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Doctor Who/The Dalek Invasion of Earth

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The Dalek Invasion of Earth
010
Airdate November 21, 1964
Production Number K
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Richard Martin
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The Rescue
Doctor WhoSeason Two

Contents

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is the second serial of the second season of Doctor Who, and the tenth serial overall.

Guest Stars: Bernard Kay (Carl Tyler), Peter Fraser (David Campbell), Alan Judd (Dortmun), Ann Davies (Jenny), Michael Goldie (Craddock), Michael Davis (Thomson), Richard McNeff (Baker), Graham Rigby (Larry Madison), Nicholas Smith (Wells), Nick Evans (The Slyther), Patrick O'Connell (Ashton), David Graham (Dalek Voices), Peter Hawkins (Dalek Voice), Kevin Manser (Dalek Operator), Robert Jewell (Dalek Operator), Gerald Taylor (Dalek Operator)

Plot Overview

World's End

A man can be seen making an ineffective attempt to remove the strange helmet he is wearing. Then with a vacant expression he walks slowly and deliberately into the river, disappearing beneath the water. Shortly thereafter, the TARDIS materialises beside a poster forbidding the dumping of bodies in the river.

EMERGENCY  REGULATIONS
IT   IS   FORBIDDEN

TO     DUMP

BODIES

INTO   THE

RIVER

They open the doors and determine that they are in London on the banks of the Thames beneath a bridge. Susan, having climbed for a better view, falls and hurts her ankle when part of the bridge collapses, blocking access to the TARDIS. They will need help or a cutting torch to get back in. Ian and the Doctor set off for a warehouse to see if they can find help there.

Barbra stays behind with Susan, because of her ankle. It is strangely quiet: no sounds of traffic, ships, planes, birds, or other animals. They notice the sign prohibiting dumping of bodies. Grasping the implications of the sign, Susan says to Barbara, here we go again!

Barabra sees a body floating in the river and goes to have a closer look. When she returns, she finds that a group of armed men have taken Susan. They strongly suggest that she come with them too for her own safety. She follows them to their safehouse, where she meets Dortmun (the group's explosives expert) and David. They are a group of fighters resisting the occupation of Earth by alien invaders!

Over at the warehouse Ian and the Doctor notice what appears to be a nuclear power plant, leading them conjecture that London has gone over to nuclear power at this point in history. They find a desk calendar for the year 2164. They also find a dead man wearing a strange sort of helmet with what they presume is a personal communication device.

A flying saucer passes overhead. It seemed to have gone over toward Sloane Square. They decide that they had better return to the TARDIS to check on Susan and Barbara. Ian notices the "no dumping" sign for the first time. Suddenly they are surrounded by a group of hostile robo-men—men with vacant expressions, all of them wearing stange helmets like the one worn by the dead man in the warehouse. Ian and the Doctor plan to escape by jumping in the river, but as they turn to run, they are confronted by a {{ch|Dalek|| that has come rising out of the river.

The Daleks

The Dalek blocks Ian and the Doctor's escape, saying, "resistance is useless." They are taken to the heliport, where they are joined up with a group of two other men. One of the other men is killed when he tries to escape. The remaining three are placed in a holding cell on the ship. Their cellmate, Jack Craddock, tells them that the Daleks germ-bombed the Earth prior to their actual invasion: to weaken Earth's defenses. That was 10 years ago.

Meanwhile Susan's hurt ankle is being looked after by the resistance. Susan and Barbara hear a report that Ian and the Doctor were captured and taken to the heliport. They learn that once you are on a Dalek ship, it's too late.

The Daleks issue a final ultimatum on the radio, offering life for those who surrender and death for all those who do not. Although it has a negative effect on morale, no one takes the offer seriously. Dortmun, the wheelchair bound, resident, explosives expert, has been working on a bomb that can penetrate the Dalek's armor. Taking a bit of advice from Barbara, the resistance plans an attack—they will pose as robo-men until they get close to the ship.

Meanwhile in their cell, Ian and the Doctor are working on a way out despite Caraddock's fatalistic notions that it just can't be done. The Doctor theorises that a clear box in the cell is a sort of key-under-the-doormat for Daleks who might accidentally lock themselves in. Using a magnetic bar obtained from the box, they open the cell door, only to find the Daleks waiting on the other side. The box was a test to select intelligent people to be removed from the general slave population and turned into robo-men—the Doctor is to be robotised.

Outside posing as robo-men, the rebels have gotten within mere feet of the gang plank/ramp. They attack! But despite the attack, the Daleks inside the ship order the robo-man overseeing the Doctor to proceed with the robotisation surgery anyway.

Day of Reckoning

The rebels board the Dalek space ship and overpower the robo-man supervising the Doctor's robotisation surgery. The prisoners (Ian and Craddock) are freed. The attack does not go well though—nearly all resistance fighters are killed. Ian retreats onto the ship and hides beneath the floor with another man, Larry.

The Dalek Supreme Commander gives the order to have the robo-men firebomb London. After a brief countdown, the flying saucer departs for the Dalek mine workings in Bedfordshire.

Meanwhile Barbara and Jenny are pushing Dortmun's wheelchair as fast as they can go, crossing London, pausing to hide from Daleks when they must. Dortmun gives Barbara his bomb-making plans so she can give them to the Doctor. A moment later he goes out onto the street alone to confront the Daleks with his newest bomb... but it doesn't work. The Daleks kill him and leave his body lying on the street.

Susan and David are hiding from the Daleks. Fearing for him, she asks David to come with her aboard the TARDIS when they leave. She is certain her grandfather will let him. He refuses. He will not leave his home.

Baker, another member of the resistance, brings the Doctor to them unconscious. He had to drag him all the way from the site of the failed attack at the heliport. Baker leaves the Doctor with them and departs. He is killed by Daleks in an alley only a short moment later.

The Doctor wakes and takes stock of his surroundings. It seems to him that Susan is listening to David's advice more that his own. She and David are growing close to one another in subtle ways.

Unknown to the three of them, robo-men plant a firebomb just a few feet from where they are hiding. It has a timer, and it is counting down!

The Dalek space ship lands in Bedfordshire, and the robo-men debark. With the ship nearly empty, Ian and Larry come out of hiding. They leave the ship by going out the waste disposal chute.

The End of Tomorrow

The Doctor moves to help disarm the firebomb, but he loses consciousness when he tries to stand up. David uses acid to dissolve the bomb's outer case and then pushes the timing mechanism out the front of the unit, saving them and all of London. Reasoning that because of the firebomb, all of the Daleks have evacuated, Susan and David leave the Doctor alone and enter the sewers to seek help.

Elsewhere Barbara and Jenny steal a tanker in order to drive to Bedfordshire. They ram a blockade of Daleks, damaging or destroying several of them in the process. Infuriated the Daleks send their flying saucer after them. Hearing the sound of the approaching ship, the two jump from the truck just before it is destroyed.

At the mine, Ian and Larry watch as robo-men drive human slaves before them into the mine. They are both caught when a robo-man sees them. Ian defies the robo-man's orders, telling him to "get new orders." They then take shelter in the control cab of a giant, derelict mining machine of some sort. When the robo-man enters to retrieve them, Ian clubs the robo-man, killing him.

Later Ian and Larry are forced to flee from the Slyther, an alien creature kept by the Dalek commandant as a sort of pet. It feeds on human beings when it can, especially escaped humans. They flee into the derelict control room again, but this time there is a man inside. The man, Ashton, is a black marketeer whose only concern is himself. Ultimately though, the Slyther reaches into the cab and kills Ashton. Ian and Larry are able to escape while the Slyther is busy with Ashton.

The Walking Ally

Fleeing once again from the Slyther creature, Ian and Tyler are forced to jump into a cable-drawn mine bucket suspended over a deep pit. Even so, the creature jumps the distance clinging to the sides. The two men must work feverishly to loosen its grip, beating it with rocks until it finally plummets into the darkness below.

Before they can get out of the bucket, it begins its descent into the shaft, going deeper and deeper with each passing moment. Their ears pop several times. They can feel the air pressure building—this shaft is very, very deep. When the bucket stops at the bottom, they are forced to jump about 12 feet to the ground below. It is during this jump that Larry injures his ankle.

Still making their way to the mine, Barbara and Jenny ask for shelter from two women living alone. The Daleks allow the women to live, because they make clothes for the slaves at the mine. The older woman sends the younger one out with an armload of clothes, explaining that if the Daleks don't get their clothes on time, they will come to investigate. When the younger woman returns she has brought a Dalek with her—she has betrayed them.

Ian and Larry try to pose as slaves, but one of the robo-men notices that there are too many workers in his party. This particular robo-man is/was Larry's brother Phil! He tries to get through to Phil, even offering to take him to his wife Angela; but the Dalek mind-control alterations are too strong. Phil attacks Larry; they both die. Ian sees Barbara in a work detail, but he is unable to contact her.

Elsewhere, making their way to the mines, Tyler has reunited the Doctor with Susan and David. Susan and David are falling in love.

Barbara has a plan to stop the Daleks. Showing them Dortmun's bomb plans, she tells the Dalek guard that she has knowledge of the rebels: the rebels are planning an all-out attack soon. She must speak with their leader in person. She and Jenny are taken to the leader, the black Dalek.

Making his way to the surface alone, Ian ducks into a capsule to hide from a Dalek, not quite realising what it is he is hiding in. The capsule closes. Inside he can hear the announcements of the black Dalek. He learns that the Daleks want Earth's magnetic core as a power source. At this very moment, they are deploying an explosive capsule to dislodge the core. He is in that capsule, and he is about to be dropped down the shaft!

Flashpoint

Inside the moving bomb capsule Ian cross-wires the control circuitry, hoping to stop the bomb. He succeeds. A gang of robo-men are forced to use a rope to pull the capsule back up the shaft before they can repair it.

When the Daleks see Ian, they frantically issue the order to "exterminate him". One of the robo-men burns Ian's rope sending him plummeting down the not-quite-vertical shaft. The decreasing slope of the shaft is the only thing that saves him from certain death. Nonetheless he is knocked unconscious, lying just outside of a round access hatch.

In the Dalek control room Barbara and Jenny observe how the Daleks give the robo-men voice commands. When the black Dalek demands her information, Barbara makes up some stories to alarm them and divert their attention. When they are sufficiently distracted, Barbara dashes to the robo-men voice control and tries to issue new orders, but she is stopped. Both her and Jenny are then held fast to the walls of the control room with neck restraints.

Susan and David have come to rely on each other. The Doctor sends them to blow up a cable mast.

The explosive capsule is repaired and re-launched. The Daleks do not execute Barbara and Jenny. Instead they leave them to die when the bomb goes off. Even as the Daleks are leaving, Tyler and the Doctor enter the control room unseen and free the women.

When the Daleks realise that the prisoners have escaped, they return to the control room. The Doctor stands his ground as a Dalek approaches, serving as a distraction while the others kill it Dalek. With free reign over the control room Barbara gives the robo-men their last order: kill the Daleks. Result: pandemonium! A mass exodus of people leaving the mine is accompanied by robo-men usurping the Daleks at every turn.

Unknown to the Daleks, the explosive capsule is jammed at the round control hatch where Ian stopped. Ian had blocked the bomb shaft with logs and timber that he found on the other side of the hatch. With the explosive in the wrong place, Earth's core will be safe, but it still results in a big explosion—an explosion so large that lava flows are produced. The Doctor presumes that all the Daleks were killed in the explosion.

With the Dalek menace gone the debris blocking access to the TARDIS are cleared. In the distance Big Ben chimes the hour.

The Doctor gives Susan a thoughtful hug and enters the TARDIS. Barbara and Ian say goodbye to Tyler and enter as well. Susan remains behind to say goodbye to David. She loves him and he loves her. David reminds her that she has always wanted a place to belong to. He is offering her that place. Susan is torn: her grandfather is getting old; he needs her.

Inside the TARDIS, her grandfather, the Doctor, makes the decision for her. He "double locks" the doors. He announces to her over the speaker that he wants her to belong, to have roots. One day he will return. He gives her some parting advice, and finally says "Goodbye my dear." He engages the time circuits and the TARDIS vanishes.

David holds out his hand, patiently waiting for Susan. Distractedly, Susan eventually takes his hand and they begin their new life together: rebuilding 22nd century London. He says to her, "He knew you could never leave him."

Notes

Arc Advancement

Happenings

Characters

  • Susan apologises for wanting everyone (her Barbara, Ian, and her grandfather) to stay together despite the fact that Ian and Barabra are back home (or so she believes) in London.
  • Susan stays behind with David to begin a new life.

Referbacks

  • The Doctor explains to Ian that the events that took place on Skara happened in the distant future.

Trivia

The Show

  • This visit to Earth took place some time after 2164 (probably some time between 2164 and 2174).
  • Access to the resistance hideout was gained by pressing the tusk of the elephant poster.
  • At this time, the Cornish coast was reportedly deserted.

Behind the Scenes

Allusions and References

  • While working on a means of escape, the Doctor asks Ian about his education. Ian replies that he only had Boyle's law.
  • As they race Dortmun's wheelchair toward Trafalgar Square, Barbara and Jenny hide briefly at the base of the statue of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. Then they press onward, even as Daleks patrol near the base of Nelson's Column.
  • When forced to make up something to tell the Dalek Supreme Commander, Barbara weaves the Boston Tea Party, the Red Indian Mutany, General Lee and the Fifth Cavalry, and Hannibal's forces into her tale of treachery.

Memorable Moments

Quotes

  • The Doctor: (final, parting words to Susan) Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear.