The Daleks' Master Plan (Episodes 1-6)

I, Mavic Chen, will be ruler of the Universe!

The Daleks' Master Plan is a big eleven part saga that is interrupted by a Christmas comedy in Episode Seven (The Feast of Steven). As such, I thought it best to break down my review into three parts: the six before the Christmas break, The Feast of Steven by itself, and then the final five episodes. It also works that the first five episodes and The Feast of Steven were written by Terry Nation while the other six episodes are written by Dennis Spooner so that also gives a reason for splitting the story into different views.

Plot Summary

Terry Nation takes a bit of flak (justified in many cases) for his recycling of the same story. But even then, he could twist the plot elements fairly well together to keep you entertained. Likewise, the first half of The Daleks' Master Plan is also entertaining. In this section of the story, the Doctor, Steven, and Katarina land on the planet Kembel where they encounter the lone survivor of an investigative mission (Bret) following up on the events of Mission to the Unknown. Working together, they learn that the Daleks have allied themselves with other races to conquer the universe, starting with the Earth solar system. To aid them, they have enlisted the aid of Mavic Chen, the ruler of the solar system, who has dreams of ruling the entire universe.

The Daleks have constructed a weapon to aid them that must be powered by a mineral only found on the planet Uranus. Mavic Chen is delivering fifty years worth of mining of this mineral to power the weapon. The Doctor disguises himself as one of the delegates and steals the core, escaping with his crew aboard Mavic Chen's ship. They are deviated by the Daleks to a prison planet where one of the prisoners sneaks aboard and takes Katarina hostage. Attempting to escape, she opens the outer door and both are ejected into space.

Upon landing on Earth, the Doctor, Steven, and Bret are pursued by Mavic Chen's forces. Bret is killed by the head of security, his sister Sarah Kingdom. She tracks the Doctor and Steven down but the three are caught in a transport beam experiment and sent to another planet near Kembel. The Daleks land and attempt to take the weapon core but the Doctor and his team escape, stealing the Dalek ship. They are forced to land on Kembel but trick the Daleks with a fake weapon core the Doctor constructed during the flight and escape back to the TARDIS.

Analysis

If a quick scene was added where the Daleks and Mavic Chen were blown up installing the fake weapon core, the story could have ended here and I think many people would have considered it one of Terry Nation's best stories. Unlike The Daleks or The Keys of Marinus, there are no real slow scenes. Even the scenes which are more dialogue heavy, such as those between delegates, feel like they are both building character and giving the audience enough information to go on with out being too clunky on the exposition. Once the chase begins at the end of Episode Two, it doesn't really stop, with Episode Four being particularly tense, ending with the death of Bret.

It is rather unfortunate that only Episodes Two and Five exist in this stretch. I would have been very curious to see how Katarina's death was done in Episode Four and Steven's escape from the Daleks in Episode Six. But, of what is available, it looks good and the acting is well done. Mavic Chen has his slightly over-the-top moments, but that is to be expected.

While on the subject of Mavic Chen, it is interesting to see Terry Nation dive back into his WWII experiences with Mavic Chen and his chief lieutenant Karlton. Mavic Chen gives off a Hitler rising to power vibe with his political persona for the public but the slightly deranged rantings in private. Karlton is a near perfect stand-in for Goebbels, both in his slimy, power behind the throne persona, but also in how he looks with the thin, sharp face and piercing eyes. Although Mavic Chen is the face, you almost get the impression that Karlton is actually the more dangerous man to be dealing with.

It is also nice to see the Daleks be a bit more restrained in their actions. The ego-manical nature is still there, but with the reliance on allies, the Daleks are adopting a more cunning mode that we see play out further in The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks. So far at least it is also nice to see the Daleks take a bit of a secondary villain role. Although they are the overriding evil, the primary villain so far is Mavic Chen and his henchmen, including Sarah Kingdom although she is now allied with the Doctor on seeing Chen's treachery.

I'm going to reserve my final score for the Episode Eight through Twelve review, but again, if this were a six-parter, I could see giving it either a 3.5 or a 4. I'd probably lean more towards the 3.5 side just because of recons which deprive you of the action. But it is a good start to a story and does a pretty good job of keeping the viewer engaged.