The Daleks Master Plan - The Nightmare Begins

Well I’ve finally reached the second longest story in Doctor Who history. After having to endure ‘The Myth Makers’, its great to get to this story. It’s good how this story references ‘Mission to the Unknown’. People watching this in 1965 would have remembered this and so it would be a nice bit of continuity. The episode has a wonderful title which is one of Terry Nation’s strengths and the title pretty much sums up the story. The action from ‘The Myth Makers’ spills over with Steven recovering and the departure of Vicki still very much being dealt with.

Katarina has joined the TARDIS crew and whilst her involvement in the previous story is somewhat limited in the previous story, here she makes up for it. With Steven somewhat out of action, its falls to the Doctor and Katarina to get involved in the story. It’s clear from this episode that Katarina is going to be restrictive influence in this story. She is too primitive and if the Doctor and others have to explain things to her then the story will take twice as long. It’s not Adrienne Hill’s fault and she does the best that she can but it doesn’t take away from the fact that character was always destined to have a short life span.

Nicholas Courtney makes his first appearance in Doctor Who as Bret Vyon. He is immediately unlikeable as he tries to steal the TARDIS. The way that he boards the TARDIS is sneaky and is very untrusting.  He gets his commence and spends the latter stages of the episode being tied up. After four episodes of doing pretty much nothing, its nice that William Hartnell finally gets to do something and he is the best he has been since at least the last season. He seems to be having a ball after the interaction with Bret.

Mavic Chen is probably one of the most iconic baddies in Doctor Who. From his opening scene he carries an aura which is instantly mesmerising. He is the Guardian of the Solar System but is in fact in league with the Daleks. This seems like the first part of their Master Plan but at this time we don’t know the finer details which is something to look forward to.

It’s a cracking opening episode and for the first time since ‘Mission to the Unknown’ I feel some energy in the story. I think that as they have twelve episodes to tell the story there is the time to pace it much slower. We are introduced to the key characters and it’s a well written story by Terry Nation.

The Myth Makers - Horse of Destruction

Thankfully we have reached the final episode of this very lacklustre historical. Sadly it’s the last to feature Maureen O’Brien as Vicki. After less than 11 months in the role, Maureen O’Brien has decided to leave the Doctor and Steven. It’s the most action packed of the episodes and its where things finally start to happen. If only the previous three episodes had been liked this then I would have been writing a different review.

The story didn’t seem to have much to do for the regulars apart from Vicki. William Hartnell continues to seem like he is walking through the episode and Steven has slightly more to do but sadly doesn’t have much more to do. One thing that seems to have jumped out of nowhere is the inclusion of Katarina. She only really gets going when she is asked to bring Steven to the TARDIS/Temple. I must admit that I didn’t notice her before this and think that her presence is somewhat limited. 

Vicki has been a good companion and was better realised than Susan. I think that there were moments where Vicki seemed to be turning into Susan but on the whole I think that Vicki and Maureen O’Brien were a good force for the show. It’s a shame that this story was so poor to write Vicki out of the show, she deserved better. Her final scene was very dramatic and like Susan’s was helped by the music and the performances. That said I have been wonderful for the past four episodes as to why I have disliked this story so much and I think that after Mission to the Unknown and knowing that the Daleks will be coming soon that I have just been waiting for the episodes to come and go so we can get to the Daleks Master Plan. Now we are there and one of the most epic stories in Doctor Who’s history.

The Myth Makers - Death of a Spy

Oh well, lets just get through this as best as we can. These episode reviews seem to have been getting shorter and shorter as the episodes have been moving on. Thankfully this is the episode where it starts to pick up and things start to happen. Sadly it’s the latter stages of the episode where it all happens but at least something seems to be moving. This is the episode where the history starts to move things along and we finally get the Trojan horse which is perhaps the most famous part of this period.  What stands out foappen.to not suspect that anything is going to happen.to not suspect that anything is going to happen.

However the most interesting thing that happens is what happens to Vicki. It seems that at long last something has been done to prepare the exit of this character. Her love interest with Troilus is rather well done and I think that its given enough time to register in the viewers memory. I must admit that I Cassandra to be the most entertaining character in the whole thing though that’s not really a compliment when you consider how rather dull the rest of the characters are in this piece.

This is the most interesting episode of the serial though again that’s not really a compliment (it seems to be a regular thing in this episode). I thought that for the first time in a long time (if ever), William Hartnell seems to be walking through this story and doesn’t do anything really of any worth. This is turning out to be an even duller serial than Galaxy 4 and this third season of Doctor Who is quickly turning into the worst so far.

The Myth Makers - Small Prophet, Quick Return

After the rather limp opening episode. I’m happy to say that things have picked up slightly. This is the episode where everything from Vicki to the plot seem to wake up and get going. After spending most of the previous episode inside the TARDIS for various dubious reasons, Vicki finally gets to do something.  Like the Doctor, Vicki has to pretend to be someone else. However unlike the Doctor willing to pretend he is someone else, Vicki is willing to admit the truth and say that she is from the future. Speaking of the Doctor, he seems be thriving in the illusion. Steven gets to pretend to be someone though he is only pretending to be Greek.

The regulars are written much better than in the previous episode and also the supporting cast are also much better with Cassandra being my favourite. She is the one that I felt was the strongest and Frances White delivers her lines well and I like how everyone rubbishes her prophesies. She is also very jealous of Vicki as she believes that Vicki is a rival prophet.

Whilst I think that this is a much stronger episode. I think that that the story suffers a great deal from not being on video. The fact that it’s not the greatest story ever isn’t helping me enjoy the story. I am struggling to think of what to write. What I can say is that I don’t  think that Maureen O’Brien’s final story is going to be the finest finale story that a companion has ever had.

The Myth Makers - Temple of Secrets

The Myth Makers is the final story for Vicki who departs in yet another historical story.  It’s also the first story that is produced by John Wiles with Verity Lambert having departed at the previous episode. It’s also another story that doesnt exist on video in any form. This is a period of history that I know the basics and about 15 years ago I would have known quite a lot about this period however since then my interest and knowledge has ebbed away. The story starts off in a very shouty manner. It seems to continue throughout the episode but its at its peak at the beginning.

The Doctor is mistakened for Zeus which is quite an amusing and continues to the trend of the Doctor landing on his feet. The thing about historical stories is that the story is up and running before the regulars get involved and so there is a bit of a blur before I got a sense of what is going on.

It’s quite late before Steven really gets involved in the story. In fact its just past the 19 minute mark. Vicki had a blink and you’ll miss it moment at the beginning but she was side-lined because there isn’t much that could be done. It’s not a particularly action packed part of history and its made even harder to enjoy when you cant see whats going on.

I really cant get that excited about this story and it’s a shame because its Vicki’s last story. Hopefully the story will pick up in future episodes and the departure of Vicki is going to be fitting of the character but if memory serves me correctly then that wont be the case.

Mission to the Unknown

For the first time ever, this story features none of the regular cast. In fact there is no mention of them whatsoever. It must have been quite a surprise for people watching this in October 1965. I wonder at what point people started to get impatient at not seeing the Doctor, Vicki or Steven. Nowadays its that not unusual to have an episode where the Doctor and the companions don’t feature that much but this is the only time that their absence is noticeable.
 

Whilst we don’t get the regulars we do get a group of people who work for the Space Security Service and we are on the planet of Kembel. The Daleks do appear in the episode so whilst we don’t get the Doctor we get his nemesis.  I like how dangerous the Varga plants are considering they are just plants. It’s harder to know which is the greater threat, either the Daleks or the Varga plants have the ability to cause harm but it seems like the Varga plants can cause a more elaborate death.

Considering that they get the rare opportunity of leading the story I must say that Barry Jackson (Jeff Garvey), Edward de Souza (Marc Corey) & Jeremy Young (Gordon Lowery) all did well in their group. However I was most impressed with Robert Cartland as Malpha. The speech he gives at the end is quite good and sets up the upcoming Dalek epic brilliantly and shows that he is going to be a character that the viewers should remember.

The second half of the episode is set aside to set up the Master Plan part of the Daleks Master Plan story. This episode is the prequel to that adventure and when listening to it I must admit that I got quite caught up in the adventure. It’s been several episodes since I really got into the story. Not since the last Dalek story have I not had a niggly feel of disappointment. In Mission to the Unknown I thought that this could easily have been extended because the Space Security Service crew had a good story and there was plenty to see from the Daleks and their traitors. It’s just a shame that this episode no longer exists on video as it would a cracker to watch.

Galaxy 4 - The Exploding Planet

Back to the CD for the final part of this story and it seems like the time situation is back at the centre of the plot. Sadly as the episode is on CD I must admit that I wasn’t in the mood really to listen to this but if I am to stay on course then I would have to make the best of a bad situation. The Drahvins are still doing what they are doing which is trying to (badly) come up with their plan to steal the Chumblies ship. The Chumblies are trying to get their ship started ready to take off. The funny thing about that is they take off just before the planet is about to explode. It’s a trait in TV that is as old as storytelling.

There is a nice moment when the Drahvins see the Chumblies taking off and then they see the regulars running towards the TARDIS and try to get to them instead. Maaga is still a good character but sadly we don’t get to see if she pulls off the trick of making normal dialogue work brilliantly. There isn’t much to this story apart from getting the Chumblies ship to take off but as they only have 25 minutes they do what they need to do. When the planet does eventually blow up it would have been nice to see how this looks on TV because sadly the soundtrack doesn’t.

The end of the episode is great because it leads to the only episode in the shows history where non of the regulars appear. They are not even mentioned and it’s the prelude to the Dalek epic. Sadly that means that it’s the best thing in the episode which pretty much sums up my feelings about this episode and story. I would probably have had a different reaction to it had the entire four part run been on DVD but sadly its not the case. As a plot its