The Dalek Invasion of Earth

One day I shall come back, yes I shall come back...

Because of the Doctor Who mythology that surrounds, especially the last ten minutes, of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, it tends to be hailed as a classic regardless of the story quality. Having watched the story in total, it's not an unreasonable claim.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and his companions land in mid-twenty-second century London to find Earth in the control of the Daleks and their converted human puppets called Robomen. Barbara and Susan fall in with a group of rebels while the Doctor and Ian are captured by the Daleks. The humans launch an attack on one of the Dalek ships but their weapons are ineffectual. The Doctor is rescued and is reunited with Susan and a rebel named David. Ian stays aboard the ship but hides himself from the Daleks in the chaos. Barbara retreats with the survivors back to the main rebel base.

Learning that the Daleks have concentrated their work towards mining operations in central Britain, the Doctor, Susan and David begin to make their way towards the mining facilities, falling in with another fighter named Tyler. Ian is also taken there as the ship he is on is dropping off captured prisoners there. Barbara and a small group first make their way across London looking for other bands of fighters but then also makes towards the mine with a fighter named Jenny.

Ian and another fighter named Larry fall in with the mine resistance and make their way into the mines. Barbara and Jenny are captured and taken to the mines, although Barbara later tricks the Daleks into taking her and Jenny into the Dalek control room in an attempt to disrupt their operations. The Doctor and his party launch an attack against the Dalek power grid that temporarily neutralizes the Daleks. In the disruption, Ian dislodges a bomb intended to expose the Earth's core and Barbara orders the Robomen to turn on the Daleks, leading to a wide scale revolt at the mine. The humans flee the mine and the bomb explodes. The Dalek control ships are caught in the explosion, having been assembled to harvest the Earth's core, and destroyed. United, the team prepares to leave but Susan admits that she loves David and is heartbroken about leaving when David proposes to her but feels obligated to care for the Doctor. Seeing this, the Doctor locks her out of the TARDIS, telling her that she must go and build a new life with David and that he will eventually return to her. The TARDIS then leaves and a shocked Susan leaves with David.

Analysis

There are moments in this story that are absolutely wonderful. There are also moments that are pretty bad as well. It's just a question of which side carries more weight in how much you enjoy the story.

First, the good. The overall tone of the story is excellent. The acting is well done and there is an excellent sense of menace from the Daleks. All of the human characters are very relateable (both the resistance fighters and the civilians they meet). There is a very strong emoting both in acting and dialogue of WWII and to see Daleks parading around London monuments like Nazis only twenty years after the fact must have evoked a strong reaction, especially from the parents who watched the episodes with their children.

My personal favorite scene was early in episode three where Barbara, Jenny, and the resistance scientist Dortmun are running across London, avoiding the Daleks who are positioned around various famous landmarks. There is no dialogue in this scene. There is just the sound of rising and falling drums as the Daleks move around and the resistance party runs from location to location. There is an intensity here that is not felt anywhere else in the episode as to how much in control the Daleks are and how pitiful the resistance is. It is just very well done.

The Doctor's final speech to Susan is also very good, but it is lessened in its impact by two things. The first is the fact that it is probably the most recognizable moment in the entire First Doctor era. Anyone who has familiarity with the classic series has heard this speech and its impact is lessened with overexposure. The second is the drawn out nature of the scene. Susan lingers with David and gets so weepy that it becomes very obvious that she is going to stay behind. The Doctor is even starting to broadcast that before he enters the TARDIS. Susan's dazed reaction after the TARDIS disappears also goes on too long. Her reaction of dropping the key and David coming to support her should have happened much quicker. I think a questioning "Grandfather?" might also have been appropriate from Susan rather than just her stunned silence. To me, it offset the impact of the Doctor's speech in its awkwardness.

Now the not so good. It is difficult in a story of this scope to not notice the limitations brought by technology and budget. There are a number of occasions where the studio backdrop is obvious or the props don't look right or some explosion is happening but the camera focuses on the actor (or where the actor was) while a light and noise happen off camera. There is also a scene where Susan is being threatened by an alligator and it is very obvious that the alligator filmed is a baby one made to look bigger. Things like this can be overlooked as they were obviously doing the best they could, but when viewed in large numbers, they begin to take a toll in reminding you of the production limits and distracting from the overall story.

My second nit is that the story, as is, is an episode too long. William Hartnell takes an episode off in episode four and the story jogs in place while he is absent. There is a small detour done with Ian showing the deals that had to be made with spivs and Barbara and Jenny's travels are given a bit more detail, but most of that could have either been cut or compressed in other areas without the loss of anything integral to the story.

A counter-balance to keeping it a six-part story would be to address the third complaint I have and that is the abruptness of the ending. This is not a new problem for me and Doctor Who as I often feel the conflict resolution is rushed, but this one stands out a little more. No explanation is given as to why the Daleks wish to remove the Earth's core and replace it with an engine. Giving them a planet to fly around the universe doesn't seem to be a particularly useful tool and seems like a waste of invasion resources. The Daleks also seem to be rather easily overthrown through the loss of power that it seems odd that no one else ever did that. It also seems very odd that the people in the mining area (including the Doctor) could get clear in the amount of time given and still have the explosion large enough to mimic a volcanic eruption that destroys the entire Dalek fleet. It just felt like a bit of hand waving to make everything turn out nicely in time for the story to finish in the allotted time.

Again, it's a question of how much the good outweighs the bad. I think I could watch this one again without too many problems, especially if I opted to skip episode four. I think the first half of The Dalek's Master Plan was the best contribution by Terry Nation in the First Doctor era, but this is better than his other efforts with The Chase being the only story of the First Doctor era of his that I have not seen yet.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5