"The Bride of Sacrifice" - Season 1, Episode 29

Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by John Crockett | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 06//06/64


There is a strong case to be made that this is the best episode so far this season, with only the very first, An Unearthly Child, to give it a run for it's money.


Jacqueline Hill as Barbara is the main reason for this. She is amazing throughout. She's a total badass! The episode opens with her rising to Tlotoxl's challenge to prevent Ian's death by grabbing a knife and holding it to Tlotoxl's throat! He relents, and when asked later why she didn't intervene supernaturally, she replies, "Why should I use divine powers when human abilities will suffice?" which is both a smart response and a good line on Lucarotti's part.


Lucarotti is forgiven for the slow, plodding Marco Polo for this serial, by far the better of his two season one scripts. He writes the Doctor as someone who barely bothers to keep up the façade as a servant of Yetaxa - when Tlotoxl wants to talk to him in the garden, he initially dismisses him with a curt "Oh, go away, Latoxl," pronouncing his name incorrectly like he does with Ian when he's annoyed with him, which I think is deliberate on Hartnell's part (though a few other actors screw up Tlotoxl's name in this episode, at least Hartnell has a reason to do so).


Barbara is amazing again in the scene where Tlotoxl and Tonila (another priest) attempt to poison her. She says both sides must show trust in each other, and bids Tlotoxl to drink the cup he proffered her. When he doesn't, Barbara loses it. She throws the cup to the ground and it shatters, and roars at Tlotoxl and Tonila to be gone. Tonila runs off, but Barbara grabs Tlotoxl and tells him she's a false goddess. She basically taunts him to prove it! Hill is magnificent in this scene. She is furious and scares Tlotoxl badly enough to have him cower over the sacrifice stone in fear as though she were to kill him herself.


Yesterday, I wondered if Tlotoxl actually believed any of the Aztec religion, or if he was just an evil, bloodthirsty bastard. The scene following the one above gives me pause, because John Ringham, the actor playing Tlotoxl, stands in the foreground of the scene while Autloc and Tonila discuss Yetaxa in the background. He looks disturbed and very, very angry, and I have to give him credit for absolutely selling how much he hates being manipulated by a woman he hasn't proven to be a fake yet. He acknowledges Barbara/Yetaxa as a worthy opponent - he claims "Yetaxa's weakness lies not in herself, but in her servants," reasoning that he can't beat Yetaxa by herself, which is a pretty good reading of the situation. His plan involves getting Susan in trouble by trying to force an arranged marriage on her which he knows she'll rebel against, which is against Aztec law. He's got the measure of Susan, because he's right, she throws a fit, even throwing in a bonus for Tlotoxl by saying to Autloc that he's a monster like all the rest of the Aztecs, even though he just said he'd do everything in his power to protect her. Susan isn't the brightest bulb in the box...


Hartnell gets some fantastic scenes in this episode, too. One thing I'd like to wonder about, though, is that Cameca says she was given a coin by Ixta's dad in the same garden they're standing in, but he disappeared and was never seen again that night. Where did he go? Did they ever find his body or anything? He apparently went up the tunnel to the tomb, but why did he go up there, and not ever seemingly come out? Did he have a TARDIS stashed away in there like the Doctor does now, and fly off after fathering Ixta? Is the Doctor Ixta's dad?! ...No, all of that is dumb, but I do wonder what happened to the guy, as it's never explained. All the Doctor cares about is the tunnel, not what happened to it's designer.


Anyway, the Doctor and Cameca share a cup of cocoa at the Doctor's urging, which means he mistakenly has proposed marriage to Cameca. He's alarmed when she spells it out to him, and, knowing that he will eventually leave before marrying her is a little heartbreaking. Autloc and Cameca end up in a bad place at the end of this story because of the TARDIS crew's actions, and I pity them both.


We later get a line that shines from Hartnell, so much so that it feels like something from Russell T Davies' or Steven Moffat's tenure on Who. When telling Ian about his discovery of the tunnel, the Doctor lets slip that he learned about its existence from his "fiancée." Ian, incredulous, asks him how he got a fiancée and the Doctor replies, as Hartnell looks into camera with a twinkle, "Yes, I made some cocoa and got engaged," which Ian laughs at and the Doctor waves him away. Hartnell doesn't get many lines like that, but he plays them well when he does. That type of line proves that the show that is airing now in 2017 is the same exact show that was being made in 1964, involving the same character. William Hartnell is the Doctor, and he's wonderful.


"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Day of Darkness"