Written by Terry Nation | Directed by John Gorrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 05/09/64
Ian awakes, rubbing the back of his head in pain. He's startled when a seated person behind him starts questioning him. His name is Tarron, and he wants to know why Ian stole the micro-key. It has to be noted that the reprise from the last episode shows someone with a black glove in a black jacket framing Ian, and the person questioning Ian fits the description. It turns out that all the guards in Miliennius, the city where we later learn the travelers find themselves, all dress this way.
Tarron explains the only way to get into the room is if the guard lets you in, otherwise they'd have failed the "probity check," and not be allowed in. Tarron explains Ian is being charged with murder of the guard he found lying on the ground before he was attacked, and he discovers that here, the accused are guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around, and it's a serious charge, since the penalty for being convicted is death. He's asked if he knows anyone who can defend him, and he says he can think of someone. Tarron asks him, who, and Ian replies, "Who? Heh... he's a Doctor," which is a borderline "Doctor Who" joke, but thankfully isn't, quite. It's close enough to still annoy me, though.
Later, when Susan, Barbara, Altos, and Sabetha are visiting Ian (it's never explained why only Ian showed up at the location of the microkey, or where everyone else was), the Doctor finally shows up after being out of the past few episodes and claims he'll defend Ian in court.
The trial immediately begins, and the Doctor's first tactic is to stall for time. He claims (understandably) that he needs time to not only study the case at hand, but to study the legal system of Milennius, sine they're all travelers and are unfamiliar with their system of laws. The judges (there are three of them, though only one ever speaks, the other two just nod vigorously) agree, and grant him two days. The Doctor assigns Altos and Sabetha to research past murder trials (there apparently aren't many in Milennius), and assigns Susan and Barbara the task of being his detectives. Ian asks what he can do, and the Doctor reassures him, "Trust me." Ian, frustrated but happy for the Doctor's help, sighs and lowers his head in resigned frustration.
As Altos and Sabetha read up on past cases in the Milennius library, the Doctor, Susan, and Barbara investigate the room where the micro-key was kept, and do a re-enactment of how they believe the murder happened (which must have been very strange for viewers in 1964, so soon after John F. Kennedy's death, in which the public had already begun to be inundated with theories about how the assassination actually happened). This scene is pretty entertaining, it has to be said - there hasn't been many scenes like it in Doctor Who thus far, and the Doctor is clearly relishing the puzzle. He concludes the relief guard is the likely murderer and key thief, but he has no proof, yet. We get a very unfortunate Billy Fluff in this scene regarding what the murderer did with the key: "I can't improve in this moment. I can't prove in this very moment that Chesterton didn't hide it in it's present location," which really must have upset Hartnell when he realized that line had to stay in, though I'm sure he assumed it'd only be seen the once in May of 1964, not viewed millions of times by people for the decades to follow.
Barbara and Susan go to interview the relief guard, a man named Ayden. He isn't home, and as they're talking to his wife, Kala, Ayden bursts in, not noticing Barbara or Susan yet. He excitedly tells Kala he's sorry he is getting home late, he was being questioned about the... and then he noticed the strangers in his home. He immediately clams up and acts super suspicious to the point that it's immediately obvious to the viewer that not only is he involved, he probably is the murderer and thief. Susan accuses him of killing Eprin (the name of the dead man in the opening scene), and he's about the backhand her, but his wife restrains him. Barbara and Susan leave, but eavesdrop on the other side of the door to the conversation. Kala tells Ayden he needs to calm down, and he gets upset with her, tells her not to talk to him that way, and slaps her (even if this guy weren't guilty, I want consequences for him now!). It seems some of the guards are in on it, but are they all?
Back in the courtroom, the Doctor makes his play. He claims the real murderer is in the room with them now, and it's not Ian. He calls Sabetha to the stand as his witness. She holds up a micro-key and points Ayden out as the killer. He freaks out and starts to spill the beans, saying "I'll tell you everything! I'm not alone, they made me do it. I'll tell you-" but he is killed in the throng of people surrounding him. When things calm down, the trial resumes, and since Ian still hasn't been proven innocent - Ayden could have been his conspirator - he is judged as guilty. Turns out Sabetha just held up one of the other micro-keys they've collected over the past several episodes, so it was all a trick on the Doctor's part. The Doctor asks for more time but isn't granted any, which I find very strange considering they just witnessed a murder in the court and murder is apparently rare in Milennius as it is. Surely they'd grant the Doctor some more time, and wouldn't they try to figure out who killed Ayden before passing judgment on Ian, since it's all related? They don't even go so far as to say Ian did it, they just move to declare him guilty and that's that. It's very strange.
Outside the court room, Barbara is given a note that someone else will die if they disclose the true location of the key. She then receives a phone all, and it's Susan, telling her that she's been kidnapped and she's the one who will be killed if they reveal where the key is, and we cut to credits.
Like others have noted before me (Sandifer, for one), this is very much like Doctor Who meets Phoenix Wright, and I have to admit I quite enjoy it, just like I like those ridiculous video games. It also strikes me that the Doctor does well in court - I wish we saw him acting as a lawyer more than here and in Trial of a Timelord (which manages to out-ham this one by a fair margin). The Keys of Marinus' guilty pleasure charm rolls on into tomorrow's episode, which I don't think is quite as good as these past few episodes, but is still good enough.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Keys of Marinus"
KAZIN WHO - One episode and one blog of Doctor Who every weekday
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
"The Snows of Terror" - Season 1, Episode 24
Written by Terry Nation | Directed by John Gorrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 05/02/64
Barbara and Ian, delirious with cold, pass out on what we discover is a mountain. A creepy, bearded man discovers them and takes them to his hut. He is played as a creep almost immediately - when Barbara comes to, he's watching her, and explains that her hands are slightly frostbitten. He explains to her that she'll need to rub them to bring circulation back, and demonstrates. How Barbara doesn't recoil in disgust is beyond me. He asks her if she's afraid of him - implying that she probably should be (she should be). He claims to have killed a wolf with his bare hands, so he doesn't get many visitors because people are afraid of him. I'd say, even if that weren't true, I still wouldn't want to visit the beardy creep at his reclusive hut on the freezing cold mountain. He says his name is Vasor, and that he found the two of them on the side of the mountain, and with the help of some "madman," carried them to his hut. He says the madman was looking for two girls, which Ian and Barbara think is probably Altos looking for Susan and Sabetha. Ian wants to go looking for them, but knows he'll freeze quickly with just his regular clothes on. He asks Vasor for some furs, but Vasor claims to be a poor man and doesn't want to lose any money if Ian falls down a ravine or gets otherwise killed and doesn't come back with his furs, so Ian trades his travel bracelet for some clothes and takes off, leaving Barbara all alone with beardy creep.
As soon as Ian's gone, Vasor bolts the door shut, rubs his hand together, and approaches Barbara, saying, "There, we're alone." Barbara says Ian will be back, to which Vasor replies, "We'll see. I'll go get food, we must fatten you up!" How creepy can this guy get? They eat some food, and he tells Barbara to clean up, and when she does, she opens a drawer and finds a few travel bracelets and the keys of Marinus they've already found. Vasor roars in anger for her looking in the drawer, and explains that he traded food and flint for the keys and bracelets, which Barbara knows is a lie, since they'd never trade the keys. She accuses him of stealing it all, and Vasor laughs when Barbara says he'll be in trouble when Ian gets back. "He doesn't know what I've put in his bag," he says.
Ian comes across Altos, tied up and left for dead on the mountain. He frees him and Altos explains that he was attacked by Vasor. Ian realizes his mistake and they hurry back to the hut, but in their rush, Ian's bag opens and out falls raw meat, which Vasor put there to lure the packs of wolves (Vasor isn't the most intelligent hermit you'll ever meet - why he didn't just kill off Ian and Altos and take Barbara back to his house, we'll never know).
Just before Ian and Altos return, we see Vasor and Barbara struggling, and - in the scariest moment of the episode - Barbara is pushed onto the bed while Vasor looms over her, the closest I think the show has ever come to hinting that a companion is about to be raped (from what I can recall - it may not be sexual, but the Sixth Doctor's choking of Peri in Twin Dilemma is somehow harder to watch than this, and this is pretty intense for a 1960 sci-fi show primarily for children). Luckily, Ian and Altos show up before Vasor reaches her, and Barbara is able to fend Vasor off as she unlocks the door for them. They force Vasor to take them to the caves where he apparently left Susan and Sabetha.
They arrive at an ice cave (which is actually cellophane, adorably), and Vasor does not want to go in - he claims there's demons inside. We see Susan and Sabetha exploring deeper into the cave to try to find the exit, and they cross a rickety old rope bridge and find a weird room with four unmoving men guarding a block of ice (with one of the keys of Marinus frozen inside it, we later find out. It's hard to see, probably because suspending a piece of plastic in a block of ice is a bit beyond the BBCs budget for this episode). They double back, and everyone meets up at the rope bridge, which Vasor cuts down, trapping them all on the side with the key but, crucially, without their travel bracelets. Why the hell Ian didn't take all that stuff when they left Vasor's hut, I have no idea, it's common freaking sense. Barbara knew about them, too, so it's not like they were unaware of their location! They need to find something to cross the gap with, as Ian claims it's too wide to jump, mercifully saving us from another slog of a half episode of people jumping over a freaking chasm (which would have been the second time in the same season Nation pulled that same lame plot point. Hell, having to make a bridge across a gap isn't all that different. At least here it's not like twenty minutes of plot total).
When the arrive at the room with the four unmoving men, they notice a pipe surrounding the ice, with a valve attached to it. They turn the valve and notice it's getting warm, so they leave it on so the ice will melt and go back to build the bridge so they can get back to Vasor's hut to get the travel bracelets that they should have just friggin' brought with them in the first place. After they tie together some blocks of ice and lay it across the gap to freeze in place, they go back to collect the key, to see that the men have awoken and are attacking them. They grab the key and run back to the ice bridge, which Susan has successfully crossed, but it collapsed just after. She reattaches the bridge to the wall and everyone crosses. Once across, Ian detaches the bridge again to slow the "ice warriors" (as the subtitles call them - no indication here if they're from Mars) down. One falls down the crevasse as he does so. They all get back to Vasor's, get their stuff, and are about to teleport away when Vasor grabs Susan near the door - but before he can do anything, he is stabbed through the door by one of the "ice warriors" polearms. The group teleports away before the ice men get inside.
We then see Ian find a body on the ground, which he begins inspecting, as he's struck from behind by an unseen person wearing a glove. This person puts his weapon in Ian's hand, clearly intending to frame him for the attack, and opens the glass case behind Ian as an alarm goes off. He takes what will turn out to be the last key of Marinus and the episode ends.
Hartnell has been absent for a lot of the episodes, lately, which is odd to think about since this is the first season of the show in which he's the pseudonymous character. I barely noticed, though, because though these last two episodes have had their faults, I've largely enjoyed them. I can't help but make fun of Terry Nation sometimes, but he does know how to write for 1960s British television in a way that mostly holds up today. Some of his plotting and dialogue can be sloppy, but he usually has pretty good ideas. Vasor is an absolute creep and is way scarier and more devious than the frozen ice men in the cave and is the main reason why I like this episode so much (I hate the character, of course, but he's just so gross and awful that I find him compelling to watch). Still, I'm glad Hartnell is coming back in tomorrow's episode - we get few enough extant episodes with him actually in them, it sucks when non-missing episodes don't even have the main character.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Sentence of Death"
Barbara and Ian, delirious with cold, pass out on what we discover is a mountain. A creepy, bearded man discovers them and takes them to his hut. He is played as a creep almost immediately - when Barbara comes to, he's watching her, and explains that her hands are slightly frostbitten. He explains to her that she'll need to rub them to bring circulation back, and demonstrates. How Barbara doesn't recoil in disgust is beyond me. He asks her if she's afraid of him - implying that she probably should be (she should be). He claims to have killed a wolf with his bare hands, so he doesn't get many visitors because people are afraid of him. I'd say, even if that weren't true, I still wouldn't want to visit the beardy creep at his reclusive hut on the freezing cold mountain. He says his name is Vasor, and that he found the two of them on the side of the mountain, and with the help of some "madman," carried them to his hut. He says the madman was looking for two girls, which Ian and Barbara think is probably Altos looking for Susan and Sabetha. Ian wants to go looking for them, but knows he'll freeze quickly with just his regular clothes on. He asks Vasor for some furs, but Vasor claims to be a poor man and doesn't want to lose any money if Ian falls down a ravine or gets otherwise killed and doesn't come back with his furs, so Ian trades his travel bracelet for some clothes and takes off, leaving Barbara all alone with beardy creep.
As soon as Ian's gone, Vasor bolts the door shut, rubs his hand together, and approaches Barbara, saying, "There, we're alone." Barbara says Ian will be back, to which Vasor replies, "We'll see. I'll go get food, we must fatten you up!" How creepy can this guy get? They eat some food, and he tells Barbara to clean up, and when she does, she opens a drawer and finds a few travel bracelets and the keys of Marinus they've already found. Vasor roars in anger for her looking in the drawer, and explains that he traded food and flint for the keys and bracelets, which Barbara knows is a lie, since they'd never trade the keys. She accuses him of stealing it all, and Vasor laughs when Barbara says he'll be in trouble when Ian gets back. "He doesn't know what I've put in his bag," he says.
Ian comes across Altos, tied up and left for dead on the mountain. He frees him and Altos explains that he was attacked by Vasor. Ian realizes his mistake and they hurry back to the hut, but in their rush, Ian's bag opens and out falls raw meat, which Vasor put there to lure the packs of wolves (Vasor isn't the most intelligent hermit you'll ever meet - why he didn't just kill off Ian and Altos and take Barbara back to his house, we'll never know).
Just before Ian and Altos return, we see Vasor and Barbara struggling, and - in the scariest moment of the episode - Barbara is pushed onto the bed while Vasor looms over her, the closest I think the show has ever come to hinting that a companion is about to be raped (from what I can recall - it may not be sexual, but the Sixth Doctor's choking of Peri in Twin Dilemma is somehow harder to watch than this, and this is pretty intense for a 1960 sci-fi show primarily for children). Luckily, Ian and Altos show up before Vasor reaches her, and Barbara is able to fend Vasor off as she unlocks the door for them. They force Vasor to take them to the caves where he apparently left Susan and Sabetha.
They arrive at an ice cave (which is actually cellophane, adorably), and Vasor does not want to go in - he claims there's demons inside. We see Susan and Sabetha exploring deeper into the cave to try to find the exit, and they cross a rickety old rope bridge and find a weird room with four unmoving men guarding a block of ice (with one of the keys of Marinus frozen inside it, we later find out. It's hard to see, probably because suspending a piece of plastic in a block of ice is a bit beyond the BBCs budget for this episode). They double back, and everyone meets up at the rope bridge, which Vasor cuts down, trapping them all on the side with the key but, crucially, without their travel bracelets. Why the hell Ian didn't take all that stuff when they left Vasor's hut, I have no idea, it's common freaking sense. Barbara knew about them, too, so it's not like they were unaware of their location! They need to find something to cross the gap with, as Ian claims it's too wide to jump, mercifully saving us from another slog of a half episode of people jumping over a freaking chasm (which would have been the second time in the same season Nation pulled that same lame plot point. Hell, having to make a bridge across a gap isn't all that different. At least here it's not like twenty minutes of plot total).
When the arrive at the room with the four unmoving men, they notice a pipe surrounding the ice, with a valve attached to it. They turn the valve and notice it's getting warm, so they leave it on so the ice will melt and go back to build the bridge so they can get back to Vasor's hut to get the travel bracelets that they should have just friggin' brought with them in the first place. After they tie together some blocks of ice and lay it across the gap to freeze in place, they go back to collect the key, to see that the men have awoken and are attacking them. They grab the key and run back to the ice bridge, which Susan has successfully crossed, but it collapsed just after. She reattaches the bridge to the wall and everyone crosses. Once across, Ian detaches the bridge again to slow the "ice warriors" (as the subtitles call them - no indication here if they're from Mars) down. One falls down the crevasse as he does so. They all get back to Vasor's, get their stuff, and are about to teleport away when Vasor grabs Susan near the door - but before he can do anything, he is stabbed through the door by one of the "ice warriors" polearms. The group teleports away before the ice men get inside.
We then see Ian find a body on the ground, which he begins inspecting, as he's struck from behind by an unseen person wearing a glove. This person puts his weapon in Ian's hand, clearly intending to frame him for the attack, and opens the glass case behind Ian as an alarm goes off. He takes what will turn out to be the last key of Marinus and the episode ends.
Hartnell has been absent for a lot of the episodes, lately, which is odd to think about since this is the first season of the show in which he's the pseudonymous character. I barely noticed, though, because though these last two episodes have had their faults, I've largely enjoyed them. I can't help but make fun of Terry Nation sometimes, but he does know how to write for 1960s British television in a way that mostly holds up today. Some of his plotting and dialogue can be sloppy, but he usually has pretty good ideas. Vasor is an absolute creep and is way scarier and more devious than the frozen ice men in the cave and is the main reason why I like this episode so much (I hate the character, of course, but he's just so gross and awful that I find him compelling to watch). Still, I'm glad Hartnell is coming back in tomorrow's episode - we get few enough extant episodes with him actually in them, it sucks when non-missing episodes don't even have the main character.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Sentence of Death"
Monday, May 29, 2017
"The Screaming Jungle" - Season 1, Episode 23
Written by Terry Nation | Directed by John Morrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 04/25/64
The screaming stops once everyone else shows up, and it appears only Susan had heard it. She's still freaked out, but doesn't explain why beyond saying she heard screaming. When Barbara asks her why she took off before everyone else, she says she didn't want to stay too long, because "I don't like to say goodbye." It would seem that runs in your family, Susan...
Ian wants to explore the area a little, but Barbara decides to stay behind with Susan to try to cheer her up. Before they leave, Ian instructs them not to do anything until they get back, prompting Barbara to remark, "I do wish Ian wouldn't treat us like Dresden china," meaning she can take care of herself just fine, thank you very much. Looking around, Barbara remarks that the place seems to be falling apart, and that they could just push the wall over eventually, had they had time to wait around. A plant snakes a branch around Susan's leg and she screams, "It's alive!" Barbara rips the plant off Susan, calming her down. She pushes through some foliage to see an idol at the end of a short tunnel, which she goes to inspect. Susan doesn't follow, instead watching from the entry. Barbara notices the micro-key around the idols neck, and goes up to grab it, but as she does, the statue grabs her and rotates, taking her inside the walls. The hands of the statue are clearly just human hands - why they couldn't put some Styrofoam or water wings or something around the hands to make them look less human is beyond me.
Ian and the others return and Susan explains what happened. Sabetha thinks that since Barbara has her travel dial, that she probably just teleported away if she had been in danger. Ian agrees that's possible, and at the suggestion some of them teleport ahead while Ian stays behind, and we get some trademark Terry Nation dialogue: "We must cover all possibilities to the best of our abilities," to which Altos replies, "That is wise! I think that's the wisest course." I can't believe this guy's career spanned decades.
Altos and Susan teleport ahead, while Sabetha stays behind a moment and tells Ian that the micro-key Barbara found is fake, since it's a little shorter. Ian resolves he has to find the real key as Sabetha leaves. He rides the statue that Barbara did, and triggers a trap on the other side by stepping on a tile that makes a suit of armor swing a poleaxe at him. Barbara pops her head round a tree and warns him in time for him to avoid the attack. She says the place is full of booby traps. They arrive at a locked door, and Ian goes off to search for an iron bar Barbara had seen earlier. While she waits, some old dude (who we later find out is named Darrius) opens the door for her, and she wanders inside. All of a sudden, she is captured in a net and a ceiling with spikes on it begin to descend. Ian, taking way too long to inspect the iron bar Barbara sent him for (he's seriously kneeling there, pondering it, for no apparent reason, rather than just grabbing the thing and heading back), is trapped as a cage suddenly drops down on top of him. As Barbara screams for his help, he tries to bend the bars to escape. Just before the spikes reach Barbara, Darrius stops the trap and asks who she is, and wonders why she doesn't look like a Voord. Barbara tells him Arbitan sent them, and presents her travel bracelet as proof. Darrius says he'll inspect it to make sure it was programmed by Arbitan, as only he knew where all the keys were (although to be able to check it, wouldn't Darrius need to know that, too? Oh wait Terry Nation wrote this, nevermind). He leaves Barbara stuck in a net as Ian comes and finds her, having broken out of his cage, but in the other room, Darrius is being choked by a plant that has burst through the wall. Ian and Barbara rush in and save him, which apparently proves to him that they're not Voord.
Darrius, lying in bed and apparently dying, says Arbitan was supposed to warn them about his booby traps so his agents could avoid them. Apparently, he hadn't done that - not only did the TARDIS crew not know about the booby traps, Altos and Sabetha (his own freaking daughter!) didn't even seem to know where they were, much less how to specifically avoid the booby traps Darrius set. Apparently, Arbitan is an incompetent fool.
Phil Sandifer asserts that the Keys of Marinus invented the video game plot before video games themselves did, and this episode is probably the best example of it. Darrius tells them "DE3O2" is where they'll find the key, then after a few more lines of dialogue that doesn't really help them find it, he dies, just like in a videogame cutscene (in a series of episodes where each episode seems to be a different "level," like Sandifer asserts. Once he points that out, you can't unsee it). Why Darrius doesn't just tell them that he stuck the key in the jar labeled "DE3O2," I have no idea, other than "video game logic," I suppose. Anyway, in a riveting minute and a half (riveting, here, meaning boring as hell), Ian tries to unlock the safe in the next room twice while Barbara watches on, but the code doesn't work, so he can't open it. They search the room. Ian reads a diary where Darrius details his biological experiments, including a "growth accelerator," while Barbara all but tells him she could not care less about whatever is in the book. As they continue to look for clues, they hear the "whispers," which are the same thing Susan heard at the beginning of the episode - why they don't think of them as screams, I have no idea, as that's what Susan thought they were and that's what they sound like to me. Plants start bursting in through the walls as they realize the "growth accelerator" that Darrius made has affected the plants outside the house, and when one knocks over a jar with a chemical formula in it, Ian realizes that "DE3O2" is just that, and they begin frantically opening jars to find the key. Once they do, they teleport away, and land in what looks like a snowy forest, and the episode cuts to credits as they say they need to find shelter or they'll freeze to death.
I shouldn't enjoy these episodes. They're by the numbers adventure serial, and half of them don't have the Doctor in them, but I just like them. This is probably the first guilty pleasure series of episodes for me, because I realize they have plenty of issues (pacing, plot is nonsense, Marinus has the weirdest ecology ever, Darrius and Arbitan are idiots, etc etc etc), but I just enjoy seeing a completely new situation every episode. Nation burns through several ideas that would otherwise be used for whole serials here, and while it doesn't completely work, it is interesting. This episode is probably the weakest of the lot, and I was still able to enjoy it.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Snows of Terror"
The screaming stops once everyone else shows up, and it appears only Susan had heard it. She's still freaked out, but doesn't explain why beyond saying she heard screaming. When Barbara asks her why she took off before everyone else, she says she didn't want to stay too long, because "I don't like to say goodbye." It would seem that runs in your family, Susan...
Ian wants to explore the area a little, but Barbara decides to stay behind with Susan to try to cheer her up. Before they leave, Ian instructs them not to do anything until they get back, prompting Barbara to remark, "I do wish Ian wouldn't treat us like Dresden china," meaning she can take care of herself just fine, thank you very much. Looking around, Barbara remarks that the place seems to be falling apart, and that they could just push the wall over eventually, had they had time to wait around. A plant snakes a branch around Susan's leg and she screams, "It's alive!" Barbara rips the plant off Susan, calming her down. She pushes through some foliage to see an idol at the end of a short tunnel, which she goes to inspect. Susan doesn't follow, instead watching from the entry. Barbara notices the micro-key around the idols neck, and goes up to grab it, but as she does, the statue grabs her and rotates, taking her inside the walls. The hands of the statue are clearly just human hands - why they couldn't put some Styrofoam or water wings or something around the hands to make them look less human is beyond me.
Ian and the others return and Susan explains what happened. Sabetha thinks that since Barbara has her travel dial, that she probably just teleported away if she had been in danger. Ian agrees that's possible, and at the suggestion some of them teleport ahead while Ian stays behind, and we get some trademark Terry Nation dialogue: "We must cover all possibilities to the best of our abilities," to which Altos replies, "That is wise! I think that's the wisest course." I can't believe this guy's career spanned decades.
Altos and Susan teleport ahead, while Sabetha stays behind a moment and tells Ian that the micro-key Barbara found is fake, since it's a little shorter. Ian resolves he has to find the real key as Sabetha leaves. He rides the statue that Barbara did, and triggers a trap on the other side by stepping on a tile that makes a suit of armor swing a poleaxe at him. Barbara pops her head round a tree and warns him in time for him to avoid the attack. She says the place is full of booby traps. They arrive at a locked door, and Ian goes off to search for an iron bar Barbara had seen earlier. While she waits, some old dude (who we later find out is named Darrius) opens the door for her, and she wanders inside. All of a sudden, she is captured in a net and a ceiling with spikes on it begin to descend. Ian, taking way too long to inspect the iron bar Barbara sent him for (he's seriously kneeling there, pondering it, for no apparent reason, rather than just grabbing the thing and heading back), is trapped as a cage suddenly drops down on top of him. As Barbara screams for his help, he tries to bend the bars to escape. Just before the spikes reach Barbara, Darrius stops the trap and asks who she is, and wonders why she doesn't look like a Voord. Barbara tells him Arbitan sent them, and presents her travel bracelet as proof. Darrius says he'll inspect it to make sure it was programmed by Arbitan, as only he knew where all the keys were (although to be able to check it, wouldn't Darrius need to know that, too? Oh wait Terry Nation wrote this, nevermind). He leaves Barbara stuck in a net as Ian comes and finds her, having broken out of his cage, but in the other room, Darrius is being choked by a plant that has burst through the wall. Ian and Barbara rush in and save him, which apparently proves to him that they're not Voord.
Darrius, lying in bed and apparently dying, says Arbitan was supposed to warn them about his booby traps so his agents could avoid them. Apparently, he hadn't done that - not only did the TARDIS crew not know about the booby traps, Altos and Sabetha (his own freaking daughter!) didn't even seem to know where they were, much less how to specifically avoid the booby traps Darrius set. Apparently, Arbitan is an incompetent fool.
Phil Sandifer asserts that the Keys of Marinus invented the video game plot before video games themselves did, and this episode is probably the best example of it. Darrius tells them "DE3O2" is where they'll find the key, then after a few more lines of dialogue that doesn't really help them find it, he dies, just like in a videogame cutscene (in a series of episodes where each episode seems to be a different "level," like Sandifer asserts. Once he points that out, you can't unsee it). Why Darrius doesn't just tell them that he stuck the key in the jar labeled "DE3O2," I have no idea, other than "video game logic," I suppose. Anyway, in a riveting minute and a half (riveting, here, meaning boring as hell), Ian tries to unlock the safe in the next room twice while Barbara watches on, but the code doesn't work, so he can't open it. They search the room. Ian reads a diary where Darrius details his biological experiments, including a "growth accelerator," while Barbara all but tells him she could not care less about whatever is in the book. As they continue to look for clues, they hear the "whispers," which are the same thing Susan heard at the beginning of the episode - why they don't think of them as screams, I have no idea, as that's what Susan thought they were and that's what they sound like to me. Plants start bursting in through the walls as they realize the "growth accelerator" that Darrius made has affected the plants outside the house, and when one knocks over a jar with a chemical formula in it, Ian realizes that "DE3O2" is just that, and they begin frantically opening jars to find the key. Once they do, they teleport away, and land in what looks like a snowy forest, and the episode cuts to credits as they say they need to find shelter or they'll freeze to death.
I shouldn't enjoy these episodes. They're by the numbers adventure serial, and half of them don't have the Doctor in them, but I just like them. This is probably the first guilty pleasure series of episodes for me, because I realize they have plenty of issues (pacing, plot is nonsense, Marinus has the weirdest ecology ever, Darrius and Arbitan are idiots, etc etc etc), but I just enjoy seeing a completely new situation every episode. Nation burns through several ideas that would otherwise be used for whole serials here, and while it doesn't completely work, it is interesting. This episode is probably the weakest of the lot, and I was still able to enjoy it.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Snows of Terror"
Sunday, May 28, 2017
"The Velvet Web" - Season 1, Episode 22
Written by Terry Nation | Directed by John Gorrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 04/18/64
Ian, terrified that Barbara is hurt badly, insists they quickly go inside the door behind them to look for her. When they enter, a bright light flashes and an alarm goes off, and after a few seconds, they walk into room where Barbara is. She's not only fine, she's being pampered - she's wearing a new, beautiful dress, she's adorned with exotic jewelry, and she's being served grapes by two women. Turns out the blood got on her travel dial when she freaked out during the teleportation and scratched herself taking it off.
The travelers are being pampered, too, and are given various foods and drinks, all very nice. The Doctor, it turns out, loves pomegranate and truffles, of all things (no mention of fish fingers or custard at this time). The inhabitants of this city live to serve, it appears. Ian is reluctant to eat anything - he wonders what the cost of all this is, saying that nothing comes without a price tag. A wise observation, if not particularly a difficult one to come up with, but he's the only one concerned at this point, so credit to him. A man name Altos enters and explains they can have any wish they want granted ("Here comes the bill," Ian predicts, amusingly, as he enters). Susan wants a really nice dress, and the Doctor wishes for "a laboratory with every conceivable instrument." Has he forgotten about the TARDIS, or does it just not have a lab filled with equipment, yet? Perhaps he hasn't found it, yet, considering how big the interior of the TARDIS really is...
They notice that Altos didn't blink once while he was speaking to them (I immediately wondered if he was related to Tobias Vaughn, but remembered he was just augmented with Cybermen technology, not hypnotized or anything like that. No retcon possible here!). Everyone goes to sleep, and while they're out cold, a woman comes in and places a disc on each of their foreheads. Barbara rolls over and her disc slips off, which isn't the best design, really, for a disc meant to be worn while sleeping. It's not like she violently rolled over, either, just a simple turn of her head and the disc comes tumbling off. Apparently the Doctor, Ian, and Susan, all sleep on their backs all night long, which might be even weirder than the design of the disc that slides right off, but I digress.
While everyone else remains asleep, the same alarm from the beginning of the episode and flashing lights go off, which wakes up Barbara and freaks her out. Scene fades to black, and the Doctor, Ian, and Susan are eating breakfast. Barbara is still sleeping. They note a light burning sensation on their foreheads, but don't make much of it. Susan is given her dress, and wakes Barbara up to show her. We then get a mostly well-directed scene, from Barbara's perspective, in which case Ian, Susan, and the Doctor all look directly into camera as they scold Barbara because she claims everything is run down and is an illusion. My favorite bit is when the Doctor hands her a cup and she slaps it out of his hand and claims "it's filthy!" Ian is upset about this, he doesn't want to upset their hosts. They argue a bit more, and then Altos comes in and takes her away, because he can tell she isn't under the hypnosis. He has to drag her out, since she knows she's in danger, but her friends don't detect anything wrong about the situation. She's able to hide from Altos, who goes to report to his superiors...
...who happen to be literal brains in jars. Amusingly, their eyestalks are glued to the glass domes they're in, which makes it seem they are SUPER excited about everything, despite their mostly drowsy voices. They explain that they're mesmerizing the TARDIS group, but since Barbara has seen through the illusion, she must be killed when she is found. We cut to Barbara, who sees a young woman thrown in to where she is, ostensibly a jail cell (good place to hide, they'll never think to look there!). She recognizes her as the woman who put the discs on their heads (I'm not sure how - Barbara doesn't seem to wake up until after her disc has fallen off, at which point the woman had already left. ...oh, right, Terry Nation wrote this. Though I'm not sure if it's his fault, the director's, or Jacqueline Hill - though I doubt it's hers, she's too good an actress to mess that up). The woman is being punished since Barbara wasn't mesmerized and got away. The woman is still in deep hypnosis, though.
The Doctor is shown his "laboratory," which is an empty room with some dirty cups in it. Since he's mesmerized, though, he thinks it contains the latest scientific instruments, and he even thinks he'll be able to fix the TARDIS so he can presumably control it better. I do love the Doctor and Ian being enthralled at an empty room and a dirty cup - they sell the scene pretty well, and it's pretty funny.
Barbara discovers the woman's name is Sabetha, and she has been sent by Arbitan to collect the keys of Marinus, and also happens to be his daughter. The jar brains indicate she is to be replaced by Susan, who should undergo training immediately. Altos comes to collect Sabetha, and while his back is turned, Barbara tries to escape, but he hears her. He grabs her, but Sabetha breaks something over Altos' head, knocking him out. Barbara thanks her, says she'll come back for her, and leaves. Sabetha lies down for a nap (perfect timing for one of those, Terry Nation figures. If she didn't take a nap, he'd have to write her into the next scene).
Outside, Barbara runs into Ian, and she hugs him, relieved. Ian doesn't seem to recognize her, but does realize she's the one the brains are looking for, so he grabs her and takes her to the brains. The brains order Ian to kill Barbara, and he goes to choke her (Ian has attempted to choke almost all his TARDIS companions by now, which is a bit unsettling), but she breaks his hold, then grabs something off a table and proceeds to smash the jars the brains are in, killing them (if I haven't mentioned it yet, Barbara is my favorite Hartnell companion, even though whatever she's using just quite break the glass, it just seems to kill the brains, somehow). This immediately breaks the spell over everyone.
As everyone meets up, Ian mentions that the citizens are burning the city and they should go (which is the first time the Doctor and his friends - well, just his friend, in this case - brought down the government and sparked a rebellion. In fact, it was done solely by Barbara, and I love her for it. The argument that the Doctor learns to be who he becomes from Ian and Barbara is on full display here). We then get a nice, boring Terry Nation scene in which the Doctor explains he found some more travel dials (and a key of Marinus, probably from the brain room), and Altos and Sabetha are going to go with them since Arbitan sent them originally. Oh, and also, William Hartnell is taking a few weeks off, so his absence is explained by the Doctor going ahead to find the fourth key, while everyone else - including Susan, as she protests - goes to find the second key. Upset, Susan activates her travel dial before the others, and arrives in a forest. It seems to start screaming at her, and she clutches her head and screams for it to stop as we cut to credits.
It's a very odd episode. I love the first half of it - establishing the nature of the illusion they're under is great, and the first person shot forces the TARDIS crew to come off as very creepy, as they look directly at the viewer and make claims that aren't true. I wish John Gorrie's direction made it a little clearer that what Barbara was seeing was a dilapidated, trashed room, but it's hard to tell, besides seeing the dirty cup. Still, though, the regulars carry that scene. The second half is a little less exciting, but isn't bad by any stretch. What strikes me about this episode is that it's a four part Doctor Who episode done in 25 minutes, which, if that was the intention, is a pretty good (gentle) parody of the show very early in its run. I'm not sure if it is (especially considering it's writer, Terry Nation, isn't known for subtlety), but I like to think that's what is going on, as it makes the episode a tad more interesting.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Screaming Jungle"
Ian, terrified that Barbara is hurt badly, insists they quickly go inside the door behind them to look for her. When they enter, a bright light flashes and an alarm goes off, and after a few seconds, they walk into room where Barbara is. She's not only fine, she's being pampered - she's wearing a new, beautiful dress, she's adorned with exotic jewelry, and she's being served grapes by two women. Turns out the blood got on her travel dial when she freaked out during the teleportation and scratched herself taking it off.
The travelers are being pampered, too, and are given various foods and drinks, all very nice. The Doctor, it turns out, loves pomegranate and truffles, of all things (no mention of fish fingers or custard at this time). The inhabitants of this city live to serve, it appears. Ian is reluctant to eat anything - he wonders what the cost of all this is, saying that nothing comes without a price tag. A wise observation, if not particularly a difficult one to come up with, but he's the only one concerned at this point, so credit to him. A man name Altos enters and explains they can have any wish they want granted ("Here comes the bill," Ian predicts, amusingly, as he enters). Susan wants a really nice dress, and the Doctor wishes for "a laboratory with every conceivable instrument." Has he forgotten about the TARDIS, or does it just not have a lab filled with equipment, yet? Perhaps he hasn't found it, yet, considering how big the interior of the TARDIS really is...
They notice that Altos didn't blink once while he was speaking to them (I immediately wondered if he was related to Tobias Vaughn, but remembered he was just augmented with Cybermen technology, not hypnotized or anything like that. No retcon possible here!). Everyone goes to sleep, and while they're out cold, a woman comes in and places a disc on each of their foreheads. Barbara rolls over and her disc slips off, which isn't the best design, really, for a disc meant to be worn while sleeping. It's not like she violently rolled over, either, just a simple turn of her head and the disc comes tumbling off. Apparently the Doctor, Ian, and Susan, all sleep on their backs all night long, which might be even weirder than the design of the disc that slides right off, but I digress.
While everyone else remains asleep, the same alarm from the beginning of the episode and flashing lights go off, which wakes up Barbara and freaks her out. Scene fades to black, and the Doctor, Ian, and Susan are eating breakfast. Barbara is still sleeping. They note a light burning sensation on their foreheads, but don't make much of it. Susan is given her dress, and wakes Barbara up to show her. We then get a mostly well-directed scene, from Barbara's perspective, in which case Ian, Susan, and the Doctor all look directly into camera as they scold Barbara because she claims everything is run down and is an illusion. My favorite bit is when the Doctor hands her a cup and she slaps it out of his hand and claims "it's filthy!" Ian is upset about this, he doesn't want to upset their hosts. They argue a bit more, and then Altos comes in and takes her away, because he can tell she isn't under the hypnosis. He has to drag her out, since she knows she's in danger, but her friends don't detect anything wrong about the situation. She's able to hide from Altos, who goes to report to his superiors...
...who happen to be literal brains in jars. Amusingly, their eyestalks are glued to the glass domes they're in, which makes it seem they are SUPER excited about everything, despite their mostly drowsy voices. They explain that they're mesmerizing the TARDIS group, but since Barbara has seen through the illusion, she must be killed when she is found. We cut to Barbara, who sees a young woman thrown in to where she is, ostensibly a jail cell (good place to hide, they'll never think to look there!). She recognizes her as the woman who put the discs on their heads (I'm not sure how - Barbara doesn't seem to wake up until after her disc has fallen off, at which point the woman had already left. ...oh, right, Terry Nation wrote this. Though I'm not sure if it's his fault, the director's, or Jacqueline Hill - though I doubt it's hers, she's too good an actress to mess that up). The woman is being punished since Barbara wasn't mesmerized and got away. The woman is still in deep hypnosis, though.
The Doctor is shown his "laboratory," which is an empty room with some dirty cups in it. Since he's mesmerized, though, he thinks it contains the latest scientific instruments, and he even thinks he'll be able to fix the TARDIS so he can presumably control it better. I do love the Doctor and Ian being enthralled at an empty room and a dirty cup - they sell the scene pretty well, and it's pretty funny.
Barbara discovers the woman's name is Sabetha, and she has been sent by Arbitan to collect the keys of Marinus, and also happens to be his daughter. The jar brains indicate she is to be replaced by Susan, who should undergo training immediately. Altos comes to collect Sabetha, and while his back is turned, Barbara tries to escape, but he hears her. He grabs her, but Sabetha breaks something over Altos' head, knocking him out. Barbara thanks her, says she'll come back for her, and leaves. Sabetha lies down for a nap (perfect timing for one of those, Terry Nation figures. If she didn't take a nap, he'd have to write her into the next scene).
Outside, Barbara runs into Ian, and she hugs him, relieved. Ian doesn't seem to recognize her, but does realize she's the one the brains are looking for, so he grabs her and takes her to the brains. The brains order Ian to kill Barbara, and he goes to choke her (Ian has attempted to choke almost all his TARDIS companions by now, which is a bit unsettling), but she breaks his hold, then grabs something off a table and proceeds to smash the jars the brains are in, killing them (if I haven't mentioned it yet, Barbara is my favorite Hartnell companion, even though whatever she's using just quite break the glass, it just seems to kill the brains, somehow). This immediately breaks the spell over everyone.
As everyone meets up, Ian mentions that the citizens are burning the city and they should go (which is the first time the Doctor and his friends - well, just his friend, in this case - brought down the government and sparked a rebellion. In fact, it was done solely by Barbara, and I love her for it. The argument that the Doctor learns to be who he becomes from Ian and Barbara is on full display here). We then get a nice, boring Terry Nation scene in which the Doctor explains he found some more travel dials (and a key of Marinus, probably from the brain room), and Altos and Sabetha are going to go with them since Arbitan sent them originally. Oh, and also, William Hartnell is taking a few weeks off, so his absence is explained by the Doctor going ahead to find the fourth key, while everyone else - including Susan, as she protests - goes to find the second key. Upset, Susan activates her travel dial before the others, and arrives in a forest. It seems to start screaming at her, and she clutches her head and screams for it to stop as we cut to credits.
It's a very odd episode. I love the first half of it - establishing the nature of the illusion they're under is great, and the first person shot forces the TARDIS crew to come off as very creepy, as they look directly at the viewer and make claims that aren't true. I wish John Gorrie's direction made it a little clearer that what Barbara was seeing was a dilapidated, trashed room, but it's hard to tell, besides seeing the dirty cup. Still, though, the regulars carry that scene. The second half is a little less exciting, but isn't bad by any stretch. What strikes me about this episode is that it's a four part Doctor Who episode done in 25 minutes, which, if that was the intention, is a pretty good (gentle) parody of the show very early in its run. I'm not sure if it is (especially considering it's writer, Terry Nation, isn't known for subtlety), but I like to think that's what is going on, as it makes the episode a tad more interesting.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Screaming Jungle"
Saturday, May 27, 2017
"The Sea of Death" - Season 1, Episode 21
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by John Gorrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 04/11/64
The episode opens with a pretty cool model shot of an island in the middle of a vast sea. It looks pretty good - Doctor Who usually does fairly impressive work with model shots, at least in the black and white era (usually). The camera zooms in to the beach and the TARDIS materializes (sadly without the grinding sound, it just sort of appears). We cut inside the TARDIS, where everyone is looking at the monitor to see what's going on outside. Barbara says "Too bad you don't have color television," to which the Doctor replies that he does, but it's "hors de combat," a line I'm surprised both that the Doctor said and that Hartnell didn't screw up (sorry, Bill - you have a few whoppers in this episode).
They go outside, and as they do, we see these weird, fish-looking things land elsewhere on the beach. The ocean is completely still (convenient, since the model would be tough to make if there were waves. It looks good though!). Barbara asks the Doctor if it's frozen and we get the first fluff this episode: "No, impossible at this temperature. Besides, it's too warm!" I assume the line was supposed to be "No, impossible in this atmosphere," or "elevation," or something. I love Hartnell, I really do, but it's so strange to be watching television that had been broadcast with lines screwed up like this. I know the production realities at the time meant it was too expensive to stop and redo the scene, so messed up lines had to stay in, but... this is the first season, Bill! You can't already be messing up lines, can you (I hope not, as that means Hartnell would have been sick and suffering from day one of recording Doctor Who, which would make his era a little harder to watch)?
As the TARDIS crew go to check out the weird fish-ships, a guy in a rubber (seemingly almost a gimp) suit wearing flippers walks on screen - we can't see his head, yet, so don't know if he's a guy in a suit or if he's some kind of monster. He's got a dagger tied to his belt, though, so that's not good.
The group discovers the ocean is made of acid, when Susan knocks one of her shoes in. She was just about to wade in, too. After freaking out and calming down, she goes back to the TARDIS to get new shoes. Before she gets there, we see the guy in the rubber suit trying to pull the TARDIS lock out of the door (he doesn't succeed because Susan shows up and he has to hide, but it being possible to remove the TARDIS lock apparently by hand is crappy design, wow).
The other three inspect the glass torpedo fish-ships (a sentence that could only be written about Doctor Who, I swear), and discover an empty suit inside one. Apparently, the person inside died from acid getting in, since his ship was broken and he had a tear in his suit (a pretty gruesome way to go, as there is NOTHING left inside the suit). We see the head of the suit, finally, in the form of the man (creature?) stalking after Susan, and it looks like... well, a Teletubby. Like a Teletubby wearing a fetish suit. It might be a more unnerving "monster" post-Teletubbies, now that I think about it.
The Doctor, Ian, and Barbara go to inspect the large building they see in the distance. Susan has already beaten them there, and pushes against a wall, only to have it rotate and she falls in. The other three arrive and they split up to go around the building, reasoning Susan is probably there since she hadn't been at the TARDIS. While split up, the Doctor falls into a rotating wall (you can see a hand push it out, I doubt that's intentional), then Ian, then Barbara, all at different spots. Susan, in one corridor, is menaced by one of the rubber suited guys, but he is stabbed in the back and dies, and she takes off running after seeing some other dude in a white robe (I'm not sure who stabbed the bad guy - presumably Robe Guy, but the scene isn't very well shot, as it looks like someone from the left kills the bad guy, because Robe Guy too quickly appears in the rear of the set for him to have stabbed the bad guy). Ian later discovers the dead body, as we see the other three TARDIS members all imprisoned together, while the Doctor reasons that they won't be killed, since the rubber suited guys are being murdered, while they're being captured. Barbara says "Maybe we'll be killed, too," to which the Doctor replies, "Oh, I shouldn't think so. That young schoolmaster friend of yours is very resourceful," and that they're more likely to be rescued with him free. It's nice to see the Doctor has come to like Ian, or at the very least respect him.
A rubber suited man attacks the guy dressed up in a robe, but Ian saves him. The robed guy pulls a switch, and the guy in a rubber suit falls out of a trap door into the acid sea below. The guy in the robe reveals himself to be Arbitan, and the rubber suited men to be Voord, followers of someone named Yartek. He explains this building is under siege by the Voord and he's the only one there to defend it. Bafflingly, Ian says "I should've thought this place was impregnable!" Which is an absolutely baffling thought, since the four TARDIS travelers literally fell inside the place without even trying to. Trusting Ian since he saved his life (and keeping his opinion of Ian's intelligence to himself, presumably), Arbitan takes him to see and free the other TARDIS travelers, as we see a Voord following them.
Terry Nation infodump time! Arbitan explains they're on the planet Marinus, whose technology peaked 2000 years ago (he also explains the whole Voord/Yartek bit here), and the machine they're all looking at was once called the "Conscience of Marinus," which used to be an impartial judge and jury that was never wrong or unfair. It was upgraded, though, and can now influence the minds of everyone on Marinus. With Yartek and the Voord attacking, though, Arbitan removed the five Keys of Marinus so he can't gain control of the machine, and hid them around the planet. He asks the TARDIS travelers to go get them all since he can't leave and none of his followers have returned, but they don't agree and try to leave in their ship. Arbitan has put a force field around it, however, and blackmails them into getting the keys. The Doctor is not happy about the blackmail at all, and refuses to travel in one of the fish-ships, but Arbitan provides the four TARDIS members with teleportation bracelets. Before they leave, he tells them that if the building they're in now is taken by the Voord when they return, to destroy the keys. Barbara, curious to try out the bracelet, leaves before everyone else, and when they teleport to her, she's gone and they find her bloodied bracelet on the ground, and we cut to credits.
The Doctor having to go get the keys to let someone use a machine to control the minds of everyone on the planet is a strange decision, especially because Arbitan is straightforwardly the good guy. I wonder why they didn't try to overpower Arbitan to make him remove the forcefield... This isn't necessarily a bad episode, and is somewhat light and refreshing after the dense slog through Marco Polo, but it's still not great (which is as good as most Terry Nation scripts get, save one big exception in the mid-70s). Good model work, though I don't like the Voord costumes. They're a bit too cheesy, assuming you don't take them to be wearing fetish suits, in which case they are either horrifyingly bad or awesome.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Velvet Web"
The episode opens with a pretty cool model shot of an island in the middle of a vast sea. It looks pretty good - Doctor Who usually does fairly impressive work with model shots, at least in the black and white era (usually). The camera zooms in to the beach and the TARDIS materializes (sadly without the grinding sound, it just sort of appears). We cut inside the TARDIS, where everyone is looking at the monitor to see what's going on outside. Barbara says "Too bad you don't have color television," to which the Doctor replies that he does, but it's "hors de combat," a line I'm surprised both that the Doctor said and that Hartnell didn't screw up (sorry, Bill - you have a few whoppers in this episode).
They go outside, and as they do, we see these weird, fish-looking things land elsewhere on the beach. The ocean is completely still (convenient, since the model would be tough to make if there were waves. It looks good though!). Barbara asks the Doctor if it's frozen and we get the first fluff this episode: "No, impossible at this temperature. Besides, it's too warm!" I assume the line was supposed to be "No, impossible in this atmosphere," or "elevation," or something. I love Hartnell, I really do, but it's so strange to be watching television that had been broadcast with lines screwed up like this. I know the production realities at the time meant it was too expensive to stop and redo the scene, so messed up lines had to stay in, but... this is the first season, Bill! You can't already be messing up lines, can you (I hope not, as that means Hartnell would have been sick and suffering from day one of recording Doctor Who, which would make his era a little harder to watch)?
As the TARDIS crew go to check out the weird fish-ships, a guy in a rubber (seemingly almost a gimp) suit wearing flippers walks on screen - we can't see his head, yet, so don't know if he's a guy in a suit or if he's some kind of monster. He's got a dagger tied to his belt, though, so that's not good.
The group discovers the ocean is made of acid, when Susan knocks one of her shoes in. She was just about to wade in, too. After freaking out and calming down, she goes back to the TARDIS to get new shoes. Before she gets there, we see the guy in the rubber suit trying to pull the TARDIS lock out of the door (he doesn't succeed because Susan shows up and he has to hide, but it being possible to remove the TARDIS lock apparently by hand is crappy design, wow).
The other three inspect the glass torpedo fish-ships (a sentence that could only be written about Doctor Who, I swear), and discover an empty suit inside one. Apparently, the person inside died from acid getting in, since his ship was broken and he had a tear in his suit (a pretty gruesome way to go, as there is NOTHING left inside the suit). We see the head of the suit, finally, in the form of the man (creature?) stalking after Susan, and it looks like... well, a Teletubby. Like a Teletubby wearing a fetish suit. It might be a more unnerving "monster" post-Teletubbies, now that I think about it.
The Doctor, Ian, and Barbara go to inspect the large building they see in the distance. Susan has already beaten them there, and pushes against a wall, only to have it rotate and she falls in. The other three arrive and they split up to go around the building, reasoning Susan is probably there since she hadn't been at the TARDIS. While split up, the Doctor falls into a rotating wall (you can see a hand push it out, I doubt that's intentional), then Ian, then Barbara, all at different spots. Susan, in one corridor, is menaced by one of the rubber suited guys, but he is stabbed in the back and dies, and she takes off running after seeing some other dude in a white robe (I'm not sure who stabbed the bad guy - presumably Robe Guy, but the scene isn't very well shot, as it looks like someone from the left kills the bad guy, because Robe Guy too quickly appears in the rear of the set for him to have stabbed the bad guy). Ian later discovers the dead body, as we see the other three TARDIS members all imprisoned together, while the Doctor reasons that they won't be killed, since the rubber suited guys are being murdered, while they're being captured. Barbara says "Maybe we'll be killed, too," to which the Doctor replies, "Oh, I shouldn't think so. That young schoolmaster friend of yours is very resourceful," and that they're more likely to be rescued with him free. It's nice to see the Doctor has come to like Ian, or at the very least respect him.
A rubber suited man attacks the guy dressed up in a robe, but Ian saves him. The robed guy pulls a switch, and the guy in a rubber suit falls out of a trap door into the acid sea below. The guy in the robe reveals himself to be Arbitan, and the rubber suited men to be Voord, followers of someone named Yartek. He explains this building is under siege by the Voord and he's the only one there to defend it. Bafflingly, Ian says "I should've thought this place was impregnable!" Which is an absolutely baffling thought, since the four TARDIS travelers literally fell inside the place without even trying to. Trusting Ian since he saved his life (and keeping his opinion of Ian's intelligence to himself, presumably), Arbitan takes him to see and free the other TARDIS travelers, as we see a Voord following them.
Terry Nation infodump time! Arbitan explains they're on the planet Marinus, whose technology peaked 2000 years ago (he also explains the whole Voord/Yartek bit here), and the machine they're all looking at was once called the "Conscience of Marinus," which used to be an impartial judge and jury that was never wrong or unfair. It was upgraded, though, and can now influence the minds of everyone on Marinus. With Yartek and the Voord attacking, though, Arbitan removed the five Keys of Marinus so he can't gain control of the machine, and hid them around the planet. He asks the TARDIS travelers to go get them all since he can't leave and none of his followers have returned, but they don't agree and try to leave in their ship. Arbitan has put a force field around it, however, and blackmails them into getting the keys. The Doctor is not happy about the blackmail at all, and refuses to travel in one of the fish-ships, but Arbitan provides the four TARDIS members with teleportation bracelets. Before they leave, he tells them that if the building they're in now is taken by the Voord when they return, to destroy the keys. Barbara, curious to try out the bracelet, leaves before everyone else, and when they teleport to her, she's gone and they find her bloodied bracelet on the ground, and we cut to credits.
The Doctor having to go get the keys to let someone use a machine to control the minds of everyone on the planet is a strange decision, especially because Arbitan is straightforwardly the good guy. I wonder why they didn't try to overpower Arbitan to make him remove the forcefield... This isn't necessarily a bad episode, and is somewhat light and refreshing after the dense slog through Marco Polo, but it's still not great (which is as good as most Terry Nation scripts get, save one big exception in the mid-70s). Good model work, though I don't like the Voord costumes. They're a bit too cheesy, assuming you don't take them to be wearing fetish suits, in which case they are either horrifyingly bad or awesome.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Velvet Web"
Friday, May 26, 2017
"Assassin at Peking" - Season 1, Episode 20
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 04/04/64
Ian taunts Tegana, mocking him for killing a child, suspecting that he'll kill both of he and Ping Cho. Tegana tells him his ambitions are greater than the two of them - that he'll use the TARDIS to conquer the world along with his lord Nogai by overthrowing Kublai Khan. Before he can attack Ian, though, a man named Ling-Tau shows up - he works for the Khan, and takes the three of them to Peking (unfortunately for Kuiju, he's killed when he attempts to run from Ling-Tau).
The Doctor and Kublai Khan are playing backgammon together, and are betting on the outcome of each game. The Doctor has been winning every game, and bets Kublai Khan for his ship, which hasn't even arrived yet. Kublai Khan is reluctant to accept the bet at first because it's Marco Polo's gift to him (he offers him the island of Sumatra instead before relenting), but accepts anyway. The Doctor smiles, hoping to win his freedom back. During this scene, the Empress arrives, chastises the Khan for betting (which he doesn't admit he's doing) and leaves. Wives, huh? So nagging! Not to give myself away, but this is really the only bit in the episode I don't like, the "humor" of the scene falls completely flat for me. The only other scene involving the Empress involves her weeping later on. Not happy with portraying the first woman with a position of power in this story as a nagging, emotional wreck.
Polo enters and tells Kublai Khan that Tegana has arrived with Ian, Ping Cho, and the TARDIS. Khan informs him they're playing for the TARDIS, and Polo is upset, since the Doctor went above his head here. Polo leaves, and tells Susan and Barbara what is going on. Barbara says the Doctor will win the TARDIS back and Khan will still let Polo go back to Venice, so everything should work out alright - except for poor Ping Cho, who will still have to marry the 75 year old.
We then find out Tegana is accusing Ian of stealing the TARDIS, which would be a serious crime since the Doctor hasn't won it back yet, meaning it's the Khan's property. The Doctor leaves the throne room, chuckling to himself. Susan thinks he's won the TARDIS back, but it turns out he lost the last game, meaning Kublai Khan keeps everything. The Doctor being amused in this scene is delightful - he was so angry when they arrived and the TARDIS was broken, making him think they'd all die in the cold, but several times in this serial he's laughed at his predicament. Perhaps he just enjoys the battle of wits this several month long journey has provided him?
Even though Ian and Ping Cho both heard Tegana's claims of him opposing Kublai Khan, it's not enough for Polo to let him free - Ping Cho only gets to go because her fiancee promised to take her from Peking as soon as the wedding ceremony is over.
Tegana, speaking alone to Kublai Khan, says Polo is on the side of the Europeans, and that the two of them should keep that in mind. Kublai Khan agrees, and says he'll keep an eye on Polo. I wish we could see this scene - given later events, I would think the actor playing Khan would play it such that he is suspicious of Tegana.
Polo, talking to Khan later, says he regrets taking the TARDIS from the Doctor, that is was unjust. Why he has the sudden change of heart now, of all times, is beyond me. Perhaps he finally believed Ian and Ping Cho, despite forcing Ian to remain under guard? It's hard for me to believe that, though, since Polo had thought Ping Cho was on the side of the travelers, too, so why would he believe either of them now, since Ian is "capable of lying," like he said last episode? Ultimately, it doesn't really matter that much, as we'll see soon.
Luckily for Ping Cho, her fiancee drank quicksilver for some reason, and died (which is why the Empress is crying in this scene). Why he drank quicksilver, I have no idea, though Khan mentions he wanted to be young again, which... implies something pretty gross, considering he's about to marry a sixteen year old. I hope that interpretation is wrong. Either way, Ping Cho is happy, and even elects to stay in Peking a while.
Kublai Khan wants to meet with Tegana, then test Marco Polo to see if he's still trustworthy. On his way out of the throne room, Polo sees Tegana and says "I underestimated you, Tegana," to which he replies, very calmly, "No. You overestimated yourself," and enters the throne room.
The TARDIS crew tries to figure out what is going on with Tegana. The Doctor deduces he's going to assassinate the Khan since Nogai's army is outside Peking, which isn't where Khan thought it'd be - and without Kublai Khan, Nogai could sweep in and easily take over in the confusion. They overpower the guard and rush to the throne room to try to warn Kublai Khan. They run into Marco Polo on the way, who tries to get a guards attention to lock them up, but they all end up running to the throne room, just as Tegana lunges at Khan. He misses and kills the vizier, and Polo engages him in a swordfight (giving us another riveting scene of sword clanging and still images of the two actors holding swords. I don't hold this against the story as obviously it was meant to be seen on video). Polo ultimately disarms Tegana, and Khan sentences him to death. Tegana grabs a guards sword and kills himself in defiance, however.
Marco Polo pulls out the TARDIS keys and hands them to the Doctor and tells him to leave right now. The Doctor thanks him, Susan says a quick goodbye to Ping Cho (glad we got that out of the way, wouldn't want to delay this another two episodes), and they pile into the TARDIS and it dematerializes. As they watch them leave, Kublai Khan is amazed at the ship leaving, and surprisingly doesn't seem to be mad at Polo for letting them go in what is, ultimately, his property. He even says he'll let Polo return to Venice. The episode ends with a voiceover from Polo: "But what is the truth? I wonder where they are now... The past or the future?"
I said it before: this is a good episode. Excellent, even. Kublai Khan is not just a doddering old man, played for comedy - he's a smart, wise ruler, and despite his advanced age, he is imposing. Tegana is enigmatic to the last - killing himself in defiance of Khan's orders is wonderful and completely in character. The ending might be a little rushed - and Polo suddenly changing his mind about the TARDIS travelers is a little weird - but it ultimately works for me, as I wasn't bored like I was from about halfway through episode 2 until the sixth episode.
Tomorrow, Terry Nation comes back with another new alien, the Voord. And this entire serial is on video! Seven missing episodes down, only ninety more of those to go...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Sea of Death"
Ian taunts Tegana, mocking him for killing a child, suspecting that he'll kill both of he and Ping Cho. Tegana tells him his ambitions are greater than the two of them - that he'll use the TARDIS to conquer the world along with his lord Nogai by overthrowing Kublai Khan. Before he can attack Ian, though, a man named Ling-Tau shows up - he works for the Khan, and takes the three of them to Peking (unfortunately for Kuiju, he's killed when he attempts to run from Ling-Tau).
The Doctor and Kublai Khan are playing backgammon together, and are betting on the outcome of each game. The Doctor has been winning every game, and bets Kublai Khan for his ship, which hasn't even arrived yet. Kublai Khan is reluctant to accept the bet at first because it's Marco Polo's gift to him (he offers him the island of Sumatra instead before relenting), but accepts anyway. The Doctor smiles, hoping to win his freedom back. During this scene, the Empress arrives, chastises the Khan for betting (which he doesn't admit he's doing) and leaves. Wives, huh? So nagging! Not to give myself away, but this is really the only bit in the episode I don't like, the "humor" of the scene falls completely flat for me. The only other scene involving the Empress involves her weeping later on. Not happy with portraying the first woman with a position of power in this story as a nagging, emotional wreck.
Polo enters and tells Kublai Khan that Tegana has arrived with Ian, Ping Cho, and the TARDIS. Khan informs him they're playing for the TARDIS, and Polo is upset, since the Doctor went above his head here. Polo leaves, and tells Susan and Barbara what is going on. Barbara says the Doctor will win the TARDIS back and Khan will still let Polo go back to Venice, so everything should work out alright - except for poor Ping Cho, who will still have to marry the 75 year old.
We then find out Tegana is accusing Ian of stealing the TARDIS, which would be a serious crime since the Doctor hasn't won it back yet, meaning it's the Khan's property. The Doctor leaves the throne room, chuckling to himself. Susan thinks he's won the TARDIS back, but it turns out he lost the last game, meaning Kublai Khan keeps everything. The Doctor being amused in this scene is delightful - he was so angry when they arrived and the TARDIS was broken, making him think they'd all die in the cold, but several times in this serial he's laughed at his predicament. Perhaps he just enjoys the battle of wits this several month long journey has provided him?
Even though Ian and Ping Cho both heard Tegana's claims of him opposing Kublai Khan, it's not enough for Polo to let him free - Ping Cho only gets to go because her fiancee promised to take her from Peking as soon as the wedding ceremony is over.
Tegana, speaking alone to Kublai Khan, says Polo is on the side of the Europeans, and that the two of them should keep that in mind. Kublai Khan agrees, and says he'll keep an eye on Polo. I wish we could see this scene - given later events, I would think the actor playing Khan would play it such that he is suspicious of Tegana.
Polo, talking to Khan later, says he regrets taking the TARDIS from the Doctor, that is was unjust. Why he has the sudden change of heart now, of all times, is beyond me. Perhaps he finally believed Ian and Ping Cho, despite forcing Ian to remain under guard? It's hard for me to believe that, though, since Polo had thought Ping Cho was on the side of the travelers, too, so why would he believe either of them now, since Ian is "capable of lying," like he said last episode? Ultimately, it doesn't really matter that much, as we'll see soon.
Luckily for Ping Cho, her fiancee drank quicksilver for some reason, and died (which is why the Empress is crying in this scene). Why he drank quicksilver, I have no idea, though Khan mentions he wanted to be young again, which... implies something pretty gross, considering he's about to marry a sixteen year old. I hope that interpretation is wrong. Either way, Ping Cho is happy, and even elects to stay in Peking a while.
Kublai Khan wants to meet with Tegana, then test Marco Polo to see if he's still trustworthy. On his way out of the throne room, Polo sees Tegana and says "I underestimated you, Tegana," to which he replies, very calmly, "No. You overestimated yourself," and enters the throne room.
The TARDIS crew tries to figure out what is going on with Tegana. The Doctor deduces he's going to assassinate the Khan since Nogai's army is outside Peking, which isn't where Khan thought it'd be - and without Kublai Khan, Nogai could sweep in and easily take over in the confusion. They overpower the guard and rush to the throne room to try to warn Kublai Khan. They run into Marco Polo on the way, who tries to get a guards attention to lock them up, but they all end up running to the throne room, just as Tegana lunges at Khan. He misses and kills the vizier, and Polo engages him in a swordfight (giving us another riveting scene of sword clanging and still images of the two actors holding swords. I don't hold this against the story as obviously it was meant to be seen on video). Polo ultimately disarms Tegana, and Khan sentences him to death. Tegana grabs a guards sword and kills himself in defiance, however.
Marco Polo pulls out the TARDIS keys and hands them to the Doctor and tells him to leave right now. The Doctor thanks him, Susan says a quick goodbye to Ping Cho (glad we got that out of the way, wouldn't want to delay this another two episodes), and they pile into the TARDIS and it dematerializes. As they watch them leave, Kublai Khan is amazed at the ship leaving, and surprisingly doesn't seem to be mad at Polo for letting them go in what is, ultimately, his property. He even says he'll let Polo return to Venice. The episode ends with a voiceover from Polo: "But what is the truth? I wonder where they are now... The past or the future?"
I said it before: this is a good episode. Excellent, even. Kublai Khan is not just a doddering old man, played for comedy - he's a smart, wise ruler, and despite his advanced age, he is imposing. Tegana is enigmatic to the last - killing himself in defiance of Khan's orders is wonderful and completely in character. The ending might be a little rushed - and Polo suddenly changing his mind about the TARDIS travelers is a little weird - but it ultimately works for me, as I wasn't bored like I was from about halfway through episode 2 until the sixth episode.
Tomorrow, Terry Nation comes back with another new alien, the Voord. And this entire serial is on video! Seven missing episodes down, only ninety more of those to go...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Sea of Death"
Thursday, May 25, 2017
"Mighty Kublai Khan" - Season 1, Episode 19
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 03/28/64
Tegana demands they all leave the TARDIS. They do, and Tegana lets Susan go once Polo arrives. Susan apologizes to the Doctor. He's not angry with her, just glad she's alright (you're a more patient man than I, Doctor). Tegana then lunges at the group, reasoning that he has enough reason to kill them all, now, but Polo still won't let him. Ping Cho arrives, and when Polo asks where they got the key, Ian says he found it in Polo's room before Ping Cho can reply. Polo doesn't press for details and they leave.
Later, Barbara forces Ian to talk to Polo. I love this scene, because it's one of the early indications that Barbara and Ian are closer than just coworkers. It's not explicitly stated or anything, but the ease with which she makes him do what she wants implies that perhaps there's mutual romantic interest between them. That's how I see it, anyway - I can't see Jacqueline Hill or William Russell play the scene, but I have seen the Romans, and by then they're clearly very, very close in that story, if you catch my meaning. Anyway, Barbara's idea is still dumb, because we're now in episode six of this serial and they're still trying to reason with Polo. It's not going to work! Ian tries the absolute truth by telling Polo he's a time traveler and the TARDIS is his time machine, but Polo doesn't buy it (and I can't say that I blame him. Ian and his friends have made some dumb moves over the past six episodes, and as Polo points out, he's lied to him several times). Polo asks him where they got the TARDIS key. Ian can't say specifically where Polo had it hidden, so Polo knows Ping Cho got it for them. Why should Polo believe Ian when he lies so much? It's not just that he lied, though, he says to Ian: "What's important is that you're capable of lying," he says. And I take his point, but surely someone as well-traveled as Marco Polo would be more suspicious of people than that. This is someone who stole someone's property from right underneath him to further his own ends - and he takes issue with a few white lies?
The next morning, it is discovered that Ping Cho is gone, and Ian thinks she left because she's afraid of being punished for having given the travelers the key. It seems Ping Cho didn't bother to say good bye to Susan, either - further proof SUSAN SHOULD JUST HAVE LEFT LAST NIGHT because even Ping Cho isn't bothered enough to say goodbye to Susan when her life is on the line. Ian offers to go find her, and though Polo suspects ulterior motives, allows him to leave over Tegana's protests.
Ping Cho is back at the last city, speaking with Wang-Lo, the creepy, overbearing inn owner. The TARDIS is apparently still here (perhaps I missed it - why didn't they take the TARDIS with them? Why was it left here? Just for plot purposes?). Ping Cho wants passage to get away from Polo and his caravan, and tries to pay Kuiju to let her go with him because she does not want to marry a 75 year old. He takes her money and leaves, and later an upset Ping Cho is speaking with Wang-Lo, who tells her she's been robbed. Ian suddenly appears, and he and Ping Cho go off to look for Kuiju. When they go to look for the TARDIS, they realize it's been stolen, and assume the bandit Kuiju took it, and later assume that he's taken it up an old unused road, because otherwise they'd have seen him take it out of town.
Tegana still thinks Ian is going back just for the TARDIS and is arguing with Polo. Susan and Barbara enter the room, laughing at something we're not told about (the plot of the past few episodes, perhaps?). Barbara and Susan are glad Ping Cho ran (Susan, of course, not upset at all that she left without saying goodbye. God, that cliffhanger was dumb), because neither of them would want to marry a 75 year old at her age either. Polo, aghast, allows Tegana to go back for Ian and Ping Cho, despite knowing Tegana is wanted at Kublai Khan's court.
Meanwhile, Polo and the rest have arrived at Kublai Khan's court. We get an amusing scene where the vizier demands everyone supplicate themselves before the Khan, and the Doctor refuses, apparently because he has a bad back (but it's likely just because the Doctor is already disrespecting authority, but maybe I'm just projecting one of my favorite later character traits on him here). He was able to sword fight last episode just fine, but I'll be fair and say maybe that exacerbated his back pain. As the Khan enters, everyone kneels, but the Doctor can't get completely to his knees and touch his forehead to the ground like everyone else. Khan is angry, but once he discovers that the old man in front of him is called the Doctor, he thinks he may be able to help him with his own aches and pains, since Khan himself is old and feeble. The Doctor says "I am not a doctor of medicine, sir, otherwise I should be able to cure these pains." I love that it's been fifty years, and we still don't know why he's called Doctor (I mean, we've gotten reasons, many in 21st century Who, but whether any of them are actually true or not is up for debate). Khan is also angry with Polo since Tegana is not there, since his master is camped closeby, which Khan wants answers for. Polo is obviously unaware of this, and I bet if we could see the video of this episode, we'd see Polo's actor visibly upset and/or angry at Tegana at this point, seeds of doubt about him finally taking root. The Doctor and Khan leave, arm in arm, both feeble old men. Susan laughs at them, but Polo chides her, saying how wise and powerful Khan is. He clearly thinks highly of him, no matter how badly he wants to get back to Venice. Barbara doubts Tegana will come back with Ian and Ping Cho alive.
Ian and Ping Cho, meanwhile, have found Kuiju, and surprise him, disarming him and forcing him to tell them he was employed to steal the TARDIS by Tegana, who happens to appear at that moment. Ian threatens to kill Kuiju. He's desperate, this schoolteacher from 1963. He wants to get home very badly, and I feel like he'd kill Kuiju, if Tegana didn't tell him to go ahead since Kuiju was of no further use to him. He doesn't kill Kuiju, since it won't get him anywhere. The episode ends with an armed Tegana telling Ian and Ping Cho to "Come. Come!"
To be honest, this episode was much better than the last few. Though there are still some dumb moments - why the TARDIS crew keep trying to reason with Polo without proving Tegana is plotting against him is beyond me - it moves along at a better pace. I suspect finally seeing Kublai Khan is nice, since that's what these episodes have been (oh, so very slowly) building to. That he's just a doddering old man at this point is charming and very, very Doctor Who. They could have played him as a powerful , burly man who shouts and throws his weight around but instead, we get a doddering old man, still a wise leader, but interestingly near the end of his tenure due to his advanced age. I'm a big fan of Kublai Khan in these episodes. Hopefully this ends strongly tomorrow...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Assassin at Peking"
Tegana demands they all leave the TARDIS. They do, and Tegana lets Susan go once Polo arrives. Susan apologizes to the Doctor. He's not angry with her, just glad she's alright (you're a more patient man than I, Doctor). Tegana then lunges at the group, reasoning that he has enough reason to kill them all, now, but Polo still won't let him. Ping Cho arrives, and when Polo asks where they got the key, Ian says he found it in Polo's room before Ping Cho can reply. Polo doesn't press for details and they leave.
Later, Barbara forces Ian to talk to Polo. I love this scene, because it's one of the early indications that Barbara and Ian are closer than just coworkers. It's not explicitly stated or anything, but the ease with which she makes him do what she wants implies that perhaps there's mutual romantic interest between them. That's how I see it, anyway - I can't see Jacqueline Hill or William Russell play the scene, but I have seen the Romans, and by then they're clearly very, very close in that story, if you catch my meaning. Anyway, Barbara's idea is still dumb, because we're now in episode six of this serial and they're still trying to reason with Polo. It's not going to work! Ian tries the absolute truth by telling Polo he's a time traveler and the TARDIS is his time machine, but Polo doesn't buy it (and I can't say that I blame him. Ian and his friends have made some dumb moves over the past six episodes, and as Polo points out, he's lied to him several times). Polo asks him where they got the TARDIS key. Ian can't say specifically where Polo had it hidden, so Polo knows Ping Cho got it for them. Why should Polo believe Ian when he lies so much? It's not just that he lied, though, he says to Ian: "What's important is that you're capable of lying," he says. And I take his point, but surely someone as well-traveled as Marco Polo would be more suspicious of people than that. This is someone who stole someone's property from right underneath him to further his own ends - and he takes issue with a few white lies?
The next morning, it is discovered that Ping Cho is gone, and Ian thinks she left because she's afraid of being punished for having given the travelers the key. It seems Ping Cho didn't bother to say good bye to Susan, either - further proof SUSAN SHOULD JUST HAVE LEFT LAST NIGHT because even Ping Cho isn't bothered enough to say goodbye to Susan when her life is on the line. Ian offers to go find her, and though Polo suspects ulterior motives, allows him to leave over Tegana's protests.
Ping Cho is back at the last city, speaking with Wang-Lo, the creepy, overbearing inn owner. The TARDIS is apparently still here (perhaps I missed it - why didn't they take the TARDIS with them? Why was it left here? Just for plot purposes?). Ping Cho wants passage to get away from Polo and his caravan, and tries to pay Kuiju to let her go with him because she does not want to marry a 75 year old. He takes her money and leaves, and later an upset Ping Cho is speaking with Wang-Lo, who tells her she's been robbed. Ian suddenly appears, and he and Ping Cho go off to look for Kuiju. When they go to look for the TARDIS, they realize it's been stolen, and assume the bandit Kuiju took it, and later assume that he's taken it up an old unused road, because otherwise they'd have seen him take it out of town.
Tegana still thinks Ian is going back just for the TARDIS and is arguing with Polo. Susan and Barbara enter the room, laughing at something we're not told about (the plot of the past few episodes, perhaps?). Barbara and Susan are glad Ping Cho ran (Susan, of course, not upset at all that she left without saying goodbye. God, that cliffhanger was dumb), because neither of them would want to marry a 75 year old at her age either. Polo, aghast, allows Tegana to go back for Ian and Ping Cho, despite knowing Tegana is wanted at Kublai Khan's court.
Meanwhile, Polo and the rest have arrived at Kublai Khan's court. We get an amusing scene where the vizier demands everyone supplicate themselves before the Khan, and the Doctor refuses, apparently because he has a bad back (but it's likely just because the Doctor is already disrespecting authority, but maybe I'm just projecting one of my favorite later character traits on him here). He was able to sword fight last episode just fine, but I'll be fair and say maybe that exacerbated his back pain. As the Khan enters, everyone kneels, but the Doctor can't get completely to his knees and touch his forehead to the ground like everyone else. Khan is angry, but once he discovers that the old man in front of him is called the Doctor, he thinks he may be able to help him with his own aches and pains, since Khan himself is old and feeble. The Doctor says "I am not a doctor of medicine, sir, otherwise I should be able to cure these pains." I love that it's been fifty years, and we still don't know why he's called Doctor (I mean, we've gotten reasons, many in 21st century Who, but whether any of them are actually true or not is up for debate). Khan is also angry with Polo since Tegana is not there, since his master is camped closeby, which Khan wants answers for. Polo is obviously unaware of this, and I bet if we could see the video of this episode, we'd see Polo's actor visibly upset and/or angry at Tegana at this point, seeds of doubt about him finally taking root. The Doctor and Khan leave, arm in arm, both feeble old men. Susan laughs at them, but Polo chides her, saying how wise and powerful Khan is. He clearly thinks highly of him, no matter how badly he wants to get back to Venice. Barbara doubts Tegana will come back with Ian and Ping Cho alive.
Ian and Ping Cho, meanwhile, have found Kuiju, and surprise him, disarming him and forcing him to tell them he was employed to steal the TARDIS by Tegana, who happens to appear at that moment. Ian threatens to kill Kuiju. He's desperate, this schoolteacher from 1963. He wants to get home very badly, and I feel like he'd kill Kuiju, if Tegana didn't tell him to go ahead since Kuiju was of no further use to him. He doesn't kill Kuiju, since it won't get him anywhere. The episode ends with an armed Tegana telling Ian and Ping Cho to "Come. Come!"
To be honest, this episode was much better than the last few. Though there are still some dumb moments - why the TARDIS crew keep trying to reason with Polo without proving Tegana is plotting against him is beyond me - it moves along at a better pace. I suspect finally seeing Kublai Khan is nice, since that's what these episodes have been (oh, so very slowly) building to. That he's just a doddering old man at this point is charming and very, very Doctor Who. They could have played him as a powerful , burly man who shouts and throws his weight around but instead, we get a doddering old man, still a wise leader, but interestingly near the end of his tenure due to his advanced age. I'm a big fan of Kublai Khan in these episodes. Hopefully this ends strongly tomorrow...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Assassin at Peking"
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
"Rider from Shang-Tu" - Season 1, Episode 18
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 03/21/64
Seeing the guard dead, the TARDIS crew decide to warn Marco Polo rather than go through with their plan, which at first struck me as idiotic, since they needed that guard out of the way anyway. But they don't know why he's dead, and may not be able to pull it off if there are bandits or about. So Ian warns Polo, and they all run out to see Tegana standing there. Polo isn't suspicious of him at all (still!). Tegana passes out swords, even as he claims there are no bandits. The Doctor suggests they all get into the TARDIS, "where it is grace... safe!" Poor Hartnell and his fluffs - he's barely in large swaths of Marco Polo, yet he still messes up lines.
Tegana suggests to Polo that the Doctor and his friends probably killed the guard to try to escape, which sounds plausible. But Ian points out that they wouldn't have warned Polo had they killed the guard, they'd have captured or killed him in his sleep. The audience finds out the bandits, if they don't receive the signal from Tegana, will attack anyway when the moon is at the highest point in the sky. Ian comes up with the genius idea (citation needed) to stack bamboo and light it on fire when they arrive to make a big scary noise so all they'll run away. He then tells Polo exactly what they were going to do had their plan not been messed up by the dead guard. Ian has taken his stupid pills today, it seems (apparently it was unknown in this time that bamboo would explode if burned, but how this translates to a plan on Ian's part to scare bandits away, I have no idea).
When the bandits arrive, the Doctor had fallen asleep, but he wakes up and fights with everyone else (oh, what I'd give to see Hartnell swing a sword around. Perhaps they used a stunt double, though, I have no idea. Strange that swordfighting doesn't seem to ruin his back like bending over does in a few episodes, though). In the fight, Tegana kills the bandit leader, Acomet. Just after that, the bamboo explodes and the bandits run off. Ian thinks they were scared of the noise at first, but the Doctor suggests it's because their leader was killed (for the record, the Doctor is right. Come on, Ian).
Later, the Doctor realizes Tegana must have killed the guard and was planning to signal the bandits while everyone slept, and Ian escaping the tent and discovering him foiled that plan. Barbara had recognized the dead bandit Acomet as one of the men, when she was captured in the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, and they reason that Tegana had to kill him so Barbara didn't out him in front of Polo.
A rider with a message from Kublai Khan arrives, and Ping Cho goes to find Polo. When she does, she sees him hiding the TARDIS keys in a little spot inside his journal. He makes Ping Cho give her word not to tell anyone, and she obliges. Satisfied he hasn't left any pesky loopholes in his order for Ping Cho to take advantage of, he goes to receive the message from the rider. Kublai Khan wants to see Polo immediately, so they must leave and rush to meet him.
When they arrive at the next city, the TARDIS is placed in some stables. The guy running the hotel, Wang-lo, is a creepy, overeager guy who the Doctor satisfyingly mocks for sounding like a moron (he's a comedy character who isn't very important to the plot, which is done better elsewhere, but is a character I like, usually. The cook from the 1967 Second Doctor story Enemy of the World comes to mind as another example of this character type, and I think he's written better and funnier). Outside, Ping Cho and Susan are comparing goldfish in a pond to people they know (boredom must be driving them batty). Ping Cho reveals she knows where the TARDIS keys are, but tells Susan she can't tell her, because she promised! If only there was some kind of loophole she could take advantage of to get the keys to the travelers, somehow...
Tegana meets with the one-eyed man Kuiju, to have the man steal the TARDIS overnight. Tegana promises him 100 gold pieces for his effort.
Meanwhile, Ping Cho takes the TARDIS keys from Polo's journal when he leaves his tent. She figured it out! Who didn't see that one coming from a mile away? Well... children, I suppose. I like that the lesson here seems to be find loopholes when given orders, don't follow the spirit of the rule. Not something you usually get in television designed for children... She tells Susan that she's not breaking her promise to Polo because she's not telling her where she got the keys from. Susan, impressed with Ping Cho keeping her promise, promises Ping Cho that she won't leave without saying good bye, a decision which will prolong this story another two episodes, unfortunately.
Off screen, Susan has given the keys to the Doctor, and they make a break for it. Ian pretends to be drunk then knocks out their guard (it's an amusing little scene, and I wish I could see William Russell act it), and they make a break for the TARDIS. They make it inside! Then they realize that Susan isn't with them, because she made that infernal bloody promise to say goodbye to Ping Cho (why didn't she just say goodbye in the freaking courtyard when Ping Cho handed over the keys?!). Susan, while looking for Ping Cho, is grabbed by Tegana and the episode ends.
Another runaround. I understand that this episode is attempting to have the regulars try to win Polo back to their side with the prevention of the bandit attack at the beginning, but I just struggle to care. At this point Polo should have killed the Doctor and his group, or left them in Lop or something. This episode has its moments, but is mostly filler. At least we're getting close to Kublai Khan and his court, I suppose.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Mighty Kublai Khan"
Seeing the guard dead, the TARDIS crew decide to warn Marco Polo rather than go through with their plan, which at first struck me as idiotic, since they needed that guard out of the way anyway. But they don't know why he's dead, and may not be able to pull it off if there are bandits or about. So Ian warns Polo, and they all run out to see Tegana standing there. Polo isn't suspicious of him at all (still!). Tegana passes out swords, even as he claims there are no bandits. The Doctor suggests they all get into the TARDIS, "where it is grace... safe!" Poor Hartnell and his fluffs - he's barely in large swaths of Marco Polo, yet he still messes up lines.
Tegana suggests to Polo that the Doctor and his friends probably killed the guard to try to escape, which sounds plausible. But Ian points out that they wouldn't have warned Polo had they killed the guard, they'd have captured or killed him in his sleep. The audience finds out the bandits, if they don't receive the signal from Tegana, will attack anyway when the moon is at the highest point in the sky. Ian comes up with the genius idea (citation needed) to stack bamboo and light it on fire when they arrive to make a big scary noise so all they'll run away. He then tells Polo exactly what they were going to do had their plan not been messed up by the dead guard. Ian has taken his stupid pills today, it seems (apparently it was unknown in this time that bamboo would explode if burned, but how this translates to a plan on Ian's part to scare bandits away, I have no idea).
When the bandits arrive, the Doctor had fallen asleep, but he wakes up and fights with everyone else (oh, what I'd give to see Hartnell swing a sword around. Perhaps they used a stunt double, though, I have no idea. Strange that swordfighting doesn't seem to ruin his back like bending over does in a few episodes, though). In the fight, Tegana kills the bandit leader, Acomet. Just after that, the bamboo explodes and the bandits run off. Ian thinks they were scared of the noise at first, but the Doctor suggests it's because their leader was killed (for the record, the Doctor is right. Come on, Ian).
Later, the Doctor realizes Tegana must have killed the guard and was planning to signal the bandits while everyone slept, and Ian escaping the tent and discovering him foiled that plan. Barbara had recognized the dead bandit Acomet as one of the men, when she was captured in the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, and they reason that Tegana had to kill him so Barbara didn't out him in front of Polo.
A rider with a message from Kublai Khan arrives, and Ping Cho goes to find Polo. When she does, she sees him hiding the TARDIS keys in a little spot inside his journal. He makes Ping Cho give her word not to tell anyone, and she obliges. Satisfied he hasn't left any pesky loopholes in his order for Ping Cho to take advantage of, he goes to receive the message from the rider. Kublai Khan wants to see Polo immediately, so they must leave and rush to meet him.
When they arrive at the next city, the TARDIS is placed in some stables. The guy running the hotel, Wang-lo, is a creepy, overeager guy who the Doctor satisfyingly mocks for sounding like a moron (he's a comedy character who isn't very important to the plot, which is done better elsewhere, but is a character I like, usually. The cook from the 1967 Second Doctor story Enemy of the World comes to mind as another example of this character type, and I think he's written better and funnier). Outside, Ping Cho and Susan are comparing goldfish in a pond to people they know (boredom must be driving them batty). Ping Cho reveals she knows where the TARDIS keys are, but tells Susan she can't tell her, because she promised! If only there was some kind of loophole she could take advantage of to get the keys to the travelers, somehow...
Tegana meets with the one-eyed man Kuiju, to have the man steal the TARDIS overnight. Tegana promises him 100 gold pieces for his effort.
Meanwhile, Ping Cho takes the TARDIS keys from Polo's journal when he leaves his tent. She figured it out! Who didn't see that one coming from a mile away? Well... children, I suppose. I like that the lesson here seems to be find loopholes when given orders, don't follow the spirit of the rule. Not something you usually get in television designed for children... She tells Susan that she's not breaking her promise to Polo because she's not telling her where she got the keys from. Susan, impressed with Ping Cho keeping her promise, promises Ping Cho that she won't leave without saying good bye, a decision which will prolong this story another two episodes, unfortunately.
Off screen, Susan has given the keys to the Doctor, and they make a break for it. Ian pretends to be drunk then knocks out their guard (it's an amusing little scene, and I wish I could see William Russell act it), and they make a break for the TARDIS. They make it inside! Then they realize that Susan isn't with them, because she made that infernal bloody promise to say goodbye to Ping Cho (why didn't she just say goodbye in the freaking courtyard when Ping Cho handed over the keys?!). Susan, while looking for Ping Cho, is grabbed by Tegana and the episode ends.
Another runaround. I understand that this episode is attempting to have the regulars try to win Polo back to their side with the prevention of the bandit attack at the beginning, but I just struggle to care. At this point Polo should have killed the Doctor and his group, or left them in Lop or something. This episode has its moments, but is mostly filler. At least we're getting close to Kublai Khan and his court, I suppose.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Mighty Kublai Khan"
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
"The Wall of Lies" - Season 1, Episode 17
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by John Crockett | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 03/14/64
Ian and Marco Polo head to the cave when he's told the group is there. Tegana shows up, and the Doctor shows him Barbara's handkerchief to prove she'd been there - Tegana asks him if he found it "in the passageway," which will be important later, though none of the characters remark on it yet. Tegana urges everyone to leave because the caves are haunted, but when the Doctor tells him that's rubbish, he says, "That's right, you're a magician," and the Doctor laughs. It's hard not to take his laugh as a knowing chuckle to himself about how he is indeed more than he appears...
Ian and Marco Polo have appeared, and the Doctor explains what's going on while Tegana begs the gods not to strike them all down. Ian believes Susan's claim about the eyes on the wall moving when he says he thinks there's a room on the other side. He and Polo figure out how to open it, and when they do, a mongrol moves to kill Barbara, but Polo strikes him down before he is able to. Barbara's gag is removed, and she, weeping, is brought back to the city safely with everyone else.
Polo tells Tegana that he won't let the travelers go because he feels responsibility for their safety since he's stealing the TARDIS. Tegana is still trying to play the TARDIS group against Polo by telling him that they'll do anything to get their ship back and are only playing nice because they have to. Ian and Barbara enter, and Barbara tells them all why she went to the cave - to follow Tegana. He denies this claim and leaves. Polo, angry at the accusations flying around, makes Ping Cho and Susan sleep in different tents because Tegana had convinced him that the TARDIS crew is poisoning Ping Cho against him. Tegana, eavesdropping outside, smiles at this.
Some time passes as they move closer to the Great Wall. The Doctor explains that he's almost done fixing the TARDIS - just another night should do it, and then they can all leave. He's worried, though, that Ping Cho knows about the second TARDIS key. Susan and Ping Cho finally get a chance to hang out, and Ping Cho explains that she knows the Doctor is fixing the TARDIS because she'd seen him enter it with his second key. Tegana overhears this outside.
Ping Cho realizes that Tegana had implied he had been in the cave before tonight when he asked the Doctor if he had found the handkerchief "in the passageway," which he could only have known about had he been there before, since they hadn't yet opened the passage when he said that. Polo doesn't buy it, though, and gets angry at Ping Cho for throwing around such severe accusations. I understand why Polo wants more evidence than what Ping Cho presents, but surely he should at least start being suspicious of Tegana by now? He doesn't seem to be at all.
Tegana's next plan is to signal to the mongols outside the city to attack the next night. When discussing how to kill Polo, he suggests he "die like an old woman in bed," and laughs to himself, the evil bastard. The only way he can figure to kill the Doctor is with a stake through the heart (this takes place long before vampires were invented, so where did that tradition come from? I'd guess that it's an old traditional way for killing any kind supernatural being that was later used as a way to kill a vampire, an idea which then stuck in popular consciousness as applying mostly towards vampires. Or Lucarotti forgot vampires didn't exist during the time this story is set).
The Doctor sneaks into the TARDIS to finish his repairs, but is seen by Tegana. He fetches Polo (amusingly, the actor playing Tegana fluffs it a bit by saying "The old magician is in his sh... caravan," clearly having heard the TARDIS referred to as the ship in the script), who Ian is trying to convince that Tegana is the enemy, and they all see the Doctor exit the TARDIS (not before we get a few scenes of the Doctor happily humming to himself as he does his repairs, which I found cute).
Polo is incensed at the Doctor. He demands the second key to the TARDIS and the Doctor refuses, even when threatened with force. "I'll let you wreck it first!" he says. Tegena grabs him, takes the key, and hands it to Polo. Polo decrees that the ship is his, they are his prisoners, and they are not to go inside it on penalty of death. The Doctor replies "You poor, pathetic, stupid savage!" Tegana laughs at the Doctor's boldness as the Doctor and his group are taken away. The first Doctor is prone to looking down upon people he meets on his travels as "savages," and it makes me sad. I think fans handwave this away as him just being unenlightened due to how little he's traveled thus far, but it always just strikes me as a little bigoted and unfair.
In their new tent, under guard, they attempt to come up with a plan, during which Ian breaks a plate in anger. They decide to capture Polo and use him as a hostage to get into the ship. Ian uses a piece of the broken plate to cut his way out of the back of the tent. He discovers the guard outside is already dead, and we cut to credits.
My problem with these episodes is pacing. I don't want to be too uptight about it since television production was so young at the time (these were basically taped stage plays, for the most part, after all), but it is a major problem in "Marco Polo." I know people love this story but in 25 minutes, very little happens - the Doctor fixes his TARDIS but his key is taken away from him, Polo thinks Tegana is on his side, and the Doctor and his friends aren't believed and get locked up. The pacing is absolutely glacial, and there's only so many times I can watch Tegana and the TARDIS crew being played off each other before I get sick of it. It's well acted, mind you, and I think John Lucarotti is a good writer, but stretching this story over seven episodes just doesn't work. There's just not enough plot here in the middle. It's hard to blame Lucarotti for it, of course - I'm sure he didn't propose a seven-part story in his original outline. The episodes will get better near the end, thankfully, though, and I'm looking forward to it.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Rider from Shang-Tu"
Ian and Marco Polo head to the cave when he's told the group is there. Tegana shows up, and the Doctor shows him Barbara's handkerchief to prove she'd been there - Tegana asks him if he found it "in the passageway," which will be important later, though none of the characters remark on it yet. Tegana urges everyone to leave because the caves are haunted, but when the Doctor tells him that's rubbish, he says, "That's right, you're a magician," and the Doctor laughs. It's hard not to take his laugh as a knowing chuckle to himself about how he is indeed more than he appears...
Ian and Marco Polo have appeared, and the Doctor explains what's going on while Tegana begs the gods not to strike them all down. Ian believes Susan's claim about the eyes on the wall moving when he says he thinks there's a room on the other side. He and Polo figure out how to open it, and when they do, a mongrol moves to kill Barbara, but Polo strikes him down before he is able to. Barbara's gag is removed, and she, weeping, is brought back to the city safely with everyone else.
Polo tells Tegana that he won't let the travelers go because he feels responsibility for their safety since he's stealing the TARDIS. Tegana is still trying to play the TARDIS group against Polo by telling him that they'll do anything to get their ship back and are only playing nice because they have to. Ian and Barbara enter, and Barbara tells them all why she went to the cave - to follow Tegana. He denies this claim and leaves. Polo, angry at the accusations flying around, makes Ping Cho and Susan sleep in different tents because Tegana had convinced him that the TARDIS crew is poisoning Ping Cho against him. Tegana, eavesdropping outside, smiles at this.
Some time passes as they move closer to the Great Wall. The Doctor explains that he's almost done fixing the TARDIS - just another night should do it, and then they can all leave. He's worried, though, that Ping Cho knows about the second TARDIS key. Susan and Ping Cho finally get a chance to hang out, and Ping Cho explains that she knows the Doctor is fixing the TARDIS because she'd seen him enter it with his second key. Tegana overhears this outside.
Ping Cho realizes that Tegana had implied he had been in the cave before tonight when he asked the Doctor if he had found the handkerchief "in the passageway," which he could only have known about had he been there before, since they hadn't yet opened the passage when he said that. Polo doesn't buy it, though, and gets angry at Ping Cho for throwing around such severe accusations. I understand why Polo wants more evidence than what Ping Cho presents, but surely he should at least start being suspicious of Tegana by now? He doesn't seem to be at all.
Tegana's next plan is to signal to the mongols outside the city to attack the next night. When discussing how to kill Polo, he suggests he "die like an old woman in bed," and laughs to himself, the evil bastard. The only way he can figure to kill the Doctor is with a stake through the heart (this takes place long before vampires were invented, so where did that tradition come from? I'd guess that it's an old traditional way for killing any kind supernatural being that was later used as a way to kill a vampire, an idea which then stuck in popular consciousness as applying mostly towards vampires. Or Lucarotti forgot vampires didn't exist during the time this story is set).
The Doctor sneaks into the TARDIS to finish his repairs, but is seen by Tegana. He fetches Polo (amusingly, the actor playing Tegana fluffs it a bit by saying "The old magician is in his sh... caravan," clearly having heard the TARDIS referred to as the ship in the script), who Ian is trying to convince that Tegana is the enemy, and they all see the Doctor exit the TARDIS (not before we get a few scenes of the Doctor happily humming to himself as he does his repairs, which I found cute).
Polo is incensed at the Doctor. He demands the second key to the TARDIS and the Doctor refuses, even when threatened with force. "I'll let you wreck it first!" he says. Tegena grabs him, takes the key, and hands it to Polo. Polo decrees that the ship is his, they are his prisoners, and they are not to go inside it on penalty of death. The Doctor replies "You poor, pathetic, stupid savage!" Tegana laughs at the Doctor's boldness as the Doctor and his group are taken away. The first Doctor is prone to looking down upon people he meets on his travels as "savages," and it makes me sad. I think fans handwave this away as him just being unenlightened due to how little he's traveled thus far, but it always just strikes me as a little bigoted and unfair.
In their new tent, under guard, they attempt to come up with a plan, during which Ian breaks a plate in anger. They decide to capture Polo and use him as a hostage to get into the ship. Ian uses a piece of the broken plate to cut his way out of the back of the tent. He discovers the guard outside is already dead, and we cut to credits.
My problem with these episodes is pacing. I don't want to be too uptight about it since television production was so young at the time (these were basically taped stage plays, for the most part, after all), but it is a major problem in "Marco Polo." I know people love this story but in 25 minutes, very little happens - the Doctor fixes his TARDIS but his key is taken away from him, Polo thinks Tegana is on his side, and the Doctor and his friends aren't believed and get locked up. The pacing is absolutely glacial, and there's only so many times I can watch Tegana and the TARDIS crew being played off each other before I get sick of it. It's well acted, mind you, and I think John Lucarotti is a good writer, but stretching this story over seven episodes just doesn't work. There's just not enough plot here in the middle. It's hard to blame Lucarotti for it, of course - I'm sure he didn't propose a seven-part story in his original outline. The episodes will get better near the end, thankfully, though, and I'm looking forward to it.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Rider from Shang-Tu"
Monday, May 22, 2017
"Five Hundred Eyes" - Season 1, Episode 16
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 03/07/64
The episode opens with everyone standing around waiting for Tegana to come back. Well, probably not, it sort of sounds like they're heading slowly towards the oasis. Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor realizes condensation has formed inside his ship, which he excitedly brings out to Marco Polo and the rest. It's weird, though - if condensation can form inside the TARDIS, what happens when the TARDIS is surrounded by lava or is in deep space? Wouldn't the inside of the ship be affected by those conditions, too? Maybe the Doctor reinforces the ship's defenses later and prevents this. Who knows.
Anyway, the episode spends another minute or so explaining condensation to Marco Polo via the Doctor and Ian. Marco Polo is incredulous at first, then later insists he totally knows what condensation is. Suuure, Marco. Tegana doesn't believe in condensation, though. He's questioned a moment later by Ian and Barbara, after Barbara told Ian she suspected Tegana was up to no good. They don't learn anything, though, since Tegana just makes up lies in response, while the Doctor insists to Marco Polo that he has a superior intellect. Polo, somewhat remarkably, seems unfazed by the Doctor's bragging. The condensation scene is presumably there to fulfill the show's original call to be educational, but it is incredibly boring. I'm glad the educational remit is dropped fairly quickly (or just ignored. Either works).
The caravan arrives in Tun-huang, and the TARDIS is set up in the courtyard, where passerby gawk at it. Ping Cho entertains the caravan and others with the story of some hashashi. I have no idea if the story she tells was made up by Lucarotti or is genuine (I hope it's genuine, as it would fit the show's historical remit to educate it's younger viewers, and unlike the condensation scene, is actually interesting).
During Ping Cho's story, Tegana slipped out and went to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, and Barbara followed him. From the photo we have of this set, it looks more like the cave of fifty-ish eyes-if-that, but it's only from one angle, so maybe more eyes are on the other walls. A mongol named Malik meets Tegana, and they enter a secret room to discuss their plans. Tegena wants the mongols to attack Marco Polo's caravan and steal the TARDIS, then kill Kublai Khan. Barbara overheard all this, but Malik detected her presence and grabbed her before she could escape. Tegana heads back to Polo's caravan, and when everyone is freaking out about Barbara being missing, Tegana says, "you won't find her alive, now," as if he thinks that will prevent people from looking for her. They do, anyway.
Susan and Ping Cho convince the Doctor to go to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes to look for Barbara, since they think she'll be there because of her great interest in it while it was being discussed earlier. The Doctor shakes down a passerby for the cave's location and they are off. That passerby warns Tegana that he told them where the cave was, and the episode ends when they're poking around the cave and Susan spots a pair of eyes on the wall move. It's a weird cliffhanger, because the audience knows exactly what that is - one of the Mongols in the secret room looking into the main cave at them. Normally, it'd end when the group is attacked or captured, not upon seeing eyes move.
With no idea what the episode really looks like, and with no interesting weirdo soundscapes like in the last episode, this one was tougher to get through, despite it's shorter running length. The first few minutes spent explaining condensation don't help, either. The title is more interesting than the actual episode, I'm afraid.
Tomorrow, if I'm reading Wikipedia correctly, there are no surviving images of the episode left, since John Crockett stepped in to direct in Waris Hussein's place, and we only have the images we have because Hussein bought telesnaps from John Cura. All we've got is the soundtrack and apparently the script to go by, so hopefully I can come up with something interesting to say about it!
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Wall of Lies"
The episode opens with everyone standing around waiting for Tegana to come back. Well, probably not, it sort of sounds like they're heading slowly towards the oasis. Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor realizes condensation has formed inside his ship, which he excitedly brings out to Marco Polo and the rest. It's weird, though - if condensation can form inside the TARDIS, what happens when the TARDIS is surrounded by lava or is in deep space? Wouldn't the inside of the ship be affected by those conditions, too? Maybe the Doctor reinforces the ship's defenses later and prevents this. Who knows.
Anyway, the episode spends another minute or so explaining condensation to Marco Polo via the Doctor and Ian. Marco Polo is incredulous at first, then later insists he totally knows what condensation is. Suuure, Marco. Tegana doesn't believe in condensation, though. He's questioned a moment later by Ian and Barbara, after Barbara told Ian she suspected Tegana was up to no good. They don't learn anything, though, since Tegana just makes up lies in response, while the Doctor insists to Marco Polo that he has a superior intellect. Polo, somewhat remarkably, seems unfazed by the Doctor's bragging. The condensation scene is presumably there to fulfill the show's original call to be educational, but it is incredibly boring. I'm glad the educational remit is dropped fairly quickly (or just ignored. Either works).
The caravan arrives in Tun-huang, and the TARDIS is set up in the courtyard, where passerby gawk at it. Ping Cho entertains the caravan and others with the story of some hashashi. I have no idea if the story she tells was made up by Lucarotti or is genuine (I hope it's genuine, as it would fit the show's historical remit to educate it's younger viewers, and unlike the condensation scene, is actually interesting).
During Ping Cho's story, Tegana slipped out and went to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, and Barbara followed him. From the photo we have of this set, it looks more like the cave of fifty-ish eyes-if-that, but it's only from one angle, so maybe more eyes are on the other walls. A mongol named Malik meets Tegana, and they enter a secret room to discuss their plans. Tegena wants the mongols to attack Marco Polo's caravan and steal the TARDIS, then kill Kublai Khan. Barbara overheard all this, but Malik detected her presence and grabbed her before she could escape. Tegana heads back to Polo's caravan, and when everyone is freaking out about Barbara being missing, Tegana says, "you won't find her alive, now," as if he thinks that will prevent people from looking for her. They do, anyway.
Susan and Ping Cho convince the Doctor to go to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes to look for Barbara, since they think she'll be there because of her great interest in it while it was being discussed earlier. The Doctor shakes down a passerby for the cave's location and they are off. That passerby warns Tegana that he told them where the cave was, and the episode ends when they're poking around the cave and Susan spots a pair of eyes on the wall move. It's a weird cliffhanger, because the audience knows exactly what that is - one of the Mongols in the secret room looking into the main cave at them. Normally, it'd end when the group is attacked or captured, not upon seeing eyes move.
With no idea what the episode really looks like, and with no interesting weirdo soundscapes like in the last episode, this one was tougher to get through, despite it's shorter running length. The first few minutes spent explaining condensation don't help, either. The title is more interesting than the actual episode, I'm afraid.
Tomorrow, if I'm reading Wikipedia correctly, there are no surviving images of the episode left, since John Crockett stepped in to direct in Waris Hussein's place, and we only have the images we have because Hussein bought telesnaps from John Cura. All we've got is the soundtrack and apparently the script to go by, so hopefully I can come up with something interesting to say about it!
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Wall of Lies"
Sunday, May 21, 2017
"The Singing Sands" - Season 1, Episode 15
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 02/29/64
This is a strange episode. Not bad, just strange. I assume it might be a little more straightforward if we could actually see it, but as it is, there's a sequence in the middle of it that is almost scarier because we have no idea what's going on.
At the beginning, though, we're told the Doctor has basically been whinging, sulking, and insulting over the past few days, which is apparently his only plan to try to get his TARDIS back at the moment (it's about all I'd be good for, so I'm not holding it against you, Doctor). We don't see Hartnell until the tail end of this episode (he only has a line or two in this one), so he must have had this production week off. Susan is upset with the Doctor for his attitude, and that he won't listen to her or even talk to her.
Ian and Polo play chess. We don't know what moves they make outside the ones they mention in dialogue. I doubt actually seeing them play chess on video would really be that much more exciting than on audio with still images, but still, it'd improve the scene. These middle episodes of Marco Polo are really where I got bored while listening to the audios, and scenes like this are why. It's probably supposed to be a metaphor for Marco Polo playing an ingenious game against his enemies, and that Tegana, who spends this episode sabotaging the group, is being even more devious in response, but... and then I fell asleep before I could come up with an end to this sentence.
I'm kidding. Whatever they're trying to say, it's not all that interesting. I will say that none of the characters, thus far, have mentioned how remarkable it is that they're traveling with Marco Polo. I feel like if I were Ian, I'd have an out of body moment, sitting there playing chess with someone famous who lived and died hundreds of years ago (and you'd think they'd have room for a scene like that, considering how much padding these seven episodes have).
Later, after dark, Ping Cho shows Susan around the desert. We're told it's beautiful - I'd sure like to see if it is (the missing episodes often have this ironic feeling to them, where the entire point of a scene is visual and the characters remark how interesting it is and we, cruelly, aren't privy to it). A sandstorm comes, and since Susan and Ping Cho had been following Tegana since they saw him while out looking at the desert, they are lost amongst the sand. This is the weird bit - we hear screaming and singing and - presumably - Ian calling Susan, and for over a minute we hear this while Ping Cho and Susan stumble or run around the desert trying to get their bearings. If we were able to see this sequence, I'm sure it'd be the two actresses running in place while being pelted with sand, but it's hard to say (this is directed by Waris Hussein, though, so maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it looks good, since he proved himself quite capable with the first four episodes of the show). As it is, though... it's probably scarier on audio, since what we hear is unintelligible in spots. This might just be the reconstruction, though. For all they clean up some of the visual aspects - coloring the screenshots we have and adding, somewhat inexplicably, a scene where we see actual motion of sand blowing around the desert, as well as some sand moving over still images of Susan and Ping Cho, they don't clean the audio up to make whatever the two girls are saying intelligible. Why we need to see sand blowing around when we've been told there's a sandstorm but not the character's dialogue is beyond me. Perhaps the person who made this recon is the sound mixer at the BBC right now (is this my first slight against nuWho? I think it might be! Don't worry, I still love it and am exaggerating anyway). It's a good scene, though, most interesting in the episode by far, and it's left largely unexplained - apparently the sandstorms just sound like that in the Gobi desert.
Back at camp, Barbara and Ian freak out once they realize the girls are out in the sandstorm, but Marco Polo won't let them out to look for them. Tegana eventually arrives when things calm down with the girls. Susan later tells Ping Cho that she's very suspicious of Tegana, but can't quite explain why. She's convinced he lied about his reasons for being out in the sandstorm. We then get an odd scene where Tegana seems to test Polo's reflexes by drawing his sword and yelling "Polo!" Polo responds by leaping up and grabbing his own sword. Satisfied, Tegana leaves the tent and proceeds to lure the guard away from the supply caravan, and empties the gourds containing all the water they have. Why Polo seems unfazed by this, even if he assumes Tegana is an ally, is beyond me. If someone pulled a gun on me just to see my response, I'd be pretty pissed, myself. Then again, we have no idea how Polo reacts visually, so maybe he scowls at Tegana or flips him off or something (oh, what I'd give for that last one).
The next morning, Polo thinks bandits came and drained the water to make the travelers return to Lop where they'll have sprung a trap for them (it was Tegana who drained the water). The group debates what to do, and it's made clear that they don't have enough water to finish crossing the desert and barely enough to make it to Lop or an oasis to the north. Tegana wants them to go back to Lop, but the group decides to go to the oasis. A few days pass, and we get more narration from Polo to explain how they're traveling more slowly with each passing day, and after five days, still not having made it to the oasis, they run out of water. We then get a near minute and a half scene of everybody standing around in the heat, which I'm sure is more interesting on video (though even that might be a stretch). The Doctor finally shows up in this scene, to ask Polo if he could have more water and to collapse (Hartnell earned his paycheck this week, dammit). Ian and Barbara want the Doctor to be comfortable, and thus in his ship, so Polo allows him and Susan to rest in the TARDIS, but Barbara and Ian must stay outside with the caravan. Tegana offers to go ahead with his horse to get water and return to the caravan since he and his horse are still in good health, so Polo lets him. The episode ends with Tegana, at the oasis, happily drinking water to his hearts content and dumping the rest on the ground while taunting Polo and laughing to himself.
For all I'm complaining about these episodes, I still would like to see them. I think Waris Hussein's direction probably improves the story immeasurably, whereas on audio it's a little stale. But of course the bloody missing episodes are the longest yet. This one clocked in at almost 26 minutes, depending on how long the original credits were (they were remade in full for the recon as far as I can tell). Past episodes were usually 21-24 minutes in length, then of course we get to an episode where there's a scene where everyone stands around for a full minute and we don't even get to see it.
I love the costumes, from what we can see, though, and I'm glad we do have color photos of them, whether they were colorized by the recon people or were taken on set. Tomorrow... I couldn't tell you. Like I said before, the middle episodes of Marco Polo are a blank to me, because they could barely hold my attention. This blog is making me pay more attention to the serial, though, since I'm watching one episode per day and can focus harder on it (taking notes helps, too). I dread a full episode of padding in missing episode form, and they do exist...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Five Hundred Eyes"
This is a strange episode. Not bad, just strange. I assume it might be a little more straightforward if we could actually see it, but as it is, there's a sequence in the middle of it that is almost scarier because we have no idea what's going on.
At the beginning, though, we're told the Doctor has basically been whinging, sulking, and insulting over the past few days, which is apparently his only plan to try to get his TARDIS back at the moment (it's about all I'd be good for, so I'm not holding it against you, Doctor). We don't see Hartnell until the tail end of this episode (he only has a line or two in this one), so he must have had this production week off. Susan is upset with the Doctor for his attitude, and that he won't listen to her or even talk to her.
Ian and Polo play chess. We don't know what moves they make outside the ones they mention in dialogue. I doubt actually seeing them play chess on video would really be that much more exciting than on audio with still images, but still, it'd improve the scene. These middle episodes of Marco Polo are really where I got bored while listening to the audios, and scenes like this are why. It's probably supposed to be a metaphor for Marco Polo playing an ingenious game against his enemies, and that Tegana, who spends this episode sabotaging the group, is being even more devious in response, but... and then I fell asleep before I could come up with an end to this sentence.
I'm kidding. Whatever they're trying to say, it's not all that interesting. I will say that none of the characters, thus far, have mentioned how remarkable it is that they're traveling with Marco Polo. I feel like if I were Ian, I'd have an out of body moment, sitting there playing chess with someone famous who lived and died hundreds of years ago (and you'd think they'd have room for a scene like that, considering how much padding these seven episodes have).
Later, after dark, Ping Cho shows Susan around the desert. We're told it's beautiful - I'd sure like to see if it is (the missing episodes often have this ironic feeling to them, where the entire point of a scene is visual and the characters remark how interesting it is and we, cruelly, aren't privy to it). A sandstorm comes, and since Susan and Ping Cho had been following Tegana since they saw him while out looking at the desert, they are lost amongst the sand. This is the weird bit - we hear screaming and singing and - presumably - Ian calling Susan, and for over a minute we hear this while Ping Cho and Susan stumble or run around the desert trying to get their bearings. If we were able to see this sequence, I'm sure it'd be the two actresses running in place while being pelted with sand, but it's hard to say (this is directed by Waris Hussein, though, so maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it looks good, since he proved himself quite capable with the first four episodes of the show). As it is, though... it's probably scarier on audio, since what we hear is unintelligible in spots. This might just be the reconstruction, though. For all they clean up some of the visual aspects - coloring the screenshots we have and adding, somewhat inexplicably, a scene where we see actual motion of sand blowing around the desert, as well as some sand moving over still images of Susan and Ping Cho, they don't clean the audio up to make whatever the two girls are saying intelligible. Why we need to see sand blowing around when we've been told there's a sandstorm but not the character's dialogue is beyond me. Perhaps the person who made this recon is the sound mixer at the BBC right now (is this my first slight against nuWho? I think it might be! Don't worry, I still love it and am exaggerating anyway). It's a good scene, though, most interesting in the episode by far, and it's left largely unexplained - apparently the sandstorms just sound like that in the Gobi desert.
Back at camp, Barbara and Ian freak out once they realize the girls are out in the sandstorm, but Marco Polo won't let them out to look for them. Tegana eventually arrives when things calm down with the girls. Susan later tells Ping Cho that she's very suspicious of Tegana, but can't quite explain why. She's convinced he lied about his reasons for being out in the sandstorm. We then get an odd scene where Tegana seems to test Polo's reflexes by drawing his sword and yelling "Polo!" Polo responds by leaping up and grabbing his own sword. Satisfied, Tegana leaves the tent and proceeds to lure the guard away from the supply caravan, and empties the gourds containing all the water they have. Why Polo seems unfazed by this, even if he assumes Tegana is an ally, is beyond me. If someone pulled a gun on me just to see my response, I'd be pretty pissed, myself. Then again, we have no idea how Polo reacts visually, so maybe he scowls at Tegana or flips him off or something (oh, what I'd give for that last one).
The next morning, Polo thinks bandits came and drained the water to make the travelers return to Lop where they'll have sprung a trap for them (it was Tegana who drained the water). The group debates what to do, and it's made clear that they don't have enough water to finish crossing the desert and barely enough to make it to Lop or an oasis to the north. Tegana wants them to go back to Lop, but the group decides to go to the oasis. A few days pass, and we get more narration from Polo to explain how they're traveling more slowly with each passing day, and after five days, still not having made it to the oasis, they run out of water. We then get a near minute and a half scene of everybody standing around in the heat, which I'm sure is more interesting on video (though even that might be a stretch). The Doctor finally shows up in this scene, to ask Polo if he could have more water and to collapse (Hartnell earned his paycheck this week, dammit). Ian and Barbara want the Doctor to be comfortable, and thus in his ship, so Polo allows him and Susan to rest in the TARDIS, but Barbara and Ian must stay outside with the caravan. Tegana offers to go ahead with his horse to get water and return to the caravan since he and his horse are still in good health, so Polo lets him. The episode ends with Tegana, at the oasis, happily drinking water to his hearts content and dumping the rest on the ground while taunting Polo and laughing to himself.
For all I'm complaining about these episodes, I still would like to see them. I think Waris Hussein's direction probably improves the story immeasurably, whereas on audio it's a little stale. But of course the bloody missing episodes are the longest yet. This one clocked in at almost 26 minutes, depending on how long the original credits were (they were remade in full for the recon as far as I can tell). Past episodes were usually 21-24 minutes in length, then of course we get to an episode where there's a scene where everyone stands around for a full minute and we don't even get to see it.
I love the costumes, from what we can see, though, and I'm glad we do have color photos of them, whether they were colorized by the recon people or were taken on set. Tomorrow... I couldn't tell you. Like I said before, the middle episodes of Marco Polo are a blank to me, because they could barely hold my attention. This blog is making me pay more attention to the serial, though, since I'm watching one episode per day and can focus harder on it (taking notes helps, too). I dread a full episode of padding in missing episode form, and they do exist...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Five Hundred Eyes"
Saturday, May 20, 2017
"The Roof of the World" - Season 1, Episode 14
Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 02/22/64
This is the first missing episode reconstruction I've ever viewed. In the past, I'd just listened to the audio with linking narration. It's an interesting distinction - being able to see what is going on, to a certain extent, helps the story. I was more interested in this episode while watching the recon than I was in just the audio, which partly explains why people want this story returned to the BBC archives so badly. What's odd is, the reconstruction I've got has a sort of prologue stuck onto the beginning, in which Marco Polo, years after this adventure, is narrating in his diary about his adventures. It was made years later by, presumably, the recon people, and I think stars the same actor who played Marco Polo. It is entirely pointless and adds nothing to the story. Yes, I'm aware it's just attempting to be like a pre-credits bit of world building, but it falls flat. I'm not going to hold this against the actual Doctor Who production, though.
Anyway, the story proper begins with the footprint seen at the end of the last episode being explained away by Ian as being a normal footprint, made to appear bigger by being melted a bit around the edges. The Doctor is absolutely infuriated because the TARDIS has apparently broke - everything, the heating, the lights, it's all out. The TARDIS crew needs to find shelter and, failing that, something to burn for heat. "We shall all freeze to death!" he growls. Hartnell is as angry as I've ever heard him, here. He's angrier here than he is when he wants to kick Barbara and Ian off the TARDIS in the last episode, even. I suppose he's scared, and expresses that emotion through fury, at least at this point in his life.
Later, Susan screams when she sees someone, and the Doctor quickly locks the ship's doors and they run off, only to be surrounded by a group of men. The leader refers to the other men as Mongrols, and says that the TARDIS crew are not human but evil spirits, and suggests they kill them before the evil spirits kill the Mongrols. Then, according to the subtitles, "a European man appears," which is interesting because it appears everyone in the scene is European save for the outfits they're wearing (I'm kidding, just ignore me being slightly annoyed at the all-white cast save for Ping Cho who appears in a moment) and orders them to stop in the name of Kublai Khan. We find out this "European man" is none other than the famed Marco Polo (which is also the name fandom attributes to this stretch of seven episodes, rather than their individual titles).
The group is taken to a tent, where a young woman is making soup. Barbara, being the history teacher, already seems to realize where they are and who they're with, as she begins to explain to Susan who Kublai Khan is. Not to be outdone, Ian explains how water boils at a lower temperature because of the height they're at (Barbara is so much cooler and more interesting than Ian, I'm sorry. Ian, you're a nerd). The Doctor introduces everyone, but calls Ian "Charleton," before Ian corrects him. I love the tradition set in this season of the Doctor kind of being a jerk to his male companions. Mickey being called Ricky at first by the Tenth Doctor seems an explicit nod to this, as does the Eleventh Doctor calling Rory a Pond.
Marco Polo is suspicious of the group, and becomes even more so when the Doctor just flat out asks what year it is and where they are. Polo, audibly surprised, tells him it's 1289 and they're on the Roof of the World. The Doctor doesn't seem like he has traveled much, yet - it's very rare to see him just flat out ask bluntly what year it is. We learn Ping Cho, who is 16, is to be married off. Susan asks if her fiancee is handsome - perhaps she's yearning for "perfect" Alydon from Skaro? She's quickly knocked from her reverie as Ping Cho reveals she's marrying a very powerful man who also happens to be 75. Susan, as far as I can tell without video, is disgusted (as am I).
Later, Marco Polo, Ian, Barbara, and Tegana examine the TARDIS, and Ian tells them it doesn't roll on wheels, but instead flies through the air. This convinces Tegana that they're evil, and Polo asks... if they're Buddhists. Apparently he's seen Buddhists flying cups through the air right to Kublai Khan's lips. I'm not sure what he's referring to (I'm largely unaware of Marco Polo's real, actual writing, so maybe I'm missing a reference to that, here). Polo wants to see it fly, but Ian explains only the Doctor has the key and only he can fly it, and since he's not with them, Polo is out of luck. Polo decides to take the TARDIS with them.
We then get an interesting sequence in which Marco Polo seems to be narrating over a map (which is done several times throughout this serial, and is why the recon people grafted their little prologue onto the beginning of this episode, and, presumably, after the last episode, though I'm not sure yet), showing the TARDIS crew traveling with Polo's caravan to Lop, just outside the Gobi desert. He says, "I wonder what the strangers reaction will be when I tell them what I propose to do?" That sounds ominous, and I suppose it is, but Polo is played as such a nice guy that it's hard to be fearful that he's going to hurt our heroes.
When they arrive in Lop, the Doctor is prevented from going inside his TARDIS and is unhappy. Turns out Polo wants to give the ship to Kublai Khan to bargain his way home to Venice, since he's not been home in many years. The Doctor says it's his property and that won't be happening, but Polo says, basically, deal with it, and that the Doctor can just make a new one. The Doctor scoffs. Interestingly, Barbara says she knows that Polo eventually makes it back to Venice, but no one seems to pay her any mind and the comment is ignored. That line would be a major pivot in later Doctor Who stories, where the time travelers knowledge would get them in trouble. When the Doctor asks Polo what the Khan will do with the TARDIS he won't be able to fly it, Polo says that surely the Buddhists will figure it out. The Doctor finds this and the whole situation very, very funny, and begins laughing uncontrollably. Ian is amused when the Doctor tells him it's funny and he has no idea what to do. The episode ends with Tegana obtaining some poison, so he can present the TARDIS to the Khan himself to gain favor.
Lots of set up in this episode. It almost seems too much - this is a seven part story, and we've got a lot of episodes to get through, so hopefully it isn't a padded boring mess (as I recall, most of it is. But this story gets a lot of love, so I'm going to try to like it this time through). The reconstruction I'm watching colorized the screenshots John Cura took, which is a weird stylistic choice - if they ever find these episodes, they will be in black and white, and that's kind of what I wanted to see here. Granted, we have color photos of some of the sets, so the colorization is probably pretty accurate, and is pretty well done, anyway. I wish I had some information about these recons, who made them, why they were made this way, etc. but I don't (they're apparently made by Loose Cannon, but I don't know who they are, and find them difficult to Google since I think they made these reconstuctions 10-20 years ago). As far as feeding me plot goes, it did a good job. It was easier to follow than the audio narration, from what I recall. But - and this won't be the last time I say it - it's truly a shame that there's so much non-existent video of Doctor Who. I'd really like to see this.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Singing Sands"
This is the first missing episode reconstruction I've ever viewed. In the past, I'd just listened to the audio with linking narration. It's an interesting distinction - being able to see what is going on, to a certain extent, helps the story. I was more interested in this episode while watching the recon than I was in just the audio, which partly explains why people want this story returned to the BBC archives so badly. What's odd is, the reconstruction I've got has a sort of prologue stuck onto the beginning, in which Marco Polo, years after this adventure, is narrating in his diary about his adventures. It was made years later by, presumably, the recon people, and I think stars the same actor who played Marco Polo. It is entirely pointless and adds nothing to the story. Yes, I'm aware it's just attempting to be like a pre-credits bit of world building, but it falls flat. I'm not going to hold this against the actual Doctor Who production, though.
Anyway, the story proper begins with the footprint seen at the end of the last episode being explained away by Ian as being a normal footprint, made to appear bigger by being melted a bit around the edges. The Doctor is absolutely infuriated because the TARDIS has apparently broke - everything, the heating, the lights, it's all out. The TARDIS crew needs to find shelter and, failing that, something to burn for heat. "We shall all freeze to death!" he growls. Hartnell is as angry as I've ever heard him, here. He's angrier here than he is when he wants to kick Barbara and Ian off the TARDIS in the last episode, even. I suppose he's scared, and expresses that emotion through fury, at least at this point in his life.
Later, Susan screams when she sees someone, and the Doctor quickly locks the ship's doors and they run off, only to be surrounded by a group of men. The leader refers to the other men as Mongrols, and says that the TARDIS crew are not human but evil spirits, and suggests they kill them before the evil spirits kill the Mongrols. Then, according to the subtitles, "a European man appears," which is interesting because it appears everyone in the scene is European save for the outfits they're wearing (I'm kidding, just ignore me being slightly annoyed at the all-white cast save for Ping Cho who appears in a moment) and orders them to stop in the name of Kublai Khan. We find out this "European man" is none other than the famed Marco Polo (which is also the name fandom attributes to this stretch of seven episodes, rather than their individual titles).
The group is taken to a tent, where a young woman is making soup. Barbara, being the history teacher, already seems to realize where they are and who they're with, as she begins to explain to Susan who Kublai Khan is. Not to be outdone, Ian explains how water boils at a lower temperature because of the height they're at (Barbara is so much cooler and more interesting than Ian, I'm sorry. Ian, you're a nerd). The Doctor introduces everyone, but calls Ian "Charleton," before Ian corrects him. I love the tradition set in this season of the Doctor kind of being a jerk to his male companions. Mickey being called Ricky at first by the Tenth Doctor seems an explicit nod to this, as does the Eleventh Doctor calling Rory a Pond.
Marco Polo is suspicious of the group, and becomes even more so when the Doctor just flat out asks what year it is and where they are. Polo, audibly surprised, tells him it's 1289 and they're on the Roof of the World. The Doctor doesn't seem like he has traveled much, yet - it's very rare to see him just flat out ask bluntly what year it is. We learn Ping Cho, who is 16, is to be married off. Susan asks if her fiancee is handsome - perhaps she's yearning for "perfect" Alydon from Skaro? She's quickly knocked from her reverie as Ping Cho reveals she's marrying a very powerful man who also happens to be 75. Susan, as far as I can tell without video, is disgusted (as am I).
Later, Marco Polo, Ian, Barbara, and Tegana examine the TARDIS, and Ian tells them it doesn't roll on wheels, but instead flies through the air. This convinces Tegana that they're evil, and Polo asks... if they're Buddhists. Apparently he's seen Buddhists flying cups through the air right to Kublai Khan's lips. I'm not sure what he's referring to (I'm largely unaware of Marco Polo's real, actual writing, so maybe I'm missing a reference to that, here). Polo wants to see it fly, but Ian explains only the Doctor has the key and only he can fly it, and since he's not with them, Polo is out of luck. Polo decides to take the TARDIS with them.
We then get an interesting sequence in which Marco Polo seems to be narrating over a map (which is done several times throughout this serial, and is why the recon people grafted their little prologue onto the beginning of this episode, and, presumably, after the last episode, though I'm not sure yet), showing the TARDIS crew traveling with Polo's caravan to Lop, just outside the Gobi desert. He says, "I wonder what the strangers reaction will be when I tell them what I propose to do?" That sounds ominous, and I suppose it is, but Polo is played as such a nice guy that it's hard to be fearful that he's going to hurt our heroes.
When they arrive in Lop, the Doctor is prevented from going inside his TARDIS and is unhappy. Turns out Polo wants to give the ship to Kublai Khan to bargain his way home to Venice, since he's not been home in many years. The Doctor says it's his property and that won't be happening, but Polo says, basically, deal with it, and that the Doctor can just make a new one. The Doctor scoffs. Interestingly, Barbara says she knows that Polo eventually makes it back to Venice, but no one seems to pay her any mind and the comment is ignored. That line would be a major pivot in later Doctor Who stories, where the time travelers knowledge would get them in trouble. When the Doctor asks Polo what the Khan will do with the TARDIS he won't be able to fly it, Polo says that surely the Buddhists will figure it out. The Doctor finds this and the whole situation very, very funny, and begins laughing uncontrollably. Ian is amused when the Doctor tells him it's funny and he has no idea what to do. The episode ends with Tegana obtaining some poison, so he can present the TARDIS to the Khan himself to gain favor.
Lots of set up in this episode. It almost seems too much - this is a seven part story, and we've got a lot of episodes to get through, so hopefully it isn't a padded boring mess (as I recall, most of it is. But this story gets a lot of love, so I'm going to try to like it this time through). The reconstruction I'm watching colorized the screenshots John Cura took, which is a weird stylistic choice - if they ever find these episodes, they will be in black and white, and that's kind of what I wanted to see here. Granted, we have color photos of some of the sets, so the colorization is probably pretty accurate, and is pretty well done, anyway. I wish I had some information about these recons, who made them, why they were made this way, etc. but I don't (they're apparently made by Loose Cannon, but I don't know who they are, and find them difficult to Google since I think they made these reconstuctions 10-20 years ago). As far as feeding me plot goes, it did a good job. It was easier to follow than the audio narration, from what I recall. But - and this won't be the last time I say it - it's truly a shame that there's so much non-existent video of Doctor Who. I'd really like to see this.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Singing Sands"
Friday, May 19, 2017
"The Brink of Disaster" - Season 1, Episode 13
Written by David Whitaker | Durected by Frank Cox | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 02/15/64
I'm sure I'm not the first, and won't be the last, person to claim the two part serial commonly called "The Edge of Destruction" by fandom is both good and actually makes sense. But I am going to plant my flag here. I love these two episodes. They are at times scary, and at times absolutely barmy. Making sense of them both requires huge leaps of logic. The actors strain to make the plot work. Hartnell in particular struggles throughout, both because he has a ton of lines, most of which certainly aren't straightforward, and contain plenty of technobabble (which he famously hated, and I can't really blame him). But, here in 2017, after "The Doctor's Wife," I view these two episodes as the TARDIS finally reaching out and trying to communicate with the Time Lord she stole (I love a good retcon, you see). Here, the Doctor begins to realize that the ship he thinks he stole has a mind of it's own. Here, with the group noticing that the doors only open when it's safe for the occupants of the TARDIS to venture out, we find out that the ship is, in fact, in control of where the Doctor is going. It's alive. And while David Whitaker certainly didn't have all of this in mind when he wrote these episodes, I believe the general idea may be something he was gesturing at. Whether that's the case or not... it fits.
The hands around the Doctor's neck at the end of the last episode are quickly revealed to be Ian's. Before he can do any damage, he faints. This reinforces the Doctor's belief that Ian and Barbara are trying to kill him and Susan. He wants to kick them off the ship, a punishment Susan finds too strict, saying they might die if the Doctor follows through with it. He shrugs her off. The Doctor, for the first few minutes of this episode, is scary and alien in a way we really haven't seen him. He is a coldhearted bastard here. But the fault locator goes off right when he reaches this conclusion - and he finds out everything he thought the situation was about was incorrect. As he comes to this realization, Ian tries to choke Barbara, as if to reinforce the point for the Doctor. When he stops attacking her, he says "I pulled you away. The controls are alive," by which he means, likely, live with electricity (since we've seen the controls shock someone when they touch them in the last episode). But I take it to mean the controls are actually alive. The TARDIS, being bombarded with faults, is screwing with the minds of it's occupants. This is what has been going on the whole time - and stick with me, I know it's a stretch - the TARDIS is altering the minds of it's occupants to try to get a message through to all of them to help fix her problem. The Doctor realizes that he's not being attacked by Ian and Barbara, and that instead the ship is "on the point of disintegration." We then get the most baffling line of the series to date:
Barbara: "We had time taken away from us, and now it's being given back to us because it's running out."
This line may actually make sense. Now, hear me out - at the beginning of the last episode, Ian, Barbara, and Susan all acted as though they barely knew each other. Barbara and Ian were very professional with each other, calling each other "Mr. Chesteron" and "Ms. Wright." Susan seemed to recognize Barbara, but not as a friend or fellow traveler, but clearly as her history teacher, someone she didn't expect to see in the TARDIS. And the Doctor, delirious on the floor, says "I can't take you back, Susan, I can't!" All of this, to me, points to the TARDIS having mucked around with the personal timelines of the occupants, to try to get their attention that something was wrong with their time machine. So, to pick apart the above line - "We had time taken away from us" means the TARDIS sent the consciousness of its occupants back in time, but quickly brought their minds back forward in time so they can hopefully figure out that something is wrong with time - meaning "and now it's being given back to us." The last bit, "because it's running out," just means that they're almost beyond the point of solving the problem and preventing the TARDIS from disintegrating. How Barbara arrived at that conclusion is anybody's guess, but Barbara is shown to be deeply intuitive during her time on the series, and I choose to believe the TARDIS picked up on that and used her to further her plan. Perhaps the telepathic circuits are involved, because Barbara's line reads very much like something the TARDIS/Idris would say.
Even though they've figured out the problem lies with the TARDIS itself, somehow, they have yet to figure out how to fix it. They discuss the central column not moving properly, and the Doctor had mentioned that the "heart of the TARDIS" was under the column, and he says to Ian that, had it escaped, "If you felt the power, dear boy, you wouldn't live to speak of it." Years later, in The Parting of the Ways, when Rose does just that, the Ninth Doctor has to sacrifice himself to save her life. Setting aside whether or not the First Doctor would ever kiss the time vortex out of him, it would have been pretty interesting to see Bad Wolf Ian...
Unfortunately, it's 1964, and the Doctor is a sexist git. Apparently thinking the women wouldn't be able to handle the truth of their imminent destruction, he tells everyone they've got ten minutes to live. He then pulls Ian aside and tells him it's likely less than five and asks him if they'll face death together (perhaps he's closer to Ian than I thought? ...nah, pretty sure it's just sexist). The ship rocks violently, and the Doctor realizes they're "near the beginning" of a solar system - that the only power that could destroy the TARDIS seems to surround them here and now. After freaking out about it for a quick minute, Ian asked him where he was trying to go when they left the planet Skaro. The Doctor explains that he tried to use the fast return switch to take them back to 20th century Earth, and as he explains this, he notices the switch is stuck due to a little spring not operating properly. He fixes the spring, and everything settles and the TARDIS returns to normal.
Fifty minutes of drama, some of the weirdest stuff you'll ever see on the show, all down to a stuck spring, the most banal problem imaginable. Like I said above - barmy. I love it, though. You can't pull this sort of thing off every week, but as someone who finds tiny insignificant little details that throw everything out of whack like a stuck switch frustrating as hell, it works for me. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.
We then get a sweet little coda where the Doctor apologizes to Barbara. He doesn't say the words "I'm sorry," but does say "As we learn about each other, we learn about ourselves," meaning he realizes that Barbara had been right the whole time, and that she was on a mission to prove herself as such, and the Doctor acknowledges that. Susan pops in and says they've landed, and the Doctor gets Barbara a nice coat because wherever they've landed is cold. "We must look after you, you know. You're very valuable," he says, with a smile. He is completely genuine and sweet, and the scary, aloof, alien Doctor from the beginning of the episode seems miles away at this point. Barbara smiles, puts the coat on, and they walk arm and arm out of the room. Susan pelts Barbara with a snowball and Barbara chases her outside. These four people are friends, now, it seems, after thirteen episodes of teamwork out of necessity, and it's adorable.
The episode ends with Susan and Barbara finding a footprint in the snow, claiming it must have been left there by a giant.
This episode and "Edge of Destruction" get a lot of crap for being unintelligible and/or anticlimactic, but I truly do love them. If I were to rank the episodes of Doctor Who I've written about thus far, these two and "An Unearthly Child" would be in the top three.
Starting tomorrow, we've got a week's worth of episodes in a row that are all missing. I've heard them on audio with linking narration before, but never seen the reconstructions. I'll be viewing the reconstructions for all of Doctor Who's currently missing episodes.
"Doctor Who" puins so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Roof of the World"
I'm sure I'm not the first, and won't be the last, person to claim the two part serial commonly called "The Edge of Destruction" by fandom is both good and actually makes sense. But I am going to plant my flag here. I love these two episodes. They are at times scary, and at times absolutely barmy. Making sense of them both requires huge leaps of logic. The actors strain to make the plot work. Hartnell in particular struggles throughout, both because he has a ton of lines, most of which certainly aren't straightforward, and contain plenty of technobabble (which he famously hated, and I can't really blame him). But, here in 2017, after "The Doctor's Wife," I view these two episodes as the TARDIS finally reaching out and trying to communicate with the Time Lord she stole (I love a good retcon, you see). Here, the Doctor begins to realize that the ship he thinks he stole has a mind of it's own. Here, with the group noticing that the doors only open when it's safe for the occupants of the TARDIS to venture out, we find out that the ship is, in fact, in control of where the Doctor is going. It's alive. And while David Whitaker certainly didn't have all of this in mind when he wrote these episodes, I believe the general idea may be something he was gesturing at. Whether that's the case or not... it fits.
The hands around the Doctor's neck at the end of the last episode are quickly revealed to be Ian's. Before he can do any damage, he faints. This reinforces the Doctor's belief that Ian and Barbara are trying to kill him and Susan. He wants to kick them off the ship, a punishment Susan finds too strict, saying they might die if the Doctor follows through with it. He shrugs her off. The Doctor, for the first few minutes of this episode, is scary and alien in a way we really haven't seen him. He is a coldhearted bastard here. But the fault locator goes off right when he reaches this conclusion - and he finds out everything he thought the situation was about was incorrect. As he comes to this realization, Ian tries to choke Barbara, as if to reinforce the point for the Doctor. When he stops attacking her, he says "I pulled you away. The controls are alive," by which he means, likely, live with electricity (since we've seen the controls shock someone when they touch them in the last episode). But I take it to mean the controls are actually alive. The TARDIS, being bombarded with faults, is screwing with the minds of it's occupants. This is what has been going on the whole time - and stick with me, I know it's a stretch - the TARDIS is altering the minds of it's occupants to try to get a message through to all of them to help fix her problem. The Doctor realizes that he's not being attacked by Ian and Barbara, and that instead the ship is "on the point of disintegration." We then get the most baffling line of the series to date:
Barbara: "We had time taken away from us, and now it's being given back to us because it's running out."
This line may actually make sense. Now, hear me out - at the beginning of the last episode, Ian, Barbara, and Susan all acted as though they barely knew each other. Barbara and Ian were very professional with each other, calling each other "Mr. Chesteron" and "Ms. Wright." Susan seemed to recognize Barbara, but not as a friend or fellow traveler, but clearly as her history teacher, someone she didn't expect to see in the TARDIS. And the Doctor, delirious on the floor, says "I can't take you back, Susan, I can't!" All of this, to me, points to the TARDIS having mucked around with the personal timelines of the occupants, to try to get their attention that something was wrong with their time machine. So, to pick apart the above line - "We had time taken away from us" means the TARDIS sent the consciousness of its occupants back in time, but quickly brought their minds back forward in time so they can hopefully figure out that something is wrong with time - meaning "and now it's being given back to us." The last bit, "because it's running out," just means that they're almost beyond the point of solving the problem and preventing the TARDIS from disintegrating. How Barbara arrived at that conclusion is anybody's guess, but Barbara is shown to be deeply intuitive during her time on the series, and I choose to believe the TARDIS picked up on that and used her to further her plan. Perhaps the telepathic circuits are involved, because Barbara's line reads very much like something the TARDIS/Idris would say.
Even though they've figured out the problem lies with the TARDIS itself, somehow, they have yet to figure out how to fix it. They discuss the central column not moving properly, and the Doctor had mentioned that the "heart of the TARDIS" was under the column, and he says to Ian that, had it escaped, "If you felt the power, dear boy, you wouldn't live to speak of it." Years later, in The Parting of the Ways, when Rose does just that, the Ninth Doctor has to sacrifice himself to save her life. Setting aside whether or not the First Doctor would ever kiss the time vortex out of him, it would have been pretty interesting to see Bad Wolf Ian...
Unfortunately, it's 1964, and the Doctor is a sexist git. Apparently thinking the women wouldn't be able to handle the truth of their imminent destruction, he tells everyone they've got ten minutes to live. He then pulls Ian aside and tells him it's likely less than five and asks him if they'll face death together (perhaps he's closer to Ian than I thought? ...nah, pretty sure it's just sexist). The ship rocks violently, and the Doctor realizes they're "near the beginning" of a solar system - that the only power that could destroy the TARDIS seems to surround them here and now. After freaking out about it for a quick minute, Ian asked him where he was trying to go when they left the planet Skaro. The Doctor explains that he tried to use the fast return switch to take them back to 20th century Earth, and as he explains this, he notices the switch is stuck due to a little spring not operating properly. He fixes the spring, and everything settles and the TARDIS returns to normal.
Fifty minutes of drama, some of the weirdest stuff you'll ever see on the show, all down to a stuck spring, the most banal problem imaginable. Like I said above - barmy. I love it, though. You can't pull this sort of thing off every week, but as someone who finds tiny insignificant little details that throw everything out of whack like a stuck switch frustrating as hell, it works for me. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.
We then get a sweet little coda where the Doctor apologizes to Barbara. He doesn't say the words "I'm sorry," but does say "As we learn about each other, we learn about ourselves," meaning he realizes that Barbara had been right the whole time, and that she was on a mission to prove herself as such, and the Doctor acknowledges that. Susan pops in and says they've landed, and the Doctor gets Barbara a nice coat because wherever they've landed is cold. "We must look after you, you know. You're very valuable," he says, with a smile. He is completely genuine and sweet, and the scary, aloof, alien Doctor from the beginning of the episode seems miles away at this point. Barbara smiles, puts the coat on, and they walk arm and arm out of the room. Susan pelts Barbara with a snowball and Barbara chases her outside. These four people are friends, now, it seems, after thirteen episodes of teamwork out of necessity, and it's adorable.
The episode ends with Susan and Barbara finding a footprint in the snow, claiming it must have been left there by a giant.
This episode and "Edge of Destruction" get a lot of crap for being unintelligible and/or anticlimactic, but I truly do love them. If I were to rank the episodes of Doctor Who I've written about thus far, these two and "An Unearthly Child" would be in the top three.
Starting tomorrow, we've got a week's worth of episodes in a row that are all missing. I've heard them on audio with linking narration before, but never seen the reconstructions. I'll be viewing the reconstructions for all of Doctor Who's currently missing episodes.
"Doctor Who" puins so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Roof of the World"
Thursday, May 18, 2017
"The Edge of Destruction" - Season 1, Episode 12
Written by David Whitaker | Durected by Richard Martin | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 02/08/64
Things are eerie pretty much through the entire episode. Barbara wakes up before anyone else, and barely seems to recognize Ian, and addresses him formally, trying to find out if he's awake, "Mr. Chesterton?" Susan wakes up next, sees Barbara, and says, groggily, "I know you," then grips her head in pain. She doesn't recognize Ian, either. The Doctor is passed out on the floor, apparently with his head split open. After Barbara and Susan inspect the Doctor, the shot cuts to Barbara in the foreground, with Ian standing straight up, rigidly, and the audience didn't see or hear him get up. He seems out of it, too - "You're working late tonight, Ms. Wright." He says he's feeling dizzy.
What a setup! Whatever is going on, the audience has no idea, at this point, and it's pretty tense and mostly strange. I've seen this before, and it still impresses me how David Whitaker makes the viewer feel tense and uneasy through the whole episode.
Susan, who had gone to get the Doctor some water and a bandage, whips out what looks like a long line of condoms and scissors (they're apparently bandages, but I wouldn't put it past her, in her "state," to have mistakenly grabbed condoms). The Doctor, still lying on the floor, mutters, "I can't take you back, Susan. I can't!" The doors then open, and Susan claims she can feel some sort of presence in the ship. Ian approaches them, and the doors shut - and when he backs away, they open again. It's almost as if the ship is alive or something, and messing with him...
After carrying Susan to bed, she wakes up and threatens to attack Ian - when he gets close, she says "No. Who are you?!" and holds the scissors up. I have to say, Carole Ann Ford is on fire in this episode - I've complained before that we don't get to see her be "unearthly" very often, but she very much is alien, here. Ian backs away, and Susan grabs her head and begins stabbing the chair she's sitting on with the scissors. Baffling, strange, and creepy.
The Doctor, meanwhile, wants to check the fault locator and asks for Ian's help. Before helping the Doctor, however, Ian tells Barbara not to tell Susan that something may have gotten in the ship, but Susan overhears this and picks up the scissors again and slinks out of shot. Barbara, after getting some water for Susan, goes back to room with chair, and Susan threatens her, too, telling her she knows that something got inside the TARDIS and heard Barbara and Ian talking about it. Barbara doesn't quite believe it, though:
Barbara: "How would something get inside the ship, anyway?"
Susan: "The doors were open."
Barbara: "Yes, but where would it hide?"
Susan: *pause* "In one of us."
Where is this episode going? What the hell is happening? Is one of them possessed? Did I miss something? What? What?
Ian saunters into room and says there's no fault in the ship, everything is perfect. He says the Doctor is about to check the scanner, and Susan freaks out and runs out to tell him not to so he doesn't get shocked. He ignores her and uses the scanner anyway, and on it, we see a still photograph of, apparently, England. Barbara is excited they may finally be home, but the Doctor sees through the image and realizes it's a photograph. The doors then open and a roar is heard. Ian closes them. Another image is shown on the scanner, and Susan recognizes it as Quinnis, which is apparently somewhere the Doctor and Susan had visited "four or five trips ago," offscreen, where they apparently almost lost the ship (please see Big Finish for a Companion Chronicle about this trip, apparently. I haven't heard it, so can't speak to its quality). The Doctor explains that the ship has memory banks, and that is what they're seeing on the scanner.
He then accuses Ian and Barbara of sabotage. He thinks they knocked him and Susan out because they wanted to blackmail him into getting them back to England. How they would blackmail him into doing that is a mystery, though. We then get this from Barbara: "Don't you realize, you stupid old man, that you'd have died in the Cave of Skulls if Ian hadn't made fire for you? And what about what we went through with the Daleks?" She's angry that the Doctor tricked them all into going down to the Dalek city. "Accuse us?! You ought to go down on your hands and knees and thank us. But gratitude's the last thing you'll ever have, or any sort of common sense, either." Jacqueline Hill is on fire in this scene, and she cements herself here as my favorite Hartnell companion. What a great actress. Before the Doctor can respond - he'd just been mumbling in disagreement through Barbara's tirade - she sees something on the clock in the corner and screams. She rips her watch off her wrist and throws it across the room and begins weeping quietly. Ian takes his watch off, too, as the Doctor enters the room from nowhere with four cups of tea, clearly affected by Barbara's takedown and trying to make peace. Barbara isn't buying it, though, and after taking a cup, announces she's going to bed and leaves. Susan asks the Doctor to apologize to Barbara and leaves, too, and Ian tries to make the Doctor say he's sorry, too.
After everybody falls asleep, the Doctor checks on Ian and Barbara to make sure they're not awake, and, chuckling to himself, approaches the central console. Just as he's about to use it, he whips his head around, as someone grabs his throat as if to choke him, and the episode ends.
What a ride. We get absolutely no information at what's going on, just hints of perhaps a possession of some sort, or everybody has gone crazy. Hartnell fluffs a few lines, but in his defense, there is a lot of dialogue in this episode. Jacqueline Hill and Carole Ann Ford are awesome, here, both of them my easy favorites of this episode. Honestly, though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, this is my favorite episode since the very first one. I don't remember exactly how tomorrow's episode goes - I think it's not quite as interesting as this one - but this is gripping television, especially viewing this in order. Barbara's tirade against the Doctor is a hint that this may have been the penultimate episode of the series at one point, because prior to the Dalek episodes airing, it wasn't deemed popular enough and was apparently expensive to produce. Her tirade really reads as a sort of end-of-season review - but, in retrospect, we know it's not, since we've still got thirty episodes left before the actual end of the first season. Still, to this point, all the stories have been pretty well serialized, so hearing Barbara reference their adventures thus far was nice.
I'll have to keep an eye on this David Whitaker fellow, it seems he's script editor for a good reason...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Brink of Disaster"
Things are eerie pretty much through the entire episode. Barbara wakes up before anyone else, and barely seems to recognize Ian, and addresses him formally, trying to find out if he's awake, "Mr. Chesterton?" Susan wakes up next, sees Barbara, and says, groggily, "I know you," then grips her head in pain. She doesn't recognize Ian, either. The Doctor is passed out on the floor, apparently with his head split open. After Barbara and Susan inspect the Doctor, the shot cuts to Barbara in the foreground, with Ian standing straight up, rigidly, and the audience didn't see or hear him get up. He seems out of it, too - "You're working late tonight, Ms. Wright." He says he's feeling dizzy.
What a setup! Whatever is going on, the audience has no idea, at this point, and it's pretty tense and mostly strange. I've seen this before, and it still impresses me how David Whitaker makes the viewer feel tense and uneasy through the whole episode.
Susan, who had gone to get the Doctor some water and a bandage, whips out what looks like a long line of condoms and scissors (they're apparently bandages, but I wouldn't put it past her, in her "state," to have mistakenly grabbed condoms). The Doctor, still lying on the floor, mutters, "I can't take you back, Susan. I can't!" The doors then open, and Susan claims she can feel some sort of presence in the ship. Ian approaches them, and the doors shut - and when he backs away, they open again. It's almost as if the ship is alive or something, and messing with him...
After carrying Susan to bed, she wakes up and threatens to attack Ian - when he gets close, she says "No. Who are you?!" and holds the scissors up. I have to say, Carole Ann Ford is on fire in this episode - I've complained before that we don't get to see her be "unearthly" very often, but she very much is alien, here. Ian backs away, and Susan grabs her head and begins stabbing the chair she's sitting on with the scissors. Baffling, strange, and creepy.
The Doctor, meanwhile, wants to check the fault locator and asks for Ian's help. Before helping the Doctor, however, Ian tells Barbara not to tell Susan that something may have gotten in the ship, but Susan overhears this and picks up the scissors again and slinks out of shot. Barbara, after getting some water for Susan, goes back to room with chair, and Susan threatens her, too, telling her she knows that something got inside the TARDIS and heard Barbara and Ian talking about it. Barbara doesn't quite believe it, though:
Barbara: "How would something get inside the ship, anyway?"
Susan: "The doors were open."
Barbara: "Yes, but where would it hide?"
Susan: *pause* "In one of us."
Where is this episode going? What the hell is happening? Is one of them possessed? Did I miss something? What? What?
Ian saunters into room and says there's no fault in the ship, everything is perfect. He says the Doctor is about to check the scanner, and Susan freaks out and runs out to tell him not to so he doesn't get shocked. He ignores her and uses the scanner anyway, and on it, we see a still photograph of, apparently, England. Barbara is excited they may finally be home, but the Doctor sees through the image and realizes it's a photograph. The doors then open and a roar is heard. Ian closes them. Another image is shown on the scanner, and Susan recognizes it as Quinnis, which is apparently somewhere the Doctor and Susan had visited "four or five trips ago," offscreen, where they apparently almost lost the ship (please see Big Finish for a Companion Chronicle about this trip, apparently. I haven't heard it, so can't speak to its quality). The Doctor explains that the ship has memory banks, and that is what they're seeing on the scanner.
He then accuses Ian and Barbara of sabotage. He thinks they knocked him and Susan out because they wanted to blackmail him into getting them back to England. How they would blackmail him into doing that is a mystery, though. We then get this from Barbara: "Don't you realize, you stupid old man, that you'd have died in the Cave of Skulls if Ian hadn't made fire for you? And what about what we went through with the Daleks?" She's angry that the Doctor tricked them all into going down to the Dalek city. "Accuse us?! You ought to go down on your hands and knees and thank us. But gratitude's the last thing you'll ever have, or any sort of common sense, either." Jacqueline Hill is on fire in this scene, and she cements herself here as my favorite Hartnell companion. What a great actress. Before the Doctor can respond - he'd just been mumbling in disagreement through Barbara's tirade - she sees something on the clock in the corner and screams. She rips her watch off her wrist and throws it across the room and begins weeping quietly. Ian takes his watch off, too, as the Doctor enters the room from nowhere with four cups of tea, clearly affected by Barbara's takedown and trying to make peace. Barbara isn't buying it, though, and after taking a cup, announces she's going to bed and leaves. Susan asks the Doctor to apologize to Barbara and leaves, too, and Ian tries to make the Doctor say he's sorry, too.
After everybody falls asleep, the Doctor checks on Ian and Barbara to make sure they're not awake, and, chuckling to himself, approaches the central console. Just as he's about to use it, he whips his head around, as someone grabs his throat as if to choke him, and the episode ends.
What a ride. We get absolutely no information at what's going on, just hints of perhaps a possession of some sort, or everybody has gone crazy. Hartnell fluffs a few lines, but in his defense, there is a lot of dialogue in this episode. Jacqueline Hill and Carole Ann Ford are awesome, here, both of them my easy favorites of this episode. Honestly, though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, this is my favorite episode since the very first one. I don't remember exactly how tomorrow's episode goes - I think it's not quite as interesting as this one - but this is gripping television, especially viewing this in order. Barbara's tirade against the Doctor is a hint that this may have been the penultimate episode of the series at one point, because prior to the Dalek episodes airing, it wasn't deemed popular enough and was apparently expensive to produce. Her tirade really reads as a sort of end-of-season review - but, in retrospect, we know it's not, since we've still got thirty episodes left before the actual end of the first season. Still, to this point, all the stories have been pretty well serialized, so hearing Barbara reference their adventures thus far was nice.
I'll have to keep an eye on this David Whitaker fellow, it seems he's script editor for a good reason...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Brink of Disaster"
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