The news reported yesterday that two long lost episodes of THE DALEK'S MASTERPLAN have come to light and been restored. They were discovered in collector's cache of home videos and super8 tapes held for decades in a dusty loft. Amazing how these things come to light. The episodes are number 1 and 3 of the serial, individually entitled The Nightmare Begins and Devil's Planet. Added of Day of Armageddon (ep.2) and the first three parts of this epic serial are now intact, along with ep.5 & 10. They will be shown at a special presentation in a London cinema [usually the BFI, but they have a schedule all set for April] and available as always with the BBC on the iPlayer.
THE DALEK'S MASTERPLAN was truely epic, but suffers with uneven an narrative and script. Terry Nation's episodes are taut, tight and extremely visceral, very exciting, and show us the Daleks at some of their most ruthless. There's the added attraction of Kevin Stoney's villain Mavic Chen and Nicholas Courtney's tough-as-nails turn as Brett Vyon. Meanwhile Dennis Spooner's writing is almost whimsical in comparison and has pantomime stuff in it like the Peter Butterworth's cuddly villain The Meddling Monk and the unfathomable Christmas day episode The Feast of Stephen.
Still, it is great to see these lost episodes recovered for future posterity.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,889Chief of Staff
I was reading about this yesterday - how they’d managed to get Peter Purvis down to see them under false pretences ☺️
It’s good to see they can still find the early Doctor Who episodes…apparently these story episodes weren’t ever sold abroad because it was seen as “too dark and gritty” 👀
Yeah I might give them a watch out of curiosity. I’ve never actually watched Day of Armageddon so it’s nice to have a little run of them. I’ve drifted away from the 60s stuff over the years, although I did read the John Peel novelisations of The Daleks’ Master Plan back in school and had fun with them.
I worked with Peter Purves on a Dr Who project about two years ago and he’s certainly a confident fella 😄
I watched the first three Master Plan episodes: they’re really good fun! They zip along really well. The only issue (apart from Hartnell being barely up to it) was that Mavic Chen’s scenes where he’s doing evil plotting were written really boringly. The director does everything he can to liven them up, but the whole thing stops dead when he appears. And it’s not the actor’s fault either, he’s doing a good job.
Comments
I thought it was very clever.
The news reported yesterday that two long lost episodes of THE DALEK'S MASTERPLAN have come to light and been restored. They were discovered in collector's cache of home videos and super8 tapes held for decades in a dusty loft. Amazing how these things come to light. The episodes are number 1 and 3 of the serial, individually entitled The Nightmare Begins and Devil's Planet. Added of Day of Armageddon (ep.2) and the first three parts of this epic serial are now intact, along with ep.5 & 10. They will be shown at a special presentation in a London cinema [usually the BFI, but they have a schedule all set for April] and available as always with the BBC on the iPlayer.
THE DALEK'S MASTERPLAN was truely epic, but suffers with uneven an narrative and script. Terry Nation's episodes are taut, tight and extremely visceral, very exciting, and show us the Daleks at some of their most ruthless. There's the added attraction of Kevin Stoney's villain Mavic Chen and Nicholas Courtney's tough-as-nails turn as Brett Vyon. Meanwhile Dennis Spooner's writing is almost whimsical in comparison and has pantomime stuff in it like the Peter Butterworth's cuddly villain The Meddling Monk and the unfathomable Christmas day episode The Feast of Stephen.
Still, it is great to see these lost episodes recovered for future posterity.
I was reading about this yesterday - how they’d managed to get Peter Purvis down to see them under false pretences ☺️
It’s good to see they can still find the early Doctor Who episodes…apparently these story episodes weren’t ever sold abroad because it was seen as “too dark and gritty” 👀
I’m looking forward to seeing these on iPlayer 😁
Yeah I might give them a watch out of curiosity. I’ve never actually watched Day of Armageddon so it’s nice to have a little run of them. I’ve drifted away from the 60s stuff over the years, although I did read the John Peel novelisations of The Daleks’ Master Plan back in school and had fun with them.
I worked with Peter Purves on a Dr Who project about two years ago and he’s certainly a confident fella 😄
I've actually been reading through the 8th Doctor novels, the "series" which ran in lieu of the Fox/BBC show.
I'm rather enjoying them.
I watched the first three Master Plan episodes: they’re really good fun! They zip along really well. The only issue (apart from Hartnell being barely up to it) was that Mavic Chen’s scenes where he’s doing evil plotting were written really boringly. The director does everything he can to liven them up, but the whole thing stops dead when he appears. And it’s not the actor’s fault either, he’s doing a good job.