“Twelve episodes of Daleks, despair, and disposable companions.”
Short Synopsis
The Daleks hatch their biggest scheme yet: using something called the Time Destructor (because Daleks are nothing if not subtle) to wipe out everything inconvenient to them — which is basically the entire universe. The Doctor and friends attempt to stop them, but along the way we lose not one but two companions, the Daleks gain more allies than a particularly enthusiastic MLM recruiter, and the whole thing lasts twelve full weeks. By the end, the body count is catastrophic, the Daleks’ plan is ruined (again), and the Doctor looks about ten years older from sheer stress.
Extended Storyline
It begins with jungle skulking on the planet Kembel, where the Daleks are holding a secret intergalactic summit. Imagine a space-age version of the U.N., but with worse costumes and absolutely no snacks. The Daleks have assembled allies: various alien delegates who range from “terrifying rubber monster” to “man wearing a funny hat.” The important one, though, is Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System — a man with eyebrows so commanding they could lead an army on their own. He’s decided that teaming up with the Daleks is definitely in humanity’s best interests. (It’s not. Spoiler: it never is.)
The Doctor quickly pinches the Taranium Core, the one-of-a-kind power source the Daleks need for their Time Destructor. Thus begins a 12-part space chase that plays like Doctor Who’s first ever road trip movie. The Doctor, Steven, and poor Katarina run from planet to planet while the Daleks and Chen pursue them like the world’s deadliest repo men.
Along the way:
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Katarina, a handmaiden whisked out of ancient Troy, barely has time to figure out what a spaceship is before she sacrifices herself by ejecting a hostage into space — and herself along with him. (Shortest-lived companion ever. Also: probably the only one who didn’t even know what a Dalek was before dying to them.)
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Sara Kingdom, a no-nonsense space agent working under Chen, initially hunts the Doctor but soon realizes she’s on the wrong side. She joins Team TARDIS and immediately becomes the most competent person in the room. Steven does his best, but Sara is clearly operating on a higher action-hero level.
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Our heroes stumble into deserts, icy wastelands, futuristic prisons, and at one point… a comedy Christmas episode, where the Doctor literally breaks the fourth wall to wish viewers at home a Merry Christmas. Nothing screams “festive cheer” like a serial where companions are being killed off left and right.
The middle stretch is pure running-and-chasing, but it’s elevated by:
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The Festival of Steven, the aforementioned Christmas special, which interrupts the galaxy-spanning carnage with slapstick, Shakespearean actors, and Hartnell toasting the audience. (It’s the Who equivalent of pausing The Empire Strikes Back to do a Christmas pantomime.)
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The escalating madness of Mavic Chen, whose hubris and trust in the Daleks makes him look increasingly ridiculous — though still terrifying, thanks to those eyebrows.
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The constant sense that no one is safe, not even characters who feel like regulars.
Finally, everything comes full circle back on Kembel. The Daleks and Chen assemble the Time Destructor, but the Doctor, in one of his harshest and most desperate moves, turns the weapon against them. The device wreaks havoc on time itself, aging Sara to death in a gut-punch of a scene that scarred a generation of young viewers. The Daleks are destroyed, Chen meets his inevitable betrayal-filled end, and the Doctor and Steven stumble away — two men utterly worn down by the sheer trauma of it all.
Themes & Impact
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Companion Mortality: This is the first time Doctor Who truly showed that traveling with the Doctor is dangerous. Katarina and Sara’s deaths set a precedent: not everyone makes it home.
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Epic Storytelling: At twelve episodes, it was a marathon of 1960s TV ambition. It set the template for sprawling Dalek epics and proved Doctor Who could do galaxy-spanning stakes — even if it left viewers emotionally wrung out.
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Holiday Oddities: The inclusion of a Christmas special mid-epic is one of the strangest tonal whiplashes in the show’s history — a bizarre ancestor to the modern-day Christmas specials, but far more surreal.