The Power of the Daleks - Episode 3

Its surprising that despite being the most successful thing in Doctor Who that the Daleks haven’t been more involved in it. Thankfully that is about to change as the start of the episode begins with the ‘I AM YOUR SERVANT’ speech. It’s at this moment that the colonists are clearly stupid as they see the Dalek as a potential tool for mining. It’s very hard to sympathise for a group of people when they are being unbelievably dense. Hearing a Dalek say anything except EXTERMINATE is unusual. It’s almost like hearing a pensioner swear, its not normal. However at least there is a bit more to the Daleks (or Dalek) in this episode. Even when the Doctor attacks the Dalek it doesn’t divert from its acting and keeps up the act. The moment when the Daleks start to appear in greater numbers then it starts to step up. Lesterson’s ignorance is becoming amusing with every scene.

It seems like Patrick Troughton is getting to grips with the role and its more of a sensible performance rather than scattered one that we have had in the previous episodes. There are still flashes of the sort of child like sides to the character but it seems like a more confident performance from Troughton. I liked how they finally started to drop the façade of the Doctor being the examiner. I was also impressed with Michael Craze because his frustration at the Doctor seems to be part of trying to get the viewer to accept Troughton as the new Doctor and I think that it works well. Anneke Wills seems to suffer a little bit in this episode as Craze and Troughton take the lions share of the action.

It’s a stronger episode that the second because we finally get a bit more action from the Daleks. The music is helping to create an atmosphere which is adding to my enjoyment of the story. The central performances are good and the supporting performances are doing their job. There cunning plan seems to be taking shape and as we approach the second half of the story its clear that the new Doctor is going to get on well.