The Daleks Master Plan - The Abandoned Planet

This is the penultimate episode of this serial and its the beginning of the end. At the end of the previous episode the TARDIS burst into white light and there is several minutes before we find out that nothing major has happened to them. The explanation as to why this was the case was quite clever and the fallout from Sara's disbelief in the Doctors ways was quite amusing.

I like how Chen's popularity with the rest of the committee and the Daleks is pretty much non existent and there is a nice plan to try and oust him but its really too little too late as the Daleks still see some use for him. With the time destructor taking shape, it seems like the tension is starting to pick up. it seems like after several episodes of moving the story along without really mentioning the time destructor, we get server all mentions of it and it feels a bit more real.

There is a great sense of drama in trying to get warning back to Earth and there is a moment when Chen's ship explodes and it appears he has died but its all a ruse and he returns at the end of the episode to take Steven and Sara into the tunnel. 

For the first time since she joined Steven and the Doctor, it feels like Sara is part of the team. She works well with Peter Purves and their best scene was when they communicated when the rest of the council. Jean Marsh is on great form and it seems even sadder when you consider what will happen to her. William Hartnell goes missing for large portions of this story. It allows Jean Marsh and Peter Purves to take centre stage and they thrive in it. Hartnell's health is really starting to cause problems for the show and his lack of involvement in the episode does have an impact because you feel like he should be right in the thick of the action.

The cliffhanger set up the final episode nicely and if I were watching this in February 1966 then I would be counting down the days and hours until the next episode. This episode was good but was missing William Hartnell's presence.