Today will be a double posting day (knock on wood.) I'll start with the episode that we watched last night and then write up today's ep some time after we've watched it.
The Doctor has been sent to the processing center to be prepped to become an exhibit in the museum. We don't see him again this episode so I'm going out on a limb and saying that Bill Hartnell had a week off.
The other three were skulking around outside the area where the TARDIS had been brought.
There are many times when you are watching something with a military element, be it science fiction, historical drama or modern day and you can't help but wonder how the hell the enemy actually managed to get their organization off the ground with such a gang of bungling incompetents doing their evil bidding. We've all seen movies where a ragtag bunch of people with little to no actual combat skill and are thrust together and, without having worked together before, manage to beat/avoid a force at least ten times their size.
Enough about Star Wars though.
In this story the incompetence of the guards makes perfect sense. This place isn't the ultra top secret base of the dark overlords Parliament of Pain. It's a little backwater that used to be a tourist destination. Maybe they see two ships a year. The talented soldiers get the tough assignments; the dreck of the Morok military end up on Xeros.
And they can't stop bitching about it either. The quotes for this and last episode were these little soliloquies of pissines delivered by a Morok officer to his subordinate.
That doesn't take away from Ian's moment of awesome that occurs after the travelers are discovered by one of the guards.
The guard is armed and pointing his weapon straight at the three travelers. Ian starts moving forward telling the guard that his orders were to capture the prisoners, not kill them. He keeps pounding at the point that killing an unarmed party (my turn of phrase, not Ian's) would look pretty bad when the orders were to capture them. Ian slowly moves forward during all of this and beats the gun out of the soldier's hand.
As a side note, this had to have been the most patient guard that I have ever seen in my life. Between the time that he tells the three that they are his prisoners and the time that he tells them to be quiet the three have enough time to stage a full production of Hamlet. Vicki was brilliant as the titular Danish prince and I wept when Ian's Ophelia drowned.
The struggle with the guard alerts the others who are in the next room. Ian finishes the guard that he is working on and yells to the others to run. Ian takes on two soldiers solo while the rest bolt after Vicki and Barbara.
Ian kicks some serious ass in this one including a pretty impressive double throw that has to be seen. Ian has been the action hero of the series from day one and shows his chops in this, his next to last story.
Barbara finds a storage closet or display room to hide in while Vicki gets grabbed by the Xerans.
Vicki really steps up in this one. She decides that she will help the rebellion and prevent the future where she's gawked at by bored Moroks for a nickel a head.
She immediately takes control of the situation. The Xerans outnumber the Moroks, but are outgunned by them. She simply decides that they'll need to get the Moroks' weapons and asks about their armory.
The Moroks, being absurdly bureaucratic, have a computer lock set to open only when the questions are answered correctly and truthfully. There's some sort of lie detector attached. The questions go on for a long time and are as redundant as one might expect from an author who's had to work with the BBC.
Vicki reprograms the questions so that all she has to do is answer two questions. What's your name? Vicki. And: What are these weapons for? Revolution.
It's a very nice moment for a companion who's been little used the last few stories.
Ian, it turns out, hid behind the TARDIS after his display of the arts martial. He manages to capture to lone guard and forces him to take Ian to the processing center where the Doctor is.
While this is going on one of Vicki's Xeran minions has found Barbara and starts to take her to the others. Just then a Morok gas attack begins. They don't make it out of the building before being knocked out.
Ian gets to the governor and takes him prisoner as well. The episode ends with Ian finding the Doctor partially processed.
This was an excellent episode for Vicki and Ian. Barbara had a bit less to do, but that's the reality of having an ensemble cast; sometimes the other stars need to shine. Barbara is still far in the lead in terms of memorable moments.
I suspect that Vicki's work with the Xerans was originally written for the Doctor and when they decided to give Hartnell a week off they rewrote the scenes for Vicki. It makes sense given the character's background and education to be able to reprogram a computer. Another futuristic companion named Zoe will do something similar in the Troughton story The Invasion, but that reprogramming isn't as integral to the plot as Vicki's.
This isn't a highpoint of the Hartnell years, but it's far from the low.
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| Vicki showing technology who's boss. |
Next up: The Final Phase
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