Production Code: LL
First Transmitted
1 - 20/05/1967 18:00
2 - 27/05/1967 17:50
3 - 03/06/1967 17:45
4 - 10/06/1967 17:45
5 - 17/06/1967 17:45
6 - 24/06/1967 17:45
7 - 01/07/1967 18:25
Plot
The TARDIS has been stolen by antiques dealer Edward Waterfield, who lures the Doctor and Jamie into a trap. They are transported back to Waterfield's own time, 1867, where his daughter Victoria is being held hostage by the Daleks to ensure his cooperation.
The Daleks force the Doctor to monitor Jamie's performance of a test - the rescue of Victoria - with the supposed intention of identifying the human factor: the special quality possessed by humans that enables them always to defeat the Daleks. The Doctor, having succeeded in this task, implants the human factor into three test Daleks - with the result that they become friendly and playful!
Everyone is transported back to Skaro where the Doctor discovers that the Daleks' true aim has been to isolate the Dalek factor - the impulse to destroy - and implant it into humans. The Emperor Dalek informs him that his TARDIS will be used to spread the Dalek factor throughout all time.
By a ruse, however, the Doctor is able to infuse many more Daleks with the human factor. A civil war breaks out between the two Dalek factions and they are apparently all destroyed. As Waterfield has been killed during the course of the action, the Doctor offers Victoria a place aboard the TARDIS.
Episode Endings
Waterfield's henchman Kennedy, absorbed in rifling his boss's secret safe, fails to notice as a Dalek materialises behind him. He turns and stares in horror as the Dalek grates 'Who are you?' and demands that he answer.
Two Daleks wait for the test on Jamie to begin. One intones that the humans have been warned that any delay will result in their death. Unaware that Jamie is currently missing, the other replies: 'There will be no delay!'
Jamie makes his way cautiously through the booby-trapped corridors of the house. Suddenly a figure looms out of the darkness ahead of him. He calls out, asking who is there. The burly Turk Kemel prepares to attack him...
Jamie and Kemel reach Victoria's room. Jamie bangs on her door to bring her out. Suddenly a door opens behind them, and a Dalek emerges...
Jamie looks on in bemusement as the humanised Daleks play a game of 'trains' with the Doctor, who rides around on the back of one of them...
An alcove is illuminated, revealing the captured TARDIS. The Emperor Dalek announces that the Doctor will 'take the Dalek factor and spread it through the entire history of Earth'.
The Doctor looks down at the Dalek city and mutters 'The final end'. The city is in ruins, with exterminated Daleks all around. One Dalek, however, is still alive...
Roots
Hammer films.
Sherlock Holmes (especially 'The Norwood Builder').
Poe ('The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar').
Alice Through the Looking Glass.
The Beatles' Paperback Writer and other records from July 1966.
Dr Faustus.
Dialogue Triumphs
Dalek : "There is only one form of life that matters - Dalek life!"
Jamie : [To the Doctor] "Anyone would think that it's a little game, and it's not. People have died. The Daleks are all over, fit to murder the lot of us, and all you can say is that you've had a good night's work. Well, I'm telling you this, we're finished. You're just too callous for me. Anything goes by the board, anything at all. You don't give that much for a living soul except yourself. Just whose side are you on?"
Dalek Emperor : "So you are the Doctor."
The Doctor : "We meet at last. I wondered if we ever would."
Dalek Emperor : "The experiment is over?"
The Doctor : "Yes. I have implanted the human factor in the three Daleks that you gave me. [To Waterfield and Jamie.] When I say "run", run."
Dalek Emperor : "Speak louder!"
The Doctor : "I was merely telling my friend that the day of the Daleks is coming to an end."
Dalek Emperor : "Explain."
The Doctor : "It's very simple. Somewhere in the Dalek race there are three Daleks with the human factor. Gradually they will come to question. They will persuade other Daleks to question. You will have a rebellion on your planet."
Dalek Emperor : "No!"
The Doctor : "I say yes! I've beaten you, and I don't care what you do to me now."
The Doctor : [In reflective mood] "I am not a student of human nature.. I am a professor of a much wider academy of which human nature is merely a part."
Dialogue Disasters
Dalek : "You will not feed the flying pests outside."
Maxtible : "Everything you see here was created by us two."
Double Entendre
Molly : "I do know what it's like with soldiers..."
Continuity
The Daleks in this story are controlled by an Emperor, and the Dalek 'group mind' cannot cope with questions to orders.
The Doctor, who normally doesn't carry money, is able to hire a taxi to follow Bob Hall. He pushes a Dalek over a cliff in episode seven. The Daleks seem to measure weight in ounces and state that travelling in time has made the Doctor 'more than human' [the Daleks clearly do not know of the Time Lords at this point, and have encountered physiological problems when time travelling (see The Two Doctors)]. He seems to believe that the Daleks can destroy the TARDIS. (Cf The Krotons)
QV
The First History of the Daleks
Location
London, 20 July 1966 and 2 June 1866 onwards.
Skaro.
Untelevised
The Doctor gives Jamie a little lecture on the Crimean war, and states that he watched the Charge of the Light Brigade ('magnificent folly').
Trivia
The Beatles' 'Paperback Writer' and the Seekers' 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen' are used as background music on the juke box in the coffee bar scenes in the first episode.
The theme given to the Daleks by Dudley Simpson in his incidental music was based on the series' own signature tune.
Patrick Troughton and Deborah Watling appear only in film inserts in the fourth episode as they were on holiday during the week when it was recorded.
Sound effects from The Mutants (a.k.a. The Daleks) and The Daleks' Master Plan are reused for the Dalek city.
Some Louis Marx 'tricky action' toy Daleks are used in modelwork for the scenes of the destruction of the Dalek city.
The first individual visual effects designer credits ever given on the series appears, for Michealjohn Harris and Peter Day. Previously, visual effects had been handled by the series' scenic designers rather than by the BBC's Visual Effects Department, although the Department as a whole did receive a credit on the first story, 100,000 BC (a.k.a An Unearthly Child).
Michealjohn Harris is the person whose name is most often misspelt on Doctor Who's closing credits.
Goofs
In episode two, part of a camera appears as the Dalek questions Victoria.
The massed Daleks of the final battle are obviously toys.
Why not just kidnap the Doctor and Jamie?
Why does Terrall get Toby to kidnap Jamie?
Since Jamie is so essential to Dalek plans, why are the traps set for him so lethal?
How do they know he's the Doctor's companion anyway?
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Victoria - Deborah Watling from Episode two
Arthur Terrall - Gary Watson
Bob Hall - Alec Ross
Dalek - Robert Jewell
Dalek - Gerald Taylor
Dalek - John Scott Martin
Dalek - Murphy Grumbar
Dalek - Ken Tyllsen
Dalek Voice - Roy Skelton
Dalek Voice - Peter Hawkins
Edward Waterfield - John Bailey
Kemel - Sonny Caldinez
Kennedy - Griffith Davies
Mollie Dawson - Jo Rowbottom
Perry - Geoffrey Colville
Ruth Maxtible - Brigit Forsyth
Theodore Maxtible - Marius Goring
Toby - Windsor Davies
Crew
Director - Derek Martinus
The Evil of the Daleks