Review of all 6 episodes:
This 6 part story is the first with Patrick Troughton following the Doctor's first regeneration. If Troughton had failed to work as the Doctor the series would have died so he really is of as much importance in establishing Doctor Who as William Hartnell. The characterisation is interesting to say the least and flirts with disaster in many ways. To make the Doctor SO incredibly different to Hartnell's Doctor that preceded him was astonishing in its bravery. He is a scruffy, strange acting, clownish figure who plays the recorder to 'help him concentrate'! At the start of the story they even have him behaving extremely evasively and mysteriously, making it even harder to cope with the change in lead actor. Nowadays we are more used to coping with huge changes in the Doctor's behaviour after regeneration and it still is difficult so to imagine viewers at the time being thrust into this change so dramatically is mind boggling.
I think what really makes it work are two things. Firstly Troughton's quality which comes through as he begins to establish himself later in the adventure, but this is slow to have an impact. The second is the truly excellent quality story from David Whitaker featuring Daleks which are at their very best.
The adventure is thrilling as the Daleks pretend to be harmless servants to unsuspecting human colonists whilst secretly creating a huge production line of Daleks to conquer and EXTERMINATE the humans. This story has certainly been very influential to Doctor Who since its return in 2005.
The whole story is top quality with strong performances and continuity provided by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as companions Ben and Polly, really good human guest characters such as Lesterson (Robert James), great dialogue and brilliant Daleks which are the best yet with better voice performances than earlier stories and devious, threatening plans.
Great stuff! All 6 episodes 10/10.
This 6 part story is the first with Patrick Troughton following the Doctor's first regeneration. If Troughton had failed to work as the Doctor the series would have died so he really is of as much importance in establishing Doctor Who as William Hartnell. The characterisation is interesting to say the least and flirts with disaster in many ways. To make the Doctor SO incredibly different to Hartnell's Doctor that preceded him was astonishing in its bravery. He is a scruffy, strange acting, clownish figure who plays the recorder to 'help him concentrate'! At the start of the story they even have him behaving extremely evasively and mysteriously, making it even harder to cope with the change in lead actor. Nowadays we are more used to coping with huge changes in the Doctor's behaviour after regeneration and it still is difficult so to imagine viewers at the time being thrust into this change so dramatically is mind boggling.
I think what really makes it work are two things. Firstly Troughton's quality which comes through as he begins to establish himself later in the adventure, but this is slow to have an impact. The second is the truly excellent quality story from David Whitaker featuring Daleks which are at their very best.
The adventure is thrilling as the Daleks pretend to be harmless servants to unsuspecting human colonists whilst secretly creating a huge production line of Daleks to conquer and EXTERMINATE the humans. This story has certainly been very influential to Doctor Who since its return in 2005.
The whole story is top quality with strong performances and continuity provided by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as companions Ben and Polly, really good human guest characters such as Lesterson (Robert James), great dialogue and brilliant Daleks which are the best yet with better voice performances than earlier stories and devious, threatening plans.
Great stuff! All 6 episodes 10/10.