The End of Tomorrow (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 4)

The one where Barbara drives a truck through a squad of Daleks...

These episode titles are all very apocalyptic, aren't they? The End of Tomorrow, Day of Reckoning, World's End (which is actually the location where the TARDIS landed)... But whether they have any connection with events in the story, I'm not so sure. What about the end of tomorrow (Sunday night)? What reckoning? I rather like Terry Nation's comic book sensationalism, and we'd get plenty more where this came from... The Death of Time (although it doesn't die), Flight Through Eternity, (actually just one century), Day of Armageddon, Destruction of Time (although it's not destroyed).

The End of Tomorrow begins with the Daleks' clockwork time bomb which sounds like Colly's mill, Windy Miller's house in Camberwick Green. But what's this? The Doctor's ill! He tries to rise to his feet but collapses with a mildly unconvincing "ohhhhh", and we don't seem him again all episode. David claims it's the effects of the Daleks' drugs, but he seemed to get over that quite quickly in Day of Reckoning. He's obviously on a comedown. Either that, or William Hartnell damaged his back during rehearsals and took a week off to recuperate. I'm not sure which is likelier.

David and Susan rashly decide to abandon the sick, unconscious Doctor and head for the sewers, because what else would you do when an elderly and vulnerable member of your party has been taken desperately ill? I'm not sure how significant a role the Doctor had in the original draft of this episode, but at least this predicament allows Susan and David to spend some "quality" time together, and the relationship which develops between them feels more organic than future couplings I could name (I'm looking at you, The Myth Makers and The Invasion of Time!).

Susan thinks the sewers of London smell like an old goat farm. I'm not sure what an old goat farm smells like, but I do know that goats don't smell good, so I'll believe her. A more accurate remark would've been: "These sewers smell like shit!", but I'm not sure that would have been appropriate. The sewers are apparently infested with reptiles, including alligators, which escaped from zoos during the Dalek invasion. This is a wonderful bit of colour from Nation, which feels real and possible because that's what probably would happen. It's a shame we don't get to see lions or elephants roaming the streets of Westminster (what a wonderfully incongruous sight that would be!), but the imagination gives a helping hand.

There's more of David's softly-softly approach to wooing Susan into staying on Earth with him when he mentions a new start after the Daleks have been defeated. "A new start?" dreams Susan, the dawn of new futures lighting up Carole Ann Ford's face. "Rebuilding a planet from the very beginning. It's a wonderful idea." David's seed is well and truly sown.

Nation's done the classic thing of splitting our four heroes up, allowing him to cover more story and move it forward at a ripping pace. Ian has teamed up with Larry Madison, who's searching for his brother at the Bedfordshire mine. The location filming shows Daleks patrolling the mine workings while exhausted men, women and the elderly pull rail carts along on ropes (there's even someone who looks like the Eleventh Doctor!). Stock footage is used to show mine workings and drilling, and the whole sequence adds scale to the story that couldn't be achieved in studio. You really get the feeling that the Daleks have humanity under the cosh and that there's very little hope of escape or overthrowing these despotic aliens.

I found the scene where Ian and Larry encounter a Roboman quite creepy. Robomen are the walking dead, or at least the walking doomed, and they speak with slurred, pseudo-staccato voices. The truth is, these men were once real people, living members of the human race who had families and jobs and watched telly and read books. Like the Cybermen who would follow in a few years time, they are lost humans. Imagine how horrifying it would be to see someone you loved reduced to a lumbering corpse like that? I was upset enough by seeing what happened to poor old pessimistic Craddock in Day of Reckoning!

William Russell is fantastic here (I love the bit where the Roboman instructs him not to resist orders, and Ian says defiantly: "Get new orders!") and his face-off with black marketeer Ashton is riveting. Ian stands up to this opportunist chancer because he's essentially a bully, and schoolteachers know how to deal with bullies. Ian stares Ashton straight in the eye, unblinking, eyeballing him in defiance. It's a fine sign of Ian's character that he doesn't just give in to the man with the gun.

"What's a slyther?" asks Ian, to which Ashton replies: "Where do you come from, mate? Fairyland?" It seems the slyther (that's the strange creature lurking outside that sounds like a constipated ghost) is a pet of the Black Dalek, perhaps a remnant of their genetic experiments on Skaro, lifted from the Lake of Mutations and taken with them on board their invasion fleet? It certainly doesn't look like anything of this planet, and despite all the ridicule fandom has thrown at the slyther, I actually think it's quite effective here, quivering in the shadows. Director Richard Martin never gives us a very clear sight of it (which is just as well, because it looks like a pretty lame costume), but it remains a threat. Its claw reaches in and grabs Ashton, whose bullets do little to stop it, and when Ian, Larry and Wells escape, you can see the slyther devouring Ashton in the background. Brrrr...

Meanwhile, Barbara and Jenny take a truck from the museum and head for Bedfordshire, but Jenny is just as defeatist as ever. "You've got this romantic idea about resistance," she spits at Barbara. "There's nothing heroic about dying. There's no point in throwing lives away just to prove a principle!" But Barbara's had enough of her pessimism, and retorts: "If Dortmun hadn't thrown his life away, we'd all be dead. He sacrificed himself so that you and I would have a chance." That's it, Babs, make her feel really guilty!

A determined Barbara drives the truck out on to the streets (touchingly, past Dortmun's dead body) but they soon encounter a squad of Daleks blocking the road ahead. Jenny suggests they turn around, but oh no... our Babs is not for turning! "I'm going through!" she insists, and 12 million people watching in their living rooms punch the air in solidarity. It's an ambitious and effective action sequence, and affords the women a personal success which buoys them, and gives Jenny fresh hope. "I rather enjoyed that!" smirks our heroine. Soon after, the Dalek saucer (a flan case) blows up the truck (a Corgi toy), but luckily our girls escape! All the action's with the women this week!

First broadcast: December 12th, 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Barbara driving a truck through a line of Daleks is probably the best Doctor Who will ever be!
The Bad: The Dalek saucer hubcap. The slyther's really weird moan. Oh, and if you're going to use stock footage of alligators, don't use footage of a cute li'l baby 'gator!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: The Waking Ally...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: World's End (episode 1); The Daleks (episode 2); Day of Reckoning (episode 3); The Waking Ally (episode 5); Flashpoint (episode 6)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-dalek-invasion-of-earth.html

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is available on DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Dalek-Invasion-Earth/dp/B00009PBAN