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The picture quality is excellent - there is a flaw in the closing minutes of the final episode which I can only imagine The Restoration Team were unable to remove or repair - their sterling work speaks for itself. The BBC Restoration Team have also used the VidFIRE process to restore the print to how it would have looked on original broadcast.
The sound quality is excellent.
91% for its sound and picture quality.
The TARDIS crew emerge from the ship to explore their new surroundings. They stand upon ashen soil and are surrounded by petrified trees, the branches so brittle they break at the touch. All around are signs of a world destroyed in some terrifying conflict, the aftermath of some great war that has likely left the planet lifeless. Even when they do stumble upon a creature, it is quite dead. At the edge of the forest, the travellers gaze upon a fantastic city of metal. The Doctor is all for exploring this wondrous place, but Ian has already noticed that Barbara and Susan are not feeling too good. Reluctantly, the Doctor agrees to return to the ship.
Once the travellers are back in the safety of the ship, the Doctor's efforts to return to the city are thwarted by the sound of something outside the ship. With the majority content to leave this planet far behind, the Doctor prepares to dematerialise the ship and to try and return Ian and Barbara to Earth. However, the ship seems to have developed a fault, which the Doctor traces to an empty fluid link. The solution is simple enough - replace the lost mercury. Except that there are no additional supplies of mercury on board the ship. It would appear that they must visit the city after all, for surely there will be a supply of mercury there!
There is no trace of the source of the noise from outside the TARDIS, but a container has been left behind. Leaving the container in the ship, the four travellers return to the edge of the forest and then on to the city. There, they split up, trying different doors in the hope of finding a source of mercury quickly. Ian, Susan and the Doctor all return to the meeting place, their searches having proved fruitless. Barbara's search has prodcued a different result though, as she appears to have become lost within the labyrinthine corridors of the city. A lift takes her further into the heart of the city and there, Barbara discovers that the planet is not so dead after all...
The time travellers soon find themselves prisoners of the Daleks, the creatures that live within the confines of the city. Beyond the city, according to the Daleks, there live horrendous and evil mutations known as the Thals. The Daleks are willing to offer the Thals food and sanctuary and the travellers provide the perfect means by which a peace deal can be offered. Except, the travellers suspect that the Daleks have ideas other than peace in mind...
REVIEW BY
(d) D.S.Carlin