"Exploitation indeed! This, Sir, is protracted murder!"
When I was a young teenager, I remember reading the line "any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved with mankind." It was quoted in one of the Doctor Who novelizations that I read back in my pre-VHS days. It wasn't used in the original script, but used as literary shorthand to explain the (second) Doctor's character.
This episode reminded me of that offhand reference made by Terrance Dicks 25 or so years ago.
Hartnell shines in this. He discovers the truth about the Elders' society and still insists on trying to help one savage that he finds crumpled and near dead after being drained of life force. He all but throws the Dunne quotation at the guard who tries to take him from the downed savage. It takes one of the Elders' light guns to make the Doctor leave the drained man's side.
The same moral conviction that was played for laughs in The Gunfighters is given a proper forum in this story. Hartnell does outrage very well and its good to see him given something this solid after the poor writing of his character in the previous story.
The set up is a clever dystopia of the sort that rarely sees proper realization in science fiction. Ian Stuart Black put careful thought into the world that he was creating, down to the light guns. They're a weapon that forces the target to move where the firer wants. It has a stun setting. The perfect weapon to safely transport the savages to the life siphoning chamber.
For his outrage at the Elders' society, the Doctor ends up getting his life force sucked out.
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