Friday, 20 April 2012

Episode 47 (K2): The Daleks

The action starts again with a recap of the cliffhanger, by the riverside - which is actually highly appropriate. Production of the show officially moved from Lime Grove to Riverside Studio 1 with this serial, though they had been able to use Television Centre Studio 4 since A Bargain of Necessity. Despite having originally been built for industrial purposes this had been a film studio for many years and was a much better location for Who, far less cramped and with less antiquated equipment. It was the Daleks that allowed the move, as Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert were able to exert more pressure on the BBC thanks to the monsters' enormous popularity.

The space afforded by the new studio allowed much more freedom for the designers and directors. Spencer Chapman, stepping into Raymond Cusick's shoes as production designer, talks on the DVD extra "Future Visions" about how the extra space enabled him to design sets on multiple levels and allow wide-angle shots that gave more of a sense of scale. Richard Martin ran with this, with the high heliport shots being a particularly fine example. Couple this with the large numbers of Daleks and robomen and you get a serial that feels truly epic.

Everything starts off really well, with the backstory being delivered in a not-too-blatant manner and good cutting between the rebels' base and the riverside. The way the Doctor flounders, muttering about "the middle period of Dalek history" while refusing to acknowledge that he is out of his depth is spot on. The characterisation of the (speaking part) rebels is enough to distinguish them and make them feel like individuals, which is all that we need. Jenny seems the most complex - I thought she was poorly acted at first, but the revelation about her brother made me realise that she is someone who is holding in a lot of her emotions too tightly, and the combination of suppressed anger and blankness is entirely appropriate.

The direction is confident, with some fine camera moves. Take, for example, the moment when we zoom in on Susan and then cut to a closeup of Ian and the Doctor. There's plenty of opportunity for this to go wrong when the edits have to be so limited, but it works really well. The only real negative (other than the robomen voices) is the way the Daleks wobble back and forth. I reckon they need a pee and can't keep still.

There is a different sort of negative when we get to the first extermination (though the Daleks are still saying "kill him", rather than using their eventual keynote phrase). The effect used in the first Dalek serial still does the job, and I get a frisson of (un-PC) excitement when it happens.

Unfortunately, the good run isn't sustained. The idea of an intelligence test for robotising is ludicrous, and watching the Doctor solve a puzzle box doesn't make for thrilling television. "X equals gamma", indeed! Curiously, the audio Solitaire does something very similar years later, but it works because the story focuses on the relationship between the characters and the puzzle itself becomes a backdrop, an excuse for them to interact.

It's not just the script, though. Richard Martin's forte is not to be found in big battles, and the climactic confrontation is shot nearly as badly as in the last episode of serial B. There is also a marked shortage of eye contact between the actors, which makes the thing feel less personal, less engaging. Couple that with a fade too soon at the end, before we can see the Doctor really threatened by the robotiser, and we have an episode that ends with a whimper.

In fact, this is (IIRC) only the third time on TV that the second episode has failed to surpass the opener. Let's hope this isn't the start of a trend...

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 28th November 1964
Viewers: 12.4 million
Chart Position: 10
Appreciation Index: 59

Rating:
6/10.

Next Time:
Day of Reckoning.

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