The Power of the Daleks

After regeneration, the new Doctor (Patrick Troughton) regains consciousness and sets the TARDIS in flight, to the confusion of his companions Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills). The TARDIS lands on the planet Vulcan, where the Doctor witnesses the murder of an examiner (Martin King) sent to inspect Vulcan's colony. The Doctor and his companions are rescued by colonists, who assume that the Doctor is the examiner. The group are escorted by head of security Bragen (Bernard Archard) to the colony, where they meet the governor Hensell (Peter Bathurst), and his deputy Quinn (Nicholas Hawtrey). The Doctor and his companions learn of a two-century-old capsule discovered by the colony's scientist, Lesterson (Robert James). The Doctor discovers two inanimate Daleks inside the capsule; a third is missing. Meanwhile, Lesterson and his assistants Janley (Pamela Ann Davy) and Resno (Edward Kelsey) secretly experiment on the third, mistakenly assuming it is a machine. Lesterson removes its gun stick after Resno is shot. Lesterson presents the reactivated Dalek, which feigns loyalty to the colony. Lesterson subsequently reactivates the other two Daleks and removes their guns. The three Daleks then secretly plan to take over the colony. Quinn, who summoned the examiner, is arrested following Bragen's accusations of sabotage; Bragen is promoted to deputy. Bragen and Janley, secretly members of a rebel faction, conspire to use the Daleks' technology to take control of the colony. The Doctor's warnings that the Daleks are hostile and secretly reproducing is ignored. He and Ben are arrested by Bragen, revealed to be the examiner's murderer. Polly is kidnapped by the rebels. Bragen reattaches a Dalek's gun stick and induces it to kill Hensell. Lesterson discovers a secret production line mass-producing Daleks; they are deployed and a violent battle ensues. The Doctor, Quinn, Ben and Polly escape imprisonment and join the struggle, where Lesterson, Janley and many other colonists are killed by the Daleks. The Doctor destroys the Daleks by turning their own power source against them. Bragen is shot by rebel Valmar (Richard Kane), and Quinn becomes the new governor. The Doctor and his companions return to the TARDIS to find a motionless damaged Dalek. As the TARDIS dematerialises, the Dalek's eyestalk moves. ==Production==

Conception and writing The Power of the Daleks is the first Doctor Who serial to star Patrick Troughton, following the first regeneration of the Doctor, which was a solution proposed by producer Innes Lloyd to account for the departure of original Doctor William Hartnell. Hartnell was known to be difficult, particularly after the original production team left in 1965; arguments over the direction of the show were common by late 1965 with then-producer John Wiles, and Wiles unsuccessfully tried to replace him. Wiles' successor Innes Lloyd, while having a more positive relationship with Hartnell, advised the actor to leave with approval of the BBC's head of drama series Shaun Sutton. Hartnell decided to leave earlier than contracted on 16 July 1966. BBC memos indicate the Doctor's regeneration was meant to be a "horrifying" metaphysical change. The producers compared it to the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which had the side-effect of "hell and dank horror". Story editor Gerry Davis was inspired by the change in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Polly and Ben were written as initially distrustful of the Doctor, mirroring the audience's likely reaction. The Daleks also allowed the Doctor and the audience, who knew the Daleks were evil, to be a step ahead in the story than the Vulcan characters, allowing for suspense. Peter Bathurst returned in The Claws of Axos (1971). Robert James returned in The Masque of Mandragora (1976). Edward Kelsey had appeared in The Romans (1965) and would return in The Creature from the Pit (1979). Design and filming This was the first Doctor Who serial for designer Derek Dodd. He was inspired by the films Metropolis and Things to Come. The landscape of Vulcan seen through Lesterson's lab window was a photo of a stock steel factory in Sheffield and was inspired by Forbidden Planet. As the Doctor recovers from his transition, he rummages in a chest of artefacts and discovers Saladin's dagger, referencing the serial The Crusade (1965). When he looks in a mirror, he briefly sees the image of the First Doctor's face. == Broadcast ==

Episode is missing A trailer for the serial was broadcast 4 November. The Power of the Daleks was screened in weekly instalments from 5 November to 10 December 1966 on BBC1. The serial averaged 7.8 million viewers over its run. The Power of the Daleks was screened uncensored in Australia on ABC in July and August 1967, and it was repeated in May 1968. It was screened in New Zealand from August to December 1969, and the films were sent to Singapore in 1972. Archival status Prior to the establishment of the Film and Videotape Library, the BBC destroyed old programmes deemed to have no further commercial value. Between early 1972 and 1978, John Cura took tele-snaps of the serial. Short clips survive from various programmes like Blue Peter, ''Whicker's World, and Tom Tom'', mainly focusing upon the Daleks in Episodes Four, Five, and Six. The serial's trailer was recovered in 2003. In addition, 8mm cine film footage of an Australian broadcast includes extracts from Episodes One and Two. No footage from Episode Three currently exists. == Reception ==

The serial received mixed reception upon broadcast, with Radio Times receiving letters both positive and negative toward the change in the Doctor. The BBC's Audience Research Report conducted for the third episode included several complaints that the new Doctor was too clownish; a minority of comments were positive or more forgiving. In Doctor Who: The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe, Mark Stammers, and Stephen James Walker wrote that the story's "plotting and dialogue are excellent and the guest characters all very believable and compelling". In 2009, Mark Braxton of Radio Times gave the serial five out of five stars, stating "The Power of the Daleks presents us with an intelligent, logical set of scripts that don't over-reach. He particularly praised the script. James Whitbrook, writing for io9 in 2016, called the story "one of Doctor Who best adventures ever." He praised the use of the Daleks in the serial because they "are much, much scarier than just mindless, angry weapons," leading to "one of the most satisfying surprises in all of Doctor Who’s lengthy history" that they were in control the whole time. In a 2014 poll representing the first 50 years of Doctor Who, Doctor Who Magazine readers voted The Power of the Daleks as the third best 1960s story and 19th overall, up from 21 in 2009. In 2023, The Daily Telegraph ranked the serial the 41st best Doctor Who story. In the Doctor Who Magazine poll for the 60th anniversary in 2023, The Power of the Daleks was voted the third best story of the Second Doctor's tenure. In 2010, Charlie Jane Anders in io9 listed the cliffhanger to the fourth episode—in which the Dalek production line is revealed—as one of the best Doctor Who cliffhangers of all time. She also ranked the serial as the 39th best story and a "classic" in 2015. ==Commercial releases==

In print John Peel's novelisation was published by Doctor Who Books, an imprint of Virgin Books, in July 1993. This occurred so late because deals had to be made with the estates of Terry Nation and David Whittaker. The script of this serial, edited by John McElroy, was published by Titan Books in March 1993. Home media The BBC has given the audio soundtrack of The Power of the Daleks three commercial releases: first, on cassette release with narration by Tom Baker; second, on CD with narration by Anneke Wills; and third, on MP3-CD for the 'Doctor Who: Reconstructed' range, again narrated by Wills and this time including images. In 2004, all known surviving clips were released on the DVD set Lost in Time. Following this, two more short clips – along with a higher-quality version of one of the extant scenes – were discovered in a 1966 edition of the BBC science series ''Tomorrow's World; these clips came to light on 11 September 2005 when the relevant section was broadcast as part of an edition of the clip-based nostalgia series Sunday Past Times on BBC Two. They were later included in the documentaries "The Dalek Tapes" (on the DVD of Genesis of the Daleks) and "Now Get out of That" (on the disc containing Terror of the Vervoids, within The Trial of a Time Lord'' box set). Animated version The BBC commissioned an animated version of the serial in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of its original transmission. The animation was produced in black-and-white, to evoke the original 1966 television broadcast, using audio recordings of the original broadcast as a soundtrack, and drawing on film clips and still photographs from the serial. It was directed by Charles Norton, with lead character art by Martin Geraghty, character shading by Adrian Salmon, props by Mike Collins, and background art by Daryl Joyce. Late into production, BBC America began work on a colourised version of the black-and-white animation. In August 2016, the Daily Mirror subsequently revealed that a full animated reconstruction of the serial had been commissioned by the BBC. This was confirmed by the BBC in September 2016. In North America, the animation was screened theatrically by Fathom Events on 14 November 2016 and aired on BBC America from 19 November 2016. For the 2020 re-release, the animation was re-composited and some sections were re-animated. and a Blu-ray/DVD bundle containing the black and white and colour versions in limited steelbook packaging was released in February 2017, making it the first 1960s Doctor Who serial to be released on Blu-ray (although not the first live-action one). A North American DVD containing the black and white and colour versions was released on 31 January 2017. They include clips from the original episodes, the CD-ROM's telesnap reconstruction, a 20-minute documentary covering the original production (Servants and Masters), and an audio commentary; additionally, a 5.1 surround mix of the serial was produced alongside a remaster of the original mono recordings. An updated version of the animation was released on Blu-ray and DVD on 27 July 2020; it also adds newly discovered footage from the original episodes, the narrated cassette version of the serial, two new documentaries, and additional archive content, including an edition of ''Whicker's World'' ("I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes") and surviving footage of Robin Hood starring Troughton. == Notes ==