The Wheel in Space - Episode 1

The Wheel in Space marks the last change of line up before Patrick Troughton departs the show. It’s also the penultimate story that doesn’t exist in its entirety.  This story also marks the final story of the season and it introduces Wendy Padbury as Zoe although she doesn’t appear until episode two so here we get Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. We get one final reference to Victoria and both the Doctor and Jamie are really sad which shows how close they all were. After the initial grumpiness that they both have they are soon laughing and forget why they are grumpy.

We get a reference to the fault indicator and also the fluid link which were both from the early days of the William Hartnell era. This has to be the first instance of the show looking back at its past (if you don’t include monsters/villains). There is also a mention of the food machine which again harks back to the early days of the Hartnell era. As this is written by David Whittaker, this isn’t such a great surprise.

The main action of the episode sees the Doctor and Jamie wandering around trying to seemingly not bump into the service droid that is the only other character in this part of the episode. It’s not perhaps the most exciting thing ever but it did lead to the next episode. The Doctor bumps his head which would normally mean that he would be on holiday in the second episode and lighting does strike twice in this instance. Though he is conscious enough for a while to be of use.

For a large portion of the episode it’s just Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines which is a brave thing to do as these two have to carry the episode and they do it quite well. It’s 20 minutes before we get anyone else in the episode. It’s at this point that we learn where the Doctor and Jamie have landed and it’s a ship that’s way off course.  It’s a simple yet short introduction to the rest of the characters that we would be spending the next five episodes with although there is one noticeable exception.

As an opening episode it’s nice that the show seems to have returned to solid storytelling and I like how there was a nice mystery as to where they were and what was going on and whilst we all know that the Cybermen are coming they aren’t mentioned in the title and there aren’t any signs that they are coming. It’s a brave thing that David Whittaker has done (though its an idea from Kit Pedlar) and this will be rewarded later on. A good start.