On a remote island in the South Atlantic the crew of a British drilling company discover a capsule, buried in rock for millenia. To their astonishment they discover an occupant, which is fully functional but depleted. As the Doctor arrives in his Tardis the chief technician manages to successfully reactivate the occupant with potentially devastating consequences for not just the mining facility but the entire future of the planet. Too engaged in playing out their own personal politics the crew realise their mistake when the Daleks begin to multiply and consolidate a stranglehold on the base. As the exterminations begin the Doctor races against time to stop his deadliest foe gaining a toehold on the planet that they seek to destroy....but the Daleks have learned to fear him no more...
The version I watched was entirely animated, due to all of the episodes currently missing. There is a telesnap reconstruction version, but I feel the animation adds a layer that the telesnap versions are missing. The animation itself has something of a unique advantage to other stories in the Patrick Troughton era, because it has much more unique cinematography, which adds a real dynamism to proceedings and really contributes to the atmosphere in Power of the Daleks. However, there is a significant drawback in that the character animations are still a bit ‘jerky’. I can understand how this can be off putting to people, I don’t mind it as such because it sort of adds to the ‘cheap’ feel that classic Who has. In terms of the story, it’s perfectly captured by the cliffhanger in episode two, where in we hear a Dalek say ‘I am your servant’. The whole story is surprisingly unnerving. I absolutely adore the soundtrack, in many ways it’s more experimental than anything that proceeds this s
