Written by David Whitaker | Directed by Christopher Barry | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 01/02/65
Doctor Who opens 1965 with a story written by the former script editor, author of Edge of Destruction last season (a story that is flawed, but one which I do love). When I said before that I was sure that he wrote the last few scenes in the last episode, this episode makes me feel more strongly that I was right. The man writes some great stuff! The Doctor in particular gets some great scenes. He's weirdly in a good mood (if a little sleepy to start), considering Susan left. He forgot about it for a second there, as he started to ask for her help before realizing she was gone and going quiet. Barbara sweetly asks him to show her how to open the doors, recognizing that the Doctor likes to give orders and teach people. They don't dwell on Susan; the Doctor has that one scene and Barbara and Ian wonder a bit at what Susan is up to, and then they move on, Susan going unmentioned again until 1983, if I remember correctly. During that conversation, Ian begins to lightly mock the Doctor, saying "he's not getting any younger, is he?" (He will, Ian, he will). The Doctor pops back out of the TARDIS to tell him that he can still hear him, and Ian clams up and he and Barbara go exploring. I like that the Doctor doesn't go off on Ian - last season, he'd have ranted at him, calling him ungrateful and disrespectful and such - but he's clearly comfortable enough with Ian and Barbara that he can let little things slide, now.
My favorite scene of the episode is when the Doctor is alone in the ship, figuring out that he's been to the planet they've landed on before - Dido. He wonders aloud if he should tell Ian that he meant to land there, then remembers he was a sleep when the TARDIS landed and realizes Ian wouldn't believe him, so he decides not to. It's a charming little scene that doesn't add anything to the plot, but really fills in the character of the Doctor - he's not a bad man, but he isn't above a little petty lie to try to impress Ian (who, like I mentioned above, had just gotten done making fun of him).
When they're trying to get out of the cave later, the Doctor and Ian hear a roar from the chasm below. The Doctor asks, "Did you hear that?" and Ian points the flashlight at the Doctor, prompting the Doctor to angrily slap the flashlight down and and testily tell Ian "Don't shine that on me, shine it down there!" It's a funny little scene that Hartnell does not get enough of during his tenure, but something he excels at (I wish I could see Hartnell doing comedy somewhere, I bet he'd be good at it. A pity he was cast as tough army guys all the time).
Most importantly, we meet Vicki for the first time in this episode, the first person to join the show as a companion full time since the first episode. We don't know that yet - there is nothing in this episode that suggests Vicki will be leaving with the Doctor and his friends. We meet Bennett, the other survivor of the crashed ship Vicki arrived on, and Koquillion, a supposed native of the planet who is terrorizing Vicki and Bennett, and who supposedly killed the rest of the crew of their ship.
Vicki is probably my favorite Hartnell companion next to Barbara. She gets some great scenes in the show, stuff that you don't see coming when you watch this episode - she mostly seems like a generic Doctor Who guest actor. I find it interesting how the show plays with this - I don't know if there were any announcements at the time as to who would be playing the new companion (there were apparently promotional shots taken of the cast, but I don't know when they were taken or when they went out, so I have no idea if the British public knew she was the new companion when this aired or not). However, watching the show in order like I am (and in 2017, with an enormous amount of hindsight), it strikes me how someone who didn't keep up with casting announcements wouldn't think anything of this character yet.
But anyway - this is a good episode. I've said it before, but second season Hartnell is almost always great - the one serial that was a clunker for me is still interesting in it's failure, so this will be a fun season to write about (and hopefully to read).
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Desperate Measures"
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