Category: Classic Season 11

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Sarah to Exxilon, but not by choice – an enormous sentient city on the planet drains so much energy from everything around it that the TARDIS is quickly rendered powerless. And the Doctor is not the only unwelcome visitor on Exxilon: an expedition of humans is there mining a substance necessary to cure a plague on Earth, though their ship is now useless. They called for backup from a relief ship, but to their horror, the ship that shows up comes down for a hard landing…and in any case, it’s not another human expedition. The ship that arrives is full of Daleks, on a mission seeking that same precious drug. As the human expedition’s weapons are useless, they and the Doctor are powerless as the Daleks line them up for extermination.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), John Abineri (Richard Railton), Neil Seiler (Commander Stewart), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Mostyn Evans (High Priest), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek), Murphy Grunbar (Dalek)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The newly-arrived Dalek expedition is just as helpless as the humans; just like their ship (and everyone else’s technology), the Daleks’ exterminating weapons are also left without power. Sarah, captured by the Exxilons, is prepared as the next sacrifice to the living city, which the Exxilons worship. A combined force of humans and Daleks, along with the Doctor, is ambushed by armed Exxilons and captured; once taken back to the Exxilons’ caves, the Doctor commits a grievous offense: attacking the high priest to stop Sarah from being sacrificed. The Daleks parlay with the Exxilons for their own release and that of the humans; unknown to them, the Daleks remaining on their ship are outfitting themselves with mechanical chemical weapons – the equivalent of Earth rifles. These newly armed Daleks storm the Exxilons’ caves, establishing dominance over the primitives, and the Doctor and Sarah escape their own sacrifice/execution ceremony, finding themselves in deeper underground tunnels…and whatever the Exxilons expected to sacrifice them to still awaits them.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), John Abineri (Richard Railton), Neil Seiler (Commander Stewart), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Mostyn Evans (High Priest), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek), Murphy Grunbar (Dalek)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

As the Doctor expects, the electronic “root” is deadly to touch. Elsewhere in the caverns, Sarah is cornered by an Exxilon…one who actually speaks English. His name is Bellal, and he means no harm; he’s a member of a small group of Exxilons who have chosen rationality over the religion based on worship of the city. Before any further introductions can be made, Sarah and Bellal have to hide from two Daleks, who then follow the Doctor further into the tunnels, where they too encounter the “root”…only to discover it’s dangerous to Daleks as well. The root is part of the city’s automated systems, and Bellal reveals that the city is the invention of the Exxilons themselves…and unless they destroy that invention, it will wipe them out. On the surface, the Daleks have subjugated the more primitive Exxilons, turning them into a slave labor force…with help from Galloway, to his crewmates’ disgust. The Doctor and Bellal go to the city to try to gain entry, finding that each successive entryway is locked, and can only be opened by solving logic puzzles…and failing any of these tests could be deadly.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal), Roy Heymann (Gotal), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Murphy Grumbar (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek)

Notes: The Doctor claims he’s seen the symbols from the Exxilon city in a Peruvian temple, which means that before the fall of their civilization, they were themselves capable of interstellar travel.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

As the logic tests allowing passage further into the Exxilon City become more devious, the Doctor and Bellal have to be more cautious. The Daleks, on the other hand, power through the puzzles and traps with a combination of brute force and their rapidly-calculating battle computers. The Doctor and Bellal reach what appears to be the end of their journey – the city’s control room. The Doctor sets about dismantling the primary computer “brain” of the city, while the city retaliates by slowly materializing zombie-like “antibodies” to destroy the interlopers – whether they’re flesh and blood or Daleks. Sarah reaches Jill Tarrant, one of the surviving crew of the Earth ship, and begins planning to double-cross the Daleks, loading all of the needed substance aboard the Earth ship while the Daleks end up with bags of sand. When the city begins to self-destruct, the Daleks regain all of their deadly powers…but one of their human prisoners has a final trick up his sleeve.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), John Abineri (Richard Railton), Neil Seiler (Commander Stewart), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek), Murphy Grunbar (Dalek), Steven Ismay (Zombie), Terry Walsh (Zombie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green