The episode starts off with the
wonderful reprise of Tlotoxl looking directly at the screen. The reprise leads
directly into a wonderful scene between the Doctor and Barbara where the Doctor
berates Barbara for interfering in the sacrifice. The Doctor keeps chipping
away at Barbara and its not long before Barbara breaks down and its at that
point that the Doctor relents. They soon seem to make up quite quickly and by
the end they are back to being friends again however the feud between Tlotoxl
and Barbara continues. John Ringham is superb as Tlotoxl and every time he’s on
screen I love the story that bit more.
I liked the scene between Autloc,
Ian and Ixta with Ian winning a quick battle against Ixta by using his thumb. Ixta
is going to use the fact that the Doctor doesn’t know that Ian will have to
fight Ixta and the Doctor unknowingly helps him to defeat Ian. This nice bit of
deception is what I like about Ixta because it shows that he is a cunning
character and that he is smart. The budding romance between the Doctor and
Cameca is quite fun to witness. Cameca believes there is true love but the
Doctor is naïve to it and is only interested in gaining access to the tomb. I
do feel sorry for Cameca because she is lovingly played by Margot Van der Burgh
that it makes the Doctor seem slightly cruel with what he’s doing. Barbara is
showing signs of disliking her current promotion. She feels the weight of
pressure from Tlotoxl and trying to keep Autloc on his side.
Susan only appears in a
pre-filmed sequence as she becomes the second of the regulars to go on holiday
during the story. In the brief scene she turns down the idea of an arranged
marriage. Despite only being in this short scene it somehow helps add to the
troubles of Barbara.
The latter half of the story is
the build up to the fight between Ixta and Ian and it’s a good moment because
we know what’s going to happen things are going well for Ian until the Doctor distracts
him by telling him to not let Ixta scratch him which of course is what happens.
The next few minutes are a well cheorographed fight when Ian is slowly getting
weaker. William Russell is very good in this episode because he’s having to do
something that he doesn’t really want to do but we all know he can do.
There is a lot of looking
directly at the camera. Starting with Tlotoxl at the beginning there are a few
moments where someone spends time looking if not directly then roughly in its
direction. It’s a well directed episode with some good camera shots though
there are moments where its clear that the background is a cloth.
The cliffhanger is a good one as
it involves Tlotoxl. He is demanding that Barbara saves Ian and this leads to a
wonderful thing about how Barbara will get round this. It was a good ending to
a good episode. The whole build up to the fight was well done and everyone was
on good form and this story is slowly taking shape. I’ve always liked this
story and these past two episodes have done nothing to make me change my mind.
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