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.