Ep. 36 A Desperate Venture

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.


"We'll all go home someday."

   After a two episode vacation Barbara returns to sort things out.
   I'm not kidding.  After the last two episodes stretching things out for all that they're worth Barbara Wright shows up in the first minute and gets the plot moving.
   The Second Elder (nee City Administrator) tries to convince the humans that Carol hasn't been kidnapped with a coerced note.  Denied by the history teacher.  The Doctor didn't want Susan to know where they had gone.  Barbara gets the First Elder to spill.
   They quickly rescue Carol and a little bit of off screen interrogation gets Lackey to confess that the Doctor and Ian's mission into the aqueduct was sabotaged.  Barbara and John plan to go after them using the Sensorite telepathic technology to communicate with Susan who will guide them with unadulterated maps and models.
   The Doctor and Ian encounter the three unaccounted for humans from the previous mission five years earlier. They are hairy, unkempt, presumed smelly.  Also completely and utterly bug nuts.
   They believe that they are at war with the Sensorites.  The deadly nightshade that they harvest is referred to as "ammunition."  The Commander talks about "the men" as if he has a battalion under his command.  There was a point when he tells one of his soldiers to round up "the men" and let "the men" know that they've done a good job.  "The men" consist of the other guy with a big pointy stick, or as I affectionately dubbed him, Steve.
   This was one of the good ones.  Not great, but it got things back on track after a couple so so eps.  Susan never quiet regained the spotlight that she had in the first couple of episodes in the serial, but she was given more to work with than she had in the previous two weeks.  There is a nice scene between her and the Doctor towards the end where they talk about going home.  It's a rare look into the Doctor's (and Susan's) background.  Things are vague and the audience has so little information that they can make up just about anything.  If the internet existed in 1964 I can only imagine the speculation that would have gone on.
   The first hints of Susan's desire to leave the Doctor were made earlier in the serial and they resurface here.  It might be reading between the lines on my part though.
   There is a brief view of Maitland's ship leaving for Earth.  It's only on screen for a split second, but it qualifies as the first time we see the exterior of a spaceship (other than the TARDIS) in Doctor Who.  You're welcome for the useless trivia.

  
Next up: A Land of Fear