"Do you always do what Ian says?"
I, of course, have a vested interest in the answer to this question being yes, but in this case it is aptly asked by Gannatus as he and Barbara find themselves thrown together quite literally as she gamely hangs on to his leather trousers.
So much is in this episode, another of Richard Martin's, who however much I adore Christopher Barry's work on Doctor Who, I feel does slightly have the edge.
Dark and claustrophobic and intense. Some great moments: where the Doctor and Susan think they have short-circuited the Dalek systems and immediately find themselves surrounded by clutching, grabbing Daleks and that lovely scene where they both are kneeling on the floor that makes the metal meanies seem enormous and indomitable.
And where poor dear Antodus tries to duck out, but is trapped and so makes the so unwilling and half-hearted jump that results in him (and us!) left dangling at the end of the episode with poor Ian clinging to the rock by his fingernails. What a delicious moment slightly earlier when Ian throws the rope to him which falls flacidly to the floor as he makes no attempt to catch it. Poor Antodus. I remember this trek vividly from the probably hundreds of times that I read David Whitaker's novelisation of this story.
"I stopped the car at last and let the fog close in around me..." That first line of the book rates for me as highly as "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" and Marc Platt's sublime "Time's roses are scented with memory."
What joy. And all that plus Nazi saluting Daleks and Doctors hiding behind rocks. This is bliss; and always will be.
Next episode: The Rescue
