Doctor Who: The Chase [1965]

Date(s) of Broadcast: 22 May 1965 - 26 June 1965
Number of Episodes: 6
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: black and white
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: Verity Lambert

SCRIPT
Script: Terry Nation
Story Editor: Dennis Spooner

DIRECTION
Director: Richard Martin

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Howard King
Film Camera: Charles Parnell

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Norman Matthews

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranger: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

SOUND
Studio Sound: Ray Angel, Brian Hiles
Special Sound: Brian Hodgson

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Sonia Markham
Costumes: Daphne Dare

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designers: Raymond Cusick, John Wood

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Alan Miller, Colin Leslie
Assistant Floor Manager: Ian Strachan

STUNTS
Fight Arranger: Peter Diamond
Stunts: David Connon, Marilyn Gothard, Fred Haggerty, Gerry Wain

CAST
EPISODE 1. The Executioners
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
William Russell [Ian Chesterton]
Jacqueline Hill [Barbara Wright]
Maureen O'Brien [Vicki]
Robert Marsden [Abraham Lincoln]
Roger Hammond [Francis Bacon]
Vivienne Bennett [Queen Elizabeth I]
Hugh Walters [William Shakespeare]
Richard Coe [television announcer]
David Graham, Peter Hawkins [Dalek voices]
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin [Daleks]
Jack Pitt [mire beast]

EPISODE 2. The Death of Time
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
William Russell [Ian Chesterton]
Jacqueline Hill [Barbara Wright]
Maureen O'Brien [Vicki]
David Graham, Peter Hawkins [Dalek voices]
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin [Daleks]
Jack Pitt [mire beast]
Ian Thompson [Malsan]
Hywel Bennett [Rynian]
Al Raymond [Prondyn]

EPISODE 3. Flight Through Eternity
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
William Russell [Ian Chesterton]
Jacqueline Hill [Barbara Wright]
Maureen O'Brien [Vicki]
David Graham, Peter Hawkins [Dalek voices]
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin [Daleks]
Arne Gordon [guide]
Peter Purves [Morton Dill]
Dennis Chinnery [Albert C. Richardson]
David Blake Kelly [Captain Benjamin Briggs]
Patrick Carter [Bosun]
Douglas Ditta [Willoughby]
Jack Pitt [cabin steward]

EPISODE 4. Journey Into Terror
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
William Russell [Ian Chesterton]
Jacqueline Hill [Barbara Wright]
Maureen O'Brien [Vicki]
David Graham, Peter Hawkins [Dalek voices]
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin [Daleks]
John Maxim [Frankenstein's monster]
Malcolm Rogers [Count Dracula]
Roslyn De Winter [grey lady]

EPISODE 5. The Death of Doctor Who
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
William Russell [Ian Chesterton]
Jacqueline Hill [Barbara Wright]
Maureen O'Brien [Vicki]
David Graham, Peter Hawkins [Dalek voices]
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin, Gerald Taylor [Daleks]
Edmund Warwick [robot Dr Who]
David Graham [Mechanoid voice]
Murphy Grumbar, John Scott Martin, Jack Pitt [Mechanoids]
Jack Pitt, Ken Tyllson [Fungoids]

EPISODE 6. The Planet of Decision
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
William Russell [Ian Chesterton]
Jacqueline Hill [Barbara Wright]
Maureen O'Brien [Vicki]
Peter Purves [Steven Taylor]
David Graham [Mechonoid voice]
David Graham, Peter Hawkins [Dalek voices]
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, John Scott Martin, Gerald Taylor [Daleks]
Ken Tyllson [Fungoid]

UNCREDITED PERFORMERS
Edmund Warwick [robot Dr Who]
David Newman [double for Ian]
Barbara Joss [double for Vicki]
Barbara Bruce, Kathleen Heath, Marc Lawrence, Terry Leigh, Monique Lewis, David Pelton, Bill Richards, Sean Ryan, Sally Sutherland, Jim Tyson [tourists]
Derek Ware [bus conductor (credited in Radio Times but not on-screen)]

EPISODES

1. The Executioners [22 May 1965]
2. The Death Of Time [29 May 1965]
3. Flight Through Eternity [5 June 1965]
4. Journey Into Terror [12 June 1965]
5. The Death Of Doctor Who [19 June 1965]
6. The Planet Of Decision [26 June 1965]

Fine tuning his Space / Time Visualiser - a device which allows him to see any moment in history - The Doctor stumbles across a plot to kill him and the rest ofthe crew hatched by the Daleks who have built a time machine and despatched a hit squad in search of them. The TARDIS is pursued through space and time, visiting the desert world Aridius, the Empire State Building, the Marie Celeste and a 'haunted house' exhibit at the 1996 Festival of Ghana with the Daleks always in hot pursuit.

Nation's third outing for the Daleks - the second this season - is something of a disaster, an overlong would-be 'epic' in the style of The Keys of Marinus which fails for all the same reasons. It starts badly and doesn't really get much better with the Daleks frequently treated as figures of comedy - the ruthless killing machines of the first two stories are reduced to bumbling fools who suddenly didn't seem anywhere near as scary as they once used to. A terrible story, full of technical errors, shoddy scripting and the regular cast looking utterly embarrased by it all.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1965
May
22: UK - Episode 1: The Executioners television broadcast [on BBC1]
29: UK - Episode 2: The Death of Time television broadcast [on BBC1]

June
5: UK - Episode 3: Flight Through Eternity television broadcast [on BBC1]
12: UK - Episode 4: Journey Into Terror television broadcast [on BBC1]
19: UK - Episode 5: The Death of Doctor Who television broadcast [on BBC1]
26: UK - Episode 6: The Planet of Decision television broadcast [on BBC1]

The Pursuers - working title

MAGAZINES

Dreamwatch no.9 pp.28-29
review

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.56-60
credits, synopsis, review [by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker]

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

africa, aliens, daleks, empire state building, ghana, mary celeste, new york, other planets, robots, time travel

Last Updated: 21 April, 2008