Doctor Who: The Rescue

Spoilers for the episode

Story:

The trip through the caves proves to be pointless and the Thalls remember how to fight.

Thoughts:

Ian is somehow still hanging on to the Thall dangling from the rope. He calls for help but the Thall refuses to be helpful and cuts the rope falling to his death. The acting is really bad as they pretend Ian is struggling to hold on.

Then we’re back to the Doctor and Susan who have been cuffed to a wall. The Doctor’s trying to reason with the Daleks or shame them. He wants to know why they have to destroy and why can’t they use their brains. Well they are using their brains. I think it takes a lot of intelligence to radiate a planet.

Back in the caves and they’ve reached a dead end. The Thalls want to give up but Ian thinks they should go back and find another way forward. They’re running out of light so they turn the torches off to preserve them for when they’re moving. There’s a light coming from somewhere and Ian finds the city.

In the forest and Alladon is convinced the Doctor has been captured and concludes that now is the time to attack. His speech isn’t very long or interesting and that’s probably for the best because we don’t need any more monologuing.

The Doctor’s trying to stall the Daleks by promising to show them how to build their own machines so they won’t be trapped but they decide they don’t need the Doctor and will be able to figure out the TARDIS on their own.

Then their machine that detects vibrations tells them the Thalls are in the city. They’re lucky there’s no other life on the planet or that machine would be useless.

Ian’s group is sneaking around and a Dalek conveniently stops near them to say that the Thalls have entered the city

Back with the Daleks and they see Ian smash a camera so they realise they’ve got to act now.

Ian’s group meets Alladon. The Thall’s big plan has been to enter the city and split up into groups and wander around until they find the Doctor with no idea where they are going.

They hear a message that all the Daleks should report to level 10 and luckily they are near but then the Daleks start to seal the doors one at a time. They manage to get through though.

They are really bad at sneaking around. They really should have been seen. Especially when they start attacking the Daleks.

Ian finds the Doctor and Susan and releases them. Barbara’s big moment is to throw a rock at a Dalek and run so they can ambush it.

The rest of the fight is just as hilarious. With Thalls dropping down from the ceiling and popping up here and there taking Daleks out silently. They’re quite good for people who don’t know how to fight.

They knock out the power source (not really sure how it happens they just declare it has) and one of the Daleks begs the Doctor to not let them die but he doesn’t know how to save them.

Susan says the Thalls have got everything they want now because they can use the Dalek’s tech to produce more food. The Thall she’s talking to says he wishes it could have happened another way. I guess the message is violence should be a last resort because quite a few Thalls died and thankfully they don’t bring up pacifism again.

The Thalls want the Doctor to stay and help rebuild to be their adviser. He says he was a pioneer amongst his own people but now his truth is in the stars. Maybe he’ll visit their grandchildren to see how they’ve got on.

Barbara says goodbye to a Thall and I think he was meant to be her love interest but they didn’t spend enough time on that if that’s what they were going for.

The TARDIS dematerializes and they all get knocked out. So another episode ends on a cliffhanger but at least being knocked out means they’re finally getting some rest.

This was another good episode where stuff happened and I wasn’t bored. The only thing is going through the caves was pointless. The doctor got into the city and took out the defenses then the Thalls went in.

There was no reason for Ian’s group to go through the swamp and the caves because they meet up with Alladon in the city and nothing would haves changed if they’d gone in with him. The only difference is two Thalls got killed in the process.

They could have made the story a lot tighter if they’d cut the expedition episode. Then we wouldn’t have had the awful pacifism discussion and the cave stuff.

Despite that this was a good serial. The Daleks have changed a lot in power level but you get to see where their ideology comes from. They fear being attacked by others so they attack first.

I hope the Doctor does go back to see their descendent’s and everything’s not like he thought it would be (because it’s Doctor Who and that’s what happens). I’m guessing this is Skaro but I’m not sure they gave the planet a name in the episode.

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