Story #16 "The Chase"

Season

2

Writer

Terry Nation

Book/CD

 X

Episodes

6

Director

Richard Martin

Vid

 X

Story code

R

Producer

Verity Lambert

DVD

X

Episode Details

Episode

DR MM:SS

TX dd/mm/yy

RPT TX dd/mm/yy

In BBC Archive

1

25:25

22/05/1965

Y

2

23:32

29/05/1965

Y

4

23:49

12/06/1965

Y

Cast Details

Regular Cast

William Hartnell (First Doctor) , Vicki (Maureen O Brien) , Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright) , William Russell (Ian Chesterton)

Guest Cast

Peter Sanders (Sita) / Peter Craze (Dako) / Bill Starkey (Third Xeron) / Lawrence Dean (Morok Guard) / Ken Norris (Morok Guard) / Salvin Stewart (Morok Guard) / Peter Diamond (Morok Guard) / Billy Cornelius (Morok Guard) / Richard Shaw (Lobos) / Jeremy Bulloch (Tor) / Salvin Stewart (Morok Messenger) / Peter Diamond (Morok Technician) / Ivor Salter (Morok Commander) / Michael Gordon (Xeron) / Edward Granville (Xeron) / David Wolliscroft (Xeron) / Bill Starkey (Xeron) / Peter Hawkins (Dalek Voice) / Murphy Grumbar (Dalek Operator)

Synopsis

The travellers are forced to flee in the TARDIS when they learn from the Time/Space Visualiser taken from the Moroks' museum that a group of Daleks equipped with their own time machine are on their trail with orders to exterminate them.

1. All episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings.
2. Negative film prints were recovered for all episodes in 1978.
3. This story went under the working title The Pursuers.
4. The story was commissioned at late notice when another of Terry Nation's stories fell through. It is believed that the slot was originally to be filled by his planned historical The Red Fort.
5. The scenes in episode 6 with Ian and Barbara celebrating their return to London was made as part of the production block for The Time Meddler and the Director for these is consequently Douglas Camfield.
6. This is one of the few Dalek stories to incorporate humour and is the only story to attempt comical performances from the Daleks. Examples includes a stammering Dalek who cannot do simple mental arithmetic (in the first two episodes); Daleks nodding their eyestalks to confirm a plan (in the fifth episode); and showing a trait for deviating from the subject at hand (during their deliberations in the first episode).
7. Morton Dill, the young man from Alabama whom the travellers meet at the top of the Empire State Building, was played by Peter Purves, who would appear in the last episode as Steven Taylor.
8. The story also features The Beatles in a film clip. Ironically, considering the number of lost Doctor Who episodes, the Beatles performance from which this clip was taken now only survives in this story. (In a double irony, the scene has once again been "lost" as licensing restrictions forced it to be deleted from the Region 1 DVD release.)
9. The Beatles were originally planned to appear as old men performing in the 21st Century but this proposal was vetoed by their manager Brian Epstein. Had this gone through, of course, it would have become an anachronism given the fates that would befall both John Lennon and George Harrison before they got to be "old men".