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Doctor Who The Executioners (1963–1989) Online

Doctor Who The Executioners (1963–1989) Online
1963–1989 William Hartnell William Russell Jacqueline Hill Richard Martin
Original Title :
The Executioners
Genre :
TV Episode / Adventure / Drama / Family / Sci-Fi
Year :
1963–1989
Directror :
Richard Martin
Cast :
William Hartnell,William Russell,Jacqueline Hill
Writer :
Terry Nation
Type :
TV Episode
Time :
25min
Rating :
7.4/10

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Doctor Who The Executioners (1963–1989) Online

The Doctor has assembled a new time machine with a TV screen showing scenes in the past to order, Lincoln, Shakespeare and the Beatles are selected. They land on a barren planet with two suns,and become separated.A sandstorm causes the Doctor and Barbara to lose the TARDIS,Ian and Vicky meet an octopus-like monster, and the Daleks arrive, still hunting for them.
Episode cast overview, first billed only:
William Hartnell William Hartnell - Dr. Who
William Russell William Russell - Ian Chesterton
Jacqueline Hill Jacqueline Hill - Barbara Wright
Maureen O'Brien Maureen O'Brien - Vicki
Robert Marsden Robert Marsden - Abraham Lincoln
Roger Hammond Roger Hammond - Francis Bacon
Vivienne Bennett Vivienne Bennett - Queen Elizabeth I
Hugh Walters Hugh Walters - William Shakespeare
Richard Coe Richard Coe - Television Announcer
Peter Hawkins Peter Hawkins - Daleks (voice)
David Graham David Graham - Daleks (voice)
Robert Jewell Robert Jewell - Dalek
Kevin Manser Kevin Manser - Dalek
John Scott Martin John Scott Martin - Dalek
Gerald Taylor Gerald Taylor - Dalek

The Beatles appear in this episode via footage from "Top of the Pops" (1964)_ playing _Ticket to Ride. The band were originally planned to appear as old men performing in the 21st century but this proposal was vetoed by their manager Brian Epstein.

This episode was watched by 10 million viewers on its original transmission.

This story is significantly more comedic than the previous Dalek stories and many that followed. Much of the humour was added by story editor Dennis Spooner.

The story was commissioned at late notice when another of Terry Nation's stories fell through. It is believed that the slot was originally to be filled by his planned historical The Red Fort.

This serial was earmarked to form the basis for a third "Dr. Who" film starring Peter Cushing, to follow Los marcianos invaden la Tierra (1966), but the film was never made.

Christopher Barry was considered to direct.

Terry Nation discarded several ideas for the serial, including sequences set in ancient Egypt (where the first of the Great Pyramids would be erected over the remnants of a destroyed Dalek), the planet Stygian whose inhabitants were invisible, and the mist-shrouded world of Vapuron. These ideas would subsequently be recycled in The Daleks' Master Plan.

This was the first of two Daleks stories that Hugh Walters would feature in. The other was "Revelation of the Daleks".

This story includes the joke that, in the future, contemporary pop musicians such as The Beatles would be considered classical music. This joke was repeated in the series 40 years later in Doctor Who: The End of the World (2005). While not contemporary at the time of airing, The Beatles are once again referred to as "classical" in Doctor Who: 42 (2007), when their name is heard to be pronounced "bee-attles".

Working titles for this story included Daleks III, The Pursuers and Dalek Three.

The Visualiser scene originally depicted the time travellers watching a speech by Winston Churchill instead of a performance by The Beatles. At one point, Anne Hathaway appeared in the Shakespeare scene.

Some of the Daleks appearing in this serial were created by Shawcraft Models for Dr. Who y los Daleks (1965). Although the plan had been to refurbish them to resemble the television Daleks, this proved to be impractical, and the three hired Daleks were used only in the background of shots. As the serial was broadcast before the movie was released, this marks the first appearance of the movie Daleks.

Fans voted this number 121 in a countdown of the 163 Doctor Who (1963) stories in Outpost Gallifrey's 40th anniversary poll in 2003, making it the least popular serial to feature the Daleks.

This serial was released by the BBC on video cassette in the UK in September 1993.

Although it's hard to tell because of the angle, when Vicki sits down near Barbara and tips the chair over, a tray of coffee spills onto the dress material Barbara is working with.


User reviews

Sarin

Sarin

If you firmly believe that Daleks should always be completely threatening, evil, and menacing, you will not like "The Chase". Outside of the portrayal of the Daleks I simply cannot understand why "The Chase" is not widely liked among fans of "Doctor Who". Sure, it is completely preposterous, it needs to be seen to be believed, it is completely bizarre, and it seems to have an identity crisis at times. What it also provides is:

  • An explanation for the mystery of the Mary Celeste... involving time-traveling Daleks.


  • The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki in a haunted house with the Daleks after them. Surely the Daleks demanding of Frankenstein's Monster to tell them where the time-travelers are and threatening extermination is a classic bit of fun from early sixties Who?


  • A giddy fellow from Alabama atop the Empire State Building encountering the time-traveling Daleks and the TARDIS and its crew.


  • A brilliantly executed battle between the Daleks and the Mechonoids.


Among many other delights. Sure, "The Chase" is silly and a bit rubbish in places but it simply is not boring. Terry Nation was not attempting drama here, he was attempting a silly adventure/comedy featuring the Daleks. If you can't laugh at a Dalek falling off the Mary Celeste and another going around begging people to stop jumping off and just answer its question... I truly feel sorry for you. "The Chase" is legitimately successful at being a truly fun comic adventure, and is capable of solid drama when it wants to go in that direction. Ian and Barbara get a good send-off, Richard Martin's direction is inconsistent but for the most part quite good and better than his work on "The Web Planet", and the Daleks look and sound better than they did in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".

"The Chase" is just really great fun. It never aspires to be high drama, so why try to judge it by criteria it never aspired to? It's a fun, silly adventure, just go with it and have some fun. The Daleks aboard the Mary Celeste is one of the finest moments in "Doctor Who". It's a darn good romp and as far as I'm concerned the better Dalek story in season 2.

Episode 1: 9/10, Episode 2: 7/10, Episode 3: 10/10, Episode 4: 9/10, Episode 5: 6/10, Episode 6: 9/10.

Average: 8.33/10
Vit

Vit

The Doctor shows of a new piece of machinery. A device that captures live events from the past and shows them on screen, a time telly. After the crew each see something they wanted to, Barbara witnesses a scary message, The Daleks, discussing amongst themselves that they're about to attack the 'enemy' TARDIS ship.

I really like the opening episode, it's a good solid story, it's hugely atmospheric, the wilderness scenes look wonderfully authentic, aided by the black and white, the music also is great. Hartnell was so strong in the role at this stage, wonderfully charismatic, Ian and Barbara had been fantastic, sad that this was to be their last adventure.

Possibly a little too much humour, jokes aplenty, but they seem to work, I love the Beatles clip. I love that final scene of the Dalek rising up out of the sun, not too sure about the groaning though.

Great start to this serial 8/10
Zbr

Zbr

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 - 7.5/10.
Forcestalker

Forcestalker

Spoilers all six episodes

Tracking down the Tardis the Daleks come up with a plan to exterminate the Doctor once and for all . They dispatch their own time machine to follow the Tardis to the desert planet of Aridus

After the gritty , serious and dead pan second appearance of the Daleks in The Dalek Invasion of Earth we see the Daleks making their third appearance in The Chase . Original script editor for the show David Whittaker had left had been replaced by Dennis Spooner and in chroniclers of the classic show give credit that The Chase is more of a Spooner script than one by Terry Nation . I say " credit " because some people might be more willing to use the word " blame " because it's one of those stories that's in danger of sending itself up big time

At this point of the show obsession with the metallic villains was starting to sweep Britain . The big budget release of DR WHO AND THE DALEKS based on the original Dalek story was about to hit the cinemas and manufacturers were starting to produce everything from Soap to wallpaper as long as it featured Terry Nation's villains ( And Nation made sure he took out copyright on them thank you very much ) and at this point in the programmes history the show was being sold on the success of the Daleks

Like the earlier story The Romans with its tongue in cheek very British style of humour The Chase is played for laughs as it deconstructs the Daleks as figures of fun . However much of the humour doesn't really work due to its unsophisticated nature . Everything is sent up from the idiosyncratic moment where Ian sings along to The Beatles Ticket to Ride , to the very silly sequence of tourist Morten Dill having a conversation with the Daleks and the numerous scenes of Daleks , stammering , screaming and grunting the humour often fails to work and descends in to frivolity . You can perhaps still respect the production team for having the guts to do something different which would be the classic series version of the romantic blackly comical meta-fictional version of Love and Monsters but it doesn't really work . It's probably summed up the literal comic book battle at the end between the Daleks and their new found metallic nemesis

It also sees the demise of he two companions Ian and Barbara who carried the show as the focus of the adventures for two years . Hill and Russell were superb in the roles and we'd have to wait for 2005 and the introduction of Rose Tyler for a companion so based on a realistic character to be seen again as a companion . Interesting that in those days companions were disposed of without much fanfare compared to now . But at this point of the programme the Daleks were the concept that carried the show