The Daleks can always be relied upon for a dismal nefarious plot, can't they? I watched this particular episode over a period of three days and it was difficult to get through, so I can't imagine watching this over a period of 12 weeks. That's approximately three months of the same plot. The other thing that made this eye stabbing was that it was mostly recons. Only three of the twelve chapters exist. That's just appalling for people like me who hates slow plots and bad recons put together.
Several traumatic events took place during this episode, including the loss of Katarina out an airlock, and the nasty death of Sara Kingdom. There are all sorts of arguments about whether or not these two were companions. My feeling is that if the companions are in more than one series that makes them companions. That makes Katarina a companion and Sara not. That's just me, though.
This is a continuation of the Mission to the Unknown episode, two series back. Apparently we just needed to see four weeks of the Mindless Myth Makers before we got on with the evil Dalek plotline. I don't know what these people are thinking. If you remember what happened in Mission to the Unknown, three explorers stumble upon a secret place where the Daleks are carrying on with their nefarious plan to destroy the world, on an inhospitable planet called Kembel. The three explorers are murdered by the Daleks, but not before the rescue beacon is placed, and they make a recording of what is going to happen.
In the Daleks' Master plan, Bret Vyon comes to respond to the rescue beacon at the same time the Doctor and his companions land on the planet. Steven is wounded [no surprise there], so after a really long "Should I trust you?" escapade, Bret persuades the Doctor to go with him to planet Earth to warn everyone of the Daleks' plan, in exchange for healing Steven. If I was the Doctor and had known that there was going to be eleven more chapters of this, I would have said, "HECK NO, LET HIM DIE" and ran away like a bat out of hell.
The alliance that the Daleks have with the evil people includes Mavic Chen, Guardian of Earth. Sounds like a really bad Marvel comic name, doesn't it? And did Mommy never teach you how to hold your pencil?
Mavic Chen has Taranium, which is needed to complete the Daleks' most evil weapon, called The Time Destructor. Heh heh. Really, that's the name you came up with, Terry Nation? I'm guessing it's somehow going to destroy time. That's just a guess, though.
They really seemed to like the guy with the leeches on his face. He had a lot of lines.
Or do you prefer Bubbles? He likes to hiss in between his words.
The Doctor captures one of the evil delegates [I call him Evil Scarecrow] and disguises himself so that he can steal the Taranium. Clever, eh?
The Doctor and the three escape on one of Chen's ships. They can't take the TARDIS, as the Doctor has no control when and where it will land. The next chapter is completely unnecessary, though and irritated me to no end. The Daleks, in hot pursuit, cause the stolen ship to land on a planet where prisoners have been exiled. They have to fix the ship to get it to fly again.
Meanwhile a prisoner gets on board, grabs Katarina, and orders them to head to a different planet other than Earth. He drags Katarina into an air lock to get them to change course, but to the dismay of the prisoner, Katarina pushes the airlock release button, sacrificing her life for planet Earth. NOT THE BIG RED BUTTON! Awesome.
Awesome on so many levels because we lose the most boring companion I have ever met. We get the little juicy tidbit of seeing her body float around space. That's to traumatize all the small children watching the show. Oh Doctor Who, you amuse me so.
The Doctor and Steven take a moment to talk about Katarina a little bit, how dull she was, how nobody liked her and how great she looked as she shot out the airlock....oh I guess that was me reminiscing. Steven is particularly upset about it. I think he was in love with her. I shouldn't be so horrible about her because she was barely in it, but mostly she sat around literally staring into space as everything happened around her. She barely had any lines, and most of those were murmured, quiet exclamations about how she couldn't believe where she was.
Once they are on Earth, we get to meet Sara Kingdom. She's awesome because she kills her brother right away without blinking an eye. Wait, he was your brother? Don't you need some kind of therapy? After some really boring stuff, ultimately the Doctor makes a fake Taranium core [how does he do this] that he hands to the Daleks. The Daleks are tricked and the Doctor escapes from the planet. Goodbye dead Bret, but in case we missed you, we get to see you back as the famous brigadier. Now we get to have feisty, curt, she-male Sara running around with the Doctor and Steven. And Steven really wants to be her man.
Now we get to have an interlude so to speak. This was a strange one. It was a Christmas special, not unlike the ones we have with the new Doctor. As they are hiding from the Daleks, the TARDIS first lands near a police station, and we experience a few comedic moments with the police in something like the Andy Griffith show, before they leave again. This time they land in America, in a silent film set. We get a brief glimpse of Charlie Chaplin, too. This was a very strange 25 minutes, compared to the last six chapters of the Daleks running around hell bent on burning the TARDIS to the ground and gouging out the Doctor's eyes. We're supposed to chortle merrily as we lick our candy canes and sip our eggnog. That crazy Doctor! We also get a very strange moment, as the Doctor turns to the camera and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. Wait, is the Doctor talking to ME? It's finally happened! The television is talking to me. I need a doctor!!!
Anyway, I thought the last five episodes went a lot better. Not that I was exactly refreshed from the Christmas episode, but it was nice to think about something else for a few minutes. This gets way better because we get to meet the Time Meddler monk again! Hooray! I did really like the Time Meddler, and I'm happy that he is back. He's nursing a grudge after being stranded with the Vikings for so long, so he tries to get a bit of revenge. Why's he still dressed as a monk?
But his plan to sabotage the TARDIS doesn't work [oh that Doctor is a clever one] and the Doctor takes off, this time landing in ancient Egypt. Nooooo, not ancient Egypt, my most favorite time in all history......This is my worse nightmare come true. Fortunately they don't really meet any famous ancient Egyptians, but the Daleks have caught up with him, and they end up slaying a lot of the Egyptian slaves in the process. Terrific. Not.
But this time the Doctor is forced to hand over the real Taranium. Now he really does have to save planet Earth, much to our disgust. He steals the directional control from the Monk's TARDIS, which is weird 'cause why doesn't the Doctor have one for his own ship? He steers the TARDIS back to the planet Kembel to destroy the Daleks once and for all.
Unfortunately this leaves the Monk with no way to control how his TARDIS travels through time. Again we are left with the Monk shaking his fist in the air and yelling obscenities at the sky. Well they bleeped those out. No wonder the Doctor has no friends! Merry Christmas Time Meddler!
Meanwhile, the Daleks have turned against their evil allies, and imprison them all, including Chen. Chen gets into a huge huff about it, and starts proclaiming things with his pinkie in the air. What is with that pinkie?
Evil Chen tricks them into thinking that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the Daleks, even faking his own death. Surprisingly Chen is a little off his rocker. Actually he seems to have gone quite insane. He's so weird that even the Daleks can't take him anymore. And for the Daleks to think he is insane, well.....so they kill him. And they don't care. Kudos to the #1 aliens with zero remorse.
The Doctor steals the Time Destructor, and his only solution is to activate it on their planet before it gets to Earth. Wow. I think Matt Smith would have just deactivated it with his screwdriver, but to each his own. Naturally once the Time Destructor is activated, time passes forward very quickly. Sara and the Doctor attempt to make it back to the TARDIS and then we get this really, really dreadful scene in which Sara ages and turns into a frightening skeleton and finally turns to dust. Yes, dust. Keep watching, little children. The Doctor starts growing cobwebs, and he falls over, but the TARDIS is protecting Steven who is inside. Steven runs out and helps the Doctor into the TARDIS, which restores them to their current age. How does it do that?
By now the Daleks are rethinking the actual use of the Time Destructor and they attempt to blow it up with their little ray guns, but it doesn't work. They too are destroyed, as is the entire jungle planet that we've seen five thousand times before, as the Time Destructor runs itself out. Steven has some sort of traumatic remembering as he thinks about the death of his friends, particularly Sara. It's just not been a good day for anyone.
In the end I think Terry Nation went really went crazy with his plot line. TWELVE weeks of this story? I had kind of forgotten the plot line by the fourth chapter, and by the 8th freaking recon, I couldn't remember anything before the Christmas interlude. So why did you do that to us, Doctor Who? A Dalek epic? And I'm heartily sick of the Daleks. I don't want their name mentioned ever again.
Next up: The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve [Ye gods.]
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