Series 1 Episode 8: The Ambush

Serial: The Daleks

Episode: 4 (The Ambush)

Doctor: William Hartnell

Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation

Director: Christopher Barry

Producer: Verity Lambert

Original Air Date: 11/01/1964

INTERVENTIONISM...IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE (and other stories)

Well that was anticlimactic. Seems like that mutant claw isn’t going to be bothering anyone anytime soon.

Anyway, Susan and Babs are taking Dalek!Ian for a walk when he figures out how to work the controls. The Doctor moves up front, telling Ian to do as little talking as possible while they try to make it past the Dalek guard that’s blocking their path to the lift.

Ian’s bullshit story about someone wanting the prisoners for questioning isn’t going down well with the Dalek guard. Time for some quick thinking courtesy of Susan, who uses her screaming powers for the greater good, pretending to be screechily uncooperative so that the Real Dalek—who is about to contact some other Real Daleks to confirm/deny Dalek!Ian’s orders—has to help Dalek!Ian restrain her. She tips her pals an enormous wink to let them in on her plan, and it’s gorgeous.

Anyway, the Real Dalek helps herd them into the room with the lift, and there's some pretty funny early Dalek characterisation when said Real Dalek is all 'need any help getting them to the fourth floor, mate?'. Having been spurned by Dalek!Ian, the Real Dalek leaves and closes the door behind it; the Doctor promptly jams the door mechanism by pulling out a few wires, locking Team Tardis safely into the lift room. Well Done, Team.

There's a nice moment where you see Babs's inner schoolteacher coming out, as she makes a point of congratulating Susan on her Very Good Idea. WOMEN BEING SUPPORTIVE OF ONE ANOTHER HIGH-FIVE. But OH NO, Ian is now stuck inside the Dalek casing! And the Real Dalek outside has just cottoned on to what's going on and sounded the alarm. And now they're cutting through the door! And the Daleks have magnetised the floor so that they can't even shove Dalek!Ian inside the lift! SUCH PERIL!

Also, SUCH EMOTION! (Which, for dramatic effect, I will illustrate using gifs from 1997 blockbuster Titanic.) Because now Ian is telling the Doctor to leave him and take the others away in the lift; Bae, on the other hand, is having none of it, defying first Ian and then the Doctor, who seems only too happy to get out of there.

Susan is also (screamingly) reluctant to leave Ian in the lurch, and is pulled into the lift by the Doctor, who says they're wasting time and that he'll send the lift back down for Ian. This is actually pretty sensible: the sooner they get into the lift, the sooner they can send it back down for Ian, on the offchance that he manages to escape being poached alive in a giant kettle. Babs, rather worryingly, doesn't seem to be making any efforts to free Ian from the Dalek casing, but is standing her ground in what I can only assume is a willingness not to let Ian die alone, which is noble, but ultimately unhelpful.

Her death wish can't be that strong, though, because when Dalek!Ian tells her, rather sharply, 'Barbara, for goodness sake, go!', she does so without further protest.

YAY SURVIVAL INSTINCTS, but boo men-are-practical/women-are-emotional trope. The Doctor, Babs, and Susan ascend to safety, leaving Ian to struggle to escape the Dalek casing as the Real Daleks cut through the door.

The lift is sent back down; Babs and Susan experience some premature survivors' guilt. And OH NO, the Real Daleks are through the door and have blasted the Ian!Dalek inside it to smithereens. BUT WAIT! It's empty! Ian must have escaped!

The Daleks hurry to throw the emergency switch to stop the lift and bring it back down. Ian is still in the lift. TENSE TIMES. The lift is almost fully at the top (relief!) when the Daleks throw the switch (panic!) and Ian makes a swift, scrambling exit from the lift shaft...

..and into the waiting arms of Bae. Which makes a nice change. And makes these fools my new BrOTP. Have a real gif to celebrate.

Why you so stupid, Rose Ian?

But that's enough of that I literally cannot get enough of these guys being ludicrously cute whenever they're reunited it's like they're Lyra and Pantalaimon or something.

Anyway, they're right at the top of the building, and Babs spots someone moving in the city below. OH CRUMBS, IT'S THE THALS...AND THEY'RE WALKING INTO AN AMBUSH! Team Tardis hammers on the windows a bit but for all the good it does they may as well be shouting at the telly, because the windows are soundproof.

Trying to break through the glass ceiling window

I sure wish I could lipread.

But our heroes have bigger fish to fry right now, because the Daleks are on their way up in the lift with orders that the prisoners be EXTERMINATED. Which is a rare instance of the E-word in this first Dalek serial. Barbara, in an almost sarcastic moment of helpfulness, points out that there is a door in the room. But ARGH it's been magnetised. And the Daleks are still on the rise. Ian leaves the Doctor to prise the door open and gets a less-than-proactive Babs and Susan (who are just staring into the abyss—FAIL) to help him manoeuvre a convenient piece of giant Dalek sculpture (?) into the lift shaft, taking out the lift. Dalek interior design ex machina for the win.

Practising aggressive feng shui in an alien environment.

Meanwhile, Temmosus (the Thal leader, remember?) is leading his band of merry men into a room full of gourds and squashes, which seem to be the Daleks' grow-your-own speciality. I feel really bad for Temmosus, actually, because his Yoda act ('fear breeds hatred and war') is ideologically gorgeous but so obviously meant to be seen as naive. He's like a right-wing cartoon of Jeremy Corbyn. Boo to you, Classic Who, for killing off the idealistic leader who believes that disarmament is the surest argument against war.

Enter Team Tardis, though considerably lacking in team spirit. The Doctor, who has reverted to self-preservation mode, is firmly against Susan's insistence that they stay and warn the Thals rather than getting back to the ship. Babs is glorious in Susan's (and the Thals') defence:

DOCTOR: The Thals are no concern of ours. We cannot jeopardise our lives getting involved in an affair which is none of our business.

BARBARA: (Angrily) Of course it’s our business! The Thals gave us the anti-radiation drug. Without that, we’d be dead.

Go Babs. (Also, fascinating early character development is fascinating.)

But OH LORD, Ian, clearly newly-invigorated by his return to full mobility and a post-narrow-escape-from-death cuddle with Babs, is turning this into the Ian Will Deal With This Shit show:

IAN: Yes, but the Doctor’s got a point. There’s no sense in risking our whole party.

SUSAN: No!

IAN: You go back to the ship and I’ll stay and warn the Thals.

SUSAN: No, we’re all in this together! We’re all going to stay here.

Ian, Barbara, the Doctor, and Susan. Because the Doctor is 100% Sharpay.

Ian, however, has no time for Susan's invocation of the Spirit of High School Musical, which is So Last Episode. He gives her the full teacher treatment, and, soul-crushingly, Barbara chooses not to fuck the patriarchy at this time:

IAN: Susan, you do as I say! You go back to the ship with Barbara and your Grandfather. Go on!
SUSAN: But don’t you understand...
BARBARA: Susan, I know what Ian means. He stands a much better chance on his own if he doesn't have us to worry about. Now come on.

Clearly everyone is buying into Ian being Head of the Space Family at the moment.

Temmosus gives a nice speech about building a future with the Daleks before telling his merry men to take the delicious gourds. Ian's cunning plan to help the Thals, it turns out, is...to yell that it's a trap and scarper. Chaos ensues: the Daleks start firing, Temmosus is killed, and the Thals run for it. Alydon makes it to safety and he and Ian have a Mutual Appreciation Moment before heading back to the jungle.

Alas poor Temmosus, who sleeps among the squashes.

Back in the jungle, an unnamed Thal woman is told 'not yet' before she can even ask whether the rest of the merry men are back. She slinks back off into the background for her trouble. Dyoni is showing the Doctor half a million years' worth of her planet's history, through the medium of hexagons. Thals love hexagons.

The Doctor and Dyoni put together a research grant proposal to digitise the Thal history archives

Then the other Thals are back; Antodus (Ganatus's potentially cowardly brother) is wounded and Babs makes herself useful tending to his shoulder with some ointment. Because basic First Aid skills are universal and woman are instinctive healers. Though all credit to her for mucking in.

Then there's some lovely dialogue between Alydon (who is the new leader), Ganatus, and Ian about why the Daleks hate the Thals so much, WHICH BY RIGHTS SHOULD INVOLVE BARBARA because she's the historian and so should be the go-to character for making the first vague parallels between Daleks and Nazis. Still, Ian has shown himself to have more left-leaning tendencies than our Babs, so perhaps we'll give him this character moment. Also, it's gorgeous whichever of our two humans gets to say it:

Tell me Classic Who isn't great right from the early serials. Go on, TELL ME.

(Having said that, it's interesting that Ian still chooses to refer to Thals and Daleks in terms of the human and the inhuman respectively, which is problematic given that Ian is very much aligning himself with those in his own likeness. You can take the human out of Earth...)

And now there's some really interesting stuff about interventionism and pacifism. Ian essentially tells the Thals they ought to stand up for themselves and earn the Daleks' respect through a show of strength. Dyoni, who THANK THE GODS has not been relegated to the role of Jealous Alien Lady this episode, essentially tells Ian to check his privilege, saying that he understands them 'as little as the Daleks do'. BURN.

You know nothing, Ian Chesterton.

Then things get even more interesting, as Barbara and Ian have a conversation about the Thals' unwillingness to fight that speaks volumes about their humanity, by which I mean their inability to see past certain inherited truisms until faced with the possibility that innate human characteristics might be socially constructed, potentially overturning their understanding of nature/nurture:

BARBARA: I don't understand them. They're not cowards. They don't seem to be afraid. Can pacifism become a human instinct?

IAN: Pacifism? Is that it? Pacifism only works when everyone feels the same.

BARBARA: Yes but are they really pacifists? I mean, genuinely so? Or is it a belief that's become a reality because they've never had to prove it? 

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Proper meaty stuff from our two humans, who again seem to be projecting human characteristics onto other humanoid species as a means of trying to understand their actions, and in doing so reveal human prejudices (pacifism = cowardice, etc.). Babs in particular seems to really want to get down to the philosophical nitty-gritty with Ian, whose cynical side we don't often get to see. I also adore that we get a glimpse of these two in a quiet moment when they're not being menaced or fighting for immediate survival. You can imagine them back on Earth, chatting politics in the pub and getting heated over it. Also, if there isn't already a book about the politics of Cold War-era Doctor Who then there really should be.

Unfortunately, at this point, the Doctor shows up with some Thal History Hexagons, putting a stop to what might have been an interesting (and probably problematic) debate. Apparently, the Thals used to be a blonde, warrior race, but then they mutated; the mutation came full circle, and now they're a race of blonde, pacifist farmers. The Daleks, we learn, had some manner of forbears called Dals. I assume this continuity stuff gets cleared up by the time we get to Genesis of the Daleks. 

As Ian wonders, wistfully, whether it would be any use to remind the Thals what great Aryans warriors they used to be, the Doctor starts wrapping stuff up: Susan wants to stay because the Thals are nice; the Doctor reminds her that the Daleks are...not nice. At any rate, Babs and Ian seem relieved not to have to get into the dodgy moral territory that is convincing the Thals to ditch their pacifist ways, and are happy to go along with the Doctor's insistence that they have themselves to worry about. Now all they need is for Ian to return the fluid link...Ian? IAN!?

OH YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. 

Eff. Eff. Ess.

RUDDY CRIPES WITH A CHERRY ON TOP THE DALEKS TOOK THE FLUID LINK FROM IAN WHEN THEY SEARCHED HIM BACK IN THE CITY AND HE DIDN'T NOTICE UNTIL NOW HOW WILL THEY EVER GET OFF THIS PLANET WITHOUT IT? WILL THEY MANAGE TO GET BACK TO THE DALEK CITY WITHOUT COMPROMISING THEIR OR ANYONE ELSE'S MORALITY? WILL THE DALEKS HAVE EVEN KEPT THE FLUID LINK ANYWHERE REMOTELY ACCESSIBLE? WILL THE THALS REVEAL EVEN MORE HITHERTO UNDREAMED-OF USES FOR HEXAGONAL THINGS?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Oh...er...it's a point of contention for this episode. Barbara and Susan are involved in the same discussions, but the only time the two have anything like a conversation is when Babs tells Susan to be a good girl and listen to her father Ian. So...debate amongst yourselves.

Is the gaze problematic? Not particularly.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads’? Not unless you're an insane, misogynistic prude who thinks all womanflesh on display is an abomination and an invitation to lustful thoughts and count the fact that Babs's shirt has a tendency to ride up at the back. In other words, no women were needlessly objectified in the wardrobe department any more than the men of their species this week.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Nope.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Nope. Ian has a moment of would-be self-sacrifice, but it's the others who then have to get him out of it, and it's Ian falling into Barbara's arms at the end of it. Though he does remain stuck in martyr mode, insisting on being the one to stay and warn the Thals.

Is/are the woman companion’s/s’ first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Nope. Susan gets a bit hysterical in the lift/when she's arguing about staying to help the Thals, but otherwise it's a pretty scream-free episode. And she has that wonderful fake screaming moment, too, just to subvert things a bit.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? Ish.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? Yeah, the Doctor has to stop Susan launching herself at the lift controls, and Ian gets very 'authoritative' when he's chiding Susan later in the episode.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode’s antagonist(s)? Nope. Ian's in a pretty tight spot, though.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? Not as such, but Ian hijacks Susan's attempt to help the Thals when they're walking into a trap.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Ian throws his weight around quite a bit this episode.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? It comes and it goes. The only woman Thal who speaks is Dyoni, and it's only the men who go to pick up the Dalek's organic gourds, but Dyoni gets some good moments this week.

Did a woman write/direct/produce this episode? No/No/Yes.

Verdict

Some lovely moments, especially from the two humans. A lot of the time, the two women are left standing about by the scriptwriters, but when they do get lines and things to do, they're generally good lines and good things to do, with the notable exception of Ian laying down the law and Babs going along with it. You could argue that Barbara is just being pragmatic, insofar as it doesn't take four people to shout a warning, but it still rankles. Barbara and Ian get to have the beginnings of a really interesting conversation, and despite a lot of the deeply-entrenched everyday sixties sexism in their relationship, you get the sense that theirs is a friendship founded not only on affection but also on their being intellectually a match for one another despite their not always being in agreement. I'd love to have seen them arguing 1960s politics over a glass of wine down the pub when on Earth. Speaking of which, the intervention/pacifism stuff is potentially very juicy, so let's see more of that, please. Susan gets a lovely moment where she uses her screaming powers for good, but is otherwise very much bossed-about this episode, which is a shame. The Doctor, meanwhile, continues to act from self-interest, and his character development is fascinating in this regard.

Series 1 Episode 7: The Escape

Serial: The Daleks

Episode: 3 (The Escape)

Doctor: William Hartnell

Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation

Director: Richard Martin

Producer: Verity Lambert

Original Air Date: 04/01/1964

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER (and other stories)

We pick up where we left off: Susan is bravely stepping back out into the jungle to deliver life-saving anti-radiation drugs to the Doctor and Barbarian (which is my new favourite portmanteau). No sooner has she stepped outside the Tardis, however, than she realises she’s being watched by a handsome blonde wrapped in a shower curtain, and sinks weak-kneed to the ground. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

#wrappedinplastic

His name is Aladdin Alydon of the Thal people, and he's not a mutant at all. In fact, Susan goes so far as to observe that he's 'perfect'. Because who doesn't appreciate a hot alien who can really work a hexagon? And who ever heard of a person ugly on the inside who wasn't also ugly on the outside? He's also sorry for having frightened her earlier when he tried to speak to her and tapped her on the shoulder:

SUSAN: I was frightened. I was terrified.

ALYDON: Yes, I was very clumsy.

Alydon is adorable.

Anyway, he's here to make sure she knows how to use the drugs he left for them. Susan tells him about how the other three have been taken prisoner by the Daleks; Alydon is ridiculously casual about having received confirmation that the Daleks did in fact survive the war. He asks Susan whether she's sure the Daleks don't just want the drugs for themselves; Susan hadn't, in fact, thought of that. Never mind, though, because Alydon is giving her a second supply of drugs to hide about her person. Having gained her trust, he offers to walk her back through the jungle to the city, and gives her his hexagonal threads for good measure.

Back in the city, to which Susan has returned as if by magic, the anti-radiation drugs are taking effect. The Daleks have allowed Susan to keep the second supply because...of reasons? It's hard to keep up with their motives, to be honest, but it has something to do with Susan having made contact with the Thals. Anyway, Susan is telling the others all about her new friend Alydon, Babs asks why the Daleks think the Thals are mutations; Susan doesn't know, but 'judging by Alydon. they're magnificent people'. Well, quite.

Anyway, the Doctor revives at this point, and is rather bummed to learn that they're all still in captivity. Susan tells Barbara that as soon as the Doctor is properly awake, they must find a way to help the Thals; Babs, a little bitterly, points out that right now they can't even help themselves. Susan, however, seems to have taken the plight of the Thals to heart, telling the others how they are pretty-much on the edge of famine; unless Team Tardis can help the Thals arrange a treaty with the Daleks, then the Thals are going to die. 'We must try and talk to the Daleks,' says Susan. There's probably a point to be made here about politics and solidarity and interventionism and such, but I'm going to content myself with referring to Susan as Space Geldof and leave it at that.

The Daleks have been eavesdropping, and have decided that rather than just wait for the Thals (and indeed the prisoners) to die of hunger, they're going to feed and water their captives and lull them into a false sense of security in order to get Susan to write a message to the Thals, which will lure them to the city (and indeed their doom). It's a pretty stupid plan, but hey, at least our heroes live to fight another day. And we also get to see this...

Air hostess, I like the way you dress.

...OMG IT'S A DALEK WITH A TEATRAY. The Dalek has come to fetch Susan, and tells the assembled captives that the Daleks are totally going to help the Thals, 'which is what you wanted us to do'. Definitely nothing shifty going on here. Once Susan has gone, the others wonder aloud how the Daleks knew about their philanthropic feelings. How indeed.

Cut to Alydon, squatting manfully on a rock in hexagon-adorned leather trousers and some sort of life-jacket. More Thals show up, several of whom have speaking parts. Their names are...oh God, hang on a second...Tinnitus Ganatus,  Genesis Temmosus (who seems to be their leader), and Diarrhoea Dyoni, the token speaking woman, whose dress seems to have been made of scraps of the fabric used to make the little appliqué hexagons for the men's troos. Which is probably a metaphor for her characterisation, too.

Thrifty BBC is thrifty.

OH though wait, I stand absolutely and entirely corrected: having just found a colour photograph of the Thals, it seems that the Thals' trousers are also all about the cut-out hexagons. Which rather begs the question of what kind of underwear they're wearing, given how high-up those cutouts go.

Mysteries of the flesh.

Anyway, there's some exposition from the assembled Thals, who have found the 'weird object' in which Team Tardis arrived. Temmosus, their leader, seems to be a reasonable sort: if the Thals, the 'once famous warrior race', are now farmers, then maybe the Daleks (once teachers and philosophers) have also changed. He seems very taken with the 'magical architecture' of the Dalek city, and dreams of exchanging ideas with and learning from a people who now seem to have become a race of scientistis and inventors. Temmosus, you are as admirable as you are clearly doomed.

Oh whoops, spoke too soon. We interrupt this idealistic post-conflict discourse to bring you sexism...IN SPAAAAAAAACE. First, Dyoni is asked her opinion; upon saying she has no opinion in this matter, Ganatus says 'how unusual' and the assembled men chuckle immoderately. Next, Dyoni informs Alydon that he would have done better to have given the drugs to a man instead of a girl (Susan). Then this happens:

TEMMOSUS: Tell me, Alydon, how old is this young girl?

ALYDON: Oh, no longer a child, not yet a woman.

TEMMOSUS: Ah, then perhaps it’s safe for you to talk to her...(looks pointedly at DYONI)...if she’s not yet a woman.

(GANATUS cackles to himself. DYONI storms off. ALYDON is confuz.)

ALYDON: I don’t understand her! If we don’t find the new food supply for next year, we’re finished, doesn’t she understand that? We’re all working towards the same end…

GANATUS: Now there’s a double meaning for you!

TEMMOSUS: (To ALYDON.) But don’t you realise that Dyoni sees her personal future in you? You must remember that when we left our plateau and started on this journey, she was little more than a child…but that was four years ago.

ALYDON: I am not quite so blind.

KILL ME NOW. Please oh please let Dyoni have a function other than getting jealous over Susan's relationship with Alydon. Also, Ganatus is filth.

Anyway, it is established that Susan is to get a message to them, and that she and Alydon have agreed that, if she signs it with her name, it means the Daleks are friendly; if she doesn't, it means the Daleks are hostile. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.

Back in the Dalek city, Susan is terrible at writing. The Daleks dictate their terms: if the Thals help them to cultivate the land, the Daleks will give them the vegetables they've been growing using artificial sunlight. THE DALEKS HAVE SPACE ALLOTMENTS AND EAT VEGETABLES. Well I never. A Dalek picks up the bit of (magnetic?) paper on which she's been writing with its (magnetic?) plunger, and I wish I could get a decent screen-cap because it looks like it's been written in crayon by a slow five-year-old. Clearly reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic are not top priorities on Gallifrey.

Susan's teacher informs her she's not yet ready for joined-up writing.

It becomes clear that the Daleks are definitely going to double-cross the Thals once they have Susan's message with her name on it. It also becomes clear that the Daleks have indeed been eavesdropping on their prisoners. This calls for a plan.

Cut to Ian, giving the Doctor the go-ahead to start a staged argument, during which they are about to engage in fisticuffs. Susan jumps on Ian's back as Babs pulls the Doctor out of the way, and the Dalek CCTV camera is 'accidentally' wrenched from the wall. 

WELL DONE, TEAM.

The Daleks aren't fooled for a moment, but for reasons best known to themselves, they decide against a) moving them to another room or b) extermination because...er...they can't escape anyway and they might come in useful later. The Daleks must be terrible hoarders.

Meanwhile, Team Tardis is bouncing ideas around, and actually everyone seems to be contributing. Susan is enthusiastic but impractical (playing dead); Babs is less forthcoming with her ideas but pragmatic, and catches on quickly, making useful associations; the Doctor seems to be able to think the most laterally; while Ian has the final brainwave. It's all very in character, and I particularly enjoy that it's Barbara the historian who makes the connection between past significance and present meaning, realising that the acrid smell in the air of an alien planet is reminiscent of a fairground on Earth, leading Ian to a solution based on secondary-school science: if the Daleks work a bit like dodgems, then how do they complete the circuit and how do we break it? (Though precisely what happens on the inevitable school trip to a fairground back on Earth when Barbara and Ian realise they can probably never ride the dodgems again without experiencing mild to moderate P.T.S.D. is anyone's guess. Fanfic writers, assemble!) It's also nice to see them actually bonding as a team, working together to solve their problems, rather than squabbling amongst themselves.

Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin put aside their differences.

Anyway, the solution turns out to be Alydon's shower curtain. Ian calls Barbara over to ask her what material she thinks it's made of (because women know such things), and decides that whatever it is, it's just the thing for immobilising a Dalek: if Daleks move about by drawing static electricity from the floor (which I was going to say probably isn't real science but then I looked up dodgems on Wikipedia and apparently these days they've worked out how to make them go without the ceiling grid and it has something to do with polarity...which shows how long it's been since I was at a fairground), then the cloak will work as insulation. Sounds like a plan, Stan!

Meanwhile, in the jungle, there's more Thal-related exposition. They can use those dead metal lizards as batteries of some sort, and Filthy Jokey Ganatus has a brother called Antodus who's probably a bit cowardly, seeing as when Dyoni asks Ganatus whether Antodus (fucksake) is still afraid of the dark, it strikes a bit of a nerve: 'My brother isn't afraid of anything.' Temmosus (their leader, remember) waxes philosophical: one should never struggle against the inevitable, but one should also examine carefully what one believes the be inevitable. That's deep, man. They get Susan's message, which leads Temmosus to speculate that maybe there is a future for their race. The Daleks claim to be all about working together to build a safe world free from the fear of war, and will the Thals please come and collect their food from the food banks city because it's definitely not a trap. In other words, the Daleks claim that we're (wait for it) ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. Look, I'm doing satire. 

Back in the captivity, Team Tardis is doing some recon, observing the Dalek from all angles so that they might better plan their escape.

Nothing to see here.

Their main problem seems to be the Daleks' visibility: they can easily jam the door, but the Dalek's swivelly eye-stalk makes it impossible to hide from. Ian suggests throwing the cloak over it, maybe with the aid of a distraction, but nobody's particularly convinced. Then it's Bae's turn for a brainwave: she asks Susan to throw her the shoes she's wearing, and begins scraping the muck from off the heels into the bowl of water that's been brought in; Ian asks her what she's doing; 'I'm making mud,' she replies. Ingenious Barbara is ingenious.

The Barbara Wright Appreciation Society gains another member.

It's time to put the plan into action: Susan sits on the cloak, all casual-like, and as the door opens, Ian quickly wedges part of the broken camera into the door mechanism so that it doesn't close properly when the Dalek leaves, having delivered food and water. The Dalek moves back towards the door, and at the Doctor's command, Barbara strikes, slapping a 'very sticky and very nasty' ball of mud right over its eye-piece. Pandemonium! The Doctor knocks Barbara bodily to the ground trying to get her out of the way of the gun; the Dalek is blinded and blunders around, yelling 'KEEP AWAY FROM ME!'; the Doctor tries to hold the gun down as the Dalek pins Ian against the wall at plunger-point while Barbara and Susan get the cloak into place on the floor; Ian uses the wall to brace himself as he kicks the Dalek backwards onto the cloak. Susan crows in triumph—'WE'VE GOT IT!'—as Babs hurries over to where Ian lies sprawled on the ground to get him out of the line of fire. Cautiously, as all four of them manoeuvre the Dalek into a less dangerous position, they let go of the gun...

Practising Dalek safety in the classroom.

...success! The Dalek is immobilised; Team Tardis is victorious. How utterly marvellous.

Ian sends the two women to keep watch in the corridor because he's just had a glimpse inside the Dalek and presumably doesn't want to give them a startled uterus or trauma ovaries from the shock of seeing a big squelchy space mutant. 

'What is that, Professor?'
'Something that is beyond either of our help,' said Dumbledore.

The Doctor wraps Mr. Squelch in Alydon's all-purpose shower curtain and lifts it carefully into a corner. Meanwhile, Susan and Babs have noticed that their little escapade has made rather a lot of noise, and that they're going to have to move quickly to get out of there. Then this happens:

I love that it only takes three episodes for these guys to start playing at being Daleks. Then again, I generally enjoy metatheatricality, and this is meta as fuck. I don't know why it's important for Ian to be the one inside the Dalek, but at least we know that Susan has to be one of the people in front because she knows the way. At any rate, Ian has no idea how to control the machine at first, and once they've scraped the mud off the eyepiece, the other three have to literally push him along.

What goes around comes around.

As they advance along the corridor, a three-fingered mutant hand creeps out from underneath the shower curtain...

MERCY ME, WILL THE BIG SQUELCHY VOLDEMORT-IN-LIMBO MUTANT CRAWL OUT AND MENACE OUR CHUMS TO DEATH? HOW WILL THEY ESCAPE WHEN THEY ARE LITERALLY DRAGGING IAN ALONG THE CORRIDORS BY THE PLUNGER? WILL THE THALS FALL FOR THE DALEKS' TRAP? WILL BARBARA HAVE A CHANCE TO WASH HER HANDS OR WILL SHE GET SOME SORT OF VICTORIAN MUD-RELATED DISEASE...IN SPAAAAAAAACE?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Happily, yes.

[BUZZWORD DOUBLE-WHAMMY ALERT!!] Is the gaze problematic? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads'? No.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Susan gets weak at the knees when Alydon shows up, and the Doctor sends Babs flying in the scuffle with the Dalek, but otherwise no.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? They're all captured. Or at least in captivity.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Alydon walks Susan through the jungle, but otherwise no.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Nope.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? Nope.

Is a woman 'spared' the ordeal of having to do/witness something unpleasant by a man who makes a decision on her behalf/keeps her deliberately ignorant? Yes.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? Nope.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? Susan gets forced to write lines, but otherwise it's even stevens.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? Yes.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? Nah, I'd say it's pretty collaborative this week.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Ian is still a little bossy, but again I'd say this week is pretty even.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? OH GOD YES CAN THAT STOP RIGHT NOW A LOT PLEASE.

Does a 'present'-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? No.

Did a woman write/direct/produce this episode? No/No/Yes.

Verdict

I really liked this episode and the way we got to see Team Tardis acting as...well...Team Tardis. Everyone was useful, everyone worked towards a common goal (stop smirking, Ganatus), and they were 'all in this together' in a High School Musical kind of way. By contrast, the Daleks and the Thals are in no way in this together, unless you mean (incisive political commentary alert) in a David Cameron sort of way (SHE SHOOTS; SHE SCORES). Susan's goodwill towards Plastic-Wrapped Adonis Alydon is abused by the dastardly machine-bound mutants, who are luring the Thals into a trap with the promise of free food a shiny future. LIES. I'm digging the Thals' philosophical outlook, but not so much their sexism...IN SPAAAAAACE. Let's hope they redeem themselves in future episodes. Also their trousers are ace. More Team Tardis, more excellent legwear, please.