The Chase (Doctor Who)

016 – The Chase
Doctor Who serial
Having chased the Doctor through time and space, the Daleks are forced to battle the Mechonoids in their city on Mechanus.
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell – First Doctor
Companions Jacqueline Hill – Barbara Wright William Russell – Ian Chesterton Maureen O'Brien – Vicki
Others Robert Marsden – Abraham Lincoln Roger Hammond – Francis Bacon – Queen Elizabeth I Hugh Walters – William Shakespeare – Television announcer Peter Hawkins and David Graham – Dalek voices Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin, – Daleks – Malsan Hywel Bennett – Rynian – Prondyn – Mire Beast Operator – Guide Peter Purves – Morton Dill / Steven Taylor – Capt Benjamin Briggs Dennis Chinnery – Albert C Richardson – Bosun – Willoughby Jack Pitt – Cabin Steward John Maxim – Frankenstein – Count Dracula Edmund Warwick – Robot Dr Who – Grey Lady , Jack Pitt, John Scott Martin – Mechonoids David Graham – Mechonoid voice – Fungoid (credited as 'With')
Production
Directed by	Richard Martin Douglas Camfield (episode 6, uncredited)
Written by	Terry Nation
Script editor	Dennis Spooner
Produced by	Verity Lambert
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Dudley Simpson
Production code	R
Series	Season 2
Running time	6 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	22 May 1965 (1965-05-22)
Last broadcast	26 June 1965 (1965-06-26)
Chronology
← Preceded by The Space Museum Followed by → The Time Meddler
List of Doctor Who episodes (1963–1989)

The Chase is the eighth serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965.

Set on multiple planets, including Aridius, Earth, and Mechanus, in multiple time periods, the serial features the Dalek race travelling through time while pursuing the time machine the TARDIS and its occupants the First Doctor (William Hartnell), Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) so that the Daleks can take the TARDIS for themselves.

The serial marks the last appearance of Russell and Hill as companions Ian and Barbara. Episode 3 marks the first appearance in the show of Peter Purves as a tourist from Alabama visiting the Empire State Building. He returns later in the story as Steven Taylor.

Plot[]

While companions Ian and Vicki explore the Sagarro Desert on the planet Aridius, in the TARDIS, the First Doctor and Barbara see on the Time-Space Visualiser (acquired from the Space Museum and which displays any event in the whole of past time and space) the Daleks embarking on a plan to follow the TARDIS to Aridius to exterminate the Doctor and his companions and seize his time ship.

Realising that these events happened in the past and that the Daleks may already be here, they venture out to warn Ian and Vicki, only to see Daleks emerging from the sands after a dust storm. The Doctor and Barbara are saved by native Aridians who reunite them with a Vicki and Ian who were injured after an encounter with Mire Beasts. The Beasts attack again, and in the confusion The Doctor and his friends flee to the TARDIS, evading Daleks who had discovered it buried in the sand.

The Daleks then pursue the TARDIS through time and space, 15 minutes behind in their own vessel. The first stop on the chase is the top of the Empire State Building in New York City in 1966. Next, they are mistaken for stowaways on the Mary Celeste until the Daleks arrive and the frightened crew abandon ship. Subsequently landing in a mysterious old house, they encounter Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, who attack the pursuing Daleks. In the confusion, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara leave Vicki behind, unaware the monsters were actually robots in a futuristic theme park attraction.

Vicki stows away aboard the Dalek ship and witnesses them create an android replica of the Doctor, programmed to kill the TARDIS crew, which is dispatched on arrival on the hostile jungle world of Mechanus. She reunites with her companions, but a fight ensues between Ian and the real Doctor once the robot duplicate appears, claiming to be the original. When the robot Doctor mistakenly refers to Vicki as his grand-daughter "Susan", Barbara realises and the real Doctor disables his doppelganger.

Venturing into a metal city above the jungle, Mechonoids imprison them with ship-wrecked human astronaut Steven Taylor. Under the cover of a Daleks attack on the city, the Doctor, his companions and Steven escape and, finding the Dalek time machine and considering it more reliable than the TARDIS, Ian and Barbara persuade the Doctor to show them how to operate it to return to London in their own time, where they set it to auto-destruct.

Continuity[]

When Ian asks to use Barbara's cardigan in Episode 2, she sighs and says, "not again". The companions had unravelled another of her cardigans in The Space Museum.^[1]

Production[]

Terry Nation's original title for this story was The Pursuers.^[2] There were several changes made from his original proposal in the finished serial. In the original storyline, the TARDIS crew would witness on the visualiser Shakespeare discussing with his wife the possibility of allowing Francis Bacon to use his name on Bacon's plays, as well as a speech by Winston Churchill; Ian and Vicki would see through the sands the vast underground Aridian city; and Ian and Barbara would not return home to Earth at the end of the serial.^[3]

Some of the Daleks appearing in this serial were created by Shawcraft Models for the Dr. Who and the Daleks film in 1965. Although the plan had been to refurbish them to resemble the television Daleks, this proved to be impractical, and the three hired Daleks were used only in the background of shots.^[4] As The Chase was broadcast before the movie was released, this marks the first appearance of the movie Daleks.

The shots of Ian and Barbara on Earth in the final episode were made during shooting for the next story, The Time Meddler, and were directed by that serial's director, Douglas Camfield.^[5]

Cast notes[]

Hugh Walters later played Runcible in The Deadly Assassin (1976)^[6] and Vogel in Revelation of the Daleks (1985).^[7] He also played Roderick Allingham in the audio play The Fearmonger. Dennis Chinnery later played Gharman in Genesis of the Daleks (1975) and Sylvest in The Twin Dilemma (1984).^[8] Roger Hammond later played Dr. Runciman in Mawdryn Undead (1983) and Harold Withers in the audio play The Eternal Summer.

Morton Dill, the young man from Alabama whom the travellers meet at the top of the Empire State Building,^[9] was played by Peter Purves, who would appear in the last episode as Steven Taylor.^[10] Earlier drafts of the story used the names "Bruck" and "Michael" for the character of the captured astronaut, before settling on "Steven".^[4] The story also features the Beatles in a film clip. It was originally planned for the band to appear as themselves, but under heavy "ageing" make-up, to represent themselves in the future. However their manager, Brian Epstein, objected to their appearing on the programme.^[11] Thus, footage from the BBC chart show Top of the Pops of the group performing "Ticket to Ride" was used instead.^[4] This had the unintended effect of making The Chase (specifically, the episode "The Executioners") the only remaining source of any surviving Beatles footage from Top of the Pops, as the band's performances were one of many victims of the BBC's archive wipings.^[12]

Broadcast and reception[]

According to the BBC's Audience Research Report, contemporary reception of this serial was mostly positive. Though a significant minority found the "haunted house" action of the episode "Journey into Terror" ludicrous, most reported finding the episode very entertaining. The battle between the Daleks and Mechonoids in the final episode of the serial, "The Planet of Decision", was particularly well-received, with viewers describing it as "dramatic" and "full of adventure".^[15]

This is one of the few Dalek stories to incorporate humour, and is the only story to attempt comical performances from the Daleks, including a Dalek coughing as it emerges from the sand on Aridius, a stammering Dalek who cannot do simple mental arithmetic, three Daleks using their eyestalks to nod in agreement, a Dalek shouting 'Yarrgh!' as it tumbles off the Mary Celeste, and a Dalek getting annoyed with its subordinate.^[5] In 2009, Radio Times reviewer Patrick Mulkern described The Chase as "unashamedly childish and comic-strip in tone and pace", finding that the various contents of the episode were a mixed bag. He praised the Daleks and the first, second, and sixth episodes, but felt middle episodes were mixed, with "Journey into Terror" particularly disappointing.^[16] Nick Setchfield of SFX was critical of the serial, finding it better than The Space Museum "only because it's powered by a demented, ramshackle energy that never allows for boredom... or much in the way of logic or good taste". He acknowledged the "tacky entertainment" but wrote that "it's crushing to realise that this is the show that gave us the masterly 'An Unearthly Child' a mere two years before."^[17] Writing for Doctor Who Magazine, Graham Kibble-White disagreed with Mulkern's opinion of the Daleks, believing that the comedy undermined them. He also wrote that the serial "suffers from structural oddities", as well as the unconvincing double Doctor. However, Kibble-White praised the Mechonoids and the TARDIS crew, feeling that Ian and Barbara's departure "positively negates the preceding six episodes of tom-guffery".^[18] Both the premise of "Journey into Terror" and the Doctor duplicate were listed in SFX's "Doctor Who's 25 Silliest Moments".^[19]

The Chase has received some positive reviews. DVD Talk's John Sinnott praised the serial, writing that the story's unusual structure was to its benefit.^[20] Jonathan Wilkins of Dreamwatch likened the serial to pop art and felt that "only an utter grouch could dislike a Doctor Who story as zany and iconic as The Chase". He highlighted the character work concerning Ian and Barbara and the "sense of epic science fiction that is only slightly betrayed by the ever-present problems of budget".^[21] In 2012, SFX's Will Salmon listed the departure of Ian and Barbara as the eighth best companion departure.^[22]

Commercial releases[]

In print[]

The Chase

Author	John Peel
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	140
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	20 July 1989
ISBN	0-426-20336-4

A novelisation of this serial, written by John Peel, was published by Target Books in July 1989. It was the first of several Dalek story novelisations Peel would write after Target came to an agreement with Terry Nation's agent.

Because many of the changes made to Nation's original proposal were for timing and budgetary reasons, rather than artistic ones, Peel restored most of Nation's original ideas in his novelisation.^[23]

Home media[]

Cover of the 'mini-album' release

In 1966, audio of the final episode was edited together with new narration (provided by David Graham) and released on a 33 r.p.m. vinyl album by Century 21 Records in the UK and by Astor Records in Australia.

This story was released alongside Remembrance of the Daleks in a special Dalek tin set titled The Daleks: Limited Edition Boxed Set on VHS in 1993 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who. It was released in a DVD box set with The Space Museum on 1 March 2010. It is notable for having one shot regraded from "day" to "night" to match the surrounding footage by the Doctor Who Restoration Team. The Beatles' clip is not included in the Region 1 DVD.^[20] This serial was scheduled to be released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 138 on 16 April 2014.

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Terry Nation (writer), Richard Martin (director), Douglas Camfield, Verity Lambert (producer) (22 May – 26 June 1965). The Chase. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1.
• Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (2003). The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to DOCTOR WHO (2nd ed.). Surrey, UK: Telos Publishing. ISBN 1-903889-51-0.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: First Doctor

• The Chase at BBC Online
• Doctor Who Locations – The Chase

Target novelisation[]

• The Chase title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database