So this is the story that sealed
Doctor Who’s fate. After 4 weeks of fighting cavemen, the Doctor and company
fight the most popular monsters in Doctor Who. It’s the first visit on an alien
world and whilst we don’t know the name of the planet (well they didn’t at the
time), its another congratulations that go to set designers who have done well
in creating an impressive cave/jungle set and now create a very atmospheric
dead jungle. It’s the first episode to be written by Terry Nation. A comedy
writer writing for what was considered a children show much have seemed like a
bizarre thing at the time.
The baron landscape is curious to
the Doctor and his scientific mind is again on show here. The effect used to achieve
the first alien world is quite good as it’s meant to represent night its
noticeable when the effect is faded out and the studio lights act for the
daytime. Music does a lot of good in the
early stages of the episode. It’s noticeably different from ‘An Unearthly Child’.
There is a bit of pottering around in
the opening minutes with everyone making a comment about where they are but at 4
minutes and 31 seconds is when we witness our first alien in five weeks. Ok so it’s
not a mobile one and it looks a bit silly but its an important milestone in
Doctor Who history.
The friendship between Barbara
and Ian is very moving in one their earlier scenes. They have been forced into
their adventure and they take comfort in knowing that the other is just as
scared as they are even if they don’t show as much as the other does. Things
seem to be heading towards them going abck to the city before Ian discovers the
city and the first shot is really good and that twined with the regulars makes
for a great shot. The Doctor’s determination to investigate the city is what
moves the story on and we see a sneaky side to the Doctor. The determination is
made even stronger when they hear the tapping on the TARDIS door. I do find it
odd that no one saw the Doctor duck out of sight just moments before the TARDIS
becomes faulty. The fault is a lack of mercury and by a strange coincidence the
only place that might have it is in the city.
I like all the scenes in the
TARDIS as it makes it seem more than just a vehicle to go from time to time but
actually somewhere that the Doctor and Susan call home. There is another great
scene between Ian and the Doctor in the fault locator which starts off with Ian
being friendly but soon descends into a less than friendly encounter. The food
machine is one of those gems that sadly doesn’t get used much after this era of
the show. Being the BBC they cant do product placement so instead go for what
look like blocks of cheese in tin foil but it’s a fun to think this is how
people eat food in the future by mixing food components like you mix two
colours to make a third. Another fun thing that we discover in the TARDIS is
the fault locator. Again like the food machine it doesn’t last very long but it
helps make the ship seem more than just a ship.
The headache is something that
seems quite trivial. It’s rested for a while and then when they start to
investigate the city they all start to become tired. This isn’t given much time
as it will be important in future episodes but these points are placed in the
viewers mind to festered until they are mentioned again.
The central performances are all
good on the whole. William Hartnell has mellowed some more but there are
flashes of defiance at several points during this episode, they are usually
aimed at Ian or Barbara and its good how its down to the Doctor’s meddling that
affects what happens in the remaining six episodes. Barbara is exasperated at
not being back on Earth. She is the one who should refusal to go down to the
city and seems to pick up in the scene where she is talking to Susan.
Jacqueline Hill really impresses me when she is walking around the corridors
and the fear and other emotions are etched on her face and it’s a really good
performance from her. Ian is a lot stronger and seems to be keeping it
together. He gets to be a bit of an a hero when he taps a container with a
stick. William Russell keeps it relatively calm throughout the episode and doesn’t
really have a great deal to do in this story. Carole Ann Ford moves from good
to bad in this episode the scene where Susan is on her own as they are making
their way back to the TARDIS and she is looking at a flower was a lovely moment
and was well acted by Carole Ann Ford. The mystery of who the hand belongs to
on what was called a dead world is one of the first mysteries in the story and
is made more dramatic by Ford’s performance but then some of Susan’s body
language and the way that Carole Ann Ford’s delivery of some lines is quite
child like and its frustrating because Carole Ann Ford is reduced to sitting at
a desk drawing like a naughty child and being looked down at by Barbara.
Some of the directing is really
well done and its helped especially by the sets of the city. There’s a shot
with Barbara walking through the corridors where the camera appears to be at an
angle and then when she’s investigating a room she puts her hand on the camera
to convince the viewer that she’s not in a studio. Christopher Barry’s debut
episode in Doctor Who . Something I haven’t noticed really until now is that
like the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ its really just the regulars
that appear and no one else. The fact that its just the regulars is not
noticeable really because their performances are so good and the writing and
directing don’t allow you think that.
The cliffhanger is the one that
is most iconic in the show’s history and whilst it might look very impressive
on TV (and it does), it loses a certain amount of mystic when you realise that
it was just a sink plunger being held by someone out of shot. That said it is
an impressive cliffhanger that is matched only by the cliffhanger from ‘An
Unearthly Child’. It’s an episode that doesn’t really get going until the 15
minute mark in which case it builds up nicely and reaches a fitting end to the
episode.
RATING
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