This is an odd one. It’s the third Dalek story in two years, and the third directed by Richard Martin. In the previous Dalek story (The Dalek Invasion of Earth) we saw the Doctor abandon his granddaughter Susan on a future post-apocalyptic Earth for what he felt was her own good. This time we say goodbye to the show’s original protagonists, schoolteachers Ian and Barbara, as they are granted an opportunity to return to mid-1960s Britain.

Whereas the Doctor started off hostile, even violent, toward the pair, and at best he treated his granddaughter with indifference, by now the Doctor had softened toward the pair and indeed become a more sympathetic character in general. He shows genuine distress at their choice to leave him, which he expresses with his usual petulance. From here on the Doctor remains a softer character yet he becomes rather melancholy, prone to musing about his losses.

On that level, and in the introduction of one of my favorite companions, Steven, the story is a success. And indeed the first two episodes are pretty solid stuff, despite some shaky studio work with the regulars casting shadows on matte paintings mere inches behind them, and despite the hilarious make-up of some incidental alien peoples. The final two episodes are passable as well, with an android duplicate Doctor and a fun dilemma where Vicki gets left behind by the TARDIS — and of course the introduction of Steven. In the Mechonoids we also see an unsuccessful, yet interesting, attempt at creating a nemesis to the Daleks.

It’s the middle two episodes that try on the patience. On paper they sound wonderfully bonkers; Daleks versus rednecks on the Empire State Building; Frankenstein’s monster lifting and pile-driving whole Daleks; a Dalek landing party causing the desertion of the Mary Celeste. There’s a year’s worth of comic strip material in these two episodes. Unfortunately none of it really comes off on-screen. Whether it’s a lack of comic timing on the actors’ part or proper framing of the action on the director’s, it all comes off as tedious and directionless. If it weren’t for the rather wonderful cliffhanger to part four, which results in Vicki’s travel predicament, I’d say it’s possible and desirable to just skip the middle two episodes entirely.

This is also the first Dalek story not to be adapted into a feature film starring Peter Cushing. Pervasive as the movies would later be on TV, apparently they weren’t such hot stuff at the box office. Also, the Dalekmania bubble was quickly deflating. The following year would be Hartnell’s last, and would very nearly be the end of Doctor Who — that is, until a new production team hit on the concept of regeneration. All the same, despite later ratings spikes in the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras, it took another forty years for the show to regain this height of popularity and cultural saturation.

This story sort of forms the middle block of a trilogy, with The Space Museum to the left and The Time Meddler to the right. The latter is one of my all-time favorite Doctor Who serials, and I think the first hint at something greater for the format. I think it’s fitting that with the departure of the original leads, and therefore the shift of loyalties to the Doctor himself, the show would immediately start in on hints at his personal background. But that’s a conversation for another review.