Ep. 56 Conspiracy

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.


"He's alright, but he's not that good."

   This one is a tough one to call.  Ian and Barbarba aren't given that much, but the Doctor and Vicki's story is so much fun.
   Ian, once again, fairs the worst with this script.  He's behind bars with the threat of fighting in the arena looming over his head.  He manages to find out that Barbara was there earlier and was probably sold, but that's not exactly actionable intelligence. 
   Barbara fairs a bit better.  She's introduced to Poppaea, Empress of Rome and her new boss.  Unfortunately the Emperor also makes her acquaintance.  It's lust at first sight and soon we have Barbara being chased down ancient Roman corridors by a horny emperor with a lyre fixation, cup bearer relentlessly tagging behind.
   The whole thing has the air of a Scooby Doo chase four years before Scooby Doo debuted.  I know that this sort of thing goes back much further than Scoob or Doctor Who, but they are more a part of my cultural landscape then their predecessors.
   Barbara almost runs into the Doctor and Vicki several times in this episode, just barely missing them.
   While this is more fun than watching Ian in his cell trying to figure out how to escape, it's not the greatest use of Hill's talent.  As camp as this scene is, I still like it a lot more than the one in Love and Monsters where they ramped the camp at least five warp factors past this.
   Tavius believes the Doctor to be Maximus Pettulian.  Apparently Maximus was supposed to do something secretive that Tavius a.) knows something about and b.) is trying to abet.  Whatever it is, it's supposed to go down tomorrow.
   In between trying to smooch Barbara and acting like he doesn't know that she exists when his wife is around, Nero invites the Doctor to a banquet in his honor where he can play for the assembly.  Hartnell's expressions after learning this reminded me of Marty Feldman.
   While the Doctor is trying to get to the heart of the conspiracy, Vicki makes a new friend whilst exploring the palace.  She ducks inside a room and ends up meeting Locusta, the official poisoner of the court of Nero.
   Locusta turns out to be a likable, talkative woman far removed from the stereotypical evil witch with vials of hemlock.  It's not personal for her, she's merely performing a needed function of the court.
   Vicki is hiding under the table when Poppaea makes a special order to poison her new servant before she can steal Nero's attentions and her place as Empress.  The arrangements for the poison's delivery, in a drink, are discussed.
   Vicki is left alone.
   During the pre-banquet, Barbara proposes a toast to Nero to forestall his lecherous advances.  She quickly downs her cup. 
   Meanwhile Vicki tells the Doctor that she thinks that she's poisoned Nero with an almost innocent glee.  It didn't seem right that some blameless slave girl should have to die so she switched the drinks.  This after the Doctor warned her about not changing history.
   Definitely something that I don't see Susan doing.
   The Doctor swoops in and keeps the Nero from drinking the poisoned wine.  Barbara swoops off at the first sign of distraction, again narrowly missing the Doctor.
   The Doctor and Vicki depart while Nero has his cup bearer sample the wine.  Nero's reaction to the sudden death of his annoying servant is priceless.
   Poppaea is livid with Locusta and has her seized by guards.  She also has Barbara busy elsewhere during the banquet.
   The Doctor manages to perform without actually performing.  He pulls an Emperor's New Clothes type trick on the audience and has them believing that his silent plucking of the strings is sublime music.  It's an idea that he later claims to have given to Hans Christian Anderson.
   The Doctor's performance has enraged Nero.  Only HE should receive that sort of adulation from the crowds.  He resolves to have the Doctor play in the circus.  The thought is to open with him playing the lyre and to end with a lion feeding.
   Nero takes Barbara with him to make the arrangements.  Since she's never seen a gladiatorial contest he'll arrange one for her.
   Ian and Delos are chosen to do the honors.  It will be a fight to the death with one of them having a (slim) chance to earn his freedom.  Delos says that he is Ian's friend, but will still fight for his life.  This way one of them has a chance.  If Delos wins, he'll make it quick for Ian.
   Ian and Delos are brought out before Nero and Barbara.  They actually are kept on screen together.
   The fight doesn't go Ian's way; Delos has his sword to Ian's neck and Nero tells him to cut off his head.
   Roll end credits.
   The fight scene was well done.  The end credits list a fight arranger and the results of Ian and Delos' match show it.
   Hartnell and O'Brien were the center pieces of this one.  The supporting actors were fine.  I'd have to single out the actor playing Tavius.  There's something about his performance that I can't place my finger on that elevates him above the rest of the guest cast.  Nero is fine, but I've seen that sort of thing done better in A Funny Thing Happened To Me On the Way To the Forum.
   I have to say that the series regulars are looking mighty fine in their period garb.  It's one of the few times that the Doctor gets out of the frock coat and into something less anachronistic.  Vicki is quite fetching in her Roman gown and her hair up.

Nero and the Doctor discuss conspiracies.

 

 

 

 

Next up: Inferno

Ep. 55 All Roads Lead To Rome

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.


"Alright? Of course, I’m alright, my child. You know, I am so constantly outwitting the opposition, I tend to forget the delights and satisfaction of the arts...the gentle art of fisticuffs!"

   Two minutes into this episode Angela declared the Doctor to be on crack.  No we haven't skipped ahead to The Twin Dilemma.
   The mute assassin tries to sneak up on the doctor, sword up and ready to kill.  The Doctor blocks the blade with the lyre he was practicing on.  The Doctor then proceeds to mop the floor with the assassin.  He knocks him down, throws water in his face, hits him over the head with a vase and even flips him in a move that would make Pertwee green with envy.  All the while the Doctor is keeping up this heckling commentary and seeming to be enjoying himself no end.
   Yes this is Hartnell.  It was one continuous take.  No stunt doubles. 
   It's probably just a coincidence, but this is the second story in a row where the Doctor has gotten into a physical fight; it's also Vicki's second story.
   Vicki finally chases the assassin (yeah he's got a name, I just like writing assassin) out of a window.  The Doctor is upset with her that she's ruined his sport.  He boasts that he trained the Mad Mauler of Montana.
   Vicki tells him that the centurion has disappeared.  The Doctor isn't surprised; he believes that the centurion is the one who hired the assassin in the first place.  The Doctor is so casual about someone trying to take his life and the web of conspiracy that he's seen through.  It's a trait that carries through to the current day.. 
   They continue on to Rome.
   Barbara has already made it there.  She's kept in a cell with a woman who's gotten sick over the month long march from Gaul to Rome.  Barbara, being Barbara, tends to the ailing woman as best she can.
   This behavior gains the attention of Tavius.  He tries to speak with her, but is rebuffed.  Tavius offers to buy her before she hits the block, but the slave trader isn't going to budge.
   The Doctor and Vicki arrive in Rome.  A slave auction is about to begin.  Vicki is curious, but the Doctor leads her away presumably wishing to spare her the sight.  As soon as they're off frame, Barbara is brought out on the block.
   This is a recurring motif in this story.  Characters will come very close to meeting, but won't due to some minor twist or happenstance.
   The bidding for Barbara goes well.  I don't know how to spell sustercea and am too lazy to look it up, but the bid gets to 2,500 sustercea when Tavius jumps it to 10,000.  Ian and the two male slaves went for less than 2,500 TOTAL last episode.
   That gets everyone's attention.
   It turns out that Tavius is in charge of purchasing slaves for Nero's household.  He saw Barbara being selfless in a situation where most people would be looking out for their own well being and decided that she needed to be helped.  Barbara is a slave, but a household slave of Nero's wife is a better lot than most slaves find themselves in.
   Barbara tells Tavius point blank that she has no intention of staying there.  Tavius understands, but points out the consequences of being caught.
   Just then a page arrives with a message.  Maximus Pettulian has arrived from Corinth and wishes an audience with Cesar Nero.  Tavius tells the messenger to bring him in, but quickly changes his mind and says that it will be better to meet him in the other room.
   Tavius starts to tell "Maximus" that he knows about the problems that he's been through getting there.  He's taken care of it.  Tavius starts to mention a place where "he is" when Nero is announced.  Vicki is giddy at the prospect of meeting Nero.
   Nero is played with very broad strokes.  He brandishes a turkey leg and an ego almost as large as the Doctor's, with less than a tenth of his competence. 
   The Doctor manages to both stoke Nero's ego and avoid playing through a combination of quick wit and massive brown nosing.
   After the audience the Doctor and Vicki check out the room that Tavius mentioned.  In it they find the centurion's corpse.
   While all this has been going on, Ian has found himself part of the rowing crew on board a Roman ship.  This is the weak part of the story.  They row.  There's an escape attempt that fails miserably.  Then a storm hits and Ian and his rowing pal Delos manage to survive the wreck.  Delos figures that they must be near Rome.  He thinks that it's best to head north away from Rome.  Ian is insistent on going to Rome to find Barbara.
   They get to Rome, Ian suggests a risky course of action, Delos is skeptical, but decides that they've been lucky so far and decides that he's game.  They are captured before they've taken three steps.
   They're taken to be used in the arena.  If they please Nero then they may win their lives.
   Ian was given the short end of the plot stick this time around. 
   This story is a comedy.  Really the first time that they've tried that in the series.  I think that it works in large part due to the fact that most of the characters are grounded somewhat.  It's very easy to take a comedy script and do it with a weird voice or exaggerate the acting.  So far Nero is the only really exaggerated character that we encounter.  Which is either true to the historical character or it's true to the perception of the historical character.
  

One day I shall come back and open a can of whoop ass!

Next up: Conspiracy

Ep. 54 The Slave Traders

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.


"The child travels with me.  She keeps her eyes on all the lyres."

   Dennis Spooner throws us a curveball at the beginning of this one.  At the end of the last episode the TARDIS goes crashing down a cliff causing the occupants to be thrown violently about the ship.
   This episode repeats the cliffhanger, shows us the TARDIS propped on it's side, slightly overgrown with vegatation, and then cuts to Ian decked out in Roman gear eating grapes in a palatial (for the BBC) villa.
   We are given no clue as to how they got from one situation to the other until Vicki and Barbara make it to the marketplace.  On the road Vicki complains about the lack of adventure, they've been here nearly a month and nothing's happened.
   While at the market two slave traders take notice of the two women.  The more experienced man tells his trainee slave trader that this is going to be the last village that they pass through before getting to Rome.  At least the last one without the long arm of the law to mess with their raiding.
   The slave traders pay a few coins to a vendor in the market for information about the two strange women.  She tells them, after several coins have greased her palm, that they live nearby at a villa belonging to a man on campaign in Gaul.  Everyone expects that they are taking care of the place for him.  They make their coin by trading the produce of the land at the marketplace.  She also tells them that she heard one of the women say that she was from Londinium.
   That was Barbara who was giving a history lesson to Vicki.
   This was a fine way to present the exposition.  It filled in the gaps that we needed to have filled in without having the travelers awkwardly explain their circumstances to one another.
   Over dinner that night the Doctor announces that he will be heading for Rome.  Ian and Barbara are being bone idle and he wishes to do some exploring.  Vicki jumps at the chance for adventure and when the Doctor agrees, jumps in the air squealing in joy.   It's a testament to Maureen O'Brien's skill that this is cute rather than sickeningly annoying.  I can't imagine Susan doing the same thing.
   Ian and Barbara try to go along too, but the Doctor is in a mood and turns everything they say into a negative.  The four work very well together.
   Left to their own devices Ian and Barbara enjoy some wine.  These brief moments show the two at their most intimate.  Barbara compliments Ian on what a fine Roman he makes and combs his hair (after a little fight and a very sullen Ian) in the local style.  This isn't the mad passion that some have suggested it to be, but it doesn't take much to imagine the two becoming something more after they leave the TARDIS.
   On the road to Rome a mysterious figure has been lurking in the bushes brandishing a sword.  When an elderly man carrying a lyre passes by the assassin strikes pulling the man into the thicket and sheathing his sword in the old man's flesh before heading down the road.
   In the midst of their fun Ian and Barbara are beset by the slave traders.  Ian puts up a fight.  Barbara tries to help, but ends up knocking Ian out with a misplaced vase to the head.
   On the road to Rome the Doctor and Vicki stumble across the corpse of the elderly musician.  Vicki thinks that there were robbers back then and supposes that he must have been killed and robbed.  The Doctor points out the fact that he still has his possessions and picks up the lyre.  Vicki suggests that they might not have had the time to take the man's belongings.  The Doctor counters that they had time to drag him off the road.
   The discourse is interrupted by an armed figure beating the bushes with his sword.  The Doctor, still holding the lyre, approaches the man and inquires as to his business.  It turns out that he is a centurion charged with looking for the lauded Maximus Pettulian.  Maximus is expected in the court; Nero is anxious to hear him play and the whole court is concerned for his safety.
   Seeing the Doctor with the lyre the centurion makes the assumption that the Doctor is Maximus Pettulian.  The Doctor, wishing to meet Nero, doesn't disillusion him.
   Things are looking worse for Ian and Barbara.  The slave caravan runs into a man in need of three strong men.  Ian is among the three men that he buys.  Worse yet, Ian's new owner isn't headed for Rome, Barbara's destination.
   The Doctor and Vicki arrive in Rome.  The centurion sends them to their quarters and then meets with the assassin of the real Maximus.  It turns out that the mute assassin was supposed to kill the skilled musician so that he couldn't upstage the egocentric Nero.  The killer is sent to the Doctor's room with orders to get the job done or loose more than his tongue.
   This is a fine episode full of the wit that marks a Dennis Spooner script.  Vicki has worked her way seamlessly into the TARDIS crew. 
   And for the first time in a long time, the Doctor messes up Ian's name.  Chesterfield.

Next up: All Roads Lead To Rome

Ep. 53 Desperate Measures

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 destroyed a whole planet to save your skin.  You're insane.


   Ian manages to escape from the death trap with his suit jacket and an ample step.  That's the kind of shoddy death trap that I'd expect from a people who abhor violence.
   In fact the beast below isn't even dangerous; Vicki considers it somewhere between a pet and a friend and feeds it.  She calls it Sandy.  Possibly as a shout out to the pet of another famous orphan girl.
   Unfortunately Sandy still looks like a spiny harbinger of death and destruction.  When he approaches Vicki for food and a tummy rub, Barbara only sees a monster intent on killing the kid.  Barbara takes up a flare gun and kills Sandy.
   Poor Vicki is in tears when the Doctor and Ian arrive at the crashed ship.
   A few months on Dido with an emotionally abusive protector and the threat of imminent death at Koquillion's whim have left Vicki a little high strung.  Seeing the one source of joy that she has known on this planet violently put down before her very eyes probably isn't helping matters.
   The Doctor has a word with Vicki and puts her at her ease.  Later she states outright that she really trusts the Doctor, but we don't need that bit of dialog.  We can see her trust when she leads the Doctor to Bennet's room and she takes his hand.
   The Doctor sends Vicki (not Victoria we found out last episode and I forgot to mention it) back to Ian and Barbara while he tries to see Bennett.  The door is jammed shut and the Doctor starts working on it with a piece metal that probably helped keep the ship together before the crash.
   We can hear the Doctor going at it when Vicki returns to the others.
   This scene between the three companions worked.  There is an obvious chemistry between them.  The two teachers explain that they left Earth in 1963.  Vicki thinks that they are teasing her since they didn't have time machines in 1963; they didn't know anything back then.
   The Doctor finally batters his way into Bennett's room only to find it empty.  Exploring, the Doctor soon discovers a trap door that leads out of the ship and a tape recorder that tells anyone who tries the cabin door to go away.
   The Doctor leaves the ship and makes his way to the People's Hall of Justice.  Justice apparently involves lots of smoke on Dido.  The Doctor looks about the room awaiting the arrival of Koquillion.  He's not disappointed.  The scene where Koquillion walks through the smoke filled hall is full of menace. 
   This is the Doctor we know today.  He's figured part of the problem out, but doesn't know everything he needs to know.  To get what he wants he confronts his enemy knowing that it isn't the safe thing, but the right thing.
   The Doctor tells Koquillion that he knows that he is Bennett.  The Doctor knows the ceremonial robes and masks of the people of Dido and isn't fooled by his charade.  Bennett tells the Doctor that he killed someone on the starliner before it crashed.  After the crash the natives invited the survivors to a feast.  Bennett used munitions from the ship to blow up the building that it was in, killing the people who knew of his crime as well as the native population. 
   Vicki hadn't been told that Bennett was arrested.  Bennett needed an alibi so kept up the act to convince Vicki that the people of Dido killed the crew.
   Now, of course, he'll have to kill everyone else.  There's a struggle between the two.  The Doctor puts up a desperate fight, but is quickly knocked down.  Bennett is about to kill him when two Didoians arrive.  They silently advance on him.  He retreats as if chased by ghosts until he backs off the cliff that Ian had almost fallen over.
   The Doctor passes out and reawakens onboard the TARDIS. 
   Ian confesses to borrowing the Doctor's key.  So the lock defense mechanism that was mentioned in The Survivors has either been removed, it broke down on it's own or Susan and the Doctor lied about it.  Maybe it had something to do with the Sensorites taking the lock.  Who knows.  I'm discounting the possibility that the Doctor showed Ian how to use the key.  The Doctor only showed Barbara which switch opened the external doors last episode.
   The Doctor was brought out of the Hall of Justice.  He presumes by the survivors of Bennett's murderous explosion.  Barbara and Ian have brought Vicki with them, she's waiting outside.
   The Doctor goes out to have a word with her.
   The cave is dark except for the intermittent light from the lamp atop the police box.  The Doctor tells her what really happened and offers Vicki a place aboard the TARDIS.  This is the first time that he's made the offer.  Susan was with him for (presumably) familial reasons and he kidnapped the teachers.
   Vicki enters the ship.  Her reaction at the interior is good, not one of the all time greats, but not bad either. 
   She agrees and the TARDIS is soon landing on a not too stable hillside.
   Meanwhile, and 2400 years later, the rescue ship tries to make contact with the liner.  The two surviving Didoians silently smash the receiver.

Next up: The Slave Traders

Ep. 52 The Powerful Enemy

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 he finds out, he'll kill us both."

   Carole Ann Ford left the series because she felt that she wasn't given the juicy acting bits that she wanted to perform.  Having seen (or heard) all of her run with the character I'd have to agree with her.  She was the cast regular that no one seemed to know how to write. 
   There is a certain amount of irony that her replacement on the series was given a two episode introduction that allowed her to showcase her acting chops.
   Superficially there are some similarities between Susan and Vicki.  Both are hyper-intelligent, both are familiar with high tech and both have an "alien" viewpoint from that of the television audience.  Susan is an actual alien while Vicki comes from our future.
   I'm going to reserve commenting on their differences until after I've rewatched the Vicki episodes.
   The Departure of Susan has effected the Doctor.  He sleeps through the TARDIS materializing on Dido.  It's a planet, not the Queen of Carthage or the woman who sang "Thank You."  Yes, I'll be careful not to add an extra letter between the i and the d.
   He also shows a decided lack of curiosity about the cave that the TARDIS has landed in.  He claims that he's going to take a nap while he putters away doing a specimen analysis that confirms that they are on Dido.
   This is the first time that the TARDIS returns to a world in which the Doctor has previously visited.  Other than Earth.  It's also the first time that they introduce a world as being someplace that the Doctor has visited previously in an untelevised story. 
   Outside the cave Ian and Barbara discover a crashed space ship in the distance.  It has a British flag.  Ian is keen to get down there to help any potential survivors when Koquillion shows up.
   Koquillion is big an ugly and talks like Gollum after a few weeks at a charm school/psychiatric hospital.  He throws Barbara off the side of the mountain and collapses the cave entrance nearly on top of Ian.
   Barbara manages (we are told later) to break the worst of her fall on a tree branch.  She is found unconscious by Vicki, one of the two survivors of the crashed Earth ship.  Vicki tells her that the rest of the crew and passengers of the ship were invited to a great meeting.  Vicki was feverish and couldn't go.  The natives killed all of the humans who attended the meeting except for Bennet who managed to crawl back to the ship.
   Now Koquillion acts as a mediator between the natives and the two humans.  He claims that he is keeping them alive.
   Maureen O'Brien is excellent in these scenes.  The script was designed to show off her acting talent and she gets to go in a few different directions.  I'm glad that they didn't keep her in the outfit that she's wearing in this story.  The dress is short.  I think that they were trying to suggest youth and weren't trying to sexualize her.  The difference in size between Hill and O'Brien is significant and shows when the younger woman buries her head in Barbara.
   O'Brien has an amazingly expressive face.
   The Doctor performs a cursory examination of Ian.  There's some light banter between the two and the Doctor says that it's a pity that he never got that degree. 
   The two make there way back through the other side of the cave in hopes that they can find an alternate egress. 
   The Doctor finds it disconcerting that someone from Dido would try to kill anyone; they have a population of about 100 and thus see life as a precious thing to be nurtured.
   They eventually come to a pit that houses a big nasty beasty with long sharp teeth that resembles the Koquillion's headdress.  The two skirt the edge of this pit holding onto rings set into the walls when the edge gets too narrow.  It turns out that the last one is trapped.  Ian sets it off and is soon caught between a line of swords.  More swords start to push out from the walls herding the science teacher to the edge of the pit.
   The beast below is hungry.

Next up: Desperate Measures

The Dalek Invasion of Earth 2150 AD

"You can't fight metal with flesh and blood."

   After finishing off the second Dalek serial Ang and I decided to watch the Peter Cushing movie based on it.  Actually we put up a solar powered motion light, did some laundry, mocked the cats a little and then watched the movie.
   My big complaint with the first Cushing Doctor Who film was the changes to Ian.  They turned him into comic relief.  That's not a problem with this one.  Ian and Barbara have been replaced in this by Tom Campbell and Louise.  Louise is pretty much the same character from the first movie with a different name while Tom is a police officer who runs into the TARDIS thinking that it's a real police box.
   Tom is played by Bernard Cribbins and while he has does a few comedic turns he is still portrayed as a competent human being. 
   This is very slick in comparison to the original TV serial.  The stunt work is top notch and the effects, while not amazing, are light years ahead of what the series was able to afford at the time.
   Much of the basic plot has been retained minus the David/Susan romance (Susan is 10 or 11 in this) and the character of Jenny. 
   We still end up with three groups headed for Bedfordshire, but the mix is very different.  Dr. Who (I hate to use that name, but that's what this character calls himself) is with David, Susan is with Wyler (Tyler from the TV show) and Loiuse is with Tom on the Dalek ship.
   This means that it isn't Barbara that runs through the Dalek blockade, it's Wyler.  It's more of that women are only meant to be pretty bullshit that the TV series gets accused of from time to time.
   Phillip Madoc does a nice turn as Brockley, more-or-less Ashton from TV.  Both Maddoc and Cribbins would land roles in the TV series.  Madoc played opposite Troughton and Tom Baker while Cribbins would work alongside Tennant.
   The Slyther is gone.  No great lose.
   Visually this is a treat and I did enjoy it much more than the first installment.  It still doesn't hold up to the TV series.

Ep. 51 Flashpoint

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 lost my shoe."

   The first half of this episode is very rushed.  There are some good things that happen in it, but you can't help but feel that they were trying to clean up the Daleks before they get to the rest of the story.
   The Daleks' reason for being on Earth makes no sense.  Angela came up with a much better justification for the Daleks coming to Earth; because they found out that it was where Barbara and Ian came  from and they wanted to get a bit of their own back after the humans manipulated the Thals into overthrowing the Daleks.  The Pirate Planet showed us that a planet/space ship can be cool, but going across the galaxy to pimp out some random planet just doesn't flow.
   Instead of focusing on the negative parts of the Daleks' defeat, I'll just go over the things that I liked.
   In an attempt to distract the Daleks long enough to get close to the robo-men's oral control unit (don't ask) Barbara starts spouting off this nonsense about the forces that are aligning against the alien pepper pots.  General Lee, Hannibal and others are poised to strike once the Boston Tea Party has gone down.  The Daleks are so alarmed at the numbers of forces that are aligned against them that Barbara almost has time to give the robo-men a "destroy all Daleks" order.
   When Barbara and the Doctor are able to try the oral control again (that's a sentence I NEVER want to say again) they try to imitate Dalek voices.  It's a hoot.  Barbara tries talking while rhythmically patting her mouth with the flat of her hand.  The Doctor just goes for a tinny monotone that works more-or-less.
   I liked the little things about the Daleks that just work for them.  The fact that to restrain Barbara and Jenny they just put a magnetic collar on them that attaches them to the wall.  They obviously don't care if this is hurting them or not hurting them, it's just the most efficient way of keeping them out from under "foot."
   I liked the fact that Ian, after a fairly strenuous sequence of events which led to him splitting his jacket down the back took the time to retie his neck tie as he was rushing off to Dalek Control.
   The Daleks get defeated and then it's back to the one corner of London that survived.  Fortunately the TARDIS was there.  Wells and the freed slaves remove the debris from around the ship and the travelers are saying their goodbyes.
   Susan and the Doctor have a nice moment talking about shoes and how unruly her life has gotten since she left that school of hers.  Ian tries to strike up a conversation with David.  Barbara knows that Susan will want some privacy to say goodbye and gestures for them to get into the ship.  He's oblivious.  She isn't as subtle the second time.
   David asks Susan to stay.  He loves her and she admits to loving him.  She wants to stay, but feels obliged to stay with her grandfather; he needs her.
   The Doctor watches this from inside the TARDIS.  Resigned he hits a switch and the TARDIS doors close.  Susan rushes to them only to be told (through the TARDIS speakers) that the doors are double locked and she can't come back in.
   The Doctor says his goodbye to Susan in a monolog that are easily the most quoted lines in the Hartnell era.  He knows that she won't leave him so he's forcing the issue.  It's the most powerful emotional moment of the series to date.  It made Angela cry and even I, a stoic New Englander, went misty.
   The TARDIS dematerializes and Susan just places her hand where it was before walking into the space that it occupied.  She removes the TARDIS key from around her neck and drops it into the ship's metaphorical footprint.  She takes David's offered hand and walks off to her future.

Next up: The Powerful Enemy

Ep. 50 The Waking Ally

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.

Remember, remember, the Dalek December

With Paris in ruins and London an ember

In times of the future when fears are abating

Don’t try to forget them, the Daleks are waiting

Quietly planning and scheming and hating

   The above quote isn't from today's ep.  It's from Curse of the Daleks a 1960's stage play that doesn't feature any characters from Doctor Who aside from the Daleks.  It's obviously a reference to the Dalek invasion so I took the liberty of using it for today's quote.
   Ian and Larry jump into a mining waste bucket in an attempt to  get away from the Slyther.  It manages to, improbable as it may seem, jump from the edge to the bucket.  I don't think that they were able to get the guy in the suit to pull the stunt off so they just focused the camera on the bucket and showed the edge of the critter suddenly appear in the corner of the shot.  Ian then hit the beasty with a rock until it let go and fell into the depths of the mine shaft.
    Angela found the whimper it made quiet amusing.
    The Black Dalek, not knowing that his favorite pet has gone off to Slyther heaven orders the waste bucket lowered.  Ian estimates that they've been going down for about twenty minutes and that the heat and pressure are building up.
   The bucket stops about 12 feet above the ground.  The two men decide to jump the rest of the way instead of being flipped out later.  Ian's OK, but Larry hurts his knee on the bucket on the way down.
   I will say this for Nation, when he has a character get injured in order to slow the party down that character's sex doesn't matter.  In this serial Susan hurt her ankle, the Doctor collapsed (a manly way of fainting), Dortmun was differently abled from the start and now Larry becomes a liability.
   They end up encountering a robo-man who turns out to be Larry's brother Phil.  This does make sense.  Phil has been characterized as being an intelligent man so it makes sense that he would have been converted.
   Larry makes an appeal to Phil's humanity.  He mentions Phil's wife Angela (I stopped the DVD and accused my wife of two timing me.)  Not getting anywhere with that tact, Larry wrestles Phil to the ground electrocuting them both.  Phil's last word is "Larry."
   Back in London the Doctor and party are hoofing it through the sewers.  They've caught the attention of a couple robo-men and have set up an ambush.  There is a struggle between the two.  The Doctor gets involved in the violence striking one of the robo-men on the back of it's head with his walking stick.  A rare display of violence on the first Doctor's part.  he is quick to keep Tyler from finishing off the unconscious robo-men saying that he will only kill in self defense. 
   Barbara and Jenny have made it to the edge of Bedfordshire on foot.  A storm is coming and the pair enter a seemingly abandoned house.  It turns out to be occupied by an old woman and her daughter(?).  The pair make clothing for the Dalek's slaves in exchange for food and not being blasted. 
   The two travelers barter canned food for a night's stay in the hovel.  The old woman gives the younger one a bundle of clothing as well as a whispered message.  A little later the younger woman returns with bread, oranges, sugar and a Dalek.
   The Dalek takes the two rebel women prisoner.
   The Doctor and party have made it out of London and all the way to Bedfordshire.  Tyler and the Doctor are away from the camp leaving Susan and David alone.  Susan is cooking some rabbit stew.  David does the typical guy thing and gets Susan to mildly freak out by surprising her with a fish.  It's a sweet moment that culminates with their first kiss.
   The moment is broken when the others return.  The Doctor notes that something is certainly cooking and he doesn't mean the stew.
   There is some awkward dialog between the Doctor and David about the Daleks mining operations tampering with the forces of creation.  Let's just say that the Dalek's are engineering geniuses and move on.  The Doctor makes it sound like they are trying to reanimate dead flesh instead of making a really big hole.
   Ian ends up running into Wells in the lower levels of this mine.  He also sees Barbara in one of the work details.  He asks Wells to get her a message when he can manage it.
   Jenny is not suited for this work.  She's almost completely beaten by the situation and overwhelmed by the work.  Barbara calms her down, in the process coming up with a plan.
   She uses Dortmun's notes to bluff her way out of the mines and into the central control room.  She claims that not only does she have these notes, she also knows the names and locations of the rebel forces.
   Ian tries to skulk around the Dalek control areas.  He ends up hiding in what turns out to be the big bomb that they are going to drop into the Earth's core.  Phil was right, they are after the Earth's core.  The Dalek's plan to make the Earth into one bigass space ship and sail the space ways looking for pirate plunder.
   OK the pirate plunder is BS on my part, but the rest is true.
   We leave with the bomb about to be dropped.  Ian isn't too happy.
   In my last post I made a comparison between this story and Day of the Triffids.  This episode makes a clear departure from that story.  The Daleks and what they are trying to accomplish are something that the protagonists can (and will) deal with in a way that the Triffids couldn't be dealt with. 

Susan and David sitting in a tree............

Next up: Flashpoint

Ep. 49 The End of Tomorrow

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.


"Get new orders!."

   Great title!
   The fire bomb ticks it's way down and the Doctor collapses; a side effect of the drug the Daleks gave him a couple episodes back.  David attempts to disarm the bomb, initially failing, but having better luck when he brings out the ultra corrosive acid.
   I think that there was something about bombs that really freaked Terry Nation out.  Bombs or missiles figure prominently in many of his Doctor Who stories.  Maybe it was a product of his time; he was a kid in the UK during the second World War. 
   One nice touch that I have to point out is the symbols on the bombs countdown.  I can't clearly make them out, but they are alien.  We've also sporadically seen Dalek symbols painted onto existing human landmarks.  It's a small detail, and it shows how much the production crew cared.
   David decides to leave the Doctor where he is reckoning that the old man will be safe.  The logic is a little fuzzy.  David thinks that the Daleks will believe this area to be burning and won't do anything here for at least an hour.  But the Daleks have those fancy flying saucers and a tendency towards ruthless efficiency.  Wouldn't they confirm that each bomb detonated?  If one didn't, wouldn't they send someone expendable (ie robo-men) to figure out what the heck went wrong?
   But William Hartnell needed to have a week off so Susan reluctantly agreed to go with David.
   The plan is to find a way out of London through the sewer system and then come back for the Doctor.  This provides additional private time between Susan and David.  These scenes are important.  They need to show the connection between these two characters so that Susan's departure doesn't seem contrived.  There are other companions who will leave the TARDIS for love.  Some barely speak half a dozen lines of dialog with their new love (I'm of course referring to the tower of passion that is the Leela/Andred relationship.)
   There have been hints from World's End that this might be Susan's last trip in the TARDIS.  In this episode, in the sewers of London, David talks about rebuilding the world after the Daleks are gone.  Susan is excited at the prospect; David says that she could stay and help.
   She had asked him to go with her and now he's asked her to stay.
   The sewers of London are dangerous.  The Daleks can't get down here and David says that the robo-men don't (too much interference for their control units?), but there are human scavengers who live down here. 
   They end up almost getting shot by Tyler.  Tyler warns them about the dangers of the sewers.  Beyond the human problem there are alligators in the sewers.  I'm not talking the urban legend of flushed baby gators growing down there.  These monsters were full grown specimens that escaped from zoos when the plague struck.  We end up seeing one (well stock footage of one anyway) licking his chops at the thought of Susan falling from a rickety ladder.  Then Tyler shows up from above and shoots the bastard.
   It was an odd bit of filming.  It reminded me of the scene in The Haunting (the 60's version, not the 90's remake) where Nell is climbing up the ancient library staircase and a crazed woman's face suddenly flashes from behind a panel above her.  I like the effect in both cases, it's just not the sort of thing that you're used to seeing in Who.
   Barbara and Jenny have managed to get a truck ready to go.  Literally a museum piece that was driven in parades before the plague hit.  A pretty clever way of way of explaining why they're driving a 20th century vehicle in the 22nd.
   Jenny is being pessimistic.  She knows that the Daleks will hear the engine from blocks away and converge on them.  She expects to die and is genuinely angry that Dortmun sacrificed himself.  Barbara is, once more, the voice of reasoned optimism.
   The two drive out of the museum at a hellish pace.  The Daleks know where they are almost immediately and set up a roadblock consisting of four Daleks.  Jenny suggests going around them, but Barbara goes right through.  She completely crushes at least one Dalek and scatters or destroys the rest.
   Barbara for the win!
   Realizing that they are dealing with the most dangerous adversary that the Daleks have ever faced, a time traveling history teacher with a lead foot, they send out a flying saucer to deal with the threat.
   I suspect that the flying saucer prop may have been damaged since the last time they used it.  This time we see a picture of the crappy prop moved around to suggest the ship's movement.  Oh those lavish BBC budgets.
   The two kick ass women ditch the truck before the saucer picture turns it into flaming wreckage.
   Ian and Larry are skulking around the mine area taking in what they can.  The Dalek operation is so advanced that they have to resort to stock footage.  When they switch back to original material we see a mining cart being dragged by a large number of bedraggled human slaves.
   These pathetic wretches make the Monty Python "It's" guy look like Cary Grant fresh from the Oscars.  And there are a LOT of them.  Between slaves and guards I'd say there are at least 30 extras in this scene.  That's huge for this time.  And it's location work.  I can just see the pound signs scrolling across Verity Lamberts eyes as she watched this one.
   Ian and Larry meet up with Wells an inside man who is some sort of a fixer.  He manages to semi-successfully smooth talk a robo-man before Ian and Larry have to put it out of commission.  Wells tells them about a smuggler named Ashton who trades valuables for food.
   When going to meet Ashton they encounter the Slyther.  The Black Dalek is the Commandant of the mining camp.  He keeps the Slyther, a near shapeless monstrosity, as a pet and lets it roam free to hunt for food and/or escapees.
   They meet Ashton.  Ian tries to negotiate a trip back to London, but lacks anything to pay for his passage.  While the four share a meal, the Slyther busts in.  Ian and Larry run one way only to come to a cliff.  They turn back to find the Slyther advancing on them,
   This story has avoided the dull padding that hurt several earlier serials.  Part of it is the need to write Susan out.  It's a much more solid "B story" than most of the earlier shows had.  Part of it also comes from having a lot of characters.  Tyler, Dortmun, Jenny, David, Larry, Wells, Ashton, Baker and Croddock just off the top of my head.  Dennis Spooner did something similar when he wrote The Reign of Terror and it looks as though Nation is borrowing a page from Spooner's playbook.
   This episode strongly reminded me of The Day of the Triffids.  The Slyther had a shape that made me think of the titular plants from the John Whyndham novel.  It doesn't hurt that I've just recently read Triffids and there are a lot of little things that seem similar aside from the post apocalyptic London setting.

  
Next up: The Waking Ally

Ep. 48 Day of Reckoning

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.


"There'll come a day when you're forced to stop traveling and you'll arrive somewhere."

   The resistance attack on the Dalek saucer quickly turns into a rout.  The bombs that Dortmun invented manage to do something between diddly and bupkis.  Ang thinks that the exploding bombs look like they are just releasing powder,  Knowing the kind of budget that the Beeb gave the series back then, this is entirely possible.
   There is a nice cutaway to the rebel headquarters where we see the wheelchair bound Dortmun playing chess on a pocket sized game board.  Around him those who couldn't join in on the assault are dealing with their worries in their own ways.
   They do manage to get the prisoners released.  Most of them end up being killed, but they died free.  The Doctor gets pulled away in the confusion.  Ian is forced to get back on the Dalek ship and hide in a space under the floor.  It's kind of like the smuggler's hatch on the Millenium Falcon only this was over ten years before Star Wars and the Daleks have no reason to make a space like this.
   Tyler, Barbara and Jenny make it back to Dortmun at revolution HQ.  Dortmun is insistent that he will be able to improve his bomb, but he needs time.  He suggests that they go to one of the fall back points and see if other survivors show up there.  Tyler goes off on his own leaving the other three to try to cross Dalek controlled London to get to the Civic Transport Museum.
   Susan and David ended up together after the assault.  They start back to rebel HQ, but the Dalek presence is too strong.  At one point the two can hear a lone man yell at the Daleks for killing his wife.  The Daleks kill him as well.  Susan begins to cry and David pulls her into him as much to keep her sobs from attracting Daleks as to comfort her.
   This is the moment when David falls in love with Susan.  It isn't stated outright, but the look on his face says it all.  Susan is obviously feeling something too; she offers to take David in the TARDIS, something that has never happened before.  She didn't even make that offer to Pin-Cho her Chinese BFF from Marco Polo.
   There's some good dialog between the two.  It's all set up for Susan's departure at the end of the story, but it's well done.  The phrase "journeys end in lover's meeting" passed through my head.
   Somebody named Baker shows up with a groggy Doctor.  Baker decides to make his way to Cornwall alone.  Baker then leaves only to encounter the Daleks 30 or so feet away.
   WTF. 
   Baker's sole purpose in life was to bring the Doctor to Susan and then die.  They couldn't have just left it open.  Maybe he made it, maybe not.  Screw you Terry Nation; in my world Baker made it to Cornwall met a plucky woman named Diedre and had mad crazy adventures fighting the post-Dalek alien invaders before settling down in the south of France to raise four children and make wine.  Really good wine.
   Ian decides to leave the Dalek floor when the coast seems clear.  He's barely out of the floor when a robo-man walks in with a prisoner.  The robo-man is the jerkass formerly known as Craddock.  Ian and the prisoner, Larry Madison, over power robo-Craddock and short circuit him.
   I though that the robo-men were made from the smarter prisoners.  Well maybe they had to make do after the attack.  The bombs may have done jack to the Daleks, but they may have been lethal to robo-men.  Needs must.  The next question is, how long was Ian in the floor?  It didn't seem like that long.  Obviously it was enough time to capture and subdue Craddock, take him to the OTHER robo-man conditioning room (Ian's floor hideout is right by the robo-man conversion bench, if Craddock was converted here, then Ian would have heard about it and not seemed surprise), turn him into a robo-man and then have him start converting others.
   I'm not thinking about that.
   So Larry stowed away on purpose.  He knows that the saucer will be making it's way to the Bedfordshire mines where his brother Phil is working.  Phil has a theory that the Daleks are trying to remove the Earth's magnetic core and decided to go to the mines to find out for certain.  What a crappy theory.
   Dortmun, Barbara and a black hoodie wearing Jenny run across London.  There's more location work as we get to see the three pass through various landmarks dodging Daleks.  The "chase" music was this bongo fusion piece that is a bit hard to describe.  When I heard it come up as the Daleks were seen crossing a bridge I thought that it was an odd choice, but as we saw the push that the humans were making in getting to the museum I changed my mind.
   The scene is tense and moves quickly.  Kudos to the director and to Verity Lambert.
   They don't seem to have been at the museum very long when Dortmun declares that he has perfected his bomb.  The problem, he says, is that he doesn't know much about the metal that makes up the Dalek's cases.  He calls it Dalekanium. 
   He asks Barbara to give his notes to the Doctor.  He hopes that another scientist would be able to appreciate his work.  He then gives the girls the slip and goes out into the street yelling for the Daleks.  They arrive.
   He wheels himself closer and then lifts himself out of the chair.  He stands on buckling legs, tosses his cane away and starts to throw his improved bomb.  The Daleks fire as he throws and the bomb falls short of it's target.
   Barbara and Jenny go into hiding as Daleks search the building that Dortmun came out of.
   On the saucer Ian and Larry hop out at Bedfordshire, uncertain as to what they'll find there.
   The Doctor begins to feel better.  Susan passes on David's suggestions and the Doctor is aware that there is another man in his granddaughter's heart(s.)  As they make their plans two robo-men arrive carrying a bomb the size of a child's coffin.
  I liked this episode, despite Baker and Craddock.  The guest cast is excellent, especially the actors playing David, Jenny and Dortmun.  The scenes between Susan and David and (eventually) the Doctor were well done.  Susan has a priceless look on her face when she realizes that her grandfather is deferring to David's judgement for her.

Next up: The End of Tomorrow

Ep. 47 The Daleks

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.


"Hold this and shut up."

   This Dalek has some pretty serious self esteem issues.
   To start with, his mission appears to be patrol the big polluted river filled with the corpses of the humans we infected with space plague and the suicided cyborgs that we cobbled together after we got here.  Roll along side it?  No.  You'd better get right in there.  There's got to be all sorts of stuff down there like shopping carts and used condoms.
   Then when something does happen and he gets to lay down the law to some stupid earthmen they get all mouthy and say that the Daleks didn't conquer Earth.  So instead of just blasting them full of holes with the old egg whisk he starts arguing with them, claiming that "we are the masters of Earth" over and over again like some insane mantra.
   Over the course of this episode we discover that about ten years ago the Daleks crashed plague bombs into the planet.  Everyone thought that they were meteorites.  By the time they figured out the truth, the Daleks were flying their spiffy little saucers all over the place.  Some cities were spared, others destroyed.
   There are few Daleks on Earth so they kidnap people, give them an intelligence test designed to be passed by a genius.  Those who fail are sent to work in their mines in Bedfordshire.  Those who pass are made into zombie like robo-men.
   That sounds a little crazy, but it makes perfect sense from the Dalek point of view.  All other species suck; only their best and brightest are worthy of being our mindless lap dogs.  The rest are muscle waiting to die.
   So how did the Daleks survive their apparent destruction?  The destruction of the Daleks on Skaro is far in the future and hasn't happened yet says the Doctor.  I call bullshit on that one.  The Daleks on Skaro couldn't leave their city; they needed to glide over metal to produce life sustaining static electricity.  Ian and the Doctor say the same thing when pointing out the little satellite dish sticking out of their backs.  They presume that the dishes allow them to receive transmitted power.  There's some dialog about this being an invasion force equipped with technology not available to the common Dalek.  This doesn't really jibe with what was actually shown in the previous Dalek story.
   As you can tell there was an awful lot of exposition in this one.  The last episode set up the location and whetted our appetite for what was to come.  This episode lays down the history of the future.
   I think this one was solid.  They covered a lot of ground, but having the details get told by two sources (the Dalek resistance tells Susan and Barbara while fellow prisoner Jack Craddock fills Ian and the Doctor in) keeps things from plodding.
   The resistance is fleshed out with Jenny, a no nonsense woman who reminds me a little of Josella Payton from Day of the Triffids.  Her brother was turned into a robo-man a year ago, she tells Barbara without a hint of emotion.
   To keep things exciting Nation has the Resistance develop anti-Dalek bombs and decide to go on a frontal assault on the Dalek saucer.  When someone points out the fact that the plan is f#*&ing bug nuts someone makes an alteration to the plan.  When someone tells them that it's still f#*&ing bug nuts, Barbara makes the practical suggestion that will give the plan a chance of success.
   The Doctor was great in this.  His interaction with the Dalek by the river was OK.  He really hit his stride in the Dalek saucer.  Craddock was an excellent foil for the Doctor's caustic wit.
   We leave off with the resistance mounting their assault on the saucer and the Doctor about to be made into a robo-man.

Next up: Day of Reckoning

Ep. 46 World's End

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.


"Things have to stay as they are; they can't change."

   Doctor Who briefly experimented with location filming at the end of the last season.  A small bit of business showing the Doctor walking on a road.  It wasn't even the Doctor, just a stand-in wearing the Doctor's outfit and a wig. 
   This episode marks the first extensive use of location filming in the show's history and it looks great.
   The TARDIS has set down besides the Thames, but it's not the London that Ian and Barbara call home.  Everything is decaying and overgrown.  Susan tries to climb up the side of a decaying bridge to get a better look, but tumbles down hurting her ankle and bringing half of the bridge down around the TARDIS.
    This makes two straight serials where one of the women has hurt her ankle.  I'm not thrilled about any more than you are. 
    On a side note, some of the TARDIS windows are open inward a crack.  The ones to the right of the door.  I don't think that I've ever noticed that before in other episodes.
   With the TARDIS blocked off, Ian and the Doctor make head off to explore a nearby warehouse in the hopes of finding something that will move or burn through the girder blocking their access to the ship.  Barbara stays behind to tend to Susan who is so frustrated by her condition that she punches her own leg.
   Ian and the Doctor find the warehouse seemingly deserted.  A little bit of looking around reveals a desk calendar with the year 2164 printed on it and a box with a dead man in it.
   The corpse is wearing some sort of metal head gear that the Doctor surmises is for radio reception and is carrying a whip.  A more thorough examination of the body reveals the cause of death, a knife buried to the hilt in the robo-man's flesh.
   The two travelers have gained the attention of David Campbell, a man of some importance later in the story.  Ian and the Doctor hear David and try to find him.  He gets past them though when Ian charges through a door only to discover that there wasn't a floor on the other side.  And he's not on the first floor.  His stunt double manages to hold onto...something and pull himself back inside with the Doctor's help.
   Back at the bank of the Thames Barbara is tending to Susan's ankle.  On a trip to wet her handkerchief Barbara sees a sign saying that it's forbidden to dump bodies into the river.  She's convinced that this isn't the swinging sixties.  She makes another trip, sees a corpse floating in the water, rushes back to Susan only to find her gones.
   There is a strange man who tells her to run if she values her life.  He explains that they've collected the other girl up and that they need to move.  She runs after him.
   The exterior filming for this scene is a stand out.  It's stark.  There's something about it that works for me although I recognize the fact that the lighting isn't right.  Somehow the over-bright light works.
   Back at the warehouse the Doctor and Ian are witness to one of Ed Woods' spaceships hovering over future London.
   They make a bee-line back to the ship only to find the others have gone.  Ian is frustrated.  The mood between the two takes a somber turn.  The Doctor says that this is Ian's city, doesn't he want to know what happens to it.
    No.
   Susan and Barbara are taken to resistance headquarters where they meet a ragtag band of revolutionaries.  The leader is a man named Dortmann.  He's an older man with glasses and a wheelchair.  Tyler and David are the other two revolutionaries who are given names at this point.
   Apparently feminism died a slow painful death sometime before 2164; the first thing that Barbara is asked is if she can cook. 
   Susan is asked what she can do. 
   Eat.
   The women convince the resistance to send David to find their friends.  Everyone packs off below ground except for Dortmann who stays behind "on gurard" wielding a knife.
    The Doctor and Ian find the sign that Barbara saw earlier.  Ian's suggests that it might be related to plague.  A lifetime of Monty Python made Ang laugh out loud when Ian said "bring out your dead."
   They decide to look further afield for their missing friends.  They don't get too far before they are stopped by whip wielding robo-men.  David sees them, but isn't in a position to do anything.
   Surrounded on all sides by the inspiration for Devo the pair decide to make a break and run for the river.  They turn to dive in and see a Dalek rising from the Thames.
   This may be Susan's best episode since The Unwilling Warrior.  The scene between her and Barbara when they realize that they aren't in Barbara's London was nicely played and well written.  In a way Ian and Barbara have become Susan's surrogate parents.  It's never stated outright, but they are, for all intents and purposes, a family.  Susan doesn't want to lose that.
    Her line "I eat" to David may be one of my favorites in the episode.  She's got a little of the Doctor's genes in her all right.
    The rest of the regular cast also have their moments in the sun.  I suspect the hand of David Whitaker molding the dialog.  Of course I am not the greatest Terry Nation fan in the world, and I find myself second guessing his writing when I like it.
   The robo-men are credible threats.  High tech zombies shuffling through the devastated streets of a once great city.  The helmets aren't the greatest in the world, but they are far from the worst headgear that we'll see in Doctor Who.
   The Dalek rising from the Thames makes a damn fine cliffhanger. 

Next up: The Daleks

Ep. 45 Crisis

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 had no idea water could taste that good."

   This one is an oddity. 
   This was originally a four part story.  I've read that they actually filmed four episodes and then decided that the pace was too slow in the final two episodes.  They ended up editing the two together into one.  From what I understand they threw out the parts that they didn't use. 
   It does go quickly.
   The Doctor and Susan survive by hiding in the overflow pipe.  This is a cheat cliffhanger.  Last episode we saw Smithers wash his hands, filling the sink and then drain the water presumably right down onto the two aliens.  The situation was resolved this episode by showing what the Doctor and Susan did a few seconds before the cliffhanger.  They certainly had time to do it, but it feels wrong to me somehow.  It's a problem that goes back to the original video cliffhangers, the movie serials.  It won't be the last time that Doctor Who is guilty of this.
   Two new characters are introduced, the Grange telephone operator and her husband (I presume) the local constable.  The operator gets suspicious when Forrester calls Whitehall pretending to be the deceased ministry man.  She knows the ministry man's voice and while Forrester covering the receiver with a towel is enough to fool Whitehall it is not enough to fool a simple country busybody.
   The travelers discover the notebook of the ministry man and manage to map it out.  What they find is shocking; DN6 is capable of destroying all animal life in time. 
   Barbara passes out again, but this time it is explicitly stated that it's due to the poison working it's way through her system.
   To Barbara's credit she realizes that she is dieing, but still wants to stop DN6 from being released.  Instead of heading back to the ship the travelers try to sabotage the lab and hopefully bring attention to it.
   They manage to get a phone off it's hook, but can't communicate once they do so.  They also make an aerosol can explode.
    It doesn't seem as thought the travelers are really needed in this one though.  Maybe the phone coming off the hook was the straw that broke the camel's back and made the operator pretend to be routing an incoming call to the ministry man so that she and the constable could compare the voices of the ministry man and Forrester. 
   Or maybe she would have done it anyway.
   For all the trouble blowing up the aerosol can, the only effect was to blind Forrester long enough for Smithers to take his gun.  The constable was just a few feet ahead of them though.
   The Doctor shows a positive streak for vandalism in this one.  His desire to start a fire can't help but make me think ahead to his time with Nero later in the season.
    Lighting the gas jet to blow up the insecticide can was well done.  Ian and Susan with their battering ram sized matchstick made a sight.
   Bringing a seed with them was an excellent way to signify that they the travelers had returned to normal size.  Otherwise the episode would have had to have ended with the travelers guessing that they had returned to normal (after all Barbara is feeling much better) or leaving the TARDIS to compare and contrast.  The seed seemingly shrinking as the TARDIS and her crew return to normal is the best option in my opinion.
    The supporting cast never rose above cliche in this one.  It's not the kind of story that NEEDS it, but something more could have been done with the five guest characters,
   On the whole I wish that they had kept this story as four parts.  This was definitely the weakest of the three episodes.  Then again, maybe we would have just had two weak episodes.

Next up: World's End

Ep. 44 Dangerous Journey

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've seen more death than you can imagine."

   The cat quickly becomes bored of the shrunken time travelers, but there isn't time for them to catch their breaths before Forrester returns with Smithers (not that one) in tow.  Smithers is the genius who invented DN6 and wants to use it to eliminate hunger throughout the world.  A laudable goal that could be applauded if it weren't for his willingness to turn a blind eye to murder.
   The four travelers are sent running in two directions by the approach of the businessman and the scientist.  Ian and Barbara barely make it to the safety of the dead man's valise while the Doctor and Susan make it to cover beside the house.
   Forrester makes up a cock and bull story about defending himself.  Smithers sees through it with a casual examination of the corpse.  Forrester decides to take take the body out to sea and deal with it there.  In the meantime they clean everything up, including bringing the valise into the lab.
   The Doctor and Susan realize that the others have been taken inside.  The Doctor is insistent that they have to mount a rescue operation.  Quiet a huge departure from the Doctor of last season who would have taken Susan and gotten back to the ship without a seconds hesitation.  The Doctor is becoming more and more the man that he is meant to be.
   They discover a drain pipe that must be used for chemicals.  There is a strong smell of chemical residue emanating from it and the interior of the pipe is corroded from the harsh materials.  The Doctor insists on climbing up the interior of the pipe to find the others.  Susan objects, but he shoots that down fast.
   Inside the lab Ian and Barbara stumble out of the case.  Barbara twisted her ankle running from Forrester.  That's part of the reason that she and Ian were seperated from the other two.  The female companion falling and twisting her ankle is a much hated cliche of Doctor Who.  This is the first time that I've noticed it in the Project so I might be willing to give it a pass if it weren't for something that happens to Barbara later in the episode.  I'll get to that later.
   The teachers explore their surroundings.  It soon becomes obvious that they have been brought into a lab when they find test tubes, litmus paper and a pile of seeds coated in what we later find out is DN6.  Barbara picks up one of the seeds to examine it while Ian is looking the other way.  Ian is more than a bit oblivious at this point.  Barbara clearly says that there is something sticky on the seeds, even asks him for his handkerchief to wipe it off, but Ian doesn't seem to pick up on the fact that she's touched what he later warns her not to touch.
   Hill does a nice bit of acting in this one.  She's now aware that her rash action may have poisoned her and is almost constantly trying to wipe her hands. 
   Ian decides to try to fully open the valise so that they can rifle through it in search of something to make a ladder out of.  While he is doing that a fly lands near Barbara.  She turns and it is there.  She faints. 
   This is the only live insect that we've seen so far and it's good enough for the minute or so that it's on screen alive.  They do a little bit of camera trickery, framing the shot so that Ian moves in, the fly camera pans from the fly to him, we hear a flutter of wings and Ian looks up as if the fly flew off.
   So now Barbara has done the twisted ankle and the fainting bit.  She even came close to giving up until Ian gave her a pep talk. I can make excuses, but if I make them it's to preserve the integrity of the character, not to defend the choices that the scriptwriter made.
   My excuse for the fainting is the fact that she's poisoned.  A minute after the fly goes away, it lands on the poisoned seeds and dies almost instantly.  This is nasty stuff and Barbara had a dose of it.  It's put her off her game and caused her to collapse in a situation where she normally wouldn't.  The twisted ankle earlier was just a fluke thing, could happen to anyone.
   I emphasize again that I'm making this excuse for the sake of a character that is one of my favorite companions. 
   The Doctor and Susan make it up the drain pipe and into a sink.  The Doctor is exhausted.  The sink acts as an echo chamber and Susan is quickly able to get the attention of Ian and Barbara.  The four plan to head down the drain when Smithers comes in to wash up.  Ian and Barabara, who hadn't made it down the sink, go in one direction.  While the Doctor and Susan hide in the drain. 
   Smithers washes up and drains the sink.
   Aside from the writing decisions regarding Barbara this was a good one.  The sets are effective, things move quickly and they even manage to throw in some science explaining that the sound of a shrunken human voice be be too high for normal humans to understand what someone was saying while at the same time making the "giants" voices sound like thunder.
   Smithers and Forrester don't come off as terribly well rounded, but they are competently acted.

Next up: Crisis

Ep. 43 Planet of Giants

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 just know that the most dangerous moment is the moment of materialization."

   This story exists in the BBC archives, but has yet to be released on DVD.  So Ang and I are still watching this online.  Don't worry Auntie Beeb, you'll get {more of our} our money soon enough. 
   This one may hold a special place in Ang's heart.  It features gardening, a cat and an evil businessman.  The first two she loves and the third she hates enough to (probably) be glad when she sees his comeuppance.
   The TARDIS is in transit after leaving 18th century France.  Barbara burns her hand on the over heating TARDIS console.  Susan checks the Fault Locator and reads off the code to the Doctor.  All of a sudden the fecal matter hits the fan, Susan is screaming and the TARDIS doors open while they're about to materialize.  The Doctor has no idea what caused this and urges the others to push the doors closed while he steers the ship.
   They do and things seem to return to normal.  The Doctor is still in a state though.  Ian and Barbara are unsure as to why.  Did anything get out or into the TARDIS?  The Doctor tells them no, they are thinking too much in 20th century terms, this is time travel.
   They run checks on the ship only to find that everything is running nominal (a little shout out to my MST3K friends.)  Everything outside the ship comes up safe for human life, but when they turn on the scanner it explodes.  Almost as if it was trying to show something too big for it to contain. 
   The Doctor apologizes to Barbara for his temper getting the better of him when things were going pear shaped.  When they decide to go exploring he teams up with Barbara.  This isn't the first time that this has happened. 
   As a brief aside, I've been meaning to point out the fact that the Doctor has been getting Chesterton's name right for the past several episodes.  I haven't been keeping proper track of it, but the last time that I can remember the Doctor mangling Ian's name was in The Brink of Destruction.  It's possible that it happened again after that, but it didn't register.
   The Doctor and Barbara encounter a giant earth worm.  Barbara initially believes that it is a giant snake.  They go on a little ways and discover a 12 foot long log that's burnt on one end.  The Doctor comes to the obvious conclusion that opening the TARDIS doors during materialization somehow shrank the TARDIS and it's occupants. He estimates that they are about an inch tall.
   Susan comes to the same conclusion after she and Ian encounter a dead ant the size of Ian's forearm, a seed package the size of a highway billboard and a matchbox the size of a ferrari.
   On the plus side they did have Susan make the leap that they had shrunk.  On the down side she got hysterical at the sight of a giant ant.  Come on people, she's been on at least six alien worlds that we know of and seen some pretty weird crap along the way, she shouldn't scream at every thing that isn't "normal."
   Ian ends up getting stuck inside the matchbox when it's owner comes to retrieve it.  He gets carried to a nearby house where the aforementioned cat and evil businessman live. 
   The owner of the matchbox turns out to be a man from the ministry come to tell the evil businessman that he's made an evil insecticide (DN6)  that will kill ALL insects including the helpful ones.  He can't give authorization for it to be used even though Forrester (the evil businessman) has already invested his entire fortune getting everything set to go into production.
   Forrester, being an evil businessman on the edge of financial ruin, takes out a revolver and kills the man with the matchbox.  They don't actually show the shooting, they cut to the Doctor and the ladies.  We hear the revolver through their ears.  Something like a clap of thunder or a cannon.
   Ian makes it out of the matchbox, sees the dead giant civil servant and manages to make it to the edge of the path where the others have gotten to.  They take note of all of the dead insect life and are thankful that they didn't have to deal with these things alive.  At that moment the cat shows up looking hungry.
   This story works well.  The premise is straight forward.  The audience figures out what is going on a little before the TARDIS crew, but we have the advantage of having read the title of the episode and they only spend a few minutes gathering clues before the Doctor and Susan make their independent conclusions.
   The ecological aspect of the story is a direct response to the Rachel Carson book Silent Spring which came out a couple years before this story. 
  An out of control pesticide had the additional benefit of helping the visuals of this story.  It's a lot easier to make a semi-believable dead giant earthworm, ant and bee then to make the same creatures move around.  We'll see a story with moving insects a little later in the season and it won't hold up as well as this one does.
   The science of how the TARDIS got shrunk is a bit wonky and the part about the scanner exploding is pure bullshit, but that doesn't matter.  We got to see giant bugs and that's worth the price of admission alone.

Next up: Dangerous Journey

Seaon One Overview

   Ang and I have reached the end of the first season of Doctor Who and I would like to take a moment and look back, catch my breath and just throw out even more opinions.
   Doctor Who Magazine used to have an end of season poll that rated that season's episodes from best to worst received.  They may still do that, but I fell away from reading the magazine a few years before the series returned in 2005.
   I was tempted to do the same thing here, but it's pretty tough to do with this season.  How do I compare the Reign of Terror, Marco Polo and The Aztecs?  Only one is complete and on DVD, one is audio only and the other is two thirds gone and only viewable online.  All are excellent stories, but I can only view one in the manner that it was intended to be seen.
   I've decided to just go through a little overview of each serial with a quick review of what went right and wrong in my own, not so humble opinion.
   Here we go.

An Unearthly Child
   This is where it begins folks.  Of the first season serials this is the one that I've seen the most.  Before we got this on DVD I had it on VHS.  Before I had it on VHS I had the Target novelization.  Before I had the Target novelization I REALLY wanted the Target novelization.
   It's magic and wonderful and still hits me in a very special part of my psyche.  There's too much to love to go into without taking up this entire post.  The best moments of Doctor Who are sometimes hard to share with non-Whovians; the moments of awesome frequently require some context while the embarrassing bits don't.  The first episode of this story is among the finest single episodes in Doctor Who history and makes a great introduction to the series.
   It is also a four episode serial which is the ideal length for a Doctor Who story IMO.

The Daleks
   My appreciation for this story rose with this viewing.  Watching this one episode a day allowed the story to digest properly.  All of my previous viewings of the story were done in one sitting.  At seven episodes this one clocks in at about three hours.  There can and have been three hour long movies that are amazing to watch.  This story was not intended to be watched that way though.  Trying to watch it in one sitting doesn't do the source material justice.
   Cutting the story down to the bare bones might have worked, but I'm not optimistic.  A stripped down version of this story was made into the Peter Cushing feature film Dr. Who and the Daleks.  All of the plot points are there, but some of the soul of the story is gone.
   The scene between Ian and Ganatus trying to cross the underground chasm is one of the finest performances of the season.  It certainly vies for a place of honor in my ranking of Doctor Who moments.  Ganatus' death meant something in the TV show while his survival in the motion picture meant nothing to me.
    There is some padding in this, but most of it is character development.

The Edge of Destruction
   An excellent little breather for the TARDIS crew.  A short two parter.  The first episode was directed by Trevor Martin, the second by Frank Cox.  Martin's is superior.  I wish that both episodes could have been directed by Martin.
   This story marked the second or third time that the series was almost cancelled.  A crazed Susan threatens Ian with a pair of sharp scissors.  The Children's Department already had a bug up their butt about not producing Doctor Who (it was always done by the Drama Department) and this gave them ammunition to go after the series.  Verity Lambert saved the show, again.
    This is the story that makes two groups of strangers into a team, possibly a family.

Marco Polo
   This is the first time that my opinion diverges significantly from Ang's.  I really liked Darren Nesbitt's performance as Tegana.  I thought that the character was well written and the acting choices made by Nesbitt kept the character from going over the top.  Consequently I rate this as being an excellent story.  It's a damn shame that it no longer survives intact.
   Ang, on the other hand, thought that the story was OK at the time, but not that great in hindsight.
   Like the Daleks this story (seven episodes long) works better in small doses.  The only time that I've listened to this story previously was on a very long road trip and the combination of navigation, paying attention to the road and the inevitable padding were enough to keep me from fully enjoying this story.

The Keys of Marinus
   The second time that my opinion diverges from the Wife.  She likes it, I don't.  She agrees with many of my criticisms of the story, but still likes it.
   Originally Terry Nation was going to write a story called the Red Fort a piece about the British Raj.  That fell through for various reasons.  I've read some conflicting reports about what happened, but the long and the short of it was that Nation could write fast and they needed a science fiction story stat.
   In the case of the Daleks he wrote fast and well.  This time he wrote fast and lazy.  The Snows of Terror is the worst episode of the first season.  At one point William Russel looks pissed off at even being in a piece of crap like this.
   I'll leave on a positive note, The Velvet Web is a fine episode.

The Aztecs
   Barbara's time to shine.  Four episodes of ethics and adventure.   There are some fans of the modern series who think that the new series introduced the concept of time travel ethics to Doctor Who.  This story show how uninformed that opinion is.
   This season as a whole goes into issues of the morality of what the travelers do.  From Ian's doubts about turning the Thal's into an army to the fall or Robespierre.  The writers were throwing in something more than just easy adventure fiction.  This story is the highlight of that debate and one of Barbara's finest hours.

The Sensorites
   A good solid story that suffers from two episodes of padding of six.   Susan gets to briefly shine.  The Sensorites are an interesting species.  If I were to rate the season in order of best to worst this would probably rate as next to worst ahead of Marinus.
   That doesn't really reflect the quality of the story, it's quiet a bit better than Marinus.  In fact I'd probably have to invent some stories to place between it and Marinus to reflect that gap in quality.  Maybe Carole Anne Ford Reads a Grocery List or Bill Russel Scratches Himself For Half an Hour would properly reflect stories that weren't as good as Sensorites but were still superior to The Keys of Marinus.

The Reign of Terror
   The only six (or more) parter this season that doesn't feel padded.  Spooner manages this by  having a relatively large cast that he juggles very well without skimping on the regular's time in the spotlight.  Except for Susan.
   Susan is probably the worst used of the companions in the first season.  Barbara and Ian are given several opportunities to shine throughout the series while Susan only gets the odd moment.  I can see why Carole Ann Ford decided to leave the series early in the second season.  She does very little other than whine and act ill in this story.
   The Doctor has some of his best moments of the first season, outwitting those in authority and playing games with Lamaitre.  He is a liar and a trickster.  You can easily believe that he stole his TARDIS and ran off to see the universe.

  That's it.  We'll begin viewing the second season tonight with an episode that debuted on Halloween 1964.