"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
Having only seen little bits of Barbara and Ian until we started this project, I didn't think much of them. But now I would probably count them in the highest echelon of Companions.
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