SSS4 - Planet of the Daleks 4

Wow, the Nation self references just keep coming, don't they? In yet another homage/rip-off of The Daleks, the lift chase, followed by dropping a piece of rock/abstract architecture on the pursuing Dalek, is reproduced here almost shot for shot.

Just so I don't leave out the other Nation-scribed Dalek stories, the Spiridons bear a remarkable similarity to the Visians from The Daleks' Master Plan. This is one of the more annoying plot points in this story. Much is made of the fact that The Daleks came to Spiridon to try and learn the secret of invisibility, but, after the "shock" appearance of a once invisible Dalek at the end of Episode One, the entire plot thread is dropped. It seems as if the whole "invisible Dalek" meme was there purely to provide a cliffhanger for the first episode.

Speaking of poorly realized cliffhangers, the ending to this episode is one of the more dire seen in a while. Having captured that jerk Vaber, who no one likes, the Spiridons utter dramatically, "Take him to the Daleks!". Like this tactic is a surprise? And will Vaber, who is most certainly marked for death, be able to survive for even a few minutes longer? The zoom in to a fuzzy purple cloak makes the scene just that much more dramatic. Add to this another scene where everyone sits down and takes stock of the situation while The Doctor lectures someone about something (this time, Taron is the victim, on the subject of leadership), and I'm really counting down the minutes until this story finally ends...