Ep. 28 The Warriors of Death

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

"How shall a man know his gods?"

   This was a gem.
   The series as a whole has been building up a deep relationship between the Doctor and Barbara.  Not romantic, more along the lines of a deep friendship.  We see the first glimmer of this on Skaro and the full realization when Barbara takes the Doctor's arm at the end of The Brink of Destruction.
    Over the course of the series so far the writers have made it clear that Barbara and the Doctor aren't on the same page all of the time.  This serial brings those differences to the forefront.
    Barbara has been the most humane member of the TARDIS crew while the Doctor can be callous about the welfare of others.  The Doctor is very pragmatic in this story, insisting that they shouldn't interfere with the customs and religions of the Aztecs.  Barbara wants to save lives.
   This episode begins with the Doctor confronting Barbara over her handling of the human sacrifice from the last episode.  The beautiful thing about it is that they are both right, but in different ways and for different reasons. 
   This also marks the first time that I think that Barbara has wept on camera.  It's not entirely a reaction to the argument with the Doctor although it springs from it; it's a reaction to her inability to preserve the life of the sacrifice.  I suspect that Lucarotti wrote it as a way to end the discussion cleanly, but Jacqueline Hill pulled off an impressive bit of acting and transformed the piece into something more subtle than a woman crying at an argument with an alpha male.
   This was a great scene.  Both Hill and Hartnell were in fine form and they had a script worthy of their efforts.
   The rest of the episode is filled with maneuverings by the villainous Tlotoxl.  Tlotoxl is sowing seeds of discord for Barbara and her "servants."  He's arranged for Barbara to be tested and for her servants to have no contact with her.
   When Ian proves able to deftly defeat Ixta in unarmed combat (thanks to some modern martial arts techniques) Tlotoxl manages to force a rematch.
   It turns out that Ixta is the son of the architect who designed the tomb.  The same person that Cameca made reference to last episode.  She arranges the meeting between the Doctor and Ixta without revealing Ixta's name.  Ixta tells the Doctor that he'd love to show the Doctor the plans to the tomb, but he may have to put himself into short term social exile if he looses a fight with another warrior later that day.
   The Doctor gives Ixta a cactus needle coated with a sleeping drug.  That will insure Ixta's victory and allow him to show the Doctor the tomb diagrams that evening.
   Susan doesn't see much use this episode.  She's in "seminary" learning about Aztec culture after she caused a minor disturbance at the end of the last episode.  The pretext allows Lucarotti to throw in some more of the day to day life of the Aztecs, but doesn't impact the plot very much at this point.
   The episode ends with Ian about to be killed by Ixta.  Barbara tries to stop it only to be confronted by Tlotoxl with a challenge to stop it herself.

Next up: The Bride of Sacrifice