The Chase - The Planet of Decision

It’s a sad moment in this journey. It’s the final time that Ian and Barbara would appear in Doctor Who. It’s also the episode where Peter Purves makes his second and more significant impression on the show. Purves plays Steven Taylor who has been a prisoner of the Mechanoids for 2 years on his own. His first scene was quite a good one as we learn a lot about the planet and what the mechanoids are.

The problem with the Mechanoids is that they are big and don’t really do much. They are also quite dim really because they allow Steven and the regulars to go to the roof and come up with a plan to try and escape. The bomb that the Doctor has spent several episodes is used in rather a limp way. It’s activated and then the Doctor leaves to the roof. When it does go off it doesn’t really do much apart from kill one Dalek. In fact the Mechanoids do more damage than that single bomb. The battle between the Daleks and the Mechanoids is rather well done and even though there are only a handful of Daleks and Mechanoids it does feel like an epic battle.

The plot point about Steven going back to get his silly mascot was a way of separating him from the regulars. I thought that the point of them leaving Steven to his fate was rather a harsh thing to do and I got the impression that under normal circumstances that they would have gone back for him. It seems to be a running theme of just leaving people behind as it happened to Vicki earlier in the story.

It’s really sad that William Russell and Jacqueline Hill leave in this episode and the Doctors reaction after being asked by Ian and Barbara doesn’t seem like acting on Hartnell’s part. If this had happened in the early days then the Doctor wouldn’t have acted like this and it’s a clear indication as to how much they mean to the Doctor that he goes a bit over the top. It’s not as emotional as when Carole Ann Ford left but it’s still a lovely departure for two of the finest companions in Doctor Who history.

This is the final time that William Hartnell’s Doctor will encounter the Daleks and out of the three stories it’s the one that isn’t well liked but I think that it’s a perfectly fine story. I would probably rate this as the second best Dalek story so far. As an episode its quite a good episode that has to do a lot in just 25 minutes as does it rather well. It doesn’t feel like its rushed and only the stuff with the bomb that has taken ages to construct is what lets the episode down. That said it’s a good end to a six part story that hasn’t dragged in my opinion. There aren’t many six part adventures that I can say that about.