Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 124: The O.K. Corral (The Gunfighters, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

The big draw of this episode, of course, was always going to be the gunfight. I don't know all that much about the 'Wild' West, but I know enough to understand that in a Western film, the O.K. Corral is associated with a big fight. I also understand enough about Doctor Who in this period to know that it'll either be a triumph or a real letdown.

Thankfully, it comes out as the former. It doesn't hurt that it's all been done on film, and therefor instantly looks better than it could have done in Riverside studios. The real star of the gunfight surely has to be Doc Holliday, who really comes into his own here. Throughout the story, he's been used as a kind of comic relief. From pulling the Doctor's tooth in Episode One, through to being 'held up' by Dodo in yesterday's episode, he's never really carried too much of a threat.

And yet we keep having characters turn up to seek revenge against him for being a cold killer. The story opens with the Clantons out to get him, and Johnny Ringo joins in at the halfway point. We've seen the Doc kill before now and he spent some time at the start of the tale manipulating people into thinking that our Doctor was him, so that people could shoot first and he'd slip away scott-free.

Here, though, we finally get to see some of his true personality. During the gunfight, he's cooler than Johnny Ringo! We even get to see that demonstrated when he kills the man. The whole sequence is well played, and really tense - it's everything that you'd expect from a Western gunfight. It's almost a shame that the Doctor doesn't keep Holliday's 'Wanted' poster, though. I like the idea that he'd have kept it hung up in the TARDIS somewhere.

Speaking of the Doctor, I've yet to mention just how good he looks in this story. His costume has always been about right for this era, but it's surprising how much the addition of a stetson and a Sheriff's badge makes it look spot-on. It could have been designed especially for this story and it wouldn't look out of place. It's also surprising how comfortable the Doctor looks in the Old West. There's a moment in the Sheriff's office where he's leaning against a pillar and he looks more cool and relaxed than I think we've ever seen him.

On the whole, it's fair to say that this story easily defies its long-standing reputation as 'The Worst Doctor Who Story Ever'. With the exception of Episode Two (which may have just been an off-day for me), I've been hooked right the way through. There's been a perfect mix of comedy and drama, and it really does surprise me that it took them until last year's A Town Called Mercy to return to this type of setting - it suits the programme so well! It's the kind of place I can imagine the series going in the 1980's very easily, and I'm a bit saddened that it never happened!

Perhaps most notably, though, this is the last time in the classic run that the series uses individual titles for each episode! I have to admit that I've never really thought all that much of them: it was just something that the programme did for the first couple of years, and then dropped out of doing. Having actually watched all these episodes like this… I've realised how much I like having the individual titles! It adds something fun to the end of the episodes, and I'm going to be missing those 'Next Episode' captions.

But for today, we do have a 'Next Episode' caption, so for the last ('official') time…

Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages

Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 123: Johnny Ringo (The Gunfighters, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

One of the things that often seems to be cited for people disliking The Gunfighters is the singing narration. I can't say it's really been bothering me too much (if anything, it adds a certain amount of character, and certainly makes the story stand out!), but today's episode is starting to try my patience with the idea - there's an awful lot of recapping everything we've just watched.

This episode is also home to the best use of the singing narration, though. It comes once we've seen Charlie the barman shot, and the narration plays out over a shot of his lifeless body slumped across the bar. The camera pulls back slowly from the image, toward the top of the stairs. It really leaves Charlie's death to linger, in a way that many in the series don't.

His death, along with that of Warren at the end, and one of Doc Holliday's 'old friends' off screen really paint a picture of the Wild West being a dangerous place - just as dangerous as any alien planet that the TARDIS might land on. It's great to see this, and I have to admit that I'm enjoying the period more than I thought I would - I've never been the biggest fan of Westerns (there's nothing wrong with them, I've just never been all that keen), but this one is really drawing me in.

It helps, I think, that the sets are so nice. I think I'm right in saying that this was the first time a Western of this scale was mounted as a fully studio-bound production in the UK, but I don't think you can tell. The style of the piece certainly feels like a stereotypical Western, and all the right boxes are being ticked. The only thing I could take issue with is that the hotel the Doc, Kate, and Dodo stay at has a corridor set that's near identical to one from a Fawlty Towers story. That doesn't half lower the tension.

Praise also has to be given to the man this episode takes its name from - Johnny Ringo. He's, again, fairly stereotypical as a 'bad' cowboy, dressed head-to-toe in black, strolling into the Last Chance Saloon and lighting his cigarette over one of the lamps. He says very few words to begin with, but it's enough to leave Charlie quivering in his presence… and then he shoots him dead anyway.

He's arrived in the tale at just the right moment, in time to perk things up for me a bit when things were in danger of dragging on. He brings with him a new backstory for Kate, and a new angle towards the various vendettas against Doc Holliday. The next episode's title gives a good indication as to what's coming, but I must confess that, as has often been the case with historicals of late, I've not got much knowledge of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Frankly, anything could happen and I'd be none the wiser.

Next Episode: The O.K. Corral

Next Episode: The O.K. Corral 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 122: Don't Shoot the Pianist (The Gunfighters, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

I think The Gunfighters is going to be one of those odd ones where I don't quite know what to make of it. Yesterday's episode was pretty good, and I enjoyed it, but today… I just couldn't really get into it. In the end, I watched the first 15 minutes a bit half-heartedly, went away for an hour or so before dragging myself back to finish the episode off. I don't know what happened, but it did the trick - I was really caught up in the last ten minutes of the story!

There's still an awful lot to like about all of this - Peter Purves is still on top form playing up the comedy in the situation. His American accent may not be great, but it's fun enough to listen to, and it's a darn sight better than many of the others that we've got on display. It's a shame that Dodo isn't being given much to do, though. She spends most of this episode locked up in her hotel room asking questions to further the plot quicker.

Actually, while I've briefly mentioned it… why have they got hotel rooms? The TARDIS is parked just up the street, and at the point yesterday that they decided to book them there was nothing preventing them from returning to the ship. It also came before the Doctor decided that this could be something of a holiday, so it's not as though they'd made an active choice to stay outside the ship. Not that it really matters, of course, but it just seems like an odd excuse to give Dodo her hiding place.

I'm growing to quite like the guest cast in all this, too. Doc Holliday was good enough yesterday during the scene where he pulled the Doctor's tooth (are Time Lord teeth just like human ones? I guess they must be…), but he continues to be great here. Praise especially to the moment he comes down the stairs of the Last Chance Saloon, admits that he's the Doc, and shoots a cowboy. It's moments like that one that helped to bring me back into it toward the end of the episode.

Wyatt Earp is making less of an impression on me (and it doesn't help that every time he turns up on screen, I can't help but wonder why his 'Alien Attax' card is so much more common than the others. I must have about ten of him!), but he's providing a nice sounding board for Hartnell. There's some great dialogue for the Doctor again today ('People keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn't!'), and Hartnell gets to pull a priceless facial expression over the closing credits.

For now, I'm willing to say that I still disagree with the 'worst story ever' moniker (really, Jeremy? Worse that The Space Museum? Really?), but I'm hoping that the second half is as engaging as the latter part of today's episode - I don't want this to be one of those tales that becomes a struggle to enjoy.

Next Episode: Johnny Ringo

Next Episode: Johnny Ringo 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 121: A Holiday for the Doctor (The Gunfighters, Episode One)

Dear diary,

“To the pain that is a toothache,
the Doctor's not immune,
Now there'll be blood upon the sawdust,
at the Last Chance Saloon”

Ah, The Gunfighters. The worst Doctor Who story of all time. That's the common thinking, isn't it? The story was pretty much declared as the worst in the mid-70s (based on low viewing figures, I believe) and that label has kind of stuck over the years. As with much of Season Three, I've never seen it, so I'll be making my mind up as I go along over the next few days.

It has to be said, if we're basing things on this first episode alone, we're far from scraping rock bottom. We're firmly back in comedy territory now, and it works. It's hard to believe that this is the same show that only a handful of episodes back gave us something dark like The Massacre - we've swung wildly in another direction here.

There's humour to be found almost from the off, with Steven and Dodo thrilled by where they've landed. It's nice to see that, actually, as it's become rare of late. Often, the format this year has been 'Where are we Doctor? Oh really? Let's get on with the adventure, then!'. The reaction here puts me in mind of Barbara's happiness at meeting Marco Polo, or finding herself in an Aztec temple - it helps to make the companions seem real.

Dodo's pretty quick to go an raid the TARDIS wardrobe again (though Steven's gone for something pretty outlandish today, too), and it seems more-and-more as though that's her gimmick. She models the outfits available to the discerning time/space traveller. It seems an odd thing to say, but I like that they actively have to go and change once they realise where they are - it, again, makes it feel like they're exploring rather than just being dumped down somewhere and heading off to take part in the story.

In the End of the Line documentary on this DVD, Peter Purves comments that he “hated [The Gunfighters] so much” when they were making it (though he's changed his mind since then). It seems strange, because he's on fine form here. Steven tries so hard to fit in as a rough, tough cowboy, but he's constantly undermined when he trips over his spurs, or the step to the Saloon. Purves is given a chance to be really quite funny here, and that's nice to see.

The same can be said for Jackie Lane - this might be the best we've seen from her so far. I think it's fair to say that Dodo is even more useless than you remember while playing the Toymaker's games in The Celestial Toymaker, so it's nice to see her given more of a chance to shine here. The song that Steven and Dodo perform at the end of the episode (one of the things people often complain about in relation to the story) is fantastically fun, and the pair are working really well together.

Hartnell's being given plenty of comedy here, too, and it's fun to watch him during his encounter at the dentist. It's not been all that long since I spent a few days dealing with a dreadful toothache, so I can quite easily sympathise with the Doctor's pain. My notes for the episode are filled with little bits from that dentist scene that I could quote at you, but let's just say that I really enjoyed it.

One quote I can't let pass without mention though is his comment to Steven and Dodo in regards to their cover stories: “You can't walk in to a Western town and say you're from Outer Space!” - Love it.

Next Episode: Don't Shoot the Pianist

Next Episode: Don't Shoot the Pianist