Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 002—The Daleks
Doctor Who Retro Review
Serial 002: "The Daleks"
Starring: William Hartnell
By T. Scott Edwards
As Sue would say on Adventures with the Wife in Space—"Terry F****** Nation."
The man has done a great deal for Doctor
Who over the many years, and has a lot to answer for, and this, his first
script for the show, is ultimately the reason the series ever existed beyond
the first few stories. The creator of the Daleks, he is renowned for rather
mundane scripts, but it is the creation of these pepperpot monsters which truly
cements his arguable genius. His scripts are often rather stilted, with bland
characterisation and frightfully run-of-the-mill episode titles—yet he is also
responsible for what is arguably one of the greatest serials ever, Genesis of the Daleks. That a man can
have so many hits, and so many misses, is fascinating. But what of his first
serial, The Daleks?
Each of the earliest serials was split
into a number of episodes, each with their own names—some truly off the mark,
others apt. As the story opens, with the title card reading "The Dead
Planet," the flickering of the danger light on the TARDIS console sets the
scene instantly. Before anything can happen, our time-travelling heroes are
already in grave peril. Great pains have gone into the creation of the sets for
this serial, and Raymond Cusick is truly a genius—not only did he create the
iconic design of the Daleks, but also he created such a sense of
otherworldliness, of alienness, that it is breathtaking. The petrified jungle,
the metal creature, the corridors of the Dalek city with their slanted, crooked
doors too short for Barbara to walk through without ducking—from the outset, we
know that they are somewhere unknown.
As with the design of the landscape and
model work, an unsung hero of the piece is Tristram Cary, whose sound-scapes
are just as breathtaking—the use of incidental music throughout creates a sense
of awe. Epic chords as the city is revealed in the distance, and the terrifying
silence building into that cliff-hanger—yes, that cliff-hanger. Our first ever sight of the Daleks—one plunger
waved crazily in front of a camera by a floor assistant, creeping up on the
terrified, disconnected Barbara, who, within minutes of being stuck inside
endless alien corridors is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The merging of
this scream into the end credits isn't perfect—something we will come to know
and, dare I say love? in Bonnie Langford's era as a companion—but it leaves us
on tenterhooks, desperate to find out more.
What we must remember as objective
viewers is that when this first aired in late 1963, nothing was known about the
show. No-one knew what lengths the series would go to to engage the audience. As
such, when Barbara is pinned to the wall, and likewise in episode 2 when Ian is
shot by the Dalek, we can't be sure that they will survive—it grips you with a
paranoid sense of fear not unlike that of the characters.
Episode two, "The Survivors,"
is the first real look at a Dalek,
other than that of the plunger before, and as such it is enthralling to think
that these creations are so iconic, so atypical of sci-fi and horror. Terry
Nation made it clear that he held a great disdain for robots in these genres
from Hollywood movies and other TV shows, as they made it quite clear that you
could tell that it was, simply put, a man in a costume. As such, he was
determined that his would appear to glide effortlessly—which they do, to some
extent. Far smaller than others that we see now, these pepperpot creations with
suckers for arms and evident weapon arms are, at first, not the villains. It is
surprising to note that, again objectively, the Daleks, whilst scheming and
evidently using the Doctor and co for their own uses, are not instantly
villainous. Instead, they are acting through fear of the 'unlike', as it is
termed later in the serial—the Thals must be horribly mutated, disgusting
freaks. Ironic, then, that what is inside the Dalek casing—the thought of which
makes Susan guffaw with laughter so readily—revealed in episode 3 is a hideous,
gelatinous clawed blob, yet the Thals look—well, beautiful, really.
As with the first serial, the Doctor
comes across as abrasive, unlikeable and gruff. His life has been uprooted and,
along with his granddaughter, he has been forced into another life of wandering
exile. Having finally settled on Earth, albeit only briefly, he is forced to
wander all of space and time again, unable to navigate or plan ahead. His act
of selfishness in episode 1, emptying the mercury fluid links to ensure a look
at the Dalek city up-close, is not really selfishness—it is scientific
curiosity. Whilst is does lead the group into being placed in utter peril, it
is he who is driving the action. The group would rather just take off again,
continuously hopping from time and place to time and place, until they
eventually wound up back at home.
Susan continues to frustrate, doing
little other than screaming and running and falling and screaming and running
and falling and screaming... you get the idea. For an alien being herself, she
acts like a terrified school girl. In the face of the Doctor's alien nature,
she seems positively pathetic. Her overacting aside, she does little to
progress the plot, other than the fact that she makes first contact with the
Thals in the beginning of episode 3, "The Escape." "The Escape"
is one of those episodes with a redundant name—there is no escape, no one gets
away from anything.
Ahhh, the Thals. Those beautiful,
perfectly-coiffured alien beings whose mutative cycle has gone full circle,
from warrior beings to mutants, and right the way back to... well, farmers,
actually. A spineless bunch of misfits, who spend far too long spouting
redundant exposition which it is difficult to feel any passion for at all. As
the serial progresses, they don't really get much better either—they are, of
course, the good guys, but much like any number of races after them, they
inspire little enthusiasm in the audience. It is no wonder that the Daleks
became as popular as they did; in comparison with this bunch of badly dressed
farmhands, they inspire us to encourage their dastardly plans. It is episode 3
which sees the first ever "Exterminate" from a Dalek too—although
interestingly, it is used in flowing exposition, as opposed to the polysyllabic
threat which has become so synonymous with them.
Susan gets another of those awkward
laughs when the Daleks monitor the writing of the note—"Su-San?," the
Daleks enquire, unused as they are to individual names. The note, of course,
leads the Thals, after yet more exposition, into a trap which becomes the 'highlight'
of episode 4, if it can be called that. Episode 4, "The Ambush," sees
the Doctor and his cohort escaping following their creativity with the Dalek casing
at the end of part 3. The scene in which they wait for the lift, Ian trapped
within the casing, would be nerve-wracking, if it weren't for Susan's screams
as always, as she points to a door which is no further broken down than before,
trying to create a sense of urgency. The scenes with the lift and the statue
are brilliantly realised, though, through some superb model work, which create
a genuine sense of danger—that lift, coming up ever so slowly, could contain
anything, and we genuinely believe it.
Then the eponymous ambush occurs—and it
is a dreadful letdown. Despite Cary's outstanding score creating a mounting
sense of danger, the Thals blindly and stupidly wander into the trap, and when
Ian bellows "No! It's a trap!," there is an awkward pause, as the
Thals do not move, and the Daleks do not fire—as though no one can fully
believe that it has been this rashly put-together. The Thals are pathetic
wimps, and it is difficult for us to give a toss as one or two of their number
are picked off by that exhilarating negative effect created by the guns.
Once our band of heroes are back at the
Thal camp, they become even more pathetic—refusing to fight, and saying that
they would prefer to simply retreat further into the mountains than fight with
the Daleks. That they are taken in by Ian's ruse about handing over Dyoni is
even more irksome. What is interesting is the dynamic with the Doctor and his
companions, though—Ian, despite his earlier protestations at his desperation to
return home, refuses to force the Thals to give their lives for their cause. Barbara
and the Doctor are, however, insistent. This is the beginning of the friendship
between them which will be truly put to the test in the next serial.
Once the Thals have been persuaded, the
group splits into two, watched at every move by the Daleks from their base. This
forms the basis of the next two episodes—"The Expedition" and "The
Ordeal." The sets are again perfectly realised, and the beast in the
sulphurous lake, rising out of the water on its many-legged body is incredibly
effective—eyes aglow, it is a haunting image, and one which makes the
cliff-hanger, the swirling eddy engulfing Elyon, even more dramatic. It is
during these two episodes in particular that the fact that the story is made in
black and white are truly effective—the sequences in the tunnels are sparsely
shot and incredibly tense, shadows dancing across their faces—and for once, not
boom microphones. This is all intentional, and it is all the stronger for it. Sadly,
episode 6, "The Ordeal," is aptly named—it is an ordeal to watch and
endure, as we watch each and every member of the group go through their
preparations for jumping a crevasse, running, then jumping... It goes on, and
on, for what feels like an eternity. Even the occasional cutaways to the Doctor
and his group cannot redeem the boredom, as they spout educational stuff about
electricity and short circuiting, filling the brief that Doctor Who should be,
above all else, instructive. Their capture by the Daleks, and their torture in
the final episode, are too brief, and too much time is spent watching Ian and
his group jumping...
"The Rescue" highlights one of
Nation's shortcomings as a writer. After nearly 3 episodes of build up, following
the expedition through treacherous lands and dangerous encounters, as well as
the mind-numbing cliff jump, the group finally arrive within the city walls,
only to run straight into Antodus—whilst the Doctor and Susan were caught, it
proves that it was a rather simple affair to have walked in and remained
undetected. The fallen Thals seem to have given up their lives to little ends. As
the Thals gather to discuss their attack on the city, armed with sticks and
stones—and presumably some nasty words, too—one shouts "Have we forgotten
how to fight?" The awkward silence following this question speaks too
loudly of the inability of the Thal people—they really have. When they finally
attack, they are simply cannon fodder, as extra after extra is mowed down
having achieved nothing but an impressive aerial descent by rope.
The Doctor and Susan, whilst being
tortured, make a flippant comment which seems rather jarring—in order to spare
their lives, they are willing to share the secret of time travel, and even
offer to make another TARDIS for the Daleks. Had Tom Baker made this comment,
or any other Doctor, we could have been forgiven for reading it as a bluff. Here,
though, the look of desperation in Hartnell's face is unnerving—we genuinely
believe he would break one of the fundamental rules of time travel, and give
the secret away to some tyrannical tin beasts to save his own skin.
The final showdown is made all the more
tense by the grating, alien voice of the Dalek counting down the seconds to the
detonation of the nuclear bomb. What ruins this dramatic effect is that
evidently it was filmed as an extra to be added in during postproduction,
rather than live, and as such, when the voice reaches "4!" the
countdown is forced to stop, as the Thals attack, Ian and co appear to save the
day, and it takes about 2 minutes before the control panel is destroyed. The
tension disappears the second that voice stops.
Scott Edwards is a teacher of English and Theatre Studies at Barnard Castle School in the North East of England, with a BAHons in English Literature and Film Studies. He is also a self-professed ‘ming-mong,' and in addition to http://timelordapprentice.blogspot.co.uk/ he also runs http://www.facebook.com/Classic.Doctor.Who. You can also follow him on Twitter: @TimelordTSE.
Labels: Daleks, Doctor Who, Guest Blog, T. Scott Edwards, William Hartnell
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