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1[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2'''First Doctor Era'''\
3'''Season 3:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 1]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissionToTheUnknown 2]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E3TheMythMakers 3]] | '''4''' | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre 5]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk 6]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker 7]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters 8]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages 9]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines 10]]\
4'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E1PlanetOfGiants <<< Season 2]]''' | '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers Season 4 >>>]]''']]-]]]
5!The Daleks' Master Plan
6[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TDMP_7211.jpg]]
7[[caption-width-right:350:The Doctor receives some troubling news: [[MissingEpisode most of this story got junked]].]]
8->Written by Creator/TerryNation[[note]]parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7[[/note]] and Creator/DennisSpooner[[note]]parts 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12[[/note]]\
9Directed by Creator/DouglasCamfield\
10'''Production code:''' V\
11'''Air dates:''' 13 November 1965 - 29 January 1966\
12'''Number of episodes:''' 12\
13'''Episode titles:''' "The Nightmare Begins", "Day of Armageddon", "Devil's Planet", "The Traitors", "Counter Plot", "Coronas of the Sun", "The Feast of Steven", "Volcano", "Golden Death", "Escape Switch", "The Abandoned Planet", "Destruction of Time"
14
15->''Your ideas are too narrow, too crippled. I am a citizen of the Universe, and a gentleman to boot.''
16-->--'''The Doctor''', who, as we've already seen, is anything but gentlemanly
17
18JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor completely demolishes the fourth wall.
19
20Also the one where Creator/NicholasCourtney [[RecastAsARegular shows up early]].
21----
22
23A 12-episode monster (and the second longest story ever at ''five hours long''), which begins with the TARDIS arriving on the planet Kembel and meeting Bret Vyon of the Space Security Service. Vyon is looking for Marc Cory, one of the men killed in the teaser "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissionToTheUnknown Mission to the Unknown]]". Together, they discover that the Daleks plan to use the "Time Destructor" to conquer the Solar System.
24
25They report this to Mavic Chen, "Guardian of the Solar System" (i.e. Leader of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire) but it turns out he's in league with the Daleks and he sends SSS agent Sara Kingdom after Vyon and the travellers. The Doctor has meanwhile managed to steal the Taranium core of the Time Destructor, putting a spanner in the works.
26
27Katarina is killed early in Episode 4, spacing herself along with her captor in order that the Doctor should not be forced to give in to his demands. Whether she knew what she was doing, or simply pulled the wrong lever, remains a RiddleForTheAges. Sara Kingdom shoots Bret Vyon (her brother) before making a HeelFaceTurn and joining the TARDIS crew as a companion.
28
29Episode 7 interrupts the action for Christmas Day, in which the TARDIS materialises on a film set, the cue for much silent comedy with Chaplin and the Keystone Kops, before Steven points out that they missed Christmas. The Doctor produces a bottle of champagne and Steven wishes him a Merry Christmas-- the Doctor then shatters the FourthWall by looking straight out of the camera and wishing "a Happy Christmas to all of you at home".
30
31En route, we also revisit the Meddling Monk who managed to get his TARDIS's dimensional control back in working order since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E9TheTimeMeddler the last time we saw him]], and the Doctor "borrows" another bit from his TARDIS to help his own function more predictably.
32
33In the end, the Doctor turns the Time Destructor on the Daleks, and saves the day again, but at a terrible price: Sara Kingdom sacrifices her life, all the villains die, and even the planet Kembel itself is destroyed. The Doctor and Steven watch it all in horror...
34----
35Incidentally, Bret Vyon was played by Creator/NicholasCourtney, while his sister Sara Kingdom was Creator/JeanMarsh. They would be reunited in the 1989 serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield Battlefield]]"... where Jean Marsh's character boasted to Nicholas Courtney's character that "the next time we meet, I shall kill you." Considering that this story was set millennia after "Battlefield"...
36
37Only Episodes 2, 5 and 10 remain (alongside a couple of short clips from Episodes 1, 3, and 4), and the Christmas episode in particular is almost certainly the one and only ''irretrievably'' lost episode, as no copy was ever made of it -- the episode was designed to be an interlude that was incidental to the rest of the story, as it was felt nobody would be watching on Christmas Day, and the story was offered for sales overseas as an 11-parter. The show's restoration team speculated that a routine telecording ''could'' exist in the absence of instructions to not make one (which was how the unaired {{Pilot}} Episode version of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild "An Unearthly Child"]] survived), but the odds of this are slim.
38
39It holds several records: longest Classic serial ever[[note]]Except for "The Trial of a Time Lord", though that's technically a season-long arc despite being labelled on-screen as one serial -- each individual story had a separate production code, internal title, and director. In terms of total running time, "Master Plan" was surpassed in 2021 by the 6-part epic "Flux", which clocks in at 5 hours and 24 minutes. Even then, some argue that "Master Plan" is really a ''seventeen''-episode serial, starting with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissiontotheUnknown Mission To The Unknown]]" and with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E3TheMythMakers "The Myth Makers"]] as a BreatherEpisode for the longer arc. In those days, remember, every episode was individually titled and serial titles were purely internal production affairs. For viewers in the Sixties the show was just a single running serial called ''Doctor Who'', so this is more true to how they would have seen it. Some even consider [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre "The Massacre"]] as the final part or epilogue of a season-long MythArc about the Doctor and Steven being faced with constant loss and bittersweet victories.[[/note]], the first almost-companion with Bret Vyon, the first appearance of series regular Nicholas Courtney as part of the cast ([[RecastAsARegular long before his casting as the more iconic Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart]]), the first, second and third (if you count Bret) TARDIS companion deaths, and others.
40----
41!!Tropes:
42* ActionGirl: Agent Sara Kingdom.
43* AdaptationExpansion: There are a number of prose and audio stories set between the seventh and eighth episodes of the serial, as the Doctor, Steven and Sara get into various misadventures while trying to shake the Dalek pursuit.
44* AffablyEvil: The Monk, standing out in a cast with lots of ObviouslyEvil LargeHam villains. He's perfectly pleasant to the Doctor and his companions at every turn, until the time comes when it benefits him to betray them. And even then, the worst he does is get while the gettin's good, leaving them to the Daleks.
45* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Painfully subverted in Episodes 4 and 12, hilariously subverted in Episode 7.
46* AmbiguousSituation: Given her limited understanding of the situation around her, it's left unclear if Katarina's death was a fluke or if she intentionally pulled a HeroicSacrifice by opening the airlock. Even the Doctor and Steven aren't sure what to think of it, with Steven thinking it must have been an accident while the Doctor believes it was deliberate.
47* AntiHero: Bret Vyon is rather grizzled and TriggerHappy, and working for a fascistic organization clearly modelled on the Nazi SS. In any other story, he'd likely be the Doctor's enemy.
48* AnyoneCanDie: Sara, Katarina and Bret [[EverybodyDiesEnding along with most of the minor characters.]]
49* ApocalypseHow: Kembel suffers a Class 6, being reduced to a lifeless dustball by the effects of the Time Destructor.
50* AppliedPhlebotinum: Cactic power.
51* ArtisticLicencePhysics: Bret Vyon is restrained in a magnetic chair. As ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' said about [[Film/ThisIslandEarth another movie]], "And if your hands were metal that would mean something."
52* AscendedExtra: Sara Kingdom only appears in this story, but she is regarded as a companion by some traditionalist fans and reference guides because of the extremely long length of the serial and the fact she gets to travel in the TARDIS. [[note]](The "anyone who travels in the TARDIS is a companion" rule was developed during this era of the show because there was very rarely any TARDIS travel inside stories. Later generations of fans would be more dubious about it because of ludicrous results like [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath Duggan]] or the platoon of Cybermen who hijack the TARDIS in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E1AttackOfTheCybermen Attack of the Cybermen]]".)[[/note]] The Expanded Universe depicts her having further adventures with the Doctor and Steven that take place during this story, more solidly cementing her place.
53* AsideGlance: A ''Dalek'' manages to do this - Mavic Chen is spiralling into a VillainousBreakdown and a Daleks confronts him about his incompetence. Chen rants impotently at it and then slaps the Dalek in the eyestalk. The Dalek flails around in confusion for a second, briefly fixing the camera with its eyestalk as if to ask "Can you believe he did that?" It's a real testament to the skills of the Dalek operators that they could pull this off.
54* TheAtoner: After Sara kills her own brother and realizes she has been working for the BigBad all along, she transitions into a more normal ActionGirl.
55* BadHabits: The Meddling Monk is still dressed as a monk, even though he gains no advantage by doing so.
56* BatmanGambit: The Doctor saves Steven from a dangerous force field by ''tricking the Daleks into shooting him '''only once'''''. He even lampshades that it was fortunate they didn't get a second clean hit.
57* BigBad: The Dalek Supreme leads the forces on Kembel.
58* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: The Doctor is rather disoriented by 20th-21st Century events without his companions' knowledge regarding history; it does allow for an easier way to [[RuleOfFunny introduce comedic situations]], especially in Episode 7.
59* {{Blooper}}: In-universe. The Doctor, Sara, and Steven are responsible for a few in various silent films during Episode 7.
60* BreakingTheFourthWall: "The Feast of Steven" ends with the Doctor wishing everyone at home a Happy Christmas. (This was a common practice for festive TV programmes, even drama series, at the time.)
61* CanOnlyMoveTheEyes: Steven gets locked in a forcefield. How much movement he had is unclear without surviving footage, but the Doctor uses him to hand off a fake plot device to the Daleks, who naturally tried to exterminate him. It turns out a direct hit from a Dalek DeathRay was [[{{Pun}} just what the Doctor ordered]] to break the forcefield and free him.
62* CharacterDevelopment: This serial basically established the Daleks to what they are today.
63* ChewingTheScenery:
64** While it's not extreme overacting in the context of ''Doctor Who'' overacting, Steven's behaviour during Katarina's death scene deserves an honourable mention as it saved the clip from being consigned to the same MissingEpisode oblivion as the rest of the serial. Creator/PeterPurves played Steven and became a ''Series/BluePeter'' presenter later. To celebrate a ''Doctor Who'' anniversary, a clip of this scene was played so the other ''Blue Peter'' presenters could tease him about his Scenery Chewing. This clip is the only portion of Episode 4 that still exists.
65** Creator/KevinStoney in the last episode Chen appears.
66* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The Monk does this to everyone he can, Daleks, Egyptians, and time travellers alike. The Doctor and Steven are well aware of it and don't give him an ounce of trust, though Sara is more sympathetic initially.
67* ChristmasEpisode: Purely by chance, though. At the time, it was assumed that people would be celebrating with their loved ones in traditional style and not [[TheNewRockAndRoll wasting their time watching the idiot box]], so rather than doing any special Christmas scheduling the BBC simply broadcast whatever would have been on normally that day of the week, with a Christmas twist. This was why the Christmas episode was so disconnected from the rest of the plot: it was assumed only the lonely or misanthropic would be watching. This means that it is a missing episode which will almost certainly ''never'' be recovered, as it was excluded from international sales and the serial was offered as an 11-parter instead.
68* CoolShip: The SPAR, both [=TARDISes=], and the Dalek time ship.
69* ContinuityNod: The Doctor suggests for Earth to recall [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth the 2157 invasion]] in order to realise the danger from the Daleks.
70* ConvenientlyClosePlanet: Desperus just happens to be on the Kembel - Earth route.
71* CrazyEnoughToWork: When the Steven, Sara and the Monk get ambushed by Chen and the Daleks -- leaving all three in a sticky spot, but the Monk worst of all, as he had promised to retrieve the taranium core -- the Monk hastily claims that he brought Steven and Sara as hostages. While Chen is clearly dubious about this claim, he decides that it's worth a try. The trope then gets turned up to eleven, as this hasty suggestion from the Monk actually ends up being what ends up getting the core back, as the Doctor ends up having to hand it over to save the lives of his companions.
72* DarkActionGirl: Sara is initially presented as this.
73* DarkerAndEdgier: This is a very dark story compared to the previous Dalek serial. In fact, with the arguable exception of the following story, it may well be the darkest story of the entire Hartnell era.
74* DeathByIrony: Mavic Chen.
75* DeathWorld: The jungle planet Kembel is apparently the most dangerous planet in the Universe. We don't see much of this, though it is seen after the Daleks get there and start using Varga plants. Of course, the Daleks could have cleared away a lot of the danger.
76* DontTouchItYouIdiot: Katarina, as described above.
77* DownerEnding: The Daleks' defeat does little to brighten the mood. The Solar System is saved, but nearly everyone except the Doctor and Steven died, including two of the Doctor's companions and the entire planet of Kembel.
78-->'''The Doctor:''' What a waste...What a terrible waste.
79* DressingAsTheEnemy: The Doctor infiltrates the conference by disguising himself as Zephon, one of the delegates.
80* EverybodyDiesEnding: Most of the principal guest cast bite it -- including two companions!
81* EverythingInSpaceIsAGalaxy: Much of the story is set at an Intergalactic Conference, with the Outer Galaxies allied with the Daleks.
82* EvilCannotComprehendGood: It's inconceivable to Mavic Chen that the Doctor is trying to ''stop'' the Daleks; he can only accept that the Doctor is trying to usurp his place in the alliance to conquer the universe.
83* EvilVersusEvil: Of the Unholy Alliance to take over the Universe, at least the Daleks, Chen, and ''his adviser'' are all suffering from ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and are all ready to take over the others as well to rule the Universe alone. Anyone else involved and not chronic backstabbers (which the Daleks seem to equate and/or confuse with power-hunger) and with enough power to seem like a hindrance in one of the bigger schemer's way will risk a quick death.
84** In "Counter Plot", Daleks vs. Monsters (which are strongly said to be ''not'' {{Gentle Giant}}s but ferocious creatures) Daleks wipe out all who dare approach them, though not without their moments of panic.
85* FailedASpotCheck: The Doctor forgets to fully close the airlock door, thus allowing Kirksen to sneak aboard and take Katarina hostage.
86* FakeShemp: Edward De Souza wasn’t brought in for Marc Cory’s message recording, so it ends up sounding completely different to the one given in ''Mission to the Unknown''.
87* FakinMacGuffin: At one point, the Doctor manages to get away from the Daleks by handing over a fake version of the taranium core they're chasing him for.
88* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The Daleks activate a time-altering superweapon which almost kills the Doctor, and ages Sara from a beautiful young woman into an old woman, then into a mummified corpse, a skeleton, and then to dust. Steven then puts the weapon into reverse, which causes the Daleks to de-age into foetuses, which eject from their cases, flop about, and die.
89** Katarina's death was followed by a shot of her lifeless body floating in space (although the surviving clip of her death ends before this can be seen and it is probably lost to time unless the episode ever turns up).
90* {{Filler}}: "The Feast of Steven" was intentionally meant as filler since it was thought nobody would be watching on Christmas Day, and viewers would be lost if the plot advanced in their absence.
91* ForgottenFallenFriend: Katarina. After her death in Episode 4, the only time she's mentioned again is at the very end of Episode 12.
92* GambitPileup: Mavic Chen must contend with the Daleks, the Meddling Monk, ''and'' the Doctor. (And, in theory, the Outer Galaxies representatives, but they have, by this time, had a collective HeelFaceTurn.)
93* AGodAmI: Mavic Chen declares himself ruler of the Universe and claiming to be immortal.
94* GodGuise: Katarina thinks the Doctor is the god Zeus and the strange worlds they travel through are the Afterlife. The Doctor is not happy and neither were the writers - given the difficulty of writing a character who fails to have at least a basic understanding of her situation (not to mention a [[SarcasticDevotee healthy skepticism]] about the Doctor), she was quickly bumped off - the first companion to get killed and the last for some time.
95* AHandfulForAnEye: Steven blinds a Dalek by smearing a handful of mud onto its eye stalk.
96* HeroesFightBarehanded: Sara loses her gun shortly after her introduction, but fights just as well without it in subsequent episodes.
97* HeroicSacrifice: Katarina, Bret, and Sara.
98* HistoricalPersonPunchline: In the midst of the Hollywood chase sequence, the Doctor helps a clown commiserate the fact that all of the best gags have been done by Chaplin. When the suggestion he leave comedy and go into music comes up, the clown asks “Who would listen to a singer with the name Music/BingCrosby?”
99* HostageSituation: Happens three times, and the Doctor only manages to save the situation once.
100* HostageForMacGuffin: Twice, but the first time is a subversion.
101* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Desperus, the titular “Devil’s Planet”. It’s a penal colony.
102* INeverSaidItWasPoison: The Doctor realizes that Daxtar is a traitor because he knows that the Daleks' doomsday device requires a core of taranium even though the Doctor never mentioned it.
103* InsaneTrollLogic:
104** Chen thinking the Doctor just wants his place next to the Daleks. Hey, after his VillainousBreakdown, he went insane, so that's a bit of an excuse.
105** The Egyptian's ''[[SarcasmMode marvellous]]'' BatDeduction that [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Daleks]] are [[RightForTheWrongReasons not their Gods]] because ''they speak in notions they can't comprehend''. Because, you know, if your Gods would decide to talk to, say, other Gods right above you, they'd be ''speaking your language and in terms you understand'', right?
106** Kirksen demanding to be taken to Kembel where he thinks the Daleks will help him, simply because [[EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily they are villains and so is he]].
107* {{Interquel}}: The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse adds a number of Doctor/Steven/Sara adventures between Episode 7 ("The Feast of Steven") and Episode 8 ("Volcano").
108* InvisibleMonsters: The Visians.
109* ISurrenderSuckers: The Doctor pulls this twice over the Daleks, first time probably knowing that the natives will distract the Daleks, and the second time as a BatmanGambit to free Steven from the choking shield.
110* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Kert Gantry. He's absolutely insistent on the point.
111* {{Jerkass}}: Mavic Chen. None of the other delegates attempted to sell out ''their'' people. Zephon points this out.
112* KarmaHoudini: Mavic Chen's advisor, Karlton. He conspired with Chen to betray humanity to the Daleks, but nothing happens to him. With not only Chen dead, but also every human from this time period who knew about Chen's treachery, it's even possible [[FridgeHorror Karlton succeeds Chen as Guardian of the Solar System]].[[invoked]] (The novelisation fixes this in a particularly satisfying way, as the tape recorded by Marc Corey way back in "Mission to the Unknown" is recovered from the body of Bret Vyon, exposing the plot and ensuring Karlton's arrest).
113** Sara Kingdom kills her own brother, yet the Doctor allows her to become a companion. Certainly, later incarnations would never have allowed this.
114* KilledOffForReal: Although the characters of Katarina and Sara were only with the series for a handful of episodes each, they are nonetheless considered officially companions of the Doctor. Both die during the course of this story, making them the first companions to be killed on the show -- and the last until Adric dies in the 1980s.
115* LanternJawOfJustice: Bret could cut through steel with his.
116* LargeHam: Mavic Chen slowly descends into this as his grip on sanity loosens.
117* LegionOfDoom: The Daleks and the Galactic Council.
118* MacGuffin: The Time Destructor's core.
119* MasqueradingAsTheUnseen: The Doctor sneaks into a meeting between the Daleks and their allies by disguising himself as a delegate whose style of clothing was black, face-covering robes.
120* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Discussed and dismissed when Steven does something stupid that traps him in a force field that incidentally wards off ''one Dalek shot''. He quickly wishes to turn this ''[[TooDumbToLive to cover the entire TARDIS]]'', to which the Doctor tells him it's a stupid and dangerous idea.
121* MistakenForSpecialGuest: During the Hollywood interlude in "The Feast of Steven", Steven is mistaken for one of the Keystone Kops and the Doctor is mistaken for Professor Webster, an expert on Arabian culture.
122* MoodWhiplash: At the end of Episode 6, the Doctor and company escape from the Daleks, having rendered their doomsday weapon useless, and go off for a fun Christmas episode involving Hollywood producers and Liverpool policemen and...hang on, the Daleks are back. Is this still the same story?
123* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: When Sara and Steven are fighting off two guards, she takes care of the one attacking her before stepping in to finish off the one attacking Steven, all without breaking a sweat.
124-->'''Sara:''' Not bad. Remind me to teach you a few tricks sometime.\
125'''Steven:''' Remind ''me'' not to pick a fight with you.
126* NervesOfSteel: Even in a crisis, Sara carries on with her duty, such as when she continues to calmly relay information when the trio's escape ship is being pulled back by the Daleks.
127* NeverMyFault: Zephon blames the Doctor's infiltration of the conference (while disguised as him) on everyone but himself. Nobody buys it and the Daleks promptly kill him.
128* NewYearHasCome: Episode 8, "Volcano", aired on New Year's Day and is a milder case of what was done with Episode 7. The Daleks are in it this time, but only briefly, to establish that they are sending a task force out to recover the Taranium. The bulk of the episode is a light encounter with the Monk to reintroduce him for his role in the Egyptian episodes and is bookended by comedy visits to a Test Match at The Oval and the New Year festivities in Trafalgar Square.
129* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Bret tries this with Kert Gantry, who refuses to go along with it.
130* NotDistractedByTheSexy: When the Doctor wanders onto a Hollywood shoot and is immediately mistaken for the history consultant, he is asked by the director what he thinks of the scantily-clad Arabian princess' costume. His response? To tell her she looks ridiculous and order her to "Put some more clothes on, child."
131* OhCrap: ''Everyone'' at some point or other.
132* OutGambitted: Mavic Chen.
133* PenalColony: Desperus. The Earth authorities don't even bother with niceties such as cells or guards - they just dump the prisoners on the surface and let them fend for themselves.
134* PermaStubble: Bret's goes nicely with his chin and his general space hero aesthetic.
135* PerpetualFrowner: Sara, as befits her strait-laced, efficient demeanour.
136* ThePlan: It's hinted that Mavic Chen is trying this against the Daleks.
137* PlantAliens: The Varga plants make a re-appearance.
138* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: The Doctor tells an actress portraying an Arabian princess to cover herself up.
139* ThePlotReaper: Katarina was killed off because her gimmick (a Trojan priestess who believed the Doctor to be Zeus and for herself to be dead) was felt by the writers to be virtually unworkable, as she was far too uneducated even to understand explanations comprehensible to the 1960s audience.
140* PresidentEvil: Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System.
141* PuttingOnTheReich: Space Security (SS) - black uniformed soldiers who kill without questioning their orders.
142* TheQuisling: Mavic Chen plots with the Daleks and delegates from the Outer Galaxies to take over Earth, while planning to [[TheStarscream betray the Daleks]] and take control of the Universe. The fact he is the only one of the delegates who is betraying their world is pointed out by Zephon, who calls him [[EvenEvilHasStandards the supreme traitor]]. There is also the head of the SSS, Karlton, who may be planning to betray Chen.
143* RapidAging: How Sara is killed by the Time Destructor.
144* ReplacedWithReplica: Having stolen the taranium core from the Daleks, the Doctor builds a replica so he can hand it to the Daleks and let them think they've won.
145* RockBeatsLaser: Ancient Egyptians trap the Red Dalek with rocks.
146* RoundRobin: Episodes 5-8 are written by alternating authors (Creator/TerryNation, Dennis Spooner, Nation, Spooner).
147* RubberForeheadAliens: The Teknix, which look human but have no hair or eyebrows.
148* SamusIsAGirl: Mavic Chen and his aide decide to call out their toughest Space Security Agent to apprehend the Doctor and company. It takes several scenes before we establish that "Kingdom"'s full name is "Sara Kingdom".
149* SanitySlippage: Mavic Chen. Not immediately evident but by the time of his death he has completely lost it.
150* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: More specifically, SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfMass. Putting aside individuals claiming to rule entire galaxies, multiple galaxies joining up to conquer a single star system is nothing less than massive overkill. A throwaway line suggests the Hand Wave that Earth exhibits influence beyond its normal sphere, but militarily it's never described as anything but the "solar system". Probably why it gets changed in this story to conquering the known universe, starting with the solar system.
151* ShooOutTheNewGuy: Katarina's death, due to the writers finding her FishOutOfTemporalWater nature too difficult to write for. Apparently, her death scene was the first thing her actress filmed.
152* ShootTheHostage: More accurately, [[HeroicSacrifice The Hostage Shoots Herself]].
153* SiblingMurder: Bret Vyon is killed by Sara Kingdom, who is later revealed to be his sister, on the orders of Mavic Chen.
154* SmugSnake: Delegate Zephon.
155** The whole crukking council, to various extents.
156* SoundtrackDissonance: Not in the story, but on the ''Daleks: The Early Years'' VHS. At the time it came out, Creator/TheBBC apparently did not have the audio of Episode 1, and so the surviving trims from that episode were accompanied by "[[Music/TheGoGos I'm Gonna Spend my Christmas with a Dalek]]".
157* SpacePolice: The Space Security Service or "SSS": a military force whose purpose is to gather intelligence on behalf of the Solar System and when necessary, eliminate threats to that safety.
158* SssssnakeTalk: Zephon has a distinctly sibilant hiss when he speaks.
159* TheStarscream: Mavic Chen is working with the Daleks but plans to overthrow them, though the Daleks exterminate him when they don't need him anymore.
160* SternChase: Most of the middle episodes.
161* StupidSacrifice: With flavours of SenselessSacrifice (Katarina) and YetAnotherStupidDeath (Sara). There were rather easy ways to avoid these deaths: they could have taken the prisoner to wherever he wanted or to where they wanted without much trouble or delay and even take him along on their quest; Bret almost made things worse by getting himself killed - and this mostly by his fault too, apparently going for Sara's gun, which means she was just defending her position; Sara herself going to rescue the Doctor was reckless and useless. Of course, each had their motivations (Katarina saw the Doctor as a sort of God and would do anything for him, Bret was fighting for his race and the Universe, and Sara probably wanted to save the man that helped her brother she didn't believe and killed) and it all ended in saving the Universe (this time, at least) from the Daleks, but it could have worked with fewer or no deaths.
162-->'''The Doctor:''' What a waste... What a terrible waste.
163* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Played straight, but quickly subverted. An Egyptian thinks the Daleks' voices are from the Gods, but a sort of leader [[InsaneTrollLogic reasons that Gods would only talk for]] [[PunyEarthlings humans]] to [[InsaneTrollLogic understand, and as such are not Gods]] but [[BatDeduction invaders with metal armour]].
164* TapOnTheHead: Steven knocks out Bret with a wrench.
165* ThickerThanWater: Not this time.
166* ThrownOutTheAirlock: How the hostage shoots herself.
167* TimeshiftedActor: When Sara Kingdom gets aged to death by the Time Destructor, Jean Marsh's mid-stage ageing is created with extensive makeup but the fully-aged version of her is played by May Warden.
168* {{Transflormation}}: The Varga Plants, the thorns of which contain poison that transforms victims into other Varga Plants, return.
169* TranslatorMicrobes: While the TARDIS has a translation circuit, the Daleks' time machine is an aversion; the Egyptians hear Mavic Chen's ultimatum as the Second-Great-and-Bountiful-ese he speaks.
170* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: Mavic Chen tells the council of Daleks and delegates that it has taken "fifty Earth years" to acquire the taranium for the core of the time destructor.
171* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: When the TARDIS briefly materialises during a sports match, the commentators spend more time discussing how its appearance will affect the outcome of the game than the fact that a police box appeared in the field out of nowhere.
172* UnwittingPawn: The Council delegates.
173* VillainHasAPoint: When Steven and Sara call out the Monk for the suggestion to use them as hostages, the Monk retorts by pointing out that if he hadn't made that suggestion, there would have been a far greater chance of Chen and the Daleks just killing them. While it's clear that his main motivation was saving his own skin, Sara has to acknowledge that he has at least something of a point.
174* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Mavic Chen, so much that his minions virtually worship him.
175* VillainousBreakdown: Chen goes insane at the realisation that the Daleks don't need him either and his mind concocts the paranoid idea that the Doctor doesn't want to destroy the Daleks, but ''[[InsaneTrollLogic wants to hand over the MacGuffin and rule in Chen's place]]'', followed by...
176* WasItReallyWorthIt: Discussed by the Doctor and Steven at the end:
177-->"Let's go, Doctor. I've seen enough of this place."
178-->"Well, my boy, we finally rid this planet of Daleks."
179-->"Bret, Katarina, Sara."
180-->"What a waste. What a terrible waste."
181* WeHardlyKnewYe: Katarina, Bret, Sara.
182* WeirdnessCensor: Sara. Getting inside a ship bigger on the inside? No reason to mention it, or wonder about it. 1066? Question the reference of a later year, but pretend it didn't happen. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Random people trying to dress you up in weird clothes for unspecified reasons?]] ''Pyramids and Egyptians''? Sure why not. All it matters is getting where they're supposed to and finishing the mission. It was {{foreshadow}}ed by Chen that she was unquestioningly loyal, but it becomes ridiculous as the serial progresses.
183** There are also the commentators at a cricket match calmly noting the sudden appearance of a police box on the pitch and casually discussing how it might affect the match - although anyone familiar with ''Test Match Special'' would recognise this as TruthInTelevision.
184* WhamEpisode: "The Traitors" and "The Destruction of Time", which featured Katarina and Sara's deaths respectively.
185* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: The Doctor despairs at the sheer loss of life in this story.
186-->"What a waste. What a terrible waste."
187* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Mavic Chen's co-conspirator Karlton disappears from the story after Chen returns to Kembel. There is no follow-up on Karlton's hints that he would betray Chen when it would benefit himself or any fallout from him being the one to send Sara after the Doctor, Steven, and Bret.
188* WhoWouldWantToWatchUs: In "The Feast of Steven", the Doctor encounters a washed-up Hollywood clown who bemoans the fact that Charlie Chaplin has already used all the best jokes. He's thinking of packing it in and becoming a singer, but who'd use a singer with a name like Music/BingCrosby?
189* WrongGenreSavvy: The Council members tend to think they're in a series where ''they're'' the BigBad and [[EvilerThanThou not the Daleks]], that if the Daleks have their way, the Daleks keep their word, and eventually, that the Daleks are naive enough to just let one of them stroll around enough to take power from the Daleks. That's of course assuming that there's no group of heroes ready to stop them, or who would have any chance to.
190* {{Yellowface}}: Mavic Chen has white hair, dark skin, and epicanthic eyefolds. Though this does not come up in the story, Chen represents a future where racial distinctions do not exist. Even though other human characters appear sans makeup, only the main human baddy. (Some eyewitness accounts claim that he was actually in ''blueface''. The mind boggles if this is true.)
191* YellowPeril: Mavic Chen. In the script, he's even described as "part-Oriental".
192* YouHaveFailedMe: The Daleks on the pursuit ship.
193* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness:
194** Trantis apparently doesn't prove particularly useful to the Daleks, who decide to test the Time Destructor on him. Fortunately, the device's core was swapped out for a fake by the Doctor. Unfortunately, the Daleks just exterminate him in the usual manner straight afterwards.
195** The Galactic Council. In a twist, the Daleks imply that they still intend to have the Council members' battle fleets attack alongside them, presumably explaining why they kept the members alive and imprisoned rather than just exterminating them.
196** The Daleks later have to do this to Mavic Chen a ''second'' time, after he escapes and thinks that he's not only working with the Daleks, but actually the leader of their alliance. This time, they make sure to dispose of him properly.
197* YouJustRuinedTheShot: The TARDIS lands in a Hollywood movie studio. Through the Scanner, the crew see a man in a black cloak about to feed a girl into a circular saw via a ConveyorBeltODoom. Steven and Sara charge out to rescue her, only to find they have just disrupted the shooting of a melodrama.
198----
199!!The {{Melodrama}} the Doctor, Steven, and Sara interrupted filming of in Episode 7 contains examples of:
200* ConveyorBeltODoom
201* DamselInDistress
202* EvilLaugh
203----
204-->''"[[BreakingTheFourthWall And incidentally, a very Happy Christmas to all of you at home!]]"''

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