The Power of the Daleks
Story 30, Episodes 134-140, Season 4 Episodes 9-15
Doctor: The Second Doctor
Companions: Polly Wright, Ben Jackson
The Second Doctor makes his first appearance facing off against his most classic of foes, the Daleks. In a classic story, capital intrigue on the colony of Vulcan makes for a great story.
The Review
The crucial word in this story isn’t ‘Daleks’, it’s ‘Power’. That’s what the entire story is about. Just as much and maybe more time is spent on the coup-attempt of the Governor on the colony Vulcan. Apparently a mining colony and lacking much female upper leadership, vague notions of ‘rebels’ is gradually revealed to be a coup plot by head of security Bregan supported by assistant scientist Janley. Bregan gradually dresses more and more fascist throughout the story (which is animated quite well. Very excited to see these stories continue to get brought to life). The Doctor, Ben, and Polly get on the scene impersonating an inspector from Earth, the Doctor taking his badge after witnessing Bregan murder him. By the end, the deputy governor Quinn, one of the few good guys, survives to help rebuild Vulcan.
Lesterson is a scientist who wants power too. He discovers this capsule with apparently ‘bigger on the inside’ technology with dormant Daleks he decides to re-awaken against the Doctor’s urging because, you know, he’s a scientist. It takes him seeing the Daleks reproducing for him to panic, but eventually gives up and lets the Daleks take him. The Daleks famously pretend to be the servants of the colonist leaders on Vulcan while they gradually reproduce to consolidate power. The tension keeps getting ratcheted up from a dormant Dalek, to three, to the realization of four, then a whole army before the Doctor manages to overload the power and destroy them. Polly doesn’t have too much to do, Ben mainly gets angry at people. There’s also the other rebels, chiefly Valmar, the only person other than Quinn to survive the massacre.
Without being able to watch his movements, it is too early for me to be able to judge Patrick Troughton’s turn as the Doctor. It’s not too far from Hartnell right now, except the grouchiness is washed away in turn of a mischievousness. His biggest moment is yelling that Daleks destroy human life completely and utterly as the leadership of Vulcan refuses to listen to him. There is a bit of a fake-out where the Doctor refers to the Doctor in the third-person, but it becomes obvious that he is very much the same man. We get the first look at a signature trait of his Doctor, when Troughton tells Ben to run like a rabbit when he says run. It’s quite good stuff all around. The first Star Trek episode aired a few months earlier, so I think the naming of Vulcan is a coincidence. Also, a Dalek seemingly survived the destruction in some capacity, but I doubt that thread will picked up.
In a story all about power, it delivers a great story that rarely drags over its six episodes. It’s full of intrigue, and establishes that, yes, Troughton is the Doctor.
9/10 Welcome to the show Patrick Troughton!
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 