Written by Dennis Spooner | Directed by Henric Hirsch | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 08/15/64
Dennis Spooner must have a very low opinion of Susan (hopefully just of the character, not the actress, as Carole Ann Ford seems a lovely sort). I think a comparison to the other young character in this episode is apt - Jean-Pierre, a kid who looks quite a bit younger than Susan, saves the Doctor's life from a burning building, apparently dragging his unconscious body out from a locked upstairs room to safety. Meanwhile, Susan hurts herself in about three seconds of digging in her prison cell, then later refuses to work on escaping because of rats. It seems she's determined to give up (and we haven't reached the most pathetic moment of this serial yet - that comes tomorrow). I'm not sure why she's written this way - certainly there are other distractions and ways to prevent the women from escaping than that, which is why I think it's deliberate on Spooner's part. I'm not a huge fan of the character, either, but write her better, not even worse than we've seen her before.
Also of note is the Doctor calling the greedy road boss a "common fellow" as an epithet. What an arse (yes, the guy is a moron, but certainly you could come up with a better insult than one based on class, Doctor?). This whole scene is pointless - it's going for comedy but it doesn't really work (it probably could work with some better dialogue). It's a time waster, something to delay the Doctor getting to the plot in Paris.
A decent job is done of keeping Ian away from the regulars so William Russell can go on vacation by doing some filmed inserts. The only jarring one is near the beginning, when we cut to the jailer closing a cell door and telling someone inside - unseen by the audience - to stay against the wall. The only reason we know Ian is in there is because Susan shouts his name into the cell (Ian doesn't respond). Otherwise the only plot point of note in this episode is Ian learning he needs to pass a message to an Englishman from his dying cell cohabitant. The French want to know what was said to Ian, as well, so Ian is removed from the guillotine list.
Susan and Barbara aren't so lucky, and are led away to the guillotine to end the episode as Ian looks on. Other than the aforementioned "comedy" scene with the Doctor, we get some location filming of a Hartnell look-alike walking towards Paris. If it weren't for Ian learning about James Stirling (the Englishman he has to find), this would be a completely throwaway episode, one not worth watching even just for the enjoyment of watching the series regulars. Poor writing damns the whole thing.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "A Change of Identity"
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