Jaconda Forever

For a show that had mostly eschewed sentimentality to this point, Susan’s farewell scene and the Doctor’s speech through the scanner were very well done. Tardis Wiki says the scene was written by David Whitaker and not Terry Nation. I guess the script editor has to take over during big moments in the show. However, it does seem incongruously undignified for Susan’s last moment to occur while she’s wearing one shoe. Random things: I enjoyed the “Ian falls down the shaft” effect. When the Daleks talk about killing all the humans, one Dalek says “The final solution!” Terry Nation seems to struggle to avoid World War II references in these Dalek stories. It’s surprising the cliff on which all the escapees were standing didn’t collapse during the volcanic eruption.

I understand that Daleks conquering the Earth makes for an intriguing storyline, but why do the Daleks need to hollow out the Earth’s core and fly it around space? Wouldn’t attack spaceships be more useful for subduing a planet, as evidenced by their swift conquest of Earth? I can’t imagine you get good gas mileage from a planet. And why Earth specifically? Are they developing their own Unicron ? Odds & Ends: The fratricide in this episode seemed kind of intense for a children’s show. I tried to find out how old the actor who played David is to get a sense for the age difference between Susan and him, but there is a surprising dearth of Peter Fraser content on the internet. Who/what is “The Waking Ally”? I don’t understand the name of this episode.  

Notes: Barbara and Jenny make an interesting traveling duo, and it’s cool having an early episode of Doctor Who that passes the Bechdel Test . Is this the first episode with a scene taking place in a quarry? I watched Edge of Tomorrow just yesterday and got confused when I saw the name of this episode.

The scene where Barbara and Jenny wheeled Dortmun around a London empty save for some Daleks while a distracting drum track played was … something. It was like a low-budget 28 Days Later and all the producers could afford for music was the drummer from Iron Butterfly. I guess this was four years before his breakout hit , so maybe he was available. I still don’t understand why all the signs say “Vetoed,” but I did enjoy the Dalek mannequin comedy.

It seems like they had a bigger budget for this story. There seem to be a lot of different sets compared to earlier stories. Some were even somewhat convincing, like the warehouse in Part I. And they had a budget for a lot of Daleks! I appreciated the segue where Craddock starts telling the Doctor and Ian how the Daleks took over Earth, and then there’s a cut to Barbara and Susan being told the same story.