BOOK OF LISTS: FIVE GUILTY PLEASURES - NUMBER 3

                                                               THE CHASE


I still remember the very first time I watched The Chase. If you read my first anniversary post (http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2016/03/first-anniversary-special-something.html,) you'll know that I discovered Doctor Who way back when the internet was barely a glimmer in a programmer's eye. Learning about what the show was like back when I first became a fan was very much like making a patchwork quilt. You assemble a bunch of mismatched pieces til they eventually make sense. As The Chase was being broadcast on a local PBS station for the first time after I'd started following it, I'd heard about how Dalek Mania was all the rage during the show's earliest days. I'd even heard about how Dalek Masterplan had been made at the behest of a BBC executive whose mother wanted to see more Daleks. But I hadn't learnt how an entire six episodes had been devoted in Season 2 just to feed the frenzy.

There's a poignant moment in The Chase that probably a lot of fans my age experience. That moment where we realize: "Holy Crap! This is it. This whole story is going to be nothing but Daleks chasing the Doctor."

There is absolutely no real plot in The Chase. In fact, the premise gets established at the end of the previous story. There's a recap of it in Episode One to help mark a bit of time, and then it's nothing but two TARDISes in a protracted pursuit sequence. It's like that overindulgent chase scene in Planet of Spiders but it goes on for a whole six episodes.

Most likely, most fans my age shut down shortly after they made the: "This is going to be the whole story" realization. They gave up right there and then and sat through the remaining episodes just to be completists - but hated the whole thing! The Chase seems to be one of those Dalek stories that fandom avoids talking about as much as possible. It's an embarrassment, really. A blatant attempt to keep the groundlings happy. Like any other sane person, I should've shut down too when I made that horrific realization. But, instead, my brain seemed to go in a different direction.

"There's nothing to this." I resolved, "So let's just have fun with it!". So I just checked my brain at the door and let The Chase do what it's meant to - entertain me for a bit!

This is another Who story that looks like Ed Wood directed. As if plotless adventure wasn't damage enough, there's some major gaffs that occur during the filming that are just left in. And yet, seeing a Dalek in the background in the haunted house when they're not meant to arrive yet or a BBC camera being in plain view in the jungles of Mechanus doesn't seem to bother me much. Nor does the whole business with the android double of the Doctor really upset me (could there be a more obvious sequence in the history of television where a body double is being used?!). All of these mistakes just add to the charm.

The writing's pretty awful in spots, too. Aliens living on an ocean planet called Aridius that ended up completely drying out kinda had it coming to them. And how exactly does Peking cancel the Festival of Ghana? This seems to be a pretty hastily-written script. This should grate on me more than anything. I do actually make a bit of a living as a writer - I'm even starting to make some headway into television. So a poorly-written TV script should legitimately outrage me. And yet, I'm okay with it all.

The absolute silliest stuff in The Chase tends to be what I enjoy the most. The business on Aridius and Mechanus nearly becomes a genuine sci-fi story - a fan can almost appreciate these settings. But I'm more fond of the absolutely ludicrous stuff like the Marie Celeste or the haunted house. And, most significantly, that glorious sequence on the Empire State Building. Morton Dill seriously deserves his own spin-off series. At some point, of course, he meets his double: Steven Taylor. If Nyssa can do it in Black Orchid, we can see this happen.

Just once in a while, The Chase does actually manage to legitimately impress. That grand battle between Daleks and Mechanoids near the story's end does actually look pretty sweet. And Ian and Barbara's departure is quite touching - particularly the whole montage of still images. It's actually pretty neat that the six episodes aren't just pure kitchiness - there's a moment or two of sincerity thrown in there, too. Which adds greatly to the delight of it all.

Still, The Chase is mainly about feeding Dalekmania and not much of anything else. And if you can accept it at face value - it's a pretty fun story. Frankenstein's Monster throwing around a Dalek is an image that will forever burn in my memory....

....that cane fight between the Doctor and his android double is pretty wicked too!  

Missed my other guilty pleasures? 

#5
http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2016/05/book-of-lists-top-five-guilty-pleasures.html

#4
http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2016/05/book-of-lists-top-five-guilty-pleasures_11.html