Missing episodes is classic Doctor Who is a cross that any Doctor Who fan just has to deal with as alot of classic Doctor Who is still missing to this very day. However about a month ago now we got confirmation that not one but two missing episodes have been found with the BBC then promising to have them up on BBC IPlayer over the easter holidays well at 6am this morning as of the time of this writing that's exactly what they did as they added episodes one and three of this still mostly missing serial and well I thought that i'd review the episodes that we still have with us so please do bare in mind that this review is being episodes one , two , three , five and ten of this serial and not the serial as whole and so then join me as i review the serial that sees not one but technically two characters die really gruesome deaths with the episode in episode in question being called simply just "The Daleks' Master Plan" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is The Daleks are launching an all out assault on just one planet but the entire universe and it's up to The Doctor , Steven and new companion Katarina to stop them before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Even tho there are still huge portions of this episodes plot still missing due to the fact that there are still a WHOPPING seven episodes still left to find you can still the potential in this episodes plot as it does have the potential to be one of the best plots in the William Hartnell era of the show due to the show that we not only get to see The Doctor being being pushed to his limits and beyond them but we also get to see just how deadly that the daleks really can be. Both of these are things that do make this episodes be all the more interesting as so often we get told that the daleks are this big universe shattering threat and yet we barely get to see them act like it especially in classic Doctor Who which fair enough could always be drawn up to budget issues but here it is something that does work as by the time the plot of the episode starts the daleks have already taken over a planet yet with The Doctor even in modern Doctor Who we never really get to see him pushed to his limits and yet here due to the events of this episode we get to see what that looks like and it is something that does make this episodes plot be all the more better because of it. Whilst it is of course still hard to fully judge this episodes plot as there still lots of episodes missing what we can gather is that this episode does have a really good plot to it with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Adrienne Hill as Katarina. Also starring in this episode is Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom , Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen , Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon , Brian Cant as Kert Gantry , Pamela Greer as Lizan , Philip Anthony as Roald , Michael Guest as The Interviewer , Peter Butterworth as The Meddling Monk , Roy Evans as Trantis , Douglas Sheldon as Kirksen , Dallas Cavell as Bors , Geoffrey Cheshire as Garge , Maurice Browning as Karlton , Roger Avon as Daxtar , James Hall as Borkar , Bill Meilen as Froyn , John Herrington as Rhynmal , Peter Hawkins as the voice of the Daleks and David Graham as the voice of the Daleks.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With all of this episodes actors turning in some really good performances with this being something that's not really new to this show as this show even in it's early years did have some really good acting in it something which you can tell was going to be the case by the fact that alot of this episodes actors are a bunch of really good actors in there own right as alot of them do bring something that's unique to them not only to there characters but to the episode on the whole. With the best actor in this episode being William Hartnell which yes is a bit of cliche thing to say but it is also something that's true as we get to see in this episode not only how much fun he was having playing the role of the Doctor but also how threatening and stern that he could be as in episode ten he demands that the daleks release his friends something which they have to agree with as he has the mineral that they need with that being just how good of an actor that he is as you do believe that he could take on the daleks without even breaking a sweat. With the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Character wise all of the episodes characters of course including the shows main characters are all done really well. With them all acting how you would expect them to act in the given situation with The Doctor going from gleeful to meaning at a drop of a heart and Steven being the team regular action man bottom line is if you liked those characters in there other episodes then odds are your going to like them in this episode as the makers of this episode do take really good care in giving us heroes that we not only like but that we also want to succeed with the only character who doesn't get alot of screen time in this episode being Katarina herself which given what does happen to her in this episode is something that does make sense. However tho it's because of what happens to her that the character should have had alot more screen time given to her as she does come across as being a really fun character however given that she only appeared in the final episode of the previous adventure it would have made sense if the makers of this episode did give her more of a time to shone in this episode. With the episodes guest characters like for example both Bret and Sara being really well handled and getting alot of screen time in there own right with Bret being a military man who is very by the books and Sara is pretty much a female version of Steven only she isn't as trusting of a person then he is which is something that does make the dynamic alot of fun to watch as we get to see that he is willing to trust anyone who appears to be friendly to him with this being The Doctor rubbing of on him and yet due to the fact that Sara has never travelled with The Doctor she is more battle hardened as it does take a while for her to trust anyone and in her surviving early episode she doesn't trust The Doctor and his friends at all which is something that make her character quite interesting.
As was mentioned earlier on in this review this review is purely being based on the surviving episodes of this serial as there are still seven episodes still missing. Given that it's taken us THIRTEEN years to just get these two episodes I truly do think that the best thing for this adventure right now would be to animate the rest of the episodes and release them all together with the surviving episodes on DVD with this being something that the BBC could very easily do as they did release The Evil Of The Daleks which is seven episodes long and like this one does have missing episodes so it is something that they could do in the near future. Heck they could even then take the time to fully up on the cliffhanger from Galaxy 4 and animate Mission To The Unknown which is a prequel to this episode and have that be included as a bonus feature on the DVD along with the surviving episodes from this episode and while of course it would be preferrable to see all of the episodes returned of course it would but we do have to think realistically here as odds are those episodes are no longer with us or are damaged beyond repair therefor animating the rest of the venture would be the best way to go about getting the whole adventure not not only out on BBC IPlayer but also out to the general public to watch and enjoy as well. With this being something that we know for a fact that the BBC could do ant anytime as they have the sound recordings for all of the episodes due to the fact that they released both an audio book of the story and a Vinyl Record of the episode both of which were done using those original sound recordings with there truly being nothing to stop the BBC in releasing the rest of the story animated and given how well just releasing these two episodes have gone down that might be the wisest move that they could possibly make.
To be frank this episode was always going to be a treat as it does mean that we get to see more of the classic era of the show that might well have been lost forever due to the fact that there's all that much surviving material out there or this episode. Heck the BBC even did something that they never ever do when classic episodes of the show are returned to them as usually they'll just put out a press release and that'll be the end of it but here tho not only did they put out a press release they've also put out a few videos across all of there Doctor Who social media accounts they even just today put up a picture saying that the episodes are now up on BBC IPlayer and there even holding a special screening of both of the episodes as well. This says that even they know they this episode was something truly special as you don't do all of this for no reason you have to know that this is going to get peoples attention which in all fairness is something that they did do with these two episodes. With the fact that they even released the episodes onto Iplayer the day before the screening being something that says that they do care about the fans of this show which again begs the question of why not animate the rest of the episodes as now we have about half of the surviving episodes so it is something that it is not only something that they can do but it's also something that could do quite cheaply as well and it would give us all the chance to see the rest of this truly amazing story as while the episodes that we do have for this episode are good and they do give us alot of potential you can see the slight quality dip from say episode five to episode ten which given that this episode does have two different writers is something that des make alot of sense.
While two of the still missing episodes of this story are really dark as they feature the on screen deaths of both Katarina and Sara both of which appear to be shockingly gruesome with Katarina being sucked out of an air lock and Sara quite literally aging to death. We also get to see just how ruthless that the Daleks can be as we get to see them kill someone in cold blood just because they believed that he was a traitor to them all the while Mavic Chen looks away not out of disgust but out of boredom as it was something that just didn't interest him and heck we not only get to see them kill someone in the jungle in either episode 2 or 3 but we also get to his body. This is something that Doctor Who would very rarely if ever do with them only really doing it when it made things more dramatic and the villains more scary both of which is done in this episode as while we have always known just how scary that the daleks could be as we've seen them kill in cold blood before we then don't get to see that same persons body after the fact and yet this is something that they take great pride in showing us. Infact one could argue that the daleks seen in this episode are perhaps the most scariest that they've even been due to the fact that director Douglas Camfield uses shadows alot of the time to hide the things that are meant to be scary and sometimes this works like for example there is a great shot where we see a Dalek creepy out of the shadows to kill someone other times it doesn't work like for example in this same story where a monster that is meant to be scary clearly misses his target and yet the person still falls over dead and heck even before the daleks kill someone in there own base of operations they slowly circle and trap him in before instead of yelling there signature exterminate they yell execution just something like that makes them more scary.
Now then whilst I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember what this episodes grand total running time was I do that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running of roughly two hours. With there only being five surviving episodes of the show yet this is something that doesn't hinder the episode altho it is something that does make it hard to work if this is a solid running time for the episode to have as the story is meant to be twelve episodes long and even then one of them might be considered a filler episode however as it is the episode does have the right amount of plot to cover this amount of running time. Yet this is where it does become hard to judge this episodes running time as while the episode as of right now doesn't use it's running time due to the fact that it doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot all of that plot development very well could com in the episodes that we don't have with us which is something that would be understandable due to the fact that the episode in it's current form does spend alot of time bouncing from planet to planet yet in those missing episodes we very well could get scenes that add to the plot of the episode and that make it more complex then how it appears to be in it's current form. The same thing is also true for the episodes lack of character development as while we know for for a fact that the character of Katarina will never get alot of character development due to the fact that she dies quite early on into this episode Sara for all we know could get some character development which would make her death ear the end of episode twelve all the more tragic but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I gave to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. Classic Doctor Who was never and will never be known for having great action in it especially when it comes to the middle of it's stories as they do usually save the big action set action pieces for the ending of the story which is fair enough as that's where you'd want to see alot of big action set pieces take place in the first place and yet here in this episode they do have one or two very small scale type action scenes take place both near the start of the story and near the end of episode ten. With the best action scene in these episodes being where a group of daleks light what might be there metallic claws on fire through the use of a flamethrower just too try and get into The Doctors and while granted that's not an action scene compared to the other action scene in this episode which actually is an action it comes off all the more better as that second action scene just boils down to a group of men hitting the Daleks with sticks before they all get killed which just isn't fun but the first one on the other hand does go to show you just how far that they are willing to go to access the TARDIS as they are perfectly willing to burn down an entire jungle just to get what they want with that being something that does make them feel all more scary as now we know that they won't think twice about killing you if it helps them the achieve there goals with the rest of the episodes action being just as good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall it is so great to finally have episodes one and three of this episode back where it belongs and hopefully with the amount of goodwill that the BBC are earning from the Doctor Who fanbase for well done that they've handled the release of just these two episodes it might inspire other film collectors to check there attics or garage's and see if they have any missing Doctor Who episodes as this story just from these episodes is so good that it does need to be seen by all in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review an as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all f the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . U , Tardis . Wiki and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Tardis . Wiki really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Tardis . Wiki really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.