There is no recap at all of part one; part two just gets straight down to business. Throughout the whole episode Sarah is separated from the Doctor and Harry, with the action going back and forth between their plots. To make things easier for me, or at least less confusing, I will do a Two Towers and deal with everything that happens to the Doctor and Harry first, and then cover Sarah's scenes.
Nyder hands the Doctor and Harry over to some other Kaled baddys and they confiscate the time ring - I'm surprised that it took so long for this to happen.
The Doctor and Harry meet Ronson and he looks at the time ring and the objects from the Doctor's pockets.
"If I didn't know better I'd have to conclude these articles had been made by an intelligence on another planet."
"If you didn't know better?"
"It's an established scientific fact that in the seven galaxies only Skaro is capable of supporting intelligent life."
"It is also an established scientific fact that there are more than seven galaxies..."So Ronson is convinced that they are
"A Dalek... Very primitive but undeniably a Dalek..."
"You're mistaken... it is a mark three travel machine..."
"If you say so..."
Nyder fits a pewpewpew gun to the Dalek, and Davros says
"Our machine is now equipped with a weapon for self-defence."This is an ironic statement to the Doctor and the viewers, who know of the Daleks already, but not to any Kaleds present who may believe it. It is not yet clear how Davros intended it to be taken.
The Dalek weapon coming to life is very Freudian, but it is menacing for that. Ronson stops the Dalek from shooting the Doctor and Harry, and this causes Davros to rant like a Dalek.
In the next scene, Ronson reveals that he is not a baddy really. He too doesn't want the Daleks to be made, because he doesn't want to be turned into a scary green tentacle monster. I wouldn't want that either, and I don't believe Cthulhu when he says it's not so bad really.
Ronson helps the Doctor and Harry to escape into the ventilation system (where Barney Collier is busy setting up the IM Force's plan to steal Nyder's medal) so they can get help from other non-baddy Kaleds. They get out of the bunker but are now in a cave full of monsters created by Davros.
Having gone from one perilous situation to another, but not in any direct danger for the moment, is how we leave the Doctor and Harry at the end of part two. Meanwhile, Sarah has left the hole in the wall only to be pounced on by four Mutos.
One of the Mutos is played by Stephen Yardley from Sand. His character isn't named on-screen in this episode so I will just call him "Stephen" for now, though he is not as handsome as Steven Taylor. He and Sarah get captured by Thals while the other Mutos get shot or run away.
They are imprisoned with a Kaled and they are made to do work - this would be terrible punishment for a cat so I think these Thals are baddys too. The work is to help make a rocket, which sounds like fun except that the rocket is being made from poison!
Sarah leads an escape attempt where they, and as many extras as they could get hold of, try to climb up to the top of the rocket to escape through the roof.
Shots of Sarah climbing up the rocket make this an exciting scene, including one that shows how high up she is. Thals chase after them and shoot at them until only Sarah and Stephen are left. Sarah falls off the rocket and screams as there is a freeze-frame cliffhanger!
What makes this episode so good is that the two plots come to parallel each other towards the end, with both parties attempting to escape at the same time. Unlike part one, there is next to no padding, with every scene serving some function within the overall story. New characters are still being introduced, such as Ronson and Stephen, so it is clear that things are still being set up for later. With the first third of the story now over, we should be getting to the dramatic middle next time.
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