The Escape

Dear Diary,

Thankfully Susan returned in time to administer the anti-radiation drugs. At the TARDIS she encountered Alydon, the Thal who had left the drugs for us and he helpfully gave her an extra supply, as well as a strange cloak his people wear. It appears they have been able to avoid the horrible mutation the Daleks predicted by following a strict regimen of the drugs. Unfortunately, she said the Thal people were suffering from a severe drought. Apparently it only rains once in four years here, when it then rains tremendously, and the rain is presently two years overdue. Thus, the Thals need to make peace with the Daleks in order to avoid starvation.

Soon after Susan’s relating all this, the Daleks brought us food and water, and took Susan away for questioning. They questioned her extensively about their former enemies and had her write a letter to the Thals promising  to provide them with food grown by synthetic sunlight. By their line of questioning, when she returned, we determined that the Daleks had been monitoring our prior conversations. We set about to find the surveillance device and were able to locate it. Chesterton and I staged a crude pantomime of a fight and were able to disable the device.

We then only had a few moments to plan our escape. Judging by the acrid smell when the Daleks move, I believed they must be exploiting the power of static electricity. Ingenius, really. Chesterton then determined that the Thal’s cloak would make a good insulator. Thus we developed our plan: When the Dalek next came to deliver our meals, we would force the Dalek onto the cloak, which should rob it of its power. The things have incredible peripheral vision, unfortunately, due to the eye stalk, so it would prove difficult to take it by surprise. Miss Wright had the brilliant stroke to make mud of the dirt on Susan’s shoe and blind the Dalek with it.

As luck would have it, our mad plan worked. We were able to manoeuvre the Dalek onto the cloak, and the thing fell silent. Chesterton and I managed to open it up, at which point we saw the actual Dalek itself. I hesitate to describe it here. The radiation seems to have mutated them to such a degree that they likely cannot survive outside their metal shells. We covered it in the cloak to hide it from the women and Chesterton crawled in.

He was able to operate the speech function, and so we pushed him into the hallway, our plan to avoid detection by claiming this Dalek was escorting us to further interrogation.

Based upon the teleplay by Terry Nation, first broadcast on BBC 4th January, 1964