Ep. 96 Coronas of the Sun

"You make your incompetence sound like an achievement."

   The Doctor, Steven and Sara (not Jane) are surrounded by Daleks intent on taking the Tarranium from their cold dead hands.  While the Doctor and the Daleks are shouting at one another, the native Visians (who are invisible, remember this is from the same guy who came up with "pyro-flames") attack the giant pepper pots.
   Not that it does much good.  The Visians manage to knock one Dalek into the mud, but the rest get zapped and driven off.
   This does buy the Doctor enough time to run to the Dalek ship and, with a little maneuvering by Steven and Sara (not Jane), and a mud pie capture the Dalek ship. 
   Back on Kembal, the Daleks confront the freshly arrived Mavic Chen on his massive bungling of the situation.  Chen tries to defend himself and receives a put down so awesome that I chose to make it today's quote.  While they're bitching about Chen, word comes of the complete and utter failure of the team sent to Mira.
   While Mavic Chen is playing spin doctor with the Daleks, the Doctor decides that they need to make a fake Tarranium core.  The Daleks try to use remote control to get their ship back.  Steven bangs the back up control unit off the control board.  The Daleks get pissed and do some magnetic wave crap that only makes sense if you remind yourself that this was based on a Terry Nation idea.
   Awaiting their arrival at Kembal, the Doctor makes a copy of the core.  The only problem is, it doesn't glow.  Steven suggests using future energy tech, but his future energy tech knowledge is laughably out of date compared to the energy tech knowledge of Sara (not Jane). 
   I just realized that the character of Leela is pretty much an amalgam of Katarina and Sara Kingdom.  What an odd revelation to have.
   They end up leaving Steven alone with the fake core and he decides that his idea is best and does something not dissimilar to sticking a knife into an electric outlet.  He nearly dies, but the core glows real pretty.
   Somehow Steven is now covered in a force field and is more or less catatonic.  The Doctor manages to sort of hypnotize him and turn him into an indestructible Core Carrier.  Based on a Terry Nation idea.
   The Doctor and company arrive on Kembal.  They refuse to turn over the core until they are outside the TARDIS.  The Doctor and Sara (not Jane) get into the ship and the Doctor orders Steven to hand over the (fake) core and get into the TARDIS. 
   The Daleks fire, Steven is OK.  Actually the Dalek fire destroys the force field making Steven act normal again.  The TARDIS leaves and we're going to be seeing the first Christmas special tomorrow.

Next up: The Feast of Steven