"I'm afraid, my friends, the Daleks have won."

Taken me a few days to get through this twelve part epic, most of which sadly no longer exists. It certainly feels like the largest scale story up to this point. It can get a little bit like The Chase, with a couple of the middle episodes totally meandering and meaningless to the rest of the plot. But overall it's a big epic, with a lot of great moments.

William Hartnell and Peter Purves are both great throughout, especially Hartnell. Some of the later episodes giving this Doctor some of his best moments, standing up against the Daleks. Were also treated to new companions who come and go. A highlight being Nicholas Courtney for the first few episodes, it's pretty obvious why they bring back his charisma in later years as a main stay. Both Adrienne Hill and Jean Marsh are nice additions but sadly we don't spend long enough with them. Their time with the Doctor too fleeting.

The Daleks themselves are well utilised, feeling more threatening and less comedic than their last appearance. Theres a real sense of danger and threat to them, whenever they are on screen. Mavic Chen is also a great villain. He's menacing and formidable, and a brilliant performance from Kevin Stoney, it's a shame that more of this performance isn't captured on the existing episodes.

A fun, if a little long and meandering, epic. I wish more of the story was available to watch properly, but as it stands it's entertaining and grand in scale. It could have easily worked as Hartnell's swangsong.