The Chase (1965) Review

The Chase is a decent Dalek story, but by no means the best. It's clunky, uncoordinated and that Hammer Horror episode was a complete waste of time.

Since the events of The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, the Daleks have somehow invented time travel and use it to go hunt down their old enemies(why they don't try and change their old defeats like the Cybermen I don't know. Maybe the Master taught them the Laws Of Time). What ensues is a chase across worlds and time periods with the TARDIS crew and the Daleks trying to wipe each other out.

William Hartnell is getting on a bit I think. It may just be me, but he spent the majority of the serial just looking into the distance. It's quite odd. A definite highlight was his duel with his robot self though(played by Edward Warwick who at least looks more like Hartnell than Richard Hurndall did) even if they tried to make him look like the robot a bit too much(why would the real Doctor attack Sir Ian?)

William Russell himself is a bit tired of being Sir Ian Chesterton and in the last few stories(starting from The Crusade), his performance has been quite "by the numbers". It's still more charismatic than Peter Purves though.

Vicki was great for most of the story, minus a completely nonsensical moment on Aridius in which she(whilst giggling like she belongs in a mental asylum) tells Ian the story of a ring in sand being evil cause it raised evil castles(????????).
In the last episode, I liked how she suffered a nervous breakdown because of her fear of heights. It reminded me of Barbara's reaction to time travel in An Unearthly Child.

Speaking of Barbara, I know I've never really been too positive about her, but that's because she's simply not an adventurer, she's a carer(is that a word?). She's motherly, responsible, but still brave and all. It's a very nice character and the glue that holds the rest of the crew together.

As for the planets themselves, I thought the plot on Aridius was a retread of Marinus(lol) with William Hartnell's "hey auntie" bit being the only memorable part. The little sketch(?) in America would've been fine had Peter Purves not acted like Jar Jar Binks on steroids.
The rest were all just acceptable. There was nothing interesting and nothing new. Even the Mechanoids were just a play on the Daleks(which was probably intentional as they later fight them).

All in all, it's just going back to where we were before.
But the reason this story is remembered primarily is of course the departure of Barbara and Sir Ian. It's not the greatest departure, admittedly and certainly not as good as Susan's farewell, but it had its moments(the moment where I almost laughed was when Sir Ian went :O as he noticed a police box).

From what I hear, the next companion is to be Steven Taylor.
I'm too tired of this story to complain. Yes, I forgot to say that this story is quite dull. Not bad, but not good either.
I hate that kind.

This story is also the first DW story ever to show the Time Vortex. I wasn't expecting it til the Tom Baker era.