EE3 - The Power of the Daleks 3

It's taken over three years, but there's finally a really strong female character role in a Doctor Who story in the from of Janley. She's perhaps the most manipulative character around, too, even more so than Bragen or the Daleks themselves. The way she controls Lesterson without him knowing it is fascinating to watch, and she also seems to know more than she knows when dealing with Bragen, too.

This whole story is about power, about which I'll get into later. Honestly, though, during this episode, the most prominent portrayal of power was from Polly, on a purely physical level (what's another word for "level" that starts with the letter "p"?). I'm not sure there has ever been a sexier Doctor Who companion than Anneke Wills as Polly. I've made it my mission during this viewing marathon to not go back and review scenes or episodes, but just write what I feel about each episode as I view it. But I relented during this episode. I had to watch a five-minute segment of the episode again because I realized I was transfixed on Polly's legs during an entire scene. Having the pictures not move played a part in this, to be sure, as the reconstruction showed a static shot of Polly sitting on a bench for the better part of a minute, but it also didn't help that the Vulcan colonists felt it necessary to dress Polly up in a charming pair of walking shorts. This marathon has made me appreciate certain aspects of the programme's early years a lot more. I'm going to add Polly to that list.

Back to the power theme again - the end of the episode (has there ever been a better set of episode endings than in this story?). The three Daleks that we have seen thus far have just successfully lobbied Lesterson (there's that alliteration again - sorry) to grant them access to the colony's power supply. Still pretending to be subservient, the Daleks start chanting, "We will have our power!" over and over again. An increasingly wary Lesterson thinks that they are referring to the electric power that they will soon be connected with. We all know different.