Series:
4
Episodes:
4
Doctor:
William Hartnell
Companions:
Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills)
Synopsis:
An irritated Doctor deals
with Ben and Polly’s sudden appearance in the TARDIS, and then
further with their skepticism that they have been shanghaied through
time and space. Returning to England, on the shore, the two are
forced to believe him as they enter a small church and find out from
its caretaker, Longfoot, that they are in the 1660s. Polly (mistaken
for a boy with her short haircut and modern clothes), Ben, and the
Doctor depart for the local Inn, but before they leave, the Doctor is
entrusted with a riddle from Longfoot- “This is Deadman’s secret
key, Ringwood, Smallbeer, Gurney.”
The travelers arrive at
an Inn run by Jacob Kewper, who is initially suspicious of strangers,
but welcomes them when he finds that they are friends of Longfoot.
Speaking of the caretaker, he is interrogated and murdered by pirate
thug Cherub over the location of a hidden treasure. When the body is
found, the TARDIS crew, the self-admittedly last people to have seen
Kewper alive, are prime suspects. As the Squire is sent for to arrest
them, pirates, led by Cherub, break into the Inn and kidnap the
Doctor, suspecting that Longfoot may have told him something. Ben and
Polly are arrested moments later.
Cherub takes the Doctor
to the Black Albatross, and his master, the notorious Captain Pike.
The wheelchair-bound man is only capable of responding with a
beeping, morse-code light from his motorized wheelchair, in what
feels like a strange failing of 23rd
century technology, which is somehow incapable of the same amenities-
such as speech simulation- that we could grant modern individuals
like Stephen Hawking in the 20th
century…
Sorry, my mistake. Wrong
Captain Pike. (Note from Sarah: A wheelchair pirate could be pretty cool though...)
This Captain Pike is a
bloodthirsty buccaneer and smuggler, a ruthless man with a deadly
sharpened Pike for one hand. No, not a fish that has been honed to a
razor’s edge, but a blade that has spilled the blood of many a man-
foe and crew member alike. (Face it, there are too many different
definitions of the word ‘Pike!’) There, the Doctor negotiates
with and flatters Pike- but before he can make any significant
progress, a rowboat approaches bearing Joseph Kewper, and the Doctor
is hauled below decks, out of sight, while Pike talks with him. Kewper reveals that he, Longfoot, and the Squire are smugglers- well,
Longfoot isn’t so much of one anymore, but still- and they wish to
hire Pike. Pike threatens and rebuffs Kewper, setting off to find the
Squire and deal with him directly.
Meanwhile, Ben and Polly
escape by playing on the superstitions of Tom, the cowardly stable
boy. They return to the old church, trying to find a clue about
Longfoot’s true murderer… and find a man skulking about, whom Ben
attacks and renders unconscious, binding him and sending Polly to
fetch the Squire. The man regains consciousness, and is revealed to
be Josiah Blake, a revenue officer of the King. Ben reveals a
recently discovered secret passage in the church crypt- further
evidence to Blake that the smugglers were operating out of it… but
Ben refuses to untie him, doubting his identity, and upon the
Squire’s return, he and Polly are arrested once more.
They recognize Cherub (who, along with Pike, is still accompanying the Squire) as the Doctor's kidnapper, and realize that the Squire must be a smuggler as well, but Pike claims he is merely an honest businessman, for which there is no evidence to the contrary to support Ben or Polly’s claims.
They recognize Cherub (who, along with Pike, is still accompanying the Squire) as the Doctor's kidnapper, and realize that the Squire must be a smuggler as well, but Pike claims he is merely an honest businessman, for which there is no evidence to the contrary to support Ben or Polly’s claims.
The Doctor and Kewper, jailed together in the hold of the ship, likewise play off superstitions of their captor, the swarthy Jamaica, using a fake Tarot card reading (with a standard deck of playing cards, positing absurd interpretations of the ‘meanings’ of the various face cards drawn in interpreting the future) and manage to escape. Jamaica is killed by Pike upon his return.
Blake, taking Ben and
Polly as his prisoners, frees them and reveals that he believes their
story- he has suspected the Squire for some time, but has no evidence
on which to arrest them. The Doctor arrives to rendezvous with them-
but Kewper, seeing the revenue officer, believes he is betrayed and
escapes at gunpoint, heading back to the Squire.
Pike prepares to attack
the village, striking with two groups- one to steal the smuggler’s
stash for themselves, and the other to find Avery’s Gold, the
treasure Longfoot had stolen. The Doctor, feeling morally obligated
and knowing that Pike will ravage the innocent village, takes Ben and
Polly to search for the treasure, hoping that is can be used as
leverage to force Pike to spare the town his usual pillaging. They
decipher the riddle and locate the treasure… just as Kewper and the
Squire arrive… shortly thereafter, so does the murderous Cherub,
sent ahead, who kills Kewper. The Squire is wounded.
Meanwhile, Blake rides to
the militia outpost for help.
The Doctor reveals the
riddle, but not its solution, to Cherub, buying them time as
Cherub works through the clues as they did. Pike arrives, his men
looting the smuggling cache, and enters the crypt. There, he
discovers Cherub, in the process of trying to take the treasure for
his own, and the two duel. In the chaos, the Doctor dispatches Ben
and Polly down the secret passageway, which leads to the beach, and
the TARDIS.
Pike kills Cherub, but
before he can kill the Doctor, Blake and his men arrive in force,
attacking the pirates. Polly is attacked in the tunnel and rescued by
Ben. Blake kills Pike, and the TARDIS crew escapes as the pirates are
routed and the injured Squire has a change of heart due to the
Doctor’s kindness towards him.
Review:
Arrrr, matey! Pirates of
the Caribbean, this ain't. Fairly low-key for both a season-opener
and a companion introduction...
Ben and Polly have a
fairly nicely contrasted episode- starry-eyed belief (albeit without
much of a sense of wonder) meeting a thick-headed skepticism that
seemed slightly less believable than Steven's in the Meddling Monk.
Still, both characters do fairly well- trying to be proactive (for once,
among companions!) in a time where the rules are different and they
are true fish out of water... their inspired witchcraft con was a
nice bit, though the revenue man capture was fairly botched. Overall,
both come off very favorably in their first TARDIS-outing.
The Doctor himself plays
the manipulator to both sides, and has a clever Voodoo-gambit of his
own (only the Doctor would try to give a pretend tarot-card reading
with a regular deck of cards!) and comes off coolly unflappable, and
very principled, staying in this time when he could escape, because he
feels a sense of moral responsibility to help.
The story itself is a
little slow, especially in the first two parts- but it's filled with
enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. This serial, overall,
is what I'd call 'adequate but unmemorable'- not terrible, but... not
much to say about it, either.
It may not help that all
four episodes were reconstructions- though nearly every death was in
video, thanks to Australian censored clips that survived the
Who-burning. The reconstruction was decent enough, a relatively
standard fare, and pretty average. Nothing to impress with (like
CGI-able Daleks, doors, or computers) but nothing disappointing,
either. Like the serial, it is decent but doesn't distinguish itself.
Great moments:
The Doctor reads tarot
cards with a deck of playing cards- making up a mysterious
significance to the Queen of Hearts, the Jack of Clubs, etc.
Rating:
A hearty 2.5 out of 5
Deadman's Keys for both the serial and the reconstruction, mateys- a
solid, middle-of-the-road average, just as they were.
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