Ep. 50 The Waking Ally

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

Remember, remember, the Dalek December

With Paris in ruins and London an ember

In times of the future when fears are abating

Don’t try to forget them, the Daleks are waiting

Quietly planning and scheming and hating

   The above quote isn't from today's ep.  It's from Curse of the Daleks a 1960's stage play that doesn't feature any characters from Doctor Who aside from the Daleks.  It's obviously a reference to the Dalek invasion so I took the liberty of using it for today's quote.
   Ian and Larry jump into a mining waste bucket in an attempt to  get away from the Slyther.  It manages to, improbable as it may seem, jump from the edge to the bucket.  I don't think that they were able to get the guy in the suit to pull the stunt off so they just focused the camera on the bucket and showed the edge of the critter suddenly appear in the corner of the shot.  Ian then hit the beasty with a rock until it let go and fell into the depths of the mine shaft.
    Angela found the whimper it made quiet amusing.
    The Black Dalek, not knowing that his favorite pet has gone off to Slyther heaven orders the waste bucket lowered.  Ian estimates that they've been going down for about twenty minutes and that the heat and pressure are building up.
   The bucket stops about 12 feet above the ground.  The two men decide to jump the rest of the way instead of being flipped out later.  Ian's OK, but Larry hurts his knee on the bucket on the way down.
   I will say this for Nation, when he has a character get injured in order to slow the party down that character's sex doesn't matter.  In this serial Susan hurt her ankle, the Doctor collapsed (a manly way of fainting), Dortmun was differently abled from the start and now Larry becomes a liability.
   They end up encountering a robo-man who turns out to be Larry's brother Phil.  This does make sense.  Phil has been characterized as being an intelligent man so it makes sense that he would have been converted.
   Larry makes an appeal to Phil's humanity.  He mentions Phil's wife Angela (I stopped the DVD and accused my wife of two timing me.)  Not getting anywhere with that tact, Larry wrestles Phil to the ground electrocuting them both.  Phil's last word is "Larry."
   Back in London the Doctor and party are hoofing it through the sewers.  They've caught the attention of a couple robo-men and have set up an ambush.  There is a struggle between the two.  The Doctor gets involved in the violence striking one of the robo-men on the back of it's head with his walking stick.  A rare display of violence on the first Doctor's part.  he is quick to keep Tyler from finishing off the unconscious robo-men saying that he will only kill in self defense. 
   Barbara and Jenny have made it to the edge of Bedfordshire on foot.  A storm is coming and the pair enter a seemingly abandoned house.  It turns out to be occupied by an old woman and her daughter(?).  The pair make clothing for the Dalek's slaves in exchange for food and not being blasted. 
   The two travelers barter canned food for a night's stay in the hovel.  The old woman gives the younger one a bundle of clothing as well as a whispered message.  A little later the younger woman returns with bread, oranges, sugar and a Dalek.
   The Dalek takes the two rebel women prisoner.
   The Doctor and party have made it out of London and all the way to Bedfordshire.  Tyler and the Doctor are away from the camp leaving Susan and David alone.  Susan is cooking some rabbit stew.  David does the typical guy thing and gets Susan to mildly freak out by surprising her with a fish.  It's a sweet moment that culminates with their first kiss.
   The moment is broken when the others return.  The Doctor notes that something is certainly cooking and he doesn't mean the stew.
   There is some awkward dialog between the Doctor and David about the Daleks mining operations tampering with the forces of creation.  Let's just say that the Dalek's are engineering geniuses and move on.  The Doctor makes it sound like they are trying to reanimate dead flesh instead of making a really big hole.
   Ian ends up running into Wells in the lower levels of this mine.  He also sees Barbara in one of the work details.  He asks Wells to get her a message when he can manage it.
   Jenny is not suited for this work.  She's almost completely beaten by the situation and overwhelmed by the work.  Barbara calms her down, in the process coming up with a plan.
   She uses Dortmun's notes to bluff her way out of the mines and into the central control room.  She claims that not only does she have these notes, she also knows the names and locations of the rebel forces.
   Ian tries to skulk around the Dalek control areas.  He ends up hiding in what turns out to be the big bomb that they are going to drop into the Earth's core.  Phil was right, they are after the Earth's core.  The Dalek's plan to make the Earth into one bigass space ship and sail the space ways looking for pirate plunder.
   OK the pirate plunder is BS on my part, but the rest is true.
   We leave with the bomb about to be dropped.  Ian isn't too happy.
   In my last post I made a comparison between this story and Day of the Triffids.  This episode makes a clear departure from that story.  The Daleks and what they are trying to accomplish are something that the protagonists can (and will) deal with in a way that the Triffids couldn't be dealt with. 

Susan and David sitting in a tree............

Next up: Flashpoint