The Doctor Who Saved Me Reviews #021: The Daleks' Master Plan(S3, Ep4)

Season 3, Episode 4

The Daleks' Master Plan(12 parts)

-Written by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner

-Directed by Douglas Camfield

-Air Date: November 13th, 1965-January, 29th, 1966

-Runtime: 292 minutes

Or as I like to call it...

The longest one, for TV anyway

We Begin!!! On the planet Kembel, Steven is still suffering from the wounds he incurred during the previous episode, which has led to blood poisoning. The Doctor goes out to explore the planet in the hopes of finding someone with medicine that can help with Steven’s condition, Katarina stays behind in the TARDIS and cares for him. At the same time, space agent Bret Vyon is trudging through the jungle looking for some way off the planet to get word out about the Daleks, having just recently lost his fellow agent Ket Gantry; the two were sent there to investigate the disappearance of Marc Corey from the prologue. Eventually Bret encounters the TARDIS as it materializes on the planet, watching The Doctor come out of it, and seeing it as his only opportunity to get home and warn about the Dalek threat, he holds The Doctor at gunpoint and takes the key from him, knocking The Doctor out in the process. Bret enters the TARDIS, convincing Katarina that The Doctor sent him and ordering her to take off before Steven knocks him out and ends up passing out himself. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and holds Bret in a magnetic chair before returning to his search outside, hearing the sound of an arriving spaceship and going to investigate; Katarina is unsure of if she should trust Bret, but he gives her some tablets to heal Steven, which after explaining the concept, Katarina gives to Steven, making him feel better. Inside the spaceship is the Daleks’ newest ally in their Galactic Council, for the conquest of the universe, the Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen, a seemingly peaceful ruler who hides well his power-hungry ambitions to rule the universe. The Doctor, spotting the Dalek threat, rushes to return to the TARDIS which is now under Dalek guard. While wandering the jungle, trying to determine what to do, The Doctor encounters Katarina, Steven, and Bret, who all left at Bret’s insistence after spotting Daleks in the distance. Bret sees the Daleks' plans to burn down the jungle in order to lure the TARDIS crew out and warns them about it. The Doctor believes the best option for the crew is to head to the Dalek city as it’s the one place the Daleks won’t expect them to go, which the rest of the TARDIS crew agrees to; The Doctor informs Bret of Mavic Chen’s arrival which shocks him. There, the TARDIS crew stumble upon one of the delegates of the Galactic Council roaming about, they capture him with the crew splitting up as The Doctor takes the delegates’ robe in order to find out more about the Daleks’ plan, while the rest of the crew hijack Mavic Chen’s ship. In the meeting, The Doctor learns about the Daleks plan to use a dangerous weapon known as the Time Destructor to conquer the galaxy, a weapon which has already been built and just needs the core which contains a rare mineral called malaium that was provided by Mavic Chen. The TARDIS crew accidentally set off alarms during the hijacking, disrupting the meeting and sending Daleks after them. In the midst of the chaos, The Doctor steals the core and joins up with Steven, Katarina, and Bret as the ship takes off from Kembel. The TARDIS crew are now being hunted down by the Daleks’ and Mavic Chen’s forces, in pursuit of the core to complete their ultimate weapon; a chase that will go all throughout time and space, and from which some won’t make it out alive.

And here we are, the big one. The longest episode in Doctor Who, and possibly even narrative TV history, The Daleks’ Master Plan ,is a 12-part epic for the 1st Doctor that brings us on a true journey throughout space and time. I don’t count The Key to Time, Trial of a Time Lord, and Flux, since those aren’t one big episode but story arcs, unlike this one which is a beast of an episode; though not the longest piece of Doctor Who media, Interference and The Last Day are also huge stories longer than this one. Despite its grand epic status as the biggest, longest story of the Hartnell years, it was unfortunately mostly junked with only parts 2, 5, and 10 managing to survive, alongside a few clips; sadly part 7, The Feast of Steven, was thoroughly destroyed with it being now lost forever. For my watch though, I saw the Loose Canon Reconstruction 20, and it did a really good job at bringing this lost story back to life. A lot of effort must’ve been put into this reconstruction and it pays off as it feels about as close as we can to watching the actual episode, there is so good character placement and shots that really make the story flow really well and get the entire gist of what’s going on in each scene even if it’s just a couple of frames. The editing was really good compiling it all together, and I never felt lost at any point throughout the episode, it helped keep up the spirit of the episode even if the imagery was gone. I enjoyed the additions they had this time around with some CGI sets in order to give the Daleks a 3D environment coupled with some really solid Dalek animation really helped to pick up the story and keep the things on screen interesting; they were really well done additions. The Loose Canon reconstruction was great at bringing this story to at least a semi-visual medium and I never felt tired of it despite the long running time the reconstruction had to fill; I give my congratulations to those who worked on it since it couldn’t have been easy doing all this and I really appreciate the effort.

Onto the episode proper, it was amazing, I really loved it. There was so much happening but it all flowed together rather well, there was drama, comedy, tension, action, political intrigue, clever scenes, inventive environments, etc, and they were all handled fantastically. This episode has a great mix of tone and atmosphere that really fit well with whatever was going on at the moment. The tone flowed really well, with the more comedic scenes helping to lighten the tone while never going on for too long that it felt like it damaged the overall tone of the episode. There were dark moments, funny moments, heartwarming moments, tense moments, and they all fit the story and journey that this episode has really well. The atmosphere was great in this story, with it doing well to capture this grand and epic scale that the story is going for. The atmosphere differs from location to location depending on the tone they're going for, whether it be foreboding or a more light one, they all fit well to give this sense of adventure as we journey from place to place, making a truly great whole. The pacing is also really good, despite the episode being 5 hours long it had a really good, brisk pace which managed to successfully capture my attention for the entire runtime; yes I watched this all in one sitting with only a short break between parts 7 and 8. At no point did the episode ever feel like it dragged for me, at any point where I was starting to feel the length the episode managed to come up with something new and interesting to keep me enraptured in by the tale they were telling. The pace is fantastic and I felt it served this story really well, with my enthusiasm for the story being kept up for the whole thing; which is a true achievement.

There was such a great variety of locations throughout this episode, with various unique and interesting places all throughout space and time. These varied locations helped keep the pace up well and made this episode feel like a true adventure as the TARDIS crew move from one location to the next, in order to escape the Dalek fleet and Mavic Chen’s forces. The episode can probably be split up into 6 different parts: the TARDIS crew learning about the Daleks’ plan and their escape from Kembel after stealing the core, the TARDIS crew’s escape through space as they try and get to Earth to give the warning with Katarina and Bret’s deaths, the TARDIS crew meeting Sarah and conceiving her to join along and giving Mavic Chen the fake core, next is the fun break as the TARDIS crew have some lighter adventures through time and space as they await the likely arrival of the Dalek time machine and meet The Monk, afterwards is the showdown in Egypt where all the major players come together and The Doctor is forced to hand over the real core to the Time Destructor, finally ending in a Return to Kembel as the TARDIS crew have to stop the Time Destructor from being used by the Daleks before it’s too late leading to a harrowing ending.

The planet of Kemble returns after its introduction in the prologue episode, and it’s still a really fearsome beast. The jungle surroundings coupled with the Dalek threat as they come into and eventually start to burn down the terrain really helps give the location a sense of immediate danger that the TARDIS crew must quickly escape from and makes the Dalek threat; the Varga plants are alluded to but never shown on screen, felt they could’ve been used but their omission is negligible. All of what I said about Kembel as this dark terrifying place where it feels like anything can kill you at any moment still stands and it serves as a great location for several parts of the episode. The Dalek base on Kembel looks appropriately grand and menacing as the center for the Dalek operations, with the boardroom for the Galactic council looking amazing and is probably one of the best looking boardrooms I’ve ever seen. The base has some great outer shots that help sell the size of it, with the inside being appropriately futuristic and fit for the Daleks. Seeing the TARDIS crew sneak around this base provides for some excellent suspense and tension as at any moment they can encounter a Dalek and be killed. The command room also looks appropriately grand as several Dalek’s run around being ordered by the Black Dalek alongside several futuristic machines help to make the place look really imposing as the center for the Daleks’ throughout the episode. 

I really enjoy the shift that happens from The Doctor’s normal travels in the TARDIS, as the TARDIS crew are forced to commandeer Mavic Chen’s ship and use that to travel through different planets in order to make it to Earth and give the warning. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual travels in the TARDIS and gives the episode the feel of really exploring the universe as the TARDIS crew are forced to go from planet to planet in an attempt to stop the Dalek’s plan. I like how the ship is under constant chase by the Daleks with their being very physical stuff like the Daleks’ to crash the ship in order to get back the Time Destructor core. I also like how Marc Corey’s message comes back, to confirm the Daleks’ plan and have proof of the invasion, even if the TARDIS crew never get a chance to use it. 

The prison planet of Desperue, which the TARDIS crew crash into, is a really interesting concept, basically being a prison colony where prisoners are trapped on the planet with no means of escape. It’s really cool how we see these prisoners devolve into essentially cavemen, giving roles to make fire and fighting over what few weapons they make in order to make themselves the leader of their respective groups, almost giving shades of the Tribe of Gum in An Unearthly Child. This planet helps to give a nice obstacle along the way as the TARDIS crew not just risk the Dalek threat but other threats that exist in this universe, such as these prisoners who are trying to use their ship as an escape; the whole escapade helps make the universe feel more lived in and grand. The one prisoner who does manage to smuggle himself aboard helps to give immediate tension to the episode as the TARDIS crew are confronted with their first direct and crucial threat, as the captive takes Katarina and tries to force the crew to fly back to Kembel, which they can’t because of the Daleks’ chasing after them. Katarina’s sacrifice in order to help their escape, helps to truly set the stakes of this story, showing for the first time ever, not even the TARDIS crew will be able to make it out of this story alive. These stakes fit the epic nature the story is going for and is just a shocking and harrowing scene as Katarina’s body floats off in space, a truly sad sight to see; the TARDIS crew are given no time to mourn as they still have to give the message to Earth.

The Earth base is really cool as it has this really futuristic feeling with large screens and panels that make the whole location look advanced. I love how the TARDIS crew landed in the experimental science facility, with the fun detail that they crashed there. The whole location has this tense feeling as it’s hard to know who to trust as The Doctor, Steven, and Bret are branded terrorists by Mavic Chen which serves to up the stakes and make the whole operation of their way more difficult, with them ultimately failing to get anyone to believe the warning, and are chased by one Sarah Kingdom, who after some time they do manage to bring to their side, but not until after she killed Bret, her brother, for supposed terroism. It makes it clear that this is a journey the TARDIS crew have to stop on their own, making the whole situation incredibly tense as it’s unclear how they can stop this massive threat. The Earth base also has some fun concepts like watching some scientists develop a method of interplanetary teleportation, a really cool concept that is brought to life with an amazing testing room and incredible special effects sequence; we get some fun scientists as well, I like one's enjoyment of the experiments’ success. This experiment teleports the TARDIS crew to the next planet, Mira, where they are left without a way out and being hunted down by Daleks after Mavic Chen gave their location. There isn’t much to talk about with Mira, being a mother jungle planet, thought it does have some great moody fog and a marsh like setting. The Visians are cool creatures however, with them being naturally invisible creatures that manage to threaten the Daleks, blindsiding them. Though it may seem like a cheap cost saving measure for a monster, I feel their screen time is minimal enough and the scariness of a monster you can’t see distracts from that; the footprint from the invisible creature. 

I enjoy seeing the TARDIS crew commandeer a Dalek ship and fly off with it. I like the detail that the Daleks have a device on their ships that drags them back to the main base, a good way of preventing hijacking, even if Steven manages to find and destroy it. They are eventually forced back to Kembel and hand over the core, but The Doctor manages to switch it with a fake and flies off in the TARDIS. Though I’ve seen many feel like this episode could’ve cut the next few episodes in the TARDIS, which while cutting down on the crushing length, I feel the episode would be much weaker for it, removing a great chunk of amazing scenes and character moments from it. I think what this episode was going for was to give a truly epic journey that gives the audience the breath of space and time, which I feel it really succeeded in. We’ve seen the large universe, now it’s time to show what time has to offer.

And now it’s Christmas. The Feast of Steven, what an oddball from this show, the 7th part of this Dalek epic decides to take a break for Christmas Day to have a comedic runaround to celebrate the holiday, and honestly I had a lot of fun with it. It was a nice change of pace for the episode, and I don’t know if I was just in the right kind of mood but for some reason the tonal shift didn’t really affect me all too much; I found the whole episode a nice bit of comedic levity after what’s been some fairly dark couple of episodes. The whole moment really helped endear me to Sarah, having her placed out of her element in fun and comedic situations really helped me enjoy her character, more so then if she just stayed stoic the whole time, which she still kinda does but it’s more comedic. I really enjoyed the setting, with the TARDIS landing in a contemporary police station during Christmas with the appearance of the police box baffling them and leading to several funny moments as the police think The Doctor is delusional and Steven impersonating a police officer to get him out as Sarah almost gets arrested outside before taking off.

This is followed by the TARDIS landing in a film studio with the TARDIS crew crashing a film shoot because they think what’s going on is actually happening in a really funny scene leading to a comedic run around as they keep messing up films in production and the crews for the films are all confused with them starting to chase after the TARDIS crew after a while. There are a lot of funny gags throughout this scene as they go through a rapid fire of the many filmmaking jokes like the overly dramatic actress and the TARDIS crew being mistaken for production crew and made to film, even adding some silent film titles for comedic effect; unfortunately it does have that one awful, racist line which sucks and was an unnecessary inclusion. One great joke that I want to highlight, since it can easily missed during the chaos of the ending, is The Doctor being forced to listen to this comedian, as he tries to get into the TARDIS, with the comedian keeps pulling his ear complaining about how all the good comedy routines were done by Charlie Chaplin, and that he should go be a singer, with him revealing his name to be Bing Crosby; I found it a pretty funny gag, which is heightened by the fact we got a random Chaplin cameo earlier in the episode. After leaving in TARDIS, still having no idea what was going on, The Doctor states that they should celebrate the e holidays as they so rarely do and breaks the fourth wall to wish Merry Christmas to the audience. This whole ending scene was really sweet with it being nice to see the TARDIS crew just relaxing for a bit and getting a chance to enjoy themselves, even if only for a moment; which kinda gives the whole vibe of this part, a fun short little break for the TARDIS crew to enjoy themselves before getting back to the chase at hand; I quite enjoyed this little interlude, which makes me sad that it’ll never be found.

Afterwards the next part begins with a fun little gag with the TARDIS landing in the middle of a cricket match; a hilarious sight to see as we watch the commentators try to make sense of this sudden occurrence. While it may be unnecessary, it’s a fun light scene that helps to shift the mood back a bit more as we return from the Christmas special; I quite liked the scene. From there the TARDIS lands on some volcano planet, which has a pretty cool look and makes good use of some volcano stock footage to give some intensity to the environment. It’s a cool, no pun intended, environment to have a showdown with the returning Meddling Monk, with some good terrain for their banter with one another. I also like how The Doctor uses the strange powers of the sun in order to open the TARDIS after The Monk locks it, it’s a silly explanation complimented by the fact The Doctor never does explain what the exact properties were to Steven and Sarah, in a funny I’ll explain later scene. We then get another really sweet scene for the TARDIS crew as they arrive in time for New Years, 1966, around the same time as the episode aired, in a cute little nod to the date and give the TARDIS crew a nice visual and rest before the Daleks catch up to them in their time machine.

Then it’s time for Ancient Egypt in an amazing set that really gets across the grandeur of the Pyramids and the construction work around them. It's a fantastic location for the episode; the inside of the Pharaoh’s tomb is also great to see. There are several amazing scenes throughout this portion of the episode, from The Doctor tying up The Monk in bandages to the several fight scenes between the Egyptian soldiers and the Daleks in some truly fun anachronistic scenes, though a bit sad as the soldiers stand no chance; unfortunately we do see the return of brown face for British actors to “make them look Egyptian”, like other occurrences it is rather uncomfortable to see. Still I enjoyed this sequence a lot, my favorite scene is when Mavic Chen is speaking his warning to The Doctor as we see the sound of the speakers surrounding the entire area of the Pyramids, before we see The Doctor walk up a pay attention to the warning; it’s a really cool shot and just goes to show how great the directing was in this episode. The Egypt sequence was a great set piece for this episode and serves as an exhilarating end to the chase for the Time Destructor core, as The Doctor is forced to hand it over in exchange for his friends' lives.  Before the TARDIS gets back to Kembel to stop the Dalek plan we get a glimpse of a cool, pun intended, looking ice planet that The Monk is forced to land on.

The return to Kembel gives a great climax to the story as Steven and Sarah sneak around the Dalek base which has now been emptied after their betrayal of the Galactic Council, in a nice shot as they run around the area. The shot of the Dalek base inside the mountain is really cool as we see the corridors and the TARDIS crew sneaking around the area. The whole location looks appropriately climatic as they set up the Time Destructor, which is a really great looking prop that does fit the danger built up by the device; the room serves as a great place for the final confrontation between The Doctor and the Daleks with a nice and tense scene. After the Time Destructor is activated early by The Doctor to stop the Dalek plan, the power of the device eventually causing him to drop it and the landscape to all erode as it’s aged to death in a phenomenal showcase of the Time Destructor’s true power if it was used and a fantastic effects sequence as we see the green planet of Kembel erode into dust. The resulting wasteland is appropriately barren and feels so utterly lifeless, it really shows how destructive this weapon could’ve been had it been actually used. This also serves to give a harrowing final shot as the wasteland really shows all the lives lost stopping the Daleks’ master plan and how much of a waste it all was, followed excellently by the final shot of the TARDIS flying off.

I must truly commend the sets and production design of this episode, because they do so well in really selling the grand and epic scale of this story and the many locations they visit. The variety of locations coupled with the amazing sets they give really do help sell this journey through space and time. Some of my favorites include the boardroom for the Galactic Council, the Earth control room with the giant screen, the teleportation experiment room, and every set for the parts at the Pyramids. The set design was top kitchen with the effort really being felt by each and everyone of them, it’s a true technical marvel that they managed this for all 12 parts. The special effects of this episode are really good with each of them still relatively standing the test of time. They are pretty good for the most part and work well with the sets to show the grandeur of this episode. One sequence I adored was the molecular dissemination scene, it was so trippy and creatively done, I was captivated by the whole sequence and impressed they could do it on a BBC budget; I’m so glad it survived. I also love the effects to show off Sarah’s death as her body ages and decays rapidly, eventually only becoming a print in the sand, which truly sells the horror and sadness of the scene. The sets and special effects are really good and do well to live up to the grand and epic story this episode is trying to tell.

The Daleks are fantastic in their final episode of the Hartnell era of the show. This episode served as a true return to form for the Daleks as this threatening and menacing force to be feared throughout the cosmos. There is a real sense of scale to their presence throughout this episode, with a grand plan to conquer the entire universe, a truly menacing goal that shows how much bigger the Dalek threat has gotten since we last saw them. I really enjoyed their presence in this episode with their constant threat and tension whenever they appear on screen. They’re relentless as they chase the TARDIS crew all throughout space and time in order to get the Time Destructor core back, seeking to kill anyone in their way. The Daleks’ intelligence is as threatening as ever as they devise their master plan to take over the universe, with it being cleverly planned out as we see every step of their thinking throughout this episode; it’s what helps keep them a consistent threat clever enough to consistently go toe to toe with The Doctor. I really like how they make alliances in this episode with Mavic Chen and the leaders of the Outer Galaxies, it shows their willingness to cooperate with other to further their goals and also how any alliance with them is nearly a means to an end for the Daleks, that they plan to exterminate all of them once their usefulness is fulfilled; also serves as a way to cripple several powerful armies which could’ve been a threat to them.

The Time Destructor itself is a truly evil and horrific invention that once again shows the cruel genius of the Daleks. The weapon is truly awful as its purpose is to age entire planets into dust, killing everyone and everything on it. This weapon serves as the center to their master plan to conquer the universe, with the materials needed being readily provided by their allies who they plan to kill afterwards. The Time Destructor is a powerful weapon that serves as a great overarching threat for the episode that keeps the tension up as the TARDIS crew must stop the machine’s activation. 

I like the return of the Dalek time machine in this episode, really shows how much the Daleks have advanced with this machine still being around and readily available for Dalek use. It keeps the Daleks a truly menacing threat that can and will follow The Doctor through time and space in order to catch him or fulfill their plans. The Daleks are excellent in this episode and get several great scenes throughout it, from them burning down the jungle to weed out the TARDIS crew to them shooting down invisible monsters on Mira to their fight with the Egyptians in Ancient Egypt; the last one is a real amazing moment for the episode, complete with one Dalek getting defeated by being immobilized with rocks by the soldiers. The Dalek defeat at the hands of the Time Destructor is a fitting end to them with them being killed by their own weapon of mass destruction and wasting away; which also is the first time the mutant in the Dalek casing is shown, even if only part of it and it looks quite good. The Daleks were excellent in their final Hartnell run and served well as a truly menacing force that held up the threat for this epic.

I liked the Galactic Council in this episode, with them being a great showcase of the inevitable destruction of alliances with the Daleks. I love the unique and varied designs for all the council members, they all look so creative and alien, I’m surprised we never saw more of their species. I really like their grand and egotistical personalities, which fits these tyrannical leaders; I like the power play and backstory between some of them as they each scheme to get the bettter end of alliance. I really enjoy their betrayal at the hands of the Daleks, showing they were only a means to an end for the Daleks and does well of showing off the futility of alliances with such hateful beings and how those who use them for power will inevitably fall victim to it as they don’t fit the Dalek ideal, which is just Daleks, it shows the futility and danger of alliances with facism which the Daleks are an allegory for; it also shows how menacing and clever the Daleks are as they planned all of this from the start. I also enjoy how they immediately turn coat and go against the Daleks as soon as they see their at risk as well, forcing them to reveal the Dalek threat and fight against it after their involvement in its completion. The Galactic Council had so great presence throughout the episode alongside some fun and hammy performances, with this alliance showing the grandeur of the Daleks plan and the threat the TARDIS crew face. Though I would’ve liked one or two more scenes, the Galactic Council were a great pretense throughout the episode with some fun performances and a good showcase of the futility Dalek alliances; I’m honestly surprised we never saw any member of the Council again, I would like to see more of them after their great showcase in this episode, they really helped show the scale of the episode and danger at hand.

Mavic Chen was a fantastic co-villain for this episode alongside the Daleks, with a great menacing presence that persists throughout the runtime. Mavic Chen is the Guardian of the Solar System, the leader of a large galaxy with a huge amount of political power in the other galaxies, but even that isn’t enough for him. He’s a power hungry megalomaniac who fancies himself the first ruler of the entire universe, believing the Daleks will be of great use towards that goal. He’s incredibly menacing with a charismatic and commanding presence that manages to sway all the people of the Solar System to his word. He’s a great manipulative politician, able to influence the people of the Solar System to hunt down the TARDIS crew, making them terrorists in the eyes of the people, which makes it almost impossible for them to get anyone to believe their warning about the impending Dalek threat and Mavic Chen’s alliance with them. Mavic Chen is a great villain with him possessing great power and sway which leaves the TARDIS crew stuck outrunning his forces by the time they get to Earth, thereby making their escape with the core all the more difficult as he gets his security force to chase after them in hopes of getting the core. His political control is menacing and great to see, I like his talks with his advisor as he gets ideas of how to spin certain situations as positives to the Daleks; I also love Chen’s line about how a passionate cry for peace is a politician's greatest weapon.

I really like how egotistical and full of himself Mavic Chen is, he thinks of himself as the leader of the Daleks, seeing them as pawns in his own scheme when in reality it’s very much the other way around. He really thinks highly of himself and believes the Daleks see him as invaluable because of his contribution of the malaium core and the retrieval of it after it was stolen. Mavic Chen believes himself to be in the Daleks good graces and on equal footing with them because of these actions when in reality he’s just as expandible as the rest of them and the only reason he’s kept around is because he does well in advancing the Daleks’ plan and his ego blinds him to their inevitable treachery. He sees himself as almost the leader of the Daleks ordering them around and thinking they will do his bidding; he feels confident enough in this belief that he literally slaps a Daleks eyestalk at one point after it fails to do what he wanted. Mavic Chen constantly gets in arguments with the Black Dalek Leader and frequently tries to justify his own failures; this leads to the legendary line “You make your incompetence sound like achievement”. He’s forced by the Daleks to travel in their time machine alongside them as they try to catch the TARDIS team after he failed to procure the right core, being given a false one by the crew and now being forced to make up his mistake; though he’s being ordered to do this, he still sees himself in their graces and treats the mission like he’s the leader when evidently he is not. Though he does serve to be more rational than them at points, with the capture of the companions, instead of exterminating them, he thinks to make use of them as hostages in order to get the core; something which does work but doesn’t make him any better in the Daleks’ graces.

Mavic Chen also gets some great scenes with The Doctor with the two playing off each other really well. There is of course that phenomenal scene where he calls out to The Doctor over the speaker system, and both of their scenes where he tries to force The Doctor to hand over the core being amazing, the two really do work off each other well as a great hero and villain face-off with the dialogue and performances being a treat to see. I love his reaction to the Daleks' betrayal, with his complete refusal to believe the Daleks would betray him and thinking The Doctor must have tried to take his place. He is really showing his ego and delusion as he tries to get back in the Daleks' graces, by bringing the companions to them; still believing he has some powers over them and trying to get the Black Dalek Leader to grant him authority again. This leads to an excellent end for him as he tries to command one Dalek to give him progress on the master plan only for the Dalek to not even acknowledge him, with him getting increasingly angry as none of them follow his orders; I like how the Daleks don’t even bother to exterminate him, with them seeing him as such a none issue they don’t even bother. Mavic Chen then berates the Black Dalek Leader, who makes it clear Chen has no power over them, with the Daleks final ten exterminating him after he attacks the Black Dalek Leader in anger over this betrayal; as the Dalek’s hunt him down he still proclaims himself as their leader and the leader of the universe before he’s killed, a fitting downfall for this egotistical megalomaniac. Kevin Stoney gives an excellent performance as Mavic Chen, doing incredibly well at getting across his menace, intellect, charisma, ego, and delusion; unfortunately he is made up in some really bad brown face which is rather uncomfortable to see, especially with how unneeded it was, which does serve to detract from my enjoyment of his performance, even if is incredibly good. Mavic Chen is a fantastic villain with an incredible performance courtesy of Kevin Stoney, who serves as an incredible threat that stands alongside the Daleks really well for this grand adventure. 

The Monk makes his grand return in this episode, with him throwing a nice spammer in the works to The Doctor and Daleks chase throughout time and space. Having managed to fix the dimensional circuit after his defeat in his first appearance, he’s out for revenge against The Doctor for stranding him at one time. However despite his more villainous motivations of revenge, he’s still as bumbling and silly as ever, remaining a good bit of fun throughout. I love how he watches The Doctor try and fail to open the TARDIS after he sealed it shut, his gleeful joy at the TARDIS crew’s plight is really funny as is his shock and disbelief when The Doctor manages to escape. I like how he throws a wrench in the chase between The Doctor and the Daleks, with them now being on guard for his arrival as well as the eventual arrival of the Daleks. The Monk is good fun when he arrives in Egypt with him running around and trying to come up with another scheme to get back at The Doctor, before he ends up running straight into the Daleks, whom he knows by reputation. I like how the Daleks and Mavic Chen immediately get him to admit he’s a time traveler and fails to convince them his being there is just a coincidence; though when they mention their after The Doctor he decides to help them get him, with the added incentive of his extermination if he doesn’t manage to bring them in. The Monk immediately fails at this task and gets accosted by The Doctor in a pretty humorous scene and tries to back track his attempts when Steven and Sarah find him, before they walk into the Dalek threat. I like how he quickly tries to save his own life by saying he brought the companions to the Daleks as hostages to use to get the Time Destrcutor core, which they agree to much to Steven and Sarah’s shock and annoyance when he tries to claim he was trying to save all of their lives when really it was just to save his; he’s released alongside those two after The Doctor hands over the core, much to his chagrin. 

I enjoy the dynamic The Monk has with The Doctor, with the two having some really fun interactions and banter. It starts with a great reunion between the two on the volcano planet as they talk about The Monk’s return and his planned revenge on The Doctor in a nice scene; it’s funny how nonchalant they are to one another. After the escape from the volcano planet and arrival of both in Egypt, where The Monk decides to wear some cool shades. The Doctor sees that The Monk has been made to work with Mavic Chen and the Daleks, his eavesdropping allows him to see where The Monk’s TARDIS is and steal the directional unit. I love their confrontation when The Monk tries and fails to get into the TARDIS with The Doctor catching him in the act. The Monk’s bad attempts at trying to get The Doctor on his side and get the core of the Time Destructor are really funny as The Doctor sees through all of it, leading to another hilarious scene where he proceeds to beat The Monk, with him later found trapped in bandages like a Mummy courtesy of The Doctor. I also like how The Doctor almost annoyedly asks for The Monk to be released during the hostage exchange, it’s a funny example of the annoyance he has towards The Monk, though he still wouldn’t want to see him killed by the Daleks. It’s a fun show if their fun dynamic with each other that permeates the parts of the episode The Monk appears. That final scene with him on the ice planet realizing he’s lost is really funny, with him now being as directionless as The Doctor, with him vowing to get revenge, with the rest of the TARDIS crew also assuming as much. Peter Butterworth gave an fantastic performance as The Monk, praise which I completely neglected to give last time, he really does well in showing off The Monk’s goofy and fun vibe with him doing great in the comedy and even occasionally getting a bit of menace; he was a phenomenal villain and always had a fun presence, it’s a shame he never came back to the show, I look forward to seeing him in the EU material, he was good fun.

-this review was so long it wouldn't fit on the post so the end is in the comments, several of them