Production Code: 6P
First Transmitted
1 - 08/02/1984 18:50
2 - 15/02/1984 18:45
Plot
The TARDIS becomes caught in a time corridor but the Doctor manages to free it and it then materialises in present day London within sight of Tower Bridge. Investigating some nearby warehouses, the travellers stumble into a trap that the Daleks have set for them.
The Daleks also attack a space station orbiting Earth in the future. Their aim is to rescue their creator, Davros, who has been held there in suspended animation since his capture by humanity. They want him to help them find an antidote to an anti-Dalek virus created by the Movellans.
In addition, the Daleks have constructed android duplicates and installed some of them in key positions of authority on Earth. They now intend to send duplicates of the Doctor and his companions to Gallifrey in order to assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords.
These plans ultimately fail, however, as one of their duplicate humans, Stien, rebels and destroys the space station. Davros is unable to find a cure for the virus but has an escape pod ready in case of problems.
Commander Lytton, an alien mercenary working for the Daleks, escapes to Earth. Tegan, sickened by all the killing she has seen, decides to remain on her home planet.
Episode Endings
The Doctor and Stien arrive on the Dalek ship in the TARDIS. The Doctor starts to call for Turlough but finds himself held at gunpoint by Stien, who admits that he serves the Daleks and is their agent.
In the aftermath of the climactic battle, Tegan elects not to travel on with the Doctor and runs off in tears. The Doctor and Turlough enter the TARDIS and leave. As the TARDIS dematerialises, Tegan returns. 'Brave heart, Tegan,' she says to herself. 'Doctor, I will miss you.'
Roots
War movies.
Alien.
Star Wars.
Dialogue Triumphs
Davros : "I have waited a long time for this. Once the Doctor is exterminated, I shall build a new race of Daleks. They will be even more deadly and I, Davros, shall be their leader! This time we shall triumph. My Daleks shall once more become the supreme beings!"
Davros : "You hesitate Doctor. If I were you, I would be dead."
The Doctor : "I lack your practice, Davros."
Davros : "You are soft, like all Time Lords. You prefer to stand and watch. Action requires courage. Something you lack."
Tegan : "A lot of good people have died today. I'm sick of it."
The Doctor : "You think I wanted it this way?"
Tegan : "No. It's just I don't think I can go on."
The Doctor : "You want to stay on Earth?"
Tegan : "My aunt Vanessa said, when I became an air stewardess, if you stop enjoying it, give it up."
The Doctor : "Tegan."
Tegan : "It's stopped being fun, Doctor."
Turlough : [On learning that they're going back to the TARDIS] "Best news all day."
Dialogue Disasters
Osborn : "Your bile would be better directed against the enemy, Doctor!"
Continuity
The Doctor handles a gun, killing a Dalek mutant. The Supreme (black) Dalek is in charge of one Dalek faction. [Earth people, having tried Davros, know that Daleks can time travel.] Daleks can also duplicate people without close inspection, the duplicates being conditioned to obey them. The Doctor has fillings in his teeth.
QV
The Second History of the Daleks
Location
1984 docklands, London.
A space station 90 years after Destiny of the Daleks
Future History
Earth in the future has a Constitution, the 25th (or 26th) amendment concerning individual choice.
Links
The flashback sequence in episode two features all the Doctor's companions except Leela.
Trivia
In an impressive opening sequence, two 'fake' policemen wipe out an group of escaping slaves.
Somewhat daft-looking 'Dalek' headgear is worn by Lytton and his troops.
There is another sequence of clips from past stories, as the Doctor's brain waves are drained by the Daleks' replication equipment in Part Two. This features all the past Doctors and companions bar Leela.
Rodney Bewes, well known as one of The Likely Lads in the BBC sitcom and its sequel, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, plays Stien.
Rula Lenska, of Thames TV's Rock Follies fame, plays Styles - a rare example of a relatively major character in a story who never gets to meet the Doctor.
Chloe Ashcroft, better known as a presenter of the BBC's pre-school children's programme Play School, appears here as Professor Laird.
Les Grantham plays Kiston, an engineer taken over by Davros. Grantham went on to star, under his full name Leslie Grantham, as 'Dirty' Den Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Myth
It was due to the success of the double-length episode format of this story that the BBC decided to adopt the same format for the whole of the following season. (It had already been decided before this that season twenty-two would consist of thirteen episodes of approximately forty-five minutes each.
Goofs
Archer's OTT disco death is one of several over-acted moments.
Davros is surprised at the impasse of the Dalek/Movellan war, although he saw it at first hand in Destiny of the Daleks.
Despite having spent his time in suspended animation he has been able to make his mind control device and has learnt enough about Time Lords to deduce that they're 'all soft'.
Since 'mining the corridor' involves only one mine, the gas attack is hardly necessary.
The studio technician operating Davros' lab's sliding door can be silhouetted behind the semi-transparent wall. When the door shuts, he straightens up and goes.
The Dalek in the warehouse is pushed out of an upstairs window, so why does the wreckage turn up again upstairs?
Who are the prisoners who escape at the start? (Duplicates? The originals of duplicates? Why use duplicates as soldiers, rather than to infiltrate?)
If Stien is a Dalek agent, conditioned to trap the Doctor, why does he flee from those sent after him, express such shock at Galloway's death, and fret so when alone?
Why are the cylinders of Movellan virus left on 1984 Earth, a planet that the Daleks want to invade? It's a bit like the Allies hiding an atom bomb in Berlin.
The Daleks seem to want to do everything at once, rescuing their creator, preparing to invade Earth, capturing the Doctor, curing the virus and assassinating the High Council. As Stien yells: 'I can't stand the confusion in my mind!'
Fashion Victim
The Thunderbirds outfits of the prison guards.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Peter Davison
Tegan - Janet Fielding
Turlough - Mark Strickson
Colonel Archer - Del Henney
Crewmember - John Adam Baker
Crewmember - Linsey Turner
Dalek Operator - John Scott Martin
Dalek Operator - Cy Town
Dalek Operator - Tony Starr
Dalek Operator - Toby Byrne
Dalek Voice - Brian Miller
Dalek Voice - Royce Mills
Davros - Terry Molloy
Galloway - William Sleigh
Kiston - Les Grantham
Lytton - Maurice Colbourne
Mercer - Jim Findley
Osborn - Sneh Gupta
Professor Laird - Chloe Ashcroft
Sergeant Calder - Philip McGough
Stien - Rodney Bewes
Styles - Rula Lenska
Trooper - Roger Davenport
Crew
Director - Matthew Robinson
Resurrection of the Daleks