A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 8. The Ambush (The Daleks, Episode Four)

Don’t be fooled by how the first third of this episode revolves around our heroes trying to get to ground level in a series of elevators, because here is where we get some backstory.

After the Doctor and company make their escape, they’re just in time to try and prevent the Daleks’ planned ambush of the Thals--Ian intercedes but not before the Thal’s leader is killed.  As the pacifistic blonde tribe licks its collective wounds, the Doctor learns that the planet Skaro had been irradiated as a result of a war between the Thal and the Dals, which resulted in both races being mutated.  This has happened so far in the past that the Thals have literally ‘come full circle’ in their mutations and have become the bare-chested Arayans we see now, whereas the ‘Dals’ have not made the full transition yet.

That’s a pretty heady concept for what was supposed to be a children’s serial.  It’s been tinkered with since (it turns out it’s not that the Daleks haven't mutated enough to full circle; it’s that the Daleks were willfully mutated to survive in a hostile environment by a one-armed freak scientist who manages to leech away all their free will so they just become flunkies to him...but that’s a long way off), but it works for the story Terry Nation is telling.  And it’s relatively simple enough for us to absorb quickly and hit the ground running.

As far as the crew dynamics go, I fear that Barbara once again gets the short end of the stick, but at least she doesn’t fall down and go into hysterics.  What’s really remarkable is how Hartnell seems downright gleeful in his scenes at the Thal encampment learning stuff from the designated female with a speaking part Dyoni (Virginia Weatherall).  It’s the first time we see the Doctor excitied--we’ve seen him interested and engaged in the previous episode, but not as filled with joy as he is in this sequence.

And Ian....well, watching it in 2020, it’s strange hearing our science teacher in a sweater and tie advocating the Thals beat the crap out of the Daleks.  Some might look at this as the Old Guard Yelling At Hippies.  But this is 1963, before the counterculture fully developed and less than twenty years from the end of World War Two.  While there’s no explicit connection made, Nation has made Daleks Mechano-Nazis, and Ian is trying to muster the average--albeit very Arayan--man to face up to them.  Seen in that context, it makes a lot more sense.

There’s some engaging stuff in here, but it’s pretty clear that the second half is a breather between acts.  At this point, we’ve passed the halfway mark of this story, but there’s still three more episodes to go.  We’ll see how it resolves itself soon.