Serial R, in 6 parts
Written by: Terry Nation
Produced by: Verity Lambert
Directed by: Richard Martin
"The old adage 'familiarity breeds contempt' is temptingly applicable to the Daleks in this adventure. During their first two serials they had been taken totally seriously, as objects of horror and destruction. It appears that the only logical step to take now is to debase them a little - ridicule them and turn them into objects of fun.
"The Daleks...are thwarted at every turn, outwitted by faster-thinking, faster-moving humanoids of the story and made to look like lumbering fools at almost every opportunity. Yet the magic of it is that, at the end of it all, the Daleks retain their dignity - their charisma and genius carrying them through the excesses of the plot." - fan Paul Mount, quoted in Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado (St. Martin's Press: 1983)
After suffering two defeats at the Doctor's hands, the Daleks decide that he's important enough to hunt down and kill. To achieve this end, they build a time machine of their own and pursue the Doctor through the cosmos. Dalek technology improved by leaps and bounds in their early episodes, didn't it?
The Doctor and his companions, unsuspecting that they are in danger, spend part one lounging around in the desert and listening to Beatles records. Ian dances, very badly. I always get bored with the episode at this point and go to the kitchen to make a sandwich.
Finally, the Daleks show up and carry on like tin-plated versions of The Three Stooges. They cough, wheeze, snap at each other, and nod their eyestalks when in agreement. The heroes run around and make faces at them.
Silly as they are, the Daleks are a bit dangerous, so the Doctor and company flee from them in the TARDIS. What ensues is an intergalatic game of cat-and-mouse. The Daleks chase the Doctor to the Empire State Building (where the viewer gets treated to crude British spoofs of American Southerners and New Yorkers), to a futuristic haunted house, to an old sailing ship, and finally to a jungle world populated by giant mushrooms.
In the climatic final battle, the Daleks clash with the Mechonoids, big fat robots that look like Christmas ornaments. Ian and Barbara go home in the Dalek time machine as the Doctor departs in his TARDIS.
I loved this stuff when I was five years old, but The Chase has aged badly. Doctor Who has had good comedies - I laugh so hard at City of Death that I want to cry - but The Chase isn't good comedy. It's just silly and artless. And it's wrong to turn the Daleks into jokes; they're too important to lampoon. Much as I love them, I've gotta admit that their credibility hangs by a thread. The Chase undermines them too severely, and hurts their image permanently, even for their more serious episodes. I don't enjoy seeing Darth Vader as a stupid little kid in The Phantom Menace either...
In the episode's defense, the Mechonoids are a nice design (Ray Cusick, at it again), and their final battle with the Daleks is pretty cool, even if Richard Martin was not the show's most inspired director. Ian and Barbara get a cute departure segment when they return to London. On the whole, though, The Chase is pretty turgid stuff.
OVERALL RATING: C
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