A Land Of Fear

"I have the universe to explore..."

Well, here we are...

True to his word, for once the Doctor looks like he's actually brought Ian and Barbara back to England in 1963.  Susan hugs the schoolteachers goodbye and they begin to speculate that they may actually be home. 

Unlike the close of the previous episode, there is a warmth and humour to this scene with Ian suggesting that they all part over a drink and Barbara dusting the old man's lapels, to his obvious delight. Despite everything, the characters have obviously grown very fond of each other.

I think this scene owes everything to new writer Dennis Spooner who will quickly become Dr Who's Script Editor.

"Mmm, still here...?" says the Doctor, brilliantly.

Fabulous.  As is this glimpse of some of the elements of that astonishing first TARDIS set.

I love the treasure chest in the house they find that offers up so much plot exposition: clothes that can be dated, maps, daggers, wine, bread and official documents....

"This is a stopping-off place; a link in some escape chain."

"The Doctor's put us down right in the middle of the French Revolution."

"The Reign of Terror...."

We are introduced to Rouvray and his companion D'Argenson who quickly fills in the horrors of the Terror.  The arrival of the soldiers to the sounds of the Marseillaise is really well done, although when Rouvray says, "You can give them uniforms, Lieutenant, but they remain peasants underneath," I'd probably have shot him myself.

Poor D'Argenson is shot off-camera.  I suppose it is half past five on a Saturday teatime.  That sort of thing would put you off your fish fingers.

Ian, Barbara and Susan are, literally, carted off to Paris.  Ian realises the implications of the Doctor being killed, something echoed years later by Donna in 'The Sontaran Strategem' when she too is marooned without him.

But where is the Doctor?

Oh-oh, Chungo!

Still at least the others are ok...

Ah.  It never reigns.....

Next episode: Guests of Madame Guillotine

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 Unwilling Warriors

"I think that they're as afraid of us as we are of them."

Well, what did you think? I thought it was an extremely good second episode (ah, that difficult second episode) that really built on the first. This story so far really reminds me of 'An Unearthly Child', the very first episode of the series. It has a modern feel and gives us a lesson in chemistry from Ian and one on cats eyes from the Doctor.

Stephen Dartnell is great as John who, it turns out, is the ship's meteorologist and has discovered something the Sensorites would rather keep secret. It's very effective when he's with Barbara and Susan and looks upward, straight to camera, when he's communicating with the Sensorites (rather like Turlough and the Black Guardian years later) and I like the way their motivation is partly explained. It makes them curious and three dimensional. It's amusing the way John has the same unkempt scarecrow look as Richard Hammond and there's a great gag about there being nothing wrong with having white hair from the Doctor.

Based on these episodes, it's a great shame that there was never another story from Peter R. Newman who, from I what I can gather, seems to have committed suicide in the late sixties. Perhaps John's turmoil reflects his own struggle with depression in some way, I don't know.

There are a couple of cruel bits of dialogue for the actors. Of all the minerals that could have been found on the Sense-Sphere fancy giving William Hartnell molybdenum! Everyone's hearts must have been in their mouths the whole story. Equally harsh was requiring someone in a monster mask to say "a fearful affliction"! I had to rewind just to make out the line. Did you?

It's great when Ian says "Come on, Barbara, let's find them." Here we have the two teachers taking control of a situation and going monster hunting. The slow mime that Ian does when he encounters the Sensorites preserves their mystery even longer. I hate it when baddies cough up the plot on their first encounter. I'm really not sure whether 'The Unwilling Warriors' of the title are the humans on the ship, our friends from the TARDIS or the two Sensorites sent up to investigate.

Finally, the Sensorites enter the bridge,

Susan and the Doctor reveal telepathic abilities, and there's a glorious scene when the Doctor demands the lock to the TARDIS back from them. Here we are again, another physical barrier to their escape. The episode ending feels believable and a natural next step in the plot - Susan is to be taken to the planet below.

Next episode: Hidden Danger

The Bride of Sacrifice

"In all humility, I beg you. Do not deceive me or prove false to me."

What a cracking episode. It brims with clever and dramatic dialogue, and there are some marvellously touching moments between Barbara and Autloc as we all come to realise that it is Tlotoxl who is the norm in Aztec society and Autloc the exception. Barbara is deflated by this and sad to deceive Autloc, but our four must do everything now to gain entrance to the tomb.

The Doctor does his bit by charming Cameca; a little too much as it turns out as he unwittingly becomes engaged. It's amusing to see him take this in his stride and even be prepared to use it to his advantage. Another hint of his alienness here, he is entirely focused on getting to the TARDIS with little thought for the sincerity of Cameca's feelings.

It's great to see the gloves come off between Barbara and Tlotoxl - she confesses to him alone that she is false and then dares him to face ruin by revealing her. He in turn tries, rather clumsily, to poison her.

At last there is an, albeit watery, tunnel into the tomb and we sense that everything is drawing to a climax in:

Next episode: The Day of Darkness

The Warriors of Death

"They call me the Doctor. I am a scientist, an engineer; I am a builder of things."

Doesn't she look magnificent in this beautiful 'Sun God' costume? Absolutely fantastic.

This episode starts with the Doctor dressing down Barbara in a full scale row. He is harsh, annoyed that she has jeopardised them all. To him, Ian and Barbara must seem almost as primitive as the Aztecs. Only when she gets upset does he soften, and we see the real affection he has developed for her.

I forgot to say last time that our heroes are once again barred from leaving in the TARDIS by another physical barrier, a hallmark of the early days of the series. Here the Doctor tries gamely to get his hands on the plans of the Temple to discover the mechanism for opening the sealed tomb from the outside. I like that his machinations, and indeed his later intervention, both lead to poor Ian being drugged by Ixtar.

The direction is again complex and clever; there's a memorable ultra-close two shot of Tlotoxl and Barbara as they vie for power. The picture quality has improved with the new cameras which are also able to take longer shots than in Lime grove, making the Temple set look even more impressive. And a note about the engaging and atmospheric music, an early work by the film composer to be, Richard Rodney Bennett.

I'd like to touch on the quote at the top of this piece and the notion of the Doctor as an engineer and 'a builder of things'. This became a little lost as the series developed, and indeed I think the Doctor himself would describe himself nowadays more as an 'Adventurer'. But this line gives a hint to his origins, and his life on Gallifrey before he 'stole' the TARDIS. The line, and William Hartnell's delivery, suggest to me that he might just as easily have been called 'the Fixer.' It is touched upon again eventually in 'Remembrance of the Daleks', a great favourite of mine, as we see the Doctor perhaps as a former stellar engineer and manipulator of the 'Hand of Omega', the Time Lord equivalent of the hand of god. If he works on that scale, it is no wonder that he wants to explore the Universe, and treats the TARDIS, at which we marvel, as merely a form of transport.

Next episode: The Bride of Sacrifice