As a countdown to the 50th 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
No comments:
Post a Comment