The Daleks - The Rescue

The final episode and we left Ian literally on a cliff trying not to get pulled down with Antodus. Despite being thoroughly annoying, Antodus gives his own life, whether he knows that he has no hope or he’s trying to save Ian’s life is unclear but it’s a nice end to a character that I haven’t rated very highly. Ian’s party have suffered loss and despite being on the verge of heading back, they discover that they have been travelling near the pipes all the time. When they get back into the city, it’s not long before their presence is felt. This is also the first episode that a Dalek has been seen moving about the corridors.

The Daleks want to go out of the city and think that the bomb will be their best chance. That’s basically their goal in this episode and all is going well until Ian and company storm the room. After the bomb has been stopped their source of power has been also been knocked out and just a they are about to die they plea with the Doctor to help and the Doctor tells him that even if he wanted to he doesn’t know how.

The Doctor and Susan are now tied up in the Daleks control room. In a last final desperate attempt, the Doctor tells the Daleks about the TARDIS. This doesn’t work and what we get is a wonderful bit of tension as the countdown continues and Ian and the rest have to try and disrupt the countdown whilst not being killed by the Daleks. Neither William Hartnell or Carole Ann Ford do much for large chunks of the episode as they are tied up. What little they do is good but it’s Hartnell who has the better dialogue. Carole Ann Ford almost gets a child-free like performance in this episode. But there is a moment where she is wearing something from the Thals, does a spin and then childishly falls to the floor.

William Russell is very good in this episode being the driving force of the party to get through the last bit of the cave. The look on his face when he’s peering through the wall into the room with the pipes was fun too see. Jacqueline Hill was also very good in this episode as she throws herself into some of the more dramatic moments such as when the doors are about to slam down and manages to squeeze herself through the small gap. The romance between herself and Ganatus is short lived and sadly comes to an end and it’s a shame because even though it’s never really been looked at in any way it’s been a nice thing that they have both performed well with.

As a final episode it seems almost like the journey for the fluid link was almost forgotten as the rescue took centre stage. It’s only referred to at the very end of the battle in the control room. Even then it’s not a big thing that the last four episodes have been about getting this fluid link. The battle was rather well done, it was your typical fight with Thals coming down from the ceiling before being gunned down. There is a wonderful final shot of the dead Daleks in their control room it’s the first time there has been any real silence in the story and it’s a wonderful moment, it shows that even in a mini war like what we got there is still losses on both sides even though the Thals came out on top.

The cliffhanger was a fantastic one. Everything is seemingly carrying on as normal but then the Doctor, Ian and Susan (Barbara walks off screen) are thrown to the floor with a white light blinding the screen. At the time it must have been as impressive ending as ‘The Dead Planet’. As an episode ‘The Rescue’ is a really good episode with some good scenes and good performances. Over the course of the last seven episodes the characters have developed nicely with some strong performances from all four regulars. Even the supporting cast have been good even though they aren’t quite given the best costumes in the world. The first encounter with the Daleks is what every Doctor Who story after it will be compared against.