Doctor Who (TV Series) The Power of the Daleks: Episode One (1966) User Reviews

New Doctor...Old Enemies...Classic Who

[timdalton007 · 9/10 · 26 November 2008]

(Note: This Is A Review Of All Six Episodes Of The Story.)

Imagine the following for a moment would you?

It is November 5th, 1966 and you have just tuned into the BBC's successful series Doctor Who. William Hartnell, who has played the role of the mysterious time traveling alien known as the Doctor since November 1963, has just vanished in a glow of light and Patrick Troughton appears as the second actor to play the Doctor. Over the next few weeks this new Doctor and his companions (Ben and Polly played by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills) find themselves on the Earth colony Vulcan facing off against the Doctor's oldest enemy the Daleks in the midst of political intrigue. Sounds like a great story to watch right?

Well because of BBC policy in the 1970's Power of the Daleks no longer exists in its visual form. The good news is that thanks to fans with tape recorders, telesnaps, publicity images and a few clips of surviving footage used in other BBC programs that it is possible to judge (somewhat) The Power of the Daleks.

Power of the Daleks is easily one of the strongest Doctor Who stories of the 1960's. On the distant Earth colony Vulcan where a scientist named Lesterson (played expertly by Robert James) finds a space craft. Upon opening it he discovers three Daleks inside and, against the Doctor's advice, brings back to life with hopes for them becoming servants for the colony. The Daleks promise to be servants, but soon begin using materials and power to begin creating an army. Meanwhile the political intrigue heats up and the Daleks go from benevolent to malevolent as first they fight for the rebels and then against everyone. Only the Doctor can hope to defeat the Daleks before the complete destruction of the colony.

Judging from all the existing material this story is first rate. The story is a well-performed and well produced piece of science fiction drama with terrific performances from the cast. The story is at its heart a political thriller with two factions vying for control of the colony with the Doctor and the Daleks landing in the middle and making matters worse. In fact this is one of the Daleks most menacing stories with them rallying to phrases "Annihilate! Exterminate! Destroy!" and "Daleks conquer and destroy!" while pretending to the servants of the humans on Vulcan.

In short, Power of the Daleks is classic Doctor Who. From its political thriller heart to classic moments with the new Doctor facing his oldest enemy, this story is one of the strongest stories of the Troughton era even if it is his first story. It is shame that this story has become lost because it is one of the strongest Doctor Who stories of the 1960's.

Superb story with brilliantly devious Daleks and establishing Troughton as the new Doctor

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 21 August 2014]

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.

Great start to a brilliant, game changer of an episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 11 November 2015]

After the recent events with the Cybermen something big has happened to the Doctor, he's transformed into another man. Ben and Polly struggle to believe what's happened. The TARDIS lands on the planet Vulcan, a man is shot dead by an unknown assailant, turns out to be an Earth Inspector, a role which The Doctor assumes. Vulcan is full of conspiracies, lots of plotting and pressure groups. Worse though is the presence of a Space Craft buried on the planet, which contains Daleks.

It's a wonderful start to the opening episode, the sequences at the beginning would become part of the show's everyday culture. I can only imagine what the show's fans made on The Doctor's regeneration, today we accept and sometimes look forward to the Doctor's transformation, but back then it was a more then brave decision to change the lead actor on a show, it was a huge gamble, one that very much paid off. It could have been a disaster, but the brilliance of Patrick Troughton, well, it was never really in doubt.

Great use of music on the episode, it helps add to the wonderful atmosphere which the episode has.

Pat is wonderfully madcap in his earlier episodes, he did mellow quite a lot as his time went on, but he was a bundle of energy and fun from the very first.

Absolutely brilliant episode, you could not ask for more (only for it to appear!) 10/10

"We are not ready yet, to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!"

[wetmars · 10/10 · 12 October 2020]

Following the Doctor's regeneration into a new, younger body, the TARDIS lands at an Earth colony on the planet Vulcan in the far future. Mistaken for an official Earth Examiner, the Doctor discovers that a scientist called Lesterson is attempting to reactivate three inanimate Daleks found in a crashed space rocket. The colonists refuse to heed the Doctor's dire warnings that the Daleks are dangerous. Once reactivated, the Daleks begin performing duties around the colony and so a rebel group plot to use these new "servants" to help them gain power. But in fact, the Daleks have sinister plans of their own...

Review of all six parts -

Yet, another great example of how a small group of Daleks can be that deadly. The Daleks were so terrifying in this story, the way they move their pupils and even that scene when that Dalek said: "We are not ready yet, to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!" that made me very uncomfortable and afraid.

I wonder how upset the audience was and what they said, they probably said "Where's Hartnell?! He's my Doctor! That hobo is not my Doctor!" Well, it's a common thing about regeneration, you begin to hate the newly-regenerated Doctor but as time goes, you begin to love the Doctor, if you know what I mean.

Some interesting things that I didn't know about this story were that Terry Nation said that he disliked this story because he felt that the Daleks were too sweet and nice.

This story had many great memorable scenes like where the Doctor just recently "renewed" into a younger man, the "Come in and meet the Daleks" scene, I am your servant scene, the new race of Daleks scene, the "EXTERMINATE!!! AHHHH, EX-TER-MIN-NATE..." scene, the "DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!!!" scene where all Daleks were being destroyed, and many more.

The theme was creepy as hell in this one, yet so atmospheric and fitted the story well, such an incredible piece of music.

The other characters were memorable as well, the acting made this story seem so real. The story had a plodding pace and builds up tension as the story continues, just one of the best Dalek stories ever. Great cliffhangers that are chilling, too bad that this story is missing.

Brilliant story. Troughton did a wonderful job as playing the Second Doctor. Loved watching this classic.

10/10.

power of the daleks

[hdalektyson · 10/10 · 15 August 2019]

It was far from being all over William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton I found this funny, imaginative and exciting I love Patrick Troughton, my nanna watched this when it first bradcast its a shame the episode is missing but has been regenerated with animation and doesn't feel different from a normal 60s doctor who episode I thank david whittaker for this

Exists in a surprisingly effective animated form

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 4 June 2017]

THE POWER OF DALEKS is a six-part DR WHO serial and Patrick Troughton's first as the newly-regenerated Doctor. Unfortunately, in their infinite wisdom the BBC decided to wipe the master tapes, but the good news is that the serial is now once again available thanks to an animated version that accompanies the original audio. The animation is basic and somewhat crude, but it works and that's the main thing. In terms of the narrative, it's one of the stronger Troughton stories I've seen, one that takes a while to get going in the first half but which becomes really effective in the second. The Daleks are a fine and imposing presence and the last episode in particular does really well in depicting a running battle between the humans and their foe, handled in a convincing and exciting manner.