Doctor Who: The Daleks’ Master Plan

The Daleks’ Master Plan is the fourth serial of the third season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in twelve weekly parts from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966.

Some six months after the events of “Mission to the Unknown”, the TARDIS arrives on the planet Kembel, and the First Doctor leaves the TARDIS to try to find medical aid for the wounded Steven, leaving him with the Trojan servant girl Katarina. Meanwhile, a Space Agent, Bret Vyon is also on the planet trying to find out what happened to Agent Marc Cory.

The two parties cross paths and agree to work together, whereupon they discover that the Daleks have put together a grand alliance with various galactic powers to conquer humanity by use of a Time Destructor, a weapon with the potential to destroy all life on a planet by accelerating the flow of time.

The traitorous Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen, has provided the weapon’s power core, made up of the rare element taranium. The Doctor infiltrates a meeting of the Daleks’ alliance and steals the taranium core, before he, his companions, and Vyon escape by stealing Chen’s ship, termed a Spar.

The Daleks force the Spar to crash-land on the nearby prison planet of Desperus, only for the pursuing Dalek ship to suffer an even worse crash, allowing the Doctor time to repair the Spar and take off again.

As soon as they take off, however, they discover that they picked up a convict named Kirksen, who takes Katarina hostage. While they try to talk Kirksen down, Katarina activates the outer airlock door and ejects her and Kirksen into space, where they both die, leaving the shocked and saddened Doctor and Steven to contemplate whether her actions were deliberate.

After the Spar returns to Earth, the group makes contact with Vyon’s old friend Daxtar, who unwittingly reveals that he is working with Chen. Vyon kills Daxtar, only to then be killed himself by his sister, fellow Space Agent Sara Kingdom. Kingdom unwittingly chases the Doctor and Steven into an experimental teleportation chamber, where they are transported to the distant planet of Mira.

After the Doctor and Steven persuade her of Chen’s treachery, she agrees to work with them, and helps them fend off an attack by the planet’s savage, invisible natives, before the three steal a Dalek ship that has been sent to retrieve them. The Daleks force this ship to return to Kembel, but the Doctor and Steven manage to create a fake taranium core, which they dupe the Daleks into accepting before they and Sara flee in the TARDIS.

In an interlude from the main storyline, Doctor, Steven, and Sara land in a police station in Liverpool, and then a film set in silent-era Hollywood, leading to many comedic misunderstandings in both locations, before the Doctor breaks the fourth wall to wish viewers at home a Merry Christmas.

The TARDIS then lands on a volcanic planet, and is followed there by the Doctor’s old enemy the Meddling Monk, who is out for revenge after the Doctor tried to strand him in Medieval England by sabotaging his TARDIS. The Monk damages the door lock of the Doctor’s TARDIS, but the Doctor makes temporary repairs and manages to travel to Ancient Egypt; the Monk follows him there, as does Chen and a squadron of Daleks, who by now have deduced that the Doctor gave them a fake core.

Chen and the Daleks force the Monk into working with them, and he gets the idea of taking Steven and Sara captive and using them as hostages. Without the time to create another fake core, the Doctor is forced to hand the real one over to Chen, though he at least manages to steal the directional circuit from the Monk’s TARDIS, ensuring that the Monk cannot control its destination, and thereby can no longer pursue the Doctor.

Using the Monk’s directional control (which is destroyed in the process), the Doctor is able to pilot the TARDIS back to Kembel, where Steven and Sara discover that the Daleks have deemed their fellow alliance leaders, including Chen, surplus to requirements and have imprisoned them. Steven and Sara free them so that they can ensure their races end their alliances with the Daleks, only to then be captured by Chen, who has been driven insane by the Daleks’ betrayal and has deluded himself into believing that he is immortal and the leader of the Daleks.

He marches Steven and Sara into the Dalek base and tries to give orders to the Daleks, who react by killing Chen. The Doctor takes advantage of the resulting commotion to steal and activate the Time Destructor itself, threatening to bring it to full power and destroy all life on Kembel if the Daleks do not let him and his companions go.

Steven is able to get back to the TARDIS before the Time Destructor reaches full power of its own accord, but the Doctor and Sara are not, and Sara is killed and aged into dust. Steven manages to help the Doctor back into the TARDIS, restoring them both to their proper ages, after which the Daleks arrive and, after trying and failing to destroy the Time Destructor, become the victims of their own weapon as it wipes out all life on the planet.

Later, once the weapon has burned itself out, the Doctor and Steven emerge from the TARDIS, with Steven distraught at the senseless deaths of Bret, Katarina, and Sara, and the Doctor remarking on the “terrible waste” that has taken place.

• Episode 01: The Nightmare Begins
• Episode 02: Day of Armageddon
• Episode 03: Devil’s Planet
• Episode 04: The Traitors
• Episode 05: Counter Plot
• Episode 06: Coronas of the Sun
• Episode 07: The Feast of Steven
• Episode 08: Volcano
• Episode 09: Golden Death
• Episode 10: Escape Switch
• Episode 11: The Abandoned Planet
• Episode 12: Destruction of Time

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

Doctor Who Episode Guides for Sale on Amazon

Step aboard the TARDIS and journey across the universe with every incarnation of The Doctor in this series of unofficial Doctor Who episode companions.

This collection of twelve books explores every televised adventure of the Time Lord’s lives.

Each volume in the series delves into a different Doctor’s era, offering detailed episode guides, behind-the-scenes insights, character profiles, and story synopses.

Once you have clicked the link, choose which book you want, and then whether you want to buy the Kindle (eBook) or Paperback versions.

Previews are available before you buy.

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