Written by Dennis Spooner | Directed by Henric Hirsch | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 08/08/64
Dennis Spooner is a writer that I largely like. He will write some good episodes for the Hartnell era (and will co-write one of the best scripts of all time in the Troughton era) and oversees a pretty good stretch of the show as script editor. "The Reign of Terror," however, is not his best work. He has to write Ian out for two episodes, which is a bit of a problem since the show, to this point, is very much centered around Ian (though it's quickly moving to the Doctor - we're just a few serials away from that finally being the case, in fact). Worse still, Susan is a shambles in this serial, which is a bit of a letdown considering how watchable she was in The Sensorites (she's not so bad in this first episode, but tomorrow... hoo boy).
The Doctor is becoming the character we know so well, though. "I have the universe to explore," he tells Ian, while trying to shoo him off his ship. Susan isn't happy to see Ian and Barbara go, but relents and leaves while the Doctor goes about his business. Ian is able to convince him to come scout around with them, though, since they're not entirely sure where they are (and why the Doctor is playing as though he has gotten them back to 1960s London, considering he hasn't been able to get his bearings since the show started, I have no idea). This scene is admittedly pretty cute - Ian convinces the Doctor that since he's a very busy man, he may not have time to nip back and visit himself or Barbara, so they should part over a nice drink. The Doctor agrees and they leave.
They discover they're just outside Paris from a young boy. The Doctor is proud of himself for only being 100 kilometers off. When Ian discovers papers signed by the real Robespierre, though, they realize they're off by a couple of hundred years, as well. According to Susan, the French Revolution is one of the Doctor's favorite time periods in Earth history - I wonder if he's been here before? To be fair to Spooner, this is a great period to put the Doctor in - it just doesn't come off very well in this serial (especially over the next few episodes - this one is alright).
I like the scene where the two Frenchmen are overtaken by the soldiers outside. Rouvray is almost able to take control of the situation, but after calling all the soldiers "peasants underneath," one of them shoots him dead. The soldiers take pleasure in killing the other guy, too, offscreen (perhaps they heard him pronounce it "gill-o-tine." What a crap Frenchman). These are dangerous men!
The Doctor being trapped in the house on fire is a good cliffhanger. Hartnell plays it pretty well - he's not usually good at physical acting, but his slamming on the door, begging to be let out, works for me. The smoke billowing into the room is a nice touch, too - you'd have thought the production team would have just opted for the model shot of the house on fire while Hartnell just acts as though it is with no on-screen visual indication it's burning, but they actually spend the money to have smoke filter in.
Rewatching this, though, it has to be said that this serial starts off alright - this episode sets up the premise and doesn't have any insane plot logic (which isn't the case later on in this serial). I'd be excited for the next episode if I didn't know what was coming...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Guests of Madame Guillotine"
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