The Power of the Daleks

030 – The Power of the Daleks
Doctor Who serial
Two inactive Daleks lay dormant in the capsule
Cast
Doctor Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor)
Companions Anneke Wills (Polly) Michael Craze (Ben Jackson)
Others Bernard Archard — Bragen Peter Bathurst — Hensell Robert James — Lesterson Nicholas Hawtrey — Quinn Pamela Ann Davy — Janley Martin King — The Examiner Edward Kelsey — Resno Richard Kane — Valmar Steven Scott — Kebble Peter Forbes-Robertson, Robert Russell, Robert Luckham — Guards Gerald Taylor, Kevin Manser, Robert Jewell, John Scott Martin — Daleks Peter Hawkins — Dalek Voices
Production
Writer	David Whitaker Dennis Spooner (uncredited)
Director	Christopher Barry
Script editor	Gerry Davis
Producer	Innes Lloyd
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	EE
Series	Season 4
Length	6 episodes, 25 minutes each
Episode(s) missing	All 6 episodes
Date started	5 November 1966
Date ended	10 December 1966
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Tenth Planet The Highlanders

The Power of the Daleks is the third serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.

Plot

Ben and Polly have just watched the First Doctor collapse to the floor of the TARDIS and have witnessed his change of appearance. Polly is convinced that the man is the Doctor, but Ben believes he is an impostor. The TARDIS brings the newly regenerated Doctor, Ben and Polly to the planet Vulcan where, on arrival, the Doctor witnesses the murder of the examiner, a man sent from Earth to check on the human colony located on the planet. After checking the body the Doctor discovers a badge that gives him access to all the areas of the human colony, no questions asked.

A security team led by Bragen escorts the Doctor, Ben and Polly back to the colony. The examiner was summoned by Quinn, deputy governor to investigate a group of rebels. The governor regards the problem with the rebels as insignificant.

Meanwhile, Lesterson, the colony’s scientist, has discovered a crashed Dalek space capsule. The Doctor goes to investigate the capsule and after having a quick look inside he says that’s enough for one night and goes off to bed.

Later that night, Ben and Polly see the Doctor heading towards Lesterson’s laboratory and go inside the Dalek capsule. They follow, and he opens an inner compartment to find two Daleks inside. He deduces that the third Dalek is missing from the capsule. Polly, who, along with Ben, had joined the Doctor in the capsule, spots a small mutant crawling across the floor which disappears into a small opening. Polly screams.

The Doctor, Ben and Polly leave the capsule to find Lesterson, who immediately starts questioning them on why they are in his lab. The Doctor says that his badge (the examiner’s badge) says that he can go anywhere in the colony. The Doctor questions Lesterson on where he has put the third Dalek. He is afraid that Lesterson might be trying to reactivate it.

Once the Doctor, Ben and Polly have left, Lesterson opens a secret compartment where he has hidden the third Dalek. He gets his helpers Resno and Janley to help try and reactivate the Dalek. He is successful, but in the process the Dalek shoots Resno dead. Janley assures Lesterson that Resno will be fine, although she knows he is dead. At that point Lesterson removes the gun stick from the Dalek.

Meanwhile, Quinn has been accused of sabotaging the communication console and summoning the examiner. Quinn is put on trial and the governor gives Bragen Quinn’s old job. The Doctor, Ben and Polly attend Quinn’s trial, during which Lesterson arrives with the reactivated Dalek, who claims to be the colony’s servant. The Dalek recognises the Doctor and from that point on Ben believes he really is the Doctor.

Lesterson also reactivates the other two Daleks and removes the gun sticks from them. They also claim to be the colony’s servants.

The Doctor notices that there are more than three Daleks in the colony and warns that they are breeding. When told that machines can't breed the Doctor answers that Daleks are not machines.

The Doctor, Polly and Ben are imprisoned. The Doctor is seen rolling pieces of fruit along the floor causing Polly to state that this is the sort of behaviour that makes them wonder if he really is the Doctor. It turns out that the Doctor is checking if the fruit contains a bugging device. They manage to escape when the doctor generates the correct tone to open the prison cell by making a partly filled wine glass chime.

One night Lesterson goes inside the Dalek capsule and discovers that Daleks are being manufactured there. He sees an inert mutant being placed on a stand then suddenly coming to life. It is then lifted off the stand by a Dalek and placed into a Dalek base and the top fitted to the base.

After a long fight between the humans and the Daleks, during which Governor Hensell is killed by Bragen, The Doctor destroys the Daleks by turning their own power source against them. It turns out that Bragen sabotaged the communication console and killed the real examiner. Quinn has the charges against him dropped and Bragen is shot by Valmar after attempting to kill Quinn. Quinn is made governor and the Doctor, Ben and Polly return to the TARDIS. An inert Dalek stands next to the TARDIS. Ben kicks it and exclaims that they won't be having any trouble with Daleks from now on. The TARDIS then sets off on another adventure. As the TARDIS dematerialises the eyestalk of a nearby Dalek corpse rises upwards...

Continuity

• The process of regeneration goes unnamed in this serial. This change of actors was retrospectively labelled "regeneration" following use of the term by the production team of Planet of the Spiders.
• The planet Vulcan was theorised in the 19th century, as located within the Solar System, closer to the sun than Mercury, to explain the perihelion shift of Mercury in Newton's nonrelativistic theory of gravitation; its existence was unnecessary as the relativistic gravitation theory of Einstein, general relativity explained the shift without the pull of an extra inner planet. This theory suffered a renewed burst of popularity in the 1960s. David Whitaker first listed it as a planet of the Solar System in the 1964 spin-off The Dalek Book. In 1966 Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry gave the name of Mr. Spock's homeworld and race as Vulcan, but placed it in another star system. Some fictional tie-ins, including Lance Parkin's A History of the Universe timeline, speculate that Vulcan is a rogue planet that entered the Solar System, so as to reconcile this story with others that do not mention the planet as existing.
• In Episode Two the Doctor refers to Marco Polo as a friend, having met him in the First Doctor story Marco Polo.
• The Dalek pod seen here is later revealed to have been sent to this location by the Eighth Doctor after ejecting it from a Thal ship in War of the Daleks.

Production

Serial details by episode

Episode	Broadcast date	Run time	Viewership (in millions)	Archive
"Episode One"	5 November 1966 (1966-11-05)	25:43	7.9	Only stills and/or fragments exist
"Episode Two"	12 November 1966 (1966-11-12)	24:29	7.8	Only stills and/or fragments exist
"Episode Three"	19 November 1966 (1966-11-19)	23:31	7.5	Only stills and/or fragments exist
"Episode Four"	26 November 1966 (1966-11-26)	24:23	7.8	Only stills and/or fragments exist
"Episode Five"	3 December 1966 (1966-12-03)	23:38	8.0	Only stills and/or fragments exist
"Episode Six"	10 December 1966 (1966-12-10)	23:46	7.8	Only stills and/or fragments exist

• Working titles for this story included The Destiny of Doctor Who and Servants of Masters.

Cast notes

• Anneke Wills was on holiday and therefore absent from episode four. Similarly, Michael Craze was absent for episode five.
• Bernard Archard returned in Pyramids of Mars.
• Peter Bathurst returned The Claws of Axos.
• Robert James returned in The Masque of Mandragora.
• Edward Kelsey had previously appeared in The Romans and would return in The Creature from the Pit.

Missing episodes

All six episodes were wiped from the BBC's archives in the early 1970s. A number of clips survive in various other programmes, mainly focusing upon the Dalek. In addition some footage filmed off-air with a cine camera exists, showing brief moments of the new Doctor's first moves in the TARDIS.

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by John Peel, was published by Virgin Books in July 1993. Although still published under the Target Books banner, this was the first novelisation to be published under the new format introduced by Virgin for the Virgin New Adventures/Virgin Missing Adventures series. The most notable difference is the increased page count.

Doctor Who book
The Power of the Daleks
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	154
Writer	John Peel
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
ISBN	0-426-20390-9
Release date	July 1993
Preceded by	'
Followed by	'

DVD and CD releases

• The audio soundtrack survives. The BBC has given it three commercial releases: first, on cassette release with narration by Tom Baker; second, on CD with narration by Anneke Wills; third, on MP3-CD for the 'Doctor Who: Reconstructed' range, again narrated by Anneke Wills. This release also includes a bonus slideshow for PC users, merging the soundtrack with tele-snaps.
• The Anneke Wills-narrated soundtrack was also released in a collector's tin called Doctor Who: Daleks, along with the soundtrack to The Evil of the Daleks and a bonus disc featuring My Life as a Dalek, a story presented by Mark Gatiss discussing the history of the Daleks.
• In 2004, all known surviving clips were released on the Lost in Time DVD. Following the DVD's release, two further short clips—along with a higher-quality version of one of the extant scenes—were discovered in a 1966 episode of the BBC science series Tomorrow's World. The clips only came to light on 11 September 2005, when the relevant section was broadcast as part of an edition of the clip-based nostalgia show Sunday Past Times on BBC Two. These clips were subsequently included in the documentaries "The Dalek Tapes", on the Genesis of the Daleks DVD release, and "Now Get out of That", on the Terror of the Vervoids disc in The Trial of a Time Lord box set.

External links

• The Power of the Daleks at BBC Online
• Photonovel of The Power of the Daleks on the BBC website
• The Power of the Daleks at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• The Power of the Daleks at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Loose Cannon reconstruction of The Power of the Daleks

Reviews

• The Power of the Daleks reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• On Target — The Power of the Daleks