SG-1: Emmancipation

Stargate SG-1 Season One Episode Two: Emancipation

So we begin this episode with...Ahh the ever present young person being chased by dogs...or bad guys....it's a sci-fi fantasy stand by. And we find out that this young man being chased by said dogs is called, Abu. Here's a question though, why the heck would Abu know what Okay means? O'Neil asks him if he's okay after his little run in with the dogs and Abu is totally like "Yes, I'm fine" or something like that. We totally made that word up and it actually doesn't mean what we think it means. (Note from Andrew: Oh yeah? What does it mean, then? Me, I am thinking that after all that time spent with Aladdin, he knows our slang quite well by now.)
So we find out from Abu's horrified glances at Sam that women are not...exactly...treated in the way Earthers are used to. So here's the thing, it's pretty obvious that women are not respected and the last thing I would do if I knew I was on a planet that was weird about women is go over into their face and start to say something about it, which is what Sam proceeds to do. (Note from Andrew: Which is, if I recall, the exact OPPOSITE of military policy in less enlightened companies like Iraq- or at least was at the time this episode was made. Female soldiers wore veils to conform to local standards, not agitate them.) I would stay quiet and in the background til we figured out what the heck was going the heck on. I wouldn't be all "Um. Did I do something??" I would be SHUSH! And can I say that they are really lucky that this is like the only world that they've gone to so far that hasn't had these kind of weirdities. I mean...yeah there is some weird stuff, but not so much the whole "women are weird" type thing. Which is good...seeing as Sam is a woman...and stuff. (Note from Andrew: Hey! Don't call her that! Just because her reproductive organs are on the inside...)
As an aside I'd like to mention that this is the first SG-1 episode that I recall seeing before I was a fan... (NFA: Wow! It's a wonder you gave the show a chance!) and can I tell you that what I saw made me not really want to continue to watch the show, as I was not and am not very big on any stories involving discussions about why or why not the sexes are equal and blah blah blah, as they are usually embarrassing and one side goes a little too far to prove they are equal and everyone just generally comes off looking like a big stupid. My way is that I know we are equal, and I am confident enough in this fact that I don't need to make an issue about it...you want to carry this heavy box for me? Go for it! You want to hold the door open for me? You are a real gentlemen and there aren't enough of those left! I am not going to assume that you think I am not strong enough to carry this box and even if that IS why you are doing it I don't care because I KNOW I am strong enough to carry that box; I don't have to carry it for me to know that though. I think most of the time when guys offer to do things for women it's because they genuinely either care about us, or because men are sweet and they love to make life easier for women by using their abilities. I think that when we constantly start fights about how females are equal and all that all that it shows is that we are insecure about being a female and all worked up about whether people respect us or not and that if we let a guy buy us dinner that means he's better than us or something?! Anyways, I say leave the arguments to the extremists and let them realize one day that they aren't getting anywhere.
Once again...if I was in a place that didn't like women...I am PRETTY sure that I wouldn't talk OUT loud to the guy who appeared to be a chief. (Note from Andrew: Not to mention, that's just bad military protocol- in first contact, your CO takes point, and you don't offer your opinion unless called for, male or female. Daniel ignores this, but he gets away with it because he's a civilian. Sam, with all the credentials she so eagerly hauled in the pilot to prove that she could do what men could do, ought to know this if she's advanced that far in the military command. And later in the show... she does!) I think I'd have a sneaking suspicion that maybe he had something to do with making sure those laws are carried out... but I could be just grasping at straws here. In reality I realize that Sam has to act like this in order to move the story along; it's an unfortunate reality of script writing...sometimes the characters have to be exceedingly stupid to move along the plot. (This is something that somewhat continues throughout the shows long run but isn't to the extreme all the time.) (NFA: This is what we in the bis call 'bad writing for stupid fools.' If you have to make your characters do things they wouldn't do to tell the story you want to tell, then you shouldn't be telling the story with those characters at all! The whole point of a story is to create a reality in which your fiction is real- having characters act out of character fundamentally undermines that reality. The stories should unfold from the natural actions of the characters... or not be written at all. Stargate is hardly alone in this issue, of course- it's as old as story writing itself!)
So they take them all to the camp and they make Sam put on a dress...which I must say while it IS a nice moment when all the guys see Sam in the dress...I have to say...I still feel like they could have come up with a nicer looking dress for her to wear. It kind of looks like everything they make Sam wear...awkward with a hint of style, although I could be looking at it from a girls' point of view and you guys all think it looks stellar. :) I give Amanda Tapping props though for her acting, she's playing up the whole Tomboy thing in the dress and it really works. It's interesting because now that I think about it they've really kept up with that whole arc of her character, her going from painfully obvious tomboy to being more confident in being a woman and realizing that looking pretty is not a sign of weakness or that people won't take her seriously when she does look pretty (unless your name is Rodney McKay...). (NFA: He does have a weakness for dumb blondes...) Maybe this episode, ironically, is a little bit instrumental in that. I love how O'Neil calls her "Samantha" in this part, it makes me laugh how annoyed she looks at him, and the face she makes when he leaves right before saying "You look great." It's kind of a: "maybe there is something to this dress thing!" :-D
So Sam isn't allowed to leave the tent because of the whole, her being a girl thing; and she goes to sleep...in a tent...which is all they have in the camp but let me just say ANYONE who sleeps in a tent...seriously...bad things are going to happen. You always get kidnapped or killed when you sleep in a tent in sci-fi. And what do you know? Sam gets kidnapped by Abu who wants to take her to the neighboring village and trade her for the Bad Chief's daughter, Naia, whom he is in love with. (NFA: I'm sure you mean "Whom he wants to posses as his property," based on the heavy-handedness of this episode.)
So he takes her into bad chief's tent and he's all like "Yep, I got something worth trading" and goes to take down Sam's veil to show off her whole face...I have to say if I was Sam, the second that Abu took off my veil I would start making this really disgusting face and I wouldn't stop making it. Seriously...even the most gorgeous women can make their faces really ugly with the right facial contortions. Oh and....I would let him slit my throat...I so wouldn't turn around...especially not slowly. No how.




Ok...who...how....where did Naia even come from?!? She's the Bad Chief's daughter and she's so not...like....she's....well she's rather white. It's really weird and out of nowhere. Was she the directors daughter and they were like "ahh...no one will notice that she's not Asian, it'll be fine."
Like I might have bought her if she was just like one of the random women in the place but she's not, she's his daughter. Maybe one of his wives was someone from Off-world and she just so happens not to take on any asian characteristics from her father? Yeah...we'll go with that one.
I do really like that moment between the good chief and Daniel when he says "Because you love her?" of the chiefs wife. I like their smiles, it's a nice moment and it's well acted. Here is another question I don't think they ever answer; how in the world did Abu ever even get to know Naia? Like...how?
Once again...I'd probably get killed. Cause I don't think I would actually say "I'm sorry...I guess you know what's best for her." to the bad-chief cause...he really doesn't and he's a big pigjerk. (NFA: Seriously, hon- you are just as bad as the people we always complain about in movies! :-) It's called 'playing along until you can be rescued.' Now you are NOT allowed to get your throat slit for being obstinate when I am on the way to rescue you, and that is FINAL!) (Note from Sarah: What are you saying!? That because I am a woman I can't rescue MYSELF!??! Huh!?)
Also when Sam is trying to escape, here's a prime reason why you should ALWAYS wear pants under the dress someone made you wear...it'll come in handy.
"If you need to beat a woman to feel like a man, try me." That's a GOOD one liner. And p.s. Bad chief...if you value spirit in your horses and not your women then why the heck did you say that and then grab Sam's head and kiss her really hard? It seems your actions point to the contrary...unless you did it because you knew it would make her really angry...because if so: good job cause that worked then. If he kissed me like that I would get all my spits ready and just "BLEAH" it all out all over him. Yeah...i'd probably have gotten killed before anyone could come rescue me. (NFA: Stop it!)
OH what?! Naia just said to Sam "I heard what you did for my mother..." regarding Sam saying that line to keep the bad chief from hitting the ASIAN WOMAN earlier (he was going to punish his wife for letting Sam escape...even though she had no idea Sam was even gone). Which means that the off-world wife is out of the question and their daughter is just a non-asian for no reason.
So by this time O'Neil and the gang have realized Sam is missing and that Abu is missing, and the Good chief takes them all the way over to spy on the bad village. They ask the Good Chief what is going to happen if they wait til morning to rescue Sam, and he says:
"*Bad Chief's Name* will partake in his newest purchase." "Oh there's not a chance in HE**"...best line spoken in this episode EVER! Makes me remember why I love O'Neil...that is...you know..if I'd ever forgotten for some reason...which I never have, even when John Shepherd bats his little eyelashes at me and waves around his shooty gun. *AHEM, ANDREW* :) (not that I'm saying that John isn't cool...but he CERTAINLY wouldn't win in a fight against O'Neil. No sir. He even spells his name weird...I mean 'Sheppard"?) (NFA: Excuse me??!! "The Storm, Part II"? O'Neil is great, I love him, but... Shepherd has the youth to back up the skills, and tactics to boot!) They go into the camp and have a word with the Bad Chief, trying to barter with him in order to get Sam back.
Daniel's gamble about Sam being a woman of power is the dumbest gamble EVER! I mean...if you heard all the good stuff about her like her being a shaman and stuff...would you give her back? Basically it's like just say you stole someone's Ipod and they were like "give that back!" And you were like "It's a really nice Ipod though." and they were all "Fifty dollars! I'll give you fifty dollars!" and you were like "It's so sleek, and brand new and exotic looking." and they were like "FINE! 200 dollars then!" And to that you said "Why do you want it back so badly, when you could take that 200 dollars and buy an even newer ipod??" and you said "You don't understand, that ipod can tell the future, it can levitate and it also works as a telepathic link into anyone's brain! Oh and there's that app where you can download any album that ever comes out for free! I need it back!" Do you think you'd be in any hurry to give it back? It's a long metaphor but I think you get the gist of it...and no I am NOT likening Women to Ipods...although this guy is basically doing the same. :) Luckily O'Neil realizes that when in this situation....the bad guy always falls for the gun trade. I got to say it's priceless watching the Bad Chief firing off the gun and jumping up and down comically.
(I am guessing that about three million fanboy fanfics recounting the events of P3X595 that were mentioned in passing by O'Neil have been written since this episode was first aired.) (NFA: I'd say... you underestimated the number.)
As the bad guy is comically firing his gun, the team takes the opportunity to leave the premises as fast as possible.
I have to say...while I would forgive Abu for handing me over to a gross icky bad chief who was gross and icky so he could barter for the daughter of said bad chief I don't think that I would be that quick to be all: "OMG....I totally don't even blame Abu for what he did now either! For seriously!" like Sam does. Okay...I added the valleygirl part...but it's kind of funny thinking about Sam saying it that way. :) (NFA: Why not? She wouldn't be anymore annoying or out of character than she is in the rest of this episode...)
Word reaches the team that the bad chief intends to have his daughter, Naia, stoned for trying to escape and run away with Abu. And then we get into the also ever present "When or when do we not interfere?" argument...it's funny how this only comes into it when the writers want it to, there are so many times they've interfered before they've even THOUGHT about thinking whether or not they should interfere (although not yet..seeing as this is only the second episode). The same goes for Star Trek with the Prime Directive, it only applies when the writers think it will add drama to the story, when all it does is drive fans nuts so that they scream at the tv: "YOU never cared about the Prime Directive so much in your LIFE before this! You never considered saving people from certain DOOM a matter of the prime directive before! I mean you totally LANDED on that planet to hang out with the Edo even though they weren't even heck warp capable because you thought it would be cool to run around with a bunch of half naked people!!! WHERE WAS THE PRIME DIRECTIVE THEN!? NOW GO SAVE NIKKI COX dang it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you saying that because she's orange and has freaky fingers and isn't wearing a bikini because she's only a kid MEANS SHE HAS TO DIE!?"It's a very powerful moment when Naia calls out for her father to forgive her before he stones her, and the bad chief leans forward and whispers into her ear that he forgives her, even though he's a real jerk you can see this is tearing him apart to have to order to have his daughter killed; and probably these dudes don't make a habit of forgiving people. But he does forgive his daughter and you can see it in her face how much it means to her, almost as if she has the strength to die now, I have to give credit to this actress because she does really well conveying that when she only has her eyes to do so.
Basically the team and the good chief come storming in right before they stone her and use a loophole of some kind that says that the Bad Chief has to fight someone for some reason...I confess I wasn't paying as close attention to that part as I should have. So then Sam steps forward and says she'll challenge Bad Chief to a duel.
Here's a tip. This will apply to any sci-fi fantasy movie or show you ever find yourself suddenly transported into. If someone challenges you to a duel, a fight, or a showdown of some kind or you challenge them....ASK WHAT THE RULES ARE!! It is almost a 99.9999999% certainty that there is something you don't know that you are going to have to do that will be against your moral code, and most always that will be that the fight is 'TO the DEATH!" Everyone always acts like this is a shock, or supposed to be a total surprise to the audience but we all see it coming a mile away. (NFA: Amok Time, Code of Honor, Tsukan... Tsuksa... Tsu... The Voyager episode with the Rock... etc.) I am pretty sure you might actually get a gasp of shock and surprise from your audience if you wrote into the script that the fight is: "...to the first one to scream "UNCLE!"" seriously..the to the death thing is the most cliche thing in television/movie history.
I'm really happy that they gave Sam the fight against the bad chief in the end, it feels nice after the whole yucky kiss thing and it would be just the thing to wash that taste out of my brain. She beats the bad chief, of course, and doesn't kill him-she just makes him at knife point say that his daughter is free to go with Abu and that he won't make war with the good camp people and that Sam can go free too. There isn't anyone yelling about how 'IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE TO THE DEATH!" or the bad chief standing up and trying to throw a hidden knife from his boot into the retreating Sam's back moments...so I am thankful they avoided those cliches. (NFA: "No second chances- I'm that kind of Sam.")
They prepare to leave this planet with an anesthetic and a pocketful of "thank goodness we didn't get a whole bunch of people killed." Before they go, they offer their good wishes to Abu and Naia who are now living in the good camp together and about to be married.
All of a sudden all the women are standing around and they take their veils down, and the good chief says that this will be how Sam is remembered. This is a good thing that the chief has done unless all he changed was that women are allowed to show their faces but still get smacked around and killed when they talk...hmmm. Either way I guess it's a step in the right direction!
(I am wondering if we heard anything more about this miracle anesthetic since they kept talking about it?) And we end with a shot of the team from behind walking through a field to the Stargate, and thus we end with the second best line in the whole show: "What is an Oprah?" Classic, Tealc. :)

Overall I give this one 4 Veils out of 10. (NFA: 4!?!?!?!?! You mean... 0.4 out of 10?) It was kind of filled with Cliches, it's not very imaginative at all; especially when compared to the Pilot and the first episode and not to even MENTION the entirety of season One. (NFA: And, to add my two cents in, this is the debut of what I call Incendiary Sam- well, not the debut if you watch the original pilot with its reproductive organs line, but still... this Sam is very whiny and insecure, with something to prove, and seems to go out of her way to exacerbate tensions- as if she was going around with a teaspoon of pepper between her thumb and forefinger, just waiting for someone's eye to flick it into... and nowhere more than here. In later seasons, she was calm, levelheaded, and respectful of protocol... presumably when the writers realized that O'neil was good enough at increasing tensions, irritating potential allies, and screwing over diplomacy on his own.) The acting was good though and there were some genuine moments, it helps establish them as a team and that they would do anything to save one another even though they don't know each other very well. The characters were really it's saving grace because when I dissect it down to story alone it really feels like a leftover script from a Sci-Fi show in the late 80's...and not in a good way.
p.s. I actually do think that John Sheppard is cool even though his name is spelled dumb.

Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus

Serial Title: The Keys of Marinus
Series: 1
Episodes: 6
The Sea of Death
The Velvet Web
The Screaming Jungle
The Snows of Terror
Sentence of Death
The Keys of Marinus
(Note from Sarah: See? They really knew how to do it back then...all those delicious titles. Not just 'Episode One" and "Episode 2" that started happening in the end of Hartnell and beginning of Troughton)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford)

(Note from Sarah: All further Notes From Sarah will be referred to as NFS.)


Synopsis:
Strap in folks. This one is complicated- but in a good way! :-)

The TARDIS materializes on a glass beach by the acid seas of the planet Marinus. When an invisible forcefield cuts the Doctor and his companions off from the TARDIS, they set out to explore the only structure in the area, a colossal obsidian tower maned by Arbitan, Keeper of the Conscience of Marinus. This computer was responsible for planet-wide law enforcement by means of... well, thought-policing. This absolutely-terrifying-in-the-wrong-hands-in-fact-could-anyone-really-count-as-the-right-hands-?-device eliminated all evil thoughts of the society via telepathic mind-control... until, after 700 years of peace, a Voord (humanoid aliens) named Yartek managed to develop himself an immunity. (NFS: This is kind of reminding me of the Voyager episode where no one had evil thoughts and then someone bumped into someone and they thought something mean and they stole it from their mind so they could have an evil thought because they wanted one...or...was that something I just made up?) He spread it to followers, and the Conscience was disassembled to prevent the rogue faction- literally the only crime on the planet- from gaining control of it. It has since been upgraded to re-control the Voord... but the disassembled components, 5 keys, remain scattered across the surface of Marinus where they were originally hidden...(NFS: This is starting to sound like a really good video game...) all 5 must be recovered before the Conscience can be reactivated to re-envelope the planet in it's warm lobotomizing glow. Meanwhile, the Voord, in glass submarines and rubber diving suits, have crossed the acid sea to lay siege to the tower and capture the Conscience device- intent on preventing it's reactivation.

Arbitan has the first key, but must remain in the tower to protect the Conscience- but by holding the TARDIS hostage, he is able to force Ian, Barbara, Susan, and the Doctor to seek the others in his stead. He gives each a travel dial (a portable wrist-mounted teleporter, looking very similar to a geographical version of the Vortex Manipulator used by Captain Jack Harkness and others from the New Who series) which is pre-set with the coordinates for each key's hiding place. Others have set out on the quest before- including Arbitan's own daughter (Oh, I bet that won't figure into the plot later on whatsoever... *eye roll*) but none have ever returned. With that encouraging news, Arbitan, guardian of the Conscience, sends them on their way and then promptly fails his guardian duties by getting stabbed in the back 5 seconds later by a Voord that had snuck in the back way. Clearly this 'guardian' thing was a largely ceremonial title. (NFS: Once again...the timing is incredible! Just enough time to give them all the presets! Gee whiz!)

The group arrives in the city of Morphoton, a utopia of advanced technology and peaceful inhabitants. Due to an accidental dropping of her sleep-inducing 'Somnor Disc' at night, however, Barbara is able to see past the 'mesmerant,' a powerful wave of hypnosis projecting false images to everyone. In reality, Morphoton is a dirty, squalid, dungeon-like place run by the Brains of Morphoton- four brains in jars with eye-stalks and powerful hypnotic powers; transcendent beings evolved past their bodies, yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill. The same old sci-fi chestnut. (NFS: in other words....B'omarr Monks, right?)

Barbara makes several unsuccessful attempts to explain the truth to the others in the vaguest, most useless way possible that would never be clear to anyone who wasn't already seeing what she was seeing (NFS: "It's as if...what you're seeing...isn't....well how can I put this? You see there are these talking jars...no no...that's not what I meant to say...um...perhaps if we built a large wooden badger...."), and then, under the guise of medical aid, is imprisoned for knowing the truth. However, slave girl Sabetha just so happens to wear one of the 5 keys around her neck, and Barbara deduces that she is in fact Arbitan's missing daughter. Breaking Sabetha's brainwashing, Barbara is freed, and quickly turns to murdering the helpless brains where they lie. (I call 'em as I see 'em. Yeah, they were villains... but beating them to a pulp inside their helpless jars? That's cold, man...) Thus heroically(?) freeing the inhabitants of the city from mind-control enslavement. (NFS: But how else do you defeat beings that can control like everything with their minds so much so they don't need bodies? I am not saying beating them up to death was the answer...but still...ponder.)

The group, joined by Sabetha, and another slave named Altos- who also turns out to be one of Arbitan's candidates once his memory returns- join forces and decide to split up and cover more territory. The Doctor leaps ahead to the final location so that William Hartnell can have a vacation (sorry, I seem to be overly snarky in this review... it's a good story, really!) while the others continue on to the second key. (NFS: You're just being truthful...I've noticed Hartnell seems to take a lot of vacations...might have something to do with the fact that he was like...80 when he started the show.)

The group arrives in the midst of a jungle of telepathic plants, whose screaming attack particularly debilitates Susan (NFS: Screaming plants debilitating Susan is not surprising at all...a screaming noodle could do the same...even if it wasn't screaming at the time.). A nearby temple provides both a shelter from the plants, many of which are physically agile and deadly, and also the next key, right in plain sight aboard a statue. Sadly, Ian and Barbara are from 18 years before the first Indiana Jones movie and can't spot an obvious temple-trap when they see one; the key is a fake, and Barbara is caught up in a revolving wall. Unable to find her, Ian speculates that she may have escaped with her teleporter, which is a pre-programmed one-way trip, and sends Susan, Sabetha, and Altos ahead to find her, just in case (as Barbara would have no way of returning and telling them she'd left). Ian remains to look for the key, and soon finds Barbara, still in the temple. The two evade numerous traps, and finally are discovered by Darrius, an elderly scientist at death's door, and the temple's only occupant. Darrius is a friend of Arbitan, and had set the traps to foil any incoming Voord (NFS: Why wouldn't he like give the key to Arbitan? That's weird! It's like...yes...protect all the keys from being found by the people who want to turn the infernal thing back on and peace reigning), but the temple harbors a deadlier secret; with his dying words, Darrius tells them of the growth-accelerator produced and tested by himself in this region has created a particularly voracious and deadly, aggressive set of plants, who are growing more powerful by the minute. Ian and Barbara enter the laboratory and begin a frantic search as the carnivorous, lethal vines begin to smash through the walls and tear the building apart (NFS: once again...good timing. They seem to have reached their peak just as Barbara and Ian have come on the scene...ooh...maybe it's me whose being snarky!). Locating the Key- hidden simply in a jar of opaque liquid in amongst many other similar jars on a shelf- Ian and Barbara teleport out of the reach of the thrashing vines as the infuriated, ravaging jungle tears the lab to shreds, shrieking and slashing.

They arrive in a frigid wasteland that is almost fatally cold, and are found at death's door by Vasor, a trapper who offers them shelter... before stealing their Keys, and turning them out into the frozen wastes to die. Well... Ian, at least. Barbara, the sinister trapper keeps with him for... other purposes. (NFS: Surely he just plans to turn her into his housekeeper cook...there can be no other reason...)

Ian finds a bound Altos, suffering from exposure, and discovers that he and the girls had also run afoul of Vasor. The two return in force to retake their Keys, rescue Barbara from Vasor's lecherous clutches, and force the trapper to take them to the ice cave where he abandoned Susan and Sabetha for retrieval at his convenience.

Susan and Sabetha have explored the caves and discovered frozen soldiers, mechanical warriors from an ancient war. The treacherous Vasor severs a rope bridge, stranding them in the cavern. The group finds this places key in a block of ice while trying to escape (not very close on your teleporter coordinates, Arbitan! This wasn't anywhere NEAR where they arrived!) and free it, awakening the ice soldiers, who seem programmed to kill anything that moves and isn't each other. Susan makes a perilous climb over felled icicles, re-attaches the bridge, and saves the day (NFS: Surely not! Susan?! Oh okay...I realize she did have her useful microns of a second. It's funny cause I actually quite like Susan too...I just think the writers didn't.) as the sextet races back to Vasor's cabin, retrieves their teleport bracelets, and escape- as the ice soldiers they'd been fleeing, led right to the ice shack, break down the door and deliver Vasor his just desserts. (NFS: Wait...you mean they killded him?)

Ian is separated from the group and finds himself in a museum of sorts- the key right in front of him in a display case. This is, of course, too easy, and as he moves to retrieve it, he is struck from behind and knocked out... awakening to find the key gone and a dead man beside him (NFS: If I had a dime... :-P). The rest of the group arrives, but Ian is accused of murder and theft; the deceased, Eprin (NFS: Sounds like something you take when you've got a headache from being struck from behind and have woke up next to a dead man), having been another Key-seeker (who apparently decided the other places were too hard and skipped right to the end?) (NFS: Maybe he's like the smart people who do pencil-mazes, he started from the end to go to the beginning) and a friend of Altos. And in another sci-fi cliche, the punishment is death and the justice system is guilty until proven innocent. Only one man can help Ian now... the Doctor! Reunited with the group, he takes on the role of Ian's lawyer, postponing the trial long enough to ferret our the real culprit- Aydan, the relief-watch guard!

Only he gets murdered too.

Just to complicate things further, Susan is kidnapped and used as leverage to get the Doctor to drop the case.

It turns out that the relief-watch guards widow was in league with a lover to bump off her husband; Eprin was in the wrong place at the wrong time and mistaken for Aydan, who hadn't yet relieved him of his watch, from behind. Susan is recovered, the lover is indicted and had the key- hidden in the murder weapon of all places- and Ian is freed.

The triumphant return to Arbitan in the tower is slightly sullied by the fact that he was killed just after their departure- Yartek the Voord (the one with the immunity to brainwashing? The bad guy? Funny how being immune to brainwashing and then killing the brainwashers made Barbara a hero, but in the same situation for the Voord...) is now posing as Arbitan. He has already seized the four Keys, sent on ahead with Altos and Sabetha, and imprisoned them- as the TARDIS crew arrives with the final key, they realizes that the Voord have seized control of the tower. Outplaying Yartek at his own game, the Doctor manages to release Altos and Sabetha and unmask Yartek. However, their hand is forced, and Ian relinquishes the last key on threat of death- Ian tricks him, however, handing over the false Key decoy from the the Screaming Jungle temple. The group flees from the tower as the Conscience explodes, killing the Voord for their sinister crime of not wanting to be brainwashed (well, okay, and for murder and criminal activities and being evil villains who threatened our heroes, but it doesn't sound as ironic when you put it that way...) and Altos and Sabetha set out to find a new life together in the now permanently self-determinate Marinus. (NFS: But they didn't want to be brainwashed because they wanted to be evil...if they didn't want to be brainwashed because they wanted to pick flowers all day it'd be a different story...see? Oh wait.)


Review:
Well, it took several months after Marco Polo for us to decide to watch the next one; for whatever reason, it is always a daunting challenge to commit to a new 4-6 episode Hartnell serial; but once we get into it we always enjoy it.

The concept for this serial was a fantastic one; a video game-style quest for multiple parts of a machine- 6 episodes, with the first and last as a framing story, and the four in the middle as 4 separate quests- a sci-fi mystery (with mind-control), a haunted-house story (with evil plants- and what a heck of a scene that house coming a part was- even a year later I remember it vividly as very powerful and tense!), an adventure story (betrayal and a fight to survive in an arctic wasteland), and even a murder mystery (NFS I always hate HATE the arctic levels though! Who plays a video game and wishes for more slippery, cliffs of death, low visibility arctic video game leves!? But I digress)! The pacing of this serial was helped immeasurably by having, in essence, 5 stories told in 6 serials; things really flowed and kept moving in a way that the prior serials nEver did; even Marco Polo with it's well-written pacing wasn't as quick-flowing as this was. (NFS: I have to admit...reading this I kind of want to watch this over again. I feel as though I must have fallen asleep or something because it sounds fantastic and I feel like I didn't see it!)

There was a LOT in this serial! For one thing, a lot more flubs, as has been noted here. It was almost distracting at times, to see how badly goofed some of the lines were. Verisimilitude, I suppose...

There was also a lot of character development. The Doctor had what I consider to be (previous Backgammon winnings notwithstanding, because he lost at the critical juncture) his first chance to be really brilliant; his lawyer persona, and especially his cheer-worthy "I am that man!" is the first time I've ever felt like getting behind Hartnell as the saving-the-day-Doctor that I know and love.

The acting with Ian and the Doctor in the 'lab' was fun; like the Doctor treating the cup like a fantastic instrument, and I liked the bit with Ian being especially excited about a 'modern piece of technology' that the Doctor things of as a quaint little toy. (NFS: This from the man who thought a cup was a fantastic instrument!? :-D)

Barbara is also changing; the one I would have pegged as the most useless of the lot... maybe... tied with Susan... back in the Daleks serial is finally showing signs of the strong, indomitable, and valuable team member that so many fans with a greater overview of the series seem to think of her as; though in this serial she hasn't quite shaken off a few less-than-intelligent qualities. (Having jumped ahead to the first chapter of the Aztecs, it seems safe to say that the transformation will soon be complete.) If I hadn't known it was coming, I wouldn't have believed it...! Though Barbara had a good showing in this serial (Her brain-beating, while slightly disturbing, was take-charge and impressive) (NFS: I am sure...I do remember the brain beating part. I don't think one could forget that. She kind of looked like a woman possessed!), and her POV shots were pretty neat, why was she choosing the most illogical make-it-seem-like-I'm-delirious phrasing when describing what she saw? Why not say things like 'What you're holding is a bundle of rags?' or 'This room appears different to me than it was before?' Instead of 'Dirty... filthy... dirty rags... why can't you SEE?!' (This is a common Sci-fi thing, though... misunderstandings due to use of vague, non-descriptive language; for example Deep Space Nine's pilot episode, in which Sisko and Dax debate the conditions inside the wormhole; one sees a garden and the other a stormy cliff-face, and both find the other's impressions of the environment to be strange because they say things like "It's a beautiful day!" "You have a strange deifnition of beautiful...".)

Susan reaches new heights of sobbing hysteria. My wife commented that she feels sorry for the actress; it's not her fault that Susan is being written so poorly. (NFS: See? I knew what I was talking about!) (And in fact, from a hindsight perspective, we have since found out that this is why Susan is the first companion to leave, and so quickly; the actress felt, justifiably, that her character was going nowhere- which is a real shame.) She sobs and screams and hands-to-mouths at everything; (NFS: Susan: "A letter! But who is it from!? WHY CAN NO ONE TELL ME WHO IT IS FROM!?" *hand to mouth* Doctor: "Well why not open it, child, and find out for yourself?" Susan: "Oh".) and the one time it is justifiable, after her release from near-execution at the hands of a kidnapper (a situation in which anyone would be a bit overwrought), she's 'cried wolf' so many times that it almost feels overdone then, too. (Also, in the continuing trend, why does no one listen to her, dismiss things (it must have been some shadows, I didn't really see anything moving, etc.) and generally do all they can to remain ignorant? Haven't these people seen enough yet to learn that seemingly incongruous observations from one of their party should be treated seriously?!) (NFS: I think that EVERY time I watch Cadfael. WHEN has he been wrong about it being murder!? Seriously!?)

I enjoyed the story in this one; at the time I said "not sure it quite eclipses Marco Polo, but I feel like the pacing and story energy benefited greatly from having each episode contain it's own mini-story." - in retrospect and memory, it does indeed come out the clear winner for it's fast-paced and interesting story. None of it seems to drag, or feel 'useless because it clearly won't resolve the plot, being a middle episode'; each concept is new and intriguing- in a Sci-fi era of Star Wars (A planet only has 1 environment) or Star Trek (Every member of a race is exactly alike in beliefs, behaviors, ideals, etc.) it is mind-boggling to see so much diversity on a single planet. That isn't to say that the stories aren't without plot holes galore, and it does feel like the Velvet Web storyline could have been expanded to two or even three episodes while the Snows of Terror could have been severely truncated (had they simply taken the lousy watches WITH them when they set out to find Susan and Sabetha), but I feel like it was a definite improvement over The Daleks (by the time they were encountering the long drop cavern or the deadly pool, I was sitting there thinking "Just get ON with it already!") and even Marco Polo- though it never quite dragged, and always maintained interest, it didn't always maintain energy like this serial did.

The story was also reminiscent to several others; a marked similarity to Star Trek's 'Gamesters of Triskelion' (Which I watched just a few days prior to this serial,) and I also can't help but wonder if this serial also served as an inspiration for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom... A deadly trap room with descending spikes (which were horribly flimsy, wobbly, and fake-looking, by the way- the most laughable bit of the serial, IMHO), a rickety rope bridge (I would not trust my life to that thing!!!) which is severed, brainwashed friends who act like strangers in the service of the enemy...

There were quite a few nitpicks:
The Sea of Death, in retrospect... Wow... the opening made no sense, in context- was it Arbitan that stabbed that Voord through the wall? Why would a fortress under attack have not only invader-friendly walls, but inadvertent-entry walls (NFS: Watch "You Only Live Twice"...some people just have paper walls for no reason whatsoever. I mean...I know it's Japan and all but...come on!)??? (As soon as we saw Susan against the wall, I said aloud "Oh no, not another Dalek hallway!" The producers needed to work just a little harder on matching the camera angle to really sell those extending-the-background-with-a-painting shots...) I assumed these would be later explained, but they never were. Also, where did that trap door the Voord feel through come from? (NFS: Did you mean to write "feel" through? I wasn't sure. "Fall" through doesn't work either...that makes it sound like they all just continually fall through a trap door for no reason.) It looks like Arbitan triggered it, but why was it there, exactly? (NFS: oh...maybe you did mean 'fall" through.) How was that part of the apparently-island-based tower over water? Interesting, also, that whether it was supposed to be a purely sci-fi notion or a product of the times, a free-will removing mind-control computer seems to be a GOOD thing; if everyone is a do good zombie, the planet's a paradise! (I'm tempted to think this is a product of the times, as some early Superman stories seemed to have the same attitude: Mind control to remove evil, and as a byproduct, choice and free thought = good.)

It's a little confusing, on the beach of glass, with the deadly acid sea, once Ian and Barbara discover the tidal pool, that no one is concerned that once the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the TARDIS, which will be surrounded by acid! It was my first thought, but no one else seems to think of it. Also, the miming for the invisible shield seems exceptionally poor; clearly nothing is there, as they're very inconsistent with the boundaries and their movements. (NFS: If only the 'HMS Bounty" could have jumped Gillian over to the past real quick so she could give them some miming lessons.)

It seems to me that a lot of story jumps- from their agreeing to the quest to the reveal of the murderer in the last chapter- happen offscreen in this episode. (NFS: "I escaped somehow.") It is a little jarring, but it works, as the gaps are always clearly filled in. Some of the physical acting is really quite atrocious, especially the 'stabbing' of Arbitan... of course, I can't help but wonder if it was just as bad in Marco Polo but we see it only as still and thus through rose(not Tyler)-colored glasses.

The Velvet Web time-lapse is an issue, too- how was Barbara so well-established, as if she knew everything going on in the city and had already settled in there- when she arrived only seconds before the rest of the party? Also, WHY was the city considered a safe hiding place for one of the keys in the first place? Most of the other hiding places at least made some sense... (NFS: Because the best place to hide something...is in plain sight.)

So... this revolting city... they're just left there to riot and rot, then? Perhaps if Sabetha is looking to do some good and carry on her father's work, she can start by teleporting there and helping the likely confused, in-chaos citizens of the realm they just overturned and then abandoned?

The Screaming Jungle is a good one; I liked it a lot. Despite that... Barbara seems to have been taking her poor judgment pills for this one; and Ian has been sneaking a few behind her back. Chief offenders:
-Barbara's 'treat us like China' sentiment (tired of being treated so delicately as a woman, expressing that she is able to take just as much as Ian can and wants to be treated equally) is another sign of her evolving character, and it's a valid statement... but expressed at the wrong time, as she and Susan just decided to stay behind to rest! (NFS: That is one of the most obnoxious things they ever put into any movie, the chick saying "Please! Let me stop a minute to rest!" I mean...it might happen in real life but it's happened so many times in fantasy that I don't think any woman would be caught dead saying it now.) Obviously under those circumstances, they're going to be treated as someone needing protecting; so would any weary member of the group!
-So, wait, let me get this straight... Susan screams (again), Barbara tears a moving/prehensile vine (which looked pretty weak and sickly; I doubt it could have strangled a squirrel) off of her leg, BEATS IT WITH A ROCK (NFS: That must be her mutant power...beating things with rocks), and then tries to convince Susan that she imagined it?!?! Am I missing something here?! (NFS: Why would she try to convince susan she's imagined it? Didn't she spend a whole bunch of time in the beginning trying to get people to believe she was telling the truth and now she's lying?)
-Barbara decides to go in to the door without Ian, after already stating there were known traps, because she couldn't wait a few minutes? (NFS: Sounds like...someone I know...but not me...of course...not me)
-Ian, after Barbara screams, still messes around with the pickaxe?!
-So... why DIDN'T Arbitan warn them about these traps? Thankfully, they survived anyway. (NFS: He was about to...he starts to run after them to tell them but then he gets stabbed in the back. No wait..I'm lying.)

Other than that, this was a nice episode. Great set design and props, the statue trap was nicely realized, and though the aforementioned descending blades and knight-with-axe traps were relatively lackluster (NFS: you haven't seen anything til you've seen the ones in Street Fighter the movie. That one doesn't have the excuse of age), the overall episode was enjoyable; most especially the jungle breaking in at the end- tense, exciting, and enjoyable; it was a very impressive scene superbly pulled off.

The Snows of Terror was interesting; I immediately took a liking to the rescuer who could break a wolf's back with his bare hands...
...some judge of character I am. :-)

So, a very... confused episode; this one probably has the most logical issues of the bunch. Who were the knight guys (the ice warriors)? Why, after capturing their surly host, did the group wait to retrieve the watches and keys, necessitating a return to the wood shack later, when they were being pursued? Why did the wolves look so Earth-like, and couldn't they have found a stock footage clip with a little less grain? (Actually, probably not with the budget they had to work with, most of which was likely spent of the excellent props and sets in this episode.) And most importantly, how did Ian stave off the frostbite in Altos' legs with circulation restoration when Altos was still in direct exposure to the cold, previously shown to be so numbing that it instantly incapacitates Ian and Barbara (though not the less clothed Sabetha) (NFS: Everyone knows that the less clothes you wear the less bad stuff happens to you on tv...it's just how it works. Frostbite isn't attractive...therefore....you can figure out the rest!)? How did Barbara get her little energy spurt to jolt back up directly afterward, for that matter? Adrenaline, perhaps?

Then we have Sentence of Death and the Keys of Marinus. A good mystery, a lot of fun moments. A few notes: When the wife slips up and mentions talking to Susan, I caught it too, but just assumed another time-skip in the story had happened (whilst they explained the situation to her) and I'd missed it.
These people obviously believe in cruel and unusual punishment... even before the execution, the accused is tortured with that incessant and irritating clock beeping! Maybe it's designed to ease their passing; so that by the time the execution rolls around, the accused WELCOMES the relief! ;-)
Only one unresolved question... why DID Eprin disappear and fall out of contact? Why did he not get the key, and return immediately months ago, when Arbitan dispatched him? Or at least return to report his success to Altos? It's never explained why he apparently decided 'Well, I have a good life here...' and settled down, forgetting his mission. Perhaps he was a Voord idealist, and was having second thoughts about aiding and abetting the mind control scheme once he saw how people lived on the outside? Could be an interesting story to explore...

And finally, the finale. (That's kind of redundant, isn't it?) Nothing much to say here; clever of Ian to pick up on the stranger comment; Yarnek's a bad faker, though. :-) The explosion effect is very cool, though sadly truncated, as is the whole escape sequence- and subsequent shots show no exterior damage to the tower.
Was the Doctor's key ever brought back in a future storyline, with it's advanced microcircuits? Seems like a follow-up possibility to me.
And finally, the serial ends just like it began; with a reverse pull-back of the original zoom-in... a nice bit of symmetry; even if the ending music was a little to creepy to fit the mood. :-)

Great moments:
Almost too many to count. The screaming jungle tearing the lab apart, and the Doctor's re-appearence- "I am that man!" are the two I find the most memorable.

Rating:
I liked this one! 4.75 out of 5 blessings of Orb; most of the episodes get 5, but a few glaring production errors and illogical story bits (Snows of Terror) bring the curve down a little.

Doctor Who: Marco Polo

And now, fair friends, I must tell you of a great tragedy, a truly horrific loss, from which the world is all the poorer; a tragedy of human incompetence, shortsightedness, and greed, that has caused untold suffering in the history of the world... of Doctor Who.

In the 70s, BBC went through and cleared space in their vaults by destroying old negatives. This modern burning of the Library of Alexandria was justified, in that they had vast archives of film protected in vaults that were managed by a contractor company.

But... greedy for their own storage space, the contractor was also under the false impression that they didn't have the master film prints, but only duplicates. So... they started burning films, too. This shortsighted monstrosity has devastated the early years of Doctor Who. While prints loaned to other people, kept in separate storage, duplicated to overseas markets, etc. have been recovered, of the original 250 or so half-hour episodes, over 130 are still missing. This means that any number of serials will have, say, episodes 1, 3, and 4 intact but episodes 2 and 5 lost to the mists of history. For some, it is even worse- Series 3-opener 'Galaxy 4' has only about 5 minutes of existing footage. But for 3 unlucky serials... not a hint survives. Not a frame, not a snippet. They are well and truly lost. This... is the first of those three.

From the ashes of this nightmare, some small hope arose, though. Through various methods and means, complete AUDIO for every episode of Doctor Who ever created still exists. And through these, production photos, snapshots of the episode, and written captions to explain actions occurring on-screen, a group called Loose Cannon Productions has created reconstructions- essentially slideshows and text-boxes accompanying the audio of the existing episodes. They are... difficult to get through, sometimes, as it's a very dull way to watch a story. But the effort is excellent, the recreations well done, and, frankly... they're the best we're going to get. The First Doctor and Second Doctor's serials are, sadly, rife with missing episodes- far more prevalent from the third year onwards; nearly the entire black-and-white era is thusly devastated.

As a rare treat for this particular story, however, color photographs and colorized B/W photos have been used for the slideshow reconstruction; true, it is still a slideshow, but it is a visually rich one. It is also the first true historical period piece, featuring lavish costumes which are fortunately shown off in this format.


Serial Title: Marco Polo
Series: 2
Episodes: 7
The Roof of the World
The Singing Sands
Five Hundred Eyes
The Wall of Lies
Rider from Shang-Tu
Mighty Kublai Khan
Assassin at Peking
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford)

Synopsis:
'Marco Polo' begins as the TARDIS materializes on a snowy mountaintop, and Susan discovers an enormous footprint in the snow. The damaged TARDIS, meanwhile, is unable to produce heat, light, food, or water after the events of Edge of Destruction. As night falls, bringing with it the promise of certain death, the group is miraculously found my a Mongol caravan, headed by the Italian Marco Polo, an emissary of Kublai Kahn. He travels with Tegana (Note from Sarah: Oh great....and I'd just gotten that name OUT of my head! For like three weeks I could hear Barbara saying that name in my head over and over!), a Mongol warlord, and emissary of peace from Khan Noghai, en route to broker peace between Kublai Kahn and Khan Nighai, who have been at war.

The Doctor is feared as an evil sorcerer who is powerless outside of his magic box, and forbidden from re-entering it. The group is accepted into Polo's caravan, and Susan befriends Ping-Cho, a young girl traveling to meet her 75-year-old arranged-marriage groom.

When the Caravan arrives at the town of Lop, Polo announces that he is seizing the 'flying caravan' as a gift for the emperor, in hopes of buying his way out of the emperor's service so that he can return home. As he takes the TARDIS key to ensure the safety of his prize, the treacherous Tegana buys a poison which he plans to put into the water supply of the caravan... as they enter the vast, arid wastelands of the Gobi desert.

A sandstorm foils Tegana's plans, so he slices open the water containers, blaming a concurrent attack by bandits, and is soon dispatched ahead as a scout to find water for the now seriously dehydrated party. He finds an oasis... but does not return with his knowledge.

The Doctor and Susan sneak into the TARDIS and collect condensation water from the walls. This allows them to survive to the next town, where they re provision, and Tegana, claiming to have found nothing and secretly disbelieving that they can still be alive, rejoins the group. He slips away and meets with Mongul agents, ordering them to attack the caravan and kill it's occupants. Barbara, having followed, overhears the plans but not Tegana's voice- she is captured (N.F.S: Biiiig....surprise.) by the Mongul agents, and the group- including Polo and a returned, playing-innocent Tegana, head to the cave to rescue her, deducing her most probable location. There, Tegana kills the Monguls in combat to prevent their betraying his complicity.

As the caravan departs, the group's suspicion of Tegana grows, while he tries to sow suspicion and distrust of them to Marco Polo. A second key the Doctor had fashioned (N.F.S.: How did he do that, exactly? I should think you'd need some kind of mystical magical material to do that? What did he make it with? His fillings?!) to gain entry to the TARDIS is discovered and confiscated, furthering the discord.

At the next town, Tegana again hires men to waylay the party. The marauders kill a guard as they advance, who is discovered by Ian as the group tries to escape. Rather than letting the ambush occur, Ian scares of the bandits and Tegana again kills his accomplice in secret. While the group realizes his treachery, they cannot convince Marco Polo of it.

A messenger arrives for Kublai Khan, urging speed- the group takes to horseback, leaving the TARDIS and other belongings to be brought more slowly by the caravan. Tegana, meanwhile, hires yet another thug at the next village, this time to steal the TARDIS. Ping-Cho steals one of the TARDIS keys and gives it to Susan to aid her escape, but Tegana catches her. Ian takes the blame for stealing the key. Marco intuits the truth, however, and Ping-Cho flees the caravan. Ian goes back to the village where she has fled to and retrieves her, discovering the TARDIS theft in the process. The thief is caught and admits Tegana's culpability, but Tegana himself arrives and threatens to kill Ping-Cho. She and Ian are saved by the arrival of Kublai Khan's soldiers, but with the bandit killed, there is not corroboration to Ian's claims of Tegana's treachery. The group continues on towards Peking. At the summer palace of Shang-Tu, the aged and bruised Doctor is so stiff he is unable to properly Kow-tow- the aged Khan, seeing a kindred spirit who understands the weariness of growing older, strikes up a friendship. (N.F.S.: I think...this is possibly the most confusing plot I have ever read...I think I pretty much just got that Tegana kills people, and the doctor is old.)

The Khan and Doctor play a backgammon together, in ever-increasing stakes, the Doctor emerging victorious in every round with increasing wealth; but a final, decisive match for the TARDIS key is his first and only loss.

Marco begins to have regrets about his strong-arm acquisition of the TARDIS. Ping-Cho's arranged marriage falls through when the groom passes away, and the young soldier who rode to her and Ian's rescue against Tegana and the bandit becomes her new paramour. Marco, now in poor favor with the Khan for his treatment of the Doctor, begins to finally see through Tegana's dishonesty, and works with the Doctor and the companions, deducing that Tegana has come to assassinate the Khan. Tegana is thwarted in the nick of time and commits suicide rather than be captured. Marco slips the group the key during the chaos and urges their escape; despite the loss of Khan's 'prize,' Marco is forgiven and allowed to return home to Venice in reward for saving the life of the Khan.


Review:
This will be a shorter review- without being able to see the actor's performances, comments will be primarily on the story itself, as most reconstructions likely will be.

Took a long time to psych up for watching 7 still-only videos (the re-creations, slide shows with captions indicating actions, set to the audio of the actual episode... and, as a special bonus, with the actor portraying Marco filmed in a new prologue and epilogue)- but I found this to be the most engaging story so far in the Old Who. It had good pacing, real suspense, interesting twists that didn't feel too drawn out- all in all, I really enjoyed it.

Loose Canon Production, who did the re-creation, did a very nice job with these color photos, which really do justice to the richness of the costumes and sets. While some stills do get repetitive- such as when there's only one good closeup for each actor that they cut to every time they're speaking- but enough photos exist that they were able to create a good variety (something not always possible in future reconstructions.) They even added a blowing-sandstorm video overlay over the photos during that sandstorm. Cute.

Not much else to say about this one; again, it kept the interest up better than any of the serials thus far in the series, and, while a little long, didn't drag during it's duration. Sadly, it also establishes a tradition- very many of the lost episodes are the historical re-creations, because a prime method of recovering the lost episodes is recovering film prints that were sent overseas to foreign markets... and many foreign markets, like the middle east and Australia (the two most common gold mines of lost Doctor Who material) were far more interested in science fiction shows than shows about western history (N.F.S.: Which is pretty understandable actually.)... and so, only purchased them, and only they have been recovered... rendering the historicals, sadly, as those with the greatest gaps.


Great moments:
The backgammon games, in which The Doctor wins 35 elephants, 4000 white stallions, 25 tigers, the sacred tooth of the Buddha, and the entire commerce of Burma for a year... but then loses the final, highest-stakes match for the TARDIS itself. Not only is the situation as funny as it is aggravating, Hartnell's laughing fit during the delivery helps to carry across the Doctor's own bemused frustration at the irony.

Rating:
4 out of 5 Blessings of Orb. Too long, but with story and pacing a far step up from the serials preceding! A little shorter and it would have been perfect!

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

Serial Title: The Edge of Destruction
Series: 1
Episodes: 2
The Edge of Destruction
The Brink of Disaster
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford)

Synopsis:
This unique 'bottle show' (a sci-fi term for a show created entirely within existing sets with minimal special effects to save money) begins when an explosion rocks the TARDIS, knocking out all of it's occupants. As they awaken with slight amnesia (Note from Sarah: I think the Doctor kind of must always be suffering from a case of slight amnesia. I think I suffer from it after I watch these shows too. :-D Just kidding.), the Doctor is injured, Susan is paranoid (Note from Sarah; Tell 'em somethin they don't know!:) Although you wouldn't believe it but I am a big fan of Susan's.), believing an alien presence has taken over the TARDIS, and the systems begin to break down. The doors open and close on their own, the control panel shocks people, and on-board clock faces melt like candles.

Susan becomes practically possessed- and insane (Note from Sarah: Tell 'em something they don't....oh wait)- trying to stab The Doctor with a pair of scissors (Note from Sarah: "THESE ARE FOR YOU!" if anyone gets that...they get ten coolness points), attacking her own bed, and collapsing. Susan recovers and attacks again, but is stopped from doing any harm, and the Doctor, trying to use the outside scanner to identify their location, only sees images which he recognizes from previous journeys in the TARDIS- culminating in an explosion.

Susan becomes increasingly paranoid that someone aboard has been alien-possessed, and paranoia between the two groups begins to increase. The Doctor drugs drinks given to his companions to try and diagnose the problems with the TARDIS while they sleep, but Ian, compelled by some outside force, attacks the Doctor to prevent him from reaching the TARDIS controls. The outraged Doctor threatens to eject the two teachers into space (Note from Sarah: WOW! Seriously? Like...no reprieve or anything? Like no try to know them out or anything? Is the Doctor under the influence too or is he just plain merciless in the first season?), Susan tries to mediate between the two groups, and tensions come to a nearly violent head- when an explosion rocks them, alarms begin to sound, and fault indicators show failures in every system aboard the TARDIS. Both groups, united by the danger (Note from Sarah: '...united by danger'...and madness), work together to determine that the TARDIS power source, located beneath the main center console, is trying to force it's way out, which will destroy the ship. Barbara realizes that the TARDIS itself has been responsible for their strange actions, taking control of them to try and warn them of the danger. You know... by murdering each other. Errrr... just go with it.The Doctor locates a malfunction, a stuck spring holding down the Fast Return switch, which is plunging the ship backwards towards the Big Bang, which will result in it's destruction. The spring is released, the ship returns to normal, and the Doctor apologizes to Ian and Barbara for doubting them. (Note from Sarah: AND FOR TRYING TO KILL THEM BY EJECTING THEM INTO SPACE I SHOULD HOPE!!!!!)

Review:
Well, I watched this weeks ago, but honestly, it's been hard to know what to say. This episode was... unique... but strange. I feel as if it's a concept that the New Who could have pulled off rather nicely (Note from Sarah: I was thinking the same thing, because when I read this synopsis I want to see it...but I want to see it done well. Not that the Old Who doesn't do episodes well, but the first season...well let's face it, it was still trying to figure itself out.)- a good concept, but one that got bogged down in it's execution here and didn't have much tension. (And also bogged down in a few of the particulars- a BROKEN SPRING? Space age technology for you... must be from the same manufacturers as Girl In The Fireplace's clockwork droids...)

This was a first; incredibly short for the series- a filler/budget-saver in that regard- but as the schizophrenic length of Serials continues to bob up and down, as it will throughout the first series, there was no way of knowing at the time if this was an anomaly or not.

The new areas seen on the TARDIS- a food/water/medicine dispensery, sleeping quarters, etc. are a nice touch- something the new Series has not yet showed us in 5 years.

Some good tension among the characters, I suppose- along with the most uncomfortable-looking beds in the galaxy (Note from Sarah: You mean even more so than DS9's no cover beds?)- but it was offset by all the characters acting so maddeningly in a stupor and unlike themselves, dazed and drunken to the point of having me wishing, less than ten minutes in, that I could leap through the screen and start slapping them back to their senses. I couldn't even tell, towards the end, what behavior was supposed to be natural 'them,' and what was still off/TARDIS-affected.

This is, actually, standard in Sci-fi and I don't know why- Star Trek TNG had The Naked Now as it's first episode past the pilot, DS9 had Dramatis Personae in the first season, and Stargate SG1 had... well, you can read about it when Sarah gets there. :-) The point is this: Writers, STOP IT!!! You should not do a 'Characters are acting strangely' episode in the first season; especially not in the first few episodes! We, as the audience, have not become familiar enough with them to know what is 'normal' and what isn't- so it loses the impact it could have had in the second or third season. Also, remember that the reason most first-seasons are so strange is that all of the episodes are written before the series starts. They're written based on a several-paragraph description of what the characters will be like; meaning every writer will interpret the several paragraphs just a little differently, and characters will act inconsistently from story to story. Once the second season rolls around, new writers will have the performances from the first season to work from, and almost inevitably, you will see the characters' primary traits refined, their personality quirks ironed out, their running gags established, etc., because the writers have a sample of the character to work from, something consistent to ground them, instead of educated guesswork from a few descriptive paragraphs. Watch any show and then go back to the first season- the characters are like gems that haven't been cut from a chunk of rock yet- in the next season, all of the excess is cut away, leaving just the character we know and love (Note from Sarah: Or hate, depending on what character it is...but it's a more defined kind of hate..you see.). The first-season characters will seem like broader, less-defined versions of themselves prone to mood swings and atypical behavior, because their characters haven't been nailed down yet- which is exactly why a not-acting-like-themselves episode so early on doesn't work- they're not acting like themselves EVER yet, because 'themselves' is ill-defined and constantly changing. So half of the 'strange behavior' is lost on the audience because they have no baseline of consistent characterization to compare it against.

I did like the fact that eventually, Barbara got so used to Ian's strangulation's that she treated them with casual dismissal, like a mother dealing with her child who keeps reaching for a toy he can't have- just gently, almost thoughtlessly, grabbing his hands and directing them away, saying "No, Ian..." with no more concern than if she were telling him he couldn't have a snack before dinner...

Overall, this was a good idea- a sort of locked-room mystery set entirely abroad the TARDIS- something I'd love for them to revisit in the new series; with established characters, it could be great. But used here, it was premature; without a grounding in knowing these characters well, it doesn't work and just comes off as kooky and discombobulated.


Great moments:
Susan, wild-haired and scissors in hand, was truly creepy on the attack.

Rating:
Two out of Five blessings of Orb for a promising idea, with somewhat weak execution.