Doctor Who: 10 Best First Doctor Stories

The Chase has many elements in common with The Keys of Marinus, which makes sense given that both episodes were penned by Terry Nation. This time round, Nation brings the megalomaniacs from Skaro back for the third time, as they have gained the ability to travel through time, and are using it to try and kill The Doctor once and for all. With an army of Daleks in pursuit, The Doctor, Vicki, Ian and Barbara scramble through time and space in order to survive an onslaught of Daleks.

Like The Keys of Marinus before it, this serial has The Doctor and his companions "location-hopping" from one place to another, encountering a plethora of interesting side-characters (and Daleks) wherever they land. The Chase, however, has the leads show up in more outlandish and unexpected places. From the deck of the Mary Celeste (inadvertently causing it's abandonment) to a haunted house populated by animatronics of classic horror movie villains, The Chase is notably more offbeat when compared to other stories of a similar vein (and for a show like Doctor Who, that's saying something). On the bright side, it never gets to a point where it distracts from the main tension of the plot, which when put simply, is quite a remarkable one.

To the First Doctor's era as a whole, The Chase is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it marks the departure of Ian and Barbara, meaning that the only remaining member of the original TARDIS crew was now The Doctor himself. Steven Taylor was introduced for the first time, as an astronaut who crash-landed on Mechanus and had been the prisoner of the Mechanoids for two years. After the events of The Chase, Steven would go on to become a fully-fledged companion in the next serial, The Time Meddler. Lastly, This story is also the first time that the Daleks adopt their iconic cry of "Exterminate", having used variations of the phrase until this point.

Exciting and adventurous, The Chase is still an absolute classic. If you haven't already watched it, do it. Now.