"A Change of Identity" - Season 1, Episode 39

Written by Dennis Spooner | Directed by John Gorrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 08/22/64


Susan hits her absolute nadir as a character in this episode. It's been much remarked upon, but it cannot go without saying that she refuses to try to escape the guillotine because she has a headache. Is it just bad writing on Spooner's part, or does he really think the character is this stupid? Like I said yesterday - I think it's the latter. All she does the rest of the episode, after escaping with Barbara (who decides to stay with Susan rather than try to escape the guillotine, too, which makes me think Spooner probably hates her, too) with the aid of a lucky rescue by men with guns, is read a map, eat a meal, and go to bed because she's sick. I feel bad for Carole Ann Ford, having to suffer through this garbage.


I do rather enjoy Ian's escape from the jail, though. I mean, the jailer is an idiot, just leaving the keys in the lock like that, but it's a pretty good play on Ian's part. Not immediately escaping is wise - doing so may put him at risk of being caught by some visitor to the prison. Escaping at night would do him better.


The Doctor has finally reached Paris, and needs to get new clothes to pose as a French official. He doesn't have any money, so he trades his outfit to the clothier in exchange for a uniform. He trades his ring, in, too - which gives us our cliffhanger later, when it's turned in by the clothier to point out the Doctor is a fraud (we're not shown why this might be the case in this episode). The ring is interesting - he uses it in The War Machines to hypnotize Dodo, and it hasn't really been remarked upon thus far in the show, so whatever its significance is will be a revelation. The only other scene I remember the ring being in is when it falls off the finger of the Second Doctor, no longer fitting his hand.


The Doctor huffing and whinging his way into the prison as the official is wonderful, though. He is mocking everyone he comes across and is enjoying himself in doing so. He treats the jailer as the moron he is, barely giving him a half second to look at his "credentials" before going on about the lack of escort for his arrival in Paris. Hartnell, like all the Doctors to date, is absolutely amazing when he's dressing down everyone around him.


Susan really makes this episode awful to sit through, though, especially with the reading I have where Spooner just has utter contempt for her as a character. Tomorrow is the first of two missing episodes remaining for this season - unlike Marco Polo, though, they've been animated. The poll I did on Twitter a few weeks back said I should watch the animated versions of stories where they exist rather than the recons, so that is what I'll be doing.


"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Tyrant of France"

"Guests of Madame Guillotine" - Season 1, Episode 38

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"

"A Land of Fear" - Season 1, Episode 37

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"

"A Desperate Venture" - Season 1, Episode 36

Written by Peter R. Newman | Directed by Frank Cox | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 08/01/64


I do not understand why the City Administrator, posed as the Second Elder, kidnaps Carol and makes her write that letter to Susan. What is his end goal? Did he really think the TARDIS crew would believe this? Also, how do Barbara and Susan recognize Carol's handwriting (Barbara hasn't even been around since the third episode, she barely even knows Carol)? It's all used as a pretense to get Susan to guide Barbara through the aqueducts, anyway, which gives us more of an opportunity to see her psychic powers at work. Ultimately, I'm not sure why it's needed - why didn't Barbara just take the map with her, rather than leave Susan alone? Are torches not available?


The Doctor's suspicions are confirmed when he and Ian run into humans in the aqueducts, proving they were poisoning the Sense-sphere's water. I wish this was telegraphed throughout the episodes a little better - though it makes sense that the humans from the old ship that have been referenced a few times in the story are the culprits, it seems a bit arbitrary at this point. The episode also never explains the strange roaring sound the Doctor heard when he was under attack - presumably it's the humans being loud to scare what they thought were the Sensorites away? But then why was the back of the Doctor's jacket in tatters the last time he was in the aqueducts? It's strange that the humans would go out of their way to rip up his jacket and then leave him there...


The good lighting I praised in the last episode is gone from this one. Where the aqueducts were a dark space that the Doctor need a torch to see in before, here their lit up quite nicely for our regulars. The director is the same between these episodes, so I'm not sure why this was done (I suppose because the way they were lighting it before was a giant pain, and considering Hartnell is already struggling to get his lines right, asking him to say them while also holding a torch exactly right is probably too great an ask).


We get our first description of what we'll later find out to be Gallifrey in this episode. More importantly for the era we're in, though, we learn the Doctor and Susan don't come from Earth! Susan, speaking to the First Elder, after dropping that tidbit, describes her home planet, which has burnt orange skies at night and bright silver leaves on trees. Almost fifty years later, in Gridlock, the Tenth Doctor describes his planet in a similar way, and I remember loving this scene the first time I saw it (I watched the new series before going back and watching the classic episodes). It makes me happy that Russell T. Davies called back to the Sensorites in many ways - apparently the Ood-sphere is near the Sense-sphere, and they are both races who look ugly but end up being largely good in the end. The Ood are used for the same purpose as the Sensorites, to show that judging a person on their looks is unwise. I'm impressed with Davies' kisses to the past - they're remarkably subtle, but very clever (that same episode has the Macra in it, a monster we haven't encountered yet, but they're also brilliantly written in). I can only imagine being a classic Who fan and hearing the Doctor describe his planet when that episode first aired.


But back in 1964 - what a shock it must have been to find out the Doctor is not from Earth! It's true he hasn't been confirmed as a different species, yet - he won't be for a long time. But right here, near the end of the first season, Doctor Who is sewing seeds that will allow it to continue forever. The First Elder says to Susan, "Part of you calls for adventure. A wanderlust!" It must be a small part, though, because Susan says she wants to "belong somewhere" at the end of the episode (I wonder if Carole Ann Ford had decided by this point that she was going to leave soon?). Anyway, the City Administrator is banished to the wastes when it's discovered he altered the map and weapons given to the Doctor, once they return with the humans in the aqueduct. I wish we could have seen the City Administrator receive his sentence, but we don't. I rather liked the actor playing him, it would have been nice to see him react to being caught out. The episode ends with the Doctor flipping out when Ian casually jokes that the Doctor doesn't know what he's doing. He says he'll throw him and Barbara off the ship at their next stop (what did she do to deserve that punishment?!).


Reflecting on this serial now that I've finished it, I am still fond of it. It has dull points - this story will be done better and faster later on, so it's a bit of a slog now. But like I said before, I'd have liked to see Peter R. Newman back, particularly to write a nice four-parter, where he can pack all his good ideas in and cut the bad. The Sensorites looms over Doctor Who in many ways, which is odd to say about such an unassuming little adventure, but a lot of little things happen. We see our first "monsters" that turn out to be good. The Doctor seems to want to help just to help, rather than help entirely to save himself and run off at the earliest possible convenience. We get our first description of Gallifrey, and we find out Susan and the Doctor aren't from Earth. So many tiny bits of the show's DNA first surface here, and I find it charming, for all its faults.


"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "A Land of Fear"

"Kidnap" - Season 1, Episode 35

Written by Peter R. Newman | Directed by Frank Cox | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 07/25/64


Black and white television has always looked good in the gloom. The dark aqueduct scene that opens the episode is darkly lit, giving the scene a much-needed feeling of oppression that otherwise would be completely absent, since we don't see anything of what attacks the Doctor at all. After Ian and Susan get him out of there, the Doctor realizes that one of the Sensorites must be their enemy - it's a bit of a leap in logic, but it makes a sort of sense. Anyway, the Doctor's jacket is ripped up, and he gets a rather fetching cloak (he comments "Beau Brummell always said I looked better in a cloak," yet again referencing an off-screen adventure).


Apparently, according to one of the scientists, Sensorite society is perfect, and all are contented. This is a strange belief to hold, considering how xenophobic and vindictive the City Administrator is (as is his buddy, who I'm going to call Some Guy, even though I think he's referred to in the credits as Fourth). Carol explains what purpose eyelids are for (why, I don't know), and the scientist Sensorite replies, "To see all the time is not a good thing." I can't fathom why a Sensorite would say that, since they're unable to see in the dark and very frightened when that happens.


The City Administrator helpfully reiterates the plot to us, as he explains to the Second Elder shortly before his death at the City Administrator's hands what he's going to do - that he's going to use the sash he has, the Second Elder's sash, to impersonate him. We already knew this - and yes, I grant that this is restating a major plot point from the last episode that viewers may have forgotten, but it could have been written better.


Since the Doctor's coat got ruined, when the Sensorite trying to help the City Administrator blames the Second Elder's death on the Doctor but describes him as wearing his coat when he does it, the City Administrator's plan is foiled. He gets a promotion at the Doctor and Ian's urging, though, as they haven't caught on yet that he's the enemy. Meanwhile, the First Elder handwrings a little about the death of his advisor, but doesn't look into it too closely before promoting the City Administrator and moving on as if nothing had really happened. No one - the Doctor or the First Elder or anyone else - seems very alarmed at the death of the Second Elder. They mostly go about their business and I can't imagine why one or more of them don't want to have some sort of immediate inquiry into what happened with the death.


Carol is grabbed by a Sensorite while the Doctor and Ian head to the aqueduct without telling Susan, and the episode ends. I'm not sure if it's the writing, the directing, or both, but I enjoyed this episode more than the past few, despite its deficiencies. The plot is coming together, now, and tomorrow's episode introduces the final bit of the puzzle we don't have yet.


"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "A Desperate Venture"

"A Race Against Death" - Season 1, Episode 34

Written by Peter R. Newman | Directed by Mervyn Pinfield | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 07/18/64


Watching the entirety of Doctor Who again, this time in order, is an interesting experience in many ways. I'm re-evaluating stories I've only seen once, and this serial is the second in a row where I've largely changed my mind about it. I didn't rate the last serial, The Aztecs, very highly before - but on a rewatch, I noticed things it did very well and it's quality compared to what surrounds it is impressive. The Sensorites, sadly, is going in the other direction - here we have a fairly dull episode where every plot beat is telegraphed well in advance and are very obvious.


Take Carol speaking to the City Administrator, for example - she mentions how she'd be unable to tell any of the Sensorites apart if they didn't have distinctive clothing. The City Administrator, in response, says "I never thought of that," in a super obvious way. Gee, I wonder what's coming next? Will the City Administrator pose as someone else to further his own ends? Sure enough, he captures the Second Elder and takes his sash. Voila! He's now the Second Elder (it's odd that even the Sensorites can't tell each other apart very well).


Otherwise, this episode is just moving pieces into place for the next one. The Doctor goes to explore the aqueduct and Ian and Susan follow him. It hasn't played the card where we find out how the water has been poisoned, yet, though there have been a few clues throughout the past couple episodes, but not many enough to have a satisfying payoff.


One production thing I want to mention - moving a giant spotlight around to correspond to the Doctor's flashlight has to be a giant pain - shoutout to the guy who had that job.


But yes, otherwise, there's just not much going on here. I'm not sure why I liked the serial the first time through - perhaps it's the Sensorite mask design? I love how each one is visually distinct. Usually alien creatures on Doctor Who are identical - I didn't think we'd buck the trend so early on, here.


"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Kidnap"

"Hidden Danger" - Season 1, Episode 33

Written by Peter R. Newman | Directed by Mervyn Pinfield | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 07/11/64


The Sensorites are ineffective warriors. One says, within earshot of Ian, that he's afraid of them, even though they are unarmed. Maybe keep that to yourself, Sensorite, you'll be in a better bargaining position. The Doctor is very angry in the first half of this episode - always on the verge of shouting down someone who crosses him. He storms out of one scene, ranting, "Dictated to by petty thieves and my own grandchild!" He's so angry, he doesn't make any sense, saying, "In all the years my granddaughter and I have been traveling, we have never had an argument - and now you have caused one!" which is nonsense - we've seen him argue with Susan several times.


As an aside - and I grant you, I shouldn't these lines too seriously, as they already contain a blatant lie - but he implies he's been traveling with Susan for years, but she's apparently sixteen. If that's the case, that means the Doctor was traveling around with a very young girl for a while, a situation I can't see a pre-An Unearthly Child Doctor handling very well (hopefully the Henry VIII trip was sometime recent, and he didn't put her in danger when she was twelve or something!). It also makes for a continuity clash when we see something like Clara talking to the Doctor and Susan in Name of the Doctor, when Susan is clearly the same age as she is now. I digress, though - just an interesting thought, not something I'm upset or worried about.


Sadly for us, it's Jacqueline Hill's turn for a vacation, so she stays on the ship for a few episodes while everyone else goes down to the Sense-sphere. The First Elder, before the TARDIS crew arrives, gives us our serial thesis statement: "It is a failure of all beings that they judge through their own eyes," which, sadly, is still very relevant these days. Speaking of relevance to today, the City Administrator is extremely xenophobic on sight of the TARDIS crew and friends. He tries to have them killed without authority from his superiors, thinking them just being on the planet is a danger to their species. Luckily, he's stopped for now, but will probably keep trying to kill our heroes until this serial is over (hint: he will).


I originally thought it was kind of dumb that Peter R. Newman makes it so obvious that the water is what made Ian sick, that he should have made it a little less obvious. He's not trying to trick the audience with it, though - the scene is written in such a way to just provide a nice cliffhanger for us, not to try to make us figure out what happened. The problem is in the next episode, where our heroes take a little too long to figure out what happened, but that at least makes a little sense, because they don't dwell on the fact that Ian alone drank different water.


It's interesting to note the Sense-sphere has several different castes, which is interesting (and little remarked upon in the rest of the serial). Apparently there is the leader caste, warrior caste, and the Sensorites. The Sensorites, apparently, are the worker class - they "work and play," we're told, while the leaders think and lead and the warriors fight. We're never shown a clear distinction between these levels of society - unless the Sensorites still on the spaceship are warriors, and our heroes are sitting with "leaders?" The script never makes it clear, and it's strange for it. I'm not sure what Peter R. Newman was going for with it - some sort of comment on Communism, considering the time in which this was made? If so, he doesn't take a hard stance on it, and his opinion on the Sensorite's caste system is ambiguous.


"Doctor Who" puns: 2 | Tomorrow: "A Race Against Death"