6️⃣🔽 = SOMEWHAT ENJOYABLE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“THE CHASE, AKA HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY EVADE DALEKS!”

Terry Nation returns with a wild extravaganza that sees the Daleks chase the Doctor and his companions across time and space through six episodes before finally seeing Ian and Barbara leave the TARDIS at the end. It’s known as The Chase, and it's a wildly uneven affair.

Terry Nation is a lazy writer. With The Chase, Nation yet again repeats himself by essentially copy-pasting elements from his previous scripts: the idea of changing settings for each episode is taken from The Keys of Marinus (1964), while the cliffhanger to Part 1 (the “Oh my God! It’s a Dalek!” cliffhanger) is a blatant rip-off of the cliffhanger to Part 1 of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964), and the Mechanus episodes are like a compressed version of The Daleks (1963-1964). Add to that his decision to use yet another jungle setting and include another secondary monster of little value (the Slyther vs. the Mire Beasts, or, perhaps worse, the Fungoids!) and his biggest selling point, the "new Daleks," also known as the Mechonoids. And what is up with all these cringeworthy episode titles (The Death of Time! The Death of Doctor Who!)?

The Chase is also known as the point in the original run of Doctor Who where the show decided to start parodying itself. Nation's intention was probably to provide a fun-time light-hearted adventure featuring the Daleks, but the blend of a nonsensical plot, very tongue-in-cheek performances, silly concepts, and that strange, jazzy circus score makes this feel more of a spoof than an actual, serious adventure within the show's canon.

The problem with anthology stories is that we visit so many times and places throughout the six episodes that none of the settings come truly alive or feel particularly important to the story (with the possible exception of Mechanus). The first two episodes are dull and go nowhere; the middle two episodes are laughable and pointless; and the final two are trying too hard to recreate The Daleks on a smaller scale. None of it truly amazes me the way the best Doctor Who episodes do.

There are also no real stakes at play. The Daleks are so hopelessly lost in their pursuit of the Doctor, and the other dangers faced by the TARDIS crew are so stupid that there's not an inch of tension in the plot. However, the narrative remains fresh and unexpected in its silliness, which makes this one of the better-flowing six-parters in Doctor Who history.

Not only does the opening episode of Nation's anthology epic include some rare scenes of life inside the TARDIS, but it also includes an extended sequence with the Time-Space Visualiser (never to be seen again, sadly, although it does pop up again in other media), allowing the TARDIS crew to watch such historical events as The Beatles playing "Ticket to Ride" on Top of the Pops (the only surviving clip of that gig, ironically), and Ian jamming delightfully to the tune; Shakespeare talking with Queen Victoria (both to be seen again!) or the Gettysburg address—scenes that are completely irrelevant to the rest of the plot but somehow very fascinating nonetheless. These are the sort of moments we rarely see in the modern show because there's little to no time for extra fluff beyond plot-relevant scenes.

Part 3 is a mess of an episode, featuring additions to canon (the Doctor built the TARDIS??!), the making of history (the disappearance of the Mary Celeste), a nonsensical plot, non-sonic screwdrivers, a Dalek screaming like a human as it plunges into the water (sigh!) and terrible American accents (brought to you by the one and only Peter Purves in his Doctor Who debut a couple of episodes before his return as a totally different character, and the new companion—did I mention how strange a story this one is?). This is probably one of the weirdest, messiest, and "funniest" episodes in Doctor Who history.

What is Part 4 supposed to achieve? This trek through a house of horrors is ... interesting, to say the least, and proves to be a low point for the Daleks. This entire episode is, in fact, a low point for the series up to this point. It’s also ridden with production errors (such as the infamous Dalek visible at the back of a shot several scenes before they have arrived on the scene) that make it look like it was improvised on the spot.

The last two episodes on Mechanus provide some good sci-fi adventure. Granted, these episodes are a rehash of the far superior story The Daleks, but there's some nice production design here, and the concept of the imposter Doctor is good on paper, as is the futuristic city of the Mechanoids and the battle between them and the Daleks.

If there is one thing that truly works with The Chase, it is the naturally warm character relations between the main cast members. The Doctor is sharp throughout this and showcases determination, warmth, and empathy, but also a sense of humour. Vicki feels like a full-fledged part of the team by now, and Barbara and Ian are so closely knitted to the Doctor's world that their departure by the end of the story truly hits all the feels (the moment in Part 2 where Ian asks for Barbara’s cardigan and she replies, “Oh no, not again!” is an iconic one). That being said, Vicki's characterisation is all over the place. One second, she is eerily close to Susan; the other, she's more of the seemingly intelligent kind she is meant to be. It's as if Terry Nation wasn't told about the fact that Carole Ann Ford wasn't on the show anymore (despite, you know, writing her out in his previous story!).

The Doctor taking offence to Barbara apparently calling his singing awful, answering Morton Dill with "No, it ain’t!” or running scared from a Frankenstein's monster robot; Morton Dill's doofus dialogue (“You have different years here?”); the stuttering Dalek—whether by design or accidentally, Terry Nation provides a script filled with dialogue that frequently makes me giggle—and that’s a rare feat for a Doctor Who story, even today.

Crammed into the final few minutes of the last episode, Ian and Barbara's departure feels very sudden, but it's filled with genuine emotion from a heartbroken William Hartnell bidding his farewell (in what is a top-three acting moment from the man on this show). Seeing these two close friends get the happy ending they deserve still makes their exit one of the best the show has ever done.

Morton Dill is so bad he's good. The unnecessary supporting role in Part 3 landed Peter Purves the new companion role three episodes later, and that terrible accent and goofy persona are something to remember, for better and for worse. He’s one of the few supporting characters who’ve survived an encounter with the Daleks.

New companion Steven (played by the aforementioned Purves in the fastest return of a guest actor in the history of television) is energetic and likeable, making the last episode of this serial worth the watch. Yes, he's shoehorned in just to introduce him as the new series regular, but Purves seems to put his heart into the performance.

There's something clever about the impostor Doctor. He is antagonistic and selfish, much like the Doctor was when we first met him in An Unearthly Child (1963), a clever callback to how much the character has developed in just two seasons. How no one noticed the obvious difference between him and the real Doctor is a real mystery, though.

The Daleks in The Chase are made ridiculous and useless for no good reason. Gone are the Nazi allegories, larger-than-life plots, and cold-blooded murders. What's left are hopeless shells of stuttering and one-liner-dropping dustbins.

The Mechanoids are a concept that works only on paper. They are big and clumsy, with terribly annoying voices, and lack any of the character or authority of the Daleks. It's no wonder they ended up being another failed attempt at recreating the success of the Daleks.

Most ideas fall flat due to bad execution. The Visualiser is a concept never used for anything substantial; the action direction on Mary Celeste and in the House of Horrors is messy and sloppy, and the Doctor's robot clone doesn't look at all like Hartnell and falls short on amateurish sound design and editing. The way they edit between Hartnell and his stand-in is so jarringly bad that a three-year-old would have done a better job using nothing but MS Paint!

Richard Martin's direction simply isn't good enough. The House of Horrors sequence is made worse by Martin's directorial decisions, and the frankly impressive set used for Mechanus is likewise made less impressive by the fact that Martin doesn't know how to direct the characters acting on it.

This adventure is a mixed bag for me—there are many good and enjoyable things about it, but also so many silly and downright bad things that drag it down for me. All things considered, The Chase should be a 5/10, but there are enough good things (the variety, some of the humour, the performances, and Ian and Barabara’s exit) to push the rating to a 6/10.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• This is the first time we encounter a doppelgänger of the Doctor, something that will reoccur multiple times going forward (in stories such as The Massacre, The Enemy of the World, Meglos, The Arc of Infinity, A Nightmare in Silver, and so on).