Day 73: The Chase - The Death of Time

The episode starts off with the Dalek rising from the sand. After that moment the Doctor and Barbara come across the Aridians. There’s a nice shot where the Dalek is high up on the screen and the second Dalek comes in from the side at a lower angle. The Dalek location film is quite good and the best bit comes when the Dalek is coming towards the screen.

We get a nice bit of exposition as to what is going on. It seems quite a good battle between the Aridians and the Mya beast which gets even more complex when the Daleks arrive. The thing about the Aridians are going to hand the Doctor and Barbara over to the Daleks is something that you cant really blame the Aridians. They might look a bit silly but their characteristics are quite good.

There’s an odd moment after the explosion where Vicki appears to be laughing before becoming concerned. In fact out of the two groups it seems that Vicki and Ian have drawn the short straw in this episode as they don’t seem to do as much as the Doctor and Barbara. Ian gets to do a bit of action hero stuff when he helps come up with the plan to get past the Daleks.

This is the most blatant reference to the fact that the TARDIS is very difficult to destroy when the Daleks try to blow it up. Of course as the viewer is aware, it survived falling of a cliff in ‘The Romans’ so a short blast from some Dalek guns is going to be no problem.

The Mya beast isn’t particularly good as it just looks like a bloke in a suit. I suppose it serves a purpose and you can suspend your disbelief in the idea that its terrorising the Aridians but I cant say it’s the most impressive monster in Doctor Who history.

The Daleks spend a long time not really doing very much. They talk to each other but don’t get very far. They show up, threaten to attack the Aridians if they don’t hand over the Doctor and Barbara, get fooled by the regulars and shout at the camera. Not their finest 30 minutes.

The scene where they are trying to get in the TARDIS and get the Daleks out of the way is a bit of comedy but it is rather well done. It’s helped by the fact that the scene is at night and its helps create a mood.

The episode ends with the Dalek coming towards the screen ranting and raving. It was a good cliffhanger though unfortunately the episode wasn’t as good as I would have liked. There’s an awful lot of people just sitting or standing and talking. I just want the chase part of the story to start and thankfully that is what is about to happen.