Saturday 11th January 1964 - The Ambush

 

"Can pacificism become a human instinct?"

asks Barbara with a sense of distaste after Ian has called on the Thals to provide a show of strength towards the Daleks. Once again, we're seeing 1960s anxities about the atomic bomb played out on the screen. Ian, still wearing his tie and middle-class teacher's jumper, speaks for the political consensus for the UK then (and now) speaks of pacifism as a utopian desire only achieved in a world where everyone is a pacifist. (For me, Ian's argument is undermined in the way he delayed warning the Thals about the ambush in order to see what happened - even though he knew the ruthless nature of the Daleks. I'm actually a little fed up with Ian at this point.)

We see more of the Thals who come across as proto-hippies venturing down from their commune up on the plateau. When they arrive at the city, Alydon still has his "instinct" not to trust the Daleks.

Once again, the eerie ambient sound effects work effectively in conveying a sense of the alien-ness of the Dalek city. The sequences in the lift seem quaint sixty years on but I'm sure they would have seemed tense at the time. The pressure of time running out as the Daleks burn their way through the door is always a good device to increase the stakes.

The scene of the actual ambush of the Thals by the Daleks is well-paced and finally - if we needed it - exposes how sinister and murderous the Daleks are. The Daleks set out food in a central area and then hide, guns twitching until the Thals have entered. Temmosus, the Thal leader offers peace and there's a pause with Dalek guns still twitching. Then, slowly, the Daleks appear one-by-one. For me, it's the way that Daleks glide silentlt in great lines where they are most menacing. Ian warns about it being a trap and the Temmosus and other Thals are shot dead. Fortunately for Ian, Alydon and other Thals, the Daleks aren't clever enough to prevent their escape. It's a great scene nevertheless.

The Doctor still plays a secondary character in his own show - treated very much as a doddery old grandfather - and it's Ian who remains the hero: sending the others away to safety twice. At the end of this episode, while the Doctor is getting information from a Thal starmap in order to escape Skaro, it's left to Ian to make it clear to the Thals and the audience of the motivations of the Daleks: "dislike for the unlike". Despite the plight of the Thals, what keeps the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan on the planet isn't anything noble; it's the loss of the "fluid link" needed to pilot the TARDIS.