LL4 - The Evil of the Daleks 4

It's the Jamie and Kemel show in this episode, after the two adversaries (at the beginning of the episode, anyway) team up towards their common goal - rescuing Victoria. Along the way, as in the previous episode, Jamie narrowly avoids death by booby trap on several occasions, and often only due to Kemel's help.

Is this the Daleks' plan all along, I wonder? There are a couple of really close calls when it comes to the traps arranged to test Jamie. How close do they want to come before killing him? If he does die, what becomes of the test? Jamie was the lynch pin in their plans before the tests started, so it seems somewhat surprising that the Daleks are so willing to take such massive risks with Jamie's life to find the Human Factor.

Is it, perhaps, that they are confident in Jamie's abilities to get out of these types of situations? The Doctor certainly seems comfortable with Jamie's plight - he rarely shows anxiety or worry when it comes to his friend. Almost too comfortable, really - does The Doctor know something about the Daleks' tests that we don't?

A further revelation occurs when Maxtible attempts to pressure the Daleks into divulging what he is most interested in with this whole arrangement - the secret of alchemy. Up until now, Maxtible seemed only slightly eccentric and more power hungry than anything. Now, his desire to learn alchemy sets his character on a different path than what was expected. The Daleks have promised much to many people. Only the viewer (and The Doctor) know different, but that doesn't stop everyone else in this story from foolishly trusting them.