2 out of 5

Directed by: Richard Martin, Douglas Camfield (part 6)

‘The Chase’ should be an all-out blitz.  Scripted by Terry Nation (whose appreciation of classic pulp and sci-fi always adds a nice flavor), the general pitch of The Daleks honing in on the TARDIS and following it from destination to destination leads you to believe this serial will live up to its name.  But it gets off to an odd start for following on that promise, landing Doc and crew on a sandy planet (Aridia) that they naturally split up to explore, Ian and Vicki discovering an underground chamber with a tentacle monster (creepy when its tentacles are tickling the screen’s edge, uncreepy when it’s explained away by the locals as a Mire Beast that they plan to defeat through a cave-in), Doc and Babs… uh, sunbathing, then getting the rundown on the planet by some nice ‘Web Planet’-esque over-done costume-wearin’ Aridians.  There’s a sandstorm that complicates things, and a nice Dalek reveal (though we know they’re coming thanks to the end of the last serial and Babs and Doc’s glimpse of them through the TARDIS’ visualizer), but we’ve been through all of this several times by now and so it lacks a bit of punch.

Things pick up a bit when the actual Chase begins, the TARDIS needing a warmup between jumps and, hey, even though we’re on the run, let’s get out and explore… the Empire State Building, and the Mary Celeste.  It allows for some yuks (and a funny American impression), though it’s a little odd that Babs and Ian don’t seem to care that they’re back on a recognizable Earth, albeit New York.  The “jump every 12 minutes” rule Doc drops gets ignored sorta right away, and then we land in episode 4, ‘Journey Into Terror.’  From the haunted house gags and playful music, the episode is a really odd departure that you sense is just buildup for a punchline, and sure enough, it is.  It’s executed well enough, but as with the sandy planet opener, it feels like an odd place to stop in a serial supposedly about being on the move.  But it serves as a way to separate Vicki from the team, who jump without her because they are ignorant assholes.

Landing us on planet Mechanus, which has some Nation-inspired features and backstory and a nice (if sort of out of the blue) Doctor android deployed by The Daleks to capture the team.  Still, these final two parts – which include a last stand battle, the return of Ian and Babs to Earth and hints of our new companion, Steven – again feel a bit broken in tone.  There’s a fair amount of humor in the serial, which is welcome, but ‘The Chase’ feels like a high-level review of the varying types of serials we’ve seen, not hanging on to any one mood long enough to make it stick.  When things escalate for the final episode, we get more brief flashes of the thrills for which I would’ve hoped, but we’re at the conclusion then.

‘The Chase’ has a lot of ideas, but the execution just never gets off the ground, more notable since the premise was so promising.