story. Katarina was
such a non-starter as a character, but Sara is strongly developed, has a
character arc, and in stark contrast to Katarina, her death actually means
something! Her rapid aging because of the Time Destructor is, frankly, pretty
intense, but I was genuinely sad to see her go. She was an interesting character
and one I would have liked to see continue for a few more stories.
“The Daleks’ Master Plan” isn’t
necessarily a story you watch in one sitting, running around five hours. But
broken up episodically or maybe two at a shot, it moves along pretty darn well.
There is definitely padding out of the story, but that happens in four parters,
so an epic story like this is bound to have some fluff. The guest cast is
consistently superb, and Katarina is disposed of pretty quickly so as not to
drag down the story with “what is a key?” type nonsense. Watching it over the
holidays I was predisposed to liking Episode Seven, but even without that
runaround, the story is just plain enjoyable. Because of the length it’s not
one I would rewatch regularly, but it is absolutely worth seeking out and
enjoying.
NEXT
EPISODE: The Massacre
"Mission to the Unknown" and "The Mutation of Time" novelization covers, courtesy The TARDIS Data Core at tardis.wikia.com
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