"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
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