The Planet of Decision

Review for all 6 parts:

The Chase

This 6 part story beginning with The Executioners divides opinions. Some fans, maybe people who love broad farce type comedy and Doctor Who that doesn't take itself seriously, love The Chase. Fans who dislike that kind of stuff tend to not be too keen on this adventure. I am caught somewhere in between the two divided opinions, as I often am in life and fandom 😂

The adventure, from writer Terry Nation, features The Daleks chasing the TARDIS through time and space landing up in all sorts of adventures in different times and places.

It is basically a comedic story without too much concentration on plot or serious realism for the first 4 episodes. Among other things this adventure explains the mystery of the Mary Celeste by landing the TARDIS and Daleks on board the sailing ship causing the disappearance of the crew. This is a nice idea but involves some silliness in how it is executed on screen.

This adventure starts badly, in my opinion, with a very silly first episode featuring ideas like the 'Time Space Visualiser' (or 'Time TV') invention which implausibly allows them to view historic events as they happened. I am really not a fan of the pointless and silly ideas. I don't really find them fun and find the first episode isn't very well done.

Episode 2 is much better, not exceptional but good fun. I enjoy fun and humour when it doesn't go too far or confuse serious storytelling which is going on at the same time. So part 2 is fine in my view.

Episode 3 goes back to being a bit more silly and is not hugely impressive but it has good moments and is not bad overall.

Then there is the rather less satisfying episode 4 where the TARDIS and Daleks are in a 'haunted house' setting interacting with Dracula, Frankenstein's monster etc. (I kid you not). This is camp fun in a way but goes over the line into silliness far too much for my liking. It is more like a Comic Relief parody episode but isn't very well done I have to say.

I think the problems in the first 4 episodes of this story exemplify this period when Dennis Spooner was script editor, it has too much silly humour and not enough quality. This was the last story before the superior Donald Tosh took over that role and the next 6 stories with Tosh as script editor had much better standards.

Thankfully things get much better and more serious in the last two episodes of this story: Part 5 is a very good, thoroughly enjoyable episode and episode 6 is an excellent concluding part of the story.

Part 6 also features the poignant exit of Ian and Barbara (William Russell and Jacqueline Hill). It is very sad to see them go as they were great companions but their farewell is nicely handled and the arrival of another really good companion Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) softens the blow.

The quality of the last 2 episodes rescue this from being a disappointing and overly silly story. It ends up being a reasonably fun adventure overall with a classic finale.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 4/10, Episode 2 - 8/10, Episode 3 - 7/10, Episode 4 - 4.5/10, Episode 5 - 8.5/10, Episode 6 - 10/10, Average - 7/10.

In the new Doctor Who seasons one does get the feeling that the popular monsters of the Daleks, Cybermen etc do get a bit overused and this serial stands to remind us that this was also the case in the very early days. Despite already have been featured at the start of the second season in the far superior Invasion Earth, the Daleks return here in to chase the Tardis across time and space to hunt the crew down and kill them. Sounds dramatic right? Sadly the reality is that we have a fragmented series of stories and settings which are mostly delivered with a silly and ineffective content which really doesn't even work within its own context.

The plot sees the Doctor inventing a television that can see any moment in time – a plot device that seems pointless apart from acting as the sole way of seeing The Beatles performance which is featured as being seen via it (the irony of this show preserving another while so many of its own early episodes are lost). We have several moments via this TV thing before moving to a ship, to New York, to a haunted house, to a planet of robots and so on. Bits of it work but mostly it is just nonsense with an uneven tone that is silly but not fun. The planet in the final few episodes offer some excitement but the rest seems pointless – the comedy American, the haunted house etc, all of it is rather hard to watch.

The cast go with it but there is nothing here for them and it is a shame that this is the way that Ian and Barbara have to bow out. Such great companions from the start, they do not get the exit that Susan got and instead they just feel like they got dropped but were rewarding with a bit of mucking about in London as their leaving gift. What the show will be like without them (particularly with the ever vapid Vicki as the sole companion) I'm not sure, but I hope it will not miss them too much. The Daleks make limited impact (even if the serial tries to replicate the great reveal from the Thames) and generally they feel exploited for their popularity here, rather than a real threat or presence.

The Chase sounds good in a one line summary but the reality is a silly mess of ideas – most of which are not good ones. There are moments but they are infrequent and generally this didn't work. I guess the silliness of it all may work if you are in the mood, but for me even the comedic element was poorly done and misfired. So long Ian and Barbara, sorry it had to end like this.

The chase is an odd story, you either absolutely love the bat crazy new take on the Daleks or its ridiculous. I'm in the middle. Dennis spooners work can be very enjoyable and offer the lighter side to traveling, it's why I love the Romans as it's a perfect balance between historical/comedy. For me his comedy is very hit or miss, here the Daleks who arent a great threat more utterly useless. Dalek comedy can be great and in later years Nicholas Briggs would capture it perfectly through voices/morals, such as the high pitch/over excited dalek in Lego dimensions. But the chase does have some unique and really exciting ideas that I'd love to see done today a with a budget. This is the moment the daleks have decided the doctor is there enemy! Chasing him through time, we get see the Daleks invade all sorts of different time/space zone and as child it would be so exciting to see Daleks Vs Frankensteins monster, invade the Mary Celeste, giant questionable squid and giant Mechaniods with flames. Low Budget is means nothing to me, as an actor that's why I love the show, because you can see the hard work of all those involved, trying to make this show work, so silly squid monsters and definitely indistinguishable doctor clone is the charm of the show. It's a shame this was never made into a third dalek film as the structure/plot of space chase would work perfectly for a movie and I admire them for giving this story a go. Plus the Mechaniods are an incredibly good design and seeing them fight one other is an excellent scene. Sadly this is the goodbye of two of my favourite companions. Ian & Barbaras exit is perfect, they both get a share of saving one another and the fact that the doctor refuses and kicks off makes this a beautiful scene to start picking at the layers. The doctor has grown fond of them but he doesn't want them to know that, Hartnell turing his back on them isn't cold, it's brilliant acting, it's showing his pain of facing them as they go. Hartnells goodbyes to his companions was so thoughtful. I loved the more joking around goodbye montage of Ian & Barbara I'm London, seeing there excitement and I loved Ian's jokes too. Ian & Barbara are some of my absolute favourite companions, new who likes to do alot emotions call backs and referencing. I'm honestly so shocked new who has never done a call back to these characters and highlighting there importance in the doctor who universe, there are the main inspiration for why the doctor became who he as, why he travels. I'd just love to see William Russell one more time.

Rating: 2/5, 5/10.

The Doctor and companions are captured by the Mechanoid, and taken to the Mechanoid city where they meet space pilot Steven Taylor, while Ian and Barbara decide to leave the Doctor.

This is easily the best episode of The Chase. The Mechanoids are quite impressive looking, and we are introduced to new companion Steven played by Peter Purves. He's very good here, and it's amazing it's the same actor who played Morton Dill in "Flight Through Eternity".

The final battle between the Daleks and Mechanoids starts out impressively, but quickly descends into the usual Richard Martin action scene silliness, with silly cartoony explosion effects overlaid on the action.

But the main reason this is the best episode of The Chase is the departure of Ian and Barbara. It's handled expertly the actors. William Hartnell, in particular, is excellent. The departure of Ian and Barbara is perhaps one of the best in the series.

Ian and Barbara were almost as much of a part of Doctor Who in its early years as the Doctor himself. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill's often under appreciated performances added immeasurably to the shows success.

The Chase, however, is one of my least favorite Doctor Who stories of all time. The opening two episode and closing two are half-way decent, but the middle two are absolutely horrendous. There's many other problems, from the writing to the direction to the terrible jazzy score from Dudley Simpson. I always feels a sense of relief after finishing watching The Chase.