10. The Dalek Invasion of Earth

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is another first time story for me and the first time that the Daleks make a return appearance to Doctor Who. It won't be the last time we see them and they really are quite good in this story. It's easy to see why they were so popular at this time in Doctor Who history.

I really enjoyed this story, although looking back I think it could have benefited from one less episode. There were a number of scenes throughout that were just empty space being filled with visuals and almost no dialogue. Daleks and Robomen marching prisoners and the wheelchair chase scene immediately come to mind. Of course the pacing of television was much different in the 1960s so you need to expect these little differences.

The new-look (slightly different) Daleks come complete with back-mounted satellite dishes that apparently allow them to overcome their movement limitations from their first story. They also use colored Daleks for the first time; a black leader Dalek. Also the leader and drone Daleks have different types of eye stalks.

And let's talk briefly about the Dalek plan and reason for invading Earth in the first place -- to remove the core and turn Earth into an intergalactic space ship (death star?) for their conquest. It is a bit mad and brilliant at the same time. It is no Reality Bomb but certainly is worthy of the Daleks mad schemes.

Another interesting piece of dialogue establishes this story as happening before the events of The Daleks in season 1. Although this seems like just a way to fit the previously destroyed Daleks back into the DW Universe I liked the attempt and thought it was a clever way to begin leveraging the time travel elements of the show. Prior to this the time travel element was just a way to get to the start of the next episode but here we see the Doctor encountering an alien menace at an earlier point in their history for the first time on screen.

When I was watching this episode I really felt like I was watching Doctor Who -- maybe for the first time in the Hartnell era. The Doctor is not just trying to escape back to the TARDIS, rather he is actively interfering to stop the future from playing out as intended. He wants to stop the Daleks.

This also appears to be the first time that the Doctor saves Earth from an alien menace, at least on screen. The previous story was also set in Earth but the stakes were smaller and the TARDIS crew had a diminished role in the determination of that story.

There is also a shakeup of the companions at the end of this episode as Doctor Who sees one of its stars leave the series for the first time. Susan decides to stay on future Earth with one of the survivors, David. Ian also continues to find terrible hiding spots as he hides inside what turns out to be a Dalek bomb just before they assemble it. Barbara ends up getting sent to work detail and makes a poor slave -- but the scenes of humans carry rock in baskets from a mine was very reminiscent of a future episode - Destiny of the Daleks.

This story just feels like Doctor Who to me.

Rating: 9/10 (great)