Doctor Who: The Smugglers

Serial Title: The Smugglers

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 23^rd 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 20^th 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.

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.

Doctor Who: Series 3 Overview

...And this is it. The end of Series 3, the final full series with Hartnell. It was a lot more hit-and-miss than the 'Golden Age' of Series 2, with some epic highs but also some definite Galaxy 4s- I mean, lows. The centerpeice, "The Daleks Master Plan" was excellent, but the latter half- and opener- a slump. There were also far more missing pieces this series, though that's hardly the fault of the series itself, but of the BBC decades later.

While there were some some truly dull stories this season to a greater degree than before, the production values and budget continued to increase- from effect extravaganza's like the Time Destructor scene or the destruction of the Toymaker's world to physical props and model work like the War Machines- and some excellent guest actors.

The series recieved some much-needed companion humor in the form of Steven's dry sarcasm and perplexed looks- after all, the Doctor can't bear the entire weight of the comedy in the series! It also had what I consider to be Who's finest comedic serial to date.

Overall, I'd rate this one lower than Series 2- but also sowing some seeds that can hopefully be expanded in the Second Doctor's golden age- whenever that may be- to make it even greater than the First's.

Doctor Who: The War Machines

Serial Title: The War Machines

Series: 3

Episodes: 4

Doctor: William Hartnell

Companions: Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane), Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills)

Synopsis:

Landing in modern-day (1966) London, the Doctor and Dodo set out to explore, marveling at the newly-completed futuristic Post Office Tower… from which the Doctor immediately senses a sinister presence. Traveling to it, he discovers the newly-activated WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue (Note From Sarah: I always think it's cheating when people just decide that TWO letters are going to be in the little 'acronym' thing or that one letter isn't going to stand at all because then the 'acronym' thing wouldn't SAY anything intelligible. ), a supercomputer with unprecedented intelligence, able to answer any question- including, disconcertingly, the meaning of the acronym ‘TARDIS’ without any external information. It is the brainchild of professor Brett, a brilliant young scientist. 

Hypnosis Collect- will you accept the mind-control?

As Brett’s secretary, Polly, takes Dodo out for a night on the town at the Inferno Nightclub (where they meet a handsome but somewhat depressed young navy sailor named Ben Jackson), the Doctor attends a press conference on WOTAN’s unveiling, attempting to determine more about the machine. However, Brett soon arrives in a strange, robotic state- disrupting the meeting and spiriting away his employer to go and see WOTAN. There, he is hypnotized by the powerful computer, just as Brett has been. Soon, due to a phone call to the Inferno Club (WOTAN can hypnotize via phone lines), Dodo is too- her line of questioning, and the Doctor’s, having intrigued the machine.

Ben and Polly, with Dodo in the background where she belongs

Ben chivalrously (but hot-headedly and violently) comes to Polly’s aid against an aggressive suitor, and the two begin to spend time together- soon looking for Dodo, who has disappeared. Meanwhile, WOTAN makes plans- Dodo is recruited to get the Doctor under WOTAN’s control, while the rapidly growing force of hypnotized humans is divided into labor forces, compelled to construct War Machines with which WOTAN can begin to conquer the Earth. A homeless man is killed by the War Machine workforce when he stumbles into their warehouse.

WOTAN: Supercomputer

Dodo attempts to lure the Doctor into hypnotism-by-phone, but his mysterious Blue Signet Ring (NFS: Say...how do you know it's Blue when it's in black and white?) once again saves him from the full effects of a hypnotic attack, and he recognizes the effects of hypnosis in Dodo (NFS: I don't claim to be a hypnotist authority...but I feel that it shouldn't work over the phone anyways.). Sitting her down in the chair, he uses his signet ring and his vocal command to reverse the hypnosis, putting Dodo in a deep healing sleep and leaving her in the care of one of his Earth allies to recover. (Remember this moment for later…)

Polly is taken, and the War Machines march on to completion… Ben, searching for Polly, stumbles into the warehouse, and is spared from death only to be co-opted by Polly into the labor force- a slave instead of a hypnotic ‘volunteer’ as she is. The War Machine’s weapons are tested on another hypnotized worker, and the machine nears completion- a deadly gas spray and a crushing metal battering-arm only a few of the myriad implements of death adorning it’s armored exterior. Propelled by tank-like treads, the War Machine prepares to go out and sow destruction upon unsuspecting London.

Polly is at least in control enough to fail to sound the alarm as she spots Ben escaping- nevertheless, he is spotted, and barely manages to escape… reaching the Doctor and revealing the War Machine’s location. The Doctor, aware that this is only one of many, readies the police, who raid the facility- and are slaughtered by the relentless War Machine as it activates. The Doctor alone holds his ground, standing in the middle of the road to confront it… the War Machine breaks down from a programming failure, having been activated before it was fully ready. Based on an examination of the Machine, the Doctor begins to work on a way to immobilize them.

War Machines are launched all throughout the area, and the Doctor prepares an electromagnetic trap of cable to paralyze the device- a trap that must be manually closed, a task Ben bravely volunteers for. The first active Machine is caged in by magnetized cables; it can’t escape, and the Doctor shuts it down- reprogramming the machine quickly, and then releasing it.

Ben charges to the Post Office Tower, WOTAN’s headquarters, and finds Polly- dragging her forcibly out just moments before the Doctor’s reprogrammed War Machine barrels in and attacks WOTAN, obliterating it, and freeing the victims of hypnosis from WOTAN’s control.

Later on, the Doctor stands outside the TARDIS, waiting for Dodo’s return… he is instead approached by Ben and Polly, who convey a farewell from the convalescing Dodo, who wishes to remain behind. The Doctor, outraged, incensed, and hurt, huffs angrily into the TARDIS as Ben and Polly leave. At the last moment, however, Ben remembers a dropped TARDIS key, fallen from the Doctor’s pocket as he confronted the first War Machine, which Ben had forgotten to return to him. He opens the TARDIS door with it, and he and Polly step inside to return the key… seconds later, the TARDIS dematerializes with them inside.

Review:

This one felt very different. An odd Season Finale (not necessarily intended to be, apparently)- it feels both epic (in it's high-quality, massive props and on-location shooting, which is so real as to make things seem almost unreal, in some ways) and small (in it's limited scope of storytelling up until the very end)- but I think the former feel dominates the latter. It's traditional sci-fi backed with a high budget. Does that equal a winning combination?

Well... besides appearing that they broke the bank on the War Machine props, with their gas-guns and weighted-stop-signs-of-doom, they also had an interesting concept- a computer whose spooky near-omniscience (How DID it know what TARDIS meant? They never explained that...) apparently doesn't extend to getting the Doctor's name right. Oh, and it uses phone-hypnosis to recruit an army to build war-machines to take over the world. It seemed like- barring the question of where it got hypnosis powers- a pretty plausible method for a non-mobile computer intelligence to gain control in the physical world... something sci-fi doesn't always pull off (I'm looking at you, Eagle Eye...). The real-world location of the Post Office Tower in London is so unique and well-designed, (NFS: It's the same building that they turned into a lightsaber for the Star Wars Blu Ray releases and now I can't look at it without thinking it looks like one) it looks like a sci-fi building cleverly inserted into the skyline seamlessly- an excellent location. And the credits people even got cute and added WOTAN to the end credits as himself.

On the other hand, certain bits felt a bit abrupt- most notably Dodo's departure, which I'll get into... the Doctor was underutilized- save for his excellent counter-hypnosis, brave stand against the advancing War Machine, and his supervising of a War Machine capture, it felt as if he didn't have much to do here- the emphasis being on Ben and Polly instead (a common theme for the rest of his episodes, due to Hartnell's declining health.) And a personal fascination of mine, the Doctor's blue signet ring, shown to be hypnosis-resistant and even counter-hypnosis capable, and presumably the cause of Hartnell's  resistance to WOTAN's mind control, barely gets a nod here.

Plus, as minor quibbles, half the folks seem to pronounce the villain's name, inexplicably, as "Votan"- not a little slur, but a very clear, conscious "V" sound... and WOTAN itself repeatedly refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Who" in dialogue, a careless and sloppy bit of writing. (Unless, like WOTAN's knowledge of the TARDIS acronym's meaning, it's supposed to be a fourth-wall-breaking indicator of WOTAN's mechanical omniscience- it knows better than any of the characters who he is- it knows what WE know about who he is! ...Or, "Who" he is, as the case may be.)

So, weighing the positives against the negatives? Yes, it seems that this does equal a winning combination. While I can honestly say I barely remember what goes on in the first half, before Ben's escape and the War Machine assault, the second half is a taught thriller with a ticking clock (though the events leading up to 'noon' seem, from the montages, to take place over the course of a few days, not a few hours- better editing could have helped this), aided in it's tension by the location filming, giving the impression that this impending War Machine invasion truly threatens "The Real World."

And what of characters? Newcomers Ben and Polly, who become companions at the episode's end, are both introduced- Polly as a flirty "Party girl" (a standard that soon falls away, in my opinion, to be replaced by a more traditional screaming-and-running, conscience-providing empathetic female companion archetype; while Polly does still show signs of strength and characterization bits unique to her, it still feels in many ways as if most of the scripts for Susan/Barbara, Vicki, Dodo, and Polly were written as the same character with a notation "Insert current female companion's name here."). And Ben as a more headstrong, take-charge type- young, strong, military-trained, and ready for action- very proactive but sometimes leaping without looking; a strong protagonist to take over center stage in coming serials when Hartnell was ill and could do less and less. (NFS: I think unfortunately a lot of the girl characters got a bad deal when it came to Doctor Who in the early days...I mean really you could transpose a lot of the early girl characters and it wouldn't even change much. Which is a reason why I liked the Third Doctor's first companion, Liz, because she actually broke a lot of the DW stereotypes for girl characters.)

Polly Wright, by the way, is of no relation to Barbara (though, wouldn’t that be a fun ret-con?)- simply a coincidental last name; and frankly, in all of time and space, is it so inconceivable that such a duplicating of last names in companions would occur? (NFS: Yes.)

Dodo, on the other hand... what can I say about Dodo? She has the worst exit ever devised- after her hypnosis in episode 2, the Doctor puts her into a deep sleep... and we never see her again! (The actress' contract ran out in the middle of this serial and she was let go.) At the end, we are simply told she's decided to stay and sends her love. That moment in the story I said to remember? Where’s she’s been de-hypnotized, has fallen asleep, and is left behind to recover as the Doctor heads out to search for the War Machines? That’s the last time we ever see her.

WHAT??!!?!

An example of how Dodo made us all feel.

Even for a poor companion like Dodo- and I will admit, she's grown on me, mainly due to The Gunfighters- this is a pathetic send-off; even written-out characters deserve a goodbye... Katarina got more of a farewell than this! To add insult to injury, the expanded universe is even harsher on Dodo- novels give her years of psychiatric treatments to recover from her ordeal in this serial, a brief marriage, and then a quick death in the path of a bullet fired by the Doctor's Arch-nemesis, the Master. And even in this serial, she hardly has any time onscreen that isn't as a hypnotized zombie. Yipes! I disliked the girl, but I didn't HATE her as much as the writers of this serial and the ongoing novels apparently did! Also, as opposed to defined companion happy endings (Ian and Barbara marry and have children, which they name after the Thals, Susan has further adventures, granchildren of her own, and visits from her grandfather's eighth incarnation) or unelaborated-but-assumed-to-be good futures (Vicki, Steven), this is the first companion (barring those killed onscreen, of course) shown to have an unhappy ending and a future of nothing but misery after leaving the Doctor. 

Well, uhhh... so long, Dodo. You were aptly named, and I wasn't a fan, but... you showed some growth, you occasionally amused, and you didn't deserve THAT!

(As a side-note, the actress, Jackie Lane, went on to become a theatrical agent, eventually representing one… Tom Baker. Doctor Who fans versed in obscure trivia may recognize the name.)

An interesting side-note, by the way- this story concludes on July 20^th, 1966. At the same time that the Doctor is facing down WOTAN and the War Machines in London, his second incarnation is in Gatwick Airport, dealing with the Chameleons (The Faceless Ones, next season), and the Daleks are stealing that TARDIS (the Evil of the Daleks)… meaning that the strange, cold feeling that the Doctor gets from the Post Office Tower, not unlike the feeling that he gets from the Daleks, may in retrospect not have been due to WOTAN after all… and the foiling of this plot an accidental and coincidental discovery based on the concurrent presence of the Daleks. Interesting thought. And also that, just as Ben and Polly are leaving here, they are arriving back at Gatwick, freshly unshrunk and unfrozen, to an uninterrupted timeline. If that sounds like a teaser for one of my favorite serials to date… it is! So stay tuned!

Actual representation of how epic and dramatic Dodo's leaving was.

So, conclusions... mostly concluded in the balance-weighing above. A very 'stock' story- but unlike the Savages, this one's a good one- alien hypnotic force, controlled workers, people who aren't people, secret human labor to build earth-conquering devices, an evil mastermind mainframe... add to that the location shootings, a pair of strong and uniquely characterized companions in Ben and Polly (who don't just feel like they're filling in the script-parts written for other characters, but have strong identities of their own) (NFS: Although you did just say earlier that while Polly started out unique she quickly became more of a write-in) (NFA: True... but not yet, and for that, she should still be lauded; in this serial, at least, she is unique.), and, while there may be a few flaws, I think we have a winner in this not-the-norm but well-done serial.

Great moments:

The Doctor’s stand against the War Machine, and his outrage at Dodo’s non-goodbye.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 Time Destructors- it just didn't blow me away, even though by all accounts above, it should be 4 or 5. Plus... poor Dodo. Still, a solid and entertaining story with a weird and spasmodic little set of opening titles.

Doctor Who: The Savages

Serial Title: The Savages

Series: 3

Episodes: 4

(Sadly, from this serial onwards, the episodes are no longer named! Just “Episode 1,” “Episode 2,” etc. I miss them already!!!)

Doctor: William Hartnell

Companions: Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane)

Synopsis:

The TARDIS arrives in… the future, at an unspecified date (aggravating for a blog-writer that likes to track these things) on an unspecified, un-named planet. (What the HECK?!?!?) The Doctor announces it to be an era on unparalleled peace, shortly before they are attacked by spear-wielding cavemen. They escape, and are taken by futuristic guards to a techno-utopia city (I smell class warfare! Sci-fi is unerringly communist in that way- if not everyone on the planet has the exact same conditions, warfare, social upheaval, and overturning are sure to follow by story’s end!) where the Doctor is greeted by the city elders, who have been monitoring his travels (How meta! They are a Doctor Who audience! Sliders did that somewhat better for its finale, I hear…) and were expecting his arrival. Gifts – a dagger and a mirror- are bestowed upon the companions, who are sent off to play while the grown-ups talk.

The Eloquent Jano

While the Doctor and the elders- led by the eloquent Jano- convene in long discussion, Steven and Dodo are given a tour of the city. During this, Dodo sees a captured and terrified cave-person being hauled into the city by the guards, but is dismissed as having imagined it. (This scenario, called Susan Syndrome, is a particularly malicious malady in which the group’s junior member, despite having never been wrong before, is instantly doubted- often over the word of strangers- as having imagined or made up what they have seen. Barbara Wright, early companion, was a particularly virulent victim, twice (An Unearthly Child, Keys of Marinus) accusing Susan of imagining things that SHE HERSELF SAW OR WAS CURRENTLY SEEING AS WELL. However, if one looks throughout sci-fi and films in general, Susan Syndrome is widespread. The command staff of the Enterprise-D was particularly hard hit during TNG’s first season, towards Wesley Crusher. It is especially prevalent in the Disney universe and children’s fantasy films, infecting those surrounding nearly every child exposed to the supernatural. In addition, a mutated offshoot known as Monk-Cadfael-Marple Disease has been known to cause local police and authorities to repeatedly doubt, question, and mock the observations of a sleuth possessing a 100% accuracy rate in all past deductions, every single time. …Okay, no more putting it off. Back to the mediocrity.)

Dodo slips out and encounters a half-dead caveman stumbling out of a laboratory. Here, the Utopian society receives its great benefits- and not from Solar Flares, as originally believed- using paralysis/obedience-compelling Light Guns, the cave-men are captured and brought to the city, where their life force is drained (never to the point of death) which is used to power the city and invigorate its citizens. The half-dead cave-men are released back into the wild to recuperate so that they can be re-captured and ‘harvested’ again.

Dodo attempts to help Nanina, a female cave-person, but is mistaken for one of the victims, and nearly life-drained… but her fighting back reveals her as an outsider (the cave-people have long-since been drained of the will to resist) and she is escorted back to the Doctor. His delight at this enlightened society turns to disgust when the life-draining methodology of the citizens’ prosperity is revealed. (NFS (Note from Sarah): I have to say...this episode sounds really weird but...I cannot remember a single second of it!!!!)

The group departs for the TARDIS, but the Doctor stops to help the half-dead savage (having come a long way from wanting to brain the last one he encountered with a rock), giving him medicine from the TARDIS, but is taken hostage by Edal, leader of the guards. Back in the city, leader Jano decides to drain the Doctor’s life energy- ‘nobly’ having it all transferred into him to test its safety. The Doctor’s half-dead body is released, but Jano himself has begun to take on an oddly Doctorish personality, set of mannerisms, and, most difficultly for him, morality.

Dodo and Steven, meanwhile, have returned with the injured cave-man, Wylda- there encountering Nanina, the female from before, as well as tribe leader Chal, and traditional “I don’t like their face, boss… let me kill ‘em!” second-in-command Tor (or Gaston-Zentos-Tor, to his friends. Of which there aren’t any…)- an antagonistic brute who wants to kill Steven and Dodo, and is rebuffed by Chal. So, he… demands to do so again. In fact, for the remainder of the review, mentally insert “Tor says that they should kill Steven and Vicki” after every sentence, and it will come out about right. Tor says that they should kill Steven and Vicki. That will be quicker than me typing it every time. Tor says that they should kill Steven and Vicki. The cavemen lead them into the… well, caves- their home base, and the one place that the city-dwellers fear to go. Tor says that they should kill Steven and Vicki. Chal shows them the wounded recovering. Tor says that they should kill Steven and Vicki. Okay, I think that’s got you started… ready to take over on your own? Tor says that they should… you finish the sentence on your own this time. And don’t forget- after EVERY SENTENCE for complete accuracy to this story. (Yes, I’m doing whatever I can to make this story entertaining, and mostly, that means talking about something OTHER THAN THIS STORY.) Meanwhile, Exorse, a chief guard, arrives outside and demands their surrender.

Eventually, Exorse comes in after them (Tor insisting they be killed for causing this trouble the entire way), initiating a cat-and-mouse in the dark that ends when Steven turns one of the city’s gifts, a small mirror, back on them- reflecting the Light Gun rays back at Exorse long enough to overtake him and steal his weapon. Exorse is made a captive (guess what Tor wants done to him? Go on, I’ll give you three tries…) and Steven takes his new weapon to break into the city. There, Steven and Dodo find the Doctor’s wandering body, but in trying to escape, are trapped. However, the Doctor’s persona again overtakes Jano and he manipulates the trap at the last moment to allow their escape- in secret, of course. Back at the caves, Tor urges the other to try and kill the captive guard Exorse, and even tries to do so himself, but the guard- the same one that had captured Nanina- is defended by her, much to his gratitude. She treats her captive as a human, something he failed to do when their positions were reversed.

The Doctor’s body is brought to the caves, and a dose of the TARDIS-medicine helps him to recover… meanwhile, a group of guards led by Edal, and accompanied by Jano, pursue them into the foothills. Jano dispatches his guards back to the city, announcing that he will handle the prisoners- suspicious, Edal leaves under protest. Under cover of darkness, Jano slips into the cave- laboring under the Doctor’s conscience, he agrees with the now-recovered Doctor’s plan- the life-transference equipment must be destroyed and the practice abolished.

Exorse manages to escape, but Nanina pursues him- intercepting him before he reaches the city, and pleading with him on the evidence of his own eyes not to interfere- he has seen that the savages are people, and he owes her his life; he should also know that the life-transference incidents must end.

He runs off without answering.

In the city, Edal claims command in the absence of Jano, whom he believes (rightly so) to be compromised, and the testimony of the scientist who performed the transference and noted Jano’s odd behavior seems to corroborate this. Exorse, however, freshly arrived, provides a counter-testimony, claiming Jano’s competence and not revealing the savages’ plan.

The Doctor and Jano lead a raiding party composed of Steven, Dodo, and the cave-people into the city. Encountering the coup-in-progress, Jano re-asserts his authority by claiming that he has captured the group he leads as prisoners. He wrests power back from Edal and orders the laboratory sealed… than allows all within it to run amuck, smashing the equipment and trashing the instruments of oppression, as Edal- proved right- and the guards, sealed out of the laboratory, can only watch helplessly. Even Exorse joins in to smash the equipment. Edal breaks in and attempts to intervene, attacking the leadership- but Steven saves all present by disabling him with a Light Gun.

In the aftermath, Jano and his new conscience agrees with Chal that it is time for both peoples to live in harmony, and for the technological benefits of the city to be shared with the savages. However, for the two people to become one, there will need to be a mediator, a neutral party that both sides trust to arbitrate and guide them through what will undoubtedly be a rocky and difficult process. Steven, seen as a hero by both sides (for saving the savages from Exorse in the caves, and for saving Jano and the elders in the laboratory) is chosen as that man. Though he initially protests, the Doctor encourages him, knowing that Steven can handle this… and the 23^rd Century ex-pilot accepts, lead off half-boldly and half-haplessly to begin his new life as leader, and healer, of the planet. (NFS: Seriously? This episode was Steven's last and I didn't even remember it? Must have been a really boring story then...)

Review:

In making my notes for this blog, I typed a single sentence- "Trite, a bit predictable, maybe stretched."

Yep, that's about it.

The first episode-title-less wonder is about as forgettable as can be, save for the finale- don't get me wrong; it's no Sensorites or Galaxy 4... but it just doesn't have all that much to recommend it.

The story is very predictable. Were it not for a few scattered gems, and Steven's departure, this would probably be almost forgotten by the public at large. Plus, it's all missing- so 100% reconstruction (minus a few little clips). Is it just me, or are Edal and Tor essentially counterparts of each-other… leadership-usurping, closed-minded kill-the-strangers archetypes in the mold of Gaston, Zentos, and a thousand others- while I am especially irked by, and tired of, this archetype… it is interesting how they parallel each other by having one on each opposing side in this story… both rendered irrelevant and unheeded by peace at the ending of the story, spinning them into Cold-War allegory models reminiscent of Star Trek VI… long before Cold War reconciliation was a palatable concept!

The aforementioned gems are: The excellent impression of the Doctor performed by Fredrick Jaeger, which really steals the show and is an absolute highlight (NFS: Probably would have been even more a highlight if you could have actually seen him moving! Even so I think it's a testament to his talent that him acting like the Doctor was conveyed just through sound.), and the 'smashing' ending in which the life-force-draining laboratory was smashed (I hope the life-forces didn't just fade away then, and could be restored to their original hosts)- not only cathartic, but also amusing, as several characters stand there in the midst of the chaos having a calm, simple discussion in the eye of the storm, as if they were standing in a lounge, as the lab is torn apart around them. (NFS: ...Now I want to watch "The Great Race"! :-D)

Other than that, the only other noteworthy item- Steven's departure, seemed rushed, uninspired, and un-foreshadowed- while not necessarily an unpleasant fate, it felt dreamed-up-at-the-last-moment and meaningless- unlike his departure in The Massacre, which carried some real dramatic weight. This one had no weight, no meaning, no motivation, no tie-in to the character, no connection, no emotion- nothing! While I'd like to have kept Steven around a while longer (I'd be interested to see how he'd respond to the Second Doctor), if he was going to depart, The Massacre's scene was the equivalent of the first episode of Space Museum, or The Rescue, or the Keys of Marinus- and the departure scene here is Galaxy-Freakin'-4. (And both are in bloody stills!)

I will also say that I liked the sympathy-for-the-captured-guard bit- it was well done (genuine sympathy showing these to be good people, minus the blockheaded Tor), but not over-the-top ("We are to be wed next week- the first union of our two peoples!" as the ending scene, as some shows like the original Star Trek might have done.) And Nanina rightly leverages on that sympathy to try and prevent a genocide- we tend not to think of "You owe me!" as an especially heroic behavior in our characters- but it felt especially realistic as it was justified, crucial, and everything hung in the balance of this guard's decision. This little Androcles-and-the-Lion subplot was more compelling than the by-the-numbers, cliched, predictable plot it was enmeshed in. And Nanina was the strongest female character Who had seen since Barbara ascended the Aztec throne (a shot, her first seating in Yetaxa's judgement chair, which was so iconic that it remains clearly in my head as Barbara's 'head shot' default image to this day, over a year after last seeing it.)

As for Tor... well, if Hartnell's First Doctor had still wanted to smash a caveman's head in with a rock (as he nearly did in a cold-blooded scene in An Unearthly Child, before his character had really been established), I for one wouldn't object, and I suspect Dodo and Steven could be persuaded to look the other way for a while... Man, that guy was annoying! (And also very, VERY cliche- the second-in-command that defies his superior so often you wonder how he lasted in the position this long, and who only exists to LITERALLY advocate the wrong position in every single choice facing the characters, and to drum up false tension as he tries to turn the people against the visiting main characters and the leader allied with them. This character had actually been already used in approximately 3,284 movies by the time that the phonograph was invented. He was already a tired, cliche character by the time that the Jazz Singer ushered in the era of talkies. STOP WRITING THIS CHARACTER INTO STORIES!!! I DON'T LIKE HIM!!!!!)

The Doctor is a bit naive in this one, but otherwise unremarkable- Jano, giving an impression of him, stands out far more than he does. As an interesting note, however, it has been suggested that this life-force drain, along with his hyper-aging exposure to the Dalek Time Destructor in The Daleks Master Plan, each took several hundred years off of his life, and their combined exposure conspired to leave the First Doctor severely weakened, leading to his forthcoming regeneration. Without these events, he might have had another 600-800 years as Hartnell, but as it stands, he was cut short in his prime as cruelly as his successor, Troughton (we'll get there eventually)... cruelly robbed of his life in a manner completely separate from the average consequences-of-life-and-death heroics that caused the regeneration of his later incarnations. Thus, in his extremely frail state- literally hundreds of years older at the end of this serial than he was in Galaxy 4, the Series 3 season premiere, just 'days' before, it didn't take much to push him over the edge, into the regeneration we'll be covering soon. A pity Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor had no such excuse for his pathetic regeneration. (And yes, it will be a LONG time before this blog explains that joke!)

Steven was... practically subliminal here, doing next to nothing... making it all the more insulting as his departure episode. This serial really gives him the short straw in so many ways- it would be like Star Trek having Spock's Brain as Leonard Nimoy's swan song, or Sub Rosa as a sendoff for Gates McFadden. Or Shades of Grey as a sendoff for Pula- oh....wait...Well, at least in her case, a lousy character deserved a lousy sendoff.

 
I think Steven was anything but a lousy character- I would say he might well be my favorite companion yet (possibly vying with strong candidates Ian and, surprisingly, Vicki, for the role), and definitely in the Top 3 of the First Doctor's companions. He was funny, smart, had the same intellectual/moral peer-of-the-Doctor that was such a refreshing dynamic in New Who with Donna Noble's tenure as companion- a willingness to challenge the Doctor on questionable points, a gung-ho attitude, and a great sense of humor. A great actor and a great role- farewell, Steven; you deserved a far better send-off, and you will be missed!

Dodo, meanwhile, was a bit more active than usual, but... she really returns to the background of obscurity here- though at least she's not actively unlikeable, as she was in The Ark.

As for the reconstruction... PLEASE TAKE NOTE: WE DID NOT SEE A LOOSE CANNON RECONSTRUCTION. We are trying to track it down at present. Thus, while I will rate and discuss the reconstruction, please do not take this rating in comparison or as a comment towards the other reconstructions mentioned in this blog- THIS LOUSY RECONSTRUCTION IS NOT A BLACK MARK AGAINST LOOSE CANNON, AS WE HAVEN'T SEEN THEIRS YET!!!!

That said... yeah, it was pretty poor. Grainy, smudgy, blurred telesnaps with a muddy audio and, essentially, a running transcript. It did it's job of keeping us in the loop- which is good, as the minimalist images and the terrible audio quality wouldn't have!

Great moments:

The lab smashing. Jano’s Hartnell impressions. And the confrontation between Exorse and Nanina- a small but pivotal, tense, well-written exchange.

Rating:

Overall, 1.5 Time Destructors out of 5 for an uninspired story, raised from the scrap heap by a gem of an impersonation and a few good moments. 0.5 out of 5 for the Butterfly Productions reconstruction, about which the nicest thing that I can say is that it kept us informed. (NFS: Though to be fair, we are thankful to them for even doing it in the first place, otherwise we wouldn't have known what the heck was going on or we just wouldn't have been able to 'watch' this episode in the first place....not everyone can be Loose Canon! :)

Serial Title: The Gunfighters

Series: 3

Episodes: 4

A Holiday For The Doctor

Don’t Shoot The Pianist

Johnny Ringo

The O.K. Corral

Doctor: William Hartnell

Companions: Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane)

Synopsis:

The TARDIS arrives in Tombstone, Arizona, 1881- just outside of the OK Corral. So you know what’s coming next.

Dodo is enthralled, an enthusiast of the Wild West. Steven is absurd, dressing about as well for the period as Marty McFly in Back To The Future III. The Doctor is in pain. Bothered by a toothache, he goes to Doc Holliday, the local dentist- and through a series of misunderstandings, is mistaken by the Clantons (who have never seen the real Holliday) for the outlaw-turned-dentist that they intend to kill for the death of their brother. Doc Holliday and his fiancé, the saloon singer Kate, are aware of the misunderstanding, and more than happy to let the Doctor die in his place.

As sheriff Wyatt Earp tries to keep order- eventually arresting the Doctor for his own safety after the Doctor is forced by Kate to fake holding up the Clantons (aided by sharpshooting from the unseen Holliday, which is attributed to the Doctor) things come to a head in the Last Chance Saloon. Steven is forced to sing for the Clantons’ amusement, then nearly lynched- a Clanton is jailed in the attempt… and an Earp is killed in springing him.

Dodo goes to confront the real Holliday, and is kidnapped, taken out of town… meanwhile, gunslinger and cold-blooded murderer Johnny Ringo comes into town, also looking for Holliday, and falls in with the Clantons.He is a crack-shot that never misses (a skill clearly bequeathed to him by Solar Flares). As an old flame of Kate’s, he kidnaps her, along with Steven, taking the two to the Clanton ranch.

As the Doctor’s mistaken identity is confirmed, and Dodo forces Holliday to return her to Tombstone, a final confrontation is set a-brewing… Holliday, Earp, and his brother against the remaining Clantons and Ringo, in a showdown at the O.K. Corral. The Doctor acts as emissary, trying to prevent the coming bloodshed, but the Clantons are not to be dissuaded.

The gunfight does indeed occur at the O.K. Corral. The Clantons are killed- Dodo taken as a hostage by Ringo, but killed by Holliday’s concealed sleeve-gun- and the TARDIS crew departs the wild west for good.

Review:

The Gunfighters follows in the mold of The Romans and The Myth Makers as a comedic historical episode. While (to spoil my conclusions right up front) I find it more successful than the former and less so than the latter, this one is unique in that its humor is split right down the middle- half of it comes from intentional jokes… and the other from entirely unintentional humor.

The story- involving the Doctor being mistaken for Doc Holiday- is both whimsical and dead-serious; in the mold of the New Who episode ‘Midnight,’ at times this feels like the Doctor’s greatest threat- a bunch of ordinary men with guns and short tempers seem more menacing than the Daleks ever did, and more likely to bring the Doctor’s journeys through time and space to a permanent end than any monsters ever did.

The story is laughable at times- especially the accents, which are largely provided by British actors trying, and very badly failing, to affect a southern accent, over-top of their own especially-prominent and noticeable British accents.

There are also laughs of disbelief, along with agonized groans and expressions of aggravated frustration at the serial's soundtrack... there is no incidental music save for the occasional break-ins of the repetitive "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon," a piano-accompanied western tune that half sets the mood for, half breaks-the-fourth-wall-and-narrates, events for the story. For example:

So fill up your glasses

And join in the song

The Law's right behind you

And it won't take long.

So come, you coyotes,

And howl at the moon

Till there's blood upon the sawdust

In "The Last Chance" Saloon.

AND

So it's curtains for Charlie

That barman of fame

He met Johnny Ringo

And he knew Johnny's name.

He knew Johnny's name

And he spoke it out loud

Now Charlie the barman

Has gotten a shroud.

AND, most absurdly pedantic:

Johnny Ringo has found her

Johnny Ringo's found Kate

The gunslinger's got her

Now what is her fate?

Johnny Ringo has seen her

She's coming his way

Johnny Ringo and Katie

Were lovers, they say.

This is a very small sampling.

The first time, it's haunting. (Note From Sarah:....it's haunting???) The third, repetitive. The fifth, obnoxious. The tenth, utterly unbelievable. From then on, it alternates between unbelievably annoying and utterly hilarious as it JUST KEEPS COMING BACK. It is literally the only music for 4 half-hour episodes. You cannot truly picture the effect of this unless you see and hear it for yourself. Trust me.

Still, there was a great deal of well-done intentional humor, as well- especially when the angry Clantons force Steven, posing as a musician, to sing the aforementioned ballad for them at gun point, despite his protestations ("Come on, fellas, I've sung it four times already!") finally singing through gritted teeth... I intend to make that my ring-tone. (Steven and Dodo sure are excellent professional piano players who don't make a single mistake... especially for amateurs!) Likewise, the Doctor's repeated referring to Wyatt Earp as "Mr. Werp"- and his accidental hold-up, as the real Doc Holiday, shooting behind the scenes, leaves the Doctor with no choice but to hold up the Clantons with a six-shooter... and having no idea what to do with them afterwards.

The bits with Dodo and Holliday felt like padding to extend the running time and needlessly separate the characters simply so they couldn't leave. In other words, like an average episode of Lost.

The mistaken identity bits, however, climaxing in the rather tense and exciting lynching of Steven, and Charlie the Barman's ironic frantic arrival to tell them they had the wrong Doc Holliday just moments after every thing's been resolved, are all very enjoyable, however. And the climactic showdown at the OK Corral is interesting, well-executed, and just well-sprinkled enough with the companions to keep it relevant while not stretching credulity at the extent of their involvement in the affair. The final ballad, panning over the bodies of the dead Clantons, was one of the few effective uses of it in the serial (Along with the first rendition over shots of cowboys riding into town), and an excellent moment in it's own right.

As for historical accuracy, I encourage you to look up accounts of the fight yourself, but... suffice it so say, it's not even CLOSE.

This was, having over-reviewed the rest of Series 3, probably the one strong serial for Dodo, who is not annoying and has some excellent moments in this one... this serial is really her serial. She has an interesting fascination with the old west, a great strong- and funny- moment in which she holds up Doc Holliday with his own gun, and her crucial interruption ups the stakes of the final showdown (as the audience is suddenly involved via a main character, instead of simply watching historical-figure guest stars duke it out)- overall, she comes across very strongly here. I actually LIKED her in this one.

Steven doesn't have a lot to do other than being bounced around helplessly from one predicament to the next, but he does get the funniest moment in the story- the aforementioned singing-at-gunpoint- and several other great humorous bits sprinkled throughout.

The Doctor, meanwhile, is very amusing in this one- going from mastery of the situation (inventing aliases and cover stories, including a "Doctor who?" "Yes, exactly." joke, off the top of his head- though why, oh why, does he insist on calling her Dodo, a nickname, instead of the less eyebrow-raising, more period-normal Dorothy?) to hapless dupe (encountering the Clantons in the saloon- his performance when forced to pretend to hold up the Clantons must be seen to be believed- it's priceless, Hartnell was in top form!) And while he ends up, like Steven, bounced from place to place throughout the story, he does so with a very endearing manner and a dry wit, leaving a very positive impression.

Likewise, we have some very interesting guest stars- aside from the aforementioned British Cowboy Clantons, we had a fun and somewhat layered Doc Holliday, as a scalawag, rapscallion, and, in Star Wars parlance, scoundrel, who was enjoyable to watch. We had Johnny Ringo, a mustache-twirlingly sinister gunman with a pleasant manner, and we had the voice of the Daleks putting in an excellent on-camera turn as the nervous barman, Charlie, who, along with Doc Holliday, had some of the best guest-character moments of the serial.

Overall, the story was... meandering, in retrospect, but didn't seem it while watching (a good sign... although the same could be said for my first viewing of Attack of the Clones- a BAD sign...), and it had some great moments and good laughs- sandwiched between an obnoxious-to-the-point-of-hilarity ballad and some horrific accents (NFS: Although I thought the horrific accents were one of the better parts of this serial...kind of entertaining :-D). One's thing's for sure, though... this was, contemporarily, the lowest Audience-Appreciation-rated serial yet to date in 32 years of programming- and it didn't deserve that. In fact, numbers for ratings and viewership from here through the end of the Hartnell era were extraordinarily low. Some of those serials might merit that- but this one most assuredly didn't.

Lastly, before we get to ratings, there are a few historical notations important to this serial that I'd be remiss not to mention. First off, this was the final serial of the entire series to have individual episode titles. From here on out, it's just "The Insidious Brain, Episode 1" and "Hygiene of the Daleks, Epsiode 4" (thus, this episode-listing feature will be discontinued from here on out.) It's a pity- overdramatic as they were (2009's 10th Doctor serial "Planet of the Dead" being named in stylistic homage to them), I enjoyed them. (NFS: I agree, it felt special having a different title to every episode, plus it made your mind wonder what was coming to merit such a title...I miss the individual titles :( I also was the kind of person who liked chapter titles for books but they rarely do that anymore either)

Second of all, "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" holds the distinction of being the last originally-composed song for Doctor Who for the next 40 years, until Murray Gold's "Song for Ten" ushered in David Tennant's 10th Doctor on Christmas Day, 2005. (A golden era of music that looks as if it may, sadly, have ended three years later with 2008's "The Stowaway" on Christmas Day- a grand and wonderful finale to be sure, but we want more songs, Murray Gold! Give Matt Smith some songs! NOW!!!)  (Note from Andrew of 2011: Your request will be granted, Andrew of 2010. Just be patient!)

Great moments:

The actual showdown doesn’t disappoint, and Steven’s Ballad-at-gunpoint is hilarious.

Rating:

So... How the heck do I rate this? Praise it for where it made me laugh? Pan it for driving me insane with it's incessant, insipid song (which, I will remind you, was the ONLY INCIDENTAL MUSIC IN THE ENTIRE FOUR-PART SERIAL)?

In the end, The Gunfighters recieves 3 out of 5 Time Destructors, for 4-Time Destructor-level writing mired by some unfortunate- THAT FRICKIN' SONG!!!!- flaws.

And I'm still making Steven's whining my ringtone. (NFS: Note from the future....he did make it his ringtone...and it still is.)