The final episode starts with us being reminded that Ian is facing almost certain death from drowning. There is a nice montage of Ian climbing through the tunnels and what I found funny was when he exited the tunnel it was right under the tomb of Yetaxa that we saw way back in the first episode. Tlotoxl does quite have the same fire about him than he did in previous episodes. He gets better as the episode progresses but in the early part he is a bit less menacing than he had been.
William Hartnell is very good in this episode as we get to see a side to him that we haven’t seen before and its not just once that this happens but several times. We get one final scene between the Doctor and Cameca. It’s lovingly played by Margot Van der Burgh and William Hartnell. Then there is the moment where Cameca talks about staying by the Doctor’s side and the Doctor knows it cant happen. Then there is a lovely moment when the Doctor runs in to tell Barbara that Ian is dead and he pops out and the relive in the Doctor’s voice is very moving.
The main thing about this episode is that they have to try and get back into the TARDIS and now they know how to get back there is just the small matter of trying to get everyone in the same place without getting caught by Tlotoxl or Tonila. I really like the moment when Ian pops up behind Ixta and deals him a humiliating blow. It’s good because you feel like Ixta was just Tlotoxl’s whipping boy and his demise was more satisfying. John Ringham and Ian Cullen have been a good double act. Ringham in particular has been the star of the story with the maddest face paint that I’ve ever seen.
It’s so good that Susan is back and the Carole Ann Ford has returned from holiday. It means that she gets involved in the story. It’s the most active that she has been and the bonus has been over the four episodes is that Susan has been more mature than she otherwise has been. Barbara seems to have lost some of the fight of recent episodes. Jacqueline Hill still gives a dignified performance and you could believe that she could be a goddess.
Autloc is willing to help Cameca break Ian and Susan out of ‘prison’. I have always like Autloc in these four episodes and Barbara’s sadness about how his fortunes have ended up is the one that the viewer should have. Keith Pyott has given a wonderful performance. Margot Van der Burgh was someone else that gave a loving performance and worked very well with William Hartnell.
There is a really good fight that takes place in this episode between Ian and Ixta. It feels like they are going at it and that they aren’t being restricted. It was a well cherographed scene and the ending was probably not the ending I was expecting with Ixta falling to his death. The moment when Ian takes off his helmet and looks out at presumably the dead Ixta there looked like there was a small chance that Ian was going to say something flippant but thankfully he doesn’t as it would have demeaned what had just happened and not something that Ian would have done.
There is a great scene between Barbara and the Doctor about what the point of going into history if they cant change anything. It’s the main problem with travelling in history on the show is that you cant really do anything to what happens and its addressed well in this story.
The Doctor puts something that Cameca gave him next to Yetaxa and then starts to walk away towards the TARDIS before changing his mind and picking it up almost annoyed with himself for being a sentimental fool. The end of the episode is a bit of a mystery because the TARDIS instruments say that the TARDIS has landed but other instruments say that it is still travelling. The tease for the viewer would be to find out exactly what was going on. It’s a good cliffhanger. What it lacked in drama it made up for mystery and I liked it. As an episode I think that it was the weakest of the four, it felt rather like they were going through the motions and just passing time until they could all go back into the TARDIS set. Had it not been for the Doctor/Cameca storyline being as sad as it was then I would have felt that this was a total let down. Over the four part adventure the story was as good as I remember the first time I ever saw it. I thought that the characters were all well written with Tlotoxl being the best character in the story. This was definitely Barbara’s story and Jacqueline Hill did well with it and it’s a pure historical story that I rank as one of the best.
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