Doctor Who: The Power Of The Daleks (TV Soundtrack)

David Whitaker

Dec 2004 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Anneke Wills, Full Cast, and Patrick Troughton

About this audiobook

‘I’ve been renewed...without it I couldn’t survive.’ Before the astonished eyes of his companions Ben and Polly, the Doctor’s whole body has apparently been transformed. Now they are confronted by a stranger who claims to be their old friend – but how can they know whether to trust him? The TARDIS’s arrival on the swamp planet of Vulcan brings its own problems; the Doctor is mistaken for an official come to solve the Earth colony’s in-fighting, and soon he and his companions are embroiled in political wranglings. However, a far more serious threat lurks within the colony. The scientist Lesterson has discovered a crashed space capsule, within it a group of inert metallic creatures which the Doctor identifies as Daleks. Refusing to heed the Doctor’s warnings, Lesterson supplies power to the Daleks and revives them. The awakened Daleks claim to be faithful servants of humanity – but could such a thing ever be possible? By covert means they seek an increasing level of energy, but for what? By the time the Doctor and his friends discover the Daleks’ true plan for the colony, it looks as if it might already be too late to stop them... Anneke Wills, who plays Polly in the story, narrates this debut story for the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, first broadcast in 1966 and long since missing from the television archives.

About the author

THE PROGRAMME: Before The Power of the Daleks, there had only ever been one Doctor. Played by William Hartnell since the inception of Doctor Who in 1963, he had captivated the imagination of the British viewing public and ensured the success of this Saturday teatime series. However, Hartnell had grown older and less hardy during his three year tenure, and by mutual agreement he resigned the role in 1966. Determined that the show should continue, current producer Innes Lloyd took the view that the Doctor's mysterious nature (his origins are still unknown) meant that anything was possible within reason - including the concept of bodily renewal. Therefore, at the end of the serial The Tenth Planet, the first Doctor was seen to collapse on the floor of the TARDIS in the company of Ben and Polly - before whose eyes his physical appearance shimmered and changed. The following week, The Power of the Daleks picked up and carried on from that very moment. The script, commissioned as 'The Destiny of Doctor Who', was written by David Whitaker - who, having been Doctor Who's original story editor, was deemed a safe pair of hands to shape the future of the programme. The personality of the Second Doctor took some time to perfect, however, and the programme's creator Syndey Newman requested that another ex-story editor, Dennis Spooner, be brought in to rewrite some of the scripts. No location filming was required for The Power of the Daleks and, with the exception of some special effects scenes pre-filmed at Ealing Studios, the serial was recorded at the rate of one episode per week, at the BBC's Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, from October to November 1966. The character of the Second Doctor, as witnessed here, is considerably different to the one which would assert itself towards the end of the programme's fourth season. But whilst Patrick Troughton and his scriptwriters would need time to perfect the new Doctor's personality, the presence of the Daleks ensured that his arrival received much press and audience attention. A rematch between the face-changing traveller and his arch enemies was just around the corner, and David Whitaker was already busy at work on the season finale - which, to all intents and purposes, was going to be the best Dalek story of all...