Story 16: "The Chase" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Neil Armstrong landing on the moon

Apart from being mentioned in the last episode of "The Space Museum", the only time that the Time-Space Visualiser is used in Classic "Doctor Who" is in "The Chase".

Once the Doctor gets the device working properly, each of the companions chooses a favourite historical event to view. Ian asks to see Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address, Barbara wants to view Shakespeare, and Vicki chooses the Beatles in concert.

The Doctor's companions were played by William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright), and Maureen O'Brien (Vicki).

In the Time-Space Visualiser scenes, Lincoln was portrayed by Robert Marsden, Shakespeare was played by Hugh Walters, and Queen Elizabeth I was Vivienne Bennett.

Answer: Aridius

Aridius turns out to be a planet that has changed drastically over the past few centuries. Originally covered by oceans, the planet's proximity to the suns has changed, causing the oceans to dry up. The Aridians are fish-like humanoids who now live underground, and who are fighting for their very survival.

When Barbara and the Doctor see the scene of a Dalek reporting on the location of the TARDIS, they realize that what they are seeing happened in the past. Knowing that the Daleks could already have arrived, they immediately set about trying to locate Ian and Vicki.

Answer: Mire Beasts

Before Aridius transformed into a desert planet, the Mire Beasts lived in the oceans and were of no real concern to the Aridians, but as the oceans dried up, the Mire Beasts began moving into the cities to survive. Since then, they have slowly taken over more and more living space from the Aridians, who try to slow their advance by walling off sections of the (now underground) cities, or to blow up their strongholds.

At first, the Aridians are willing to help the travellers, but then the Daleks force them to turn over the Doctor and his companions, or face extermination themselves.

Just as they are about to make good on their threat to turn the time travellers over to the Daleks, a Mire Beast breaks through the wall, attacking pretty much everyone. In the chaos, they get away and head for the TARDIS, distract the Dalek guarding it, and make good their escape.

Answer: Empire State Building

When they arrive on the Empire State Building, a man just misses seeing the TARDIS materialize. Immediately he assumes that the police box is part of a film set and that the foursome are actors. The man names himself as Morton Dill, from Alabama, and informs them when asked that the year is 1966.

Shortly after the time travellers disappear again (which Dill also misses seeing), the Daleks show up. Dill is confused, but still thinks that they must be part of the same filming crew. Luckily for him, the Daleks are more interested in continuing their chase than in exterminating random humans.

Morton Dill was played by Peter Purves.

Answer: Mary Celeste

So, here is one possible explanation for why the Mary Celeste was found adrift in the Strait of Gibralter with all hands missing. After their brief layover on the ship (with Barbara being mistaken for a stowaway), the Daleks follow and terrorize everyone into jumping off the ship! In the process, one of their own also goes overboard.

Answer: The Mummy

The whole time that Vicki, Barbara, Ian and the Doctor are moving around the haunted house, they are running from what just may be 'real' monsters - or at least a physical place that exists only because of collective imagination of multitudes of people. The Daleks arrive while they are still trying to avoid the various monsters, and (once again) chaos ensues. The Daleks are attacked by Frankenstein's monster, and in the confusion, three of the four travellers get to the TARDIS and get away, not realizing that one was left behind.

The camera pulls back on the scene near the end of the episode to show that the haunted mansion was just a carnival house. On the TARDIS, the Doctor learns after the fact that the house was from a (future) 1996 'Festival of Ghana' advanced haunted house (with robots).

Malcolm Rogers played Count Dracula, John Maxim was Frankenstein's monster, and the Grey Lady was portrayed by Roslyn DeWinter.

Answer: True

Yes, Vicki hesitates while running from monsters and Daleks, and is chagrined to see the TARDIS disappear without her on it. She does manage to sneak aboard the Dalek's time machine unseen, however, and is able to reunite with the other three in the fifth episode.

What her circumstances DO allow her to do is see what the Daleks have planned. She manages to stay hidden and escape when the Daleks catch up to the TARDIS again on Mechanus.

Answer: The Doctor

The robot Doctor was not actually doubly acted by William Hartnell, but was done by Edmund Warwick, who had been a body double for Hartnell previously, and even replaced him when Hartnell was injured during the filming of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (serial 10).

As a plot device, the killer Doctor is pretty ineffective, quickly being found out by the others, and quite easily defeated by his true counterpart. And when, later, the real Doctor tries to fool the Daleks into thinking he is the robot, they are not at all misled.

Answer: Steven Taylor

Taylor tells the others what he knows of Mechanus - that it was a planet being robotically colonized for an eventual Earth colony that never arrived, due to war on Earth. The Mechonoids ended up simply being the residents of the city they built.

Together, they devise a plan to climb 1500 feet down a cable to the ground, and are able to do so when the Mechonoids and the Daleks enter into a pitched battle with each other. Taylor, however, gets separated from the others when he returns to his prison for something that he left behind. The others assume that he is killed in the process.

Steven Taylor was played by Peter Purves (who also played Morton Dill in the third episode of the serial).

Answer: 1965

When Ian and Barbara first broach the subject of going home, the Doctor is very upset with them, but Vicki manages to calm him down, assuring him at the same time that she, herself, has no interest in leaving him (at this time).

Ian and Barbara joined the Doctor originally in the first episode, which was set in 1963 (when it aired). Really, their nearly two years of travel means that they arrive in London approximately where they should be, according to their experienced passage of time, but they still consider themselves as arriving 'not in their time', as people will wonder where they have been for two years.

The Doctor and Vicki watch the Time-Space Visualiser and see Barbara and Ian enjoying themselves back in the London they know.