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Doctor Who/The Chase

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The Chase
016
Airdate May 22, 1965
Production Number R
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Richard Martin
← 015
The Space Museum 		017 →
The Time Meddler
Doctor Who — Season Two

The Chase is the eighth serial of the second season of Doctor Who, and the sixteenth serial overall.

Guest Stars: Ian Thompson (Malsan), Hywel Bennett (Rynian), Al Raymond (Prondyn), Peter Purves (Morton Dill), Dennis Chinnery (Albert Richardson), David Blake Kelly (Captain Briggs), Edmund Warwick (Robot Doctor), David Graham (Dalek Voices), Peter Hawkins (Dalek Voice), Hugh Walters (William Shakespeare), John Scott Martin (Mechanoid), Jack Pitt (Mechanoid), Murphy Grumbar (Mechanoid), David Graham (Mechanoid Voice), Jack Pitt (Cabin Steward), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Gerald Taylor (Dalek), Robert Jewell (Dalek), Kevin Manser (Dalek), Roslyn de Winter (Grey Lady), Ken Tyllsen (Fungoid), Roger Hammond (Francis Bacon)

Contents

Plot Overview

The Executioners

The Daleks are tracking Doctor and his companions through time and space with a time machine of their own. Aboard the TARDIS, completely unaware of the Dalek's pursuit, the Doctor is busy repairing a time and space visualiser (a six-foot-wide ring with a small view screen in the middle -- in short: a time television). To test it out, he looks in on several historical figures. The demonstation is cut short when the TARDIS prepares to land.

After the TARDIS lands, Ian and Vicki leave to explore. The Doctor gives Ian a TARDIS magnet to help him find his way back. The Doctor and Barbara remain at the TARDIS, sunning themselves beneath the planet's two suns.

Off on their own Ian and Vicki find a ring buried in the sand. When Ian pulls the ring, a trap-door passage opens. The both descend into the passage below. Once inside, the trap door that admitted them closes.

Back at the TARDIS, Barbara hears a noise. It is the time and space visualiser (which was left on). There she sees that the Daleks are pursuing the Doctor. Realising what this means, the Doctor and Barbara set out to look for Ian and Vicki. The Daleks could already be here.

During their search, a powerful sandstorm obscures their vision. They try to return to the TARDIS, but they cannot see to make their way back.

The Death of Time

In the morning after the sandstorm, a Dalek digs its way out of a sand dune. More Daleks arrive, searching for the TARDIS. They know it is here on the planet Aridian. When they encounter a native Airdian (an amphibian-like humanoid), they exterminate him on sight.

The trap door that Ian and Vicki entered through (called the Taltarian airlock by the Aridians), is detonated at "high suns" in an effort to stave off a scourge of Mire Beasts. Ian is injured in the explosion.

The Daleks find the TARDIS buried in a sand dune, and force Aridian prisoners to dig it out. After the Airdians are finished digging, they are exterminated.

Befriended by two Aridians (Malsan and Rynian), Barbara and Doctor are led into their underground city.

The leader of the Daleks delivers an ultimatum to the city elders: hand over the Doctor or be destroyed. The city elders agree to hand them over in two hours at "last suns". A surprise attack by the mire beasts allows the Doctor, Barbara, and Vicki to escape from the Aridians. When the Daleks learn of their escape, they give the Aridians a one hour extension to recapture the Doctor.

Vicki finds an exit that is only 20 yards from the TARDIS, which has fortunately resisted all attempts to destroy it. Unfortunately, the Daleks posted guards. After his escape, the Doctor and Ian are reunited. Together they lure the two Daleks guarding the TARDIS into a pit. Everyone escapes into the TARDIS.

Flight Through Eternity

The Doctor and his companions are thrilled to have escaped from the Daleks, but their joy is short-lived. The Daleks are following them. Since the computers need twelve minutes to recharge for another time trip, they may not be able to elude the Daleks this time.

The TARDIS materialises on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York. Barbara leaves the TARDIS first. Realising that she is on Earth, she questions a man and learns that the year is 1966. When Vicki comes out, she is thrilled to see "ancient" New York. The Doctor determines that there isn't enough room to fight the Daleks here, so everyone gets back into the TARDIS, and they leave.

Then the Dalek time machine materialises. A Dalek emerges, and questions Mr. Morton Dill, the man with whom Barbara had just spoken. They determine that the Doctor has moved on, and resume their pursuit, leaving Mr. Dill (and New York) unscathed.

This time the TARDIS materialises aboard a sailing ship at sea. Barbara wanders off and is captured by a crewman, who presumes she is a stowaway. Vicki who has also left the TARDIS, sneaks up on the crewman and whacks him over the head. Then she whacks Ian on the head as well, mistaking him for another crewmember. Barbara and Vicki have to help him back aboard the TARDIS.

Shortly after the TARDIS vanishes, the Dalek time machine materialises aboard the same ship. As the Daleks search the ship looking for the TARDIS, the panicked crew flee from the Daleks, jumping into the sea. Realising the that Doctor has already escaped, the Daleks leave. The name of the ship was the Mary Celeste, a ship found abandoned under mysterious circumstances in December of 1872.

Journey into Terror

The TARDIS materialises in what appears to be a castle somewhere in central Europe. Since this might be a good place to confront the Daleks, Ian and the Doctor scout around upstairs. Barbara and Vicki have a look downstairs. Upstairs Ian and the Doctor encounter Frankenstein's monster! Count Dracula also makes an appearance.

The Daleks arrive and begin searching. Frankenstein attacks the Daleks destroying one. Dracula also enters the fray. The Daleks attack Dracula but their efforts are in vain.

Ian, Barbara, and the Doctor hurry back aboard the TARDIS and leave in a rush. Vicki is accidentally left behind. Dracula attacks the Daleks, causing them to leave in a panic as well.

The Doctor presumed they were in some sort of manifestation of the human mind, but after the TARDIS and the Daleks leave, we see that they were in "Frakenstein's House of Horrors" (admission $10) -- a sort of robotic haunted house built for the "Festival of Ghana 1996". A diagonal banner reads "Cancelled by Peking".

The others now realise that Vicki is missing. Since the Doctor can't make the TARDIS go where he wants it to go, he is unable to return for Vicki. With no other alternative, they plan to steal the Dalek time machine somehow, and use it to rescue Vicki.

Vicki did not remain behind though. She was able to stow away aboard the Dalek ship, where she must constantly hide, knowing what will happen if she is caught. She overhears their plans to use a robotic Doctor Who with orders to "infiltrate and kill". When she is alone, she tries to contact the TARDIS using their equipment, but she cannot reach them.

Elsewhere in space and time, the TARDIS lands on the planet Mechanus in a swampy jungle ... at night.

The Death of Doctor Who

The Daleks arrive on the planet Mechanus. They release their robotic Doctor with orders to "infiltrate and kill." Menaced by giant, ambulatory, mushroom-shaped fungi; the Daleks orders are destroy all forms of life on contact.

Meanwhile the real Doctor and the others have already passed the menacing fungi and are following a corridor. At the end of the corridor they prepare for a showdown with the Daleks using the weapon that the Doctor has been working on (a small box-like affair).

When Ian and the Doctor leave for a moment, the fake Doctor isolates Barbara by telling her that Ian is probably dead and leading her away to check on him.

Vicki, who has overheard the Dalek's plans, outpaces the Daleks and reaches the TARDIS first. She passes out after being attacked by a fungus, but is then rescued by the Doctor and Ian. When Vicki wakes, she is terrified by the Doctor. Believing that he is the robotic Doctor, she pushes him away and runs. When she finally explains herself to them, they realise that Barbara is in great danger.

Ian arrives just in time to save Barbara from the robotic Doctor. Then the real Doctor and the robotic one meet face-to-face. A fight ensues and the real Doctor wins, ripping the wires out of his robotic doppelganger.

Forced to spend the night in the cave at the end of the corridor, Ian takes guard duty while the Doctor and the others sleep. Unfortunately, he falls asleep at his post. During the night, a camera lowers on a boom from above and studies them.

At daylight everyone wakes up. They can now see that they are at the base of a fabulous, elevated city rising thousands of feet in the air above them, but there is little time to appreciate its grandeur. The Daleks are coming.

The real Doctor poses as the robotic Doctor in an attempt to fool the Daleks, but it doesn't work. They know he is the real Doctor and shoot, barely missing him.

Just as they are about to use the Doctor's anti-Dalek weapon, a wall panel opens revealing a spherical (geodesic) robot approximately 5 feet tall. It speaks in a strange mechanical voice, inviting them into the lift. With few choices left to them, the Doctor and the others squeeze into the lift together.

The Planet of Decision

The Doctor and the others follow the robot into the city, where they are imprisoned with an astronaut, Steven Taylor, who has been alone for two years since he crashed.

He explains that Mechanus was set up by self-repairing robots sent from Earth in preparation for colonisation -- colonisation which never occurred. Since they do not have the control codes for the robots, they are considered specimens like zoo animals to be kept on display.

Meanwhile the Daleks make their way into the lift and up into the city. When they encounter the mechanoids, they attack. The mechanoids respond by counter-attacking.

In the midst of this attack the prisoners (Ian, Barbara, Vicki, the Doctor, and Steven) make their way up the stairs to the roof. But before making his exit, the Doctor leaves his anti-Dalek weapon at the bottom of the stairs. When the Daleks do finally arrive, the weapon works as expected, killing the Dalek that set it off.

Up on the roof it has become evident that Vicki has a debilitating fear of heights. The others try to comfort and calm her, but eventually they lower her kicking and screaming off the roof to the ground 1500 feet below. Steven re-enters the building to get some audio equipment. The others make their way down the cable.

Inside the city the Dalek-Mechanoid battle rages, setting fire to the buildings, weakening them. On the ground, Steven is nowhere to be seen. The others can only watch as the city collapses.

Standing outside the Dalek time machine, Barbara realises that she and Ian could use it to go home. The Doctor adamantly refuses to help, telling them that they only have a 50/50 chance of success. In the end, he relents, but he impresses upon them that they must follow his instructions to the letter.

Ian and Barabra do indeed leave in the Dalek time machine and arrive in London in the year 1965. They then destroy the Dalek time machine exactly as the Doctor requested. The Doctor and Vicki watch them on the time and space visualiser. He admits that he will miss them. The TARDIS activates and leaves Mechanus.

Notes

  • It is interesting to note that Beatles songs have proven to be more enduringly classic than many people of the day might have guessed. Will their songs still be considered classics, centuries hence? Vicki claims to have visited the "Beatles Memorial Theatre" in Liverpool in her time (the 25th century), and she considers their music to be classical music.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

  • For the first time we see hard evidence that the Daleks possess time travel capability.

Characters

  • Ian and Barbara leave their time travelling adventures behind and return home to Earth to the year 1965 (two years after they left).

Referbacks

  • The time and space visualiser was given to the Doctor by Tor after the defeat of the Morocks at the space museum.
  • Vicki refers to New York City as "ancient New York", because the city was destroyed by the Daleks in the 22nd century.
  • At the end of the story Ian and Barbara return to London. They even consider returning to Coal Hill School, where they had been teachers before they left with the Doctor in 1963.

Trivia

The Show

  • At one point, with Vicki looking over his shoulder Ian can be seen reading the book Monsters from Outer Space.
  • The two suns of Aridian have moved closer to the planet over time, and they dried out the ocean, leaving only two species on the planet: the Airdians and the ravenous Mire Beasts.
  • In 1872 from the deck of the Mary Celeste, one Dalek falls into the ocean, splitting open and presumably killing the Dalek inside.

Behind the Scenes

Allusions and References

Memorable Moments

  • Apparently giddy at having defeated the Daleks yet again, Ian boards the Dalek time machine and plays a joke on the others, using his voice to pretend to be a Dalek.
  • Overjoyed to be back in London, Ian kisses Barbara -- not a passionate kiss, but a kiss nonetheless.
  • After they return to 1965, we get to see a series of still photos of Ian and Barbara re-acquainting themselves with London. One gets the impression that they are quite happy together.
    • Barbara beset by pigeons in Trafalgar square.
    • Barbara and Ian playfully investigating an old police box (not the TARDIS). They peek inside all the same.

Quotes

  • Barbara: (emerging from the TARDIS on the Empire State Building) You're from Earth.
Morton Dill: No... No Ma'am. No, I'm from Alabama.
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