DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 27th MEET-UP - THE POWER OF THE DALEKS (PARTS 3-6)

Sunday 8th February 2015

So another Sunday and we were sadly lacking in the "J Department" - for both Jim AND Jason couldn't make it.  This was a shame for Jason as it meant that I'm the only one to have not missed a single meet-up!  So I win!

Yay me


Anyhow we had the final 4 re-cons of "The Power Of The Daleks" to watch!  A lot of us had been out the night before celebrating Leigh's Girlfriend's Niece's 18th Birthday (keep-up with me!).  So lots of drink was consumed and we'd even been to a nightclub for a boogie - well actually a lot of the music was rubbish so there wasn't much boogieing!

All this made us very up for watching 4 episodes of still photos, muffled audio and written descriptions as to what was going on....!

Photo 1: Leigh (with the DVD cover),
Mark (holding the sign) and Shaun around Shaun's house.

That maybe a little unfair as The Power Of The Daleks is a fun story.  We start in episode 3 with the Doctor trying to convince the Governor of Vulcan that the Daleks are dangerous.  He however ignores his pleas - thinking how useful the Daleks would be as servants and says that Lesterson can continue his experiments.  The Doctor quietly vows that he will stop the Daleks.  We then learn that it was the Deputy Governor, Quinn, who had called the Earth and brought asked for the Examiner to help deal with the rebels.  The Head of Security, Bragen, dismisses this as nonsense and says that Quinn is in league with the rebels.  The Governor agrees and imprisons Quinn and promotes Bragen to deputy.

Bragen has also been meeting secretly with Janley (the only lady on the base (so it seems) and one of Lesterson's assistants).  She's the one who brought the Daleks to Bragen's attention and mentions that they could be used to overthrow the Governor and take over the colony - it turns out she's the rebel leader.  Bragen agrees but we can all see he's a sneaky one (he's a bad man (not Batman!)) and will be trying to take over himself - using the Daleks.  It didn't work with Mavic Chen, mate, but feel free to try!

So we then follow the next few episodes with Dalek sneakiness, lots of death, a kidnapped Polly and lots of recorder playing by the Doctor.  I did like Bragen and his badness but another performance I enjoyed was Lesterson the scientist who thinks the Daleks are a force that can be used for good - but he slowly unwinds, becoming quite deranged, as he realises that the opposite case is true!  He tries to stop them by limiting their power but that doesn't work with Janley and Bragen working against him.  The Daleks soon create their own source of power - a ring of power that surrounds the base giving them the static electricity they need to move.  The story ends with the Doctor sabotaging that and meaning the Daleks lose their power - but so does the base!  It will apparently take months to repair!
With that in mind the Doctor suggests to Ben and Polly that they'd better leave "before they send us the bill," and they hurriedly sneak away back to the TARDIS.

Photo 2: Leigh (with the DVD cover),
Mark (holding the sign) and Shaun around Shaun's house.

So that was the first Troughton/Trout-Man story.  Such a shame it doesn't exist in full-moving form as it looked like it would be a really good classic.  Still there were enough moving clips and good performances to keep the interest from waning and I DO like this new Doctor - he's cheeky, fun and you never know what he's quite up to - and are never sure if he knows either!

I seem to have lost the photos of me AT this meeting!  So I got some taken at Mark's the next time I got Leigh to pose as one of Shaun's cats - I think he does a grand job!

Photo 3: Leigh poses as one of Shaun's cats
(to give the illusion that we're still at Shaun's house
and not at Mark's!) with MJ (holding the sign and DVD cover).

Photo 4: A second shot of Leigh posing as one of Shaun's cats
(to give the illusion that we're still at Shaun's house
and not at Mark's!) with MJ (holding the sign and DVD cover).

Anyhow more re-cons next time - but until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 09-02-15