Wow.
This was not a good episode. Every once in a while a serial has a slow episode. Sometimes it's padding, sometimes exposition, sometimes they just needed to stretch the story an extra episode for logistical reasons (I'm looking at you Mind Robber.)
This one seems to be a bit of all three.
Which is a shame since this is also the episode where we get to meet the villain of the piece, the Animus. I have to give praise to the actor voicing the Animus. She has this amazing voice that is full of pregnant menace and her lines are well written. Based on this one episode and turning a blind eye to what is going on around the baddie, this is a really good villain.
The script is OK, but not amazing. Barbara is absent which hardly ever works out well (see The Sensorites.) The Doctor gets some good lines in his discussion with the Animus, but to do so he has to sit under what he himself calls a hairdryer. O'Brien isn't given much to work with. Ian has an OK scene with Vrestin, but that turns comical as soon as she starts to walk "Menoptera style."
The continuity of the piece is weak at times. If the dialog hadn't expressly stated that the Animus' weapon had tried (and failed) to damage the TARDIS I would have thought that it had fired on a Zarbi instead.
This is also the episode where a Zarbi runs into a camera.
With all that said, this is not the worst Hartnell episode that I've rewatched to date. That prize goes to The Snows of Death.
Next up: The Crater of Needles
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