Yet another amazing Dalek story for the Black and White era, and in my opinion the first truly great Second Doctor Dalek story.
I am honestly shocked at the amount of story that David Whitaker manages to squeeze into the seven parts, from the initial mystery to the mature, Victorian drama to the grandiose Sci-Fi finale, this truly feels like three stories in one, all of which are well written and interesting.

The one niggle I do have is the occasional badly delivered exposition, which is a recurring issue towards the middle parts, likely there to make sure no kid is left behind as to the goings on, but they are often quite clunky and just simply restating what has just happened.

But looking beyond that tiny chick, this is an interesting story well delivered with social commentary, an uplifting message, further exploration of The Daleks and their nature, the introduction of The Emperor Dalek (btw, what an amazing voice effect!) and the introduction of new companion Victoria while managing to set up and exploring the feelings and motivation of;
Maxtible - the mad scientist, bent on finding a way to transmute gold no matter the costs;
Waterfield - the man who doesn't want to be here, but his hand is forced as his daughter is kept prisoner;
Kemel - the gentle giant, who is looked down upon by his master, though despite his muteness is clearly quite intelligent and kind;
Jamie - who starts to question whether he is simply a pawn in The Doctor's games, while exploring his brave heart (ho ho) and sense of right and wrong;
Terral - a man somewhat controlled by the Daleks, likely due to his unspecified, deteriorated mental state/mental illness;
The Doctor - trying to fix everything while not annoying anyone too much, playing along as much as he schemes.
And others for flavour, I don't know, I guess I am just in awe at how much is achieved by this story, how well it all ties together and how compelling it all is.

Now, normally something like badly written expository dialogue would knock a point off of the score for a story for me, but I am going to make an exception here because I simply cannot justify giving this story less than a 10.
Truly brilliant.

10/10