My prayers have been answered. The failures of Part 5 are not repeated here, proving that the last episode was just a sloppy anomaly. This installment returns to basics: well-grounded scenes built on character relationships and creating tension and drama from simple obstacles. And what an excellent example of those features this episode turns out to be.
The Thal filling the water bags was sucked in to the vortex and the episode gets under way with a powerful image of empty water bags swirling in the water.
We then linger for several beats on the whole crew mourning this loss, adding some weight to the first life lost in this whole endeavor. Already this episode has slowed down to give gravitas to its small moments. Also, this dude is taking the loss real bad:
This will come into play later as he develops into a more distinctive Thal extra, as with the visual motif of mourning death.
Meanwhile Team B (Susan, the Doctor, Alydon, and his lady) are spying on the city and drawing a map. Their plan is to disrupt the Dalek's radio and television frequencies.
Inside the city the Daleks give a report on the neutron bomb option. Turns out it will take almost a month to build, which is time they do not have with the impending Thal attack. Here we return to the terse Dalek sequences that avoid flatness by giving too much dialogue and exposition in those robot voices. Just a quick update and a little more insight into how their calculating minds work.
Cut to Barbara and the Hunky Brother "exploring the caves" together. They are looking for ways into the city, but this becomes a tender moment between the two characters whose relationship was hinted at in the previous episode. The intimate scene leads to them discovering the sound of running water. More importantly, we got some good Barbara moments. Consider the following exchange, in script format, you see:
BARBARA
Remember what Ian says, we're not to take any chances.
HUNKY BROTHER
Do you always do what Ian says?
BARBARA
No. I don't.
This is some saucy stuff. Barbara is easily one of the most dynamic characters of the four. Ian could be, but he's too self-righteous and chauvinistic at this point in the series. Until we get moments of his failures he'll never seem as human as Barbara, Susan, or the Doctor.
Barbara's also into some kinky shit.
Barbara and the Hunk find a hole and decide to spelunk that shit. Hunk goes through on a rope and Barbara ties it to a rock, albeit poorly, as it gives way and Hunk falls to his potential doom. But just as things were getting heavy with Barbara and Hunk, Ian shows up with a cadre of Thals and decides to take over. Turns out it was a small drop into a big cavern with many tunnels.
Back in the city the Daleks are alarmed at the "great movement among the Thal people" and the fact that their images are not working.
The Thals outside are using large reflective sheets to blind the video towers.
The Doctor, Susan, and Alydon have now entered into the city walls, ending in a close up of a giddy (or vindictive) Doctor who promises, "we'll show them a thing or two."
We then cut to an incredible shot of the side of a tunnel with Ian, Barbara, Hunky, and the Thals walking through it. It looks like a diorama or the cross section of a location from a Wes Anderson film.
Here we get a scene of one of the most prominent Thal extras, let's call him Chicken Shit, arguing with Hunk about wanting to go back. He goes off about how they'll never defeat the Daleks and all this is hopeless. Hunk won't let him leave, but before anything can happen there is a convenient rock cave-in that knocks Chicken Shit out and blocks the way they came.
Can't go back now, loser.
A quick scene of Daleks shouting emergency and saying that they can track the attackers with vibrations, thus taking them by surprise (a pretty neat piece of technology that probably could have been established sooner).
Back outside the city Susan, the Doctor, and Alydon arrive at a fuse box thing mounted on the wall. Somehow the Doctor determines this is the power source for the static electricity that powers the city...or the radio towers...or something. The Doctor tells Alydon to go command the Thals to redirect their light beams at a different tower while the Doctor proceeds to smash the fuse box and uses the TARDIS key to redirect a current into another fuse box for something (I'm unsure of the details here).
Before Alydon leaves he implores them to hurry, but the Doctor is too proud of his accomplishment not to revel in it for a spell. Low and behold he and Susan are descended upon by ambushing Daleks.
Back in the cave Ian and Hunky arrive at a deep crevasse. They male-bond over trying to figure out a way to pass it (it's too deep to climb down and can't be circumnavigated). As they brainstorm the sound of the running water adds a nice touch to this slow, quiet sequence. Ian decides it has to be jumped and goes first.
With a rope tied around his waste he makes the leap and the action editing is actually pretty good. Hunky jumps next.
We return to the Daleks one last time. They have the Doctor and Susan sitting like school children on the floor while they Bond villain monologue their plan. We get a brief rehashing of how the Daleks need radiation to survive and are going to overload their reactors and flood the atmosphere with radiation.
discussing the final solution to the Thal question.
The Doctor calls them murderers, but they says its extermination! They go into some weird heil Hitler chant that is difficult to make out.
I'm not sure why they didn't kill the Doctor and Susan immediately. I mean, they're going to kill everyone with radiation so it doesn't seem like they need them to set a trap. Also, why would they explain their plan to them? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Back at the crevasse Barbara makes the jump. Then a Thal, leaving Chicken Shit as the final member. He stares down the crevasse. Ian throws him the rope and talks him through the process while Chicken Shit mumbles that he can't do it.
best shot in the whole serial.
He jumps and falls, almost taking Ian with him as the rope connects them. Chicken Shit dangles and screams while Ian barely holds on to the slippery rock. The episode ends in a literal cliff hanger.
UP NEXT: The Daleks Part 7, "The Rescue"
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