Ep. 26 The Keys of Marinus

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Machines can make laws, but they cannot preserve justice."

   This wasn't my favorite serial.  The script is both ambitious and frequently lazy.  The production team pulled their hair out trying to keep up with the weekly demands.
    The episode finishes up Ian's murder trial and leaves the resolution of the Voord for the final ten minutes or so.  Given the poor quality of the Voord as villains it's was probably a good choice to limit them to an episode and a half of screen time.
    Barbara shines in the first half.  It's her idea to question Aydan's wife and she's the one who catches said wife when she misspeaks. 
    Ian gets to play smart guy in the second half, giving Yartek (disguised as Arbitan, POORLY disguised as Arbitan) the fake key that Barbara found a few episodes back.  When Yartek puts the fake key into the Machine there's an explosion and the Voord are eliminated as threats.
   There are some things that I liked about the Voord.  Most Doctor Who baddies have some sort of gun or energy blast of some sort; the Voord are close in killers using sharp knives and hand-to-hand techniques.  It does make a nice change.
    Their origin is also interesting.  From some perspectives they could be played up as freedom fighters resisting the tyranny of the Consciousness Machine.  They were played as one note baddies, but that doesn't have to be the case.
    But then the Voord go out and trip over their own flippers.  Literally.
    I will give some praise to Katharine Scholfield in the role of Sabetha.  There is a scene where her young paramour Altos is being threatened by the Voord leader Yartek.  Sabetha claims that he is only a servant and not worthy of any attention since he knows nothing.  Scholfield says her lines with a fair bit of subtlety and a lot of conviction.  In a serial where the guest acting has been pretty bad, she and Robin Phillips (Altos) have put in credible performances. 

Next up: The Temple of Evil

Ep. 25 Sentence of Death

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Do you want to tell me where you've hidden it?"

   Five people (Barbara, Ian, Susan, Altos and Sabetha) used their travel dials to leave Vasor's hunting shack at the end of the last episode.  Ian ends up getting separated from them somehow.  He just pops up in the middle of a secured vault with no sign of any of the other four.  There's no explanation as to why they didn't all show up together.   This smacks of the LWS (Lazy Writer Syndrome) that plagued last episode and will become a hallmark of Terry Nation's work.  The plot requires that Ian be there alone, but Nation can't be bothered explaining how this came to be.
   This episode is an improvement over the last one, but it's no great shakes.  It's nice to see the Doctor back after a couple episode vacation. 
   Hartnell is in good form as are the regular cast members.  The guest cast is decent, but the actor playing Aydan doesn't do that great a job with what he's given.  Remember back in Five Hundred Eyes when I complimented Darren Nesbitt for playing a convincing liar?  Aydan is the anti-Tegana as far as lying is concerned.  A fetus in the womb of a woman watching this would catch on to the fact that Aydan is lying. 
    In the tradition of this serial the worst guest actor in the episode dies before the end credits roll.  OK the guy playing Vasor was decent, but he was the only guest star in that episode.  The only exception to this was The Velvet Web, the one episode that I really liked from this story.
   This has a decent premise; the Doctor, Susan and Barbara playing detective in a futuristic city where a criminal is guilty until proven innocent.  There isn't much time to explore this unfortunately.  
   The justices have some pretty studly head gear going on though.

Next up: The Keys of Marinus

Ep. 24 The Snows of Death

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"You don't kill anyone in this country; the cold and the wolves do that."

   This may be the worst single episode of the first series.
   It starts out promising.  Ian and Barbara are stranded in the barren frozen wastes.  Exhausted, they collapse into the snow only to be rescued by the trapper Vasor.
   They awaken in Vasor's shack.  Vasor is one of the more despicable characters in Doctor Who.  In the one episode that he's in he lies, steals, attempts rape, leaves multiple people to die multiple times and stashes raw meat in Ian's pack to draw the wolves down on him.
    There are two times where the Ian and/or Barbara are handed the idiot ball simply to pad out the episode and move the plot along.
    They uncover Vasor's treachery.  Fine.  They find the travel dials and Consciousness Machine keys that he stole from the others.  Fine.  They force him to take them to the place where he left Susan and Sabetha.  Fine.  So why don't they reclaim their equipment?
   The only answer that I can come up with is this.  If they didn't leave the dials and keys at his shack they would have been able to easily escape from the threat that they later encounter and they would not have been able to lead said threat back to the shack to give Vasor his comeuppance. 
    They then get to the cliched suspension bridge over a chasm inside a mountain.  Ian has been strong arming Vasor this entire trip through the mountain, but all of a sudden leaves him alone on the side of the bridge that leads to the way out.  Vasor promptly cuts the bridge and strands the strangers on the other side.
    Why did Ian do this?  Because the script said so.
    This is lazy writing Terry.
    The pressure on the designers really shows in this episode.  The rope bridge is maybe four feet across.  Ian and Barbara jumped a bigger chasm in The Ordeal (another Terry Nation script btw.)  The script specifies that this is an ice cave so they decided to light the set so that the white of the ice walls would be very visible to the audience.  Unfortunately this meant that the ice walls were very visible to the audience.  The underground scenes in the Daleks works, in part, because they went with dim lighting.  A brightly lit white set didn't work.
   Poor Ray Cusick.

Next up: Sentence of Death

PS: Hartnell actually had two weeks off.  Lucky him.

Ep. 23 The Screaming Jungle

 As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"When the whispering starts, it's death I tell you."

   I appear to have mixed something up at the end of the last episode.  I thought that Altos was traveling with the Doctor, but when we start he is with the others making a stab at the screaming jungle.
   The female leads don't do so well this go around.  Susan and Barbara both have moments of hysterical screaming.  An argument could be made that Barbara's was somewhat justified, I wouldn't react well to a plant wrapping itself around me.  Susan, on the other hand, shows up, hears some strange noises, senses "evil," and cranks it up to 11.
   There's an interesting piece of dialog where Susan tells the others that she left early to avoid saying goodbye to her grandfather, that she doesn't like goodbyes.  In about another 30 episodes Terry Nation will write Susan out of the series.  I wonder if he had this in mind when he had the Doctor force her off the TARDIS.
   The five travelers find a stone building surrounded by a lush jungle.  Barbara works her way through to an idol with what seems like the key.  The key is a a fake; bait for a trap.  The idol closes it's arms around Barbara and the whole section of wall pivots into the building.
   The idol's arms are obviously the painted arms of an actor, but the prop works smoothly and looks good.
   Altos, Sabetha and Susan decide to go ahead.  Barbara thought that they had achieved the real key and might have used her travel dial to go to the next key cache.  Ian stayed behind to confirm that Barbara was still able to use her travel dial and find the real key.
   Once inside the building Ian discovers that the whole place is booby trapped.  There isn't enough time or money to properly establish this and we're left with some pretty crumby obstacles.
   Behind the traps is another monk who couldn't act his way out of a paper Dalek.  Maybe he was an amazing actor in other things, but he didn't bring his A game to this one.
   Crappy acting monk gets fatally wounded by a plant and gasps out the clue needed to find the key.  The fact that he chooses to be obscure rather than explain what he meant is annoying.  If he had died faster, acted better and the script been a bit better polished I might have bought the fact that he died before explaining it all.  But he clearly had time to say it's in a jar labeled DE3O2.  Not that hard.
   I will give credit to the two leads.  There is a sense of tension in their searching in the cramped lab room.  They sell that scene. 
  
Next up: The Snows of Terrror

Ep. 22 The Velvet Web

 As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"They've given you nothing!"

   I have a couple complaints about this episode, but it was overall quiet nice.
   At the end of the last episode Barbara prematurely activated her travel dial.  The others followed her after a few lines of dialog; maybe a minute passes.
   By the time they arrive they find that Barbara arrived, hurt herself ripping the travel dial from her wrist, met a man named Altos, had a discussion about the Morphoton society, started a light meal and had a chance to review fabrics for her new gown.
   The script is playing fast and loose with time, but not in the usual Doctor Who way.  It isn't a major problem, but it did bug me.
   This episode has a fairytale like quality.  The TARDIS crew find themselves in a city where all of their wishes can be granted.  Whatever food, drink, clothing or equipment they desire are their's for the asking. 
   Ian is skeptical at first, but Barbara convinces him that things are different on other worlds.  For example, on Earth, the maid leaves a mint on your pillow; on Morphoton the maid leaves a mesmeron disc on your forehead as you sleep.
    Barbara's slips off.
    The next day begins with the travelers enjoying a hearty breakfast in the lavish apartment that has been turned over to their use.  Ian has overcome his doubts, Susan has been given a spiffy new dress, the Doctor has been promised a bleeding edge lab and Barbara is sleeping in this morning.
   When Barbara wakes up she sees through the illusion.  The fine cut glass is really a crappy coffee mug, Susan's silk dress looks like something a chimney sweep uses to wipe down after a hard day's work and the opulent room is a squalid, creepy dungeon.
   We see this from Barbara's point of view.  The choice to film it this way was excellent.  It sets Barbara apart from the others and makes the viewer feel that something isn't right.  There's more than an air of menace when Altos comes to check on them.  The fact that the actor playing the mesmerized Altos doesn't blink helps (and not just against Weeping Angels.)
   Barbara escapes, finds the macguffin, finds Arbitan's lost daughter and partially deprograms her.  This is the Barbara that we've seen in earlier episodes, kicking the plot's ass and taking names.
   She finds Ian and immediately embraces him.  Not lustily, but with enough affection to add another check mark on my Barbian board.  He's nearly all the way under the control of Morpho and drags her to his inhuman masters.
   They are brains with eyes on 10 inch stalks living in glass jars.  If I had seen this when I was ten I would have thought that they were the best monsters EVER.  A hell of a lot better than the guys in scuba gear from the last episode.
   The brains are enslaving people to build their city.  It's never explained what use brains in jars would have for a city, but they are brains in jars so  presumably they have thought that through.
   The brains order Ian to kill Barbara.  She's seen too much and is now immune to their mindwashing powers.  Ian grabs her by the throat and begins to squeeze the life out of her.  She pulls free and starts beating the nearby machines with a blunt metal object.  When that doesn't work she turns to the glass jars and takes out the brains.  Barbara frees an alien civilization.  Solo. 
   Remember that the next time someone tells you that the old school female companions were only there to sprain their legs and wear miniskirts.
   This serial comes across as Terry Nation's brainstorming ideas for the show and only coming up with hints of plot that weren't long enough to stretch out over multiple episodes.  The over arcing key quest could have been written out of this episode and made no difference to the plot.
   Terry did throw Cusick a bone with this script.  The Doctor is only shown his amazing lab after the illusory nature of the place has been revealed to the audience.  Ian and the Doctor are oohing and awing over advanced scientific equipment that is represented as an empty room and some bits of whatever the production team had on hand.  Seeing the Doctor hold up a banged up tin cup and declare that with equipment like this he might be able to get the TARDIS working again is priceless.
   At the end of the episode the Doctor decides to skip the next destination on the key quest and go to one of the other key caches with Altos.  This was a conscience effort to write Hartnell out for a week.  This was is a long season; 22 episodes in and we're just a little over half-way through.  All of the regular cast were written out every once in a while to give the actors a much deserved rest.  This is just setting up Hartnell's week off.


Next up: The Screaming Jungle

Ep. 21 The Sea of Death

 As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Then everything out there is acid too.  A sea of acid."

   There's a part of me that's glad that Ray Cusick outlived Terry Nation.  Terry Nation was the writer who created the Daleks; Ray Cusick was the man who took Nation's scripts and, despite a shoestring budget, managed to create a science fiction icon.  Cusick didn't see any of the royalties while Nation's estate has received millions. 
   This is Terry Nation's second story for the series.  Knowing the limitations of the budget he still wrote a story that began in one place and hopped all over a planet before coming back to the origin point.  Poor Cusick had to imagine and build a new civilization every week for five weeks on a budget of 2,500 pounds.  The Peter Cushing Dalek movie had a budget of about 175,000 just to  give some perspective.
   We're not talking simple sets either.  This episode features an island fortress in the middle of a sea of acid. Elaborate sets (and models) that won't be seen again for five episodes.
    Cusick is a saint for not telling Terry where to cram it and with what condiment.
   The TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus and the series is returned to full video after a week of missing episodes.  The first image that we see is the island fortress surrounded by a sea of what we soon discover is acid.  It's only a model, but it's not half bad.  The fact that there's a reflection cast in the acid scores points with me.  It's a small touch, but it goes to show that they were trying to make good television on no money.
    Nation's script treads the same ground as The Dead Planet; arrive on alien world, find something unnatural that looks natural, see an alien building/city, explore the city, get captured.
   We're introduced to the second big monster of the series, the Voord.  The Voord look like deep-sea divers cosplaying as Teletubbies.  This is theIR first and last appearance on screen.  They made some appearances in the comic strips of the time, but they never caught on.  In the 80's Grant Morrison would write them into the comic section of Doctor Who Magazine.  His story involved the Voord being the people who became the Cybermen.  It was a cool story with the sixth Doctor and a wizened Jamie McCrimmon.  That's the coolest that the Voord ever got; a side note to the origin of a much better monster in a piece of illustrated fanfic written 20 years after their only shot at the brass ring.

   The Voord are trying to get to The Conscience of Marinus, a machine that has turned the planet into something between a police state and a hippy commune.  It's a little vague.
   The Conscience is defended by Arbitan an old man who broke the core doohickeys of the whatchamacallits into five keys.  Arbitan has one of them, the others are scattered around Marinus.  He's sent people to retrieve them.  Friends and followers have gone never to be seen again.
   Arbitan asks the travelers to get the keys for him so that he can use it's improved power to thwart the Voord.  This is such a D&D adventure hook that I was glad that the Doctor did the sensible thing and turned him down.
   Arbitan is a dick though and encloses the TARDIS in a force field.  If the travelers get him the keys then he'll drop the field and let them go on their merry way.  To help them along he gives them travel dials that will teleport them to the hiding places of the keys.
   The Doctor is familiar with the tech.  The series will later call it a transmat.
   The actor playing Arbitan didn't seem to put much into his performance.  He knew he was going to die before the end credits rolled.

Next up: The Velvet Web

Ep. 20 Assassin at Peking

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"I underestimated you Tegana."
"No, you overestimated yourself."

   Tegana nearly made it.  He was a few inches (and a Vizier's abdomen) away from killing the great Kublai Khan.
   His downfall was Barbara.  She remembered a crucial clue that made it clear that Tegana was going to assassinate the old Khan leaving the path clear for his master to assume power.  The travelers warned Marco Polo and Polo saved the Khan's life.
   At least my favorite villain (so far) was brought down by my favorite companion (so far.) 
   Ping-Cho's husband-to be wanted to get jiggy for the wedding the next day so he took the 13th century equivalent of viagra.  He didn't consult a physician first and he died.  This happened off screen.  Unlike Susan's off screen goodbye to Ping-Cho a couple of episodes ago I don't mind this.  Lucarotti has very little time to wrap everything up.  Having a character show up in the final episode only to kill them off within minutes of their introduction only to tie up a loose end would have taken away valuable screen time and not really served the story.
   There is a nice bit early in the episode where the Doctor is kicking ass at backgammon.  The Khan is in deep to the silver haired time traveler and all too willing to wager the flying caravan versus the half of Asia that he's already lost.  You're led to believe that the Doctor will win back the TARDIS and dematerialize off into the sunset.
   They didn't take that easy way out.
   There are several moments when the narration described elaborate sets or stunning sword play.  My worst, if wiser, self suspects that the transmitted version wouldn't live up to the hype.
    In the end Tegana is defeated by Marco.  Instead of being humbled by the Khan's justice Tegana chooses to kill himself on a guards sword.  Marco has a change of heart and gives the Doctor back the TARDIS key.  The old Khan has a change of heart and grants Marco his freedom.
    There's something in Marco's voice that makes me wonder.  He's an explorer.  Is there just a hint of regret that he isn't going on the journey?

Next up: The Sea of Death

Ep. 19 Mighty Kublai Khan

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"You don't believe me when I say that I came from another time?"

   I'm not going to agonize over the plot contrivance that kept the TARDIS crew from leaving at the end of the last episode.  Susan did promise Ping-Cho that she would say goodbye before she left on at least two occasions.  I think that Susan would have had the opportunity to make good on her promise BEFORE she was in the second stage of a three part escape plan.  But that's just me.
   This story has been Tegana's since the second episode.  This performance is great and I truly wish that we could see at least some of this.  Would it have been better had the production team hired a Chinese actor to play the part?  Yes, but I can't change the past.  They cast Darren Nesbitt and he delivered.
   Ian tries to convince Marco that the TARDIS crew won't be able to go home without their caravan.  Ian tells Marco flat out that he is from about 700 years in the future and that the only way home for him is to take the magic carpet ride that is the TARDIS.
   Marco does the sensible thing and disbelieves him.
   It doesn't help Ian's cause that he lied to Marco about finding the TARDIS key in Marco's room.  That lapse in Ian's sublime honesty shows Marco that Ian can lie.
   Ping-Cho runs away.  Partly because she was the one who gave Susan the key and partly because she doesn't want to marry a man more than four times her own age.
   She makes it back to Wang Lo that odd cross between Thenardier and a wedding planner.  Wang Lo has just been duped by one of Tegana's men.  He's convinced Lo that he's going to take the "old lord's caravan" on to the Summer Palace.  While Lo is making other arrangements this one-eyed entrepreneur manages to hustle Ping-Cho out of all her cash.
   Fortunately Ian had convinced Marco to let the plucky science teacher search for the runaway bride.  By simply backtracking Ian manages to catch up with Ping-Cho before she has to do anything desperate.
   Meanwhile the others have made it to the Summer Palace.  The great and powerful Khan is revealed to be a very old man in a great deal of pain.  After five days on horseback the Doctor isn't feeling so hot himself.  The two end up bonding over the discomforts of age.
   At this point we know that Ian, Ping-Cho, the one-eyed bandit, the one-eyed bandit's monkey, scouts of Kublai Khan, Tegana, a mongol army and the TARDIS are all converging on the same spot.
   That, my friends, is a recipe for awesome.

Next up: Assassin at Peking

Ep. 18 Rider From Shang-Tu

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Does the lamb conceal the wolf or the wolf the lamb?"

   Finding the guard dead, Ian correctly assumes that the camp will soon be under attack by bandits.  They could continue with their plan (get the TARDIS key and arrive on Marinus a couple episodes early,) but they feel compelled to warn Polo of the coming attack.
   The fact that the Doctor doesn't put his foot down about saving Polo isn't evidence that the Doctor is mellowing.  The show at this point has a very narrow view of how time travel should work.  History can't be rewritten, not one line.  The Doctor has interfered just by being there.  A consequence of that interference is the bandit attack on Polo.  Tegana wants the Doctor's "caravan" so he orchestrated the assault.  If Polo died instead of returning to Venice, then the Doctor would be responsible for paradox.  Paradox is impossible.  So Polo has to live.  So the Doctor can't leave him to his death.
   Polo accepts Ian's story.  It doesn't hurt that Ian is brutally honest about the whole thing, including a blow by blow of the plan to get the key from Polo.  I know that you're a hero Ian, but that doesn't mean giving everything up on the first date.
   Just saying.
   Polo prepares the defenses.  Which pretty much means giving Ian and the Doctor swords and saying a silent farewell to the three porters who's lack of dialog probably doesn't mean anything.
   They don't even consider arming the women and the women don't call them on it.  60's sexism or an attempt to be true to the sexism of 13th century Cathay?  You decide.
   The attack is soon on.  The women scream from the tent which elicited a groan from Ang.  I second that emotion.  The narration by Bill Russell says that the Doctor and Ian do well for themselves.
   Tegana singles out the leader of the bandits who, unknown to the others, is Tegana's ally.  In a magnificent bastard moment Tegana kills his ally to insure his silence.
    The Doctor noticed the look of recognition that passed between Tegana and the bandit leader.  Barbara recognized the bandit leader as one of the men who rolled dice to see who would get to kill her.  They can't do anything about it, but at least they are certain that Tegana is a dick.
   And apparently bamboo, when heated, makes a sound that scares the living hell out of bandits.
   Things warm between Polo and the travelers.  They still aren't given their full freedom, but they aren't full on prisoners either.  Susan and Ping-Cho's friendship develops.  Barbara has a mad love affair with Ki Xiang  a stocky porter with a lusty smile and bedroom eyes.
   Ok so that bit about Barbara getting sweaty with some random Mongol didn't actually happen.  I'm just   checking to see if you're paying attention.
   After a bit of travel the group is met by a messenger from the great Khan.  Kublai Khan had special dispatch riders who switched horses every few miles.  Supposedly they were able to ride 300 miles in a day.  I call bullshit, but a quick google check confirms that the real Marco Polo claimed that the dispatch riders could do it.  I therefore call bullshit on Marco Polo.  Somebody call Mythbusters.
   The great Kahn wants Marco back ASAP.  The caravan will have to get to the nearest town and transfer to horse.  The materials in the caravan, including the TARDIS, will have to be sent with the next shipment of goods.
   There's an innkeeper named Wang Lo who simply oozes toadiness.  The Doctor mocks him in what is probably one of his funnier turns in the series.
   Tegana describes the TARDIS as a warlord's tomb.  He's definitely getting the lion's share of good lines.
   Susan's friendship to Ping-Cho pays off; Ping-Cho delivers a copy of the TARDIS key to Susan.
   That should have been it.  The travelers make it to the TARDIS.  They should have been on their way.  Except that Susan stayed back to say goodbye to Ping-Cho.  A scene so touching, so moving, so heart wrenching  that they didn't bother to write or film it. 
   Suffice it to say that Susan gets captured.  *sigh*

Next up: Mighty Kublai Khan. 

Ep. 17 The Wall of Lies

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Ah yes, I forgot.  You're a magician aren't you?"

   I can't help but think that, had this serial survived intact, that Tegana would be considered one of the series better villains on par with Tobias Vaughn.  He really shines in this episode; butter wouldn't melt in his mouth he lies so well and he's given some wonderfully wicked lines that are delivered beautifully.
   Polo and Ian follow the trail to the cave of 500 eyes.  Given the number of people in the cave at this point that trail couldn't have been too hard to find.
   Tegana goes to great length to warn the "spirits of the hashashins to depart this place" after Ian discovers a hidden door.  Before the crowd can figure out how to get it open, out pops a mongol warrior brandishing a sword at a bound Barbara.
   Polo quickly dispatches the would-be killer and Barbara is freed.  She's, understandably, disturbed.  Considering the fact that she's a high school history teacher who's come within spitting distance of being gruesomely murdered over 750 years before her birth, she holds up pretty well.
   Tegana manages to drive a wedge between the travelers and Polo.  And it's done plausibly.  Tegana does the work, lying and spying.  Ian tries to get Polo to see his side, but Polo points out the fact that Tegana is a respected figure on a diplomatic mission while Ian and company are strangers from an unknown land.  If Ian were in Polo's place, who would he trust?
   Even Ian doesn't seem to buy his "keep an open mind" response.
   Tegana reveals that the Doctor has been making covert trips to his caravan in defiance of Polo's orders.  The shit hits the fan then.  Polo declares that the caravan is now the property of Kublai Kahn and that the travelers are now prisoners.  The Doctor claims that just putting the key into the TARDIS lock will destroy it.
This may be a reference to the defense mechanism that Susan spoke about back in the Dalek cell.
   Ian and Barbara try reason, but the Doctor scuttles any chances of diplomacy by calling the already pissed off Polo a poor, pathetic, stupid, savage.
   A few days later the travelers are getting restless.  The TARDIS has been repaired, but they don't have access to the Ship.  Ian starts getting a little stir crazy and decides that the best thing to do is force the key from Polo.  He escapes, goes to wrestle the guard and discovers that the guard is dead.

Next up : Rider from Shang Tu

Ep. 16 Five Hundred Eyes

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Gracious maidens, gentle lords pray attend me while I tell my tale..."

   We listened to this on the drive back home.  The weather provided an ironic twist; whilst Marco Polo's caravan was suffering from dehydration, nearly dead from thirst, we were driving through a strong rain.
   There was a little bit of a science lesson with this one.  A little heavy handed, but not as bad as some that we'll get.  Condensation forms on the TARDIS interior saving the caravan from certain death.  The explanation is provided to calm Marco Polo's rage.  He thinks that the Doctor lied to him about not having any water and is only satisfied when the science is put before him.
   The caravan makes it to the oasis that they started for last episode to find Tegana there awaiting them.  Tegana claims that he found the oasis lousy with bandits.  The bandits left in the morning, but by that time Tegana could already see Marco Polo's caravan approaching,
   Tegana is one of the better liars in Doctor Who history.  Sometimes in TV a character who is lying isn't that well acted.  Either the actor or the director wants the audience to know that this guy isn't telling the truth.  This leads to an exaggerated "tell."  If Tegana had one it was a visual one and nothing that comes over in the audio  track.
   Barbara is all over Tegana like ugly on ape.  She points out the fact that it was cold last night and that there is no sign of a bandit campfire.  Ian provides a rational explanation, but still has the good sense to question Tegana.
   The questioning is cut short by Polo who wants to push on to civilization as soon as possible.
   Once in a town the party settle down to an evenings entertainment.  Ping-Cho tells the tale of the Hashashins, some 250 of whom were killed in the local area.
    Tegana leaves during story time to visit his conspirators at the cave where these hashashins were based out of before their supposed destruction.  Barbara has been watching Tegana like a hawk and slips out after him.  She ends up shadowing him for over a mile to the cave of 500 eyes.
   She ends up getting caught by Tegana's allies.
   Polo is pissed when he hears that Barbara has wandered off into the night.  He, Ian and Tegana form two search parties whilst the others stay put under Polo's orders.
   The Doctor has been looking to spend some time in the TARDIS to effect repairs, but Polo has forbidden his return to the Ship and demanded the key.  Fortunately the Doctor made a copy.
   The Doctor tries to make it back to the TARDIS while Polo is out, but Susan and Ping-Cho are convinced that they know where Barbara is.  They know that she was interested in the hashashin cave and believe that she went there.  A little strong arm persuasion of one of Tegana's men gets the trio the directions that they need to make it to the cave.
   The Doctor has clearly changed.  Earlier in the series he would have argued against going after Barbara or anyone other than Susan for that matter.  It's nice to see that the bond that has been forming between the Doctor and Barbara that began in the Thal camp on Skaro has impacted the character.  It's a small thing, but it is another step on the path to the Doctor that we all know and love.
   The cave sounds interesting.  Once again I'm pissed at the BBC for not preserving this.
   Susan lets loose with the loudest scream that we've heard in the series to date.  A scream that won't be bettered until either Victoria killed the fury from the deep or Peri saw the fury of Colin Baker's wardrobe.

Next Up: The Wall of Lies

Ep. 15 The Singing Sands

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"I keep a journal."

   We listened to this one on the drive down to my father-in-law's place for my oldest nephew's birthday party.  My nephew turned 11.  For his 7th birthday we gave him his first Doctor Who DVD; today he knows his Doctors better than his father can.
   This was an improvement over the last episode.
   The Doctor isn't very active in this which leads me to wonder if Hartnell was given the week off.  The filming schedule was grueling back then and the cast members were written out of the occasional episode to give them a break.
   Tegana doesn't seem to be going down the cliched villain trail that he flirted with last episode.  He's still doing dirty deeds, but the "evil spirit" crap has been dropped.  He's still a dick and there's still a chance that he'll ease on down the crappy villain road, but for now he's not chewing the scenery (that we can't see.)
   Pin-Cho's accent seems to be a bit inconsistent at times, but it's hard to tell.  She's been paired with Susan and the two actresses have similar voices.
   There is  a wonderfully chaotic scene where everything is going on.  The sandstorm is raging, the sands sing, Susan and Ping-Cho are trapped in the storm, Barbara is desperate to get to the girls ASAP, Polo has raised his voice against that.  The scene is resolved by Tegana saving the girls.
   Since Tegana's plan is to kill everyone else in this caravan including Susan and Ping-Cho I'm guessing that this is part of a masterplan to throw suspicion off of him after he sabotages the water skins.

Next Up: Five Hundred Eyes

Ep. 14 The Roof of the World

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"It is the year 1289 and this is the Plain of Pamir."

   A new serial and a new experience to write about.  This is the first episode that doesn't exist in the BBC video archives.  In 1960's Britain TV was looked at as ephemera.  Reruns were rare and the thought of meticulously archiving something that the networks couldn't use again was alien.  Doctor Who actually got off lightly in comparison to some other series.  Thankfully the BBC hired Ian Levine in the 70's and he put an end to the junking of old Who.
   Ang and I listened to this episode on a BBC released CD of a fan made audio tape.  In the pre-VCR days fans made these "off air recordings" to relive the stories that the BBC wasn't going to rerun.  These same fans turned over copies of their tapes to the Beeb in order to preserve what little they could.  All of the missing serials have been released on CD with linking narration provided by an actor associated with the production.  Tonight's episode was narrated by William Russel who played Ian.
   Some stories are partially complete.  There are a few that are only missing an episode or two while others have as little as a few seconds of screen time that have trickled down to us.  None of the seven episodes that make up Marco Polo exist; to the best of my knowledge it is one of three stories that have NO remaining footage.
   This is also the first truly historical serial in the series.  Historical stories at this point in the series steer clear of any science fiction elements other than the TARDIS and the nature of time travel.  In later seasons the gloves are off and we see see an alien explorer financing DaVinci, the Daleks scaring off the crew of the Marie Celeste, HG Wells taking a trip on the TARDIS etc.
   I like both approaches, but I have to say that it's nice to see that every famous person in human history DIDN'T end up meeting aliens.  History is fascinating to me.  At least if it's well presented.  You shouldn't have to add aliens to make history appealing.  On the other hand some of the finest stories in Doctor Who have been science fiction historicals.
    So that's a lot of talk about everything but this episode.
    I think that this story is especially hurt by the lack of visuals.  I've listened to many other stories and enjoyed them immensely.  This was a let down.
   The photographs from the set indicate that this was a relatively lavish story by Who standards.  A tidy sum was spent on sets and costumes that probably impressed TV viewers of the time, now lost to the ages.  A costume drama that you can't see is half a story.  I've also noticed some very subtle acting cues from Ian and Barbara in previous eps; obviously that's lost too.
   The plot is interesting in and of itself.  The TARDIS has landed and soon breaks down.  No heat, water or electricity and they are perched in a frozen wasteland over a thousand feet above sea level.
    Fortunately Marco Polo and some of Kublai Kahn's finest show up and save the day.  Not without a bit of drama from Mongol warlord Tegana though.  His talk of the traveler's being "evil spirits" is more than a little cliched.
   Most of the Chinese people (Cathayians?) in this story are played by white actors.  It's something that will persist in Who for at least another decade.   I'm not going to condone it, but I will give the actor playing Tegana credit for not using an oriental accent of any kind.
   The actress playing Ping-Cho is of Burmese descent.  Ping-Cho does seem to have an accent even though the actress playing her (Zienia Merton) does not.  Ms Merton was a regular on Space:1999 and her accent there was refined British.
    Marco Polo, the character, comes very close to being a little too "knight-in-shining-armor" for my tastes, but the script makes a nice turn towards the end and we discover that Polo plans to trade the TARDIS to Kublai Kahn for permission to return to Venice.
   Polo's scheme has the Doctor livid with anger at one moment and laughing his butt off the next.
   Of course, Tegana has plans of his own for the TARDIS.

Next Up: The Singing Sands

Ep. 13 The Brink of Destruction

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"I told you that I'd treat you as enemies."

   This is a mixed one for me.  The previous episode had an atmosphere that is lacking in this one.  Perhaps that's due to a change in directors, perhaps the script just ran that way.  In either event, this was a let down.
   I'll start by going over the good bits.
   There's a bit of a hand flutter that Hartnell does at the beginning of this one that for some reason I like.  There's a sense of mischief that Hartnell puts into it.
   Barbara.  They may as well just start calling this the show Barbara Wright's Adventures Through Space and Time cause she kicks ass in this one.  With all the theories that are being thrown around during the story, she's the one who keeps things focused and figures out what the hell is going on.  She also is willing to take the olive branch that the Doctor offers her after he's proven to be an ass, but only after she's sure that he means it.
   There's a nice touch where the Doctor gets Ian's name right when he suspects the teachers of treachery, but soon starts mangling it again when the crisis is over.
   The interaction between the travelers after the crisis shows a true sense of camaraderie that wasn't there before.  Barbara and Ian have more or less joined the family.
   I don't know if this counts as "good" per se, but it was nice to see that the Doctor's dick streak hasn't gone away.  In a fit of pique he tries to put Ian and Barbara off the Ship.
   The ears of my inner geek perked up at the mention of a Danger Signal.  Perhaps a precursor to the Cloister Bell?
   And now the bad.
   The acting isn't as focused as last episode.  I think that Carol Anne Ford suffers the most from this, but all of the regulars seem to be a bit off.  Hartnell fluffs his lines more than usual.
   The cause of the fault is a stuck button.  The fast return switch was pressed at the end of the Dalek serial, a spring got stuck and the TARDIS thought that it the Doctor was piloting it to the beginning of a solar system.  On the one hand, the idea that a small malfunction can cause HUGE consequences is fairly cool.  On the other, it's still a stuck button.
   They then compound this by having the Doctor explain what went wrong to Susan.  Ang pointed out that Susan has a grasp of science that's better than Ian's.  You wouldn't know it from the embarrassing scene where the Doctor explains a flashlight spring to her.
   The button that stuck in the first place is labeled "Fast Return Switch" in Sharpie.  This was probably put there during rehearsal for Hartnell's benefit.  It should have been removed for final filming.
 
Next Up: The Rood of the World

ep. 12 The Edge of Destruction

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Where is not as important as why."

   There's a term in TV called a "bottle episode."  It's designed to save money by only using the regular cast member, pre-existing sets and keeping a tight rein on the special effects budget.  This episode, and the next, are bottle episodes.  It's right in between The Daleks and Marco Polo, two seven part serials that were relatively lavish by 1964 Doctor Who standards.
   Something has gone wrong with the Ship and the TARDIS crew.  The paranoia has been ramped up to 11 and things aren't helped by fleeting amnesia, a lying food dispenser, the main doors opening and closing on their own, melting clocks and a pair of scissors that almost got the series cancelled.
   The acting is good all the way around.  For the first half of this Ian is really creepy.  Think Mr Rogers as channeled by Hannibal Lecter.  There's a sense that he was capable of nearly anything even though he didn't actually do anything that off.
   Maybe that's what Susan was picking up on when she threatened him with a long pair of scissors.  The BBC Children's department was already pissed that they weren't making Doctor Who.  Putting a dangerous, yet commonplace, item into the hands of a "child" who promptly threatens an authority figure with it was all the ammunition that the Children's Department needed.  The massive success of the Daleks and a letter of apology were the only things that saved Who.
   At one point the Doctor accuses Ian and Barbara of sabotaging the Ship.  Trying to "blackmail" him into getting them back home.  Barbara steps up and rips into him.  Tells him that he'd be dead twice over if it wasn't for her and Ian and that he should get down on his knees and thank them for what they've done for him.
   It was a great moment.  Fans of the classic series like to point out Ace and Leela as the bad-ass women of Doctor Who. Barbara may not have the body count, but she sure as hell isn't the piece of fluff that some people seem to think of when they envision a companion.
   The Doctor returns later with refreshments for everyone.  Ian is suspicious.  Possibly because the Doctor gets his name right for once.  It looks as though the Doctor is being a dick again and drugged them.
   This is the first episode that made Angela want to watch the next one immediately.
   There are a lot of nice bits in this.
   There's a bit when the Doctor and Ian are trying to find a mechanical fault with the TARDIS.  The Doctor walks to the console, but Ian stops him by saying that the console might be electrified (based on earlier events in the episode.)  People's memories have been playing tricks on them up to this point.  There's a look on Ian's face like he remembers the console being electrified before, but the memory is vague.  Possibly a reference to the Doctor messing with Ian in the first episode.
    The framing of shots is interesting as well.  Richard Martin played around with the placement of his players.  There were some very well composed shots of the Doctor in the foreground with Susan and Ian in the near distance.  It helped make things more interesting.
    There's something about the way that the travelers try to problem solve that reminds me of a bad D&D session.  You know what I mean.  You've just gotten finished your marathon nine hour session raiding the Dalek city.  Everyone is wired on Mountain Dew and chocolate covered espresso beans and doesn't want to call it a night even though it's three in the morning and you have to be up for your shift at Burger King at five.  The game master knows what the next big adventure is, but hasn't had the prep time that he'd like so he decides to wing it.  He throws something weird at you that doesn't require him to make up any new NPCs or maps.  The players try valiantly to figure out what the hell is going on, but are either brain-numbed or paranoid from the caffeine crash that hit twenty minutes into the new adventure.
  Or maybe that's just me.
  Another odd note.  Ang and I are MST3K fans as well as Whovians.  One of her favorite episodes of MST is The Horror of Party Beach.  The two share some of the same incidental music.  For the record,  this episode aired about four months before Party Beach was released.

Next Up: The Brink of Disaster

Dr Who and the Daleks

"Why do not the doors close?"

   After finishing the Daleks Ang wanted to rewatch the Peter Cushing film based on the story.  I am not the biggest fan of this adaptation, but she is.
   It has much of the same plot, but in a condensed form.  There are some things about this production that I like, a number of things that I don't care for. 
   I'm guessing that we'll do something like this with the next Dalek story when we get to it's end.  I actually do like that movie much better than this one and it has Bernard Cribbins which is always a plus.
   This is extra-credit for us; it doesn't count as an episode.

Ep. 11 The Rescue

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"If only there's been some other way."

   This is a capsule review of the final episode of the the second Doctor Who Serial, "The Daleks," not the serial of the same name that introduces Vicky to the TARDIS.
   Ang was going over my blog the other day and pointed out the fact that I do a crappy job of synopsis.  I agree.  I'm doing this to keep track of my initial thoughts just after the fact.  I've been using recaps to put my thoughts in some semblance of order.
   Antodus' death in the caves, while cool, leaves me split.  On one hand it's a heroic sacrifice, on the other hand it's still suicide.  His sacrifice wouldn't have been needed if he hadn't given up last episode.
   The assault on the Dalek city is soon under way.  It's obvious that the Daleks haven't had to deal with any real security issues for 500 years and don't have a clue how to manage a secure lock down of their facilities.  That is the only way I can explain a bunch of guys with clubs and rocks making their way into the command center of a hypertech city.  There was a moment when Ian looked at Alydon just before the fan said howdy to the shit where I realized that the leaders of this special ops force were a physics teacher and a farmer.  And not the kind of farmer who listens to Hank Williams Jr and drives a pick-up with a hunting rifle in the gun rack.
   The fight with the Daleks is fun to watch.  These aren't the Daleks who traded body blows with the Time Lords, these Daleks have weaknesses; the rabble can over power them.  There's one berserk Thal who gets shot, jumps back up and pushes the Dalek who shot him into a bank of machines killing them both.
   There is a moment towards the end of the fight that has me thinking.  The Daleks are dying.  One turns to the Doctor and begs him for help.  The Doctor tells him that even if he wanted to he didn't know how.  There's something in Hartnell's delivery that makes me wonder who true that last part is.  The Doctor has demonstrated some ability with Dalek tech earlier in the serial.  He was even able to identify Dalek design tech later in the episode.
   We have one last scene between Ganatus and Barbara before the TARDIS leaves.  It's well acted and features the first kiss of the series.  Ganatus kisses Barbara's hand, the expression on his face saying how much he wants her to stay and Barbara kisses his lips and goes.

Next Up: The Edge of Destruction

Ep. 10 The Ordeal

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Don't you realize what I've done?  A few simple tools.  A superior brain."

   The stage is being set for the final confrontation with the Daleks in the next episode.  Ian, Barbara and a small group of Thals are making their way through the bowels of the mountains behind the Dalek city while the Doctor, Susan and the main force of the Thals are performing guerilla attacks on the Dalek sensory and communications systems.
   The team in the mountain can be summed up as the story of two brothers, Ganatus and Antodus.
   Ganatus is the confident, thoughtful brother who is obviously crushing pretty heavily on Barbara who must seem very exotic from a Thal point of view.  Ganatus is brave, resourceful and rock steady.
   Antodus isn't.
   He's been on the edge of a nervous breakdown since we first laid eyes on him and being in a dark, damp cave has been pushing him closer and closer to a full breakdown.  At one point he is so convinced that they are going to be trapped underground that he tries to convince Ganatus to abandon the others and tell everyone else that the Daleks killed them.
   There is some good stuff in these cave scenes.  The scene where Antodus purposefully doesn't try to grab the rope thrown to him by Ian  is sold beautifully by both actors.  The interplay between Barbara and Ganatus almost makes me wish that he had been made a companion.
   While this is going on the Doctor is going after the Dalek tech with a relish.  They have messed with him and he's going to make them regret it.  This is a far cry from The Coming Storm that he becomes in the New Adventures, but it may be it's genesis.
   Unfortunately the Doctor is too busy gloating after his latest techno f#(& you to the Daleks that he and Susan end up getting captured.
   There are three things I would have changed in the script.  1.) I wouldn't have shown everybody jumping the gorge in the cave; it's just padding.  2.) I would have come up with a better excuse for the Doctor to send Alydon back to base camp than what was given;  Alydon needs to lead the assault in the next episode, but sending him back like this screams "the Doctor and Susan are going to get captured.  3.) I wouldn't have the Daleks reveal their plans to the captured Doctor; they go from very clever to Republic Serial Villain in the span of a couple episodes.
   It does give the Doctor the opportunity to show some of the qualities that he will later be known for.  Almost as if his encounter with the Daleks helps define him.  I'm not the biggest fan of the Daleks and I don't want to turn the Doctor-Dalek relationship into some sort of Holmes-Moriarty thing.  The Daleks, for all their faults represent one of the most extreme viewpoints in Doctor Who; everything not us should not continue.  They are the gods of xenophobia and proud of it.
    Personally I like the Cybermen better.  They are the exact opposite; they want everybody to live, as one of them.

Next up: The Rescue (no not that one)

Ep. 9 The Expedition

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"What argument can you use to make a man sacrifice themselves for you?"

   The episode begins with a moral dilemma for our time travelers.  The TARDIS crew need the Thals to overcome their pacifism in order to deal with the Daleks.  They are all pretty much agreed that the Daleks will figure out a way to leave their city and attack both the time travelers and the Thals.  Being stranded on Skaro is their death sentence.
   Ian won't let things stand at that simple interpretation though.  He recognizes that there is an element of selfishness in wanting to reclaim the fluid link.  The Doctor made it clear in the last episode that, at best, he has a certain level of scientific curiosity concerning the Thals.  His dialog in this debate makes it clear that he wants to use them as a ready made army.
   Barbara sides with the Doctor.  At least as far as getting the Thals to fight.  She's definitely on the Doctor's side of the argument, but she seems to honestly believe that the Thals need to fight for their own survival.
  Ian ends the debate with a nice bit of oratory asking them to imagine showing the fluid link to the surviving Thals and telling them that this is what their brothers and friends laid down their life for.  No, if the Thals are going to fight it has to be because they want to, not because the travelers manipulated them into it.
   Ian then sets out to discover just how pacifistic the Thals are.  First he threatens to take their history records and try to trade them for the fluid link.
   That doesn't work.  Alydon, the newly minted Thal leader, says that no one their will try to stop him.  Although he does also say that he doesn't think that Ian will do it.
   With that not working Ian goes for broke.  He says that maybe the Daleks had held them prisoner in order to experiment on them; maybe they'll exchange a test subject for the link.  He takes Dyoni by the wrist and starts to march her towards the city.
    Alydon puts Ian on his ass.
   There's a nice scene that evening between Alydon and Dyoni.  He asks her if she despises him for attacking Ian even though he knew that Ian was trying to provoke him.  She tells Alydon that she probably would've hated him if he hadn't.
   Angela really enjoyed that exchange.
   Meanwhile, back in the Dalek city.  The Daleks discover why you should do drug trials before going for wholesale distribution.  The Daleks in section three start to go on fatal acid trips.  Coincidentally those are the first Daleks to be given the Thal anti-radiation drugs.  They theorize that the Daleks have become accustomed to radiation and require it to survive.  A test of that hypothesis proves them right.
   In typical Dalek fashion they decide that if the environment can't sustain the Daleks then they'll just have to change the environment.  They start making plans to detonate another neutron bomb.
   Alydon has decided to join forces with the time travelers.  The rest of his tribe agrees and they are soon planning strategy.
   Ian, Barbara and a Thal who's been mooning over Barbara will lead an expedition over a mountain and into swamps behind the city.  The swamps are filled with genetic monstrosities acting like gators in a moat.  Meanwhile the rest will act as a diversion on the edges of the city.
   The swamp is fairly well realized given the budgetary limitations.  Barbara makes a sensible off camera outfit change from her school-marm skirt to a practical pair of Thal pants.  The one swamp critter that they encounter is properly menacing.  Fortunately the script didn't require it to do much other than rise from the water.
   There is a small bit of intimacy between Barbara and her Thal beau.  When they camp down for the night he lays his head down to rest on her legs.  Just a little above the ankle.  It's not in-your-face, but it is noticeable.
    The whirlpool cliffhanger looks to be one of the better special effects of the series to date and one of the best cliffhangers.  Not to put to fine a point on it, but most of the cliffhangers have been lacking in action up to date.
   On the whole a very nice rebound from the previous episode.  The dialog was excellent and the Dalek threat has been made more urgent without pulling something out of Terry Nation's bottom.

Next up: The Ordeal

Ep. 8 The Ambush

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Make no attempt to capture them.  They are to be exterminated."

   Fortunately for all involved, Ian mastered the operating controls of the Dalek he was in between the end of the last episode and the beginning of this one.  The travelers get stopped by the guard at the door.  A bit of quick thinking on Susan's part gets them through that check point and a little bit of sabotage by the Doctor buys them some time.
    I'm a little uncertain how to rate the escape.  It does what it needs to do.  There are moments of tension, but a lot of it amounts to padding.  The scene with the Daleks cutting through the door is technically well done as is the destruction of Ian's Dalek.  The lift, and it's subsequent destruction, not so much.
   The travelers escape the Dalek city with Ian staying behind to warn the Thals of the Dalek treachery.  The Daleks are still able to kill two Thals (including their leader) despite Ian's intervention.
   Everyone meets up again outside the TARDIS.
   It turns out that the Thals are REALLY committed to pacifism.  It's fairly obvious that Terry Nation doesn't believe in the concept.  At the very least he doesn't provide a strong argument for the Thal's viewpoint.
   This commitment to pacifism is going to be a problem for the Doctor and companions.  It turns out that the fluid link that Ian held was confiscated by the Daleks.  Their only chance of leaving Skaro is to go back to the city and liberate the link.

Next up: The Expedition

Ep. 7 The Escape

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"But they said you were.... but they called you... but you're not, you're perfect."

   The set of the serial is that 500 years before the TARDIS arrived there was a Neutron War that killed almost everything.  The agressive Thals started the whole thing and the scientist/teacher Daleks survived by going underground and building mobile life support units to house their rapidly mutating forms.
   The Daleks believed that the Thals had mutated horribly.  Susan expected to see something out of Franz Kafka's worst nightmares when she ran through the petrified forest to get back to the Ship.  Instead she finds herself practically prostrate at the feet of a blonde haired Adonis.
   All of the Thals (at least the half a dozen or so that we see) are blonde and unblemished.  I bet that there were a lot of very disappointed British kids back in the winter of 1964.  Instead of a clash of the mutants between the Daleks and the  menagerie that kids of the time must have imagined the Thals to be like, they find out that the Daleks' enemies are, in the words of my wife, "blonde guys in half their pants."
   I realize that they were trying to go for a twist.  I'm all for good plot twists, they liven up the story.  This one leaves me shaking my head a little though.  Terry Nation has set the Daleks up as evil.  They lie, manipulate, have weapons built into their life support systems and want to eliminate the Thals simply for not being Daleks.
   Nation has set up the Thals to be wise, idealistic, pacifistic and hard working.  A force for good to match the evil of the Daleks.  He also made them physically perfect (his words not mine.)
   This comes across as equating beauty with moral superiority and the ugly as evil.
   The series would come back to this idea in a later Hartnell serial which had evil blondes and a good hearted "monster."  It's good to see that they didn't let this stand for long.
   Now I'll step off my soapbox and return to my regular ramblings.
   Despite the unfortunate implications mentioned above, this is still an excellent episode.
   The Thals are presented as having some range of personality and there is an attempt to give some backstory to the notable Thals.  There's even a bit of bawdiness that's fairly rare for this era of Who.  A Thal woman is jealous of Alydon's contact with Susan and storms off in a huff.  Alydon starts griping something about the fact that "we're all working towards the same end."  One of Alydon's friends calls him on the double entendre.
   It's also refreshing to see the villains of the piece written intelligently.
   At one point, after Susan has returned, the time travelers figure out that the Daleks are monitoring their activities in their cell.  They decide to stage a fight and "accidentally" knock the camera from the wall.  The camera comes down.  Cut to the Daleks who know full well that the fight was rigged and that the camera was too well secured to be casually knocked off.  When the Dalek guard comes to give them food he's not fooled by the two men trying to hide on either side of the door.
   The Doctor eventually figures out that the Daleks are powered by static electricity.  They pull power up from the metal floors that they glide over.
   They use an insulated Thal cloak to cut a Dalek guard off from his power source, pry open the lid and pull out something.  Whatever it is is small and ugly.  We aren't given a full view.  Ian and the Doctor's look like they're this close to loosing their lunches.  They bundle the lump into the cloak and leave it to die in the cell.  The only part of it the viewer is allowed to see is one clawed glistening hand reaching out from under the cloak before dying.
   Ian gets into the Dalek casing.  He doesn't know how to operate the controls so they decide to push him.  Somebody wonders if that won't look suspicious.  The Doctor, probably still suffering some of the after effects of radiation sickness, says that it won't be.

Next up: The Ambush

Ep. 6 The Survivors

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Yes, but how do they use their intelligence; what form does it take?"

   Well the shitake hits the fan early in this one.  Barbara is still missing and the others discover that the reason that they are feeling like warmed over goat manure is because they've been walking in a nuclear winter wonderland.
   The Doctor wants to run back to the Ship before he ends up dead as a result of his own arrogance.  Ian reminds him that they need to find some mercury or that the TARDIS isn't going anywhere.  The Doctor confesses that he faked the damage to the fluid link.
   That doesn't go over well.  The Doctor tries to get them to go back, but Ian and Susan refuse to go until they find Barbara.  The Doctor is willing to cut bait on the handsome history teacher until Ian reminds him that he won't get far without the fluid link that he palmed.
   So far the Doctor has been a dick in the first episode (he kidnaps Ian and Barbara,) the third (attempted murder of the injured Za,) the fifth (lies to get his way) and this one.  He gets better, honest.
   The time travelers no sooner discover that they are dying when they are captured by the Daleks.  Ian makes a brave, but doomed attempt to escape and gets hit by the never-seen-again "paralyze" setting of Dalek weapons.
   They are reunited with Barbara.  There is a palpable look of concern on her face when she sees Ian being supported by Susan and the Doctor.  Ian and Barbara are one of the biggest ships of the classic series.  That look is the first sign of Barbian that I've noticed in this rewatch.
   The Doctor is interrogated by the Daleks who assume that he and his companions are Thals.  The scene is visually interesting.  The Doctor is forced to stay in a spotlight in the center of the room while the Daleks mill around him and ask questions.  The Daleks seem more articulate than they are in most other stories that they feature in, but that may be the euphoria of my new project coloring my perceptions.
   The Doctor strikes a deal with the Daleks to send one of the travelers back to the TARDIS to pick up the mysterious vials that they discovered last episode.  The Doctor is betting that they are anti-radiation drugs.
   He also discovers that the race that lives outside the city are the Thals.  According to the Daleks they are horribly mutated and started the Neutron war that fubared Skaro in the first place.
   The Doctor and Barbara are too sick with radiation poisoning to make the trip.  Ian insists that he should go, but he's only able to walk two feet before going down like Dick Van Dyke over an ottoman.  Susan becomes the only choice.
   As an aside I'd like to point out that the series didn't have much time for anything.  The actors got the scripts days before they went to film.  This led to a LOT of fluffed lines.  Unless the scene was completely ruined by the fluff it would make it to broadcast.  There was an especially fun one in this episode.  The Doctor talks about going back to the Ship for "radiation gloves.. uh drug."
   Susan makes it back to the TARDIS.  She is scared shitless, but she makes it, gets the drugs and heads back to the Dalek city.
   But will she be back in time to save the others?
   Next up: The Escape.

Ep. 5 The Dead Planet

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Don't you ever think he deserves to have something happen to him?"

   At this point I'd like to mention that The Doctor Who Project is not a solo operation.  I am joined in my obsession with my lovely wife of four years Angela.  Angela has been watching the Doctor's adventures since she was knee high to a Zygon.  At our wedding reception we gave out bags of jelly babies with Doctor Who quotes written on the bags.  We're geeks and we're proud.
  Hi honey.
  Doctor Who was pitched as entertainment that would also educate.  The serials would alternate between historical and science fiction with Barbara (the history teacher) and Ian (the science teacher) taking turns using their expertise to move the plot and teach little Billy and Jilly the true meaning of Christmas or something.
   This is the beginning of the first science driven story.
   In this episode we get our first look at the TARDIS beyond the control room.  There's the Fault Locator, a bank of machinery the size of a small room whose only purpose is to tell the Doctor what's wrong with the Ship.  There's the food machine that makes space age bacon and eggs and sounds like a clown farted laughing gas.
   The first alien seen in the series, other than the Doctor and Susan, is a dead metal magnetic spiked armadillo.  The prop isn't half bad.
   There's a running gag in the series that the Doctor doesn't get Ian's name (Chesterton) right.  Half the time the Doctor refers to Ian as "young man," the other half he mangles the name (Chesterson for example.)  It's possible that I missed a name mangle in the first four episodes, but I'm sure that the Doctor called Ian "Chesterfield" while they were exploring the petrified forest.
   In an earlier episode I mentioned that the Doctor is a dick at this point.  That continues into this story.
   The time travelers arrive on a strange planet.  There are no signs of life in either the petrified forest or the advanced looking city that the Doctor sees through his binocular-glasses.
   The Doctor wants to explore the alien city, but Ian and Barbara think that it's too dangerous and put their feet down, they won't be exploring.  They also make it clear that since the Doctor is the only one who can fly the Ship that he is too valuable to go off alone.
   The Doctor seems to capitulate to their demands that they just move on.  He sets the TARDIS in motion and then sabotages the fluid links when no one is looking.  He tells the others that they will need to replace the mercury in order to leave.  The problem is, he is fresh out.   But maybe they can find some in that strange city.
   Ian knows that he is being played, but decides to let the baby have his bottle.
   There has also been someone trying to make contact with the TARDIS crew.  Susan was freaked out in the petrified forest when she thought someone put their hand on her shoulder.  Someone knocked on the TARDIS.  There was a mysterious package of drugs left outside the Ship when they depart for the alien city.
   Before long the Doctor and party are in the city.  They quickly discover that the doors operate through some sort of motion sensor.  They decide to split up and meet up again in ten minutes.
   Barbara walking through the corridors of the Dalek city is an iconic image of the series.  They employ camera tricks that make it seem that the corridors go on for miles.   Barbara has to crouch to get through the Dalek sized door frames.
   She is carefully herded by a succession of closing doors until she is confronted by the occupants of the city.  Occupants whom we will not see in whole until the next episode.
    Next up: The Survivors.

Ep. 4 The Firemaker

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"I will speak with them.  I must hear more things to remember.  The Leader would have things to remember."

   The Doctor and crew get dragged back to the cave where Za and Kal start pounding their chests and accusing the other of killing the Old Woman.  The Doctor channels cave-Perry Mason and gets Kal to reveal the murder weapon and then confess.
   Admittedly he outwitted a caveman, but he did it in style.  If the Doctor and company were a D&D party than this story is the equivalent of fighting off the goblin bandits.  It's a much more seasoned Doctor who will one day face off with Davros, The Black Guardian, The Great Intelligence et al.
   At this point Doctor Who was filmed at Studio D.  From what I understand Studio D was the size of a middle school gym.  They had ridiculously little space to film a TV series like Doctor Who.  If I understand the way they filmed back then they pretty much filmed the episode in scene order.  That meant that they had to have all or most of the sets up at the same time.
   As a result there are a few moments when the production crew had to get creative to show what they wanted.
   The first was a big fight scene between Kal and Za in the Cave of Skulls.  The TARDIS crew and the two cavemen are in the cave, but they didn't have enough room to have all of the cast on set and still have a safety margin.
   The solution was to film the fight with just the combatants in the cave.  The camera cut-away to get reactions from the time travelers and try to establish that they were still in the cave even though we didn't see them.
   This worked OK.  The fight scene was enough to make up for it though.
   To start with, it was filmed.  If you're watching classic Doctor Who (or other British shows from that era) you might notice a sudden change in the quality of the picture from one scene to the next.  Usually there is a change in location that accompanies this.  That means that the production team switched from video tape to film cameras or vice versa.  There are technical reasons for why this was done that I won't bore you with, the long and the short of it is film causes an almost Pavlovian response in me when watching old Who.
   Then there's the lighting.  By this time Ian has put his national service training to good use and actually made a fire which is the only illumination for this cavethrowdown.
   The actors have good fight choreography.  This is the sort of thing that you expect from the Pertwee era.
   At the end of the fight Za grabs Kal's leg and drags the corpse across the cave floor.  It's MUCH more primitive than I would have expected the Beeb to allow back then.  It actually reminded me of primate behavior I saw in a documentary I saw years ago.
   Here's an example of what I mean about the difference between video and film.  It starts up around about the 2 and a half minute mark.

   The other moment of space-induced creativity was during the escape.  The time travelers have to run through the forest to get to the desert where the TARDIS is waiting.   The forest set was 15 feet square tops.  Hard to run though that over and over again.
   They decided to have the actors run in place in front of a black background while stage hands hit them with palm leaves.
   Let us never speak of this again.
   This marks the end of the first serial.  All-in-all I enjoyed watching it again and feel that it benefited from being watched in separate installments.
   The writer of this story never worked for Doctor Who again.  Anthony Coburn wrote two stories for the series.  This one was produced, while The Masters of Luxor his tale SF morality tale was passed over in favor of some tin-plated pepper pots.
  Next up: The Dead Planet

Ep. 3 The Forest of Fear

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

 "Fear makes companions of us all."

   This is a big one.
   The Doctor, at this point, is a dick.  He's patronizing, arrogant, selfish and very much not the character that he will develop into.  This episode marks the low point of the Doctor.  I'll get to that later.
   The four time travelers have made their escape from the Cave of Skulls and are trying to make for the Ship.  This is complicated by the fact that they aren't that familiar with the area, they are escaping under cover of night without flashlights, and there are critters in the woods with big sharp pointy teeth.
   Barbara gets hysterical.  Which comes off as odd since she's been taking things better than Ian up to that point.  Maybe she was just bottling it up or maybe the writer got lazy and tried to wring some extra Drama out of the scene.  Susan, at least, keeps a level head; she even remembers the way back to back to the Ship when Ian and Barbara can't.
   There was a moment when I thought that they had resorted to the "the woman has twisted her ankle" trope.  Barbara stumbles in the dark and trips over a freshly killed boar.  There is no indication that she hurt herself and the only person who is slowing the group down is the Doctor himself.
   Barbara does get to redeem herself very soon.  Za and Hur, a caveman and his caveman lady MacBeth, have followed the strange tribe into the forest.  Barbara scream at stumbling over a bloody carcass draws Za closer.  The time travelers hide.  Za encounters the beast that killed the boar and has a near fatal encounter with it.  The lack of budget required the production team to convey a savage attack though reaction shots.  The actors do their jobs admirably.
   Za is near dead.  Hur is over his limp body.  The Doctor's reaction is to continue on before the rest of the tribe descends upon them.  Barbara isn't having any of it.  Ian and Susan are quick to take her lead, but it's Barbara who holds the moral high ground here.  The way that she speaks to the Doctor makes you think that she wants to tell him where to shove it, but won't because she's a lady (and this is the BBC in the early 60's.)
   Barbara, Ian and Susan plan to carry the fallen Za back to the Ship where they can treat his wounds with more than a damp cloth.  The Doctor stands apart from them as they make a stretcher out of coats and tree branches.
   When no one seems to be looking the Doctor picks up a sharp rock and moves towards the helpless Za.  It's strongly implied that the Doctor means to finish Za off.  Fortunately, Ian intervenes.  The Doctor spouts some excuse about trying to get Za to draw a map to where the Ship is parked.  That doesn't seem likely since Za is a) unconscious and b) he's a caveman, maps are a bit too abstract a concept for people who don't have a word for DREAMING or IMAGINATION.
   That's the Doctor's low point.  He gets better.
   Meanwhile, back at the cave, we have the first death in Doctor Who history.
   She's referred to as the Old Woman by the others, but the credits list her as Old Mother.  She was an ultra conservative convinced that fire would bring about the end of the Tribe.  She released the Doctor and party so that they wouldn't provide fire.  Kal, Za's rival, found this out and murdered her in a fit of rage.  He then framed Za by going CSI: Caveman.  Let's just say that cavemen are really dumb and move on.
   The time travelers make it withing sighting distance of the TARDIS only to find the path blocked by Kal and his cavegoons.
   A good episode.  The low budget shows, but it's nothing that takes you out of the moment.  There's a scene where Za and Hur try to move what is supposed to be a heavy rock.  It's a mock rock, but the actor playing Za sells the scene.
   One minor quibble.  The lead cavepeople look like crap.  Which is good.  That's how they should look.  There was at least one scene where some of the cavespearcarriers look like someone asked a couple secretaries to play dress up on their lunch hour.
   Next up: The Firemakers.