Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Well, if you saw my Quick Reactions video yesterday, you know that I saw the two recently recovered episodes of the 12-part ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ – the first and third episodes. If you haven’t, please feel free to check out my latest video.
I greatly enjoyed seeing the first and third episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. Having heard the TV soundtrack on audio CD with linking narration by Peter Purves, it’s been invigorating to see what these episodes are actually like compared to visualising them. 🙂
I’m currently in the process of revisiting ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ from start to finish. So far, I rewatched the 2019 remake of ‘Mission to the Unknown’, saw the first three episodes, heard the fourth episode and seen the fifth episode. 🙂 Looking forward to more!
The fact that we have the first and third episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ back with us in the BBC Archive, having been missing for so long, is so amazing. I did wonder if we were ever going to witness any more ‘Doctor Who’ TV episodes from the 1960s recovered.
Now we can get to see more of William Hartnell as the First Doctor! We can see more of Peter Purves as Steven Taylor! We can see more of Adrienne Hill as Katarina! More of Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon! More of Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen! More of the Daleks!
The first episode comes straight off from the end of ‘The Myth Makers’ where Vicki left the TARDIS to be with Troilus in Ancient Troy. Meanwhile, Steven is badly injured, and the Doctor must seek a way to help him recover from his illness as Katarina takes care of him.
Now, if you went straight into the first episode not knowing that; you’d be forgiven in being confused as to what was happening. I knew, thanks to a recap from the end of ‘The Myth Makers’, which was presented as a prologue for ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ on audio CD. 🙂
Also, in viewing the first episode, I never thought I’d live to see Steven bare-chested whilst lying on a bunk-bed in the TARDIS. And his arm is in a sling. Thankfully, he has his shirt and jacket on once he and Katarina are outside on the planet Kembel for the second episode.
It’s great to see Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon in the first and third episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, especially as he’s so well-known for playing the Brigadier in the series. Let’s hope the fourth episode will be found to complete Nick Courtney’s ‘Doctor Who’ debut.
I’m also glad we can see more of Katarina in ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, considering she was a short-lived companion in ‘Doctor Who’. From the way Adrienne Hills plays her, she’s so curious by everything she sees, including when she’s aboard Mavic Chen’s Spar.
Having enjoyed Kevin Stoney as Tobian Vaughn in ‘The Invasion’, it was great to see more of him as a ‘Doctor Who’ villain in Mavic Chen. This is especially when he’s interacting with the Daleks, particularly during the interrogation of Zephon in the story’s third episode.
Credit should be given to the late Douglas Camfield, who directed ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. The first and third episodes are very well-directed, just as the second, fifth and tenth episodes are well-directed. It’s nice to see that in the visual forms of the two found episodes..
The third episode does end on a cliffhanger with Katarina held captive by Kirksen, who stowed away aboard the Spar from the planet Desperus. It’s a shame we can’t see the fourth episode of the epic story, especially when enjoying the first three episodes so much.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of the future concerning ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. Hopefully, the first, second, third, fifth and tenth episodes will get DVD and Blu-ray releases soon, which might mean the 12-part story will get the animation treatment soon.
I hope that will be the case, as I’ve wanted ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ to be animated for a long time. Now that the first and third episodes have been found, it seems likely we’ll get the animation version of the story sooner than expected. Work may be done on it already.
I’ll need to update my review on ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ sometime soon, especially with the first and third episodes now found. It may be a while before that happens, but I’m looking forward to when the time comes to update my review on the 12-part epic story. 🙂
I’m pleased to have seen the first and third episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ on BBC iPlayer recently, especially over the Easter holidays since the episodes were released on Good Friday. Let’s hope that more missing 1960s ‘Doctor Who’ episodes will be found. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Allegedly, The Daleks’ Master Plan is a tough find because it was so violent that overseas censors turned it down, but wow… I wasn’t expecting just how shocking some of the violence actually is. It’s like Blake’s 7, a decade early.
The last full appearance of Katarina, that cliffhanger especially, is like a moment from Spooks. I think this is the first serial since possibly The Daleks to portray them as creatures of horror. The beautifully choreographed and seamless integration of film and studio for the executions and flamethrowers makes it all the more powerful.
The Doctor and Katarina’s dynamic is so charming even for only three episodes. I got so attached to Katarina through Adrienne Hill’s performance in a way that I just couldn’t in the telesnaps. She’s canny, she’s curious and she has a wonderful rapport with Hartnell. Her fate is a real gut-punch.
I can’t imagine what I’d feel if we had the whole serial intact. The latter half, written by Dennis Spooner, felt a little bit like an intrusion in Recon form, but honestly… I think after six episodes of a genuine 39 Steps-style thriller, I’d need a bit of a breather in Egypt.
What a lovely discovery that The Daleks’ Master Plan could very well be the First Doctor’s answer to something like The Tomb of the Cybermen or The Enemy of the World. A lost story that surpasses expectations in its realisation. The acting, the directing, it’s an aching shame that so much is still lost.
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for sharing your latest thoughts on ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’.
It’s a shame we can’t see more of Katarina beyond ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. Ironically, she was in five episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ – the fourth episode of ‘The Myth Makers’ and the first four episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. It’s nice two episodes of ‘Daleks’ Master Plan’ have recently been found and we can get to see what she’s like as a character rather than just hear the episodes.
I think Katarina would have been great as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion if more focus was attended to her character, which is something the then production team didn’t seem to have an interest in, which is a shame. Big Finish have proved they can develop a character from ancient times very well by making them a TARDIS companion like Marc in the Fifth Doctor audios, even though that was for a short while. At least Katarina got to shine in the audio story ‘Daughter of the Gods’, which I enjoyed listening to.
Whilst it’s great to have two more episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ back in the BBC Archives, it’s still a shame most of the story as well as ‘Mission of the Unknown’ is currently missing. Only time will tell as to whether more episodes of the 12-part epic will be found or whether it will be animated to fill in the gaps to be released on DVD and Blu-ray, which should have all surviving material of the story, including the five surviving episodes and the 2019 remake episode of ‘Mission to the Unknown’.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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The dynamic between the First Doctor and Katarina, is curiously enough, almost a preview of that between the Second Doctor and Jamie.
We forget but James Robert McCrimmon is broadly unrecognisable from his original depiction in The Highlanders. He acclimatised to travel aboard the TARDIS to such an extent that you could easily be forgiven for believing he was yet another ’60s-era companion.
I think the concern with historical characters is that every writer is expected to have a historical understanding of that character. It’s why in Doctor Who we don’t have historical domain characters like Joan de Arc or Tsar Nicholas II travelling aboard the TARDIS. It requires too intimate an understanding of real historical figures for too many writers.
What tends to happen, instead, is characters are written from that period. Jamie from the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. Erimem from the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic dynasties. Charley from the Edwardian 1920s. The characters are served by their unique historical perspectives, leading to stories like The Council of Nicaea or Son of the Dragon.
The decision to write out Katarina comes from a conservative idea of what the programme could be. Vicki was the first definitive future companion (Susan’s origins still being ambiguous) and there hadn’t been a historical companion until that point.
It’s rather like how modern Doctor Who has still failed to give us an alien companion. Like Destrii from the Eighth Doctor comics. There is this fundamental belief, still, that companions on television must be human and that feels, more and more, like a failure in daring.
It may come, one day, but it will require a broadening of imagination.
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Hi Wolfie,
That is true. Today’s ‘Doctor Who’ companions are more modern day ones rather than coming from Earth’s past, because the modern day companions are likely to connect more to modern audiences with modern attitudes and perspectives. This is understandable, as it makes things easier for the writers writing standalone episodes compared to the showrunner’s episodes. It’s also a shame, since we don’t get to have enough companions from Earth’s past as well as non-human companions to get a fresh perspective of the companion role in ‘Doctor Who’.
I would like it if the new TV series did an experiment with having a companion from contemporary times interacting with another companion, either from Earth’s past or non-human, to see how their journeys would develop in a season or two in ‘Doctor Who’. I sort-of done that with my Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy series, even though Nyssa’s from Traken and Billy’s from 1960s Earth. But it’s something the new TV series could do with a companion from contemporary times and a companion from past Earth or is an alien much like the Nyssa/Tegan pairing with the Fifth Doctor and the Peri/Erimem pairing with the Fifth Doctor. I’d like the new TV series to try it someday.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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