DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 33rd MEET-UP - THE EVIL OF THE DALEKS

Sunday 26th April 2015

Our last meet-up for this April AND it was also the last story of the first Troughton (sorry, Trout-Man) season.  This time we all met around Shaun's house.

What was lovely was that we were finishing the season how we started - with a Dalek story.
What wasn't so lovely was that we were missing a Mark (and still a Jim) and that most of this SEVEN-PARTER were missing.  Only episode 2 existed.

Photo 1: Smug-Shaun (holding the sign),
Laughy-Leigh (holding the mock-DVD cover) and Jaunty-Jason
(holding the Lost In Time Cover) around Shaun's house!

Still that didn't deter us and we decided to meet at 1 o' clock and watch the whole damn lot!
Episode 1's re-con started with Jamie and the Doctor looking for their missing TARDIS - they see it being driven off on the back of a lorry!  With a bit of investigating, which spills over to the existing Episode 2, they find the trail that leads to an antique shop that has many brand-new looking Victorian antiques.  Jamie states that they must be fakes but the Doctor disagrees and says they may be new-looking, but they are all genuine.  They also find half a photo of the Doctor!?  Wandering through to a back room they see the second half of the photo clamped down in a box - however, when Jamie lifts up the box, gas pumps out of the box knocking Jamie and the Doctor out....

Photo 2: Shaun (holding the Lost In Time Cover),
Leigh (holding the sign) and MJ
(holding the mock-DVD cover) around Shaun's house!

So when they both wake up they are in a very posh town house, however they are no longer in 1966 but in 1866 - in Victorian London!  We are here introduced to two Victorian gentlemen Theodore Maxtible (a fantastically bearded and slightly unhinged man) and Edward Waterfield (who owns the house) who say they had been playing around with static electricity in order to try and invent a time machine - sadly, for them, they seemed to invite trouble in the form of the Daleks!

The Daleks are there being quite sneaky - they are fed up with losing against the Doctor (and humans) and decide that Humans have some factor that the Daleks are missing!  They threaten to destroy the stolen TARDIS unless the Doctor helps them by conducting an experiment to isolate the "Human Factor" - not the X-Factor but a quality that the Daleks think is unique to human beings.  They seem to want it as they surmise it is THIS factor that has meant that the Daleks have never been able to defeat them.  So once the Doctor has isolated the Human Factor, he is to implant it into three Daleks, who will then become the precursors of a race of "super" Daleks!  They hold the upper hand as they say they have Jamie prisoner AND Edward Waterfield's daughter, Victoria.  So to help learn what the "Human-Factor" is the Daleks send an unknowing Jamie on a task to rescue Victoria where he encounters lots of obstacles and a giant, mute Turk called Kemel (who was ordered to find and fight Jamie).  I really liked Kemel (and his fez!) after initially fighting with Jamie he nearly falls off the roof - but Jamie saves him.  Kemel is confused by this but then gets a chance to save Jamie's life and they both work together to save Victoria.

Photo 3: Shaun (holding the Lost In Time Cover),
Leigh (holding the sign) and MJ
(holding the mock-DVD cover) around Shaun's house!

So we had a lot of re-cons to get through, but they were made easier to watch by having some computer animation AND some re-filmed bits of Daleks and the back of a girl pretending to be Victoria.  This all seemed to work well and not jar too much.

I also enjoyed the trip across time and space to revisit Skaro (the Dalek home-world) and meet the BOOMING voiced Dalek Emperor!  It's here the Human-factor Daleks start attacking the Emperor and the other Daleks - which results in the whole place blowing up - Sadly Kemel is killed by a "Dalekised" Maxtible - they both fall off a precipice together.

Of course the Doctor and Jamie manage to escape but not before Victoria's father, Edward, is killed saving the Doctor's life.  Before dying, he asks the Doctor to take care of Victoria.  So welcome along to our new assistant!  Like Jamie she's another assistant not from present day Earth - well present day fro back in the 60's!

Photo 4: Leigh (holds the mock-DVD cover) ready to
put it up Jason's bottom, around Shaun's house!

So that's that - yes it IS a long tale but there is much to like about the story.  The plot is a bit all over the place (and a tad stretched for 7 episodes) but there's a lot of imagination with it and some great sets.  Maxtable is a great villain - well he's not REALLY bad - he just wants to know how to turn base metal into gold and be rich!  He doesn't care who gets in the way of this pursuit!  He plays it all over the top with his UBER beard and mad eyebrows!  I think Jamie does very well on his own - solving puzzles, being brave etc.  I liked Kemel, the mute giant Turk guy - and not JUST because he wore a fez!  The Daleks are great being sneaky and I LOVED the child-like Daleks with the Human factor - they were quite creepy (spinning the Doctor around on them chanting: "DIZ-ZY DOC-TOR, DIZ-ZY DOC-TOR!").  The finale with the glorious Dalek Emperor was impressive - something that was actually filmed and kept so we could see the Daleks "Final End"....

Well, amazingly that's the end of our first season of the Second Doctor - the season most heavily hit by missing episodes.  Thankfully our next story is a four-parter that exists and sees the return of those pesky Cybermen!

So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 29-04-15


Extra.... Sunday 3rd May 2015 - Mark's Catch Up - with added Gavin!

Just as an extra Mark caught up with what he missed over the Bank Holiday weekend.  Gavin was also there so it felt like more of a group gathering!  I didn't get a chance to print a new sign - so had to stick new dates on an old sign!  Still at least we had a sign!  Anyhow I really enjoyed re-watching the story again and it seemed to go down well with the two chaps.  More importantly it means that we have all finished Season 1 of the Trout-Man.  Well all of us except our "& Jim".  I miss our "& Jim" - maybe he's become our very own Ian Chesterton!

 

Catch Up Photo 1: MJ and Mark lurk above Gavin around Mark’s house
for The Evil of The Daleks catch-up!

Catch Up Photo 2: Gavin and Mark around Mark’s house
for The Evil of The Daleks catch-up!