The Smugglers - Episode 1

The Smugglers is the first story in the fourth series. It’s the beginning of the end as far as William Hartnell is concerned. The story picks up after the events of the War Machines and its good how the Doctor is angry when he discovers Ben and Polly in the TARDIS. The mood quickly changes when the TARDIS lands and he finds himself amused when Ben and Polly think that they are still in 1966. It drags on a bit but it’s the inevitable routine when someone joins the show. It’s quite funny how Polly is taken as a boy due to the way that she is dressed. The first 10 minutes or so are taken up with quite dull interaction. The Warden gets his injury dealt with and the regulars are on their way. The problem with this story is that not only does it not exist on video but that it’s a historical story that doesn’t actually have a dramatic moment to build up to. In effect it’s a different type of historical to what we have had in the past.

The central performances are all quite good. It’s nice to see a bit of the old cranky Doctor at the beginning of the episode and it shows how he’s mellowed when he’s chuckling to himself. It’s good to see how two people who are from the swinging sixties cope with being wrenched out of their period in time. Anneke Wills and Michael Craze do well in their first proper story and seem to interact well with each other and with the people that they encounter even if the locals are a bit clichéd.

There seems to be a nice moment (I use the word nice in the loosest sense) where there is quite a physical altercation where one person gets killed. It’s a shame that its not on video because I think that this story would work better on video. Sadly the story is just a bunch of people in West Country accents and its like a cheap prelude to Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s a perfectly fine opening episode and it’s a much better opening season episode that what we got with Galaxy 4. Sadly this is one of those stories that I’ve never been a big fan of and think that nothing will really make me change my mind.