The Daleks

Series 1
Title - The Daleks
Production Code - B
Story # - 002

Episodes -
"The Dead Planet"
"The Survivors"
"The Escape"
"The Ambush"
"The Expedition"
"The Ordeal"
"The Rescue"

Doctor - 1st - William Hartnell

So...
now we are getting somewhere. Time AND Space. A different planet.
Seems we've landed on a planet in a forest that is petrified - more than that, everything from the trees and plants are made of stone. The carefullest touch is required to handle a flower, lest it crumble. Our first look at alien beauty.

*cue weird noise and Susan screaming*
*grabs ear plugs*

Love the food machine. A very real (and a really never discussed) necessity! 

While the Doctor is rather pompous and a bit of a bully, I like that he wanted to stay and investigate the empty city. Isnt that part of the whole point of time/space travel? To see stuff?

At the end of "The Dead Planet" we see Barbara being attacked by...something.

Say hello to the Daleks. 

They believe they are the race that should be living on the planet and that the others, the Thals, should be destroyed. But the Thals are pacifistic. They do not fight, but try to survive on the surface.

This is the classic struggle between races, one that doesn't fail to touch every genre of fiction. We know that the idea of aliens, the idea of other creatures that have the same types of values like we do - love, hope, family, peace - exist somewhere out there beyond our little star. All of these stories are metaphors for the class and race struggles that our world constantly faces.

The Daleks are also a metaphor for how each race sees itself. They believe they are the better race, that the Thals are the race that are mutated abominations. Yet to the Doctor and companions, and to the viewer, it is obvious that the still human-like Thals are not the mutations, but the creatures living in metal housings, the Daleks, are.  

The Thals want to try to work out a peace. But the Daleks are set on destruction. They plot an ambush for the Thals.

It takes convincing to make the Thals change their minds about needing to fight the Daleks. Ian has to threaten the Thals history records and then the people themselves before the agree to action. (The leader slugs Ian for the threat LOL)

"What is more important? To not fight and die or to fight and live?"

"My conclusions is this - there is no indignity in being afraid to die but there is a terrible shame in being afraid to live."

The Daleks want the anti radiation drugs for themselves but quickly discover once they have them that they need the radiation  to survive, and need more of it soon. But how to do that? Another neutron bomb...which will kill everyone on the surface. They eventually decide that will take too long...so lets just overload our nuclear reactors. 

It's interesting to note that according to the Thals histories they show the Doctor, they were once the warriors and have indeed gone through mutations and evolution but that evolution has come full circle and they are human-like again. (I laugh that Ian uses the word human when talking to the Thals about themselves. Must be that TARDIS jingo in them already, being able to speak the alien language ;) )

Side Note: At one point, while first being held by the Daleks, Susan, Barbara, Ian and the Doctor devise a plan to get escape. Part of which involves capturing a dalek, opening it up, removing the creature inside it, and then Ian GETTING INSIDE the hull/shell. My reaction - 

[[[[Really? You want to get in that thing Ian? After you saw what had been in it? YUCK!!]]]]

Because like in any story, the whole reason they all originally left the TARDIS was of course a ruse on the Doctor's part so of course the little part they had to "fix" gets taken from them so that when they escape they have to go back to get it or the TARDIS really won't work.

The Doctor, the companions, and the Thal decide to attack the city from two sides - head on attacking their ways of detection (and being a diversion) and the others going through a swamp and caves to attack from behind, which is undefended. Action ensues.

When at last the Doctor and Susan are captured by the Daleks while trying to mess up their lines of communication, he learns of their want to annihilate the Thal. Here we see the beginning of the Doctor's hate of the Daleks because of how hell bent they are on destruction and the beginnings of one of his greatest enemies.

They are of course able to stop the Daleks from causing their reactors to overload and leak the radiation. We have our first defeat of the Daleks. It wont be the last.

So ok I guess I really am a current tv viewer. The whole thing felt a bit long to me. Seven, 25 minute episodes could've and these days would have probably been a tighter story, if they even did the schedule that way. Though it is nice to have this format of one episode leading to another, so unlike most shows of today. 

The Daleks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daleks