1.16: The Chase
In which something that looks stupid in isolation looks glorious in context, and we say goodbye to Ian and Barbara.
Broadcast: May-June 1965
Watched: July 2019
1. The Executioners
Something weird has happened. I was going to watch other stuff after this one, or read or something, but... I think I want to keep watching 1960s Doctor Who? This’ll be the fifth episode running. This has not happened on this journey before.
Anyway. Always remembered this story as boring, but I loved that too. The time-space visualiser is inherently silly in a series with actual time travel – instead of going places let’s just watch them from the safety of the TARDIS! – but the things they do with it are loads of fun. I adore the fact that, in 1965, the idea of the Beatles being remembered centuries later and having museums in their honour is a joke, but now it’s entirely plausible. Also, it’s weirdly pleasing to get the Beatles popping up in Doctor Who.
The sense that the regulars are on holiday is also kind of nice. Vicki wandering round the TARDIS making a nuisance of herself, Ian reading a silly book, the Doctor and Barbara having a sunbathe…
The coincidence that the visualiser just happens to tune into the BeatlesDaleks (though my typo would be a fun story) plotting against the TARDIS crew is stupid, but no more stupid than the TARDIS’ tendency to seek out trouble I guess.
The cliffhanger with the Dalek rising out of the sand is great too. Good run of cliffhangers this, isn’t it?
2. The Death of Time
The thought occurs that The Chase is structurally a cross between The Daleks and Marinus, isn’t? It’s also another subtle shift in the nature of Doctor Who: for the first time he has enemies who might want to destroy him. It’s the first step on the road that eventually takes us to Madame Kovarian.
The fact Daleks are now something you taunt until they fall into a hole also feels like a shift.
Some of the acting from the Aridians [weird fish people - ed.] is a bit meh, but they’re a more interesting concept than the Thals at least. Although one definitely drops dead before the Dalek exterminates them. Love the Dalek with a compass, btw.
This time it’s the Doctor who knows they’re in a Doctor Who story and is totally unconcerned about the possibility Ian might be dead.
When Ian asks for Barbara’s cardigan, her delivery of the line, “Oh no not again” is hilarious.
What the hell happens in the scene where she falls into a wall, which collapses, and then a giant scrotum eats some stuff is sadly unclear.
3. Flight Through Eternity
The chase-through-the-vortex music is quite comic, considering this is meant to be a race to the DEATH.
The NYC sequence is very weird. The tour guide gets distracted by someone’s tits and at one point someone just shoves someone else out of the way. Peter Purves is not good, exactly, but he is also not recognisable as the guy who’ll be Steven Taylor in a couple of weeks’ time, which bodes well.
Vicki knocks two men unconscious. Vicki is a psychopath. Also the crew of the Marie Celeste are wusses.
The punchline in that sequence is the same as the end of The Girl in the Fireplace. Moffat is quite influenced by Hartnell isn’t he?
4. Journey Into Terror
Sort of strange that they split the comedy subplots across two episodes. Not bored yet though, so.
Why does the Doctor think they need to face the Daleks? Why can they not just hide in the TARDIS?
Are they reusing the set from Marinus in the haunted house?
The Doctor’s theory that they’ve landed in the collective unconscious is completely stupid except this is Doctor Who so entirely plausible. The regulars’ spooky acting is getting on my nerves, though.
Vicki being left behind is actually quite unnerving.
The sign reading “Festival of Ghana cancelled by Peking” is bordering on prescient.
“The vegetation!” “As though it were alive!” Plants are alive, Ian, what kind of science teacher are you?
The bit where the Daleks reveal their android Doctor and announce “It is impossible to distinguish from the original” is funny, because it’s not, remotely, it looks nothing like him. Oh wait the close up is Hartnell, what’s that about?
5. The Death of Doctor Who
The scary plants are not very scary. Barbara waving a gun and making gun noises is a bit scary. She absolutely refuses to believe Ian is dead, though. She’s been doing this a while now.
The robot thing... really doesn’t last long does it? Just over half an episode. They could have got more out of that.
Christ I’d forgotten the Mechanoids.
6. The Planet of Decision
Blimey. Loads to say about this one.
Purves is instantly likeable as Steven – it’s mostly in the performance, but also I think the fact he goes back to rescue his teddy bear. There’s not much to him, but you want to be his friend. I’d forgotten we saw him escape the city: in my memory he just vanished and then reappeared later in the TARDIS.
The moment where they lower Vicki over the edge of a skyscraper while she screams is the most upsetting thing we’ve seen yet, I think. There’s a proper “dentist pulling a tooth out without anaesthetic for your own good” vibe about it.
The model work is lots of fun even if the battle scene is incomprehensible. The fact the mechanoids are just malfunctioning, rather than evil, is another Moffat-ism, isn’t it? So many of his tics seem to come from 1965 specifically.
Ian and Barbara’s departure is just *perfect*. The moment she said she wanted to go home I felt genuinely emotional. The Doctor using anger to disguise the fact he will miss them, refusing to watch the Dalek time machine take off, Vicki winning him round. The shots of them in London are brilliant too, especially Ian looking surprised by a police box. And then it ends with the Doctor and Vicki watching them on television.
It’s just magnificent, and this was a fun story to send them off.
So – why did I remember it/why does it have the reputation of a load of old crap? My theory is that it works far better as a chunk of ongoing Dr Who than it does as a standalone. Watch it on its own and it’s a weirdly structured mess with a long comedy interlude (the actual chase) between two dramatic bits (Aridius and Mechanus). Watched as part of the whole, it’s sort of a tour of Doctor Who genres, and the weird structure doesn’t matter. Plus you’re properly invested, so the departure it ends on is an emotional bit given due weight, not a slightly odd add-on after the story has finished.
Anyway. I really, really enjoyed both the last couple. Season 2 has been a complete revelation.
The really incomprehensible thing about the robot Doctor episode is that it would have been perfectly possible to have the robot played by Hartnell himself (except for the fight scene, where you could use a double but not show his face). Indeed, one scene is even written specifically so as to allow time for Hartnell to go off screen, nip round the back and reappear as the robot. But the director just... casts someone who looks nothing like Hartnell to play the robot duplicate.
Moffat was 3 and a half when this was shown, which might suggest he was influenced by seeing it later or, possibly, that he was extremely precocious. The memory and subconscious can do strange things. I certainly must have seen "Who" when I was 3, but I do remember suggesting that the the Wendy house at play school could be the TARDIS, when I was nearly 5...