"I'm rather tired of your insinuations that I'm not master of this craft."
The Reign of Terror is missing a couple episodes, but will be released on DVD with animation for the missing bits. That won't be out for a while yet, so we're stuck watching this on the intrawebs using our CD to cover the missing eps.
At the end of the last story Ian made an offhand comment to the Doctor that he didn't know where they were going. It was said in a good hearted manner, but the Doctor chose to be deeply offended declaring that he would put the two teachers off his Ship.
We pick up tonight's episode with the Doctor still in a huff. He's so convinced that he's got the pair of them home that he doesn't even bother doing the safety checks that he usually performs before opening the TARDIS doors. It's a wonderful performance by Hartnell, one that I'm glad has survived intact.
Ian and Barbara manage to get the Doctor to go with them under the pretense of having a goodbye drink before the Doctor returns top his very important explorations of the universe. Russel and Hill rise to Hartnell's performance and deliver a gem of a performance twisting the Doctor's arm. Barbara looks positively coquettish resting her head on the Doctor's shoulder. I didn't think that was possible.
The travelers explore the country side that they find themselves in. The trees are terran and the cultivated fields suggest civilization, but the lack of artificial lights makes the teachers wonder if they really have made it back to their own time.
They find a ragged boy who's scared out of his wits. They ask him if this is England. It turns out that they are about 12 km out of Paris. The boy runs off before they can ascertain the year. The Doctor feels OK about being about a hundred miles off; when you consider the scale involved it's not that much of a difference really.
The boy beats checks to an abandoned looking farm house.
The travelers find the same farm house and begin to explore. The Doctor goes upstairs to explore and get conked on the head by the boy's presumed allies.
The others find a stash of clothes, maps, forged documents and food. They surmise that this is the stopping off point for people fleeing from something. The documents and the period clothing are enough to tell them that they are smack dab in the middle of the French Revolution, the Doctor's favorite historical period of Earth.
Come to think of it, France is probably the second most popular place on Earth for the Doctor to land in the classic series after England.
Susan, Ian and Barbara change into the period clothing they find. Ian is still adjusting his buttons when a pair of men with guns enters and puts begins to question them. The leader is calm and controlled while his compatriot is dangerously nervous.
While they question the travelers a dozen French soldiers surround the building. Calling them soldiers is a bit of an exaggeration. They're more like a uniformed mob. There's a one-eyed soldier that is grossly insubordinate to his sergeant. The sergeant makes a tasteless joke about the guy's missing eye.
The nervous guy runs out only to be captured by the mob. The rest are soon captured. The leader and the nervous guy get shot, the Doctor is left behind to die in the burning building while the others are taken to Paris as prisoners.
This was a good set up for the story. This is the first Doctor Who story written by Dennis Spooner. If I remember correctly he mostly wrote historical stories with a dark sense of humor. The leader was played by a good actor even though he died before the end credits of the episode that introduced him, not that I'm still bitter about The Keys of Marinus.
Next up: Guest of Madame Guillotine
Ooh, "dangerously nervous" --I like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm sure the boy did beat "checks" to the farmhouse since I'm sure any sort of postal service was slow and I'm not really sure how the financial system worked during this period in France.