Line #33 Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2	'''First Doctor Era'''\
3	'''Season 2:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E1PlanetOfGiants 1]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth 2]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E3TheRescue 3]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans 4]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet 5]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade 6]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum 7]] \| '''8''' \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E9TheTimeMeddler 9]]\
4	'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild <<< Season 1]]''' \| '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 Season 3 >>>]]''']]-]]]
5	!The Chase
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chase_6664.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:The Main Event: Salt Shaker vs. Christmas Ornament]]
8	->Written by Creator/TerryNation\
9	Directed by Richard Martin\
10	'''Production code:''' R\
11	'''Air dates:''' 22 May - 26 June 1965\
12	'''Number of episodes:''' 6\
13	'''Episode titles:''' "The Executioners", "The Death of Time", "Flight Through Eternity", "Journey into Terror", "The Death of Doctor Who", "The Planet of Decision"
14
15	->''"Don't just stand there and scream, you little fool, run!"''
16	-->-- '''Ian Chesterton''' to '''Vicki''', speaking for a nation.
17
18	JustForFun/{{The one w\|ith}}here a Dalek gets sand in its britches. Or lack thereof.
19	----
20	Using the Space/Time Visualiser (a souvenir from last week's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum Space Museum]]"), the Doctor and friends watch Music/TheBeatles, then discover that there's a Dalek time machine on their tail.
21
22	In a chase through time and space, the TARDIS with the Daleks in hot pursuit lands on the desert planet Aridius, on top of the Empire State Building, on the deck of the ''[[GhostShip Mary Celeste]]'' -- the appearance of the Daleks causes the crew to abandon ship (wouldn't we all?) -- and a fairground haunted house. Despite good intentions, Team TARDIS fails to do anything at all to help any of the people they meet during this journey, although they do amuse a guy from Alabama.
23
24	They eventually end up on the jungle planet of Mechanus, where a group of robots called Mechanoids take the travellers prisoner. They were sent fifty years earlier to build a city ready for a human colony to arrive and take possession. The colonists never showed up, but the Mechanoids continue to defend the city in readiness. The Doctor and companions meet Steven Taylor, a traumatised human astronaut who has been the Mechanoids' prisoner for two years. (And who's played by the same actor as aforementioned Alabama guy.)
25
26	The Mechanoids and Daleks battle and mutual destruction ensues, with the Mechanoids getting a landslide victory. Meanwhile, the Doctor and his friends decide to escape by lowering themselves down 1500 feet from the prison using nothing but a length of cable. After sending Vicki down first (who's shaking and screaming and generally not a fan of heights), Barbara and Ian soon follow, but Steven runs back inside to rescue his only true friend: [[CompanionCube a stuffed panda bear named Hi-Fi]].
27
28	After the Daleks all die, Ian and Barbara decide to use the rather more reliable Dalek time machine to get home to 1960s London. The Doctor is very offended by their decision, but Vicki convinces him to help his friends regardless. The two teachers make it back home (albeit two years after they left), blow up the Dalek ship and proceed to traipse about London, playing with pigeons and statues and police boxes, overjoyed.
29
30	Steven Taylor stows away on the TARDIS, and is not discovered by the Doctor until [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E9TheTimeMeddler the following serial]].
31	-----
32	This serial holds the record for most companions in a single regular story in Classic Who, an honour it shares with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]" if you count Bret. It was eventually surpassed by the Tenth Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" in New Who in 2008. (The 20th anniversary special "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" technically features eleven returning cast members who'd played companions/supporting cast, though a few are just cameos, [[StockFootage one]] is stock footage, and within the story some are just illusions.)
33
34	The Mechanoids reappear 40 years later, in the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio play "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho065TheJuggernauts The Juggernauts]]".
35	----
36	!!Tropes:
37	* AllThereInTheScript: The three main pillars of the Mechanus forest set were referred to in the script as the "Gubbage Cones".
38	* BatScare: The first animatronic "threat" in the haunted house is a flock of bats.
39	* BigBad: The Black Dalek is the one who despatches the assassination squad after the TARDIS crew.
40	* BondOneLiner: After dispatching his Dalek-made mechanical duplicate...
41	-->'''The Doctor:''' Hmm. I must get a doctor.
42	* BriefAccentImitation: Ian impersonates a Dalek to freak Barbara out.
43	* {{Chronoscope}}: The Time-Space Visualiser.
44	* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Doctor's theory on the (supposedly?) House of Horrors. Although the Daleks clearly believe they're on Earth, their weapons ''do not seem to incapacitate supposedly "fun-fair" dummies'' and ''one of them even throws a Dalek upside down'' and ''make them run in fear''.
45	** SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: The Expanded Universe later included, somewhere between AuthorsSavingThrow[[invoked]] and a BrickJoke, a report that the company involved had been criticised for manufacturing gratuitously dangerous robots. (Whether this is canon or not remains to be seen.)
46	* ClassicalMovieVampire: The Doctor meets Dracula who looked just like the stereotype. Although, [[spoiler:in fact, the Doctor had only met a Dracula android. Seriously.]]
47	* ClipArtAnimation: Shots of the Daleks' time machine pursuing the TARDIS through the Vortex are clearly achieved by moving cardboard cut-outs of the two ships on a painted background.
48	* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: The Region 1 DVD release has two minutes cut from Episode 1 in order to avoid paying for the rights to include a short scene with Music/TheBeatles.
49	* ComicTrio: A truly bizarre example -- there's a permanently frustrated PointyHairedBoss Dalek, a [[TheDitz stupid Dalek who gets confused easily, stumbles over his words and falls over]] and a Dalek who is better at exterminating but is powerless to resist orders from his superiors.
50	* ContinuityNod:
51	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks Ian impersonating a Dalek]].
52	** Barbara protests when Ian destroys her cardigan [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum again]].
53	** Also, the fake Doctor telling Ian to kill the duplicate with a rock - like the Doctor almost did in on [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild the very first serial]].
54	** Ian quips that the trail he and Vicki finds at least isn't a pool of acid: one of the hazards encountered on "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet The Web Planet]]".
55	* CoolVersusAwesome: Daleks versus Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} and Main/{{Dracula}}!
56	* DeathOfAChild: A woman who jumped overboard on the ''Mary Celeste'' was carrying a baby. This is a case of ShownTheirWork. Among the people who disappeared from the ''Mary Celeste'' were the captain's wife and two year-old daughter. Note that the captain yells his wife's historically-correct name (Sarah) before he jumps overboard, presumably in a futile attempt to save his family.
57	* DudeNotFunny: Ian's rather impressive Dalek imitation was a rather poor joke. It's amazing the others laughed it off, instead of punching him out for it.
58	* EarlyInstalmentCharacterDesignDifference: This serial sees the final stage in the evolution of the Dalek design. It added the final vertical panels, conceived as solar panels for power collection (after being reliant on static electricity in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]] and limited-range radio dishes in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]]).
59	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Barbara and Ian finally arrive home after two years. At the time of the show's run, it would be assumed that this is a long time to be time-hopping and that they should have arrived sooner.
60	* EvilKnockoff: The Daleks' android version of the Doctor.
61	* EvilVersusEvil: Daleks vs the Mechanoids.
62	* FakeShemp: In a bizarre example of this trope, Creator/WilliamHartnell's regular body double Edmund Warwick was recruited to play the Daleks' android version of the Doctor later in the story. Unfortunately, the director didn't attempt to disguise the fact that Warwick didn't look anything like Hartnell from the ''front'', resulting in an effect somewhat akin to the body doubling from ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'' as the android changes from being played by Warwick to being played by Hartnell (and back) from shot to shot.
63	** Oddly, the concept may have worked had they just let Warwick be the Doctor and speak some lines - the reason for such being that the Daleks' technology was faulty, so their Doctor not only ends up calling Vicki "Susan" but his face doesn't actually resemble Hartnell's.
64	** Making things that much stranger, there's an occasion where the trope is actually carried out correctly -- Warwick plays the ''real'' Doctor at one point during the fifth episode (specifically, when the Doctor and Ian are carrying the unconscious Vicki into a cave), and unless you look very closely at the Doctor's face throughout the sequence you probably wouldn't realize that it was actually Warwick playing him.
65	* {{Flynning}}: The Doctor and the Robo-Doctor "duel" with their brolleys (umbrellas). Basically doing a SlapFight.
66	* FungusHumongous: Not only are there giant toadstools on Mechanus--they're walking, ''ejaculating'' giant toadstools.
67	* GhostShip: The ''Mary Celeste''.
68	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Steven.
69	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Apparently, the country boy tourist. Or he just thought the Daleks were completely ridiculous.
70	* HauntedHouse: Subverted, since it's really a closed funfair exhibit. The Doctor and company never learn this, and neither do the Daleks.
71	* HistoricalInJoke: The ''Mary Celeste'', again, as she really existed and really was a GhostShip.
72	* HongKongDub: Creator/WilliamHartnell voices the android double of the Doctor even in the scenes where the double is played by Warwick. Since the BBC's production methods at the time didn't allow for voices to be dubbed on in post-production, this meant that Hartnell had to record the robot's dialogue ahead of time, and the dialogue was dubbed in live during filming. Since Warwick didn't have any reference point for when the dialogue was being played, the dubbing is less than accurate.
73	* HostileAnimatronics: An animatronic FrankensteinsMonster (built for a funfair HauntedHouse) destroys a Dalek.
74	* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: Subverted. The Daleks have made a robot double of the Doctor, which he pulled the plug on. The travellers discuss having the Doctor pretending to be the robot, and conclude that it's an absurd idea because the Daleks should know that their own robot isn't working. The Doctor sneaks off in the middle of the conversation to do it anyway... and is caught in around five seconds.
75	* ImposterForgotOneDetail: The Doctor's duplicate gives itself away when it calls Vicki Susan.
76	* ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll: Subverted. From the way the others had been describing them, Vicki (who is from TheFuture) is surprised to hear Music/TheBeatles playing what she considers to be "classical music".
77	* ManEatingPlant: Mechanus is covered in them.
78	* MerchandiseDriven: Creator/TerryNation happily admitted that the Mechanoids were a deliberate attempt to replicate the Daleks from a merchandising perspective.
79	* MonsterMash: The haunted house's animatronic characters/creatures include Dracula, FrankensteinsMonster (two of him!), and a ghostly ScreamingWoman.
80	* MoodWhiplash: The story is mostly a ridiculous comedy with {{Slapstick}} and a ComicTrio of Daleks who don't seem all that threatening. The atmosphere is very loopy and comfortable. Then Ian and Barbara, two very, very loved companions who'd been there since the beginning of the series, realise they can use the Daleks' time-ship to return to their home time and inform the Doctor they're leaving, and he snaps at them both out of selfish grief. Creator/MaureenOBrien also really sells Vicki's sheer terror as she's forced to climb down a very large height to escape a burning building.
81	* NarratingTheObvious: The protagonists are chased through time by a group of Daleks in their own time machine and make a brief stop on a sailing ship, and when the Daleks show up they fight and kill the crew before resuming the chase. The camera then pan over the now deserted ship before stopping on the name plate, which reads "Mary Celeste". That's kinda funny, right? Cut to inside the TARDIS, where Ian tells Barbara that the ship was, in fact, the ''Mary Celeste''. Maybe the writers were afraid the audience looked away at the wrong moment.
82	* NewspaperDating: Ian & Barbara find out they’re (near enough) home by checking the windscreen of the nearest parked car to find its tax disc expires on New Year’s Eve 1965. (This is referenced in ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime'' when the audience is shown that it is 1966 by displaying a car's tax disc.)
83	* ObviousStuntDouble: Creator/WilliamHartnell's usual stunt double plays the Doctor's robot duplicate. With his face clearly visible on screen for literally minutes. And, inexplicably, in scenes where only one actor had to be around. He does look a lot like Hartnell, but not so much that they're not readily distinguishable.
84	* OptOut: Ian and Barbara, rather than continue with the Doctor, use the Daleks' time machine to return to their home time (or close to it).
85	* OutOfGenreExperience: Uniquely for a Dalek story, this is a straight-up comedy story with semi-sympathetic ComicTrio Daleks and almost no horror elements. It has outrageous comedy setpieces, {{Slapstick}}, a FakeAmerican[[invoked]] laughing at the Daleks, a subverted JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind in an amusement park, and a much rarer plot structure to usual as well (the characters go to a different location each episode, when almost every other Classic story kept them in the same location).
86	* PitTrap: Ian constructs one to catch the Dalek guarding the TARDIS in Episode 2.
87	* ReReleaseSoundtrack: One of the first scenes has the Doctor and his companions watching footage of Music/TheBeatles on the newly-acquired Time-Space Visualizer. The BBC released this serial on DVD in 2010 but has announced that outside of Region 2, the original footage will be replaced, as the BBC's licence to use the footage does not extend outside the UK.
88	* RobotMe: The Daleks' robot double of the Doctor, designed to assassinate the time travellers.
89	* SanDimasTime: The TARDIS and the Dalek time machine always arrive in the right order, despite the fact they travel through time. Ian and Barbara arrive in London two years after they left, after having travelled with the Doctor for two years.
90	* SelfOffence: Vicki knocks out Richardson, who has caught Barbara. Then Barbara and Vicki mistake Ian for a sailor.
91	* SimpletonVoice: One of the Daleks says "er..." a lot.
92	* SingleBiomePlanet: From what we see of both, this trope applies to Aridius (desert planet) and Mechanus (jungle planet).
93	* SternChase
94	* StockAudioClip: During the Daleks' fight with the Mechanoids, all the lines spoken by the Daleks are from earlier in the serial (in fact, mostly from their first scene in the first episode).
95	* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: Theme park robots in the "house of horrors" which are powerful enough to curb stomp Daleks without using any weapons but their bare hands. Of course, they are from the [[{{Zeerust}} far-flung era of 1996]], when constructing such powerful machines will surely be child's play. (Again, the ExpandedUniverse addresses the FridgeLogic[[invoked]] of ''theme park robots'' being that tough.)
96	* TapOnTheHead: Used by Vicki to knock out Richardson, [[SelfOffense and Ian]]. Oops!
97	* TitleDrop: Morton Dill asks the Doctor if they are filming some kind of chase for a movie. The Doctor responds. "Yes, it's The Chase."
98	* TonightSomeoneDies: "The Death of Doctor Who". The robot dies.
99	* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: Even when only speaking to each other, the Daleks talk about time in 'Earth minutes'.
100	* VisibleBoomMic: Not the boom mic, but Ian walks right into the camera's shadow when he and the Doctor are exploring the 'haunted house'.
101	* WackyAmericansHaveWackyNames: Morton Dill.
102	* WackyWaysideTribe: The Doctor is being followed by Daleks who have constructed their own TARDIS, and occasionally make pit-stops. When the Daleks first catch up to them on a desert planet, the setting and plot fit, but part 3 in particular is just two comedy setpieces (tourists on top of the Empire State Building, and people on the ''Mary Celeste'') stuck together, neither of which change anything about the Doctor's predicament - we just see the TARDIS crew first poke their heads out, chat to people and leave, followed by the Daleks showing up.
103	* WhamEpisode:
104	** It may seem like a comical and lesser Dalek story, but has major implications. The Daleks have created a time machine, so for the first time the Doctor's enemies can time travel and returning to the TARDIS no longer means safety. It's also the start of the deranged pepper-pots being able to show up anywhere or anywhen, allowing the Last Great Time War to happen. (Indeed, some people have theorised that [[WildMassGuessing this serial is actually the earliest appearance of the Time War]] in the series, and these Daleks are trying to take the Doctor out of the war seven lives early, commando-style.)
105	** It also saw the departure of Creator/WilliamRussell and Creator/JacquelineHill, marking the point where the series definitively transitioned from its original ensemble cast to RevolvingDoorCasting where Creator/WilliamHartnell as the Doctor was the only constant. Only one final leap lay ahead - the idea that you could [[TheNthDoctor recast the Doctor too...]]
106	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Alas, poor tourist.
107	----
108	->''"I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them. Silly old fusspots. Come along, my dear, it's... time we were off..."''

Context Recap / DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase