The Chase (TV story)

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The Chase was the eighth story of Season 2 of Doctor Who. As well as featuring the first use of time travel by the Daleks, it also featured the departures of original companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, played by William Russell and Jacqueline Hill respectively, and the first appearance of new companion Steven Taylor, portrayed by Peter Purves.

Synopsis

The travellers are forced to flee in the TARDIS when they learn from the Time-Space Visualiser taken from the Moroks' museum that a group of Daleks equipped with their own time machine are on their trail with orders to exterminate them.

The chase begins on the desert planet Aridius and takes in a number of stopping-off points including the observation gallery of New York's Empire State Building, the 19th Century sailing ship Mary Celeste (the Daleks' appearance causing all the crew and passengers to jump overboard) and a spooky haunted house which, although the Doctor and his friends do not realise it, is actually a futuristic fun-fair attraction.

Eventually both time machines arrive on the jungle planet Mechanus, where the Daleks try to infiltrate and kill the Doctor's party using a robotic double of him. The travellers are taken prisoner by the Mechanoids - a group of robots sent some fifty years earlier to prepare landing sites for human colonists who, in the event, never arrived - and meet Steven Taylor, a stranded astronaut who has been the Mechanoids' captive for the past two years.

The Daleks and the Mechanoids engage in a fierce battle which ultimately results in their mutual destruction, and the Doctor's party seize this opportunity to escape. The Doctor reluctantly helps Ian and Barbara to use the Daleks' time machine to return home.

Plot

The Executioners (1)

In the Doctor's TARDIS the four travellers are huddling around the Time-Space Visualiser, which can pick up any event in the whole of time and space. They each choose an event to witness: Ian picks Abraham Lincoln giving his Gettysburg Address, Barbara elects to look into Elizabeth I's court, and sees the genesis of William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet; and Vicki sees the Beatles performing "Ticket to Ride", but is surprised that they should play "classical music".

The TARDIS then lands, and the Doctor confirms that the conditions are hospitable. Ian and Vicki leave into the desert wilderness, the former entrusted with the "TARDIS magnet" in case they should get lost. Vicki investigates some formations which appear to similar to seaweed, which Ian knows is impossible. They then find a trail of what appears to be blood in the sand, which Vicki runs off to follow. As they move off, they do not notice a tentacle rise up from the sand where they were.

Daleks on the Time-Space Visualiser reveal their evil intent to chase the TARDIS

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Barbara start sunbathing. Barbara is distracted by the sound of the Visualizer, which has not been shut off. She sees on it a "broadcast" of the Daleks preparing to give a report. The Doctor enters and hears to his horror the Daleks' plan to follow "the enemy time machine" (the TARDIS) to the Sagarro Desert on the planet Aridius. Dalek assassins will take their time machine, find the Doctor and his companions, and exterminate them. The Doctor and Barbara watch a group of Daleks embark and dematerialize. The Doctor immediately realizes that these events happened in the past — the Daleks may already be here! They must find Ian and Vicki and go.

Barbara and the Doctor lost in the hostile Aridian desert

Tiring from their walk, Ian and Vicki take a rest as the "blood" trail ends. In the sand, they find a large metal ring. At first, Vicki is reluctant to disturb it for fear of what might happen (due in no small part to a similar ring from her childhood). However, they decide they should pull it loose, and Ian duly does just that. At first, nothing happens and they prepare to leave, but then an ancient trap door creaks open in the sand. Vicki and Ian go inside the newly-opened cavern to have a look. Once they are inside the trap door close behind them: they are trapped - and another tentacle looms out of the darkness. It seems the creatures are everywhere.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Barbara have had no luck finding their friends, night has fallen and the wind has begun to pick up, covering all tracks including their own. They decide to return to the TARDIS, not entirely certain of the direction; as it may have been covered by the sand. A sandstorm breaks out which lasts all night. When they awake they see a Dalek, buried by the sandstorm, emerging from the sand.


The Death of Time (2)

The Daleks' Aridian slaves work to open the Doctor's TARDIS

Two other Daleks appear, but cannot find the time travellers. They do locate the TARDIS under the sand and begin to have it dug out by a group of native Aridians, whom they have enslaved. The slave force is exterminated when they are of no further value.

The Doctor and Barbara are saved by other Aridians, an amphibious humanoid species, who explain that Aridius was not always a desert, but that the suns have pulled the planet nearer and burned away the seas. Only themselves and the hideous, predatory Mire Beasts are left, and the Mire Beasts can only be contained by walling-up and destroying sections of the Aridian city that have become over-run.

The Daleks soon contact the Aridians in their underground city and tell them they will leave Aridius if the Doctor and his party are handed over, and the elders agree to this. The Aridians also capture Vicki, who is looking for help for Ian, who was injured in an explosion planned by the Aridians. As the time travellers are about to be handed over to the Daleks, the Mire Beasts break through a wall and attack, killing the Aridian Malsan. The Doctor, Barbara and Vicki flee in the confusion.

They meet up with Ian, manage to evade a Dalek guarding the TARDIS, and escape. The Dalek assassination group vows to pursue.

Flight Through Eternity (3)

The chase through time and space begins, with the Dalek vessel determined to track down and exterminate the Doctor and his friends. They are but fifteen minutes behind and the gap is closing.

The first stop is the top of the Empire State Building in New York City, where a young man from Alabama, Morton Dill, tells them it is 1966. Fortunately for him neither the TARDIS nor the Dalek time vessel stays long and his life is not imperilled; in fact the young man breaks into hysterics at the sight of a Dalek, unwittingly allowing the TARDIS time to escape.

The ship arrives on another ship, of the sailing kind, in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores. Barbara is enthralled, but Ian is getting seasick so he retires to the TARDIS, where the Doctor is monitoring the situation. Barbara is captured by a crewmember who thinks she's a stowaway, but Vicki knocks the man on the head. A second person arrives and Vicki, in her enthusiasm, does the same to him. Alas, it is Ian, and she and Barbara quickly help their dazed friend back into the TARDIS as it takes off. The Dalek time machine arrives on their heels, and proceed to either exterminate the crew of the sailing ship or drive them to abandon ship in terror. When the Daleks realize their targets are not aboard, they depart. As the ship is suddenly silent and empty, it is revealed the ship is the legendary Mary Celeste.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor calculates that their advantage has narrowed down to only eight minutes, and will be reduced further when they next land.

Journey into Terror (4)

The TARDIS lands in a mysterious old house where ghosts, spooks, Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster reside. These terrors stalk the building, even attacking the Daleks when they arrive. The TARDIS hastily departs in the melée of Daleks fighting with the creatures. The Daleks are eventually repelled back into their vessel by the monsters. The Doctor postulates they have actually been visiting "an area of human thought... neither time nor space." In fact, they have simply been visiting a "House of Horrors" at the Festival of Ghana in 1996; the creatures were robots.

In the confusion to depart, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara leave without Vicki. They are utterly distraught when they discover this, knowing the TARDIS cannot take them back. They decide their only course to rescue her is to try and take control of the Daleks' own time vessel.

Vicki, however, has stowed aboard the Dalek time machine, where she witnesses the Daleks' replicator machine in action: an android replica of the Doctor is produced and is programmed to "infiltrate and kill."

The Death of Doctor Who (5)

The TARDIS trio get surrounded by fungoids in the Mechanus jungle

The Doctor, Ian and Barbara have arrived at night on the planet Mechanus, and when the Dalek ship arrives the robot Doctor is dispatched. The jungle is also hostile, with large carnivorous fungoid plants that only retreat when exposed to light. Fortunately and mysteriously, a corridor of lights appears, leading the trio to a cave. They quickly disable the lights before the Daleks can follow them, but when they do so they are shocked to hear a scream that sounds like Vicki.

The Doctor and Ian run out to find her, armed with a light rod they discover in the cave, while Barbara remains with a machine the Doctor has built to defend them from the Daleks. The robot Doctor finds Barbara, and it lures her away from the cave. Barely escaping with her life, she finds Ian and Vicki... and two Doctors! They fight with their walking sticks, and the real Doctor cleverly deactivates the robot by imitating a Dalek voice, instructing it not to kill. He then disconnects vital circuitry.

The Daleks are hampered by the fungoid creatures and call off their search until the morning, while the Doctor and his party sleep in the cave. As they do so, a camera is observing them.

In the morning the Doctor emerges to discover a vast metal city sitting atop the jungle. Before they can attempt to access the city, the Daleks attack. As the Doctor's machine is prepared for use, a false wall in the cave slides down to reveal a large round robot in a lift. When they hear the Daleks' battle-cry outside, they have no choice but to accompany the robot.

The Planet of Decision (6)

The Daleks and Mechanoids fighting

The lift takes The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki to the Mechanoid City. They are delivered to a large room, but the door behind them is closed and locked. In the room is a disheveled Human survivor named Steven Taylor. He is an astronaut from Earth who crash-landed on the planet two years earlier and has been kept as a prisoner by the Mechanoids since then. They are colonizing robots designed to build the city for humans that never arrived, and without the correct code, the new arrivals will never be released.

Ian and Barbara find a real police box back home in 1965's London

The Daleks discover the cave is empty, but soon find the lift and enter the city. The Mechanoids and Daleks become involved in a pitched battle which devastates both sides and destroys the city.

Before this happens, the five prisoners flee to the roof, where they use a massive cable to scale down fifteen-hundred feet to the surface. They are separated from Steven, who insists on saving his "mascot," a stuffed panda named Hi-Fi. Steven does make it down to the surface, and desperately searches for the Doctor.

The TARDIS crew find the deserted Dalek time machine. Ian and Barbara realize they can finally return home to their own time and planet. The Doctor angrily resists, but they (and Vicki) eventually persuade him to show Ian and Barbara how to operate it. After a tearful farewell, the two schoolteachers are safely delivered home – but not to their own time, being two years out in London of 1965. The time machine is destroyed using an auto-destruct mechanism.

The Doctor and Vicki witness this "history" on the Time-Space Visualizer, with feelings of joy and sadness. The two depart in the TARDIS.

Cast

Crew

References

Daleks

  • The robots in the funfair are impervious to Dalek firepower.
  • This is the first example of the Daleks having time travel.
  • This is the first use of the Dalek using replicant technology.
  • The Daleks appear to be under the impression the Doctor is from Earth, as they refer to "the Earth time machine" in "Flight Through Eternity".

TARDISes

  • The first reference is made to the time rotor.
  • The Doctor uses the time path indicator.
  • The Doctor explains to the others it takes twelve minutes for the TARDIS's flight computer to re-orientate itself and 'gather power', thus limiting the speed with which they can make each new jump.
  • In episode 3 the Doctor references a scanner that has been in the TARDIS "since I built it". The "it", however, isn't very specific. It could be that the Doctor is referencing that the scanner has been in the TARDIS since he built the scanner, or he could be implying that he actually built the TARDIS.

Story notes

  • All episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings.
  • Negative film prints were recovered for all episodes in 1978.
  • This story went under the working title The Pursuers.
  • The story was commissioned at late notice when another of Terry Nation's stories fell through. It is believed that the slot was originally to be filled by his planned historical The Red Fort.
  • The scenes in episode 6 with Ian and Barbara celebrating their return to London was made as part of the production block for The Time Meddler and the Director for these is consequently Douglas Camfield.
  • This is one of the few Dalek stories to incorporate humour and is the only story to attempt comical performances from the Daleks. Examples includes a stammering Dalek who cannot do simple mental arithmetic (in the first two episodes); Daleks nodding their eyestalks to confirm a plan (in the fifth episode); and showing a trait for deviating from the subject at hand (during their deliberations in the first episode).
  • Morton Dill, the young man from Alabama whom the travellers meet at the top of the Empire State Building, was played by Peter Purves, who would appear in the last episode as Steven Taylor.
  • The story also features The Beatles in a film clip. Ironically, considering the number of lost Doctor Who episodes, the Beatles performance from which this clip was taken now only survives in this story. (In a double irony, the scene has once again been "lost" as licensing restrictions forced it to be deleted from the Region 1 DVD release.)
  • The Beatles were originally planned to appear as old men performing in the 21st Century but this proposal was vetoed by their manager Brian Epstein. Had this gone through, of course, it would have become an anachronism given the fates that would befall both John Lennon and George Harrison before they got to be "old men".
  • This story includes the joke that, in the future, contemporary pop musicians such as The Beatles would be considered classical music. This joke was repeated in the series 40 years later in The End of the World.
  • Although Ian displayed knowledge of modern musical groups in An Unearthly Child, this does not seem to extend to his ability to dance, as demonstrated during the "Ticket to Ride" sequence.
  • The Daleks are particularly poetic in this story: Dalek - "Advance and attack! Attack and destroy! Destroy and rejoice!"
  • This is the final television story featuring Ian and Barbara.
  • This is the first appearance of Steven Taylor. Actor Peter Purves became the first actor to play two completely different roles (without the use of heavy makeup or prosthetics) in the same story. He also became the first actor to appear in a guest-starring capacity before being offered a regular role. This would next occur when Ian Marter appeared in Carnival of Monsters several years before joining the series as a different character, Harry Sullivan, in Robot. The fact Purves played two different roles, one to become ongoing within the same story, however, remains a unique circumstance.
  • The Chase was earmarked to form the basis for a third "Dr. Who" film starring Peter Cushing, to follow Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, but the film was never made.
  • Episode 5 carries the title "The Death of Doctor Who"; this is one of only two occasions in which the technically incorrect name "Doctor Who" is used in an on-screen title (the other occasion being the seven episodes of Doctor Who and the Silurians in 1970).
  • During rehearsal the three fungoid costumes were given nicknames to avoid confusion; Fungoid Fred, Toadstool Taffy and Mushroom Malone. [1]
  • The three main pillars of the Mechanus forest set were referred to in the script as the "Gubbage Canes".[1]
  • A later novel, EDA: Interference - Book One, would establish that the Dracula and Frankenstein robots were built by Microsoft, although the company wasn't established until a full ten years after The Chase was broadcast.
  • Episode six features the first use of the Dalek battle cry of "Exterminate!" (Previously, The Daleks mentioned the term "extermination", and in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the Supreme Dalek ordered his subordinates to "exterminate" Ian, but this is the first time the word is used as a singular exclamation.)
  • In DWM , The Chase was voted the readers least favourite Dalek story.
  • The episode "Flight Through Eternity" contains a rather morbid first (remembering that Doctor Who was originally considered a children's program): the first depiction of the death of a child. This refers to the baby being carried by the woman who jumps off the Mary Celeste (and, though no deaths occur on-screen, history records that the passengers of the vessel were never found).
  • This was the second serial to consist of several mini-adventures linked by an overall story arc. The first was DW: The Keys of Marinus.
  • The Frankenstein Monster's makeup is based upon the original design created by Jack Pierce for the original Boris Karloff films.

Ratings

  • The Executioners - 10 million viewers
  • The Death of Time - 9.5 million viewers
  • Flight Through Eternity - 9.0 million viewers
  • Journey into Terror - 9.5 million viewers
  • The Death of Doctor Who - 9.0 million viewers
  • The Planet of Decision - 9.5 million viewers

Myths

  • The scene showing Ian and Barbara on the bus was shot on location. (The scene was actually shot at Ealing Studio with a back projection active behind the bus to give the impression of movement.)

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • When the travelers exit the TARDIS on Aridius, you can clearly see it has no backing to it as the desert set is visible behind it.
  • At the beginning of "The Executioners", Ian seems to know the words to The Beatles' song, "Ticket to Ride". This would seem to be inconsistent, as he left England in 1963 and "Ticket" wasn't released until April 1965. While it's possible he learned the song at some point during his travels, this is inconsistent with a major plot point that Ian and Barbara have been away from present-day Earth for two years.
  • Later in "The Executioners", Vicki and Ian cast shadows across the backdrop painted like a desert.
  • An Aridian can be seen getting up and sneaking off camera after being knocked over by Vicki.
  • When the travelers are trying to lure the Daleks away from the Tardis in "The Death of Time", there is poor continuity as the scene is set at night yet one shot shows a Dalek falling down in daylight. This has been altered for the DVD by Doctor Who Restoration Team by regrading the shot, however the production notes subtitles were not updated and reference the error.
  • Whilst moving across the screen in episode 4, a countdown is projected across one of the Daleks as it trundles "behind" the display.
  • A man's shadow can be seen cast across the TARDIS when it lands in the House of Horrors.
  • In "Flight Through Eternity", Vicki is shown climbing on top of the ship's cabin to knock out the sailor and (accidentally) Ian. A few moments later the camera moves to reveal that she was in direct line if sight of the sailor manning the ship's wheel and should have been spotted.
  • At the end of "Flight Through Eternity", the angle of entry into the water is inconsistent with the casing housing a creature inside. It should have been vertically aligned when it hit the water. Second, contact with the water immediately makes it break apart. This is wholly inconsistent with the general durability Daleks are said to have. And lastly, once the creature breaks in half, its empty interior can clearly be seen.
  • An identical error to the above occurs involving a Dalek casing when it falls off the Mary Celeste and its headpiece falls off, revealing nothing inside.
  • As Ian and the Doctor are standing on the stairs in the House of Horrors, a boom mike and operator can be seen clearly in shot.
  • In episode 5, a camera, clearly marked BBC and is Camera 5, appears on the Mechanus jungle set.
  • Despite ripping off its bandages, Frankenstein's Monster, takes the time to change into a jacket between scenes.
  • One of the Daleks can be seen in Frankenstein's lab before they have supposedly arrived, Vicki can also be heard talking in the background just before the scene ends.
  • The Daleks' "exact duplicate" of the Doctor actually looks nothing at all like him, unsurprisingly as Edmund Warwick, Hartnell's double in long distance shots, was used for some of the shots. Up close, William Hartnell plays the duplicate as well, however at the end of "Journey into Terror" the camera cuts to a closeup of Hartnell delivering the final line of the episode, with a completely different background than that behind Warwick in the previous shot.
  • The robot double's lip movement is not at all in sync with the pre-recorded Hartnell dialogue.
  • At the end of episode 2, the travellers enter the TARDIS on its left hand side.
  • At the beginning of episode 3 in the Dalek Time Machine two of the Daleks are missing their bases.
  • In episode 5 you can see 2 Movie Daleks in the backround.
  • The Mary Celeste is obviously a model and when it is moving, no water is displaced

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

  • This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 1st March 2010 as part of a boxset with The Space Museum. The two disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:
  • Commentary by William Russell (Ian), Maureen O’Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven) and Richard Martin (Director).
  • Cusick In Cardiff
  • The Thrill Of The Chase
  • Last Stop White City
  • Daleks Conquer And Destroy
  • Daleks Beyond The Screen
  • Shawcraft – The Original Model Makers
  • Follow That Dalek
  • Give-A-Show Slides
  • Coming Soon Trailer
  • Radio Times Billings
  • Production Subtitles
  • Photo Gallery
  • Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.
  • Due to the licensing issues surrounding the Beatles song, it has been announced that non-European (Region 2) releases of The Chase will be edited to remove the scene.
  • UK DVD 2010 Cover

    UK DVD 2010 Cover

  • UK DVD 2010 Boxset

    UK DVD 2010 Boxset

VHS releases

Initially released to VHS video as part of The Daleks Box Set, alongside DW: Remembrance of the Daleks.

UK Release: September 1993 / US Release: October 1993
PAL - BBC Video BBCV5005 (2 tapes)
NTSC - CBS/FOX Video 4795 (2 tapes)
NTSC - Warner Video E1145 (2 tapes)

In the UK the tapes were packaged individually with a booklet. They were never sold separately.


21 minutes.jpg

Audio releases

April 1966 saw the release of "The Planet of Decision" (episode six) as a 7" mini album by Century 21 Records and Pye Records as part of their "21 Minutes of Adventure" series. Some editing was done and linking narration was provided by the Dalek voice actor, David Graham. This was the first Doctor Who audio release of either an existing or original story, predating both Doctor Who and the Pescatons and the LP release of Genesis of the Daleks by a little over a decade.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Chase novel.jpg
Main article: The Chase (novelisation)

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Howe, David J., Stammers, Mark, Walker, Stephen James, 1992, Doctor Who: The Sixties, Doctor Who Books, an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd, London, p.44

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