Day 27: The Aztecs - The Temple of Evil

The Aztecs: The Temple of Evil is another historical story and its another written by John Lucarotti. I remember the first time that I ever saw this story and was extremely impressed with it and continue to be so. The TARDIS has gone from the futuristic Marinus to 15^th Century Earth. The first shot is of a skeleton which suggests the tone of the next four episodes. The TARDIS has landed in the tomb of Yetaxa. There is a nice scene with Barbara and Susan where Barbara shows that she has an interest in the Aztecs. During the examination of the tomb, Barbara puts on a bracelet which doesn’t seem to be of any importance and its only when Barbara leaves the tomb that its importance becomes evident. Barbara is discovered by Autloc and we learn that only Yetaxa can wear the bracelet and so Autloc assumes that Barbara is the reincarnation of Yetaxa. Autloc is the high priest and is low on intelligence. When he first appears he doesn’t come across as a particular impressive and he doesn’t ooze warmth.

Another character that we are introduced to is Tlotoxl. He is introduced brilliantly with him swinging his head towards the camera. Ian wonderfully describes him as ‘the local butcher’. Tlotoxl is brilliantly played by John Ringham who is clearly going to be this stories version of Tegana. He is clearly the stories strong (and amusing villain).

The Doctor is very amusing when he’s trying to pretend that Barbara is Yetaxa. The Doctor has a relatively light episode as he is farmed out to the garden. The Doctor has to spend time in a retirement garden where we are introduced to Cameca who is the love interest for the Doctor. She isn’t just there to make up the numbers and she’s well played by Margot Van der Burgh.

There’s an odd moment where the Doctor wanders to far into the scene where he is blocked by Barbara’s gigantic headgear. Apart from that this opening episode is well directed by John Crockett who returns after directing episode 4 of John Lucarotti’s ‘Marco Polo’ (The Wall of Lies).

Ian is draughted into to being a fighter which is suitable to his action man image. Ixta is the main fighter and his involvement will grow in future episodes but even here he is someone that shouldn’t be trusted. The fight scenes are quite good even though there isn’t much too much that they would be allowed to do. Ian has to hold down the person who is about to be sacrificed. Here there is a nice bit of anguish for Ian who clearly doesn’t want to do it but has to.

Barbara wants to stop sacrifices. Barbara thinks that the people who are sacrificed do not want to but when she stops the sacrifice, the man is miffed that she has denied him honour and he kills himself. Moments later there is rain and the conflict between Yetaxa and Yetoxal begins. He sees Barbara as a false goddess and when she stops the sacrifice this only intensifies this doubt.

This story sees one of the greatest lines in the shows history. “You cant rewrite history, not one line!” It forms the basic theme of the story and the Doctor spends most of the story trying to tell her of this fact yet she wont listen.

We never see the crowd but just here them. The fact we only hear them cheer is a slight disappointment as it would have been nice to have heard rumblings.

The cliffhanger was a good one as Tlotoxl looks towards the camera and says he will destroy her. Ok so its not the most exciting cliffhanger in the history of the show its still a good way to end the show. This is a good opening episode where we have a wonderful idea of what the story will be and we also have several strong characters.