Hidden Danger

"I'm not a child anymore, Grandfather, I'm not."

Confrontations galore at the start of this episode with Ian and Barbara very much in their roles as protective teachers concerned about Susan going it alone down to the Sense-Sphere. What a glorious name for a planet. And then the Doctor and Susan in a battle of wills which, I suppose, ultimately leads to her leaving him in 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth'.

Very adult themes of mental illness and loss are explored through John and Carol with touching performances from Stephen Dartnell and Ilona Rogers.

I rather feel this episode, and indeed the whole story, loses something when we accompany almost everyone down to the (rather dull as it turns out) Sense-Sphere.  Only Barbara has the sense to stay put and that's only because Jacqueline Hill was heading off on holiday for two weeks. Good old Barbara, sensibly missing the two dullest episodes.

The Sensorites are well realised in terms of their masks with the beards combed across their mouths, but the costumes are a little dull and the sash system a little clunky especially when it is explained at length. This is also true of the water situation. You don't need to be Miss Marple to figure this one out. As the Doctor says, "It might be a clue!"  I'm confused that a story that deals initially with complex ideas of mental breakdown and burgeoning teenage assertiveness resorts to such clumsy devices.  It would've been quicker to walk round and shoot our travellers than to programme the 'disintegrator'.

There's an interesting volte-face when the First Elder tells the Doctor why they felt they had to put the spaceship crew to sleep and why John, the mineralogist, is so badly affected by their telepathic powers, "We saw the pictures he formed in his mind and we saw that it was the end of our way of life..."  I'm anyone's for a bit of motivation.

I have a feeling that down on the planet I will be yearning for more spaceship scenes in the way I longed to see the inside of the TARDIS again when we were stuck in those prehistoric caves for three weeks, but let's see shall we.

Next episode: A Race Against Death

Oh, and HB DW again!

The Temple of Evil

"You can't rewrite history. Not one line!"

That legendary quote is this story in a nutshell. As with 'The Daleks' I am blissfully over-familiar with John Lucarotti's second historical script for this first season and its high production values.

The aspect that has stood out most for me, watching it for the umpteenth time again this afternoon, is the direction. The whole episode, from the opening shot (pictured above) onwards, is beautifully and ambitiously directed by John Crockett. It makes me wonder if the fourth, and only, episode of Marco Polo which he directed might actually have differed in style quite considerably from Waris Hussein's.

The camera is hardly ever still; no mean feat with the heavy, clunky machinery of Lime Grove's Studio D. What is truly remarkable, however, is the choreography. Guards and processions and characters moving in and out of shot are all superbly handled in this real tour de force of 1960s drama. Consequently, it is a real pleasure to watch. I'm very interested to see if it gets noticeably easier to accommodate this fluid style in the ultra modern, for the time, Television Centre Studio 3 in the next instalment.

So much for the technicalities, the story itself belongs to Barbara, and to Jacqueline Hill:

If you've followed this blog from the beginning, you'll know how much I adore this companion and this actress. The depth she brings to the character of Barbara is just phenomenal. You can actually see on Barbara's face the moment when she makes her mind up to challenge the status quo and reform the Aztecs, much to the Doctor's horror. I honestly don't think that we meet another companion who will stand up to the Doctor quite as strongly until Tegan, and it is of course upon the original line-up that John Nathan-Turner would base his companions.

Amongst all this, the Doctor charms and is in return charmed by Cameca, Ian finds he is to challenge the established warrior champion, and John Ringham gives a remarkable and malevolent turn as Tlotoxl who proclaims at the end of the episode, "She is a false goddess, and I will destroy her!"

Gripping stuff. Stand by for:

Next episode: The Warriors of Death

Article: Nicholas Courtney

The Edge of Destruction

"I can't take you back, Susan, I can't."

I've put the RT article at the top of this post to help you try to make sense of this episode (you'll need all the help you can get!)

Well, what did you think? I thought it was odd. Very odd. It's so early on in the series and so experimental. While I was watching I thought that perhaps they got away with it because the programme was brand new and so most people didn't have a clue what was going on anyway.

Good points? A fantastic opportunity to see the beautifully detailed TARDIS set with all of its nooks and crannies and control banks and strange suspended cylinders. This episode is fabulously lit, notably towards the end when the Doctor is sitting in his chair illuminated by a knave of light. I've never seen the set lit like that before or since and it's so evocative of a church. Talking of churches, after Susan gets changed into that flat black smock and then has to have a lie down with a cooling cloth on her head after attacking Barbara with the scissors (bit strong, those scissor sister scenes) she looks like a medieval French Nun.

They all behave very oddly until the Doctor has a pop at Barbara. What a mistake-a to make-a. And then the whole thing gets very, very good. I do feel that David Whitaker's strength was in dialogue rather than plotting. Consequently Barbara's row with the Doctor is sensational and, in my opinion, crucial to the development of the series. For this is the point where everything changes and all the fear and doubt and suspicion between the two pairs of characters comes to a head and then is gradually replaced by trust and understanding and eventually love. I may be wrong, but from memory this is the pivot.

And how utterly bloody marvellous is Jacqueline Hill? This will be a recurring theme on these pages, but with good reason. Long one of my favourite companions and actors, I can't take my eyes off her. She is mesmerising, and the character of Barbara such a perfect foil for the Doctor. It's a wonderful moment after the row when the Doctor appears with a tray of drinks and is utterly charming. I'm still not convinced he hasn't slipped something in them to knock them all out. He's still manipulative to get his own way and skips about the console room when they're all unconscious. It's a genuine surprise when he finds himself with unknown hands around his throat.

However odd this episode is , and it is very odd (did I mention that?), it's again strikingly directed by Richard Martin. Ian's new favourite director.

And I meant to tell you that I'm about to be born. No really I am. Next Thursday. At midday. Keep an eye out. As a child I was stupidly proud when I found out I had been born between the two episodes of a rare two part Dr Who story. I mentioned this to my Dad a few years ago when the video first came out. He was singularly unimpressed!]

Next episode: The Brink of Disaster (I would like to make clear that this refers to the next episode of Dr Who that we will be watching and not to my impending entre into the world)

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