Doctor Who: The Daleks

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The Daleks (also known as The Mutants or The Dead Planet) is the second serial of the classic British television series Doctor Who. It was originally broadcast in seven episodes from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964. It is notable for introducing the Doctor’s most iconic enemies: the Daleks.

This serial follows the First Doctor (played by William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan, and companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, as they land on a mysterious and hostile alien world ravaged by war and radiation.

This serial introduced the Daleks and changed the future of Doctor Who.

Episode 1: The Dead Planet

The TARDIS lands in a silent, petrified forest on an unknown world. A small meter in the ship warns of radiation, but no one notices. The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara step outside and find trees turned to stone and, on the horizon, a strange metal city. The teachers want to leave, but the Doctor’s curiosity grows.

Back in the ship he claims the TARDIS needs mercury for a part called the fluid link and that they must go to the city to find some, though he has secretly removed it to force an exploration. The four hike through the dead forest and enter cold, echoing corridors.

The city seems deserted, with sliding doors, harsh lighting, and silent instruments. They try to stay together, calling to each other as they move deeper inside. Barbara becomes separated in a maze of passageways and panic sets in.

Ian hears a faint hum, as if the building itself were alive, while the Doctor and Susan feel an odd static in the air. In a small chamber, a door slams behind Barbara. She turns and sees a dark shape approaching. A metal arm with a round sucker reaches toward her. She screams as the unknown creature closes in. It is a Dalek.

Episode 2: The Survivors

Barbara is seized in the city, and the Doctor, Ian, and Susan search for her while growing weak. They realise the air is radioactive. The Doctor admits he removed mercury from the TARDIS fluid link to force a visit to the city, but now they are trapped. Daleks surround them and march them to a cell, where Barbara is reunited with the others.

The Daleks learn that a small box found near the TARDIS contains anti-radiation drugs left by the Thals. They allow Susan to go back alone to fetch it, keeping the others as hostages. In a heavy storm, Susan runs through the forest and reaches the ship. On the way she meets Alydon of the Thals, who says his people are peaceful and want contact with the city. He gives Susan a message and medicine.

Susan returns with the drugs, and the prisoners begin to recover. The Daleks study the supplies and grow suspicious. Planning to use the message as bait, they talk of drawing the Thals to the city with promises of food and safety. Unaware of the trap forming, travellers regain strength while the Daleks prepare their next move.

Episode 3: The Escape

The Doctor, Ian and Barbara remain prisoners in the metal city on Skaro. Susan returns with anti-radiation drugs from the TARDIS, and the Daleks let the humans recover, but force Susan to write a message inviting the Thals to come to the city for food. The Doctor realises the Daleks intend an ambush and decides they must warn the Thals and get away.

Ian invents a plan. He and the others lure a Dalek into the cell, throw a cloak over its dome to jam its sensors, and disable it. They lift the top, glimpse the living creature inside, and drag it out. Ian climbs into the empty casing and learns to speak through the Dalek voicebox and move the machine along the corridors. Pretending to be a guard, he orders Barbara and Susan to be transferred, then frees them and the Doctor.

Moving carefully through the city, the group searches for an exit while avoiding patrols. The Daleks suspect something is wrong. As alarms rise, the travellers reach a lift shaft. With time running out, they push on to reach the surface and warn the Thals.

Episode 4: The Ambush

After escaping their cell, the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian use a captured Dalek casing to slip through the city corridors and reach the outer doors. Outside, they make contact with the peaceful Thals and warn them that the Daleks’ message offering food may be a trick. Inside the city, the Daleks test the Thals’ anti-radiation drugs on themselves; the experiment harms them, so they decide the medicine is poison and that the Thals must be destroyed.

A Thal party led by their elder Temmosus approaches the city to negotiate. Ian accompanies them, still wary. The Daleks spring their trap, opening fire from concealed positions. Temmosus is killed, the Thals scatter, and the travellers help shepherd the survivors to safety. The attack shatters the Thals’ belief that pacifism alone will protect them and shows the Daleks’ ruthless nature.

In the aftermath, the Doctor’s group realises a serious problem: their vital fluid link (the part needed to run the TARDIS) was left behind in the Dalek city when they were prisoners. Without it, they cannot leave Skaro. Ian, Barbara, Susan, and the Doctor resolve to find a way back into the city, setting the stage for a risky expedition.

Episode 5: The Expedition

The Doctor and his friends must recover a vital TARDIS part from the Dalek city, but the Thals, peaceful survivors of Skaro’s wars, refuse to fight. Ian forces the issue with a harsh demonstration: he pretends he will trade the Thal woman Dyoni for the missing part. Alydon, the Thal leader, punches Ian and realises that some things are worth defending. Shaken but convinced, the Thals agree to act.

A two-part plan is made. One group will distract the Daleks at the front gates. The other will try a risky route through the swamps to reach the city from behind. Ian, Barbara, and the Thals Ganatus, Antodus, and Elyon set out across the marsh. The ground is treacherous, the air thick, and strange cries echo over the water. At the “Lake of Mutations,” Elyon goes to fill a water bag and is dragged under by a creature. The others can do nothing.

They press on, grim and silent. Barbara and Ganatus grow close, while Antodus struggles with fear and self-doubt. By nightfall the party reaches a line of caves leading toward the city’s rear. The episode ends with the travellers facing a sheer climb into darkness, the next danger already above them.

Episode 6: The Ordeal

Ian, Barbara, and a small band of Thals make a dangerous journey through caves to reach the Dalek city by a hidden route. The Daleks have the Doctor’s fluid link and plan to keep the travellers trapped on Skaro. The Thals are peaceful by nature, but they now accept that action is needed. Ian helps to guide them, using careful, practical ideas to keep everyone moving.

Inside the caves the group faces darkness, narrow ledges, and cold water. Morale is fragile. Antodus, who is afraid of heights and ashamed of his fear, slows the party and wants to turn back. His brother Ganatus and Barbara encourage him to continue. The team reaches a deep chasm and throws a rope across. One by one they cross. Antodus slips and falls, pulling Ian with him.

Hanging by the rope, Ian tries to save them both, but the weight is too much. Realising he is endangering the others, Antodus cuts himself free. He sacrifices his life so the rest can go on. Shocked but determined, the survivors reach the far side and press toward the city, ready to open a way in for their friends and face the Daleks.

Episode 7: The Rescue

The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara are split from the Thals after planning a two-pronged attack on the Dalek city. Inside the metal corridors, the Daleks prepare to flood Skaro with more radiation so they can thrive again, even if it kills the Thals. The cave party led by Ian and several Thals completes the hard climb through the caverns and slips into the city from below. They overpower a guard, freeing a path to the control rooms. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Susan act as a distraction and are captured, which forces the rescue to move faster.

Ian’s group reunites with Barbara, the Doctor, and Susan amid alarms and running battles. The companions urge the Thals to stand up to the Daleks, not to accept pacifism when their lives are at risk. As the Daleks start the radiation plan, the Doctor identifies their weakness: the city’s static power system.

The Thals and companions smash equipment and pull key cables, cutting energy throughout the control chamber. One by one the Daleks’ casings go dead, their eyestalks droop, and the threat ends. After warm farewells, the travellers return to the TARDIS and depart Skaro, leaving the Thals to rebuild their world.

Themes

As an adventure, The Daleks is one of the great pillars of early Doctor Who. It moves more slowly than later action tales, but its atmosphere, design, and central idea (enemies shaped by a war and by fear) make it gripping.

It threads the series’ past and future. Coming right after An Unearthly Child, it deepens the team’s characters: Barbara’s compassion, Ian’s steady leadership, Susan’s courage, and the Doctor’s crafty pride slowly giving way to responsibility. Its final seconds lead directly into The Edge of Destruction, while its legacy stretches far ahead, to The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Power of the Daleks, and Genesis of the Daleks, where the show keeps rethinking the same moral questions about war, fear, and choice.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The First Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the First Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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