The Survivors

"I think even if they left the doors wide open, we wouldn't have the strength to crawl through them."

What a predicament. Two of them almost wiped out by the effects of radiation sickness; one of them also ill and without the feeling in his legs; and the youngest facing a terrifying journey in the dark through an alien forest. Twice!

Grim, claustrophobic and frightening. The Doctor is wonderful here. We start to see some of his more familiar character traits as opposed to the bluff and bluster and selfishness we have seen so far, even if he is still willing to seemedly abandon Barbara. His confession to the mercury link deception is alien and direct: in essence "Don't worry, I lied, so we can still get out of here." Ian is heroic and strong, refusing to leave without her. But when the Doctor is brought before the Daleks, we are left feeling that it is they, rather than he, who have been interrogated. William Hartnell performs this scene beautifully, both weak and defiant, kneeling in front of them, struggling to stand.

What a fantastic moment when the camera pulls back and we see, and hear, the metal meanies for the very first time.

And when poor Susan, having only just reached the sanctuary of the TARDIS has to turn, open the doors and step out again into the unwelcoming night... well, my goodness me.

Next episode: The Escape

The Dead Planet

"We're not on Earth then?"

I've spent ages trying to decide which quote to use for this episode as it's just bursting with fabulous and significant lines. Regular viewers may be noticing that a quote is becoming very popular with me to open each blog. In the end, I chose this as the most significant in terms of the series' burgeoning development and indeed Barbara's personal development for it is she who asks. She already knows the answer, but asks anyway, the way we all do when we want something confirming that we'd rather not know.

You could have had: "Ian, where are we?" (A question I'm very familiar with myself); "Why doesn't he take us back?"; "I'm not sure he can."; "What, ever?"; "I hate it as much as you, I'm just as afraid."; "Nothing on Earth could look like this." and many, many more.

This script sparkles in the way that the very first episode did five weeks ago (gosh, as long ago as that?) It is intriguing, beautifully written and acted, and again only features the four TARDIS travellers in speaking roles. This really feels like we're motoring again and I have a feeling that the unfortunate cave-dwellers are soon to be forgotten.

The over-exposure at the beginning of the film oddly adds to the atmosphere rather than detracting from it and what I initially thought was a bit of a mistake having forest again so quickly actually emphasises that this is a very different situation to before.

And then we have the metaltron! Now, I know that's not it's name, but it's as good as any other and hang it all the very first Dr Who monster ought to have a name, albeit one borrowed from another Dalek adventure far in the future. Or the past, depending on how you look at it. The metaltron is great; bug-eyed, spiky and shiny. And a bit baleful because this poor creature has been petrified along with everything else. The Doctor's theory that it was held together by inner magnetism and may even have attracted it's victims towards it, presumably other metal creatures, is great fun. A shame creatures this odd were never explored further.

But hey, like the cavemen, the metaltron is about to be over-shadowed by one of the best and most-enduring science-fiction creations of all time. It's just dawned on me that this short period of the show, Dr Who before the Daleks is akin to the six short episodes at the start of Patrick Troughton's time before Jamie. A glimpse of what might have been. I've always thought that the Daleks were a glorious shot in the arm, but that I would have much preferred Ben and Polly to carry on instead of Jamie. But hey, just before the metallic lovelies appear and literally take over the show, let's take note of a few other lovely touches in this episode. The way the Doctor manipulates the mercury situation. Just exploring wasn't seen as enough of a motivation at the beginning of the series, there had to a physical obstacle to the travellers just leaving when they'd had enough; the tribe blocking the way with spears in the last serial and the need to find mercury in this one. It's worth noting these early devices.

And then they get ill. I'm feeling pretty fluey while I'm writing this, with no energy to leave the house, so heaven knows how they're feeling having to explore an alien city while suffering from radiation sickness just because some old duffer has conned them into a wild goose chase. And then Barbara goes missing!

Here now one of my very favourite bits of the whole thing. [I often feel drawn to portentousness writing this blog and have to stop myself otherwise we'll all be here forever] Barbara walks through the city, ducking frequently through the doorways - genius. The Dalek city is built for Daleks, not for humans, which adds so much to the claustrophobic feel.

And then we cut to something else's point of view, we don't know what or who, but judging from Barbara's reaction this is pretty terrifying. Oh, to have been a little boy watching this just before Christmas in 1963 and yearning for the week to go by for the next instalment. You're there thinking Christmas is exciting. Well boy, just you wait till next Saturday when you see a Dalek for the very first time in your life. Now that's exciting! True Boy's Own Serial stuff. It's still absolutely brilliant now.

Next episode: The Survivors

The Firemaker

"Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe."

Best bits?

The way the tribe stand up from behind rocks at the beginning, literally preventing the Doctor and his companions reaching the TARDIS and safety, a fundamental tenet of the series.

The obliging way Horg stands still squinting at the horizon long enough for the episode title and writer credit to be displayed. Don't get me wrong, I realise how important that was back then.

The Doctor tricking Kal into revealing his knife covered in blood and manipulating the tribe into driving him out, literally casting the first stone himself.

The imagery of the skulls burning.

Barbara taking a very convincing tumble as she flees through the jungle.

The way our travellers are covered in muck and dirt by the end of the adventure; they actually look as if they have been through the story.

Our guys literally being chased back to the TARDIS at the end and making it by a whisper.

And the best bit of all?

When we at last see the inside of the TARDIS again, that marvellous incredible set that I can't help feeling viewers must have been gagging to see again after all that time in the caves. And the way the travellers instantly resume their old argument now that they are safely inside.

And the delicious radiation dial swinging to 'Danger' instantly flagging up the foundation of the next serial. Less is definately more in old Dr Who.

Next Episode: The Dead Planet

The Forest of Fear

"Fear makes companions of all of us, Miss Wright."

Ha ha, Doctor Who in nutshell. A striking episode this one, with some memorable moments. It's enjoyable to see that, in the production team's imagination at least, politics would have played just as big a part in the life of a stone-age tribe, the Tribe of Gum, as it might in a family or workforce today.

This episode makes much of very little; a small cast and a small studio. It succeeds with imaginative direction and clever lighting, presumably from the moon in the story.

This is the first time watching this story that I have really enjoyed the three stone-age episodes. The very first episode of the programme is a television classic and would easily stand up to being shown again today, but I've previously always felt that the other three were weak, an impression that I know has got in the way of starting this project and one that I have held since they were shown in 1981 as part of 'The Five Faces of Dr Who' season on BBC2. The Tribe of Gum and The Krotons were shown as the only examples of sixties Dr Who. You had to be strong to be a fan in those days. Well, how wrong I was. I'm really enjoying them on this viewing and I'm looking forward to the last instalment.

It's most interesting for the way in which the main characters, the TARDIS crew, are developed.

Ian attempts to take control of the situation from the Doctor, but the only thing the Doctor really relinquishes is brawn, the only thing he can't do himself.

The Doctor is alien here, another sign of his different morality and ability to see the bigger, universal, picture.

Barbara, as for all of Jacqueline Hill's tenure, is beautifully drawn and acted. It is she who reacts most to the situation she and Ian find themselves in; not only wrestling with the high concept of having travelled through time in an impossible machine, but also with being in immediate danger, cold and frightened with no time to think. Stumbling across the dead boar, the last straw, she breaks down. Then Za is attacked by an animal and it is at this exact moment that we see her become the character that we adore. Having doubts, being afraid and yet always doing what she feels is morally right. She puts her own needs aside to help another. She is undoubtedly one of Doctor Who's strongest and best-loved companions.

Next episode: The Firemaker

The Cave of Skulls

The second episode. It seemed so much longer than 25 mins. Already I'm gripped by the cavemen society; the hierarchy, the politics, the need for food and warmth, the children playing as children must always have done.

And into that world are thrown our four travellers. The Doctor, so confident at first in front of Ian and Barbara as the TARDIS lands, is soon as lost as the others, suggesting that although Susan and he have undoubtedly travelled, albeit it seems only through different periods of Earth's history, at this stage he is far from the confident adventurer we know and love; here looking far more out of his depth. Much is made of the Doctor and Susan's genuine confusion as to why the TARDIS has not changed as it clearly has been doing, again suggesting that they are very new to this way of life.

The scenes in the TARDIS at the beginning are compelling. The device of building part of the planet set and the TARDIS interior next to each other so that it may be glimpsed through the open doors is genius, as is the cut back to show the Police Box doors closing at the same time as the inner ones. After this first season this was almost abandoned until the new 2005 series.

There are some marvellous pieces of dialogue as Za asks Hur to "throw some more of the dead fire on" and Kal unwittingly describes the Doctor as "full of fire".

And then there's lovely Eileen Way, sitting on her rock offering commentary like a stone-age Nanna Royle. Untouchable. I met her once, years ago, at a Dr Who Convention in Birmingham. Tables were limited at breakfast and so Marc Platt, who I was with, and I asked if we might share her table. She was immaculate and stern and utterly charming I recall, dressed all in black with her hair tied tightly back. She was reserved at first, but as she warmed to us and realised that we held her in genuine affection she revealed that her primary reason for coming was to get Patrick Troughton's autograph for her grandson. And there she was, a very special guest at the convention, loved by all, who had only finally accepted the invitation because of her family. Unstoppable things, grandmothers. She asked us whether we thought he would mind her asking and we reassured her that we thought he probably wouldn't. Anyway, she asked him and he was delighted; two fine old actors who truly respected each other. And both gone now, sadly.

Next episode: The Forest of Fear

An Unearthly Child

The cover of the BBC DVD for this story calls this first episode a masterpiece of sixties television and watching it today I think that it probably is.

I watched on our big new lcd telly and the picture quality stood up really well, but I think I might resort to something smaller and more intimate for the next ep.

We’re so familiar with the format of the programme now and yet here it is brand new, and achingly original. Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein were young and fresh, and she determined. And it really shows.

I know they had plenty of time to rehearse and practice this episode, but it’s beautifully acted and choreographed and it’s great to see William Hartnell unflustered and word perfect.

And I love the end, the way there are beats to register that the Police Box has moved, then the shadow on the floor and finally the start of the theme. I love the way Kal at the start of the next episode keeps his position to allow for the captions and indeed for the whole next scene. Putting silence and pace into a production takes confidence. Russell T. must approve.

I don’t want this blog to be a review of each episode, there are plenty of reviews around for those who want them. Nor will there be any criticism for this is a labour of love.

I just want to record my thoughts, chiefly so I can look back on them in about six years when I finish. Occasionally I may have indulged in a small glass of red as I watched and so I apologise in advance for any gushing or eulogising!

Ian






Next episode: The Cave of Skulls

Watching Dr Who

A current whimsy among those of us who love Doctor Who and are of a certain age (early thirties - cough - ooh what’s that over there?) is to start watching Doctor Who from the beginning. No, not Christopher Eccleston, the real beginning, yonks ago, in 1963. William Hartnell and black and white.

I’ve been meaning to start for ages, you know how it is, but lately the urge has got stronger and so with more options for watching old episodes than ever before now I thought I would.

Nothing rigid you understand. No quota of episodes a day or anything silly like that. Just a gentle meander through time and space in the company of my life’s most constant companion.

I thought I’d share my thoughts as I go for any of you who may be interested or tempted to join me on the odyssey. It’s easy enough to follow along nowadays with so many DVDs and most of it on YouTube. And don’t worry if you fall behind or get ahead, we’ll wait for each other.

Let’s prepare ourselves by powering up our plasma TVs, our PCs and laptops, our trusty old black and white sets and even our phones and iPod Touches. And of course, stalwarts that we are, will we falter when we quickly encounter episodes that no longer exist on film or tape? No, we shall resort to photographs and books and telesnaps and memories and audio recordings that exist in full and long periods, literally, of staring into space.

So join me my friends on (cliche alert) the trip of a lifetime!

Ian

First episode: An Unearthly Child