The Chase: Doctor Who: Season 2

Goldby

Grob

Long

The Doctor disables the impostor and they are taken from the jungle into the metal city built by the robotic Mechanoids. The machines plan to keep the travellers there permanently with human prisoner Stephen Taylor. The only way to escape will be if the daleks attack and battle the Mechanoids.

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The Chase REVIEWS



Goldby

Yes I have no love for the Chase, although not hatred either. As comic book guy would say from the Simpsons "worst dalek episode ever..."It's nearly the end of the season, who knows why they decide to make a 39 to 40 episode season when they only have the budget for about 24 episodes. Let's chuck in the daleks and have them chase the Doctor & co. around time and space. slightly overambitious. Ok the first two episodes are on a desert planet and are ok, but immediately forgettable.

The second two were where they land everywhere and the sets and bad acting are worse than any really, really badly done high school theatre. What was Steven Taylor doing as a stupid American tourist? As a kid I would've loved the Horror house bit but as a grown up it kind of grated.

The last 2 parts were better. Jungle wasn't really well done but the ideas of the Doctor's robot double were good but badly executed. The daleks themselves seem to be morons and the final fight with the Mechanoids (some interesting creations and intended dalek replacements) were well realised although parts of the fight were badly executed. The scene with Ian and Bab's departing was well done and a fitting wrap up to their characters, pity they had to go in such a naff story.

2/10



Grob

God I hate the Chase. So much so that it sits quite neatly next to "Fear Her" on my bookshelf of things labelled "Never Ever Watch Again. Ever." Its just so......BAD. My overall impression is that by this stage the production people clearly didn't give a fuck. What started out as a great idea of two school teachers who find a police box in a junk yard that turns out to be a space/time machine owned by a doddery old nutcase and his asexual grand daughter has now died a death and is in serious need of a kick up the arse. Back tracking a little, it seems that what was left from the budget blowout of The Web Planet went into making the appalling Space Museum. Realising that the bank won't be open until next Monday to get a cash allowance everyone panicked cos the story after THAT which happened to be the next big dalek story only had 2p left to spend on it. Well, lets stretch that 2p and see where it gets us.

Firstly we have a futuristic Dalek ship which consists of two daleks only talking against a blank wall which has some alien technology stuck to it in the form of tin foil, tupperwear and two blinky lights. Then we have the Daleks themselves and what the fuck? One of them has a stutter!! Its a comedy Dalek. That's about as convincing as Colin Baker (sorry Tim. Got in early there!). Meanwhile on board the Tardis, the Doctor has stolen (!) something called the Time Space Visualiser and hooked it up to the console. Very impressive Doc. Tell me; how did you get something that big through the outer doors of the Tardis considering they are half the size? We look at some badly directed and appallingly acted footage of William Shakespeare (I think he wrote "The Crucible") and then Sir Francis Bacon, then that American President that got shot (not kennedy, the one that looked liked Neil Barnett) and then we get the Beatles on Countdown. Pity we didn't see the footage of Molly Meldrum shooting up.

Then its off to the planet Studio B in the constellation of Lime Grove where its a vast desert that stretches to the dizzy depths of eight feet by five feet. This planet has amazing scenery - you can cast your own shadows on the mountains that are supposedly in the distance!

Okay, I could go on like this for yonks but The Chase isn't worth it. It has appalling production values and sets and no one gives a toss about it. Even Ian and Barbara have the good sense to get out by this stage and who can blame them after the dross they've been served up in recent times? Proof positive that the production team don't give a fuck is that they replace them with a guy who has the personality of a cardboard box who was playing a totally different character two episodes earlier!!!!

A couple of other things I want to mention; why do they use a double for William Hartnell for the scenes where there is supposed to be a robot double when you don't need to use one? I thought you'd just film William Hartnell. Not some guy who looks nothing like him since neither the Doctor nor the robot are in the same scenes together. Then there is the famous mechanoid / dalek confrontation that comes complete with "batman" sound effects on the screen; SPLAT! POW! ZAP! SHIT!Yep. The Chase is crap. And its not even good crap. Zero.



Long

I don't remember much of the Chase really... it was a bit of fun, but what the hell was it about? Actually, I'm surprised it was 6 parts... felt like about 10!

You know, the idea of the Chase isn't that bad... but the execution was (more so than normal). It did just feel like a "hey, the Daleks are popular, let's stick them in another story this year"... Maybe a tight four parter could have worked, but it really did drag (so much so that I notice Grob has decided to argue logistics of door sizes... forgetting that this is a show about a ship that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside... logistics??).

I'm not as harsh... it's got Daleks in it, so even if it's incredibly slow, the Chase is still ok!

3.5/10

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