Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks

The Whoathon resumes with the first story of the 2nd Doctor. Hooray! Unfortunately, every episode of this six-part story is missing from the BBC archives, so I had to watch a terrible quality reconstruction with telesnaps and the audio.

Checking out his new face

New Doctors are usually a bit crazy and finding their way in their first story or two. It feels even more so here, since no Doctor had ever regenerated before now. Plus, new Doctors are often doing a story written for the previous Doctor. The 2nd Doctor did pick up a recorder right away, which I thought was cool. It's one of his main quirks, and they defined it right away as part of his character.

Recorder!

So on to the story...Polly realizes immediately that it's still the Doctor, but Ben is skeptical. That didn't surprise me. Polly is pretty smart, and Ben is kind of dumb. Polly even noted to Ben that the 1st Doctor said that his body was wearing a bit thin before he collapsed.

They land/materialize and go out exploring. It turns out this planet, Vulcan (?), has colonists from Earth. One dummy found a capsule with dormant Daleks in it and has been experimenting with them, trying to bring them to life. The Doctor freaks out and warns them that this is a very bad idea. Obviously, they don't listen, and here come the Daleks.

Pretty glad the Second Doctor ditched that hat

At first the Daleks pretend to be serving the humans. Let's remember that this is still early on, so people from Earth don't really know about the Daleks yet. Then again, they always seem to be forgetting about them. Something I thought was interesting was that the Doctor wondered how the Daleks were moving around when the floors weren't metal. It's like the show cared about continuity for a minute! Haha, good thing that didn't last.

Exterminate!

Well, then there are a ton of Daleks, and they reveal their true nature to the dummies. You just can't trust those wily devils! Oh, and there's a coup going on in the colony, but that's far less interesting than what's going on with the Daleks.

I don't think this is a great introduction to the 2nd Doctor, but the next story will be better...We meet Jamie McCrimmon!

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: Second
Companions: Polly, Ben
Episode: #30, "The Power of the Daleks," six parts
Adversary: the Daleks
Classic Lines: the Doctor, talking about a Dalek: "Yes, it will end the colony's problems - because it will end the colony!"
Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: This is the 2nd Doctor's first story. The Daleks recognize the Doctor even though he has just regenerated.
Next Up: "The Highlanders"