The Brink of Disaster

"We had time taken away from us, and now it's being given back to us... because it's running out!"

So says Barbara and she's right in many more senses than one. This is still a very strange Dr Who story. I decided to watch the DVD on the big screen rather than YouTube after all, to give the story its best chance. Even so it reels about all over the place though it does come good in the last ten minutes when we get back to I suppose what we consider now to be 'proper' Dr Who. The four incumbents (is this word ever used anywhere else other than to describe the people who travel in the TARDIS?) start to co-operate and begin to trust each other. Ian accepts the Doctor's apology readily, but I love when Barbara sits tight, unwilling to forgive him. The scene where the Doctor apologises is very touching and they both show incredible strength of character; he by apologising and she by accepting. They could so easily have been enemies forever. After all the tension I love the playfulness with Gilbert and Sullivan's cloak (it seems that the Doctor has visited Earth on several occasions already) and Susan in the snow. The cliffhanger is great, giants! Perhaps banging their heads on the roof of the world.

Next episode: The Roof of the World

Article: Baker's Dozen
My thoughts on the first 13 episodes

The Rescue

"I'm too old to be a pioneer, though I was amongst my own people, once."

So says the Doctor at the end of this long adventure, and what an adventure. Many stylish and intense scenes again here; I wonder what the tv audience of late 1963, early 1964 truly made of it. Where poor dear Antodus, who didn't want to come anyway, cuts the rope that threatens to pull Ian and Gannotus to their deaths and falls, screaming, into the chasm. Where our venturers afterwards sit broken, dirty (a feature I love of these realistic early episodes) and despondent until the lamp fails and new light is literally shone on their situation. Where there's a marvellous (Richard Martin again) almost 360 degrees shot that takes in a recently murdered Thal, the Doctor and Susan quaking in their corner cell and a long corridor shot with Ian, Barbara and the Thals moving towards Dalek Control that is then itself interrupted by a Dalek cutting across it. That scene would be hard to achieve today, but must have been a triumph of choreography between camera, actor and wayward prop in those days. Bravo!

The Thals final triumph over the Daleks is philosophically portrayed and few feel for the loss of the evil pepper pots, here uniquely seen upended rather than exploded.

Ian at this time was by no certainty the love interest for Barbara that he might become and so I love the gradual and touching scenes between Barbara and Gannatus that culminate in a farewell kiss.

All in all a fantastic adventure, but for a brand new television series in the sixties an astonishing achievement. Small wonder that this programme not only survives, but still commands today. The old battles are still being fought. C'est la vie.

I love this story yet I'm pleased to be moving on. Perhaps the first two stories are just a little too familiar to me from over-viewing, and certainly because of 'Dr Who and the Daleks', over-reading. Already the next episode looks intriguing: our travellers thrown to the floor in darkness as the Ship wheezes and groans in obvious distress - a sound that resonates with us all now, but must still have been disconcerting way back when.

This is an opportune moment to speak of platforms, as I realise that I failed to make clear at the outset of this project that I intend to explore Watching Dr Who on as many different platforms as possible. So far I've used the DVDs, on both my large screen television (not bragging, just interested to see how the picture quality stood up) and my PC. I've watched episodes on YouTube and also the BBC4 repeat of 'The Dead Planet'. I expect that by the time I finish I'll be having holographic versions of episodes beamed directly into my head. Or is that old-fashioned?

Next episode: The Edge of Destruction

The Ordeal

"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

The Expedition

"We do not have to adapt to the environment; we will change the environment to suit us."

Powerful stuff from the Daleks there in an episode brimming with moral debate and logical conclusions.

The Doctor is quite happy to use the Thals to attack the Daleks so that he can recover the fluid link after admitting "I'm afraid my little trick has rather rebounded on me", but he is challenged by Ian who is the moral compass here. We're already used to Barbara fulfilling this role yet in this instance she argues for the attack. So early in the series these characters are rounded and three-dimensional.

The Daleks reach the conclusion that they must increase radiation levels on the planet to survive with chilling coldness after they have watched some of their own kind die after taking the anti-radiation drug. More great Dalek point-of view shots from Christopher Barry which really add to the other-wordly quality of these creatures.

He uses split screen effects again to show us the pipes leading to the city, the vortex in the lake at the end of the episode and a poor unfortunate creature that menaces Barbara and gets quickly bludgeoned by Ian!

The Thal chaps look fetching in their cut away leather trousers and tabbards, something I feel may not have gone unnoticed by Barbara as she gets closer to Gannatus. And I swear his brother has got a tattoo on his shoulder!

I enjoy the wobbly superimposed story title and writers credit at the start of these episodes. I appreciate what the Restoration Team are doing by replacing the end titles with shiny, steady, new ones, but they seem at odds with the age of the rest of the programme. As the Daleks and Thals are realising, we must all learn to put up with an imperfect world.

Next episode: The Ordeal

The Ambush

This had to be the day to restart this blog, didn't it? I've been meaning to get on with it for ages. Sorry for the rather long delay to any faithful viewers. You newbies, in true time travel style, probably won't notice a thing!

"A dislike for the unlike."

This episode makes me tense. Our four travellers not only risk being caught by the Daleks, but then Ian can't get out of the Dalek casing. Great moments surround the lift shaft: the close-up of the Dalek shaking and moving as Ian says "I must escape"; the Daleks with real oxyacetaline torches burning through the metal door and firing upon the empty (phew!) Dalek shell which collapses deliciously; the clever lift cutaway which must have been complex back in the day and which is re-used to best effect when the Dalek fires at the wall next to Ian which blisters; the handy sculpture (Dalek art?) which plummets to great smoke and rubble trouble.

My favourite scene is as the Daleks await the arrival of the Thals. They half-hide in their doorways, guns twitching in anticipation.

I found it shocking and graphic and surprising when the Thals carry the body of Temmosus through their encampment; and then there's the awful realisation that the fluid link is still down in the city. No wonder I'm tense.

Next episode: The Expedition

The Escape

"If they call us mutants, what must they be like?"

'About time too,' I hear you cry and quite right. You'd think it had been Christmas and New Year in between the last blog and this one. I've left you dangling in suspense without so much as a by your leave and poor Susan has been standing looking out at that scary forest for weeks. So I'll just wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year and move swiftly on.

Susan finally steps out to a marvellously chilling flash of lightning and huge crash of thunder.
And there is Alydon, looking like a giant, as Susan cowers down against the closed TARDIS doors. Carole Ann Ford is great in this scene, as always, and I wonder again why she didn't have more of an acting career after Dr Who.

The direction of this episode (Richard Martin instead of Christopher Barry) is even stronger with some great shots. I was struck by how metal everything is in the Dalek world, even the tray and the food bowl which give it a very alien feel. The metaltron makes another appearance being carried around by one of the Thals like an ornamental lion. Was there a suggestion that they were going to use it to power their lights somehow? And what reason might Ganatus' brother have to be scared of the dark? Hmm. Perhaps it's the black and white and the brilliant lighting, but the Daleks actually look metal in this story.

I love the easy banter amongst the Thals, a far cry from what our guys are going through in their cell; and I love the plotting, scheming Daleks. An interesting point is raised when the Daleks reveal that they force vegetables. They're either doing it because they knew the Thals were coming or, intriguingly, perhaps they need them for themselves. It makes sense that the Dalek creatures need some sort of nutrient intake to live.

The scene where the Doctor and co sabotage the Dalek still makes me tense as I watch it now. And the very best bit? When Ian and the Doctor react to the Dalek creature inside the shell and send Susan and Barbara outside to spare them the horror. We're very much encouraged to use our imagination in this story, both here and when we were left wondering for a whole week what could be so terrifying to Barbara at the end of the first episode. Great stuff.

Next episode: The Ambush

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