#26 (3.38 - 3.41): The Savages.

The Doctor suspects that something evil lies
at the heart 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 enthusiasm 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.

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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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#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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#22 (3.22 - 3.25): Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve.

The Doctor and Steven, in Paris on the eve of a massacre.

4 episodes: War of God, The Sea Beggar, Priest of Death, Bell of Doom. Running Time: Approx. 99 minutes. Written by: John Lucarotti, Donald Tosh. Directed by: Paddy Russell. Produced by: John Wiles.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor and Steven find themselves in Paris, in the year 1572 - much to the Doctor's delight, as it gives him an opportunity to see scientist Charles Preslin (Erik Chitty). After securing Steven's agreement to avoid any interference, the Doctor agrees to meet up at a nearby tavern that evening.

The Doctor never shows, and while waiting for his return Steven befriends Nicholas Muss (David Weston). Nicholas is a Huguenot (Protestant), who is in the service of Admiral de Coligny (Leonard Sachs), a friend and advisor to Charles IX (Barry Justice), France's weak-willed king. Nicholas tells Steven of recent and growing unrest between France's Catholic majority and the Huguenots, the Protestant minority.

Steven is about to be on his way when he intercepts Anne (Annette Robertson), a servant girl fleeing from guards working for the Abbot of Amboise, who is known to despise all Protestants. Anne tells Steven and Nicholas that she overheard the guards talking about a massacre of Huguenots in Paris. They agree to hide Anne with Admiral de Coligny.

The next day, they observe as the Abbot himself comes to de Coligny's residence searching for Anne. Steven is shocked at the man's appearance - The despised abbot, come to Paris to oversee the final stage of this sinister plan? It's the Doctor!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Well aware of Steven's impulsive nature, the Doctor seems ready to pass up the meeting with Preslin and return to the TARDIS rather than leave his young friend unaccompanied in the past; Steven has to reassure him that he won't get into trouble. When he reunites with Steven in Episode Four, he is decisive, even ruthless in removing Steven from his entanglements and departing before the inevitable massacre engulfs the city. As they leave Paris behind, he reflects on this "terrible page of the past" and on his refusal to do anything to interfere with it:

"History sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're all too small to realize its final pattern. Therefore, don't try and judge it from where you stand."

Abbot of Amboise: The middle episodes still feature William Hartnell, but in the guise of the hated Abbot. This makes The Massacre an excellent story to showcase Hartnell's range, as his performance as the Abbot is entirely different than as the Doctor. There is no trace of warmth in the Abbot's voice, nor of the Doctor's customary befuddlement. His line deliveries are crisp and cold as a winter's frost. I strongly suspect that, if Episode Three were ever found, there would also be a strong difference in the nonverbal performance as well.

Steven: Predictably, after promising the Doctor he won't get involved in anything, he lands himself right in the thick of it. He could disentangle himself fairly easily; all he really has to do is thank Nicholas for his hospitality and hang around either the tavern or the TARDIS until the Doctor eventually shows up. But he's both too headstrong and too decent. When he overhears plots at the Abbot's house, he can't help but go to Nicholas to try to reveal all, can't help but try to prevent a historically-decreed assassination attempt, can't help but try to save lives. When the Doctor pulls him back to the TARDIS, only to reveal that practically everyone Steven has met will die, he is so outraged that he almost leaves the Doctor on the spot: "If your researches have so little regard for human life then I want no part of it!"

Dodo: The very end of the story sees the introduction of new companion Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet (Jackie Lane). It's a rushed introduction, consisting almost entirely of exposition: Dodo is an orphan, in the care of a relative who doesn't care about her. She is entirely unfazed at the TARDIS' interior dimensions, to all appearances not even noticing them, and has a completely blase reaction when Steven and the Doctor inform her they are traveling in time and space. It's an unpromising start for a new regular, tied into the main story through a vague (and paper-thin) implication that she's a descendant of the French servant girl Steven tried to help. Coming on the heels of a wonderful scene between the Doctor and Steven, it's a jarring closer - Though ending on a light note may have seemed a necessity, given the relentlessly dark tone preceding it.


THOUGHTS:

No one seems 100% certain which is the correct title for this serial: The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve or simply The Massacre. Even the BBC audio release is uncertain, the outer case giving the shorter title, while the actual discs are labeled with the longer title, which is also used by narrator Peter Purves. Perhaps that's appropriate, as this is possibly the most missing of missing Doctor Who stories: No surviving episodes, no surviving clips, and only a handful of publicity stills to represent the visual look fo the story. Thankfully, the audio makes up for it, being one of the clearest of all missing episode recordings - Clearer than the soundtracks of some of the existing ones!

Given the clarity of the audio (and the excellence of the Loose Cannon reconstruction, one of the group's very best), I'd have to say that this isn't a bad story to have missing. It's not a particularly visual tale. The story is entirely dialogue-driven. Essentially a conspiracy thriller, there are many scenes of characters plotting in (presumably darkened) rooms, discussing plans, overhearing other plans, sharing those plans with others - And as such, you actually don't need the visual element to follow it.

For something considered a children's show, this Doctor Who script is startlingly adult. The story turns on religious intolerance, class differences, and the manipulation of a weak ruler by stronger personalities. Even the science fiction element of time travel is treated with maturity, the Doctor's musings about the nature of history feeling suited to part of an argument in a philosophy class.

It's uncertain how much credit goes to John Lucarotti, who previously penned the first season's Marco Polo and The Aztecs, and how much goes to script editor Donald Tosh, who heavily rewrote Lucarotti's scripts. Known changes include the removal of a subplot in which the Doctor actually does impersonate the Abbot... Something which, while probably amusing, would in my opinion have been an unncecessary distraction from this grimly effective tale, one in which a feeling of horrible inevitability hangs over all the events we witness. Lucarotti was displeased, and reinstated many of his original ideas when he later novelized the story - But I strongly suspect Tosh's changes were for the better.

In many respects, this can be considered the last true Hartnell historical. There are a few additional stories set in history, but this is the last one that is about historical events. I'll say more when I review them, but The Gunfighters is a western comedy pastische, The Smugglers a Robert Louis Stevenson-style adventure story. So if The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve is the final "proper" historical, then I'd have to say the show saved its best for last.


Rating: 10/10.

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#20 (3.6 - 3.9): The Myth Makers.

Odysseus (Ivor Salter) forces the Doctor to plot the fall of Troy!

4 episodes: Temple of Secrets; Small Prophet, Quick Return; Death of a Spy; Horse of Destruction. Running Time: Approx. 100 minutes. Written by: Donald Cotton. Directed by: Michael Leeston-Smith. Produced by: John Wiles.


THE PLOT:

Ancient Troy, near the end of the Trojan War. Greek soldier Achilles (Cavan Kendall) battles Trojan prince Hector (Alan Haywood) outside the walls of the city, mere feet away from a strange blue box. Hector is the better fighter, and his victory is at hand. He taunts his victim before the kill, challenging Zeus to intervene and save Achilles.

Which is the very second that the Doctor steps out of the TARDIS. Hector is stunned - and Achilles takes the chance to kill his opponent in the name of the god who has saved him: Zeus, the Father of the Gods and ruler of the world, who has now appeared to him "in the guise of an old beggar."

The Doctor tries to slip back into his ship, but Achilles insists on taking him back to the Greek camp. There, Odysseus (Ivor Salter) derides the idea that this old man might be Zeus, thinking it more likely that he is a Trojan spy. King Agamemnon (Francis de Wolff) is more cautious, not believing the Doctor is Zeus but not wanting to risk offending the gods. He allows Odysseus to set the Doctor a challenge: Defeat Troy in the next two days, or be executed!

Meanwhile, the TARDIS is brought into Troy on the orders of Paris (Barrie Ingham), the surviving prince. When Vicki emerges, she is immediately captured. The prophet Cassandra (Frances White) suspects her of being a Greek spy, and demands her execution. King Priam (Max Adrian) is sympathetic to the young girl, and gives her an opportunity to save herself. Her test? To defeat the Greeks!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: William Hartnell is always at his best in the historical stories, and this one is no exception. The Doctor/Odysseus dynamic is wonderfully played. The Doctor employs his usual tactics to try to escape: Bluster, delay, flattery. The battle-hardened Odysseus proves utterly immune. Largely in desperation, the Doctor proposes the idea of the Trojan Horse, and he finds himself among the soldiers inside as the horse is dragged into Troy. As the slaughter approaches, he is helpless to do anything but witness it in disgust and horror. In a striking moment, he denounces Odysseus: "You're selfish, greedy, corrupt, cheap, horrible! Your one thought is for yourself and what you can get out of it!" Hartnell summons a righteous fury worthy of the god he's pretended to be - And at the story's end, Odysseus is left to wonder if the Doctor truly was Zeus all along.

Vicki: Reportedly, incoming producer John Wiles was not pleased observing Maureen O'Brien's complaints about Galaxy Four, and decided not to renew her contract.  Thus, one of my favorite companions is lumbered with a rather weak exit, married off to Troilus - an overly earnest and naive young man with whom she's spent less than ten minutes of total screen time! She does get some good material before then, at least. Her interactions with Steven are entertaining, and she bonds quickly with King Priam and his family. Maureen O'Brien is terrific in the final episode, the sprightliness dropping out of Vicki's voice as she realizes what is about to happen to the people she's just befriended.

Steven: Has in many ways emerged as the anti-Ian. Where his predecessor tended to be very stoic in the face of frequent imprisonment and brushes with death, Steven is more inclined toward irritation and sarcasm. When the Doctor declares he did well to materialize on Earth, regardless of the situation, Steven snaps back: "I suppose I should be grateful for standing here, trussed like a chicken, ready to have me throat cut!" His attempt to get into Troy to rescue Vicki backfires, landing him in a dungeon while making her situation worse. His response is to trade barbs with her. Still behaving much like an older brother, he all but makes gagging noises when he sees her flirting with Troilus.  But like a good brother, he is highly protective; when hes sees that she cares for the young man, he urges her to get him out of Troy.

Katarina: Cassandra's handmaiden, introduced in Episode Four as a replacement for Vicki. There's really not much to say about her at this point. With the episode missing, there is no opportunity to observe any nonverbal reactions actress Adrienne Hill might have shown, and Katarina has very few lines. She does react to the Doctor and the TARDIS as probably anyone from her time and culture would - Assuming he must be a god, and that she must be dead and on her way to the underworld. Not an unreasonable assumption, given that she's just stumbled in from the site of a mass slaughter.


THOUGHTS:

John Wiles' brief, ill-fated tenure as producer begins. I have something of a split opinion on Wiles. On the one hand, effectively firing Maureen O'Brien was a spectacular act of self-sabotage; not only did he have no good plan for a replacement, but with that one act he soured any working relationship he might have built with William Hartnell - who was at that time, to all appearances, the one irreplaceable member of the cast. In effect, he set himself up for failure.

On the other hand, I have to acknowledge that Wiles produced some fine stories during his short run, and The Myth Makers very much counts among them.

Writer Donald Cotton's script is highly literate, drawing heavily on both The Iliad and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, but undercutting the heroic figures of those stories with broad irreverence. Achilles is mocked by Odysseus for running away from his enemies. Odysseus is referred to as a pirate, and actor Ivor Salter certainly plays him as such. King Priam seems vaguely ineffectual, Paris vain and foolish, Cassandra an outright shrew. The interactions in both Greek and Trojan camps are often very funny, but Cotton laces the humor with a bleak tone. We are constantly reminded that all of these characters are ready to kill on a moment's notice, with even the kindly Priam ready to burn Vicki as either a spy or a witch - "As one of them, anyway," he says wryly.

It's interesting to compare the ending of this initially comic historical with Season Two's semi-comic historical, The Romans. In both stories, the Doctor ends up being responsible for a devastating event - the burning of Rome, the fall of Troy. In The Romans, he witnesses the fire from a distance, safely removed from the human carnage, and literally laughs it off. Here, he is face-to-face with the suffering. Trojans are butchered by Odysseus' men in front of his eyes. The Doctor reacts with revulsion, probably all the more keenly felt because these people are dying because of him.

Save for the actual sacking of Troy and a couple brief swordfights, this story is almost entirely dialogue-driven. The story is presented and propelled through the sharp, witty exchanges of the Doctor and Odysseus in the Greek camp, or of Vicki and the dysfunctional royal family in the Trojan camp. As such, this is one missing story that works particularly well on audio, with only the sacking of Troy suffering for lack of visuals (and that's pretty well described in the narration, well-delivered by Peter Purves). The later Loose Cannon reconstruction is also good, with wonderfully clear stills throughout - though for whatever reason, this reconstruction suffers from irritating sound fluctuations in the incidental music, which makes the audio in my opinion the better overall option.

Either way, this is an excellent story. The potentially tricky transition from comedy to tragedy works seamlessly, and at four episodes the serial maintains a strong pace, never once threatening to overstay its welcome.


Rating: 9/10. I might have gone for full marks, if Vicki's departure felt a little more convincing and a little less rushed.

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#18 (3.1 - 3.4): Galaxy Four.

The Drahvin: The most ineffectual villains ever?

4 episodes: Four Hundred Dawns, Trap of Steel, Air Lock, The Exploding Planet. Running Time: Approx. 96 minutes. Written by: William Emms. Directed by: Derek Martinus. Produced by: Verity Lambert.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor, Steven, and Vicki find themselves on an apparently deserted planet. A blind robot, which Vicki nicknames a "Chumbley," appears and begins feelings its way around the outside of the TARDIS. This captures the Doctor's attention, and he determines to find whoever is controlling the machine.

They have only left the timeship for a few minutes when another Chumbley approaches, this one clearly armed and gesturing for them to come with it. They are rescued by a patrol of cloned female warriors known as Drahvin. The Drahvin take them back to their ship, where their leader, Maaga (Stephanie Bidmead) tells them they were shot down by the Rills, a vicious and repulsive alien species. The Rills also crashed on this planet, a planet they have determined will soon explode.

The Doctor not only verifies the planet's imminent destruction, but discovers that the end is coming in "two dawns - tomorrow is the last day this planet will ever see!" The Drahvin respond by holding Steven as a hostage, issuing the Doctor an ultimatum. If he is to save Steven, he and Vicki must capture the Rill spacecraft!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: The discovery of Episode Three reveals something a bit unwelcome: William Hartnell is just not on his game in this story. It was not apparent on past viewings of the story, when watching a still-frame reconstruction; but in the existing episode, at least, Hartnell doesn't seem to have the same energy as in previous stories. Given that this was shot at the tail end of Season Two, it's likely he was a bit tired; it's also a matter of record that none of the regulars were fans of this script, and he may have felt less than fully committed. Whatever the reason, he's neither as sharp nor as focused as in other serials.

Vicki: "I noted, observed, collated, concluded - and then I threw the rock.". Have I mentioned that I love Vicki? Aside from testing out a Chumbley's blind spot by tossing a rock at it, the story overall doesn't give her much to do, but Maureen O'Brien takes the scraps and runs with them. She is instantly hostile to the Drahvin, crossing her arms and glaring at them as they speak (very visible in the existing clip from Episode One). She is concerned for Steven's safety throughout, seeming again to regard him not as a grown man who can take care of himself, but rather as a stray they've picked up for whom she feels responsible.

Steven: Actor Peter Purves inherited a script originally written for Ian and Barbara, and he was given most of Barbara's bits - something which did not please him one bit, particularly in a scene in which Steven attempts to disarm a Drahvin and fails. The single most memorable bit of the story does belong to him, though. With a bit of patience and connivance, Steven finds an opportunity to escape into their ship's airlock - only to see a Chumbley waiting right outside. This leaves him caught between the Drahvin, who by this point are obviously evil, and the machines of the Rills, who might well be just as bad. Steven is left to consider his options - fireplace or fire - as the air is slowly removed. It's by far the best scene in the story, and it fortunately occurs in the existing episode, showcasing some fine nonverbal acting by Purves.


THOUGHTS

Galaxy Four is noteworthy as the last story with the Doctor and his companions to be produced by Verity Lambert. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she had been relieved upon learning that it was no longer in the archives, as The Time Meddler is a much more fitting swan song. Galaxy Four is watchable (if that's not a bizarre thing to say about a still mostly-missing story), but that represents its only achievement. This serial is entirely forgettable, and even a tiny bit dull.

The Drahvin would have to rank among the most ineffectual villains in Who history. Generally, a story will lazily attempt to build suspense by making sure the villains have either cunning, technological superiority, or both. Not so Galaxy Four, whose masterstroke is to make the Drahvin dumb as rocks, with technology that the Doctor literally scoffs at in Episode Two. Early in Episode Four, the Drahvin are forced to meekly retreat to their ship in the face of a single Chumbley with a loudspeaker - at which point, any tiny modicum of tension is effectively smothered.

With the villains utterly incapable of generating any threat, the climax of the story hinges on whether the Doctor can jump-start the Rill spaceship before the planet blows up. These scenes no longer exist, but from the reconstruction appear to center on the Doctor standing over some cables while Steven and Vicki ask, "How much longer, Doctor?" Doubtless, the sequel would have us thrill to the white-knuckle action as the Doctor attempts to inflate a rubber raft on a beach before the tide comes in!

Lest I go too far into making the story sound like a disaster, I'll repeat that it is never less than watchable (listenable?). The first episode does a solid job of introducing the situation, with the cliffhanger revelation of just how little time is left raising the stakes. Also, the sequence leading into the Episode Three cliffhanger, with Steven caught in the airlock between the Drahvin and a Chumbley, is very effective - Though it would have been even moreso had the story not already tipped us that the Rill and Chumbleys are not a threat.

While Galaxy Four is nowhere as bad as The Web Planet, it is an almost completely uninteresting story. At least The Web Planet failed in part because of overreach - This story isn't even particularly trying to do anything. The closest it has to ambition is the revelation that the beautiful Drahvin are evil while the ugly Rill are good - Fairly trite stuff, even by mid-1960s standards. The whole thing feels tired and lazy - adjectives I rarely apply to the creatively rich Hartnell era.


Overall Rating: 3/10. This is one missing story where I'd have to say that no one's really missing anything.

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#17 (2.36 - 2.39): The Time Meddler.

The Doctor demands answers from 

The Meddling Monk (Peter Butterworth).

4 episodes: The Watcher, The Meddling Monk, A Battle of Wits, Checkmate. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Dennis Spooner. Directed by: Douglas Camfield. Produced by: Verity Lambert.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS materializes on an English beach in the year 1066, but this time its appearance does not go unnoticed. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, a mysterious Monk (Peter Butterworth) observes the timeship's landing, and does not seem particularly startled by it.

The Doctor's temper is tested by an argument with new companion Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), who is skeptical that the TARDIS travels in time. He decides to explore alone, telling Steven and Vicki to join him at the top of a nearby cliff. By the time the Doctor finds a Saxon village, his irritation has faded - but he is intrigued when he hears a strange "skip" in the chanting of the local monastery, and he can't help but investigate. Inside the monastery, he discovers the source of the chanting: Not monks, but a gramophone!

Steven and Vicki make some a strange find of their own - a wristwatch, discovered on the ground by a Saxon villager.  Their path also takes them to the monastery, where they become convinced that the Monk is holding the Doctor prisoner. They break in that night, only to find the Doctor has already escaped. More than that - the Monk's authentic Saxon sarcophagus isn't a sarcophagus at all.

"It's a TARDIS!" Vicki exclaims. "The Monk's got a TARDIS!"


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He clearly finds it exasperating that Steven refuses to believe they've traveled in time. When they discover a Viking helmet and Steven scoffs at it, the Doctor snaps, "What do you think it is - A space helmet for a cow?" He clearly misses Ian and Barbara, and voices concern that Vicki is choosing to stay with him just to look after an old man, none of which helps his mood.  When he discovers the anachronisms caused by the Monk, he is delighted to have a mystery to sink his teeth into... until he discovers the Monk's intention to meddle with history, that is, at which point the lightness is replaced by a stern, angry authority. Hartnell is magnetic, and his interactions with Peter Butterworth's conniving Monk are hugely entertaining.

Vicki: "Either let us go or do whatever you're going to do, but make up your minds!" Vicki is fantastic in this story. Captured along with Steven by Saxon villagers, who fear they are Viking scouts, she more or less berates them into believing her.  When they agree to let them go, with some food in the bargain, she forcefully glares at Steven until he takes the hint and gives thanks. Her interactions with Steven are entirely different than with Ian and Barbara. There, she was essentially a surrogate child, allowing (if occasionally chafing at) their protectiveness. Here, she mostly takes the lead, treating Steven like a slightly dim-witted older brother. Her scenes with the Doctor remain charming, as she spends the opening moments of the story reassuring him that she genuinely wants to stay and travel with him.

Steven: His first proper story shows that he is very different than Ian was. He still fulfills the action man role - But with a lot less judgment and restraint. When they see a Saxon villager picking the Monk's watch up off the ground, he ignores Vicki's protests and jumps out of hiding to basically tackle the man, simply to see what it is he is holding. Despite being headstrong and stubborn, however, he is not stupid. When he and Vicki search for the Doctor at the monastery, he knows immediately that the Monk is lying to them, and comes up with a ploy to make the man reveal himself. Peter Purves is an agreeable screen presence, and he and Maureen O'Brien spark instantly together.

The Meddling Monk: The first time we meet one of the Doctor's own race - A rival, whose agenda the Doctor feels duty bound to fight against. No, the Monk isn't the Master - But you can pretty easily see him as a sort of less sinister prototype. Unlike The Master, he doesn't come across as evil so much as irresponsible. He doesn't want to rule the planet, he has no visions of galactic conquest. The sense is of a child, stirring things up just to see what will happen, so that he can sit back and enjoy the chaos. When he reveals his "master plan" to the Doctor, he seems to genuinely want the older man's approval - And is disappointed when he doesn't get it.


THOUGHTS:

Confession time: I loved Barbara, and I liked Ian, and the ensemble of Ian, Barbara, and Vicki was often delightful... But I actually prefer the Steven/Vicki team. Sadly, thanks in part to the arrival of a new producer in Season Three, this team would not last long - But they are an absolute delight, O'Brien and Purves playing wonderfully (often hilariously) opposite each other, and also both enjoying strong rapport with William Hartnell. This is my favorite First Doctor lineup, and I regret that The Time Meddler is their only fully existing story.

That said, if only one of their stories was to survive, I am glad it was this one! The Time Meddler is significant, of course, both as the first story not to feature Ian and Barbara and as the first story to introduce another member of the Doctor's people. But forget all of that - It is a cracker of a story: well-paced, often quite funny but never at the expense of the drama, and constantly imaginative.

Dennis Spooner's script is engaging and well-structured. The first episode takes a bit of time to reflect on the departure of Ian and Barbara, then takes another few minutes to introduce Steven and establish him as a new regular. The first two episodes reveal information in pieces. At first, we seem to be firmly in the familiar "Hartnell historical" territory, with Saxons and an imminent Viking invasion. But the Monk isn't at all surprised by the TARDIS... the Doctor finds the phonograph... Steven and Vicki find the wristwatch. It's made clear in tiny bits and pieces that something more is going on, until the big revelations hit in the final episodes.

It's also a strong visual story. I noticed right away, in the opening TARDIS scenes, how many shots stand out - from Vicki regarding a clock, to the way the Doctor and Vicki are framed when discussing Ian and Barbara. I made a bet with myself and, at the end of Episode One, carefully watched the credits. Sure enough, the final credit popped up: "Directed by Douglas Camfield." As with The Crusade, it just was instantly apparent how much more care was taken to the visual element here than in any of the surrounding stories. This is only Camfield's second full story as director, but I already feel very confident labeling him the series' best director at this stage of its run. There isn't even a close choice for second place!

It falls just shy of full marks because the resolution feels a touch rushed (although the Doctor's final surprise for the Monk is a delight). Still, this is a very good story, possibly one I would label ideal for introducing modern viewers to the Hartnell era.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#16 (2.30 - 2.35): The Chase.

The Daleks face their archenemy: 

Alabama tourist Morton Dill (Peter Purves).

6 episodes: The Executioners, The Death of Time, Flight Through Eternity, Journey into Terror, The Death of Doctor Who, The Planet of Decision. Running Time: Approx. 148 minutes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: Richard Martin. Produced by: Verity Lambert.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS has materialized on Aridius, an apparently unpopulated desert planet, allowing the time travelers a chance to rest. It also gives the Doctor time to get working the device he liberated from the Space Museum: A Time/Space Visualizer, a monitor capable of viewing any point in time and space. Each of the team takes a turn viewing a moment of import: Ian, the Gettysburg Address; Barbara, the encounter that inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet; Vicki, a performance by The Beatles.

The mood grows considerably more serious when the monitor picks up something they hadn't been looking for: The Daleks, discussing plans to locate and exterminate the four of them!

The team manage to escape Aridius, but they are far from safe. The Daleks have their own time machine, and are in pursuit. With the TARDIS unable to just remain in flight, they have no choice but to materialize at various points in time and space. Each stop reduces their lead over the Daleks, and it is clear that a confrontation is inevitable... Leaving the Doctor to work on a device that might stop their enemies, even as he and Ian evaluate each new stop as a potential battleground!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: The opening episode of The Chase affords a rare chance to see the Doctor and his friends relaxing. It's fun to see the First Doctor just enjoying himself, whether playing with his new toy or relaxing in the sun(s) of a desert planet. He's very pleased with himself when they appear to have escaped the Daleks - Then all business when he discovers that they are in pursuit. Season Two has seen Hartnell's performance moving from strength to strength, and he is wonderful again here - Though it should be noted that this story also boasts his most unintentionally funny line fluff, as he shouts to Ian and Barbara that they could "end up as a couple of burnt cinders, flying around in Spain! Er, space."

Vicki: I continue to adore Vicki. The opening scenes have a real sense of a family dynamic, with Vicki as the bored and slightly awkward teenager managing to accidentally irritate every single adult in the TARDIS. On Aridius, the Doctor compares her enthusiasm to explore to his own. I love the squeal of nervous laughter she lets in Episode One, right after Ian opens a passage to an underground city - a perfect mix of fear and excitement. She's smart enough to be nervous about going down into the unknown... But she (and Ian!) are far too curious at this open door to do anything but step through it.

Ian/Barbara: Ian remains a pragmatic man of action. As soon as it becomes apparent that they can't escape the Daleks, he and the Doctor survey each stop the TARDIS makes, evaluating it as a place they might make a last stand. Barbara defaults to being a caretaker. This is particularly apparent during the escape from the Mechanoids' city in Episode Six. The only route is to climb down a thick cord. Barbara expresses her reservations - Until Vicki reveals a paralyzing fear of heights, at which point Barbara focuses on trying to calm the younger woman while they wrap the cord around her and lower her down.

Steven: The final episode sees the debut of new companion Steven Taylor (Peter Purves). Steven is a pilot who crash landed on the planet Mechanus and has spent the past two years in isolation, with only the robot Mechanoids for company. He has basically given up on the idea of rescue, which earns a reproof from Ian: "We don't give up that easily." When he learns that the Doctor's ship is actually functional, his attitude changes significantly, the prospect of actual freedom spurring him to aid in the escape.


THOUGHTS

The Chase is silly, tacky, and occasionally downright bizarre. After The Dalek Invasion of Earth transformed Terry Nation's creations into a genuinely formidable foe, The Chase transforms them again... into the butt of multiple jokes at their expense, as they are thwarted by the TARDIS team sticking their heads up over rocks to draw fire, by mechanical recreations of Hollywood monsters, and by an American Southern yokel named Morton Dill. They are effectively taken from intergalactic conquerors to the space equivalent of Curly from The Three Stooges, making it no surprise that this story has often come under fire.

The story's saving grace? It's a lot of fun.

Much like Season One's The Keys of Marinus, also by Nation, the overall story here is more of a thread tying together the visits to different locations. The first two episodes feel like a standard Who runaround, as the time travelers find themselves involved with (and being captured and escaping from) aliens under threat of extinction by unconvincing puppet monsters. Episode Three is pretty much outright comedy, with the broadly-played Empire State Building scene followed by an encounter on the Mary Celeste that is - somewhat bizarrely - played as slapstic. Part Four sees hijinks in a haunted house. Part Five is more of a suspense piece, with the regulars surviving carnivorous plants while trying to evade the Daleks. Then Part Six moves the action to a futuristic city populated by robots.

This structure has its benefits. The pace remains energetic throughout the six episodes, only really threatening to bog down in the underground city in Episode Two. But it does mean that all scenarios and guest characters are only thinly sketched, with no real opportunity to explore or become involved in the narrative. While this story is enjoyable - as was Marinus - my preference would be for such stories to be rare exceptions to the norm, as I don't ultimately feel it plays to the series' strengths.

The Chase ends its story with a good ten minutes left in the running time - time that is devoted to the departures of original companions Ian and Barbara. Their farewell is effective, as the original companions take their chance to return to their own time and place. The Doctor, who originally viewed them as a nuisance, all but shuts down at the prospect of their departure. Vicki has to all but physically push her way through his defenses, while at the same time promising that she has no intention of leaving, before he agrees to help his friends return home.

He doesn't really say goodbye to them - As someone close to him in the future will observe, the Doctor hates goodbyes. But he does watch on the Time/Space Visualizer, making sure they made it back safely. The story ends as he quietly acknowledges what's obvious to all:

"I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them."


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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