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.
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