Doctor Who The Planet of Decision (1963–1989) Online

Review for all 6 parts:

The Chase is a 6 part story beginning with The Executioners.

This adventure from writer Terry Nation features The Daleks chasing the TARDIS through time and space landing up in all sorts of adventures in different times and places. It is basically a comedic story without too much concentration on plot or serious realism for the first 4 episodes. Among other things this adventure explains the mystery of the Mary Celeste by landing the TARDIS and Daleks on board the sailing ship causing the disappearance of the crew. This is a nice idea but involves some silliness in how it is executed on screen. The first 4 episodes are all disappointingly silly in places but fun at times. Finally it gets more serious and increases in quality for the really good final two episodes.

This adventure starts badly with a very silly first episode featuring ideas like the 'Time Space Visualiser' or 'Time TV' invention which implausibly allows them to view historic events as they happened. Episode 2 is much better, not exceptional but good fun. Episode 3 goes back to being a bit more silly and is not hugely impressive but it has good moments and is not bad overall. Then there is the rather less satisfying episode 4 where the TARDIS and Daleks are in a 'haunted house' setting interacting with Dracula, Frankenstein's monster etc. (I kid you not). This is camp fun in a way but goes over the line into silliness far too much for my liking.

I think the problems in the first 4 episodes of this story exemplify this period when Dennis Spooner was script editor, it has too much silly humour and not enough quality. This was the last story before the superior Donald Tosh took over that role and the next 6 stories with Tosh as script editor had much better standards.

Thankfully things get much better and more serious in the last two episodes of this story. Part 5 is a very good, thoroughly enjoyable episode and episode 6 is an excellent concluding part of the story, also seeing the poignant exit of Ian and Barbara (William Russell and Jacqueline Hill). It is very sad to see them go as they were great companions but their farewell is nicely handled and the arrival of another really good companion Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) softens the blow.

The quality of the last 2 episodes rescue this from being a disappointing and overly silly story. It ends up being a reasonably fun adventure overall with a classic finale.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 4/10, Episode 2 - 8/10, Episode 3 - 7/10, Episode 4 - 4.5/10, Episode 5 - 8.5/10, Episode 6 - 10/10, Average - 7/10.

Trapped and corner with imminent death from the Daleks, a helping hand appears from a Mechanoid, a robotic creature. The Mechanoid takes The Crew to meet Stephen Taylor, to only human inhabitant on Mechanus, who explains the story behind the planet. Soon the Daleks attack, and it's a battle to the death.

The City of the Mechanoids is fantastically designed, the model work is excellent, you really do believe in the world. The concept of the humans being used as specimens is also really clever. I wasn't initially sure of The Mechanoids, but I like them, we didn't get to know too much about them, maybe one day they'll make a return.

There's something approaching epic in this finale, Dalek wars and huge scale episodes would become the norm, this is perhaps the first for them, a big warring finale, the fight scenes between Daleks and Mechanoids are for the time, excellent. Nice to see that Ian and Barbara get a special exit, little fuss was given to companions parting company with The Doctor in these early years, but these two deserved something special. Their departure has a profound affect on The Doctor, Hartnell displayed this brilliantly.

Part Six is so far away from the majority of this serial, it ends of a definite high. Stephen begins in a particularly good way, and while it's the end of an era as far as Ian and Barbara are concerned, it's also the start of a promising new one. Steven would go on to appear in some incredible episodes.

Overall The Chase is a bit hit and miss, but there's no doubting the sheer quality of the concluding episode 9/10

In the new Doctor Who seasons one does get the feeling that the popular monsters of the Daleks, Cybermen etc do get a bit overused and this serial stands to remind us that this was also the case in the very early days. Despite already have been featured at the start of the second season in the far superior Invasion Earth, the Daleks return here in to chase the Tardis across time and space to hunt the crew down and kill them. Sounds dramatic right? Sadly the reality is that we have a fragmented series of stories and settings which are mostly delivered with a silly and ineffective content which really doesn't even work within its own context.

The plot sees the Doctor inventing a television that can see any moment in time – a plot device that seems pointless apart from acting as the sole way of seeing The Beatles performance which is featured as being seen via it (the irony of this show preserving another while so many of its own early episodes are lost). We have several moments via this TV thing before moving to a ship, to New York, to a haunted house, to a planet of robots and so on. Bits of it work but mostly it is just nonsense with an uneven tone that is silly but not fun. The planet in the final few episodes offer some excitement but the rest seems pointless – the comedy American, the haunted house etc, all of it is rather hard to watch.

The cast go with it but there is nothing here for them and it is a shame that this is the way that Ian and Barbara have to bow out. Such great companions from the start, they do not get the exit that Susan got and instead they just feel like they got dropped but were rewarding with a bit of mucking about in London as their leaving gift. What the show will be like without them (particularly with the ever vapid Vicki as the sole companion) I'm not sure, but I hope it will not miss them too much. The Daleks make limited impact (even if the serial tries to replicate the great reveal from the Thames) and generally they feel exploited for their popularity here, rather than a real threat or presence.

The Chase sounds good in a one line summary but the reality is a silly mess of ideas – most of which are not good ones. There are moments but they are infrequent and generally this didn't work. I guess the silliness of it all may work if you are in the mood, but for me even the comedic element was poorly done and misfired. So long Ian and Barbara, sorry it had to end like this.