"The Power of the Daleks" Episode 2

Doctor Who
Airdate: November 12, 1966
Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze
Written by David Whitaker
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Christopher Barry

Lesterson enters the capsule, angrily objecting to the Doctor's snooping. The Doctor deduces that Lesterson has been inside the capsule before and removed the third inert Dalek. While Lesterson and his assistants secretly attempt to revive the inert Dalek, the Doctor is determined to put a stop to the experiments. During Lesterson's experiments, one of his assistants, Resno, is killed by the Dalek. His other assistant, Janley, claims that Resno is only injured, and insists that Lesterson continues his work. The Doctor attempts to contact Earth in an attempt to get official support to destroy the Daleks, but the communications equipment has been sabotaged. The inquiry into the sabotage focuses on the Deputy Governor, Quinn, but Polly is unconvinced. The inquiry is interrupted by Lesterson, who escorts the now disarmed Dalek into the room. The Dalek seems to recognize the Doctor, who attempts to warn everyone of the terrible danger the Dalek represents. But the Dalek drowns out his warning, loudly repeating "I am your servant!"

There's a distinct sense of newness about all of this, which is mostly to do with the fact that the lead character has been completely re-imagined. Mostly, but not entirely. The scripts for these episodes are quite sophisticated, and the story is complex and compelling. My summaries focus on the storyline involving Lesterson and the Daleks, but there are also persistent references to a growing underground resistance movement. And there's still the mystery of who sent for the Examiner from Earth, and who killed him.

The Doctor is, thankfully, a bit more engaged in this episode, which makes him much easier to accept. It's fascinating, however, that Ben is only truly convinced that he is the Doctor when the Dalek recognizes him. Having the Daleks feature in this Doctor's first story is a very simple, and very clever way to reassure the audience that, however unfamiliar all of this seems, it's still the Doctor, and it's still "Doctor Who".