The Lost story series returns with the most ambitious Doctor Who story ever imagined. A whole season, 5 CDs, 13 episodes dedicated to one long Dalek story. Instead of giving you the blurb on the back of the box, I have dipped onto
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/daleksmasterplan/detail.shtml and stolen their plot summary...
The TARDIS materialises on Kembel. There the Doctor and his friends meet Space Security Service agent Bret Vyon, who has been sent in search of Marc Cory. Learning of the Daleks' scheme, which hinges on the use of a weapon called the time destructor, they determine to warn the authorities on Earth. This proves problematic as the human leader Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System, is a traitor in league with the Daleks.
Fortunately the Doctor has managed to make off with the taranium core of the time destructor, disrupting the Daleks' plans. In one of a number of attempts to regain the taranium, Chen dispatches Space Security Service agent Sara Kingdom to track down the Doctor's party.
Sara, unaware of Chen's treachery, kills Bret - her own brother - before the time travellers can convince her of the truth. She then joins forces with them and, after an encounter with their old adversary the Monk, they all arrive back on Kembel. There, the Doctor contrives to steal the time destructor and turn it against the Daleks, annihilating them. Sara has ignored his instruction to return to the TARDIS, however, and she too is killed.
My favourite Ice cream is Strawberry Cheesecake Hagen Daz. I could eat mountains of the stuff. Indeed, I once ate a whole tub to myself and left another tub out to defrost and then drunk it as a milkshake. So you will perhaps appreciate that I don't understand the expression 'Too much of a good thing'. However, even the production team tend to think that TDMP goes on just a little too long. Terry Nation got so hacked off with it that he stopped writing it half way through and left the last 6 episodes to Dennis Spooner!
And yet i don't ever get sick of this story! Hartnell's Doctor is imperious throughout. He is ruthless and human. He is devious and compassionate. Listening to TDMP you really get the sense of how amazing an older Doctor can be on the show. The companions are all fabulous and for once, the writers are not frightened to knock the odd companion off. The wonderfully vulnerable Katrina's death is genuinely tragic as is the demise of Sara Kingdom at the end. Peter Purves provides a youthful counterpoint to Hartnell's Doctor. Perhaps my favourite aspects of the story are the 'baddies' We have the deliciously insane Mavic Chen - played by the hugely underrated Kevin Stoney. But also we have a genuinely threatening foe in The Daleks. You actually get a sense of menace from the Daleks in this story that (it could be argued) is missing from even the most modern incarnation.
If you have any interest in Classic Who then you really must take time out to listen to this story. It is a part of Who-Folklore and is a cracking good tale. It is not without it's weaknesses - The Feast of Stephen is a very poor comedy episode intended to be broadcast at Christmas (Hartnell even wishes the audience at home a Merry Christmas). The story could have been cut down to (say) ten episodes and that would have increased the pacing and drama. But all told, this is a wonderful and memorable 'event'. Why not see what all the fuss is about....
