The Chase

Warning - Bit of a long one this one:

Story Title: The Chase
Episode Count: 6 Series: 2 Story No: 8
Doctor: 1st Companions: Ian, Barbara, Vicki & Steven (although he’s not part of the team here)
Date(s) Watched: Saturday 30th May 2009

First off I must point out that this is one of my favourite Dalek stories (My favourite being Daleks’ Master Plan) if only for the sheer fact that it’s so different to any of their other stories before or since.

What I love about this story is how random and mad the two middle episodes are, especially episode 4. It first off starts as a conventional story, with the team watching some “historical moments” on the Time-Space Visualiser (which I do wonder, how did the Doctor get a machine that big through those tiny external doors) and then The Doctor & Barbara discover, by accident, that the Daleks are after them.

Once they have left Aridius all hell seems to break loose, first off they end up on top of the Empire State Building where Peter Purves (with a rather good Alabama accent) as Morgan Dill, becomes rather baffled by the appearance of both ships & both teams. I like his lack of fear & his mocking of the Dalek when he turns up & also like the bit where he cracks up at the end of the scene in a rather comedic way. The only bit I don’t like about this part is the big fat white bloke who (rather viciously) barges past the slender black woman (which, comes across a bit prejudice but it may not have been meant that way, just seems rather implied).

After we’ve left New York we end up on the Mary Celeste & yet more humour with Vicki whacking Ian over the head & the whole crew getting spooked by the appearance of The Daleks and literally jump ship. I also found the bit where the Dalek “commits suicide” and chases after one of the ships crew off the ship funny as well, the implied abandonment of the Mary Celeste being cause by The Daleks I found funny also.

Finally we get to the Haunted House, which lasts for the majority of the Fourth Episode, and perhaps the maddest episode in the shows entire history. Here we also get the most obvious balls ups, first off the dubbing of the Count Dracula’s voice is so out of synch it’s laughable (in a good way). Secondly Vicki’s line can be heard twice, once as Frankenstein lays back down & then when it should have at the start of the next scene (obviously nearly 10pm when they shot that little bit then) and once Vicki has uttered her line (for the second time) Barbara comments “...for whom the bell tolls” even though there is no bell sound at all, implying that a bell sound effect should be there.

Once we get past the two madcap episodes we end up Mechanus, with it’s dangerous vegetation and Mechanoid run city up high, where the story becomes more serious again & leads to a great final battle between the Daleks & Mechanoids and eventually destruction of the city. We also get introduced to Ian & Barbara’s replacement, Steven although we don’t discover he’s their replacement until the next story.

Rather oddly there is one unintentionally humorous bit in Episode 5 & that is the Robot double of The Doctor which is an “exact replica” of The Doctor himself, yet half the time you can quite clearly see that the double isn’t an exact double at all. What makes it even more strange is that in some of the close ups & in scenes where the two Doctors wouldn’t be on screen together you see that it is not Hartnell at all.

It’s all rather confusing as to why the filmed it that way but considering that quite a few bits of the production are oddly executed (Doctor Double, Barbara literally throwing herself into danger in Episodes 2 & 4, Vicki’s double line, missing sound effects, poor dubbing, the number illiterate Dalek, etc.) you can, more or less forgive it’s flaws.

The best way to approach this story is to think of it as a humorous run-around with the Daleks & just see past the flaws in the production, because once you do, you’ll find it a highly enjoyable story

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 – Mad, silly & flawed production wise, but it’s a lot of fun & it’s nice to see the Daleks as ruthless bumbling killers than just ruthless killers for a change.