March 11: The Power of the Daleks Episodes Three & Four

It's interesting; we've seen Daleks be deadly, and we've seen them be heartless, conquering dictators, but we've never seen them behave this deviously before.  These two episodes show us the Daleks acting with great cunning, seemingly helping the human colonists, but really just trying to get them to give the Daleks power and materials to use for their own ends.

But what's perhaps more fascinating is how David Whitaker manages to keep the Daleks in the front of the audience's mind while focusing on the human interactions and the power struggles going on in the colony.  The rebels, being led ostensibly by Lesterson's assistant Janley (who makes herself thoroughly unlikeable by the end of episode four), are much more concerned with seizing control of the colony (for reasons never made explicit beyond power for power's sake), while Lesterson wants to be left out of the politics.  Bragen, the colony's security chief, has his own agenda.  And meanwhile the Daleks are gathering strength...

Another interesting thing to note comes in episode three.  Once the Doctor realizes that no one is going to listen to his order to destroy the Daleks, he decides to take matters into his own hands and creates a device to kill them off.  He's unsuccessful, of course (or else this story would be over), but it shows how this new Doctor is more concerned with doing what he thinks is best without trying to convince others of his position, as one might imagine William Hartnell's Doctor doing.  And the end of that scene, where the Dalek futilely clicks the spot where its gun was, is quite powerful.

The Doctor realizes the Daleks must be reproducing. (The
Power of the Daleks Episode Four - from Doctor Who Photonovels:
The Power of the Daleks - Episode Four) ©BBC

Really though, it's to Whitaker's credit that he manages to keep the Daleks as a ticking bomb in the background of this story while making the human characters' interactions sufficiently compelling to sustain interest. Lesterson undergoes the best development, as he begins to get nervous about what he's done at the end of episode three, only to descend into a full-blown panic by the end of episode four.  He does consider destroying the Daleks sooner, but Janley blackmails him, telling him that Resno was killed by the Daleks and that she'll say Lesterson murdered him.  She wants the Dalek project to continue, so that the rebels can take over the colony.  It's a petty, human reason, but it ends up being a driving force behind the subsequent events.  But it's what Lesterson witnesses at the end of episode four that ends up being the most important factor, as he sees the Daleks' production line, creating more and more fully operational Daleks.  Their chant of "We are the new race of Daleks!" ends up being a chilling one, and one can only imagine how Lesterson must feel, as his world crumbles around him and he knows it's his fault.

March 10: The Power of the Daleks Episodes One & Two

So we've just witnessed an impossible event, as the Doctor we knew and loved appeared to change in front of our eyes.  The Power of the Daleks picks up right where we left off, and even though we know that William Hartnell isn't coming back, we're still uncertain just as to who this strange new man is.  And the story, rather than trying to reassure us that no, this is the same man, seems to gleefully make us doubt even more.  Other than a moment with a mirror, where Patrick Troughton momentarily sees his previous version, and a bit of dialogue here and there, there's a concerted effort to wrongfoot the audience, as well as the Doctor's companions.  They make it a point to show that the Doctor's old things don't fit the new Doctor anymore: his cloak threatens to strangle the new man, and the Doctor's ring is much too big.  And this new version keeps referring to the Doctor in the third person, with lines like, "The Doctor was a great collector, wasn't he?" and "The Doctor kept a diary, didn't he?"  It's a bold move, making the audience as uncertain of what's going on as the characters in the story, and even the provided explanation isn't as much help as it seems: "I've been renewed.  It's part of the TARDIS; without it I couldn't survive."

And then they take this strange new character and insert him into a story about an isolated Earth colony.  But unlike the previous story, this isn't a base under siege from outside forces; this is a colony with its own internal struggles (there are mentions of rebels and political factions), and one into which a dangerous element has been introduced: the colony's scientist, Lesterson, has discovered a space capsule in the mercury swamps.  The Doctor gets mistaken for an official from Earth called the Examiner, and so he discovers what Lesterson has found: a capsule containing Daleks -- Daleks which might not be as dead as initially thought...

Episode two finds us moving a little further along.  The presence of the Daleks throws things into sharp relief: we may not know for sure if this is still the Doctor, but he stands opposed to the Daleks just like the old Doctor would, so we can't help but trust in him.  But what's fascinating about writer David Whitaker's approach here is that, unlike in previous stories where the Daleks are introduced at the end of the first episode and then fully unleashed, here the Daleks remain both in the background and the focal point of the episode.  The Daleks seen here don't have any power, so we see instead Lesterson's efforts to bring them back to life.  The Doctor, in his assumed role as the Examiner, demands that the Daleks be destroyed, but no one is willing to listen to him: "You're exceeding your authority," Lesterson says.  And so while the Doctor is trying to get someone to order the destruction of the Daleks, Lesterson manages to bring one back to life.

This leads to the climax of the episode, when a Dalek glides into the meeting room where the Doctor is talking to Governor Hensell.  The Dalek seems to recognize the Doctor, focusing in on him, and we finally believe that yes, this is in fact the Doctor, the same basic man as William Hartnell.  But then, as the Doctor tries to convince the colonists of the Daleks' nature ("The thing it does most efficiently is exterminate human beings.  It destroys them, without mercy, without conscience"), the Dalek begins chanting, "I am your servant" over and over, drowning the Doctor's warnings out, and you realize how devious these Daleks are...

March 9: The Tenth Planet Episodes 3 & 4

The credit gremlins are back; having previously called Kit Pedler "Kitt" in Episode 1, now Gerry Davis becomes "Gerry Davies" in Episode 3...

This is the first episode of The Tenth Planet credited to both Pedler and Davis; it's also the episode in which we suddenly learn that Snowcap Base has a doomsday device called the Z-Bomb (and note that's an American "Zee-Bomb", rather than a British "Zed-Bomb") that General Cutler wants to fire at Mondas, even though it might mean also destroying the side of the Earth that happens to be facing Mondas at the time.  You can tell Cutler's coming unhinged (which wasn't the case in episode 2, aka five minutes earlier from the story's point-of-view), particularly because the following conversation takes place:

CUTLER: Request permission, sir, to take defensive action against this planet... The Z-Bomb, sir.  Mounted in the warhead of a Demeter rocket and fired at Mondas, it could destroy it.
WIGNER: We can't take the risk.  This might have disastrous effects, both on Earth and the atmosphere.  We would have to consult our top scientists.
CUTLER: But there isn't time for consultation.  This is an emergency! ...
WIGNER: No, General.  You must take no precipitous action.  This is quite out of the question.
CUTLER: Yes, sir.  But do you do give me authority to take any action necessary against the Cybermen?
WIGNER: Yes, of course.  You must do all you can.
CUTLER: Yes, sir.  Thank you, sir.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - The Tenth Planet)

This is apparently grounds for Cutler to go ahead and use the Z-Bomb, despite being specifically told not to.  And so the rest of the episode consists of Ben and Polly trying to stop Cutler from launching the Demeter rocket -- which he apparently only wants to do to save his son from Mondas's power drain (his son having been sent up to rescue Zeus 4 at the end of episode 2).  It feels more like the story is marking time than actually advancing forward -- and again, note that this is the first episode of the serial for which Gerry Davis receives a co-writer's credit.

Of course, that could also be because William Hartnell has taken suddenly ill with bronchitis, and so the episode has had to be hurriedly rewritten around the Doctor's absence.  This does also mean that, as the next episode is currently missing from the archives, the last existing Hartnell episode is one that Hartnell's not actually in.  Of course, the Doctor's been playing such a limited role in the story that his absence doesn't derail things too much; his important lines of dialogue are redistributed (noticeably with Ben's comment that "He said eventually it [Mondas] would absorb too much energy and burn itself out -- well, shrivel up to nothing.  So all we've got to do is wait!" -- referring to a conversation that we never witness), and everything seems to proceed as normal.  As I said, marking time.  There's some stuff with sabotaging the rocket, and that's about it.

William Hartnell changes into Patrick Troughton. (The Tenth
Planet Episode 4) ©BBC

Episode 4, as I mentioned earlier, is missing from the archives (and in fact marks the beginning of the longest stretch of missing episodes: 12 episodes in a row, from The Tenth Planet episode 4 to The Underwater Menace episode 1 inclusive, currently no longer exist).  However, the DVD has a telesnap reconstruction of the fourth episode which I've viewed instead.²⁸  It turns out that Ben's sabotage was successful, and the Earth is temporarily saved from General Cutler's madness.  But the Cybermen have returned, and they are intent on destroying the Earth before Mondas absorbs too much energy.  The Doctor is back to stand against them, but Ben is the one who actually works out how to fight them: he figures out that the Cybermen are weak against radiation, and so he's able to help fend off the Cybermen before they use the Z-Bomb on Earth to destroy it.  Because apparently Mondas's power sucking device doesn't have an off-switch?  Anyway.

The Cybermen are unsuccessful in their efforts, and when Mondas ends up melting away, the Cybermen go with them, shriveling away into empty suits.  But, as the Doctor says, "It's far from being all over."  The Doctor has been taken to the Cybership, where Ben rescues him and Polly after Mondas is destroyed, but the Doctor isn't himself.  He seems worn out and humorless; none of his usual vocal tics are present (the "hmm"s and "eh"s), and he's much more concerned with getting to the TARDIS.  And it's a good thing, too; when we head back inside the Ship, things are going crazy, with controls moving by themselves and flashing lights everywhere.  And then the Doctor collapses to the floor and changes...

The Tenth Planet isn't a terrible story.  It has a reputation for not being very good, but this is a bit unfair.  As I said before, much of what it's doing simply hasn't been done before, and while there will soon be plenty of opportunities for them to refine the basic plot structure, here we see their first effort at it, and there's nothing really wrong with it.  It does admittedly lose its way in episode 3 and doesn't really regain its focus until Cutler is killed early in episode 4, but everything else is done in a convincing manner, and you can see the effort that's gone into the production, both with the casting and the design (seriously, the design of the control room in the Snowcap base is really something wonderful).  It feels important and memorable, even before the climactic final scene.

But that scene is important for a reason, and so it's with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to William Hartnell.  He may have occasionally been lumbered with some awkward scripts, but he himself always found a way to make the most of the material, and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that, regardless of the Daleks cementing the show's popularity, Doctor Who would never have survived without William Hartnell and his key role in making the Doctor an odd yet relatable figure.  You can't help but feel a little bad for him, forced out of a role he loved so much, and you know that the show will never be the same without him, as the final person to be there since the beginning moves on.  So hooray for William Hartnell, one of the finest and most underrated actors to ever play the Doctor.  He shall be missed.







²⁸ Actually, there's also an animated reconstruction on the disc, which is leaps and bounds ahead of the animation on The Reign of Terror -- but it obviously doesn't include any of the existing clips from episode 4, which is why I decided to go with the telesnap version.

March 8: The Tenth Planet Episodes 1 & 2

And so here we are: William Hartnell's final story as the Doctor.  You can't help but feel a little saddened by that.  And look, another story with special credits,  with this time the opening and closing credits getting special "computerized" treatment (albeit different from the version in The War Machines).  And there's apparently something incredibly difficult about spelling writer Kit Pedler's name: having spent all of The War Machines as "Kit Pedlar", here episode 1 sees him become "Kitt Pedler".  But anyway.

The Tenth Planet is business as usual in many ways.  There's no sign of anything untoward as the TARDIS lands at the South Pole in 1986, and the Doctor seems just as spry as ever.  But that said, there are a couple wrinkles on display here.  The first is that this is the first  "base-under-siege" story, where an isolated place is attacked from the outside by alien invaders.  Get used to this; it's going to become a common plot for the next couple years.  But the more interesting twist is how, despite being set twenty years in the future, The Tenth Planet is treated more like an historical story than a "future" story.  The Doctor already seems to know what's going to happen -- he knows about Mondas, and he tells them to expect visitors as if it's an obvious fact.  It's an unusual take, but it's actually quite pleasing -- after all, why should the Doctor's knowledge of events be limited to our knowledge?  Past and future should be the same to him.  It really helps sell the point that the Doctor is indeed a time traveller, and it's such a neat story trick that it's rather surprising that it doesn't really pop up again until 2009, with The Waters of Mars.²⁷  This has the additional side effect of making the Doctor an observer of this event, rather than an active participant: indeed, other than telling the base's crew what it is they're going to see and to expect visitors, the Doctor does nothing but watch things unfold.

For being the first "base-under-siege" story, though, it's surprising how many of the soon-to-be-familiar features are already in play: isolated base with little to no help of outside support, check; international crew, check; commander of the base accustomed to doing things his way and unwilling to listen to anyone else, check.  Really, where The Tenth Planet differs is how it shows us things happening beyond the base.  We get a little look into the headquarters of International Space Command in Geneva, where the Secretary General of ISC tries to deal with this new planet in his own way, even if that primarily means trying to get a hold of the Polar Base.  We also get a newsreader keeping us up to date on the latest events (played by, entertainingly, one Glenn Beck -- presumably not the same one as the American conservative pundit).  And we get a look into the space ship that the South Pole is trying to guide down, with Zeus 4 being flown by an Australian and a black Englishman, a sign of how forward thinking the production team is trying to be.  It's the second time in as many stories that a black actor gets a prominent role, and Glyn Williams seems to be a more thankful role than Jamaica was.

The Cybermen announce that the people on the base will become
like them. (The Tenth Planet Episode 2) ©BBC

And now we come to the Cybermen, who show up at the end of episode 1 and become prominent in episode 2.  This is their first appearance, of course, and they're significantly less sleek-looking than in any future story.  Here they look more cobbled together, yet that's actually a strength: Kit Pedler was exorcising some personal demons as he wrote this, concerned by the idea of people slowly replacing body parts with artificial limbs and organs -- at what point is the result no longer a human being?  The Cybermen are that idea taken to an extreme, and it looks like they've slowly replaced their body parts a bit at a time, such that, other than the general shape, the only human features are the vaguely human face, and the obviously human hands.  (The exposed hands, by the way, were apparently an accident, as costume designer Sandra Reid was going to give them silver gloves but forgot/ran out of time/ran out of money (delete according to which version of the story you prefer), but it's a happy accident as it really helps drive home Pedler's idea.)  Occasionally in episode 2 you can see the actor's eyes glinting underneath the Cyberman's mask -- you're probably not supposed to be able to, but it's nevertheless a creepy effect, seeing a human eye vaguely inside this very not-human face.  They would look more sophisticated in the future, but these Cybermen are really quite wonderful -- even if their "jug handles" are clearly held on with clear tape.  And I haven't even mentioned the eerily inflected robotic voices, made to sound as if they'd learned English from a series of recordings but haven't quite got the stress patterns down.  It's very cool, and very effective -- especially coming from a mouth that just opens, without any visible articulation to show how the sounds are being produced.  And finally, we can't talk about sounds without mentioning the incidental music -- I think this is the first time "Space Adventure" by Martin Slavin is used; it'll keep cropping up in Cyberman stories (and also The Web of Fear), so much so that it's sometimes referred unofficially as the "March of the Cybermen".

So other than the Doctor being largely sidelined from the action, so far this has been an entertaining and memorable story.  Let's hope they can keep it up.







²⁷ And the possible exception of Episode 1 of The Ambassadors of Death, where (jumping ahead here) the Doctor's approach is pitched in such a way that it might be considered foreknowledge, but it could equally be logical thinking, knowing that the alien message will be repeated -- except then you have to explain why the sound of the message is familiar to the Doctor.  But he spends the rest of the story as if he doesn't know how events are going to turn out, so we can probably safely rule out the "it's history to him" theory.

March 7: The Smugglers Episodes 3 & 4

Having spent the first two episodes acquainting us with the various players of his piece, writer Brian Hayles now begins to really set things moving.  The Doctor and Kewper trick their captor Jamaica by reading fortunes from playing cards, while the revenue officer, Blake, takes Ben and Polly into his custody -- but not to arrest them.  No, he believes their story, and needs their help against the Squire and his smuggling ring.

Episode 3 is more bloodthirsty than the last two, it must be said.  Captain Pike kills Jamaica for allowing the Doctor and Kewper to escape, and the moment where he wipes Jamaica's blood off his pike hand with a handkerchief before dropping the bloodied cloth onto Jamaica's sightless, staring corpse is quite horrific (so horrific, in fact, that it survives as one of the Australian censor clips).  And Jacob Kewper is killed by Cherub at the cliffhanger, a knife thrown in his back.  But these moments punctuate the main decision: now that the Doctor has been reunited with Ben and Polly, he decides to find Avery's treasure, thus giving him a bargaining chip with Pike that will hopefully delay him, giving Blake time to bring the militia back.  The Doctor partly works out the clue given to him by Joseph Longfoot in the first episode²⁶, but realizes there should be a fourth name in the rhyme.  (And does the meter of the rhyme bother anyone else?  It goes, "This is Deadman's secret key: Smallbeer, Ringwood, and Gurney", but everyone says "GURney", with stress on the first syllable.  I really want it to be "GurNEY" though, to match the meter of the first line's "SECret KEY".  But anyway.)  But Cherub's overheard enough, and he's come to claim Avery's treasure for himself.

Pike kills Cherub for his treachery. (The Smugglers
Episode 4) ©BBC

Episode 4 has two main plot threads: Cherub's betrayal of Pike, followed by Pike's discovery of Avery's treasure; and Blake's return with the militia.  Both of these events are obviously intertwined, with Pike bringing his men to the church to unload the smuggled goods from their hiding place, making them easy picking for the militia later on.  But the most dramatic part occurs when Pike kills his "faithful" mate, intent on retrieving the treasure for himself.  The Doctor tries to stall for as long as he can, but is forced to reveal the clue: the intersection of the four names (the fourth being Deadman, as Cherub helpfully noted before his demise) is the location of the treasure.  And it seems that there is in fact a hidden treasure: Pike reaches into a hole under the relevant flagstone and pulls up a string of pearls.  But it's too late: Blake's men have arrived, and what sounds like a rollicking battle goes on between the pirates and the militia.  It's a shame we can't see it, as it does sound quite exciting, but alas, we have to make do with the telesnaps.  But the good guys come out on top and the village is safe from Pike and his pirates.  It's less clear what the Squire's fate is; he's learned the error of his ways by the end, and even saves the Doctor from death at Pike's, er, pike, but he was the leader of the smuggling ring in the village, so who knows what Blake does with him at the end.

It's sort of hard to come to a firm conclusion about The Smugglers: on the one hand it's quite entertaining while it lasts, but there's not much of a lasting impact -- little of what happened remains in the memory afterwards.  It's a relatively simple, uncomplicated tale.  Not that that's a problem, but it does make this one of the more forgettable stories we've had so far.  Still, it's not trying to be anything deep; as I said last time, it wants to be a literary pastiche, and at this it succeeds well enough (even if the lack of a young boy pressed into service by pirates means it's not quite as close a match as might be hoped for).  Not every story has to be Marco Polo.

And then, in the cliffhanger into the next episode, the Doctor notes that the TARDIS has arrived "at the coldest place in the world", and you suddenly realize that Hartnell's time is almost up...







²⁶ Yes, the names have changed slightly, going from "Smallwood" to "Smallbeer" -- this is because Terence De Marney, playing Longfoot, got the line slightly wrong in Episode 1.

March 6: The Smugglers Episodes 1 & 2

So we're starting season 4 (though The Smugglers is actually the last story filmed as part of season 3), but we're picking up where we left off at the end of The War Machines, with Ben and Polly pushing their way into the TARDIS.  The telesnaps hint that the last scene of The War Machines might have been played in over the theme music before going back to the titles -- obviously it's hard to tell, but, at least as they're displayed in Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #34: The Missing Episodes - The First Doctor (to give the publication its full title), the impression is one of title sequence, scene, title sequence (and certainly the theme music runs much longer than normal, supporting this).

But Ben and Polly barge in, pointing out that the Doctor dropped his key, so they used it to get in (and just to reiterate, this isn't a goof as is often claimed; it's not Dodo's key, it's the one that fell out of the Doctor's cloak in the previous episode).  But the Doctor states that he's already moved the TARDIS, and so there's no telling where they are.  It takes a bit of convincing, but eventually Ben and Polly believe that they've been transported to 17th-century Cornwall, full of thieves, smugglers, and ships crewed by men of ill repute.  Yes, it's Doctor Who's pirate story.

It's got to be said, Ben and Polly sure do adjust to having been taken back in time rather quickly.  There's no extended period of disbelief, like Steven had.  Instead it's "Well, guess we really did travel to the past, then."  This means that they can launch themselves into the proceedings without too much angst; indeed, Polly seems to treat it as a big lark, while Ben seems more concerned about making it back to his ship on time.  But it doesn't take long for the Doctor to be captured by pirates who are convinced he knows something about a hidden treasure, and for Ben and Polly to be framed for the murder of the churchwarden.  They're thrust into a terrifying situation, cut off from their own time and place, and the only person who can get them back home has been taken to who-knows-where.  Ben and Polly cope with this, er, quite well, actually.  They don't seem terribly concerned about the murder charge, and they're more interested in finding the Doctor so they can leave.

Episode 2 shows the Doctor in charge, wrapping Captain Pike (leader of the pirates and owner of a metal pike in place of a hand) around his finger.  Well, maybe.  There's a suggestion that Pike's toying with the Doctor as much as the Doctor is toying with him, but before Pike can begin to lay into the Doctor, he's interrupted by a new arrival.  It seems there's an opportunity for some smuggling to be done...

Meanwhile, Ben and Polly, displaying a surprising amount of resourcefulness, trick their jailer into thinking they're witches who've taken over his soul and will kill him unless he lets them go.  Then they go back to the church to look for clues into the warden's murder.  They don't find any clues, but they do find a revenue man named Josiah Blake, who has tracked the smugglers to the church crypt.  They tie him up, thinking he might be connected to the murder, and Polly goes to tell the Squire.  Only it turns out the Squire is in on the smuggling, and isn't going to let a stranger tell her that his new-found compatriots Pike and his crew are involved in anything dodgy (as Polly recognizes Cherub as the man who kidnapped the Doctor).  But he will lock Polly and Ben back up in jail...

So the thing about these first two episodes is how entertainingly unsophisticated they are.  There's none of the nuance of The Massacre to be found here, nor much of the humor of The Gunfighters.  Instead this is more a literary pastiche, recalling the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as J. Meade Falkner's novel Moonfleet.  This means it moves along at a relatively fast clip, wasting no time exploring the morality of Captain Pike or of the Squire.  Pike and his men are pirates, so therefore they're not to be trusted, and the Squire is in league with them, so he's no more trustworthy than anyone else.  The only one who seems to have a glimmer of morality is Joseph Longfoot, and he's killed for his sins by Cherub in the first episode (in one of the few remaining clips from this serial -- funny how some of the most violent and terrifying moments that were deemed unsuitable for broadcast in Australia and New Zealand are now all that remain of these episodes).  Ok, and maybe the innkeeper's helper Tom, but he's portrayed as fairly thick and thus a figure of fun at Ben and Polly's expense.  No, this is an uncomplicated tale (despite all the treachery on display thus far), and there's nothing wrong with that.  It makes for entertaining listening at the very least.

March 5: The War Machines Episode 4 / Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

(The War Machines episode 4 & the second Peter Cushing film)

On to the fourth and final episode, and I haven't even mentioned the special title graphics for this story, in that 60s "computer" font that denoted futuristic.  It's certainly different, the way the titles show up, one syllable at a time, on their own title card (as opposed to superimposed over the action, as has usually been the case in Doctor Who); it's as if, now that they've decided each serial gets its own title and they don't have individual episode names anymore, they have to do something different to make up for it.  Or it could be the new production team trying things out to put their own stamp on the show.

And one other thing to note (just to jump ahead slightly): the use of real BBC newsreaders (albeit not quite in their normal roles) helps sell the immediacy of this story, as we see a few random citizens' reactions to the news -- showing the threat isn't just isolated to a small area.  It's a nice little tactic that hasn't been used in Doctor Who before, but which adds some verisimilitude.

The Doctor examines the captured War Machine. (The War
Machines Episode 4) ©BBC

But the action continues as the Doctor stares down the oncoming War Machine, which decides not to attack him -- apparently because its programming is incomplete.  "This is a computer, and this computer hasn't been completely programmed," the Doctor tells the Minister (presumably of Defence).  "Can you make that a little clearer, Doctor?" the Minister asks, baffled.  Yes, clearly things have moved on since 1966.  Oh, and while we're here, as Toby Hadoke rightly points out in Running Through Corridors, it's not the case that the Doctor's cloak knocks off the end of the War Machine's gun; it's the Doctor's key that falls out of his cloak, and Ben reaches down to pick it up and starts to give it to him before deciding he'll do it later (which is why he has a key at the end of the episode).

And this is really Ben's chance to shine, isn't it?  He helps the Doctor trap the War Machine by running the cable that traps it, he goes up to the GPO Tower to rescue Polly before the converted War Machine attacks, and he generally gets to act heroic while still aiding the Doctor.  Michael Craze won't have a chance to be quite as good on Doctor Who again.

The action concludes when the Doctor, having reprogrammed the captured War Machine, sends it off to the GPO Tower to destroy WOTAN (presumably people can't do that because WOTAN would just hypnotize them).  There's an amazing shot where we see the top part of a War Machine as a back projection moves swiftly behind it -- it looks like it's taking a fun jaunt down the streets of London.  But the War Machine arrives at the top of the GPO Tower and smashes WOTAN, ending the threat.

It's not the most perfect story ever, but The War Machines is trying something different, setting its story in the present day and in a recognizable city.  It's occasionally awkward, but there's a charm and style to it -- certainly Michael Ferguson's direction is quite dynamic, shooting at different angles and often through bits of foreground scenery, which helps things no end.  But we also get to see Hartnell in charge of the authorities in a way we've never seen before.  He's helped out leaders and such previously, but he's never had such a commanding role before.  Here he's less an advisor and more a leader, and it's interesting to see how comfortably Hartnell-as-the-Doctor slips into said role.  The War Machines is really something quite special, presenting as it does a new way of doing Doctor Who.

But then that's been the remit of season 3 in a nutshell.  Season 2 was about seeing how far they could go.  Season 3 has been about expanding the boundaries of the show even further, but in different ways.  Season 2 experimented with different styles, increased humor, and more ambition, whereas season 3 has tried for different experiments that it (largely) pulls off.  We get a 12-part Dalek epic, but one that's played deadly straight, and any humor introduced comes naturally (and here I'm thinking of the Meddling Monk) rather than grafted onto the story.  We've had a story in the unbelievably far future, an historical tragedy with some doppelgänger action thrown in, a somewhat surreal tale with weirdly different tones from moment to moment...we've even had a comedy Western thrown in!  Season 3 showed us a new take on Doctor Who, with two new production teams, and it demonstrated that there's still plenty of life left in the format.

The Dalek saucer in London. (Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)
©AARU Productions

And now, just as there was a special event between seasons 2 and 3, the break between seasons 3 and 4 saw a second Doctor Who movie: this one based on The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  But where Dr. Who and the Daleks saw a very faithful (one might say too faithful) adaption of the first Dalek serial, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. follows the basic plot beats of the second Dalek story without slavishly following every moment.  This means that, while the overall storyline is the same, the film moves much more quickly, cutting parts that aren't needed (for instance, the Slyther is missing entirely, and there's no David Campbell romance -- obviously partly because Susie Who is only 12 years old, but there's no romance with Dr. Who's niece Louise either) and streamlining other parts.  And here we note that David Whitaker received an "additional material" credit: one wonders how much influence he had on the scripts.

So the fact that the source material has been treated a little more loosely is actually a strength for this movie.  It means that we don't spend time retreading old ground (admittedly, not as much of a problem back when these movies were initially released and the original episodes couldn't be reseen) but instead getting to the action.  Roy Castle, who played Ian in the first movie, is gone; in his place is Police Constable Tom Campbell, as played by Bernard Cribbins.  This is an improvement; no disrespect to Roy Castle, but he always seemed slightly ill at ease in Dr. Who and the Daleks.  Bernard Cribbins, meanwhile, is immediately at home in his role, playing both action and comedy with such a sympathetic bent that you can't help but cheer him on.  And Jennie Linden's Barbara is also absent, so in her place we get Jill Curzon's Louise, who gets just about as much to do as Barbara had in the first one (which is to say, not much).  But Roberta Tovey's back as Susan, albeit a less irritating version, which is also welcome.  (And side note to say that it's probably not Tovey's fault, but Susan has quite appalling grammar: the note she leaves includes the phrase, "We heading for Watford.")

Brockley (Philip Madoc) betrays Dr. Who to the Daleks.
(Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) ©AARU Productions

But once again it's Peter Cushing's performance as Dr. Who which steals the show.  Sadly, he's not present quite as much as in the last movie, but he lights up the screen with his portrayal.  He's just as curious and energetic as before, and he's a delight to watch.

And of course the supporting cast is also well chosen.  Ray Brooks as David and Andrew Keir as Wyler are both marvelous, with Keir just getting the edge as a gruff freedom fighter who's nevertheless charged with protecting a young girl.  He pulls it off with aplomb.  Godfrey Quigley's Dortmun also gets some nice moments, and his death attempting to bury the Daleks under a ton of rubble is at least more heroic-looking than his TV counterpart's demise.

But it's the collaborators who steal the show.  You really learn to dislike Eileen Way and Sheila Steafel as the two who betray Wyler and Susan to the Daleks in exchange for a bit more food; Steafel in particular looks wonderfully underhanded and devious in her scenes.  But the one who really wins the award is Philip Madoc as the black marketeer Brockley.  He has such an air of self-interest about him, calculating and cold, that even when he's helping our heroes (for payment, naturally) you can't help but love to hate him.  His final fate inside a shack destroyed by Daleks is a great moment.

Dr. Who, Wyler, and Susan in the Dalek control centre.
(Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) ©AARU Productions

So the story is good, the cast is excellent, and the design is also great.  One of the places where The Dalek Invasion of Earth was let down was in its rather cheap-looking design: they tried, they really did, but in a lot of cases they couldn't quite stretch the resources to achieve what they needed.  No such problem here.  The Dalek saucer is really a spectacular design well realized, but it's not just the saucer: the Robomen uniforms are really great (perhaps losing a bit of that "zombie-fied" look that the originals had, but the images of secret police that these Robomen conjure up more than make up the difference), and the interior of Tardis also appears to have had an upgrade.  There are less loose wires hanging about and odd bits of technology scattered about haphazardly, in favor of computer banks and more sophisticated equipment.

As you've no doubt worked out, this is a movie with a lot to love.  The kinks present in the first film have been ironed out, and this stands as an exciting adaptation of a story that wasn't itself nearly as successful (or as much fun) as this is.  Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. would prove to be the final Peter Cushing film, but at least Dr. Who went out on a high note.

(Oh, and the final tag scene, with Tom arriving back in contemporary London just before he left, so that he can apprehend the criminals he was chasing at the beginning of the film, is wonderfully charming.)