“The Chase” is an adventure of the second season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1965. It follows “The Space Museum” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin. At that time the various episodes of each adventure had individual titles, in this case:

• The Executioners
• The Death of Time
• Flight Through Eternity
• Journey into Terror
• The Death of Doctor Who
• The Planet of Decision

The story

The First Doctor (William Hartnell) is trying to repair a Time-Space Visualiser found in the space museum on Xeros in the previous adventure. When the Tardis materializes on the planet Aridius, Ian (William Russell) and Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) explore the area but get in trouble.

The Doctor and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) are relaxing when the Time-Space Visualiser tunes on the Daleks so they discover that their enemies have built a machine similar to the Tardis, tracked them out and are coming to exterminate them. The travelers must once again run from the Dalek.

Extras

This DVD contains contains many extras: in fact it’s an edition on two DVDs. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, Radio Times Listings, a trailer about the next DVDs to be released and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists William Russell and Maureen O’Brien, actor Peter Purves and director Richard Martin.

Cusick in Cardiff. Daleks designer Raymond Cusick visits the studios of “Doctor Who” new series in Cardiff where he has a chat with his “heirs”. An interesting comparison of how they worked in the production of the first years of the original series and how they’re working in the new series.

The Thrill of The Chase. Director Richard Martin remembers the production of this adventure.

Last Stop White City. A documentary about Ian and Barbara.

Daleks Conquer and Destroy. A documentary on the Dalek trying to explain their appeal.

Daleks Beyond the Screen. A look at the Dalek merchandise.

Shawcraft – The Original Monster Makers. A documentary about Shawcraft Models, the company that created monsters and models for years for “Doctor Who” classic series.

Follow the Dalek. A film from 1967 that shows the work of Shawcraft Models.

Give-a-Show Slides. Sixteen mini-stories each made of seven slides.

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The previous adventures with the Daleks had first created and then consolidated “Dalekmania”. As a result, Terry Nation was commissioned to write a third story with what had already become the Doctor’s arch-enemies.

The adventure “The Space Museum” finished with the images of the Daleks who have found the Doctor and his companions and set out in pursuit with a ship similar to the Tardis they built. Their appearance changed slightly and in “The Chase” they’re equipped with solar panels to generate power independently. Some Daleks created for the film “Dr. Who and the Daleks” were also used: they were slightly different and to avoid modifying them, with costs they avoided whenever possible, they were kept in the background.

“The Chase” is an adventure that takes place on different planets as the Doctor and his companions fled through space-time to avoid being captured and killed by the Daleks. Along with the setting, the tone changes as well, ranging from drama to comedy to almost farce. In fact, the episodes set on the Empire State Building and on the ship Mary Celeste are basically a comedy, the episode set in a sort of house of horrors even sees the Daleks fight against Dracula and Frankenstein.

The Daleks had been used in dramatic adventures, in “The Chase” they’re partially used in what are basically comedic gags. This shows the different tones of this adventure but that only works in part showing that drama is best suited to the Daleks.

In “The Chase” there’s the first appearance of a doppelganger, which became a recurring topic in “Doctor Who” history. The Daleks build a robot in the guise of the Doctor to kill the travelers. Actor Edmund Warwick plays the android but in some scenes it’s William Hartnell himself who plays it contributing to the ambiguity about the true identity of the character in the scene.

“The Chase” also marks the debut of actor Peter Purves. In the episode “Flight Through Eternity” he plays the character of Morton Dill on the Empire State Building. His performance was appreciated so much that he was given the part of Steven Taylor in the final episode of this adventure.

“The Chase” ends on planet Mechanus, where the Doctor and his companions meet the Mechonoids, robots built to serve humans but have taken control of the planet. Thus comes the climax of the story with the battle between Daleks and Mechonoids. The meanss and above all the budget of the time didn’t allow big special effects and explosions and the style is quite comic-like. Personally I think that anyway the results look better than those obtained twenty years later in the battle between the two Dalek factions in the adventure “Revelation of the Daleks”.

“The Chase” is above all the last adventure for Ian and Barbara. Actor William Russell decided to leave “Doctor Who” to do something different and actress Jacqueline Hill realized that the time was right for her to leave the series as well. Both were instrumental to the series success playing their characters very well and supporting William Hartnell in his notorious “Billy fluffs”, the many moments when the actor slipped out of the script.

The end of “The Chase” is a turning point in the series because from that moment on the Doctor was the only original character remaining in the series. Today we’re used to seeing companions who come and go but back then the departure of Ian and Barbara was a really big deal.

The two teachers represented the human side, in contrast with the Doctor’s alien nature, as at the beginning of the series he was definitely amoral to human standards. It’s due primarily to Ian and Barbara that the Doctor really starts taking an interest in humans and Earth to become the character we know today.

“The Chase” is an adventure with ups and downs but overall it’s fun. Inevitably, though, it’s remembered more for what it represents in the history of “Doctor Who” than for its quality.

This DVD is part of a box set together with the adventure “The Space Museum”, available on Amazon UK, Amazon Canada and Amazon USA. The quality of the two adventures isn’t extraordinary and as for the extras “The Chase” is definitely better than “The Space Museum”. This box set is a must in the collection of “Doctor Who” fans for the importance of “The Chase” but I’d recommend it to other people only if they have the curiosity to learn more about that era of the series.