#29 (4.5 - 4.8): The Tenth Planet.

The Cybermen's first appearance - 

and the First Doctor's last...

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 94 minutes. Written by: Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis. Directed by: Derek Martinus. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor and his companions find themselves in mid-1980s Antarctica, near an international space tracking station. The stations' commander, General Cutler (Robert Beatty) is annoyed by their unexplained appearance, but has no time to question them - The space capsule his crew is tracking has been drawn off course. Though Cutler refuses to listen, the Doctor is able to correctly predict the cause of the problem: the appearance of the planet Mondas, a world remarkably similar to Earth. He also, rather ominously, adds that its appearance means that "soon we shall be having visitors."

The visitors are half-biological, half-mechanical beings known as Cybermen. They invade the tracking station and announce that their world is absoring the Earth's energy. Earth will soon be destroyed as a result, but the Cybermen plan to save those at the station - by taking them back to Mondas to transform them into Cybermen!

The Doctor insists they can weather the crisis if they can just buy sufficient time. But the toll Mondas is taking on Earth seems to be mirrored in the Doctor, who collapses from exhaustion and complains to Polly that "this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin..."


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: William Hartnell's final story, written and produced after the decision was made to recast the role. Hartnell remains a dignified presence, but the script deliberately minimizes his role, leaving him relatively few moments to shine. He does make the most of what he gets. In Episode Two, he transforms what is on the page a simple inquiry about the Cybermen's lack of emotions into a surprisingly strong moment, full of life and meaning. At the start of Episode Four, he negotiates with the Cybermen - partially a genuine negotiation, hoping for a peaceful settlement, but largely stalling for time as he works out their true intentions.

Ben: Initially acts impulsively, foolishly going for a gun when the Cybermen are holding them hostage. He finds his brain fairly quickly thereafter, however, and ends up becoming the hero of the story. He outwits the Cybermen in Episode Two, a desperate gambit that ends with the defeat of the initial wave of Cybermen. With the Doctor out of action in Episode Three, it falls to Ben to sabotage a missile launch; and he again takes centerstage in the latter half of the final episode, deducing the Cybermen's weakness to radiation and coming up with a plan to exploit it.

Polly: Mostly acts as a sounding board for the Doctor and Ben. She does get a nice role in Episode Three, playing on the doubts of scientist Barclay to get him to help sabotage the missile. Outside of that, she is mostly there so that others can deliver dialogue to her, and to act as a "damsel in distress" when she is taken hostage by the Cybermen near the end.

Cybermen: The Cybermen's first appearance may not be their best story, but it remains one of their most effective characterizations. These Cybermen are genuinely creepy, with cloth wrapped around their human faces and with eerie sing-song voices. They do not seem evil so much as amoral. The initial wave of Cybermen seem genuinely confused when the emotional humans insist on making a futile effort to bring the space capsule back to Earth. When Polly berates them for not caring, the lead Cyberman observes: "There are people dying all over your world, yet you do not care about them."


THOUGHTS:

The Tenth Planet is one of the most significant stories in Doctor Who's run. It would already have a strong place in the series' history as the first Cybermen story, but it is also the first regeneration story, before the process even had a name, with the First Doctor's ending transformation paving the way for a run of successors. Doctor Who's ongoing existence can be traced directly to the success of this story and the one that follows.

The serial gets a boost from the creepiness of the Cybermen and from an above-average overall production. The tracking station looks reasonably authentic by the series' standards, and the ways in which the personnel communicate with the astronauts and with other parts of the world feel passably realistic. Guest performances are well above average, with veteran character actor Robert Beatty lending more depth to his stubborn military commander than the cardboard character actually merits.

It would be nice to be able to say that it is a masterpiece. It is not. The first two episodes are extremely strong, setting an effective atmosphere while moving the plot along nicely. The second half just isn't as good, however. Episode Three suffers somewhat from Hartnell's unplanned absence, but even more from the subplot of General Cutler's determination to "launch the Z Bomb" at Mondas. That realistic atmosphere I mentioned? It's shattered in an instant, as I start giggling and looking around for Dr. Strangelove. Episode Four gets back on track with Hartnell's return and some effective Doctor/Cybermen confrontations. But the resolution feels a bit rushed and overly easy - a problem that would recur (in fact, worsen) in many future Cybermen stories.

It is worth noting that the lead astronaut is a black man. Given that previous nonwhite roles in Doctor Who were usually played white actors in blackface (or were one-dimensional idiots like The Smugglers' Jamaica), it represents a visible shift in representation as the 1960s wore on.

The Doctor's negotiations with

the Cybermen get a little animated...

THE MISSING EPISODE


While the first three episodes thankfully exist, and have been remastered into particularly good quality for DVD, the final episode is missing. It is fair to say it is the most desired of all of Doctor Who's missing episodes, featuring the series' first regeneration. Thankfully, several 8 mm clips survive, including a handful of iconic moments ("This old body of mine is wearing a bit thin"; "It's far from being all over!"; and the regeneration itself).

The final episode was animated for the DVD release.  This animation is significantly better than that of The Reign of Terror, with smoother character movement and none of the earlier effort's bizarre rapid cuts to extreme close-ups. It largely looks the way the episode itself probably did, and the sound quality is as clear as that of the existing episodes. As a result, moving from the first three parts to the animated fourth part is surprisingly unjarring.

It's still nowhere near as good as the real thing would be - But in the absence of the actual episode, the animation is a welcome replacement, far more dynamic and involving than even a high-quality static reconstruction.


OVERALL

The regeneration itself is well-done, a mysterious and sinister scene that is all the more effective for having no dialogue until Ben and Polly arrive (thanks to the wise last-minute decision to delete what would have been Hartnell's last line). Exactly what happens goes unexplained, and likely left many contemporary viewers spending the next week speculating about what the series might do next.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: The Smugglers
Next Story: The Power of the Daleks


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#28 (4.1 - 4.4): The Smugglers.

The Doctor is menaced by 

pirate Cherub (George A. Cooper)

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 97 minutes. Written by: Brian Hayles. Directed by: Julia Smith. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT:

Realizing that they still have the Doctor's key, Ben and Polly follow the old man into the TARDIS... at the very moment it dematerializes. Though stunned by the impossible interior dimensions, Ben dismisses the Doctor's claim that they are traveling in time and space. When the ship lands, he and Polly disembark...

Only to find themselves in 17th century Cornwall, where they take refuge with anxious church warden Joseph Longfoot (Terence De Marney). After the Doctor fixes Longfoot's dislocated finger, the man directs the three to an inn - but not before confiding a secret: "This is Deadman's secret key: Smallwood, Ringwood, Gurney."

Unbeknownst to them, the exchange has been witnessed by Cherub (George A. Cooper), a member of a ruthless crew of pirates headed by Captain Pike (Michael Godfrey). After Cherub kills Longfoot, he and his shipmates kidnap the Doctor, determined to get him to share the dead man's secret. Meanwhile, Ben and Polly find themselve under arrest for the church warden's murder, held captive by the corrupt squire (Paul Whitsun-Jones) preparing to do business with Captain Pike...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Hartnell, whose health issues were worsening and who was likely running down at the end of the production block in any case, has more line fluffs than usual - But he's otherwise on pretty good form, as the Doctor uses his wits to navigate the situation. I particularly enjoyed the scenes between the Doctor and Captain Pike, as he shamelessly flatters the captain and plays to the villain's ego. The story also demonstrates how far the Doctor has come morally; he refuses to flee when Ben advises it, insisting on a "moral obligation" to make sure the pirates do not devastate the village. Can you truly picture the imperious old man from An Unearthly Child doing the same?

Ben: His first reaction to the TARDIS essentially mirrors Ian's, as he scoffs at the claims of time travel right up to the instant he is confronted with the 17th century church warden. After being separated from Polly for most of their introductory story, Ben spends most of this story in her company, which helps to establish the team dynamic between them. They continue to enjoy teasing each other, but Ben's protectiveness toward her is clear.

Polly: In contrast to Ben, who is quick to complain about their predicament, she decides to enjoy the adventure, declaring it "exciting," even as they sit in jail. Enthusiasm is largely her guiding trait, as she cheerfully jumps into every situation - often without pausing to think first, such as when she decides to go to the Squire in Episode Two. She has no evidence of her own innocence, and no real plan other than to accuse Pike and Cherub as "villains" when she sees them. She just more or less assumes that since she's in the right, everything will go her way. As in The War Machines, the contrast in personality between Ben and Polly helps to keep both characters engaging.


THOUGHTS:

I have a soft spot for The Smugglers. When I got back into Doctor Who, roughly twenty years ago now, I learned of the missing stories and sent away for the Loose Cannon reconstructions. The original Loose Cannon recon of this story was both my first reconstruction and my first Hartnell story - and while it took me an episode or so to settle into the format, I ended up thoroughly enjoying both the story and the characterization of the First Doctor.

In many ways, it was an ideal story to start with. Shot at the end of Season Three, but aired as the start of Season Four, The Smugglers' opening scenes are carefully crafted to serve as a quick re-introduction to the series, with the core concepts (the TARDIS, the Doctor's lack of control of its flight, and the time/space travel) all neatly explained to an incredulous Ben and Polly in the opening minutes. It is a bit of serendipity that this was shot before the decision was taken to replace Hartnell, as that allows the established Doctor to reintroduce the series alongside new, younger companions, just before the changeover.

The Smugglers is generally not considered one of the better missing stories, being a minor historical adventure yarn that openly pilfers elements from both Robert Louis Stevenson and Daphne Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn. As silly as it seemed for characters to mistake Vicki for a boy in The Crusade, it's downright hilarious when Anneke Wills' Polly is mistaken for one here. "See Paul? The curvy one with the long blonde hair, the wavy eyelashes, and the perceptible - ah - 'Dalek bumps?' Very boyish, isn't he?"

Despite, and in part because of the silliness, I still find The Smugglers enormous fun. The guest characters are almost all varying shades of corrupt, with each group trying to beat the others to the treasure, and that provides an entertaining rogue's gallery.  Performances range from standard to quite good, with George A. Cooper's Cherub cutting a particularly vicious figure.

The final episode is the weakest, as the various plots and ploys descend into an all-too-predictable fight scene. This is even worse in a missing episode, as the generic grunts, gunshots, and battle noises don't translate well to either still reconstruction or audio form. Even so, I continue to enjoy The Smugglers, and I suspect the story's reputation would improve if any of the episodes were to be discovered. It's certainly not the best of Doctor Who - but it's better than its repuation, as well as being worthwhile as a final chance for William Hartnell to shine in the title role.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: The War Machines
Next Story: The Tenth Planet


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#27 (3.42 - 3.45): The War Machines.

The Doctor stands his ground.

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 97 minutes. Written by: Ian Stuart Black. Directed by: Michael Ferguson. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor and Dodo arrive in 1960s London. They instantly notice the Post Office Tower, the tall communications tower in central London, which Dodo is surprised to see is now complete. She is even more surprised when the Doctor announces there is "something alien" coming from that tower, and insists on investigating.

He passes himself off as a visiting scientist, and he and Dodo are able to meet with Professor Brett (John Harvey), creator of WOTAN, a thinking computer. In four days' time, Brett proudly announces, WOTAN will be linked up with other major computers in allied countries. While Brett's secretary, Polly (Anneke Wills) takes Polly to a nightclub, the Doctor attends a press conference about WOTAN led by Sir Charles Summer (William Mervyn). Sir Charles is baffled when Brett appears at the very end of the conference to insist that an electronics expert accompany him to the tower for an unspecified emergency.

The emergency is WOTAN itself. The machine has calculated that humanity has advanced the Earth as far as it can. The machine has hypnotized Brett, and in short order hypnotizes the electronics expert and the tower's chief of security. It puts its mechanized humans to work, hypnotizing others to build war machines at strategic areas around London. A phone call to the nightclub, and Dodo falls under its influence as well.

Dodo's instructions are simple: To bring the Doctor to the Post Office Tower, to bring him under WOTAN's sway. "He has advanced knowledge which WOTAN needs," Brett announces. "Doctor Who is required!"


BECOMING THE DOCTOR:

In a real sense, the First Doctor's era is about the gradual transformation of a selfish, arrogant exile into the hero of later incarnations. He is certainly no hero in his first few stories, sneering down at his human companions and clearly valuing his own life far above theirs. In one memorable instance, he even threatens to eject them straight out into space. Over the first season, he ceased looking at his companions as inferiors, nuisances to be thinly suffered, and even formed a family dynamic with them. The second season saw him growing more active in his adventures, more interested in actively stopping evil where he found it as a goal in itself, rather than just a means to return to the safety of the TARDIS. By the third season, he had become recognizable as the Doctor we will know in later years.

A new series viewer who sat down to watch those first three stories could be forgiven for wondering how this could even be the Doctor; that same viewer sitting down to watch The Time Meddler or The War Machines would feel comfortable in recognizing him as very much the same character.

That transformation is perfectly encapsulated by the Episode Three cliffhanger. As a War Machine cuts through a group of highly trained soldiers like a knife through butter, the order is given to pull back. Everyone else flees - the officials, the armed military men. The Doctor stands his ground and, as the deadly machine approaches, actually steps toward it, head held high in a posture of defiance. The man we met at the beginning of the series would have been the first to flee; the Doctor, as he has become, is the one man who does not run.

The actual transformation of the character was completed some time ago, by the end of Season Two, maybe even by as early as The Rescue. But I don't think there's a scene that encapsulates it as completely as this one does... And it's a pretty fantastic episode ending, as well!


CHARACTERS:

Dodo: Jackie Lane's contract expired at the end of Episode Two, leading to Dodo's offscreen companion exit, a final insult for an actress who was largely let to struggle gamely against characterization that was inconsistent when it wasn't outright nonexistent. I can't help feeling a bit bad for Lane, who often showed that she could have been decent had the writing been there to support her. Still, it's clear the instant Polly is introduced that Anneke Wills far outshines her.  The most damning indictment of Dodo is that, in the story's second half, I not only didn't miss her - I genuinely didn't notice that she wasn't there.

Ben/Polly: The War Machines introduces two new companions, immediately coding them as a pair in a way that hasn't been done since Ian and Barbara. Ben is introduced at Polly's nightclub, with Polly making faces at him to cheer him up, then clashing with him after he (groundlessly) blames her for "encouraging" a boorish customer. The two are deliberately contrasted. He's a Cockney sailor, rough around the edges and a bit surly. She's gorgeous, effortlessly refined, and speaks with upper-class properness. He's wary of others and skeptical in every situation. She's warm and compassionate. They are designed to fit as a pair, and they do, with Craze and Wills showing instant chemistry. It's telling that Ben's priority throughout the story is Polly's safety, while others (including the Doctor) brush that off as a lesser concern. He aids the Doctor in resolving the threat - But the instant the Doctor has put his final plan in motion, Ben is off to the Tower to rescue Polly.

Pompous Bureaucrat of the Week: William Mervyn's Sir Charles is wealthy and influential, and thoroughly proud of it. He is stubborn, refusing to believe Ben when he talks about the War Machine he observed, and as Ben grows more insistent, he actually says, "I don't like your tone." He is also... an ally, a genuinely useful one. In the Troughton era, he would be a fool who would provide reluctant help at most. In the Pertwee era, he would be an imbecile and an active impediment. Here, since the template hasn't yet been set, he actually does believe the evidence of his own eyes and ends up using his influence to put the Doctor effectively in charge of the assorted forces.


THOUGHTS:

I've observed before that pretty much anything Doctor Who ever did, at least during its classic run, was first done in the Hartnell era. The War Machines is the first UNIT story in all but name. Make Sir Charles into a useless buffoon, give all of his "good" material to the Brigadier, and replace Ben and Polly for Mike Yates and Jo Grant, and you'd have a standard-issue Pertwee story.

The War Machines is an enjoyable contrast to the bulk of the Hartnell era. It's the series' first story to take place during the present day, even making a plot point out of the real-life Post Office Tower (known today as the BT Tower). At a time when most Doctor Who stories were dialogue-driven, this story is action-driven. It's a good thing this one exists, as the final two episodes would be challenging to properly capture in either a still reconstruction or a narrated audio.

The War Machines themselves are effectively designed, though it's a little too clear that the production was only able to create one working War Machine. The machine is reasonably intimidating, and director Michael Ferguson shoots from below to make it appear more formidable. On the down side, Ferguson is a little too fond of showing the War Machine breaking through stacks of boxes. By the end of Episode Three, it's actually unintentionally comical; any stray box you might see is guaranteed to be knocked over by the War Machine at some point.

The story is fueled by a very of-its-time theme of distrust of technology. The promise of WOTAN forming a very crude Internet results in people being essentially mechanized themselves. A weapons test is performed on a hypnotized man, who does not even flinch as he is killed by the War Machine. Hypnotized humans work on an assembly line, basically reduced to cogs in a machine as they prepare for WOTAN's attack. The human workers are referred to in mechanized terms, as well; it is announced that "all human beings who break down will be eliminated."

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The War Machines. Sure, some of the action scenes look a bit stilted, even silly, to modern eyes - not helped by the need for the DVD release to patch over missing material in the Episode Three warehouse battle. Still, there's no denying that the action is more ambitious than the average Doctor Who story of the time. Better still, that action is in support of a well-paced and enjoyable story.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Story: The Savages
Next Story: The Smugglers


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#26 (3.38 - 3.41): The Savages.

The Doctor suspects something evil lies 

at the core of an advanced civilization.

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 97 minutes. Written by: Ian Stuart Black. Directed by: Christopher Barry. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS materializes in the distant future, in what the Doctor announces is "an age of peace and prosperity." He is eager to see this civilization, so much so that he leaves Steven and Dodo behind. He is greeted by Edal (Peter Thomas), the captain of the guards and Exorse (Geoffrey Frederick), his right hand.  The guards take him to see the Elders, led by Jano (Frederick Jaeger), who enthuses about the "great honor" it is to receive a visit from the Doctor.

Meanwhile, Dodo and Steven are waylaid by primitive, aggressive-seeming savages. They are rescued by the guards, who bring them to the city. Jano talks with the Doctor about their advanced civilization, explaining that is sustained by transferring life energy directly into themselves, hoping to gain his approval. The Doctor's companions receive a tour of the city - a tour that Dodo notes is carefully guided, as if there is something to hide. She slips away, and unwittingly stumbles across the secret.

The life energy that sustains this civilization, allowing for their advanced achievements? It is transferred directly from the Savages, who are hunted and drained regularly, leaving them just enough life force to stay alive until their next capture. When the Doctor responds with outrage, Jano decides he must protect their way of life - By draining the Doctor and infusing himself with the time traveler's life energy!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: "Oppose you? Indeed I am going to oppose you, just in the same way that I oppose the Daleks or any other menace to common humanity!" Does anyone do righteous anger as well as Hartnell? The rage and indignation in his voice as he rails against the dark secret behind Jano's civilization is as vivid as an Old Testament prophet. The Doctor plays along with Jano at the story's start, accepting gifts and accolades while quietly observing that something is amiss. He is all set to steer his friends out of the city, to go on his way and leave this place behind - right up to the moment he discovers a "savage" almost killed by a transferrence. At that moment, he becomes determined to stop this process. "There's something very satisfying in destroying something that's evil," he observes near the story's end.

Steven: The first half overdoes Steven's natural skepticism, when we see Steven believing that Dodo is imagining things, first with the savages and then later when Dodo is suspicious of their carefully-guided tour of the city. I know Dodo is... well, Dodo - But Steven's the one who comes across as a bit thick here. He finally starts to grow suspicious when Edal's retrieval of Dodo less resembles a guard doing his duty than a Gestapo agent. When the Doctor is incapacitated, he takes charge.  He impresses the savages when he is able to take Exorse captive, and he holds the city guards at bay as the Doctor recovers in the final episode.

Dodo: Maybe I'm just developing immunity, but I think she's reasonably decent in this story. In the first two episodes, she senses that something is off about the too-perfect city, even as Steven remains oblivious. When she wanders into the laboratory and is mistaken for a subject, she thinks quickly and is able to hold the scientists at bay by threatening to smash their equipment. She's back to being a bit useless in the story's second half, particularly when she idiotically throws her weapon away at the start of Episode Four, but overall this is the second story in a row where I find myself not minding Dodo.

Jano: An effectively sinister presence in the first two episodes, as his seeming benevolence gives way to suspicion of the Doctor. He isn't evil for the sake of evil (we have Edal for that) - Jano genuinely sees the draining of the savages as something necessary for his civilization to thrive. After the Doctor is drained, he refuses to allow anyone else to take the risk of this untested transferrence, instead insisting on testing it on himself - Which results in him more or less turning into the Doctor, leading to an entertaining Hartnell impersonation in the final episode.


THOUGHTS:

The Savages is the first story to feature only an umbrella title, with no episode-specific titles. Probably a smart change, though I admit I'll miss the matinee serial feel of "Next Episode: Escape Into Danger!"

That trivia tidbit aside, The Savages has never been a story I've felt any real enthusiastic for, only really reaching for it as part of a chronological run.  Nevertheless, every time I've sat down to either watch the reconstruction or listen to the audio, I've ended up enjoying it. It's the third story this season to play with the idea of people not being what they seem. The initially threatening "Savages" are actually sympathetic victims, while the ostensibly "civilized" citizens of the city prey on them like vampires.

This story is considerably more engaging than Galaxy Four or the final two episodes of The Ark, however. The guest characters are more rounded, for one thing - Even before the transferrence in Episode Three, it is clear that Jano firmly believes his society is right to behave as it does; meanwhile, Tor (Patrick Godfrey), one of the savages, lives down to the slur by being both cowardly and violent. Also, this story does not repeat the Galaxy Four/Ark mistake of making the sympathetic group the stronger and smarter. The "savages" are considerably weaker than the people of the city, which means that the regulars have to overcome steep odds to restore balance.

I do have issues with the story's resolution. The regulars and their allies trick their way into the laboratory and solve the problem of the savages' exploitation by... um, smashing the equipment. Meaning Dodo could have cut this whole story short in Episode Two if she had simply made good on her threat.

It's too easy, and it doesn't ring true. If I smash a television set, that doesn't mean engineers are henceforth unable to create more TVs. We've been specifically told that the scientists have incredible advanced knowledge, and by the end of the story only two city residents - Jano and Exorse - have been converted into seeing the oppressed savages as people rather than resources. So after the Doctor leaves, what stops the other guards and elders from confining those two, recreating the destroyed and damaged technology, and just going on as before?

The oversimplified climax aside, though, this is pretty good. It's by no means one of the series' highlights, but it is well-performed and generally well-paced and structured. A fine, solid example of "bread-and-butter" Who.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: The Gunfighters
Next Story: The War Machines


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#25 (3.34 - 3.37): The Gunfighters.

The Doctor is mistaken for an

Old West gunfighter!

4 episodes: A Holiday for the Doctor, Don't Shoot the Pianist, Johnny Ringo, The O. K. Corral. Running Time: Approx. 96 minutes. Written by: Donald Cotton. Directed by: Rex Tucker. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor is in pain. Feeling a little too happy after his victory over the Toymaker, he bit into one of the Toymaker's sweets - and his tooth is now killing him.

Potentially, literally. The TARDIS has materialized in the American West. In Tombstone, where the fragile peace is maintained by Wyatt Earp (John Alderson), a man who is suspicious of strangers. The Doctor introduces them as actors, passing Steven off as a singer and Dodo as a piano player. He asks for a dentist, and Earp refers him to Doc Holliday (Anthony Jacobs), a former gunfighter who planst to settle in Tombstone, become a dentist, and marry local singer Kate (Sheena Marshe).

But Holliday's past disagrees with his plans. The Clantons, a family of cattle rustlers, have targeted him for killing their brother. An associate of theirs goes to Holliday's business, only to find the Doctor, fresh from a tooth extraction. When the Doctor responds to being addressed as "Doc," the dye is cast - As far as the Clantons are concerned, he is Doc Holliday. And when the real Holliday discovers the mistake, he's delighted to build on it by giving the Doctor his gun.

Leaving the unwitting Doctor walking straight into an ambush waiting at the Last Chance Saloon - while the real Doc and Wyatt Earp find themselves heading for an encounter of their own, at a Corral destined to become the stuff of western legend...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: "People keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn't." Reportedly, Hartnell had a wonderful time making this story. It shows - He is a delight throughout. The story mines the Doctor's cluelessness about "the wild west" to good effect, from his insistence on referring to Wyatt Earp as "Mr. Wurp" to his apparent inability to grasp that Doc Holliday set him up in the first place. For all of this, he isn't played as a fool. When a well-timed shot by Doc Holliday stops the Clantons from killing him, it takes very little prodding for him to have Steven disarm the criminals. The final episode sees the Doctor reacting against the increasing violence, trying to convince first Earp, then patriarch Ike Clanton (William Hurndell) that there are better ways to resolve differences.

Steven: Was apparently lobotomized between stories. Steven has been consistently characterized as competent and resourceful. In this story, he's dumber than Dodo! I can just about get my head around Steven's hopeless handling of 19th century firearms, which should be unfamiliar to him. But he walks far too easily into the Clantons' trap at the end of Episode Two, then is far too trusting of the obviously-shady Johnny Ringo (Laurence Payne) in Episode Three. That's before he's reduced to a glorified extra in the final installment. Given how few of Steven's stories exist in the archives, it's sad that one of those few is his worst showing as a character.

Dodo:: Is actually... rather likable. Donald Cotton's script turns down the dial on the grating perkiness.  She is obviously naive and seems blind to danger in situations such as the Episode One cliffhanger and the story's ending gunfight - But she doesn't come across as actively stupid, the way she did in previous stories. She gets a terrific moment in Episode Three, when she briefly has Doc Holliday at gunpoint and - unlike Steven - actually looks like she knows what she's doing with the weapon. Her naivete costs her the advantage less than a minute later - But for a moment at least, she has it. Had the character been written this way in the rest of her stories, I suspect her reputation would be stronger.

Doc Holliday:: Kate describes Holliday as a "gentleman," and Anthony Jacobs plays up that aspect of the character. For the first part of the story, he seems less like a gunfighter than a swindler, particularly when he seizes the chance to palm the Doctor off as himself. As the story progresses, other sides emerge - hints of both temper and alcoholism, which a stronger script might have done more with. We see him shoot a man in Episode Three, and he later shoots another offscreen... But it's in Episode Four that we really see him as a cold-blooded killer, his eyes dead and unblinking as he kills three men in rapid succession, one of them clearly no threat after his gun jams.

Wyatt Earp:: John Alderson lends a solid presence to the famed marshall, though Earp's characterization is much less interesting than Holliday's (then again, that's been true of every version of this oft-told tale). He is legitimately interested in keeping the peace, but is also willing to play along with the misidentification of the Doctor to save his friend. When the Clantons' threats of violence turn from words to deeds, he is quick to forsake the law in pursuit of vengeance, which loses him the tacit approval the Doctor had previously granted.


THOUGHTS:

"It's your last chance for aspirin,
Your last chance to cry.
This song will make your ears bleed,
And you'll wish you could die!"

It's not that The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon is that bad a song. As a parody western ditty, it does the job in setting the mood when it first plays, and may have been amusing if it had been confined to episode beginnings and endings. But it is ridiculously overused! I didn't personally count, but I've read that it is played more than 30 times across the four episodes.  It becomes particularly intrusive in the final episode; the story takes a serious turn, but the song prevents the assorted killings from having the impact they should.

Not that Donald Cotton's script is anything like as good as The Myth Makers, his debut effort. There are similarities between the two stories. Both begin as comedy pastische, only to gradually become more and more serious as they go along. But The Gunfighters is hampered not only by the misjudged song, but also by the weak involvement of the regulars.

The Myth Makers didn't just put the Doctor in the Trojan Horse - It made the horse his idea, and left him confronted with the worst of the violence in the final episode.  The Gunfighters does reasonably well in its first half, as the Doctor is targeted by the Clantons. But once the mistaken identity is resolved, there's not much left for the Doctor to do. He voices his disapproval of the Earps' readiness to resort to violence. But the one attempt to have him actually do anything, by talking to Ike Clanton, results in one very good scene that goes exactly nowhere.

Imagine instead that the Doctor actually convinces Ike to stop the gunfight, and the two rush into town to head off the carnage. They arrive too late, of course - but in time to watch the end of the gunfight, with the Doctor expressing his revulsion and Ike declaring that he will get revenge.  This would also reinforce the idea, present but not much expanded on, that violence is not a solution, leading only to more violence. The story structure isn't fundamentally changed... But the Doctor is actually part of the climax, instead of being reduced to a side character in the Umpteenth Retelling of the O. K. Corral.

I'm sounding like I dislike this story, and I really don't. Minus the song, the first two episodes are rarely less than amusing and occasionally delightful. Hartnell is terrific, Jackie Lane gets the chance to show that she could have been good in an alternate reality in which anyone had actually bothered to come up with a character for her to play, and the pace is fairly sprightly by 1960s Who standards. Even the second half isn't bad - It just increasingly slides away from working as it might, in part because the song interferes with the tonal shift, and in part because the script fails to properly involve the regulars.

Overall, worth watching for many good bits and scenes - But ultimately less than the sum of its parts.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

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Next Story: The Savages


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#24 (3.30 - 3.33): The Celestial Toymaker.

Steven is forced into a deadly game against

the deceptively sinister Cyril (Peter Stevens)

4 episodes: The Celestial Toyroom, The Hall of Dolls, The Dancing Floor, The Final Test. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Brian Hayles. Directed by: Bill Sellars. Produced by: Innes Lloyd.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS materializes in the world of the Celestial Toymaker (Michael Gough), an immortal whose existence centers around games.  The Doctor wants to return immediately to the TARDIS - But the Toymaker makes it vanish, and transports the Doctor away for good measure.

He challenges the Doctor to the Trilogic Game, a game of intelligence and concentration.  At the same time, he tells Steven and Dodo that they can recover the TARDIS, but only by winning a series of games against his own creations.  The games appear simple enough - Blind Man's Bluff, a form of musical chairs, a hunt for a key, a trip around a dancing floor.  But each game has a deadly twist, and the Toymaker's minions don't play by the rules.

Oh, and there's a final twist.  Steven and Dodo must win their games before the Doctor wins his.  Otherwise, they will all be trapped in the Toymaker's realm forever!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: The Doctor encountered the Toymaker once before, and wisely fled before the immortal could ensnare him in his trap. This time, his curiosity gets the better of him; when the Toymaker blacks out the TARDIS scanner, he can't help but go outside to see where they have materialized. He has confidence in his companions' abilities, but can't help but try to warn them about the Toymaker's traps - which leads to him being rendered mute and invisible as punishment. Hartnell isn't in much of the story, disappearing midway through the first part and only returning for the last half of the last part.  He is terrific in his scenes opposite Michael Gough, however, the two actors convincing us that these are two towering intellects pitted against each other.

Steven: With the Doctor sidelined, Steven takes center stage again. Fortunately, Peter Purves again shows himself more than able to carry the show. His performance makes tangible Steven's frustration at being stuck playing "kids' games" while the Doctor is fighting for his life, and the way his anger boils over when the Toymaker's minions cheat makes you believe that he's an inch away from resorting to outright violence. There's certainly a threat in his voice when he forces Joey the Clown in Episode One to don a genuine blindfold to navigate the blind man's bluff course - "Fairly, this time," and he shushes Dodo's protests that the obviously terrified clown is going to fall by telling her, "It's them or us."

Dodo:: In an odd dichotomy, I actually think Jackie Lane is much better in this story than in The Ark - but that Dodo, the character (such as she is), is even worse. Lane is convincing enough portraying Dodo's childlike enthusiasm and compassion for the Toymaker's creations... But at the same time, the character becomes officially Too Stupid to Live. After three episodes of the Toymaker's creations cheating at every game, she still disregards Steven and nearly loses the final game by falling for Cyril (Peter Stevens)'s fake injury. Not to mention the bit in Episode Two, where after it's established that all but one of seven chairs is deadly, she decides to just plop her butt into a random chair without even trying to come up with an alternative. At this point, she's making Susan look as useful as Barbara by comparison!

Celestial Toymaker:: Michael Gough is unsurprisingly excellent. Episode Four exists in its entirety, allowing us to see the calm and poise he brings to the Toymaker. He smiles with nearly every line, a smile that never touches his eyes. We get a hint of the sadness that must underly the character's existence, when he complains to the Doctor about how bored he is with his world and his creations. The story has its flaws, but the Toymaker's sole television appearance, in a mostly missing serial, nevertheless shows why he was considered worthy of a potential return in the 1980s, and why Big Finish have brought the character back in several audio stories.


BEHIND THE SCENES:

Any discussion of this story would be incomplete without noting the circumstances of its production. This became the first story of incoming producer Innes Lloyd - after it became the final straw for outgoing producer John Wiles. Whether or not Hartnell's deteriorating health was evident at this point seems uncertain, but it is widely acknowledged that he became much more difficult to work with after Verity Lambert left, and he and Wiles apparently got on like a house on fire.  If you want that house to burn to the ground, and then want to burn the ashes afterwards.

Wiles saw The Celestial Toymaker as an opportunity to solve the problem of a troublesome leading man. The Toymaker would discorporate the Doctor, who would come back at the end played by a different actor. The BBC overruled this, extending Hartnell's contract for the remainder of Season Three, and this appears to have led to Wiles' resignation.

I tend to think it worked out pretty well all-around. The Celestial Toymaker is too offbeat a story to be much of an exit, and Hartnell's role in it is too insubstantial - His replacement in a story he's barely in would feel like a cheat. Hartnell himself still had some very good performances left in him. And as much as I enjoyed most of John Wiles' run of stories, he didn't seem to have a unique vision for the show; he basically made Verity Lambert's Doctor Who, only a bit darker and more adult-pitched. Innes Lloyd's tenure is more uneven in terms of quality, but he did have a distinct vision for the series, one that helped to secure its future.


THOUGHTS:

The Celestial Toymaker's reputation in fandom has bounded up and down over the years. When aired, it was not terribly well-received by the public, with much of the audience actively disliking its "silliness." Over time, it became regarded as a lost classic. Then, in more recent years, its reputation has again plummeted, with detractors complaining about repetitive storytelling and dismissing the serial as "four episodes of watching Steven and Dodo playing silly games."

In fairness, the complaints are valid. The first episode is intriguing, tidily introducing the story and the stakes and giving us a quick first game that sets the structure. Episode Four - the one existing episode - does a strong job of bringing the story to a close. Unfortunately, the middle episodes... pretty much do nothing. Steven and Dodo play deadly games; the Toymaker's creations cheat, and ultimately defeat themselves in doing so; the Toymaker gloats to the Doctor and advances his game. If the first episode was ever recovered, the story would be fully releasable at that point - You could almost seamlessly cut from Part One to Part Four without noticing anything was missing!

For all of that, I still mostly enjoy this story. I have a fondness for weird, vaguely surreal stories, so this one is well-positioned to connect with me. I'll admit that my patience wanes at times during the middle episodes, but even they deliver a few strong moments. The deadly chair game in Part Two creates a hint of tension. The dancing floor in Part Three seems like an interesting set piece, though it's so visual in nature that it's hard to be sure based on audio or still-frame reconstructions. And Dodo gets a rare good moment when she observes to Steven that the Toymaker's creations keep failing "through doing something silly and human."

Meanwhile, I think Parts One and Four are quite good. The visual aspect is constrained by budget and unimaginative direction (the Toymaker's realm is a too obviously a mostly-bare BBC studio), but there's enough cleverness in the storytelling to engage. Part Four also gets a big boost from Peter Stevens' sneering, childishly despicable Cyril, who manages to briefly upstage Michael Gough's Toymaker.

So while it's far from the masterpiece it was once regarded as, I think it's equally far from the disaster some now label it. This would be better as a 3-parter, or even as a 2-parter... But I find enough to enjoy to recommend it anyway.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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Next Story: The Gunfighters


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#23 (3.26 -3.29): The Ark.

The last humans are enslaved by an alien race!

4 episodes: The Steel Sky, The Plague, The Return, The Bomb. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Paul Erickson, Lesley Scott. Directed by: Michael Imison. Produced by: John Wiles.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Steven, and Dodo to a huge spaceship in the far future - an ark, carrying the last of the human race to a new home on the planet Refusis. The ship is manned by a small crew of human Guardians and Monoids, a mute alien race who came to Earth after their home planet was destroyed. The rest of the human and Monoid population is in hibernation, miniaturized to be awakened upon arrival, in 700 years' time.

The Ark's commander (Eric Elliot) welcomes them as friends, and they are shown around the ship, including a statue that has just begun construction, but that when finished in 700 years will be of a human being. Before they see much more, however, a strange disease begins afflicting the crew, humans and Monoids alike. Dodo had a cold - a minor illness for her, but the people on the Ark have no resistance to it. When the commander falls ill, Zentos (Inigo Jackson), his second-in-command, orders the strangers arrested and tried for what he believes was a deliberate attack on the ship.

The Doctor manages to find a cure for the illness, and he and his friends leave in peace. But the TARDIS brings them right back to the Ark. It is now 700 years later, and the ship is finally arriving at its destination. The statue is finished, as well - But instead of a human, the finished statue's likeness is of a Monoid. They have taken control of the Ark, and the humans are now their slaves!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: "Once this crisis is over, I'm going to teach you to speak English." He does not appreciate Dodo's informal, intermittently slang-riddled mode of speech (one can only imagine how he would react to some of his own later incarnations). Despite this, he is quite kindly and protective toward her. Though she brought the disease onto the ship, he reassures her that the crisis is not her fault, instead blaming himself for not anticipating the potential danger posed by her germ. He refuses to wallow in self-recrimination, or to allow Dodo to the same - What's done is done, and it is now their responsibility to do what they can to fix the situation.

Steven: Seems exasperated by Dodo - Not so much by her speech patterns as by her relentless perkiness. Amusingly, he is also annoyed when she refuses to believe they have traveled in time... despite him having been even more stubborn in disbelieving the same on his first journey! When put on trial by the Guardians, his already-thin patience breaks down and he lashes out at them in the story's single best scene: "The nature of man, even in this day and age, hasn't altered at all. You still fear the unknown, like everyone else before you!" His reaction to the Guardians' rapid willingness to resort to state-sanctioned violence gains added resonance when the story is watched in context. Steven has just come from a time period in which fear and hatred of the "other" resulted in mass violence, only to see so-called "civilized" humans from the far future behaving in far too similar a manner. Peter Purves is terrific here, easily elevating the episode.

Dodo: Her first proper story, after her rushed and somewhat jarring introduction at the end of the The Massacre. Additional exposure does not lead to improvement. Her relentless cheer in Episode One is genuinely irritating, as is her crying and despair in Episode Two. I know the script is trying to show her taking to heart the consequences of exposing the Ark to her cold, but in practice it plays more like the mood swings of a manic depressive. Most of the problem lies with the writing, as it's clear that no one in the creative team has any idea exactly who this character is. She's better in the story's second half - But that's mainly because she gets no focus in the second half, merely acting as a generic companion while the Doctor and Steven carry the plot.


THOUGHTS:

A fully complete and existing story at last! In the wake of the recent animations of Season Four stories, and the 2013 recovery of two Season Five stories, I believe the run from Galaxy Four to The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve is now the longest run of missing stories with no animated titles. The Ark is weaker than almost all of that run - But after so many reconstructions and/or audios, it's nice to actually watch a Doctor Who story again.


ALAS, JOHN WILES, WE BARELY KNEW YE:

The Ark is the final story of producer John Wiles' brief tenure, and it is almost certainly his weakest - Which is actually fairly high praise in itself, as for all of its faults, The Ark has multiple interesting and ambitious ideas. As I noted in my review of The Myth Makers, Wiles oversaw a run of strong stories - There's not a genuinely bad one in the bunch. He and script editor Donald Tosh worked particularly well together, establishing a more adult tone for Doctor Who.

Wiles oversaw arguably the darkest period of the series. His stories are stuffed with death: massacres in ancient Troy and in 16th century France; a common cold infecting a community with no resistance to it and transforming into a deadly plague; even his most purely escapist tale, The Daleks' Master Plan, has multiple deaths of characters who could arguably be considered companions.

Peter Purves' Steven enjoyed his best run of stories under Wiles. Also, while Wiles and Hartnell's mutual antipathy is well-documented, the Doctor receives a lot of strong dramatic material. Where Wiles and Tosh most visibly faltered was with the female companions. Maureen O'Brien's Vicki was unceremoniously dropped from the series, and not for any particularly good reason. Wiles and Tosh were aware of the need for a female regular, but didn't seem to have any ideas beyond just "female," and Wiles' entire era sees literally a different female companion or stand-in for each story: Vicki in The Myth Makers; Katarina and Sara in The Daleks' Master Plan; Anne in The Massacre; Dodo in The Ark. It's probably uncharitable to observe that, if you merely reversed the order for Katarina and Sara, then each replacement would manage to be weaker than the one before.


A TALE OF TWO HALVES

As for The Ark, it's more interesting in its ideas than its execution. The story is structured as a pair of two-parters, which is both a blessing and a curse: The brevity of each half keeps it running at a good clip; however, with so little time to tell each mini-story, characters and plot complications are decidedly underdeveloped, and each story's crisis (the plague and the Monoid bomb) is resolved a bit too quickly and easily for the conflict to be fully felt.

The first half is far the better of the two.  Steven's horror at the thought that they may have brought diseases to other times and places is effective, and a bit too easily hand-waved away by the Doctor. The Guardians respond with panic, with Zentos's eagerness to eject the time travelers into space creating a decent sense of jeopardy, as it actually feels convincing - The worst side of human nature, which Steven rightly denounces.

The second half is pure "B" movie nonsense, with the Monoids transformed from allies of the humans to one-dimensional baddies. There are things that could be done with the idea of an underclass revolting against their oppressors, only to become as bad or worse than the previous regime... But that's not what the story actually does. Sure, at the end the Doctor tells us that the Monoids had been treated like slaves, so of course took the chance to turn the tables. But what the first two parts showed was the Monoids being treated respectfully by the humans, basically as equals save for not being represented in leadership. If the first half had demonstrated the Monoids being treated as second-class citizens, then there might be some nuance. As it stands, the Monoids are suddenly just plain evil (and stupid evil, at that).

It does not help the story's weaknesses that both halves suffer from some of the worst guest acting yet seen in the series. Eric Elliot and Inigo Jackson, who get the major guest roles of the story's first half, both overact painfully. Elliot, in particular, seems to read his every line as if he's delivering a soliloquy from Shakespeare, an effect that becomes unintentionally comical after a while.

I will give the story some credit for its ideas, and for some good interplay among the TARDIS team. I will also say that the Episode Two cliffhanger, in which the time travelers return to the Ark to find the statue completed as a Monoid, is a stunner, probably one of the series' all-time best.

However, this remains the weakest Doctor Who story since Galaxy Four, an impression not helped by the second half repeating some of Galaxy Four's story beats - including presenting an alien race whose benevolence is only matched by their power. The Refusians are peace-loving and virtually omnipotent - which means that they eliminate any sense of threat the dumb and comparatively primitive Monoids may have posed, much as the powerful and peace-loving Rills nullified any potential threat by the Drahvins in the earlier story.

It's slightly better than Galaxy Four thanks to a faster pace and some interesting ideas (particularly in the first half). But honestly? It's not much better, and I'd trade these four episodes for any four episodes from The Myth Makers, The Daleks' Master Plan, or The Massacre in a heartbeat.

Rating: 4/10.

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