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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 425810" data-attributes="member: 8">The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (21-11-1964 / 26-12-1964)[ATTACH=full]56675[/ATTACH]The team enters a dystopian world in which Africa, South America and India have been destroyed, and all the action takes place in London and nearby areas - although they do mention something about a "united europe".To warm things up, especially for the younger audience, the story starts with a suicide drowning while totally ignoring the big "No Bodies To Be Dumped Here" sign.The Dalek's evil scheme is summed up in two sentences (it was in episode 4,  I think) but the story of Earth (well, England) plays out in a Day Of The Triffids fashion with lots of characters and locations.It's become sort of a given that, as soon as the time travellers set foot outside the Tardis, one of them sprains or twists his/her ankle. It's also a given that the injury magically disappears once it's no longer relevant.This time it's Susan who has to hop around for a while but it actually ends with worn shoes and a companion departure.The Tardis group splits up ("where have they gone?") only to be (partially) reunited at various points in the story.I found it impossible to keep track of where they were although they all seemed to be heading for the mining area where Daleks were doing their thing.The bland studio sets makes it almost impossible to distinguish between various indoor locations, and since they're all moving both horizontally and vertically it gives the impression of one big cube.[ATTACH=full]56676[/ATTACH]And there's always an opening that leads to another room or location although it never looks as if they're making any progress.That progress is established when the story says so ("now we are here, oh look, there's Barbara") .There are real-life location shoots and they do look surprisingly deserted, I guess it was filmed in the early hours.The score for these episodes is very good especially for the location scenes, the bongo rhythms reminded me of the score of Alice In Wonderland 1966.Apart from the Daleks there are Daleks-controlled humans, smugglers, collaborators, escaped alligators and a Slyther that makes a horrific sound.The urgency of the story - to defeat the Daleks - makes it impossible for all these additional story elements to shine or to become seriously threatening.Depending on one's preference the story is either too long or too short.Barbara has to do all the running and pushing wheelchairs while Ian spends most of his time hiding in small spaces, and it was only a matter of time before he ended up inside the big bomb itself.I have yet to see what the other Doctors will bring to the episodes but I'm beginning to see that the New Doctor Who is a combination of the Doctor and Ian.Story blabla victory, the evil oppressors have been defeated.[ATTACH=full]56677[/ATTACH]Funny.Meanwhile, a little romance has blossomed between Susan and 22nd century earthling David whom I suspect to be Irish. I don't know why, maybe it's the romance combined with the desire to grow potatoes.[ATTACH=full]56678[/ATTACH]In the final scene he proposes to Susan but she says she can't accept and I screamed at the screen YES! YES YOU CAN!Well, the Doctor agreed with me and Susan stays behind with David to rebuild England and work on a united Europe.This makes it easier to guess who's going to sprain his/her ankle in the next episode.</blockquote>

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