Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan (Revisited) Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Yep, the two recently rediscovered episodes just dropped on to iPlayer this morning, and you probably knew this blog post was coming.

Before I get into the episodes themselves, though, plus revisiting Day of Armageddon because it would have been silly not to, a huge shout out to Film Is Fabulous, a splendid little charity from my neck of the country who specialise in preserving and locating films, telly and other footage for posterity, much of which may otherwise be lost. Importantly, there's no cherry picking or treasure hunting. Instead, they catalogue and preserve entire collections, treating every item with equal respect. 

Through their work, we now have these two episodes, previously thought lost. And, while we should just enjoy these for the time being, there may be more hope for the future, as we now know that cutting copies are a thing. For now, though, please do check out Film Is Fabulous' splendid website, do consider donating if you can, and please don't hassle them- they clearly know what they're doing, and their work can't and mustn't be rushed.

Anyway...

The Nightmare Begins

"If it's brain... or brawn, rather, versus brain..."

This episode, more than anything else, looks AMAZING. Douglas Camfield truly excels himself here. Much as we know damn well that the forests of Kembel are just a tiny studio in Lime Grove, his claustrophobic direction, as well as Brian Cant's desperate acting, really sells the sense of peril for Kert Gantry in particular. It's great to see him and Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon in action. We hardly have time to notice that Varga plants are only spoken of, not seen, and how tense, claustrophobic direction means we don't actually see much of the forest set- a wise decision.

It's amusing to see Mavic Chen being interviewed and discussed by a couple of lazy civil servants whose casual attitude contrasts with the selfless dedication of Gantry and Vyon, and the lady in particular looks very Swinging Sixties indeed. Such a contrast from the very bleak shot of Gantry after the Dalek kills him.

It's fascinating to see the dynamic between the Doctor and Katarina here- he's as affectionate as ever, but she interprets everything in terms of her own culture- she's in the afterlife, heading to the "Place of Perfection". As she says to Bret, they're "on our way through the underworld".

Then there's the visual of the Doctor's magnetic chair, the city, the framing of the shot where the Doctor sees the Daleks for the first time... we're so very lucky to have this back.

Day of Armageddon

"His ambitions exceed his usefulness."

I'm conscious that I've already blogged this, way back during the marathon days, but it would be silly to leave out the middle of three consecutive episodes, especially when this episode contains the key moment with the Doctor swiping the Taranium core. That aside, though, it's marked by three extraordinary performances. Hartnell, of course, but also Nicholas Courtney as the firm but brave Bret Vyon, and the always magnificent Kevin Stoney, whose performance as Mavic Chen is a joy to watch, both because of his line delivery and his physical mannerisms. We're lucky to be able to see his performance. 

The Daleks setting fire to the forest is an extraordinary visual, so much so that you can even forgive the fact that there are only three of them. All the scenes with the delegates are brilliant. And the whole thing is just so damn tense. Then there's the ever-extraordinary musical score from the underappreciated Tristram Cary, whose music both borders on the avant-garde and works perfectly in context.

And the inside of the Spar is a perfectly Sixties space opera future, with the design of the controls being, well, not quite as charming as the fridge magnet-based technology of the baddies in The War Games, but as close as you can get.

Devil's Planet

"All is ready for their space extinction!"

We've had quite a few Terry Nation-isms thus far. Hostile plants, the constant use of "space" as an adjective ("Excuse me while I nip to the space loo for a space number two"), and even a countdown. Here we get a lesser spotted one, later to be reused in the opening episodes of Blake's 7- the prison planet with no guards, where prisoners are just dumped into a Hobbesian existence. It's a rather bleak situation into which to crash one's spaceship.

Everything still looks great, though. The gripping scene leading up to Zephon's killing, for example, showcases Camfield's sublime qualities as a director- particularly his skill at the now-lost art of blocking. And even the (thankfully not overly drawn out) bleak scenes with the hostile convicts are absolutely gripping. So, of course, of more footage of Kevin Stoney's physical mannerisms and facial expressions as Chen.

And then there's Katarina, of whose five episodes, none of which once remained, we now have an incredible three. Yet, when she says to the Doctor, with those trusting eyes which we can now see, we feel a pang...

This episode, as with all of them, is bloody brilliant. 

 

 

Tales of the TARDIS

 Obviously I haven’t watched the omnibus versions of all these old Doctor Who stories I’ve seen countless times before, just the fabulous new scenes at the beginning and ends. So I’ll say only that the whole omnibus thing makes me nostalgic for the old days of BBC video. Also, The Mind Robber and The Time Meddler have never looked so good. And I’m pleased to see the extended cut was used for The Curse of Fenric.

Earthshock

“Oh, you got old.”

"You didn't."

Of course, we saw Tegan and the Fifth Doctor interact briefly in The Power of the Doctor and ditto for the Seventh Doctor and Ace. These pairings therefore make sense, and this and The Curse of Fenric are the obvious story choices for each respective pairing: bloody good, but also emotionally resonant for the characters. 

So what's going on? This first instalment has to do a bit of exposition on what a "Memory TARDIS" is- part of the TARDIS, although perhaps not a physical location as such. It feeds on memories, so a story has to be told. Wisely, it's all kept a bit vague, and at this point we simplyhandwave over how the Doctor looks visibly older than he was when we saw him succumb to Spectrox Toxaemia with all those heads whizzing around him.

We end with some nicely meta commentary as the two of them mourn Adric. "He loved you", insists Tegan, to which the Doctor responds "Yes, I realise that now." The characters are pretty much acknowledging that the episodic nature of the series back in those days didn't really allow for prolonged dwelling on the characters and their development- but it's not too late to remedy that. It's a lovely sentiment.

We also learn more about what Tegan went on to do, as with many former companions: campaign for environmental causes. Are you listening, Sunak?

The Mind Robber

"I think we're in Heaven."

"I hope not. I'm a very busy woman."

This one was absolutely necessary- the theft of Jamie and Zoe's memories by the Time Lords in The War Games was a truly monstrous crime. It's been left very late in the characters' lives, but at last that great wrong can be righted.

We learn that they've both led good lives- Jamie has fathered a massive family, while Zoe is now president. This one is just vibes, really, but it's lovely. And the chemistry between the actors is as wonderful as ever.

Vengeance on Varos

"The twenty-first century- it feels a lot like Varos."

Both Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are great here but... is it me, or is the chemistry not quite there? Regardless, this one is perhaps not so successful as the others, for reasons that are not really its fault. The decision to have Peri get married to barbarian king Yrcanos was always an outrage, a shameful treatment of a character who had meant so much. RTD has no choice but to spin this as Peri having achieved great things as a "Warrior Queen", but this isn't enough to wash away the sins of his prdedecessors within that very, very dysfunctional Doctor Who office of 1986. Nothing could.

It's good to see the Sixth Doctor rather less garishly dressed, though. It's also heartwarming to see them both resolve to go travelling again, though. So a Memory TARDIS can travel through time and space, maybe...

The Three Doctors

"Did you love him?"

Katy Manning is, of course, the obvious choice here, but who to pair her with? The only real choices from the era would have been John Levene or Richard Franklin and... yeah. So Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer is the perfect choice. We get a bit more closure on The Sarah Jane Adventures: Clyde is a successful comic book creator; Luke and Sanjay are astronauts; Rani is an activist, like Tegan and Ace.

There's real heart to this one. A recently bereaved Jo is mourning her Cliff, and in a mood not to allow Clyde to miss his own chance for love. RTD does this sort of character stuff very well indeed, and it works.

The Time Meddler

"I mean, can you imagine the Doctor wearing something like this?"

The above is the best joke in all six of these, with Steven commenting on what we know to be the Sixth Doctor's inimitable fashion sense.

And this one is absolutely the best of the lot. Peter Purves is superb but Maureen O'Brien is absolutely wonderful. A couple of years may have passed but she is still absolutely, utterly, brilliantly Vicki, and a real joy.

Both of them are grandparents. Steven is a king. Yet Vicki's departure in The Myth Makers, while not the Peri level of bad, was pretty appalling, a girl from the twenty-fifth century settling in the time just after the Trojan Wars, a time with few creature comforts and much violence and hardships. But RTD very much emphasises that she's had a happy life regardless, and O'Brien's performance convinces us.

I love the ending, a nice touch.

The Curse of Fenric

"Time streams are funny things. In some, I regenerate. In others, I don't."

The above quote, I suppose, is the best we're going to get in terms of explaining why all these Doctors look visibly older. Best not to ask too many questions, I feel.

This one follows on nicely from The Power of the Doctor, and both characters get closure, with the Seventh Doctor admitting that his manipulations would, yust veeery occasionally, you understand, go a little bit too far. I love the revelation that Ace used to see her nan- Kathleen Dudman- in the nursing home. And yes... the Doctor was always a father figure to her.

So off they go on one more journey. This one was wonderful.

So there we are. Just a few minutes per story, yes, but the sort of nice little character moments that Doctor Who coudn't really do when it consisted of twenty-five minute serialised episodes. It's surprising how much of a delight this all is, considering that it isn't much material. But this is whetting my appetite nicely. I trust RTD.

Doctor Who: The Savages

Part One

"You don't have to do everything he tells you. You're a grown man. Or are you?"


For the first time the TARDISeers land somewhere the Doctor's known- he's famous! In fact, the city dwellers seem to be card-carrying Doctor Who fans and, initially, they seem very nice. But of course, there are sinister, authoritarian undercurrents from the moment the Doctor first meets the two guards- he "must" follow them to the city. We know they're the baddies pretty much from the start, that's not where the mystery lies- the very existence of "savages" excluded from their society reflects badly on them from the beginning. The question is how they are exploiting the "savages".

The central idea behind this story is an extremely powerful sci-fi concept, very reminiscent of Brave New World, and the development of this central idea throughout the story is very effective. There's a real sense of underplayed totalitarian horror throughout the story.

The bickering between the scientist and the security chief is a nice touch in a story which generally succeeds in fleshing out the guest characters. These people are quite normal, not evil- they've simply dehumanised the savages because they're the "other".

This is an excellent recon (I'm watching the new one, hence the delay in my watching this!), but unfortunately much of the story is very visual- there was a long stretch of this episode towards the end where I had to concentrate very hard on the text descriptions. But although visual this story is quite talky and light on action- I'm enjoying it but I suspect it wouldn't have much appeal to kids,


Part Two


"Oppose you? Indeed I'm going to oppose you! Just in the same way as I oppose the Daleks, or any other menace to common humanity."


This is actually a good story for Dodo, who does a lot of investigating early on. And the reactions of the city dwellers to their disappearance are quietly effective; the fate of the couple responsible for losing her is all the more horrible for being understated. This is no paradise even for the city dwellers, and the Doctor's eventual fate shows this society's stance towards dissent.

The Doctor's argument with Jano is a wonderful moment, one of the highlights of the crusading nature of Hartnell's Doctor in his later stories.

Part Three


"I'm afraid I'm- I'm not quite myself."


We get a brief moment of footage this episode, but it would have been nice to see what the cave looked like. The guest characters continue to be well-sketched- Nanina's kindness to Exorse is a nice touch.

One worry is that, although Hartnell seems to be on screen, he doesn't get much to do- is this another sign of Hartnell's failing health affecting things on screen?


Part Four


"I don't intend to leave these people in this oppressed state."

Lots of short, tantalising bits of off-air footage in this episode. It's a real shame this story is missing- more than any missing story so far I've been missing the visuals.

Once again the guest characters are well-written- Tor provides balance by showing the savages can be unsympathetic too. It's also nice that the baddies get a chance to redeem themselves; Jano's attack of conscience may be due to the Doctor's influence but Exorse changes his mind on his own.

Steven gets an excellent leaving scene, which fits his character very well, in a story which has shown him at his best. it's a shame that he never really caught fire as a companion after a promising start, but at least he ends well.



Overall, excellent; well structured in terms of plot, character and themes, and arguably rather more adult than any previous sci-fi story, which may well not have worked in its favour with younger viewers, a definite flaw, but I enjoyed this story hugely- 5/5.

Doctor Who: The Gunfighters

A Holiday For the Doctor

"I got no pianist on account of he was shot last week."


The first thing we hear is the song, and you either love it or hate it- personally I love it. It makes things clear from the start; there's to be no attempt at realism here. This is a pastiche of the Western movies, not a historical set in the American West. Plus, it's a great song. So there.

The name of Donald Cotton appearing onscreen at the start shows us that the dialogue is going to be uniformly great. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that Cotton's lines are going to be as well delivered as they were in The Myth Makers, and the performances of the first actors we see, playing the Clanton brothers, are not encouraging. The accents are not just bad, they're not even trying. Plus things look a little cheap, especially as the story more or less invites us to compare it to Hollywood Westerns.

It's a great story if you can ignore the flaws, though, and if you can accept an outright pastiche comedy which deliberately makes no concessions to realism or historical accuracy. I love Steven and Dodo's new clothes, and the Doctor's introducing himself to Wyatt Earp as "Dr Caligari"- another postmodern moment.

Oh, and Anthony Jacobs is fantastic. Doc Holliday may be a rogue but he's a lot more likeable, charismatic and competently acted than the Clantons. His double act with Hartnell is superb. Hartnell's comic acting in the dentist's chair is also most excellent.

Don't Shoot the Pianist

"You know, in my whole life I never killed a friend."

"Aw! You're a real gentleman!"


Hmm, so Dodo's enjoying playing the piano under duress? Shades of The Celestial Toymaker here. And I must admit the song is just beginning to grate. But everything is made forgivable by the unflagging wit of the dialogue and the knowing use of all the tropes of the Western. All this plus Hartnell doing comedy- surely no Doctor since has approached Hartnell for comedy acting?

There's no real sense of danger in this story, but we're constantly kept entertained, and yes, it doesn't always work visually, the direction's a bit meh, and most of the guest cast are a bit dull, but at this point I'm still having enormous fun. Roll on the next ep.

Johnny Ringo

"Now pick him up gentle and carry him slow / He's gone kind of mental under Earp's heavy blow."


Did I see that right? A well-executed cliffhanger resolution which doesn't in any way cheat? Is this a first?

The story takes an upturn with this episode. Up to this episode I'd been slightly underwhelmed, feeling that although the lines sparkled the plot was dragging a bit, the acting was often ropey and the whole thing looked dull. But this episode has won me over; the plot kicks up a gear, the main guest characters (not the Clantons") are suddenly more charismatic, and the lines sparkle even more: "I just ran into an old friend and, uh, he kind of lost his appetite." But this increase in the humour quotient is balanced by a sense of foreboding; by this point we know, and are meant to know, that the showdown is coming and people are going to die. Our first inkling of the coming bloodshed is Johnny Ringo shooting Charlie in cold blood: this marks a turning point in the mood.

I suspect the barman getting shot is a common trope for Westerns, but annoyingly I haven't seen enough Westerns to be sure. I'm sure there are loads of allusions to genre convention I'm not getting.

The scene with Dodo pulling a gun on Doc Holliday is hilarious- today I like Dodo again. There's a great resolution, hilariously performed by Anthony Jacobs: "And I didn't want to have to shoot you neither!" The killing of Warren Earp raises the stakes though- things now look very ominous indeed...


The O.K. Corrall

"Well, glory be. Now you really have declared war."


It seems Ringo is planning on taking the Earps from behind, to the evident surprise of Billy: "Never had you figured for a backshooter, Ringo." Oo er. But Pa Clanton is panicked by the Doctor's message; the Earps know about Johnny Ringo! They have Doc Holliday with them! The heartbeat of the plot is starting to beat more quickly; even the song speeds up.

What's great about this episode is that, as with The Myth Makers but less so, there's an underlying tension and even a sense of tragedy at times, but unlike Donald Cotton's previous offering the one liners just keep coming: "Why these get-togethers have to be at sun-up I'll never know- it ain't civilised!" Once more I must praise the great Anthony Jacobs.

Odd that the Doctor and Holliday should get on so well given the somewhat amoral nature of the other good Doctor, but I'll let that slide as I'm enjoying myself. But the final scenes with the TARDISeers bidding farewell to Holliday and Kate are great, and the Doctor gets a wonderfully postmodern line: "My dear Dodo, you know you're becoming a prey to every cliché-ridden convention in the American west." It's a shame the Doctor leaves Holliday's wanted poster behind, mind.


That was the most fun story ever, getting better and better as it went on. as much as I'd like to, though, I can't in good conscience give it a 5/5; great as the script was, there were serious flaws- not just the accents but the entire performances of most of the Clantons dragged the whole thing down. Still, a very good 4/5.

Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toyroom

"It looks dead boring to me. Come on!"


Whenever I think of Steven and Dodo it's in the clothes they're wearing here. Dodo herself looks like the absolute personification of the 60s. It's a strange beginning, with the Doctor becoming both invisible and intangible. There's some nice continuity here, with references to the invisibility of the Refusians in the last story, and the Toymaker showing the TARDISeers some clips from recent stories.

The Toymaker himself, a god-like being straight from an episode of Star Trek, is unlike anything seen before in the series and, at first, quite intriguing. Certainly he's well-played throughout by Michael Gough. This is very surreal and weird.

Sadly, after the first five minutes the plot is suspended while we're forced to watch a kids' game show slightly less good than Pat Sharp's Fun House. Ironically, the concept of the Toymaker forcing our heroes to play the games is in theory quite good, but the execution is so dull. There's no creepiness, no atmosphere.

Incidentally, the Toymaker- a powerful creature with an arbitrary nature who seems to be omnipotent- is presumably an Eternal as has often been said. It seems he's bored with his life; watching this story I'm beginning to understand how he feels.

Strange to see Carmen Silvera in this!

The Hall of Dolls"You know, I feel very foolish talking to a playing card."


The cost of losing is eternity with the Toymaker. A truly terrible thought. as is the fact we're not going to be seeing much of Hartnell for most of this story- he's now invisible, intangible and silent.

For the first time, Dodo is beginning to irritate me really quite a lot- could this story be largely responsible for her bad reputation within fandom? She's very stupid here, seeming to enjoy herself with no impression of the danger she's in or the weirdness of her surroundings.

The Dancing Floor"Why don't you go back in your box?"


It occurs to me that this is a very cheap story, with a very limited cast and a small number of sets, with nothing required to look particularly impressive. And the story's still not engaging me- in fact these games and fake TARDISes are getting tiresomely repetitive. Not much else to say about the episode. As this is the last reconstructed episode though i really must heap praise on Loose Cannon for the excellent job they've done, especially with no telesnaps.


The Final Test"Now don't start red herrings, you charlatan!"


"I think I'm going to enjoy this game" says Dodo, lightly dismissing the mortal peril she's in. Aaargh! And as for the bit where she goes to help Cyril...

Fortunately, halfway through the episode the games end, Hartnell is back (yay!) and the plot resumes. In fact, the second half of the episode is actually watchable at times. I liked the bit where Steven tries to punch the Toymaker- unlike Dodo, he has a personality. And in offering to stay behind so the others can escape he shows himself to be truly heroic.

Interesting to see the Toymaker offering power to the Doctor if he acquiesces- as far as I can recall this is the first such scene ever.

Odd cliffhanger though- the Doctor's got a spot of toothache?



Well, that was awful. Only the first ten minutes and last ten minutes of the story were at all watchable, the middle bit consisting entirely of tiresome games. Even worse, the writing for Dodo's character is starting to suffer alarmingly from the character's total lack of background and definition, and that's bad scriptwriting. This is my least favourite story so far by a long, long way.

Doctor Who: The Ark

The Steel Sky

"Look, stop prancing about over there. What happens if you get lost?"

"I catch a bus back!"


A nice little mystery to open with, although I've no idea how obvious or not it may have been to the unspoiled that they were on a huge spaceship. I started this episode with some trepidation; we're about to get an exploratory episode one without a settled TARDIS crew. Instead we have a barely post-row Steven and Dodo who's... well, Dodo. There's an instability to the TARDIS crew that there hasn't been before, and a lot of this is down to the fact that Dodo as a character, with no hinterland whatsoever, is no more than a cipher. Incidentally, the comedy accent has been toned down but she sounds more northern than we're often led to believe.

From the moment Dodo leaves the TARDIS she's constantly annoying ("Earth? Earth? Well, it couldn't be anywhere else, now could it?"). But after a while, perversely, I start to like her, if not necessarily for the right reasons. Some combination of the lines and the delivery just makes me laugh- "I think I'm beginning to enjoy this space travel or whatever it is". I suspect to some extent I'm subconsciously rebelling against what I know to be fan orthodoxy (oh, to come to a story completely fresh!). Of course, the joke is quite likely to wear thin eventually and I reserve the right to perform a u-turn later. Or sooner.

Pausing only to marvel at the awesome computing technology of the far future, we're quickly introduced to our surroundings by means of, er, loads of exposition. But the ideas are good; this is a time when sci-fi was primarily seen as a literary, rather than cinematic, genre. Indeed, I recall the recently released BBC documents from the dawn of Doctor Who referred to the sci-fi novel as primarily based on ideas rather than character and as such it, er, shouldn't form the basis of television drama. But actually I rather like the fact that we're getting a literary sci-fi take on Big Ideas, and we certainly get some; a space Ark, with 700 years to reach its destination, most of the population of Earth miniaturised and frozen in filing cabinets (a detail that's dated somewhat!), and some individuals fated to be "guardians, living and dying on the Ark, never living to see their destination.

Incidentally, I assure you that I will endeavour never to write a sentence as long as that again. Clearly I need another stint in semi-colon rehab. But I'm enjoying the story so far.

The Plague

"That unfortunately tells me only one thing."

"What is that?"

"That the nature of man even in this day and age hasn't altered at all. You still fear the unknown, like everyone else before you."


Annoyingly, all the poncy things I've been wittering about have to be interrupted by the plot. And some recycled music from our first visit to the Dalek city, naturally. But I'm still enjoying this. There's no character development for the regulars here, of course, but there's a nice bit of acting from Hartnell early on as he starts moving to hug Dodo to comfort her but can't; he's not able to be tactile with Dodo as he was with her predecessors.

Nothing actually happens for ages, and the guest characters are all extremely bland. But the ideas nevertheless carry the story and carry it well; the idea of the travellers causing a fatal outbreak of the common cold amongst their far future descendants is actually quite good, and has a fair bit of mileage as long as it isn't dwelt upon too much, which it isn't.

The justice system aboard the Ark is a little dodgy, amounting effectively to mob rule, but fortunately that nice Commander manages to briefly gather enough strength to use his arbitrary dictatorial powers to sort things out. This is crude drama, perhaps, but I'm still quite impressed by the hard sci-fi ideas. This fantastic and radical season continues to experiment.

The ending rather glosses over the fact that people have actually died from the TARDISeers' carelessness, but rather more interesting is the treatment of the Monoids. Yes, the Doctor gets a line to a Monoid foreshadowing the next two episodes: "You're far more knowledgeable than most people realise". But I still feel uneasy that at no point have our heroes denounced what is pretty clearly a system of apartheid.

So far this story has been great, in spite of not actually being very good as such. A very nice cliffhanger, yet more gleeful experimentation with the concepts and format of the show. What a season! Oh, and apparently Michael Sheard was in this episode.



That's all for now cos I'm knackered- I'll post the rest tomorrow. In this story of two halves will the second half match up to the first, he said, trying not to exude too much dramatic irony...

The Return

"Are you up to something?"

"Um, no..."


There's something quite fundamentally comical about the Monoids' voices. And we hear a lot of them, as the first few scenes consist of lots of exposition. And the message suggested by the situation here (oppressed minority overthrows dominant majority due to "weakness" of dominant minority) seems on the face of it to be a bit Enoch Powell, even pro-apartheid. Or at least it seemed so at the time- fortunately the next episode makes it clear this isn't so. Phew. Don't worry, I'm not Lawrence Miles and this is not The Unquiet Dead.

The Monoids saying "Get back" reminds me of a certain most excellent video I've seen at a certain online location.

Still lots of exposition, plus a rather interesting take on science- so a solar flare turned the Refusians invisible, did it? And the cliffhanger is a bit artificial too. All of a sudden the fun and the great ideas seem to have gone. The concept of seeing the Ark again after 700 years and of the Monoids taking over was initially a great idea with real impact, but we've been treading water since a couple of minutes into the episode. This is very dull.

The Bomb

"Stupid trusting creature!"

Gosh, what imaginative names the Monoids all have. And why do they only communicate with each other through a device invented by the Guardians? Gah!

On a positive note, although none of the characters get any development worth mentioning Steven is at least shown to be resourceful and heroic in this episode, essentially acting as the Guardians' leader. But the episode is still infuriating. The bomb's going to explode in a whole 12 hours' time- oh, the suspense! How helpful of Monoid Four to tell a Monoid something he already knows just so he can be overheard by the hidden Doctor and Dodo. And what's motivating the Refusian to be so extremely helpful, to the extent of taking a shuttle to the Ark and staying there, in the full knowledge there's a bomb on it? Gah!

Oh, and the Refusians are pretty much the ultimate in (dare I say it?) deus ex machina. I mean, they're practically gods anyway and we know for the entire episode that at some point they're going to just walk in and stop the plot. But it's nice to see the Doctor's speech at the end, effectively denouncing South African apartheid. So the allegorical content is now clear, not that the story was in any way about this theme.

We end with Dodo's fab gear, Steven being allowed to operate the controls, and a truly bizarre cliffhanger...



Overall, it's a story of two halves. The first half, in spite of the stock plot and moments of clumsiness, was packed with interesting ideas and charmed me into liking it. But the second half was just plodding, dull, and lacking in any sense of real peril. sadly, this is below average overall and so gets a 2/5. But there's a lot I liked about the first two parts.

Doctor Who: The Massacre

War of God

"But you promise me you won't get into trouble?"

"Yes, of course!"


After several of the excellent more recent recons, it's somewhat frustrating to go back to static pictures, and even more frustrating that there are no telesnaps! Still, Loose Cannon have done an excellent job, as always.

Its quite surprising that apparently Charles Preslin was just a made up character, especially as its a little odd for the Doctor, without pausing to find out exactly where or when he is, to blithely leave Steven in a tavern while he goes to hobnob with a local scientist. This hardly seems to fit well with his more active characterisation of late; John Lucarotti seems to be writing the Doctor of Season One. Not that it matters much though; he won't be writing much of the Doctor at all!

Steven's bewildered by the situation right from the moment the Doctor sets off, as are the viewers. Preslin's comment that he hopes the Doctor "succeeds" is especially confusing in that it isn't followed up. And what happens to Preslin anyway? A good episode nonetheless.

The Sea Beggar

"You are an extraordinary man, Tavannes. You see shadows where there is no sun."


Steven is caught up in an increasingly dangerous situation without a clue what's going on; this is extremely effective, and becomes even more so as events continue to spiral slowly out of control. His confusion over whether the Doctor is the Abbot of Amboise or not is shared by the viewer (although not by me, sadly, having seen it before). The script plays this up, making the Abbot a mysterious and less than trusted character even to his fellow conspirators. And Steven, of course, puts his foot in it; now almost no one trusts him, as the swordfight scene with Eric Thompson's splendidly hotheaded Gaston demonstrates.

Hartnell's hardly in this episode, incidentally, and he's credited only as the Abbot.

Priest of Death

"War is so tedious."


We're finally introduced to the childlike King and Catherine de Medici, silent for the moment. But once she does speak, her words have real power and we're left in little doubt that she means ill and will get what she wants. De Coligny gets a nice line: "Kings are recognised only by the power they wield. The Queen Mother seems to claim that power."

Hartnell is a revelation as the Abbot, playing a character sharply distinguished from the Doctor. Yet we're still left unsure whether or not they're the same person, which makes his death a very powerful scene. With the Doctor seemingly dead Steven ends this episode alone, apparently stranded, fleeing a mob which wants him dead. Has there ever been a bleaker ending?

Incidentally the lack of reprises works well, with no cliffhangers as such but each episode covering a day and punctuated by the tocsins. Each episode ends on a dramatic high rather than a cliffhanger, but this works.

Bell of Doom

"Now, they've all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton... Chesterton... they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can't... I can't..."


Easily the finest individual episode of Doctor Who yet, and that's saying something. Hartnell is quite breathtaking in this. We start with Steven lost, despondent, entirely defeated by events, until the Doctor suddenly turns up and takes charge. On my original viewing of this story I liked it a lot but marked it down for the non-explanation of the Doctor's whereabouts. But seeing it now in context I think I originally missed the point; the story is focused on Steven as he gets hopelessly tangled up in a situation hopelessly out of his depth. The absence of the Doctor is the point; we see how much he's needed, otherwise things can go very, very wrong. This is a Doctor Lite story, and better even than Blink.

The Doctor and Steven are in no physical danger from this point onwards, but the drama lies elsewhere. We get a foreshadowing of the later TARDIS scene as the Doctor, to Steven's bewilderment, quickly dismisses Anne to her aunt's. Steven asks him firmly "But Doctor, what is going on?" but the Doctor dismisses him in typical style: "There's no time for me to explain. Come along". This exchange may seem typical, and it is, but it's pivotal. The Doctor may not be acting unusually, but the wider situation makes the moral consequences of his acts far more serious than would normally be the case. This week we're in no light-hearted adventure serial.

Even Tavannes (the great Andre Morell) is horrified by Catherine de Medici's plans to use the mob rather than targeted assassinations to attack the Huguenots; this is genocide; "The innocent? Heresy can have no innocence". This is truly horrible. Fittingly, the Doctor and Steven leave at the exact moment when the massacre is about to start.

This story is part John Lucarotti style historical (something wonderful in itself of course, but...), and part radical experimentation with the format (Donald Tosh?). So the Doctor's comments about not changing history are, if anything, too reminiscent of The Aztecs and a little outdated post- Time Meddler. But the circumstances are very different here; Steven's anger is hardly unjustified. In sending Anne to her Aunt's, where she's certain to be searched for, the Doctor most probably has sent her to her death. The Doctor isn't really behaving differently to the way he always does here- his justifications of his actions on the grounds of not changing history are nothing new and, in another context, hardly controversial. But in a situation of such horror as this we feel very differently about it: "My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock. And that is because we don't fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're all too small to realise its final pattern". Hartnell delivers these words despondently, with restraint but also with more emotion than we've ever heard from him before. The Doctor firmly believes in his principles but doesn't feel the horror any less than Steven; he's just too world-weary to be shocked by it. It would be nice to see Steven's expression as he wordlessly leaves the TARDIS.

The Doctor's soliloquy that follows is the most revealing character moment the Doctor's had, and a triumphant performance from Hartnell, made all the more effective by well-judged silences, which will surely prove the highlight of his tenure. Forty years before Tennant, the Doctor's essential loneliness is laid bare. This is powerful stuff.

I'm actually quite tolerant of the final scenes, if we ignore Dodo's extraordinary accent. The policemen are a flimsy excuse for Steven to return, but I suspect they're supposed to be; Steven's made his point, but doesn't really want to leave the TARDIS this way. This lets him save face, and the Doctor lets him. Still, there's no excusing the glibness of Dodo's introduction or the carelessness of the fact that the TARDIS just takes off with this new passenger who, conveniently, has no friends or family to miss her. Dodo is poorly served by her introduction, but she actually provides a nice bit of catharsis for both the Doctor and Steven. The Doctor's comment that she looks like Susan is really just indicating what he wants her to be, as he's rather raw emotionally and afraid of being alone at this point. And Steven's ridiculous theory about Dodo proving Anne survived is no more than desperate straw clutching, but again it helps him get over his trauma and save face, and once again the Doctor lets him.



This is the best story so far by a long way- it works superbly as a historical but it's also a brave experiment with the format in this fantastically experimental season, with the absence of the Doctor, and the closing dramatisation of the core emotional themes of the show. And up to now Steven's been a vaguely defined character- a little stubborn, not too bright, but little else. Not any more. But the incredible thing about this story is that the Doctor has never seemed so three-dimensional and real. Hartnell is a revelation in the final scenes. 5/5.

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan

The Nightmare Begins

"Well now! It's brain or brawn, or rather versus brain..."


It's great to see and hear the familiar Kembel sights and soundtrack, but even more great to see Nick Courtney. He's great, they should certainly think of using him again.

The scenes on Earth with the couple discussing the television news, sort of like a Greek chorus, are extraordinarily self-referential for Doctor Who at this time.

The short piece of footage we see, of Kert Gantry being exterminated by a Dalek, is quite magnificently directed. The camera angle, the "sting" in the soundtrack- have the Daleks ever seemed so scary?

It's a fascinating and new situation for Bret Vyon to get himself aboard the TARDIS with the Doctor apparently locked outside- it gives the sense of an unspoken rule of the narrative having been broken. If some recent stories may have seemed safe and cosy, it's clear this one won't.

Mavic Chen's speech comes across as very Blairesque to my modern eyes. He's slippery from the start, so although his treachery would no doubt have surprised the unspoiled viewer, it should not be shocking. Bret, on the other hand, may be a bit terse and ruthless but basically a decent chap, as he shows by giving Katarina tablets for Steven. Katarina's reactions to what she sees are fascinating.

Day of Armageddon

"Traitor? An archaic word for so advanced a... man as yourself."


Footage! Hooray! Doesn't this look great? Lots of nice touches abound, such as Mavic Chen's very odd way of holding his pen. Kevin Stoney is great, although the make-up used to alter his ethnic appearance certainly raises an eyebrow.

Naturally, the Daleks are eventually planning to kill all the delegates. Who, incidentally, look nothing like they did in Mission to the Unknown. And there are more than six of them to boot.

I love the scene where Bret Vyon and the Doctor tell each other to shut up, well played by both Hartnell and Courtney. You can see the growing respect between the two of them though; Vyon says to Hartnell as he goes in disguise to the conference that he's "a very brave man". And he is. The ambiguity stops here: the Doctor is behaving heroically and altruistically for entirely selfless reasons, showing little concern even for staying within reach of the TARDIS while the Daleks' plans are afoot. Long may this sort of thing continue!

So, the Dalek invasion of Earth started in 2157, seven years before the TARDISeers arrived?

This story is really quite superbly directed. In fact the entire production is slick and glossy looking with apparently high production values. Never before has a sci-fi story, if not any story, looked so great. The Daleks are beautifully shot here; they're so much more effective than ever before.

The plot thickens with the Doctor, in the action hero role for perhaps the first time, exploits the chaos caused by Bret and Steven to steal the Taranium Core before it can be placed into the Time Destructor. And once more Katarina shows a seemingly religious understanding of the Doctor. Nice cliffhanger, too. So far, this is great. Could we at last have a sci-fi story that can stand toe to toe with the historicals?

Devil Planet

"We have the Taranium so for the moment we do nothing. And by doing nothing we do everything. Do I make myself clear?"


It's a predicable resolution to the cliffhanger, but there's no let up in the pace as our heroes take off from Kembel. I'm really getting intrigued by Katarina (can't you just smell that dramatic irony?) and how much she understands of her surroundings. Of course, her reactions are far from realistic; you can't realistically portray the reactions of an ancient Trojan woman to all this space opera without constantly and tediously interrupting the narrative. But within the conventions of the genre her reactions are well thought through. Naturally, she assumes Kembel was Earth. Conveniently, she doesn't ask questions.

It's most amusing to see magnetic tape in use in the year 4000.

We're introduced to a planet called Desperus (!), a penal policy which is... interesting, some actual footage, and most notably the Doctor continuing to be heroic in a way he's never quite been before. This is another watershed story for the Hartnell Doctor's characterisation.

The Traitors

"I hope she's reached her Place of Perfection."

"Yes, but... not that way."


Katarina's death is utterly shocking, and fittingly followed by a long silence. Both the Doctor and Steven are shocked and upset; the scene is extremely effective, and with hindsight long foreshadowed.

The Daleks continue to impress; the Dalek Supreme's voice is among the finest I've ever heard and perhaps the ultimate Dalek voice, full of character, actually interesting to listen to, but unmistakably a Dalek. This Dalek Supreme is no fool, understanding Mavic Chen's motives perfectly. Never before have the Daleks seemed so manipulative and in control.

There are lots of nice little bits of world building in the scenes on Earth, dull though the actual sets undoubtedly would have been. Earth, it seems, abounds with traitors, even Bret's mate Daxtar. It's a nice juxtaposition of events where Bret, to the Doctor's outrage, shoots Daxtar, only to be himself shot soon afterwards by Sara Kingdom. The Doctor and Steven are in real trouble; stuck on a hostile Earth light years from the TARDIS.

Counter Plot

"An alien device. There are small white creatures inside. They may be hostile."


Some footage, and although unfortunately given that footage is so rationed this episode is not all that visual we get some groovy special effects at the start. So good in fact that they went some way to distracting me from the sheer convenience of our heroes being somehow teleported halfway across the galaxy by means unknown last episode. The ultimate cliffhanger cop-out, but as it's all rather fun so far I'll overlook that.

Kevin Stoney is great, and so much is added by actually seeing his performance. It's eye-opening seeing how Karlton behaves towards Chen though- he's clearly a powerful chap, and very well played by Maurice Browning. There's a great sequence where Chen begins to rant like a madman, Karlton subtly shows signs of noticing, and Chen suddenly becomes self-conscious and changes tack. How many other such visual moments are we missing?

Coolness abounds: invisible creatures (These beings appear to be invisible!"),Chen playing with his pen again, that Dalek with the compass thingy again (yay!) and, best of all, the epic battle between the Daleks and the mice. And lots of nice directorial touches- the studio floor is cunningly hidden in the jungle scenes.

The scenes where Sara Kingdom is finally convinced to trust the Doctor and Steven is well done, and well played by Jean Marsh.

Coronas of the Sun

"You make your incompetence sound like an achievement!"


Our first episode written by Dennis Spooner!

The scene between Chen and the Daleks in which they debate who is to blame for the failure to capture the TARDISeers is nicely handled; Chen starts out on the back foot, in seeming danger of being exterminated for his incompetence, only for the scene to end with an embarrassed Dalek Supreme blustering that "It is not an emergency". The voice artist for the Dalek Supreme is doing a superlative job.

So Steven's from "hundreds of years" before 4000, which would place him in the 4th millennium?

There's a rather interesting row between the Doctor and Steven at the end about Steven's antigrav experiment. They've never seemed that close compared to the Doctor's other companions- I suspect we'll be seeing more of this sort of thing.


All good stuff so far.

The Feast of Steven

"Well, I suppose you might say I'm a citizen of the universe. And a gentleman to boot."


Well, that was... different.

The scenes in the Liverpool police stations are good fun, although the Scouse accents are variable, to say the least. Some interesting dialogue: Aye, I think you know all of the queer people!"

The Hollywood section is... bewildering, especially without footage! Within two minutes I'd given up all pretence of understanding what was happening in favour of just going with the flow. Even the excellent Loose Cannon recon doesn't clarify things too much here. Great line from Sara: "I don't know, but a strange man kept telling me to take my clothes off".

Oh, and there's also that line!

This is all very silly, but it's harmless fun, and I won't be so churlish as to pay this any attention when reviewing the story as a whole.

Volcano

"Their greed for power is so great that they can be trusted."


Back to the story, and the tone's still a bit light-hearted, a bit The Chase even. It's good to see Daleks again, finally realising the Taranium Core they have is a fake. Things are so serious a time machine has to be summoned from Skaro- time machines are clearly rare.

Surely Trantis' shocking death would cause the other delegates to have second thoughts, but apparently not...

It's the Monk! Yay! And he's still in his robes for some reason. It's great to see him again, not least because Steven gets the chance to say "I'll explain later" to Sara.

The Doctor's ring gets curiouser and curiouser. Apparently "it has, er, certain properties", my precious.


Golden Death

"Dalek extermination will not be questioned!"


Egypt! More pseudo-historical goodness from Dennis Spooner! Things are getting good again, in spite of the frog in the Doctor's throat at the start. There are lots of cool things her; the Doctor's hat, the Monk's shades, and best of all an epic battle between Daleks and Ancient Egyptians. The tone's a bit odd, what with the Doctor and the Monk playing their practical jokes on each other amongst the real menace of the Daleks, but somehow it works.

It's nice to "see" Walter Randall again too.

Escape Switch

"I also include that Monk fellow, although I don't know why I should bother with him."


At last, some more footage! The Monk as a mummy is very cool indeed. As is Chen's shoving the Dalek's eyestalk aside. Once again I'm led to wonder how much of this sort of clever visual storytelling we're missing out on most of the time.

At last the plot is moving full throttle though, with the Daleks finally seizing the Taranium Core.


The Abandoned Planet

"Do we deal with Mavic Chen now?"

"No. His arrogance and greed have a further use for us."


There's a delicious irony to Chen's coup on his fellow delegates, given his own inevitable betrayal by the Daleks. Chen seems to cross a line in his desperation; he's no longer acting rationally. Of course, the other delegates are all surprised by their own blatantly obvious betrayal by the Daleks.

I love the way this episode gives us a "greatest hits" of the Dalek sound effects and music, some of which I don't remember hearing since the first Dalek story.

The Destruction of Time

"Such a waste. A terrible cost."


At last Chen is showing himself to be openly insane. This may not give him a motivation or make him any more than a cipher, but given his role in the story this doesn't really matter. Kevin Stoney has been brilliant since the start, and he's particularly good here as an increasingly desperate and deluded Chen gradually unravels. The scene of his extermination, with the long, ominous silences from the Daleks, is very effective.

This is an appropriately tense and gripping conclusion to the epic- the constant ticking of the Time Destructor is very effective in showing the relentlessness of the horror. Sara's fate is horrifying, and the ending is very bleak indeed.


Overall, utterly superb. Of course, it never pretended to be anything more than an epic adventure story and there was never any subtext to speak of, but there's certainly nothing wrong with that. This is the first science fiction story that I'd rank up with the best historicals. Aside from a slight dip in the middle it was constantly gripping. 5/5.

Doctor Who: The Myth Makers

Temple of Secrets

"Oh, but you have killed this poor fellow!"

"Yes, but in your name!"


It's clear from the start that we're in for a treat as the dialogue between Achilles and Hector is very funny indeed, as is the dialogue for the entire story. Odysseus is also great, cynical yet likeable, and a very contemporary interpretation of the character. I've always thought the comedy style of this episode to have a lot in common with the Beyond the Fringe, satire boom type comedy of the early to mid 60s. The treatment of the Trojan War here is very much the sort of thing I'd expect Pete, Dud and the other two to come up with, and there's no higher praise than that.

Basically, I'm going to spend this entire post gushing.

It's a very cynical yet also very modern view of war and "honour" we get here, with short shrift being given to any conception of war being at all glorious or honourable. Most of the characters are either cowards or fools. Even Menelaus isn't even that bothered about Helen's adultery; "If you must know I was heartily glad to see the back of her."

Already we can see that Hartnell is going to shine, as he always does in these types of stories.

Small Prophet, Quick Return

"Now don't be frightened, child. You shall die when I say so and not a moment before."


The Trojans turn out to be just as entertaining as the Greeks, and Max Adrian is excellent. In fact, the overall quality of the guest cast is exceptional throughout the story.

We "see" Vicki in the TARDIS wardrobe room- it's first "appearance". Oh, for some actual footage! And not for the first time, Vicki doesn't leave the TARDIS until some way into episode two.

The scene where Odysseus interrogates the Doctor and Steven is actually quite clever. For a start, he actually believes them when they tell him they're time travellers, both confounding our expectations and leaving us in no doubt that he's an extremely clever man underneath the cynicism. And although we already know what Odysseus' condition is going to be, and the plan the Doctor's going to inevitably come up with, the script milks our foreknowledge for maximum comic effect.

The scenes in Troy also sparkle, with the relationships between Priam, Paris and Cassandra being sketched out very economically through dialogue which also happens to be extremely witty: "You get back to the war. If you've not killed Achilles by nightfall I shall be seriously displeased". Priam's summing up of Cassandra, as having to predict the worst at all times as a sort of insurance policy to give her the "I told you so" factor at all times, is at the same time witty, accurate and dripping with dramatic irony.

The ensuing scene, with Paris very quietly shouting for Achilles and having to fight Steven is my favourite part of the story: "Well, I say, this sort of thing id just not done. Surely you'd rather die than be taken prisoner?"

A very effective cliffhanger, made all the more so by a very alarming title for the next episode.

Death of a Spy

"Woe to the House of Priam! Woe to the Trojans!"

"I think it's a bit late to say 'whoa' to the horse..."


Frances White is great as Casssandra, playing the character absolutely straight and being all the funnier for it. You can see why the Trojans pay her no attention.

It's nice to see the budding relationship between Vicki and Troilus getting some prior development, although it never quite seems convincing. There's nothing wrong with the way it's written or performed here, but it would have been nice to have some foreshadowing in earlier stories of Vicki's imminent departure.

Interesting line for a family show: "Upon my soul, you're making me as nervous as a Baccante at her first orgy"!

Horse of Destruction

"To be a prisoner of war is considered very bad form."


Katarina, rather surprisingly, only appears for the first time at the start of this episode.

I really have to praise the latest Loose Cannon recon here- not only are there lots of nice little touches (Frances White is shown with the hairstyle she presumably had in this story rather than I Clavdivs, no doubt through some technical jiggery-pokery) but there's a lot of moving footage, especially with scenes involving the horse in this episode.

There's plenty of wit still on show, but the episode is rather bleak and sombre, all the more so for being understated. The handling of Vicki's departure is interesting; we're not made privy to her final chat with the Doctor inside the TARDIS. Vicki's leaving everything behind to be with a bloke she's just met, from the 12th century BC, who thinks she's betrayed him, but the scene with Vicki and Troilus somehow works, and dammit, I cried. I'm sure Troilus and Cressida will be happy ever after, in no way eventually meeting a tragic fate.

Interesting final moments; Katarina's aboard the TARDIS more or less be accident, she's convinced she's going to die soon, and Steven's very badly hurt.


Overall, this is my new favourite story of all time. The dialogue was exquisite, and could almost have been written by Peter Cook. but unlike The Romans, another comedy, if of a very different sort, the regulars were in character and true to themselves throughout. Wonderful. I'd give it a 6/5 if I could.

Doctor Who: Galaxy Four

Four Hundred Dawns

"We have a small number of men, as many as we need, the rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function."


The Loose Cannon recon for this story is great, with lots of creativity being used to give us as much moving footage as possible. This is the best done recon I've seen so far. Sadly, the quality of the original audio isn't as good, and what with my hearing being poor anyway I had trouble hearing much of this story. Still, an intriguing and entertaining episode one, as we've come to expect from the sci-fi stories. As always, we start with some nice character stuff, and it's nice to get the references to The Space Museum.

The Drahvins are clearly up to no good from the start, and I'm not just saying that because their doors make the same sounds as the ones in the Dalek city. They're very B-movie-esque alien Amazons, and if there's any serious comment about sexual politics here (I strongly doubt it) it's impossible to take it as such. Still, the Chumblies are great, and we get to see the Astral Map from The Web Planet again. Er, yay! Nice cliffhanger though- the TARDISeers are in more trouble than they'd realised...

Trap of Steel

"My Ship's not made of tin like this old trash!"


So far this story's quite good, dramatic and well-paced. I've often seen this story criticised because the Drahvins are so obviously the baddies, but although not judging by appearances is clearly a strong theme it's not this that's propelling the drama; it's the pressing need to escape from the imminent destruction of the planet that's the central fact here.

Hmm, so the Drahvins' doors have the sound of the Daleks', and the Rills' ship has the pulsating noise from Dalek ships. The Daleks are being most generous with their sound effects.

Air Lock

"We are not deaf, you know!"


It never fails to amuse me in these early stories how the episode starts with a cliffhanger reprise and then everything has to stop for the title and writer's credit to be displayed. Otherwise, not much to say about this episode. The first two episodes were quite engaging, but things are now beginning to flag. It doesn't really help that the script has no more surprises for us; we pretty much know what's going to happen from this point.

The Exploding Planet

"We respect you as we respect all life."


The speech to Steven by the rill is dull and patronising, as is much of this episode- the drama of how our heroes are going to escape the planet is largely gone, as no convincing obstacles are put in their way from this point. The moral of the story is all very good but the heavy-handed way it's conveyed- taking up much of this episode- is unnecessary and dull. Still, it's nice to see a full photo of a Rill.

Strange and interesting way of doing the cliffhanger, with Vicki making a random comment about a planet that happens to be on the scanner. Still, a Terry Nation episode next. oh look- it's set on a jungle planet.


This story actually works well and holds the attention for the first two episodes, but once the Doctor and Vicki start talking to the Rill the plot stops, as there are no more significant plot twists or threats to our heroes. Instead the time is filled with heavy-handed moralising. A shame, as there's still much to like about this story. 3/5.

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

The Watcher

"That is the dematerialising control and that over yonder is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a panda on it- sheer poetry, dear boy."

It's nice that we start with a chat between the Doctor and Vicki about Ian and Barbara. Suddenly the Doctor as well as Vicki is afraid of being alone.

Great to see Peter Butterworth, no less, as the Monk- our only major guest star so far to be heralded by stock footage of some waves.

We now have two companions from the future- and, incidentally, two northerners. Will their both hailing from future times do any harm to viewer identification in the long term, I wonder?

For the first time, the acronym TARDIS is explained by Vicki as "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space".

This is the greatest episode since The Keys of Marinus for lines from Hartnell: "What do you think it is, a space helmet for a cow?"; "I'm not a mountain goat and I prefer walking to any day. And I hate climbing."

Alethea Charlton appears again! Playing a very nice lady, addressed by the doctor as "Woman".

Nice bit of intrigue with the Monk obviously feeling for a wristwatch, followed up by Steven finding a wristwatch later. The Doctor's finding the gramophone ratchets this up even further. A genuine bit of mystery, and at last the sci-fi and historical elements are being mixed.

The Meddling Monk

"I don't think we've been as clever as we think we have."


We start the next morning, and the scene of the Monk making a rather modern-looking breakfast for the Doctor has made me come over all peckish. Bill Hartnell's off on his holidays again, I see!

I do wish everyone wouldn't keep calling it the 10th century! And as this is Northumbria they'd technically be Angles, not Saxons.

Some very nice stock footage of some Vikings there. Even once we get to the scenes shot for the programme it must be said their leader is sporting a rather impressive helmet.

The implied rape of Edith is rather jarring for a programme like this- not for the first time Dennis Spooner, while generally an excellent writer, misjudges the tone. Still, this aside it's all good stuff so far.

A Battle of Wits

"If I know the Doctor it's not going to be as simple as that."


It's Vicki who finds the secret passage in the Doctor's cell- she's great, and I'm liking her more and more. Meanwhile, the Doctor is telling a suddenly recovered Edith the next couple of months' worth of current affairs.

For the first time since the rape we see Sven and Ulf. Because of what they've done we instinctively know they won't finish the story alive.

The monk's chart detailing his plan is priceless, as is the Doctor persuading the Monk that his stick is in fact a "Winchester '73". "Well, as it happens, I happen to be a very curious fellow!"

Vicki's horrified to see the TARDIS submerged by the tide, although surely by now the viewer would have no fears on this score. Once again she's terrified of abandonment.

WHAT a cliffhanger- another TARDIS!

Checkmate

"It's a TARDIS! The Monk's got a TARDIS!"


So the Monk's from "50 years earlier" than the Doctor, and he's got a "Mark 4". No doubt this will all be picked up on in years to come.

Dennis Spooner has clearly changed his mind entirely on the mechanics of changing history since he scripted The Reign of Terror...! It's very noticeable, too, that the Doctor has changed over the last season, being very keen on sorting things out before returning to the Ship for entirely selfless reasons, although of course as the Monk is one of his own people he arguably has more reason to feel responsible.

Nice ending- the Monk gets his comeuppance, Steven's been fully initiated, and once again we end the season with a star field over the credits.


Overall, top stuff. A great central idea, well-executed and acted, with lots of good character stuff and a bit of intrigue as to the Doctor's origins. An easy 5/5.

Doctor Who: The Chase

The Executioners

"Is it good?"

"Yes, it's a bit far-fetched."


Nice to get another direct follow-on from the previous story, in fact an entire cliffhanger. Some nice character stuff at the start, with Vicki being very adolescent. Once the Time / Space Visualiser is switched on we get some scenes with Abraham Lincoln and Will Shakespeare but these are soon eclipsed by what is surely the highlight of the show so far: Ian strutting his funky stuff.

More episode one planet exploration ensues, with a great line from Ian which can only be appreciated by watching the stories in order: "At least it's not a pool of acid!" Meanwhile, Barbara, engaging in some fully clothed sunbathing with the Doctor, gets a great line of her own: "No, not that awful noise, the other one!".

Dialogue by the Daleks seems to place this story not long after their conquest of the Earth. I'll be holding Dalek continuity to this later. Arguably this story is the first time Dalek speech patterns have finally settled into their final and recognisable form.

Some silly talk about castles from Vicki is followed by a fantastic cliffhanger as a Dalek rises from the sands.

The Death of Time

"Don't stand there screaming, you fool- run!"

"Don't stand there gaping, you nit- come on!"


How very convenient the Daleks are there to locate the TARDIS- our heroes would have had trouble finding it otherwise. I love the thick Dalek! Although it must be said that their ruthless killing of their Aridian sense instantly restores any lost sense of menace; these are still Nazis, in spite of the more frequent injections of humour.

I shall be kind and not dwell on the awfulness of the Mire Beast, that fearful papier-mâché horror...

Nice line once again from Barbara as Ian pilfers her cardigan: "Oh no, not again!".

Flight Through Eternity

"You've come all over in blue spots."


The above quote from Morton Dill seems to confirm the colours of the Daleks we see in photographs to be, ahem, canon. Another interesting line from the Doctor: "It's my time ??? detector. It's been in the TARDIS ever since I constructed it." Is the Doctor claiming here that he made the Ship himself?

Cue stock footage of New York, and once again Ian and Barbara appear on twentieth century earth but are unable to stay. As for Morton Dill- words fail me!

The Mary Celeste scene is good fun, although of course I suspect it bears no relation whatsoever to the historical facts. Still, this episode may well consist entirely of filler, but it's all good fun. Oh look, Ian gets hit over the head again...

Journey Into Terror

"Where's your spirit of adventure?"

"It died a slow and painful death when those bats came out of the rafters".


At this point the story hits a lull, and starts to remind me of things I didn't like about The Keys of Marinus; the house of horrors stuff just lasts too long. Interesting comment by Ian though- "Daleks don't like stairs!" I think this is the first mention of this hoary old cliché in the show itself, although no doubt it would not have gone unmentioned by the contemporary media. The exhibits are seemingly more powerful than the Daleks, which is the wrong kind of silly.

Vicki gets left behind, just as she feared in The Crusade. This is quite a shocking moment. Almost as shocking is the amount of time her fellow TARDISeers take to realise! Still, Vicki shows her greatness by stowing away on the Daleks' time machine. Only a few stories in, and I'm getting to really like Vicki.

The Daleks' robot is a bit rubbish, isn't it? They're using Edmund Warwick in long-shot and Hartnell in close-up in an absurdly blatant way. Why use Warwick at all when Hartnell isn't on screen?

The Death of Doctor Who

"Advance and attack! Attack and destroy! Destroy and rejoice!"

So, another jungle, and our second planet named after its predominant feature? See below! Nice forest, although unfortunately you can clearly see the flat studio floor.

Oh, and incidentally, the title of this episode clearly proves that Hartnell is playing a character called Doctor Who. *ducks*

I'm not seriously trying to defend the imposter robot fiasco (the whole thing's blatant filler anyway). But at least the use of Warwick helps the viewer to tell which is which.

Oh look, an alien city in a Terry Nation script! I love the Dalek with a compass type thing instead of a sucker, mind.

Planet of Decision

"You'll end up as a couple of burnt cinders floating around in Spain."


I don't know about you, but I can't understand a word the Mechanoids are saying. Fortunately we have Ben Gunn lookalike Steven Taylor to do the exposition. He gets a great line: "Help yourself to a piece of eternity."

My, how convenient that there should be a convenient length of cable for our heroes to use in their escape!

Oh dear..."Am exterminated! Am exterminated!"

Steven clearly has his priorities right- Hi Fi the Panda is clearly more important than ensuring Vicki doesn't plunge to her doom. These scenes are extremely vertigo-inducing, especially when Ian nearly slips over.

Cue a massive fight between the Daleks and the "Mechons" in which all the Daleks die. Why does this mean the story is over? Why don't the Daleks keep sending time machines?

It's a real wrench after all this time to have to say goodbye to Ian and Barbara. They were truly magnificent, and arguably up to The Dalek Invasion of Earth they were the real stars of the show. The leaving scene is good, and the scenes of them back on Earth are fun, but I was left wanting more. This departure scene felt like far more of an afterthought than Susan's did, which was a crying shame. Jacqueline hill and William Russell- you were magnificent!


Overall, well... very uneven. The middle episodes were all filler and much of the story was overly silly and poorly realised. Still, it was often intentionally funny and had nice character moments. I enjoyed watching it, if not always for the right reasons, so I'll be kind and let it scrape a 3/5.