The Power of the Daleks - Episode 4

In Episode 4, the Daleks realise that the clocks-a-tickin and that they need to get a wriggle on. I know that they have been playing the long game but at times I wish that there would be more of them. The episode returns with the Daleks with another great chant. This is where they really do step up and their behaviour is one of the best things about this story because its not their usual behaviour. I like how the Doctor notices that the floor isn’t metal as this is a reference to earlier Dalek stories. I think in this episode we get the first of the Doctor’s catchphrase when he says “When I say run…run!”. Patrick Troughton has definelty got to grips with the role and it seems that Michael Craze has calmed down slightly but oddly we don’t get any Anneke Wills. To be honest its not such a bad thing as she’s been pretty redundant for the last couple of episodes. At least it gives the Doctor and Ben something to do.

The little domestic between the colonists takes a bit more of the action in this episode but there is some good stuff from Lesterson who is my favourite of the supporting characters but to be fair there aren’t any weak links in the chain. There is a nice scene where we get to here very horrible noises in the form of Daleks outside of their casing. It sounds very similar to the scene in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ where its squealing and it all sound nasty. It’s at times like this that I get annoyed that it doenst exist on videotape because this episode would have looked fantastic though sadly as is becoming the norm in this period of Doctor Who the episode is lost.

Like the previous episodes, this one moves along at a decent pace. It does feel like its settled down but there is enough going on to enjoy and at the centre is the Daleks genius performance. It’s the most interesting that they have been since their first story. This episode ends with one of the most memorable cliffhangers in Doctor Who. Daleks coming of a conveyable is something that I wish we could see. So as we enter the final third of this story it seems that there is no way that they could ruin it but there are some plot strands that need to be tided up and the story needs to deal with them in a satisfactory way.