The Daleks' Master Plan
The Daleks' Master Plan is the fourth serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner and directed by Douglas Camfield, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in twelve weekly parts from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966. It was the show's longest serial until 1986 and remains the longest with a single director. In the serial, the First Doctor and his travelling companions Steven Taylor and Katarina become embroiled in the Daleks' scheme to design the ultimate weapon. They are joined by Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom.
The serial was commissioned due to the Daleks' popularity, and was preceded by an additional episode, "Mission to the Unknown". Nation shared the workload by writing six episodes while former script editor Spooner wrote the other six. The seventh episode's Christmas Day broadcast prompted the production team to write a self-contained comedic story, which ends with the Doctor addressing the audience. The Daleks' Master Plan is the first story to feature companion deaths: Katarina, proving difficult to write, was killed and replaced by Sara, who was also later killed. It marks Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who; he returned in 1968 to portray recurring character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
The Daleks' Master Plan received an average of 9.35 million viewers across the twelve episodes, an increase from the preceding serial but lower than the previous year. Contemporary reviews were mixed, with interest in the Daleks waning as the serial progressed and some viewers critical of its violence. Retrospective reviews praised the direction, writing, and production design, but criticised the serial's length, incongruous seventh episode, and violent deaths of female companions. The serial's videotapes were wiped by the BBC in the late 1960s; three episodes were subsequently discovered and released on DVD, but the rest remain missing. Audio recordings exist for all episodes; they were later released as an audiobook, and the story was novelised in two volumes by John Peel.
Plot
On the planet Kembel, the Doctor searches for medical aid for the wounded Steven Taylor, whom he leaves with the Trojan servant girl Katarina. The Doctor encounters Bret Vyon, a Space Agent. They discover the Daleks have established an alliance with galactic powers to conquer humanity by using a Time Destructor, a weapon that can destroy life on a planet by accelerating time. The Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen, has provided the weapon's power core, which the Doctor steals before escaping in Chen's ship with his companions and Bret.The ship temporarily lands on a prison planet. After it takes off, a stowaway takes Katarina hostage. Katarina activates the airlock door and ejects them both into space, where they die. The ship returns to Earth, where Bret contacts his old friend Daxtar, who unwittingly reveals he is working with Chen. Bret kills Daxtar, before being killed by his own sister, Space Agent Sara Kingdom, on Chen's orders. The Doctor, Steven, and Sara are transported to the distant planet Mira. Sara agrees to work with them, and they steal a Dalek ship. The Daleks force the ship to return to Kembel. The Doctor and Steven create a fake core, which they dupe the Daleks into accepting before fleeing in the TARDIS with Sara. They briefly land in a police station and a silent-era film set, and celebrate Christmas.
The TARDIS travels to the Oval, Trafalgar Square, a volcanic planet—where the Monk seeks revenge after the Doctor left him stranded—and Ancient Egypt, followed by Chen, Daleks, and the Monk who, forced to help the Daleks, takes Steven and Sara captive until the Doctor relinquishes the real core. The Doctor steals the directional control from the Monk's TARDIS. On Kembel, Chen captures Steven and Sara and takes them to the Dalek base. When he tries to give the Daleks orders, they turn on and kill him. The Doctor steals the Time Destructor, which activates. Sara ages to death, while Steven and the Doctor survive and reach the TARDIS. The Daleks try to destroy the Time Destructor but it kills them, wiping out all life on the planet. The Doctor and Steven remark on the senseless deaths of Bret, Katarina, and Sara.
Production
Conception and writing
In early 1965, Doctor Who script editor Dennis Spooner asked Terry Nation to write a six-part serial featuring the Daleks, wanting to recreate the success of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Daleks' return was expected to boost related toy sales in the Christmas period. Nation was granted an additional episode in February to act as a "trailer" for the serial, which became "Mission to the Unknown". Spooner departed Doctor Who in April to work with Nation on The Baron ; his successor, Donald Tosh, commissioned Nation's six-part serial under the provisional title Dr Who and the Daleks in May. The BBC's director of television, Kenneth Adam, suggested the serial be expanded to thirteen episodes; head of drama Sydney Newman formally requested an expansion to twelve, to which producer Verity Lambert agreed if Nation and Spooner could share writing duties due to their work on The Baron. The twelve-part serial was confirmed by mid June. Lambert's successor, John Wiles, was unhappy with the extension and threatened to resign; Tosh, who was also unhappy, persuaded him to stay.Following the extension, in July, Tosh commissioned Nation to write the first six episodes, and Spooner to write the remaining six; they soon swapped the sixth and seventh episodes, allowing each to write a cliffhanger for the other to resolve. Tosh advised Spooner to write standalone sequences to link to Nation's cliffhangers later. Nation and Spooner met to discuss the storyline but mostly worked independently; their outline varied in length, with two pages for the first episode, a paragraph for the tenth, and a brief sentence for the twelfth. Nation's six draft scripts ran to 150 pages; however, Tosh recalled that Nation's drafts were short—running to around 15 minutes each, with the seventh episode at 21 pages —and required expansion. Spooner had more time to work on his scripts, and Tosh felt they required less work as Spooner was a former script editor. Nation's scripts were delivered in August, and Spooner's in September. The prison planet—Desperus, dubbed "Devil's Planet"—is a reference to Devil's Island, a French penal colony.
The seventh episode's broadcast on Christmas Day prompted the production team to write a self-contained comedic story, believing viewers would be uninterested in a complex narrative. Tosh was inspired to make the episode a parody of the police procedural series Z-Cars after one of its writers, Keith Dewhurst, turned down his request to write for Doctor Who. Camfield enquired about using four Z-Cars cast members and production designer Raymond Cusick asked to use its set; Z-Cars producer David Rose declined as the production schedules overlapped and he felt a festive story did not match Z-Carss tone. The Doctor's address to the audience at the end of the seventh episode—in which he says "Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home"—was written in the camera script, though Tosh and Wiles claimed it was improvised by Hartnell. Tosh criticised the address and felt it broke the audience's suspension of disbelief. 40 years later, Doctor Who introduced annual Christmas specials with "The Christmas Invasion".
By June 1965, Douglas Camfield was assigned to direct The Daleks' Master Plan. Tosh persuaded Wiles to maintain Camfield as the sole director after the serial was extended to twelve episodes. Camfield often rewrote elements of the scripts during rehearsals; Tosh felt Camfield's work on the scripts made the serial a success. Camfield asked Tristram Cary to compose music for the serial in July; Cary had worked on The Daleks and the two had collaborated on Marco Polo. Music was recorded at IBC Studios for the first six episodes on 13 October, and for the final six on 23 October. Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop created 48 sound effects for the serial in September 1965. Production assistant Viktors Ritelis was credited for the final episode at Camfield's request, as he felt he had helped immensely. Exhausted from production, Camfield decided he would not return to direct Doctor Who for some time. Production designers Cusick and Barry Newbery collaborated on the serial due to its length; it was Cusick's final story for Doctor Who, as he wanted to return to drama.
Casting and characters
Wiles and Tosh decided the serial should kill new companion Katarina for shock value, as writers of subsequent stories faced difficulty fitting her in, and they felt viewers may be unable to identify with her. They decided she would be replaced by another woman, Sara Kingdom, who would be killed in the serial's climax. Katarina and Sara were the first companions to be killed in Doctor Who, and the only ones to do so on-screen until Earthshock. Nation had intended for Sara to feature in an American spin-off series with the Daleks, but added her to The Daleks' Master Plan instead when the series did not emerge. Inspired by the character Cathy Gale of The Avengers, the scripts described her as "about twenty-five, very beautiful". She was originally written as Bret's lover, but was rewritten as his sister. Nation envisioned Bret Vyon as "the 007 of space". The frequent cast changes left Purves worried for his role; he felt he might be replaced by Nicholas Courtney.Courtney, who had earlier been considered to play King Richard in The Crusade, was cast as Bret in September. Courtney returned in the 1968 serial The Web of Fear to play Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, who later became a prominent recurring character in Doctor Who. The week after Courtney's casting, Jean Marsh—who had played Joanna in The Crusade, for which Adrienne Hill had been considered—was cast as Sara. Hill and Marsh's casting was announced in November 1965. Some character names were altered to reflect the story's futuristic setting; Bret Vyon was originally Brett Walton, and the prisoner Bors was originally Breton. The Egyptian characters Khepren, Hyksos, and Tuthmos were named after Chephren, Hyksos, and Thutmose, respectively. Make-up artist Joan Barrett shaved the heads of six actors portraying Chen's workers, the Technix, for which they were paid double.
Tosh expanded Mavic Chen's role when adding to Nation's draft scripts. Spooner requested the reintroduction of the Monk from The Time Meddler, which he had written; he felt the character could provide humour and Butterworth's performance could alleviate Hartnell's work. Butterworth was keen to reprise his role. James Hall had previously appeared in The Reign of Terror, while Malcolm Rogers was in The Chase, and Roger Avon, Reg Pritchard, and Bruce Wightman had appeared in The Crusade. Sheila Dunn, who portrayed Blossom Lefavre, was Camfield's wife; they had married the preceding August. The cowboy was portrayed by William Hall, the Evening Newss film critic who had been Camfield's best man at his wedding; the role was uncredited. Hall later married Jean Pestell, who portrayed a saloon bar girl in the episode.