Galaxy 4 - Air Lock

Finally we get to the recently found episode and we get to see what Vicki was screaming at in the last episode. The Chumblies look even sillier when you can see them. Their base seems rather basic and it seems that whilst it’s a bigger area its not much better than the Drahvins. Sadly it looks like the budget is quite small even though it’s the first story of the series. It’s basically scaffolding with a few sheets of Perspex plastic.

As the leader, Maaga is the one that is the brains of the operation. She gets a wonderful scene where she seems to be talking to the other Drahvins but is looking directly at the camera and she gives a lovely speech which shows that she might be the only smart one there but she’s more than a match for the Chumblies.

We finally get to hear something resembling speech in this episode from the Chumblies as they capture a bit of something Vicki says and adopts then starts to speech English. It’s very much like the Judoon in the modern series. We learn how the ‘war’ between the Drahvins and we get to know that Maaga is slightly mad when she kills another Drahvin which she blames on the Chumblies. It’s another of the rather repetitive instances where we are told that the Drahvins are the bad guys and the Chumblies are the goodies. It seems like the repeated warnings about the Drahvins are a way of getting us through the episodes because otherwise its going to be a very short story.

Peter Purves seems to have drawn the short straw because for the first half of the story he just sleeps or pretends to sleep and then gets caught in the airlock. Vicki and the Doctor meanwhile get to interact with the Chumblies and their leader.  The Doctor does slightly more because he fiddles around with a machine.

Sadly whilst its nice to see an episode of this story. I cant say that it really makes the story any better. It’s a shame that the story doesn’t have much to it and it seems to have the same problem as The Web Planet where it just seems to jump from one set to the other. We are three quarters of the way through this episode and it doesn’t feel like the story has progressed very far in the two episodes.

Galaxy 4: Trap of Steel

There isn’t a great deal that I can write about this episode as nothing really happens in the episode. The problem with something existing on CD its hard to really get involved in the story, especially when everything that occurs in the episode is more visual than audio. From what I gather occurs in this episode there is more evidence that the leader of the Drahvins is a bit horrible and isn’t prepared to share a ship with the Chumblies. There seems to be a lot of walking around and after a while it all blurs into one.

Sadly the main problem with this story is that it lacks anything that comes close to exciting. Like the previous episode, we have one of the regulars left in the ship whilst the other two wander around and I think that its ok once but then gets slightly boring everytime after that. The only thing that seems to stand out is Steven who after having to spend four episodes refusing to believe what he is seeing, has finally got over that and embracing what he sees and in some cases fights with what he sees.

Despite the time running out for the planet, there doesn’t seem a great deal of rush in getting things done and we get to an episode that was lost until very recently and its time to see whether the story would have worked on tv better than it did on audio.

Galaxy 4 - Four Hundred Dawns

Galaxy 4 is the first story of the third series and its where the number of episodes that exist on video is worrying low. The 82^nd episode of Doctor Who starts off in quite a weird way with Vicki giving Steven a hair cut. It’s certainly a different TARDIS to the one that we saw at the beginning of the second season. It feels like a different show at times. However one thing that hasn’t changed much since that opening story of Season 2 and that is the Doctor.

The story doesn’t get off to the best of starts when the first ‘creature’ of the story appears. The Chumblies are named by Vicki and it’s a silly name. How are we supposed to see it as a menace when Vicki goes and gives it this name. She might as well have called a bunny rabbit. Their involvement in the story is quite important but they have the same problem as the Zarbi had in ‘The Web Planet’ and that is they only communicate in a weird high pitch tone. We also encounter the Drahvins who are a group of women who use men purely for reproduction. It’s the first time that the threat comes entirely from women. It’s quite easy to spot them as the baddies in this piece. They try their best to make themselves seem like the victims and the mere idea that they want to take someone else’s property instead of trying to see if they can both leave together shows the mentality of the Drahvins and why they are no good.

I like how the purpose of the story is spelt out so quickly. The planet that they are on is about to explode quite quickly. The Drahvins wants to get off and their space ship won’t start so they want to steal the Drahvins ship so that they can survive. It’s a simple plot that you see what the end point is going to be and so there is no need to try and figure out what the point of the story is. Just enjoy it and sigh when the Chumblies appear on screen. As for the episode, it loses a lot being on audio. The narration by Peter Purves helps a bit but I think that when we get to Air Lock we can see how they story works better when you can see it.

The Time Meddler - Checkmate

The final episode of this story is also the final episode of the second season. This is where the Vikings come to Britain and the Doctor has to try and stop the Monk but first we have to get over the news that clearly the Monk is of the same race as the Doctor. Though obviously its not named its nice to finally get a bit more information about the Doctor even though we know that his race all look like humans.  

The Monk says that Stonehenge wouldn’t have been built with his technology. The Monk seems to want to meddle in time because he finds it amusing. Not for any egotistical gain he genuinely believes he’s doing good. I still find the scenes between Peter Butterworth and William Hartnell to be extremely funny. The Monk’s TARDIS is similar to the Doctor’s and what we see is a massive treasure trove of goodies. Another difference between the Doctor and the monks is that the console is raised up though its implied that the Monk’s TARDIS is superior to the Doctors. The camouflage circuit is referred to as the technology to change the TARDIS to match its surrounding. I don’t recall a name being given to it before and it obviously changes to chameleon later on.

The scene between Vicki and Steven where they discuss what will happen when the Monk changes history. The exact second it happens every history book ever written will change and it’s in this context that the not changing history takes greater significance. They seem to have been given a bit less to do in this episode after they enter the Monk’s TARDIS. Even what they do get given is a bit of a let down as Vicki has to tell the Doctor that they don’t have the TARDIS because the tide washed it away but this is quickly put down by the Doctor. The way that the story is wrapped up is quite strange. The Doctor isn’t the one that stops the Monk’s plans and the Doctor strands him in that period. That’s it. It seems a bit of a let down if I’m being honest and the final moment of the episode is another strange thing where the faces of Peter Purves, Maureen O’Brien and William Hartnell are imposed over a picture of stars. 

As a four part story, it certainly has some good things going for it. There are good characters and its definelty better than Dennis Spooner’s previous offering. I just think that it lacks from a proper conclusion to the story and it doesn’t feel like the Doctor has settled things against the Monk. It was ¾ a good story and ¼ an ok story.

The Time Meddler - A Battle of Wits

The penultimate episode of this story that I must be honest and say it has gone up in my estimation. Despite the quite good cliffhanger it quickly its not long before things settle down. There is a lot less action in this episode and a lot less going on that there has been in the previous two episodes. I like how the Monk has a to-do list. It’s such as childish thing to do. It also reminds the viewer what the Monk’s plans are and just how much he has to cram into two episodes.

I must say that William Hartnell is looking quite refreshed having come back of his holiday. Apart from one scene which he has with Alethea Charlton, all of his scenes are with Peter Butterworth. I think that their scenes were very funny and Peter Butterworth has been a revelation in this story because even though he’s the least menacing baddie in the shows history, he still manages to maintain my interest as an adversary of the Doctor’s. That’s more down to Butterworth than the writing.

The TARDIS appears to have been taken away by the tide. Knowing that this is a four part adventure, the idea of the TARDIS being washed away seems like a redundant thing to put in the story but at the time it must have been a genuine shock but nowadays its not so much of a shock but more of a plot point. It feels like a bit of the energy has left the story somehow. Not entirely sure how this happened. The Doctor and the Monk wander through the corridors. Vicki and Steven go from the monestary to the cliff and then back and that’s pretty much all they do.

There is a fair amount of violence in this episode. Admittedly its not Grand Theft Auto style violence but its not a typical sight to see the Doctor knock someone out with a stick. I suppose it’s the only bit of action in the episode as nothing else seems to happen here really.

When I first saw the cliffhanger I didn’t see it coming and I suspect those watching in 1965 would have been when they saw Vicki and Steven enter the Monk’s TARDIS. This is the first time that we see someone else have a time machine. Apart from the cliffhanger I must say that I was a little disappointed with this episode and felt like it was waiting for the final episode to come around. It’s good to have William Hartnell back.

The Time Meddler - The Meddling Monk

The second episode sees us hear more (and see more) from the monk. William Hartnell doesn’t appear in this episode except for the reprise from the previous episode and some pre-recorded dialogue. Any fans will know who and what the Monk is but at the time it must have been a nice mystery because he seems to know the Doctor and is trying to con the locals into thinking he’s a real monk. I like how creative they have been with letting Hartnell have his holiday but not impede the story. They just show the outside of the cell and have occasional cuts to hear the Doctor demand to be let out. There’s a strange cutaway moment to what appears to be stock footage from some film. I say film because someone is talking but we cant hear what is been said. Whilst it might be said that its good that they are trying to give the viewer a feel of the time but I think that they could have cut that few seconds out.

We have another situation in this episode where the locals seemed to be in the middle of a power struggle. It’s very much like ‘An Unearthly Child’ (which starred Alethea Charlton) and actually it’s done better here than in that story. The worst thing that there can be in a story is when you want the bad guys to win (like in The Space Museum).

When the Vikings do appear they look the part with their helmets and costumes even though one looks like he’s just come from a 1960’s episode of Top of the Pops. The Vikings immediately come across as baddies which depending on your stance in history is a good thing or a bad thing. Once they have arrived its not long before they become involved with the locals and a fight soon begins and ends. Steven becomes more willing to believe the situation that he finds himself and becomes quite clever when he fools the Monk and is convinced that the Monk is lying. He seems to be doing well in trying to be the action hero figure but I will state now that he will never be like Ian but I think that the partnership of Vicki and Steven is going to be a good one.

There is a bit of Spooner’s humour but it’s a blink and you’ll miss it and that shows that Spooner knows that he’s got a good story and hasn’t got time to allow the comedy to take centre stage.  There is too much going on for us to have a sequel to the Romans. The episode ends with Vicki and Steven entering the Doctors cell and find that under the blanket he isn’t there. It’s a good cliffhanger and I think that whilst its not as strong as the previous episode I do think that the pacing of the story works well and the characters are all relatively well.

The Time Meddler - The Watcher

I must admit that as I start the final story of the second series that I’m not quite sure about the show. It’s the first one that doesn’t feature Ian, Susan or Barbara and so three quarters of the original line up has gone. Now we are left with a very different Doctor to the one that we saw in ‘An Unearthly Child’. It was the same feeling (oddly enough) that I felt when Carole Ann Ford left. The Time Meddler is another historical story however it’s the first pseudo-historical adventure. Meaning that there is a bit of sci-fi mixed into the historical goings on. This adventure is also another by Dennis Spooner who wrote ‘The Romans’ which is an adventure that I wasn’t 100% keen on.

In one of the first scenes with the Doctor, Steven and Vicki. The Doctor is asked to explain the TARDIS and whilst he doesn’t see why he should its nowhere near as aggressive as it was back in ‘An Unearthly Child’. In fact he seems to thrive to the challenge and is looking forward to prove Steven wrong. When the Doctor shows Steven a Viking helmet he comes up with the great line “What do you think this is? A space helmet for a cow?” It’s a cracking line. Another is when he states to Steven that he’s “Not a mountain goat”. It’s a good thing that happens in this story where they are trying to show a doubtful Steven that they are indeed in the past. It does feel slightly frustrating because the viewer knows that this is the truth and I just want Steven to get to grips with the situation and then we can all continue with the show.

Considering that the entire episode is made in studio, the story moves along at such as pace that it doesn’t really become an issue. There is some much that is happening and that Dennis Spooner seems to have found the right balance between humour and drama. The Monk is a figure that has some mystique about him and even though he doesn’t actually utter a word he still manages to have something about him. Even though at this point Peter Butterworth hadn’t appeared in a Carry On film it’s the most high profile name that the show had cast.

The episode sees Alethea Charlton return after appearing in the very first story where she was impressive. Here she plays a similar character but probably a bit more normal. In this episode she’s weary of the Doctor (some might say understandably) and then after a small while she starts telling the Doctor all the things that he asks. The Doctor spends the rest of the episode being a bit curious with the music and working out the time and telling the viewer what is about to happen. I must admit that this is a part of history that I like so it’s probably why I don’t mind the history in this episode.

I must say that I’ve never been a massive fan of ‘The Time Meddler’ but based on the opening episode I am starting to warm to it. Whether that will still be the case at the end of the story remains to be seen but out of the two Dennis Spooner stories we’ve had this is definitely the stronger of the two and the process of getting over the departure of Ian and Barbara continues.