"The Power of the Daleks" Episode 3

Doctor Who
Airdate: November 19, 1966
Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze
Written by David Whitaker
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Christopher Barry

The Doctor is unable to convince the colonists of the Dalek threat, so he returns to his quarters a rigs up a device to sabotage their power supply, but Lesterson stops him before the damage is complete. Meanwhile, Bragen convinces Governor Hensell that Deputy Governor Quinn is in league with the rebels. Hensell has Quinn arrested and makes Bragen Deputy Governor. In fact, it is Bragen and Janley who are using the rebels against Hensell, and they hope to use the Daleks as well. To that end, Polly is kidnapped by the rebel Valmar, and the Doctor is secretly slipped a letter warning him to leave the Daleks alone. Oblivious to all of this, Lesterson agrees to supply the Daleks with materials and power. As all three reactivated Daleks chant "We will have our power!", Lesterson begins to suspect that they might not be the faithful servants they claim.

In a sharp tactical departure for the Daleks, they get a chance in this story to use their cunning. Granted, pretending to be friendly isn't the most original plan in the world, but by Dalek standards, it's absolutely devious. Normally, the Daleks just charge in exterminating everything in sight. One of the things that makes this story so effective is that the audience understands the threat posed by the Daleks, but the other characters don't¹. That creates a great deal of tension and suspense. Also, it puts us squarely on the Doctor's side, and given how strange and unfamiliar this new Doctor is, that's not something to be taken for granted.

But the suspense is the most effective element of the story. While the Doctor is focused almost to the point of obsession on the Daleks, the script isn't. The story about the struggle for the control of the colony is moving along quite quickly by this point. The script does an excellent job of incorporating the Daleks into this storyline, which creates a fascinating dynamic. Everyone wants to use the Daleks to advance their own agenda. Lesterson wants to claim credit for the scientific discovery, Hensell wants to put them to work for the colony, and even export their potential to Earth, while Bragen wants their firepower to aid his revolution. It doesn't occur to any of them that the Daleks might have their own agenda.



¹ It's curious that no one has ever heard of the Daleks. There is no indication exactly when this story takes place, and that's something that fans have argued over for years. It presumably takes place sometime before the Daleks invaded Earth in the mid-22nd century. But if the Dalek capsule had been dormant on the planet for 200 years, as the script indicates, what the hell were they doing there? This is complicated by the fact that we don't know where Vulcan is in relation to Earth. It's far enough away that travel between the two planets is possible, but uncommon. And, of course, whenever you're trying to fit a Dalek story within the wider continuity of Dalek history, you must confront the possibility of time-travel.