Day Fifty-Eight: The Powerful Enemy (The Rescue, Episode One)

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

Day Fifty-Eight: The Powerful Enemy (The Rescue, Episode One)

Dear diary,

Oh, this feels strange and new and exciting! It's possible that it's because I've just come from six days of the decade-old Dalek Invasion of Earth DVD, and it's great to be back to a vidFIREd episode. Things look so crisp!

After the huge scale of the last story, this feels like things are swinging in the complete opposite direction. We're entirely studio-bound again, with a tiny cast and a minimal number of sets. That's not a criticism, though: it all works quite well for the most part, and in some ways it's nice to have a story like this again.

The biggest issue that I have with it is that I've been a Doctor Who fan for about ten years, now, so I know how this story ends. I know the secrets about Koquillion (which I'll come to tomorrow), so it's hard to watch this story without having that in mind. For now though, it's worth pointing out that the Koquillion design is actually really good.

I mean, yes, it's a bit bizarre, but that's the kind of thing that Doctor Who is very very good at. That first shot of him, in close-up outside the TARDIS is really very striking, and it's no wonder Barbara is scared away from him. I'm less keen on the jewelled spanner he's using as a weapon, though. That's a bit naff.

One of the things that's impressed me the most about the story so far, though, is the continuity with the end of the last serial. The departure of Susan is a big moment in the history of the show, and it's really nice to see it being talked about rather than just moving on. Barbara tells Ian that it's not the kind of thing that the Doctor will just move on from - which is exactly the way he deals with a fair few companion departures later in the show's run.

Something else that works well in this regard is that the Doctor has yet to meet Vicki. Barbara has encountered her, and that's allowed us into her world and to fill in her backstory, but for the Doctor, there's no one in sight to replace Susan. As the programme goes on, it almost feels like a revolving door, with one companion leaving in story A and the next arriving in story B. Here is feels real and continues to sell the idea of the show as a continuing serial.

Also, is this the first story since An Unearthly Child that doesn't feature a scene inside the TARDIS before we catch up with the TARDIS crew? The Dalek Invasion of Earth had the Roboman walking into the river, but I think we usually get a chat with the crew before we meet any actual guest cast, don't we?

There's little else to add for this one (though I'm tempted to highlight the Doctor's sense of humour in this episode. His exchange with Barbara - 'Doctor! The trembling's stopped!' / 'Oh, my dear, I'm so glad you're feeling better!' - as being a particular highlight!), save to say that it's an interesting introduction to Vicki as a character, and a good starting performance from Maureen O'Brien. I look forward to seeing more!

Next Episode: Desperate Measures

 Day Fifty-Seven: Flashpoint (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Six)

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

Day Fifty-Seven: Flashpoint (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Six)

Dear diary,

When I started on this experiment, I was looking forward to today. Susan had long been, in my mind, a bit of a useless companion, and not one that I really was relishing the thought of spending almost two months with as I worked my way through the series. Actually, though, I'm genuinely left a little sad now.

It's really nice to reach this point in the programme's run and realise that my opinion of Susan thus far has been coloured somewhat by a few extreme examples (Reign of Terror, I'm looking at you…). On the whole, she's been quite a fantastic character, and it certainly feels strange to see the TARDIS fading away with Susan left behind.

What's also nice, coming to it having spent every day since New Year's with Susan in tow, is just how affecting this final scene is. I'd argue that it's one of the most famous scenes in Doctor Who's long history (or, at least, Hartnell's speech is), but that's all it's ever been to me; a scene at the end of Susan's time on the show. It's never really been that full of emotion before, or anything all that special - it's just something that happened in Doctor Who way-back-when.

In many ways, then, today has proved to me that all my reasons for wanting to undertake this marathon, to shut myself away from other areas of Doctor Who and focus on watching it in order - in context - from the start at a set pace have been valid. The way I described it to another fan back in December, just before I started on the project was that companions - and Doctors - come and go, but they always feel sort of ephemeral. I can watch a Susan story on DVD one day, then a Tegan story the next, before skipping back to a Sarah Jane, then purchase a Big Finish audio with a brand new adventure starring the Seventh Doctor and Ace.

Watching in this way is akin to watching the show as it goes out now - you form a bond with the companion and with the Doctor, and it's genuinely moving when their time in the TARDIS comes to an end. The point of what I'm trying to say here is, yes, watching Susan leave was actually a bit emotional. Sure, she overplays it a bit when telling David that she can't stay behind on Earth with him, no matter how she feels, but it's all very real, and far more real than we often see in the show.

I'm also pleased to see Hartnell at his best here, too. The Doctor knows that this is the time he'll have to make a difficult decision, and he almost falls to tears when he takes Susan's shoe and realises that this is the end for the pair of them. Watching him let her go is simply wonderful, and I'm genuinely going to miss her.

I'm still desperate to hear a West Wing-styled series from Big Finish, though, featuring her and David as they try to start re-building the Earth!

Elsewhere in the episode, it's nice to see the defeat of the Daleks given the scale that it so sorely missed in their first story. The shot of the Robomen and the slaves turning on the Daleks and charging at them from out of the mine is fantastic, and it really does feel like a fitting finale. It's a shame that it's over with s quickly, but it's a definite improvement from the last time around.

I've little else to add, really, about The Dalek Invasion of Earth, except to say that it really has surprised me. For a long time, I've always just thought of it as just another story from the Hartnell era, which was ok but nothing special, but actually, I've loved it from start to finish. One of the best stories we've had so far.

It's a shame that the story is likely to be tainted to me somewhat by the sad association of Raymond Cusick's death, but I'm pleased that I've been so impressed by a story featuring his - frankly wonderful - designs.

I'll be rating this episode,

Next Episode: The Powerful Enemy

(NB; you may have noticed, from Planet of Giants onwards, I've not been rating the store has a whole at the end. I've found that I'm usually summing the story up in the last episode as I go, leaving little to say for a summary at the end. I'll be putting all the average scores together at the end of each Doctor's era for a bit of a retrospective, so I can summarise the eras as a whole).

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

 Day Fifty-Four: Day of Reckoning (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Three)

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

Day Fifty-Four: Day of Reckoning (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

It's fitting that I've started on this story this week, since SUnday morning just gone saw Mark Gatiss and the team behind An Adventure in Space and Time take to the streets of London to record a version of the shots from this episode (mainly, the Daleks on Westminster Bridge) to use in their drama.

I've always like the idea of the 'Yeti on the loo in Tooting Bec' aspect of the series, but never more so than during the 1960s stories. There's something just a little bit magical about seeing the Daleks gliding around the streets of London (or, later on in the series, the Cybermen at St Pauls, or the Yeti in Covent Garden, the TARDIS parked outside the Post Office Tower…). The one thing that lets this example down a little though is… well… the shots of the Daleks in the capitol aren't all that great.

Shush, now. Calm down. Stop throwing fruit, too, taa. Don't get me wrong, the shots are perfectly adequate, and they look good enough, but they don't work as well as I'd like. When we're watching Barbara, Jenny, and Dortmun running down deserted streets, or dashing round corners to escape the Daleks, it looks great. Really, truly, fantastic. Those shots have such pace and energy, and they add to that feeling I had during Episode One of this tale; Doctor Who has never looked quite this good, or been on quite this scale.

But then these action shots are intercut with the footage of the Daleks just milling about. One trundles up to some stamps on the Embankment, looks around a bit with tunnel vision, then heads off again. Some more meet up at the base of Nelson's Column, appear to have a bit of a natter (it looks like the equivalent of when you run into friends-you-don't-really-like in the middle of Ikea, and make awkward small talk), then go their separate ways.

There's no sense of urgency to the shots of the Daleks, that's what I'm trying to get at. Barbara and her new comrades are trying with all the effort they can muster to get away from the Daleks, who just don't seem all that bothered by them. It'd be interesting to see a version of this scene cut together with a bit more thought - it could be a fantastic scene, as iconic as some of the others I'd listed above.

Where the action does work for this episode, though, is in the fight with the Daleks early on. It carries on from the one we saw in yesterday's episode, albeit on a much grander scale. There's plenty of smoke effects, and flashes of bombs. People - and Daleks - dart back and forth across the screen, and Ian and Babs even get a brief moment to see each other through the chaos, and assure the other that they're all right.

What's great is that this is the battle against the Daleks that we should have seen at the end of The Daleks (The serial, not yesterday's episode…). There we got a few chaps in ripped trousers pushing the pepper-pots over. here, we actually get the impression that they're a force to be reckoned with. It's nice to see them given more status.

Mind you, I can't take them seriously with those bumpers. They look like they've been placed on little pedestals!

It's also nice to see Susan being set up for her departure. She muses early on that she's never really felt like she belongs anywhere in time or space, and David gently tells her that one day, she'll be forced to stop travelling (Next Tuesday). Later on, the Doctor notices as she starts to break away from him and move toward David. It's nice to see it being set up early on in the story. A lot of future departures won't be given this much thought…

Now, crank yourself closer to the screen in a jerky motion - like the bizarre, but great camerawork on the cliffhanger - as you read the score…

Next Episode: The End of Tomorrow

 Day Fifty-Three: The Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Two)

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

Day Fifty-Three: The Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

The image of the Dalek rising from the river is justifiably iconic in the history of Doctor Who. It's created well, but it never quite lives up the the way I see it in my mind. It's a stunning moment, but one which isn't given much room to breathe at the end of Episode One. Ian and the Doctor turn around, and stop in their tracks, but we've cut back to the real star of the show, the Dalek, before we can see their reactions properly. This gets resolved here, with plenty of time spent dwelling on it, but it's still a shame.

Perhaps the bigger shame, though, is the way the shot of the Dalek plays out here. There's no incidental music, which rather leaves it looking like the Doctor and Ian are just casually watching as the Dalek gently strolls out of the waves and onto the bank. It fells a little bit too flat for me, I'm afraid.

Perhaps a bigger shame, though, is that it's almost impossible as a viewer in 1964 to not know the Daleks were coming back. Before the last episode, I watched the trailer for the story which is included on the DVD - it's hugely focussed around the return of the Daleks, since they were so popular the year before. Even the Radio Times ran it as a cover image. The cliffhanger would have such an impact coming out of the blue, so I'm sorry to know that didn't happen.

As it is, I think I'd be rather miffed, after all the build up, to know I'd not got a Dalek until the last thirty seconds or so! Give me my pepper pots! We get paid back in spades here, though, and there's Daleks a-plenty. There's a wonderful shot toward the end of the episode, while the battle against the Daleks is going on, where we've got five of them moving about, plus a few more cardboard cut-out versions (which here, as in The Daleks - the serial, not this episode! - almost work, but not quite. It'd help if they didn't keep shining the spotlight directly at them…)

Something that I have found interesting throughout this episode is the Doctor's reaction to encountering the Daleks again. He doesn't panic, or fear them, he simply responds to their bold assertion that they're the masters of Earth with a glib comment ('Not for long!') and comments to Ian that they need to put their wits together and defeat the creatures.

Throughout the stories of the first series, I often spoke of the Doctor growing more and more into the character we know from later in the series. I think this surely has to be the crowning moment of that transformation. The Doctor discovers that an old foe is behind the events they've encountered, and decides that it's up to him to stop it. It's fitting that the Daleks should be the creatures to make him see this, considering that they're the first monster to return to the series after their initial debut. No wonder they became his arch nemesis!

It's also good to see some throwbacks with the Doctor's character, too, though. While locked up in a cell on the Dalek ship, he's very friendly with Ian, discussing space-age science with him and wondering if they'd taught it at Coal Hill, while being thoroughly dismissive of Craddock. He's not quite as harsh with the man as he was with Ian and Barbara when they first encountered him, but there's flashes of the Doctor's more guarded persona that we don't see often any more.

Next Episode: Day of Reckoning

 Day Fifty-Two: World's End (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode One)

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

Day Fifty-Two: World's End (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode One)

Dear diary,

When I'm watching an episode of Doctor Who for this blog, I tend to make notes. Not lots of them, just things that I might want to mention while I'm writing up my thoughts for the day's entry. Some days, there's very little (glancing at my sheet, I've written absolutely nothing for Dangerous Journey, and only a single line of Hartnell's dialogue for Crisis…), and other times, I write quite a lot.

Today is an example of a day that I've written quite a lot, and it's probably quite a good thing that I've used the word 'great' three times. Once in full caps.

I've never really paid all that much attention to The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's just one of those stories that's just sort of… there. It's another that I picked up on DVD quite early on, watched once, maybe twice, then just left to sit on the shelf. It's got a pivotal place in Doctor Who history for a number of reasons, but it's just not all that special to me.

That is, until watching through the series in order. Because, blimey, this is a massive leap from the stuff we've had so far, isn't it? I mused the other day that I'd pictured the audio-only Farewell Great Macedon as being entirely studio-bound, because that's what I'd been used to. A brief stroll sown a country lane aside, Doctor Who just hadn't done location work.

All of that gets blasted right out of the water here, though. The episode is full to bursting with location footage - and it really helps to sell the story as being part of something epic. The silly thing is that the moment that's perhaps most effective for me from a location standpoint is a simple scene in which the Doctor and Ian climb a set of stairs… and they just go up and up! There's a scale to this that you just don't have in any of the stories we've seen before.

It's also some great stuff when we watch Barbara running through decaying industrial structures, with collapsing buildings that stretch off into the distance and a world completely over-grown. It doesn't look anything like Doctor Who, but it looks better than Doctor Who. This looks like a real drama, with a gritty sense of reality.

But it's not only the locations that work really well. The initial shots of the TARDIS arriving on the banks of the river and the crew exploring their surroundings is fantastic, and a selection of high shots and low shots really help to sell the sheer size of the setting. This really is the most ambitious episode we've had to date, and I'm simply floored by it.

I'm also surprised to find, as we start our tenth 'regular' story, that they're still using the idea of a first episode focussed mostly around the regular team exploring. We're slowly drip-fed new characters throughout the twenty-five minutes, but it's not until the end that we have several other faces on screen - this is mostly about the TARDIS crew and their reactions.

Staring at my notes, there's so much more I could talk about, but I'll save it. There's sure to be an opportunity during the later episodes of the story. Suffice to say, I'm impressed.

Next Episode: The Daleks

 Day Fifty-One: Crisis (Planet of Giants, Episode Three)

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

Day Fifty-One: Crisis (Planet of Giants, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

I've made no secret in the last six weeks that I tend to think the six-parters in Doctor Who run on a bit. They all seem to start strong, sag badly, then return to form at the end. The same can be said, on some occasions, for the four-part stories, too. All things considered, when it comes to twentieth century Doctor Who, I tend to think of three-episode stories being just about right.

Which is why this story seems to end at just the right time. There's just enough incident in this final episode to wrap up the story nicely. It doesn't feel like the story has been drawn out any longer than it should have been, and equally it doesn't seem at all rushed. So it's always fascinated me that when it was first made, this story was four episodes long!

The DVD version of Planet of Giants contains a recon of the original episodes three and four, with William Russell and Carole Ann Ford coming in with some impersonators to re-record lines for the missing parts of the tale. This is then put together with some clever use of other footage to restore it to full-length.

I'm sad to say that I tried watching the recon when the DVD first came out, but it just wasn't to my taste. I got most of the way through episode three, but the thought of having to sit through any more of it was too much. Watching the story over the last three days though, I can't help but feel that, actually, I don't want to experience this one as a four-parter - it's just right here and now!

I seem to have been on a constant loop of praising the effects in this story over the last few entries, so I won't dwell on them too much here. Suffice to say that they finish up looking as good as they have all along, and I love the idea of the Doctor taking the seed back to the TARDIS with them to see if they've returned to normal size once more.

I also like that the story wraps itself up quite neatly in the end, even though the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan don't actually get involved. The only real impact they have on the plot is the unhook the phone and the blow up the can - but Hilda and the policeman were already suspicious enough as it is, so things would likely have reached the same conclusion.

In some ways it comes back to what I was saying yesterday about the story feeling so indistinct that it could fit anywhere, not just into Doctor Who. It's been an interesting, three-episode interlude, but it's just felt like a bizarre (and not entirely successful) experiment.

Still, we've got Daleks coming up tomorrow, and there's not many things more 'Doctor Who' than a Dalek…

Next Episode: World's End

 Day Fifty: Dangerous Journey (Planet of Giants, Episode Two)

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

Day Fifty: Dangerous Journey (Planet of Giants, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

I can't quite make up my mind with this one. On the one hand, as I'm watching, I'm thinking about discussing how the story is quite dull. On the other hand, though… it's keeping me interested. I've not found myself getting distracted at all while I watch, and indeed I'm quite enjoying it. I don't know what it is, but there's something just not right about this one.

I did wonder if it might just be that the Doctor and friends are so disjointed from the story going on in the rest of the episode - they've only interacted with the guest cast when a briefcase has been moved and a tap has been turned on (again, another cliffhanger you could only get in Doctor Who!), but then at the same time, I'm enjoying the story that's going on in the background.

It feels almost as though it could be placed in any number of 1960s television - I can picture an Adam Adamant Lives! adventure that involves the DN6 scandal, and the same is true for The Avengers. Or for Danger Man. Or The Saint, or…

Actually, maybe that's it? This doesn't feel like proper Doctor Who because it isn't Doctor Who. The idea of the TARDIS crew being shrunk to an inch high is a fun one, but it's not especially what I expect from the series, and it's not a type of story that we often get in the following 49 years, either. Cliffhangers aside, this could just be A. N. Other programme.

Something that I do find interesting is that this was originally intended to be the very first episode of Doctor Who, or at least a version of it. Initially, the story was to have followed the first episode of An Unearthly Child by shrinking the TARDIS and its new occupants down, and dumping them down in the Coal Hill School science lab.

I wonder if that would have helped the story to feel less generic than it does here? The only reason, I think, that I'm struggling to connect with the DN6 plot line is because it's so unlike anything else we ever get in the programme; a story about insecticide and government permission not being given. Even the presence of a murder feels a bit mundane for Doctor Who.

There's a part of me that feels like I'd have rather seen it as a two-episode story following on from that very first one, with the Doctor and his friends exploring the lab. There's elements here that could still fit in there (Ian's musing on the litmus paper, for example), and you could still have Barbara's poison scare, by having her handle some dangerous chemicals.

I guess it's one of those strange little parts of Doctor Who history; a side-alley never taken…

The effects are still the best thing this story has, though. Frankly, they're brilliant. The way the camera pulls back to show a (moving!) fly menacing Barbara is fantastic, and a great example of aha the show could achieve in the early days when it really set its mind to it. It's certainly one of the better effects we've had so far. I'm also impressed with the way the large scale sets match the regular sized ones. You really do get the impression that you're watching the Doctor and co running around, tiny, in this world.

So, so far, it's good, but it's just not Doctor Who…

Next Episode: Crisis

 Day Forty-Nine: Planet of Giants (Planet of Giants, Episode One)

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

Day Forty-Nine: Planet of Giants (Planet of Giants, Episode One)

Dear diary,

You have no idea how lovely it is to get back to an actual, real, episode. Much as I've enjoyed my side-step into the world of 'what-if?' this last week, it's great to actually see the story as well as to listen to it. The episode has simply flown by, and it helps that there's a lot to look at.

It's been said many times over the years, but the design of the 'props' (if you can call them that) in this story is top-notch. The effect of the packet of Night Scented Stock is striking, as is that of the matchbox. The model ant is rather impressive, too, though the earthworm is a bit plain for my liking.

The most interesting aspect of the visuals, though, comes from the direction. there's a lovely shot when the travelers have deduced that they're now only around an inch high, when the camera pulls back from the model of the TARDIS to show the path it's sat in, and the house beyond. It's a great image, and one which deserves to be better remembered than it is.

We've also got Ian (and later the rest of the crew) being super-imposed onto a shot of the dead man's face. Though watching a freshly-VidFIREd copy of the story shows up one or two spots of overlapping in the images, it's still one of the most impressive shots that we've had in the series, and mush have looked great on a 1960s television set.

The downside to the story? Well… it's a bit… slow, isn't it? Planet of Giants wasn't originally intended to become the second season opener for Doctor Who, instead being just 'one of the run'. Moving it to this position, though, as the triumphant return of the series after a few weeks away from screens is a slightly odd decision, though.

I mean, yes, there's plenty to look at. Yes, there's a bit of a mystery to be had. Yes, it serves as another of those early episodes that is hung mostly around our regular cast… but it's all just a bit 'bog-standard-Doctor-Who. Knowing what's to come in a few days time, it feels almost as though this is the main course that you need to sit through to reach dessert.

Still, 'bog-standard-Doctor-Who is still better than several things in the world; where else do you find a cliffhanger based around your four main characters seeing a cat!? I'm just happy to be back where I can see everything on a screen again - I really have missed these four!

Next Episode: Dangerous Journey

 Day Forty-Eight: Farewell, Great Macedon! (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Six)

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

Day Forty-Eight: Farewell, Great Macedon! (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Six)

Dear diary,

There's a moment in this episode, just after Alexander's death, where his eyes are closed, and it is declared that he now 'belongs to history'. Actually, that's a very good description of Farewell Great Macedon as a whole.

The story has focussed very much - especially in its earlier segments and this last one - on the idea of not changing history, picking up on things that have been present elsewhere in Doctor Who's first series and running with them as a real focus to the story. Sure, you've got all the evil scheming and plots to take control of the throne, but that's just there as a background to the real story.

In many ways, I'm glad that I've opted to listen to this story during the gap between the first two seasons of the show, because it forms part of a natural through-line in the Doctor's historical adventures, from The Aztecs, where he states with absolute certainty that they can't change history ('not one line!'), via The Reign of Terror, in which we get Ian and Barbara musing on the futility of their actions, as they know they're on the losing side, and then we end up here.

This takes the most interesting aspects of those two stories and combines them together. The Doctor is very well aware that he can't alter history, and he's more than well informed enough that Alexander will die here on this day. Still, he's determined to help the man because he is a Doctor, after all, and therefore he has a moral oath to at least try to spare his life.

Dovetailing with the discussion in the TARDIS at the end of the last story, about what would happen if they tried to change history, here we get to see it in action; the Doctor has devised a potential survival plan for Alexander and Ian has built it, but the Grecian himself refuses it because the Doctor's knowledge of the future gives him nothing to live for.

To be honest, I'm a little pleased with the way that things turned out. Early on in the story, when we're first told that the king will die during his stay in Babylon, I mused that it changed the story to being about when and how he would die. But, truth be told, I've worried all along that they wouldn't actually show it. I'd feared that they'd have shied away at the last minute and cut away before it could happen.

To see it coming about in this way, with so much emphasis on the ideas of changing history? Wonderful. It helps that Alexander's - and then the Doctor's - speeches here are so good; they really help to sell the moment.

It's not all sunshine and roses, though. This final episode clocks in at a whopping 44 minutes - almost twice the length of the episodes that I've been watching for the last six weeks. I'm not going to lie; it was a bit of a struggle to keep up my attention to the end here. Indeed, that's been true of the story all along. It's been very good, but it's just been too long.

Still, I wanted to listen to it here and now, because I wanted to see how it would feel integrated into the stories that were intended to be it's stablemates. I'm pleased to say that it really does work. As I've said, it forms a perfect continuation of the narrative building up over the historical stories, which gives the feeling of almost a story arc forming. Definitely a detour worth making on a marathon from the start.

That said, I'll not be making too many of these on the way along. I can't tell you how excited I am to be getting back to moving pictures tomorrow!

And an overall story rating of;

Next Episode: Planet of Giants

 Day Forty-Seven: In the Arena (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Five)

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

Day Forty-Seven: In the Arena (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Five)

Dear diary,

I've become too ingrained in the Doctor Who of 1964. As part of the process of immersing myself fully into the marathon, I'm only watching the episodes as they come up, day-by-day. The only exemption I'll be making to this is when the new episodes begin to air in the spring. There's no way I'll manage to avoid watching them!

This means, though, that the only exposure I've had to Doctor Who for the last six weeks is via the early Hartnell episodes, and… it's started to have an effect on me. Here I am, listening to this episode as I do the washing up (what? I have to do it *sometime*…), with some great incidental music, and the sound of a vast crowd cheering Ian on as he partakes in the wrestling, in what's sure to be an enormous arena, with several gladiators, and a blazing hot sky overhead…

And it all looks - in my mind's eye - as though it's been shot on film at Ealing. In my head, as Ian left his companions to join the championship, the look of what I was imagining shifted to film. And actually, thinking back on it (though I may be attaching more to it now that I've noticed) the whole thing in my mind has been rather small-scale in terms of the setting, when there's the opportunity for it to look grand and vast on a scale I've not been seeing yet with the series.

That's probably a testament to how in-keeping with everything else in the series to date this story has been. I'm glad that it seems Big Finish have stuck closely to what was written in the 60s, as this truly does feel like a 'lost' episode of Doctor Who.

I've spent a bit of time this week competing this story to Marco Polo, but actually, in this episode, things shift slightly so that it's more in keeping with The Aztecs. You've got the aforementioned situation in which Ian has to prove himself through a contest of strength (and it's those scenes with Ixta on the temple which have formed much of my vision during the final five minutes or so here), while his friends watch on.

Elsewhere, you've got the Doctor using his knowledge of science to produce what could almost be called magic - there he gives poison to help win in a fight, and here he makes his feet perspire so that he can walk back and forth across the coals. The only downside, really, is that William Russell doesn't attempt to mimic Hartnell's laugh, but merely narrates that the Doctor does so…

I must admit, one of the things I'm enjoying the most is the idea of the TARDIS team being used to cover up the murderous plot line. During the first episode, when 'evil' characters all sat around spouting stuff about killing four people to become king I thought it was going to be blatantly obvious what was going on, even if they were going to frame our regulars.

Actually, though, through the use of the bad omens being prophesied, and the way that the blame has been pinned to the good guys rather late on in the story, it's managed to avoid feeling too much like an obvious ploy. It's hanging together quite nicely for the baddies at the moment… if only they wouldn't whisper so obviously about poisoning the king about three feet away from him!

Next Episode: Farewell, Great Macedon!

 Day Forty-Six: The World Lies Dead at Your Feet (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Four)

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

Day Forty-Six: The World Lies Dead at Your Feet (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

There's some elaborate titles in this story, aren't there? I've been working from a list proposed by Moris Farhi, but you have to wonder if these would be the titles had the episodes actually made it to screen. An alternative to the title for Episode Two was The Wrath of the Greatest Grecian of Them All!, which seems very elaborate by the standards I've gotten used to throughout Season One!

The further into this story we get, the more it reminds me of Marco Polo - which isn't such a bad thing! Alexander is a rather complex character, a kind we've not really seen much of outside the scripts by Lucarotti so far. There's a scene early on where he orders the Doctor and his friends to be put under guard, but advises that they shouldn't be harmed. This is exactly the kind of relationship that they had with Polo.

Equally, he turns on them in the blink of an eye when the evil member of his party suggests that they're behind some foul deed. Perhaps it's because I'm familiar with the way that Doctor Who works, or perhaps it's because I've been watching through in this way, so that the similarities to earlier stories are apparent, but it seemed clear to me the second Hephaeston left his torture that our regulars would be accused of involvement in his pain (and subsequent death).

The pacing of the story bears similarities with Marco Polo, too, with the Doctor and co getting back to the TARDIS a good few episodes before the end of the story, only to have their freedom snatched away from them during the cliffhanger. I've said it before, but I'd really love to see someone undertaking this 'episode-a-day' marathon who doesn't know the format of these early stories. I'd love to see if this could really hold up as a potential 'end of the story', or if it's clear to everyone that there's more to come.

On the whole, this episode has seen something of an improvement from the last. It's still conforming to the same format - one of Alexander's friends is killed, Barbara complains about the fate of history etc - but it seems to add in a decent amount of other action. Something I am enjoying is how easy it is to picture all of this in the style of a 1964 episode. There's a moment when Barbara turns way from the group with a pained expression - and I can visualise the shots perfectly. The audio is doing a really good job of capturing just the right feel…

Next Episode: In the Arena

 Day Forty-Five: A Man Must Die (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Three)

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

Day Forty-Five: A Man Must Die (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

The one downside to this story being completed on audio, and with only a few voices to spread across the cast, is that it's not a format that easily lends itself to a script with a great number of characters.

Here, we've got three (four?) 'conspirators'. In my head, they're all being called 'Tegana', because I can't remember their names, and they seem to fulfill the same role in this script as he did in Marco Polo. You've then got Alexander, and his rapidly decreasing set of successors. Add to them the four regulars and we're building up quite the party!

With such a large cast, it's becoming tricky to keep track of just who's who. Add to that the fact that we seem to be entering a period of 'middle-of-a-six-parter-drag' and it could start to become a bit of a chore. I'll admit, much as I'm still enjoying the story, today's episode was a bit of an effort.

That's not to say that there weren't moments in there that I loved. As we begin, Ian is ruminating on the death in the last episode. He holds himself responsible, since it came from an argument that he stirred up. While Ian talks of his guilt at being a catalyst for the death, were presented with an interesting viewpoint; Barbara knows from history that the death always has happened like that - regardless of Ian's involvement.

It's interesting, and definitely a continuation of the themes we saw building up in the last episode. I wondered then how the story would continue to deal with this subject, so I'm glad to see it being tackled head-on so early here.

Then we've got the Doctor acting as… well… a doctor. He examines his patient and prescribes blood transfusion, before setting up the whole operation. It's interesting that he asks Barbara to stay in the tent with him (as opposed to scientist Ian), but it allows for some more awkward moments with her having to hide her knowledge of events.

Overall, I'm still enjoying the story, though we seem to have settled into a format, now. There's a death within Alexander's party (or, as here, very nearly), and then a cliffhanger involving a spear. Yesterday's cliffhanger was big and bold - the threat of a suicide, something with lingers over this episode, too - and today is another bold one, with the spear headed for Ian, who has stirred up trouble again, despite his earlier worries.

I'm excited to move forward, but I'm a little worried that this story could become very stale very quickly. Here's hoping that it regains some of the majesty of yesterday's episode as we move forward…

Next Episode: The World Lies Dead at Your Feet

 Day Forty-Four: Oh, Son! My Son! (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Two)

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

Day Forty-Four: Oh, Son! My Son! (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

A few years ago, while we were writing some text for the Doctor Who roleplaying game, my co-writer and I came across something of a sticking point. It was centered around Susan. Basically; What is her name?

I mean, 'Susan' seems pretty obvious. She's always referred to as 'Susan', even by her grandfather. No, more specifically, the debate centered around her surname. She's always referred to as 'Susan Foreman' (Indeed, that's the name she uses to introduce herself in this episode), but we didn't think that really was her name.

We'd both assumed that during An Unearthly Child, when Ian and Barbara discuss her as 'Susan Foreman', it was because she'd made the name up to enroll at Coal Hill. The TARDIS is parked at I.M. Foreman's junkyard, after all, so pairing the two together on the paperwork should avoid any awkward questions (unless, of course, two curious teachers come a-knocking on your police box).

I'm only brining it up because it really made me think when she used the name in this story. What's everyone else's thoughts? Is that her name? Really? Really?

Anyway; In other news, I'm really enjoying this one. I mused yesterday that it reminded me of John Lucarotti's stories, and that's a comparison that only grows stronger with this episode. The story is rich with history, but it doesn't feel as thick and impenetrable as it did during The Reign of Terror. It may help that I've only recently seen the section on Alexander the Great in Andrew Marr's History of the World, so some of these events and references are fresh in my mind, but it just feels more educational that all that French Revolution stuff.

Plus, who can fail to love an episode in which Barbara 'fangirls' over a historical figure? I said during The Aztecs how much I loved her role as a history teacher being put to use. The same is true, here, and there's a lovely description of her 'suddenly realising - remembering! - what was about to happen'. Granted, there's a strong chance this line was added during Nigel Robinson's adaptation for the story for Big Finish (it's a part of the narration, rather than the dialogue), but it really encapsulates everything I'm loving about the story.

It's an interesting approach to take, really. You've got the Doctor reminding his companions that they can't get involved with changing events, and Barbara telling us outright that Alexander will die at some point during his visit to Babylon. Where as we'd usually be playing the game of 'will he die?', we're now left with a game of 'when will he die?'. It's an interesting way of doing the story, and I'm keen to see it evolve.

Next Episode: A Man Must Die

 Day Forty-Three: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode One)

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

Day Forty-Three: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Farewell Great Macedon, Episode One) 

Dear diary,

I hope you'll forgive me this little side-step into slightly different territory. I started this marathon with the express intention to watch all of televised Doctor Who, one episode a day, from the start. It's been going well! I've just finished the first season! The thing is… this was too tempting to miss.

Farewell Great Macedon was a story written by Moris Farhi in 1964, to be included as a part of Doctor Who's first run. For one reason or another, it didn't end up getting made, and sat there as one of those things talked about in whispers of Doctor Who fandom for many years.

But then, in 2010, Big Finish produced it as a part of their 'Lost Stories' range of audios - it's the main feature of their First Doctor box set. Now, I love Big Finish. I even wrote a book all about the Eighth Doctor's adventures with my friend Nick Mellish. Knowing that this story was out there, a script written at the time of the first season, with that mindset… I had to include it as a part of the marathon.

Originally, the plan was that I'd just give it a listen between the first and second seasons. Maybe split it over a couple of nights to enjoy, while this blog just kept chugging along toward the Planet of Giants. Thing is, I've really been enjoying the pace of the marathon so far. Watching at the rate of one installment per day, the stories really get a chance to breathe.

So here we are! Slightly off the beaten track of Doctor Who, but still very much following in spirit. I won't be taking these side-steps between every season, but there are one-or-two others to take as I go along (and we'll come to them when the time is right). Mainly, I'm interested to see how well this story fits in with what's around it. I want to see how much it feels 'of the era' that it has come from.

Now, obviously, the script has been adapted for its audio release. The sad loss of William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill means that we'll never have it quite as we would have done in 1964. Add to that the fact that things need to be slightly more 'described' on an audio play, and we're going to encounter differences.

Know what though? This first episode is pure, 1964 Doctor Who. I'm so pleased! I worried, plugging the headphones in this evening, that I'd find it a bit of a shock. I thought there was a risk that things would feel incredibly out of place compared to all the stuff I've been watching, but this just fits right in.

The story is mainly carried by William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, who play Ian and Susan as normal, but also provide much of the linking narration, and one-or-two other voices. I've never noticed before, listening to any of the Big Finish Companion Chronicles, but having just come from forty-two days of seeing these characters, their voices really do sound 50 years older!

That's not a complaint, though. It's still very recognisably them, and they slip back into their respective roles with a great deal of ease. Susan is still very much in the over-the-top mode she spent most of The Reign of Terror portraying. Early on, when the power drains from the TARDIS and strange music filters in, she shrieks that they might be dead. That's a cheery teenager for you.

Elsewhere, the script contains plenty of humour, and it's very much in keeping with the stuff we've seen in the show recently. Upon Susan's suggestion that they could be in heaven, the Doctor protests that they can't be, as he doesn't know the way. It's a great moment, as is a scene later on in which our regulars encounter a lamb being sacrificed, and the Doctor steps in to give some tips on cooking it!

Perhaps most noticeable, though, is how much the story feels like one of those from the first era of Doctor Who. We've got a historical setting, a character famous from history (in this case Alexander the Great - a presence which awes Barbara. It's good to see her back in history-teacher mode again), and a plot from a few stock 'evil' characters.

When the priest makes portents of a 'Four-headed tragedy' falling across babylon, I made a note to say that they'd link it to the TARDIS team before the third episode was out - it doesn't waste time, though, they make the connection for the cliffhanger to this one!

In all, it's a sting start to the story, and reminds me of Lucarotti's work from earlier in the season. That can only be a good thing!

Next Episode: O, Son! My Son!

 Day Forty-Two: Prisoners of the Conceiergerie (The Reign of Terror, Episode Six)

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

Day Forty-Two: Prisoners of the Conceiergerie (The Reign of Terror, Episode Six)

Dear diary,

I thought it was going to be a bit of a culture shock to go from two day's worth on animated episodes back to the regular live-action footage, but I'm glad to say that it doesn't jar at all. It feels perfectly natural, and the story still just carries on through.

Unfortunately for me… I'm still just not taken by the story itself. There's still a few nice moments (which I'll get to in a moment), but as a whole it's really just dragging for me.

Reign of Terror has very much been the most overtly 'educational' story from this first season, but whereas others have relied on giving history in odd drips, here it feels almost as though you need to have a working knowledge of the French Revolution in order to follow what's going on.

There's several moments where they reference other events and other people, seemingly assuming that we're going to pick up on them and know the context, but it's just not there for me, I'm afraid. I know enough to get by, but not enough to follow the plot as well as I'd like. Frankly, I've lost track.

What I have enjoyed, though, is the way that this episode examines the extent to which you can't change time. It's lovely when Barbara laughs with the Doctor that they're having to try and stop events that they know are going to happen, but that they have to go through the motions anyway, in order to get Susan back and return to the TARDIS.

Equally nice is the discussion once they have reached the ship, where Ian speculates on what would happen if they tried to alter things. I love all the little suggestions that if they'd written Napoleon a letter then he would have lost it, or forgotten it, or thought it fantasy. Even Barbara's suggestion that if they'd tried to shoot him, then the bullet would have missed… It's stuff that's not really new coming to sci-fi from a 2013 perspective, but it's nice to see it cropping up in the early days of Doctor Who.

It's also good to see that the show is sticking to its own internal logic on the subject for now. In The Aztecs, much of the story hinges around the inability to change history, no matter how much you try, and it's good to see that referenced here. 50 years on, and history has become far more malleable (perhaps as the Doctor has learnt more about the hows and whys of the Web of TIme?), but it's good to see it being held firm at the beginning.

 ----------

It's another situation where I won't spend much time summing up - I've discussed my thoughts on the story as a whole over the last couple of days, so I'll leave you with the final score;

Next Episode: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

 Day Forty-One: A Bargain of Necessity (The Reign of Terror, Episode Five)

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

Day Forty-One: A Bargain of Necessity (The Reign of Terror, Episode Five)

Dear diary,

Perhaps the greatest praise I can give the animation on the DVD release of The Reign of Terror is that by five or six minutes into this episode, I'd sort-of forgotten about it. It still looks as lovely as it did in the last episode, and there's still plenty to marvel at, but it just becomes a very good way of telling the story.

Once you're used to the style of it, and the way that the direction has been handled, it soon becomes apparent that this is much easier to follow than a tele-snap recon. Despite there being some fantastic examples of those out there, I'm a little sorry that I won't get any more animated episodes for months and months (right the way through until The Invasion, unless rumours of others on the way shortly hold true…)

The one gripe that I did have with the animation in this episode; it didn't hold still for the title! It's become something I enjoy about the series through to this point that while the episode title (and usually for the writer's credit, too) is on screen, everyone pauses and hold their position for a bit. Yesterday's episode held true to this convention, with the Doctor and co standing still for a few seconds while the captions played out, but today's title is placed over quite a bit of movement. It's only a little thing, but it's still a bit of a shame.

As for the story… well… I'm sorry to say that I'm still not quite as into it as I'd like to be. There's been more to entertain me in today's episode; the Doctor trying to outwit the jailer is a particular highpoint, and it's a partnership that I've been enjoying right the way through the story. It's nice to see it still in motion here.

I'm also rather liking that character's keep asking the Doctor how he managed to escape from the burning farmhouse - first Barbara in yesterday's episode, then today Ian asks for the information from her, and Susan makes it her first question to her grandfather. It seems like quite a little thing, but it's a nice touch. The cliffhanger with the burning house was several days ago, and on original transmission, it would have been more than a month before this point, so it's good to see it being brought in.

It's also a lovely moment when Barbara confides in Ian that she's so 'sick and tired of death', but that she 'never seems to be able to get away from it'. I mused the other day how these two had taken to traveling and the adventures, but they've been through quite a lot. The recap at the start of The Sensorites made it all sound like something of a jolly romp, but they've seen a fair few harrowing things over the last few stories.

Another beautiful thing between the two schoolteachers is the debate over sides in the Revolution. I have to confess that I've rather struggled to keep up with who's on what side during all of this - especially in regards to Jules (it's nice that he explains his position here; he's on neither side, really, just acting for 'the middle' to ensure the best for France.)

It's nice to see that the character's are able to express their own voices, and that the programme isn't taking one specific side over another. I don't know if it's going to remain so flexible into the final part - will one side be seen to win? Or will we just leave with the Doctor and his companions slipping away to leave the revolution in full swing?

Next Episode: Prisoners of the Conciergerie

 Day Forty - The Tyrant of France (The Reign of Terror, Episode Four)

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

Day Forty - The Tyrant of France (The Reign of Terror, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

Right then, let's get this bit out of the way first, shall we? I'm going to have to mention the animation. Of course I am, it's only been available on DVD for a couple of weeks, so it'll look a bit remiss if I just ignore it! Do bear in mind, though, that my episode score is based on the episode itself - not the animation.

It has to be said - I loved the look of it. The details on the faces (especially that of the Doctor) is gorgeous, and the movement is extremely fluid. It perhaps doesn't look so good when it cuts out to a wider shot - Barbara closing the door, for example, or another character putting on his coat. Without the emphasis on the faces, the detail gets rather lost in those moments.

The one thing that I've seen listed as the biggest complaint about the episodes is the style of the cutting back-and-forth between shots. I've seen it heavily argued that it's so out of keeping with the surrounding episodes as to be completely jarring to the experience. I can see where the argument comes from (though, really, the only time I found it noticeable was during the first wine-pouring scene), but I can't say it bothered me that much. Having just come from five weeks of 1963/64 vintage Doctor Who, this didn't feel too out of place.

In all, it's a great way of plugging the missing episode gaps, and at this stage, I'm really hoping that we'll see some more of the animations. I've enjoyed this one, so if they get even better with time, then that's only a bonus.

Anyway! The episode itself! Well, I've had plenty of opportunity to examine the animation because things plot-wise are all a bit boring, aren't they? It's a tricky one, because I'm liking the setting of the story, and it's great to have a number of well-sketched charters, but… well… the story itself just feels too bloated.

You've got the Doctor having an in-depth discussion with Robespierre about the state of Paris, Susan's illness getting progressively worse, and the situation between her, Barbara and the Physician (though it's nice to see, as I'd hoped yesterday, that Susan feeling unwell does have a bearing on the story), Ian being recovered and then led into a trap…

There's plenty going on, I just don't care about any of it. I'm hoping that it's merely a result of fourth-episode-sagging, which we had with The Sensorites, too. After that point, the story got better again.

I wonder if part of the problem here is that it feels too well researched. In Marco Polo, or The Aztecs, the history felt vivid and real - it was more than clear that Lucarotti knew his stuff about the two periods - but it was just sort of there in the background. Here, it feels like the hard work that has gone into researching the period is just being stuffed into the character's mouths.

Still, I'm crossing my fingers that things improve for me with Episode Five. Taking the beautiful visuals out of the equation, I'm going to have to give this one;

Next Episode: A Bargain of Necessity

 Day Thirty-Nine: A Change of Identity (The Reign of Terror, Episode Three)

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

Day Thirty-Nine: A Change of Identity (The Reign of Terror, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

There's something of a conception of the First Doctor as being a bit of a fuddy-duddy. He's often thought of as a bit of a bumbling, kindly grandfather figure, who's not quite the Doctor, but fills the same role. It's not helped by the regular occurrence of 'Billy Fluffs', either.

Here, though, the First Doctor is absolutely fantastic. The way he handles himself in the clothes shop, and the way he them presents himself to the jailer, it's an image of a man who's in full control. It's easy enough, when looking at these scenes, to imagine the 'old man' stuff is little more than an act - a way to disguise a devilishly intelligent man, who knows how to manipulate the situation to get what he wants.

Of course, it all seems to have backfired come the final scene, in which the ring that the Doctor has bartered away comes back to haunt him.

It's also nice to see the series starting to make use of its new ability to shoot in TV Centre itself. Though a few episodes I've already been through were made there, this is the first time, really, that the full implications of this can be seen on the screen. An early scene of a busy French street, into which the Doctor enters is fantastic - it's grander than I'm used to seeing on the show, and really does help to make this story feel bigger than usual.

The shots of William Russell's scenes, still shot on film (he was, presumably, still in Spain!) continue to look like something from a production other than Doctor Who. In this episode, he makes an escape from his prison cell, and the more I watch it, the more I lament that fact that more of the show doesn't look like this. The film really does give these scenes a rich texture that's sadly lacking in other places. Mind you, they still remind me of early Eastern European cinema!

I'd not considered it when writing yesterday's entry, but a lot of that feel may come from the director himself. I'd forgotten that Henric Hirsch had directed the story, and was from Hungary. There could well be intention behind the style, rather than it simply being a side-effect of shooting these scenes early on. It's almost a shame that we'll be loosing this style.

Oh, and all right. I didn't want to mention it too much yesterday, but let's be honest; Susan is rubbish in this story, isn't she? I'm wondering, now, if this may be where my entire dislike for Susan had come from. All the way through this marathon, I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I've taken to her - but here…!

All she's done so far is whine and moan… here, she nearly ruins their only chance of escape by complaining instead about her headache and her bad back and how tired she is… I'm hoping this is all leading somewhere, or there's no reason to be kicking up such a fuss! If she'd not been on holiday back during The Aztecs, I'd think they were getting ready to pack her off on one now!

Tomorrow is going to be interesting; I'll finally reach one of the new animated episodes! I've been excited to see them for quite some time, so I'm sure it's going to be a sleepless night, tonight. It's like Christmas Eve - I'm waiting for Santa to come!

Next Episode: The Tyrant of France

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

Day Thirty-Eight: Guests of Madame Guillotine (The Reign of Terror, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

All the regulars have managed a bit of a break for a trip to Spain, now, then! I'm surprised that I've never noticed it before, but the last four stories have each seen time taken off by one of our regulars. I think watching in order like this makes things more apparent, as does the shift between videotape and film. There was a time that I'd never really noticed the shift, but now I spend more time watching archive telly than modern stuff (I don't even own a television!), I've become more accustomed to it.

The absence of William Russell from the story is done in a slightly odd way; it's a mixture of the 'cutting right out of the story' that we had in The Keys of Marinus and The Sensorites with a bit of the 'only there for pre-filmed inserts' seen in The Aztecs. I say this because Ian still appears in his cell, and during a brief shot early on, but there's some bizarre attempts to hide him in other scenes.

One particularly noticeable one starts with Ian having just been chucked in the cell, and not responding to Susan's calls. I'm a bit surprised they didn't at least play in a recording of William Russell reassuring her or something!

I think it's also quite noticeable simply because of how different the Ian bits of the story look. The fact that they're shot on film, combined with what seems to be an unusually high exposure rate make them look like Russian cinema of the 1920s (my specialist subject at degree level. That came in useful…). It's never more noticeable than when we cut to a reaction of Ian while they're trying to appeal - you almost expect it to cut away to a caption!

All of this sounds like I'm complaining, which I'm not, really. This has been another episode I've enjoyed, although I'm not overly sure that a lot has happened. In many ways, this feels like the second half of an Episode One - everyone is being moved into the right position, and the strands of the story are being introduced. On the one hand, we have Ian being given a mission to seek out James Stirling. Susan and Barbara are being carted off to meet the Guillotine (setting up, I'm sure, a daring escape for tomorrow's episode!), and the Doctor is making his way to Paris.

With the Doctor's part in the story, we're given the series' very first location footage - and it's really quite good! The shots linger on a bit, perhaps; there's one show of the Doctor crossing a cornfield that seems to hold on just to say 'look! It's not a painted backdrop! He can keep walking!', but they're all really effective. The locations chosen are great, and it's pretty easy to picture them as being in France. It helps that the weather seems to have stayed nice for the day!

A lot gets made of the scene in An Unearthly Child, where the Doctor considers using a rock to smash a caveman's skull. It's often cited as an example of the Doctor's callousness at the very start of the series. I even talked about it for this very blog about a month ago (and concluded that, actually, it's not as bad as people make it out to be).

Why, then, does no one mention this episode? The Doctor - in an attempt to escape from a captor and get back on with his mission - tricks him into bending down… then whacks him with a shovel! You could argue that he just knocks him flat on the back, but that doesn't seem to be the implication from the way its been directed. Crikey! This is by far the most violent we've seen the Doctor so far. I'm baffled that it doesn't get brought up more often!

Oh, and I don't want to dwell on it, but blimey, Susan must be driving Barbara mental.

Next Episode: A Change of Identity

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

Day Thirty-Seven: A Land of Fear (The Reign of Terror, Episode One)

Dear diary,

I love it when this marathon throws up odd little coincidences. The first recon I watched - for Marco Polo - came on the same day that I saw The Hobbit in its 48fps version. Coming home from that to a tele snap recon that was less than 48 frames per minute? Bit of a culture shock.

Today, I've embarked on The Reign of Terror having spent my afternoon in a cinema watching Les Miserables . It's a full on French Revolution Day for me! Thankfully, having spent two-and-a-half hours trying to stay awake in the cinema (the misses loved it, though, so that's something…), I've really rather enjoyed this.

I should say, before I discuss the episode itself, that I've been purposely avoiding the Reign of Terror DVD for quite some time, now. I started thinking about this marathon several months ago, before we had any preview clips, and so I've avoided them ever since. It's been a tricky ten days or so since the DVD turned up, because I can hear the newly animated episodes calling to me… Still, it's only another few days, and I'm sure I'll appreciate them more by watching them in context like this.

I didn't mention it yesterday, but the cliffhanger comes rather out of nowhere, doesn't it? I've just spent a while praising how far the Doctor has come as a character over the course of this first series, and how much he's bonded with Ian and Barbara, and then one slightly mis-stepped sentence, and the Doctor's throwing them off the ship!

It still feels a bit odd here, when he sets them down and tells them to be off. I'm not sure if it's all going to come round by the end of the story, with him announcing that he doesn't really want them to go (Ian muses early on that he's not really that disappointed that they're off on another adventure together), but for now it feels more than a little jarring. It seems like the Doctor has gone right back to his old self again. Still, i I like the idea that the faults we've witnessed with the TARDIS are quite recent, as is the Police Box look, and that the Doctor isn't used to not having control over his ship yet.

And then we're off! The first time I saw Reign of Terror (many years ago, on a poor quality VHS) I knew that it was the first time the series had done any location work - and I thought it was these opening scenes in the woodland! Looking at it now, on a freshly spruced-up DVD, and having spent just over a month looking at the show's sets, it's quite clear that this bit is only a studio, but it's still looking pretty good.

I was also a bit surprised to work out that this is the first child we've seen in the series since the kids at Coal Hill right back in the first episode. Coming at it from the Matt Smith era, where lots of stories revolve around children, it seems quite bizarre! I'm guessing from his panicked look towards the end of the episode that he'll be back to help the Doctor out during Episode Two.

The cliffhanger here is pretty good, and certainly better than the last episode's. Ian, Barbara, and Susan getting carted off to Paris while the Doctor remains stuck in a burning farmhouse is very typical of Season One - splitting the team up ready to get the adventure going - but it works well enough. I'm also quite keen on the model of the burning farmhouse; The effect of the roof caving in is particularly well done.

All in all, it's a good start to the story, as I've come to expect from historical stories. I'm looking forward to following it on…

Next Episode: Guests of Madame Guillotine

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

Day Thirty-Six: A Desperate Venture (The Sensorites, Episode Six)

Dear diary;

It's nice to have Barbara back, but this is the first time that one of the regular cast's absences hasn't really worked. In The Keys of Marinus, it didn't feel strange that the Doctor was missing, because the rest of the characters were busy moving from place-to-place anyway. In The Aztecs, Susan gets a few brief scenes in every episode anyway, even if she is separated from the rest of the group.

Here, we see Babs returned as a part of the plot - she's reading the letter Carol was forced to write - and it just feels wrong. The rest of the cast have been down on the Sense Sphere for two-and-a-half episodes, so Barbara feels out of place here. It's even more jarring to have her taking part in the story, which has shifted considerably since we last saw her.

As for the rest of the story; it's been rather good. The story changes route again, as much of the action is set down in the aqueduct, moving us away from the Sensorite city, where things have started getting desperate. When the (former) City Administrator starts making people write letters to explain their absences, it all starts to get a bit too much.

It's a shame, having seen him plotting and scheming for so long, that the entire subplot about his character is swatted away so simply at the end with a very basic 'The map proves his treachery. We'll sort him out'. I was hoping for a grander denouement.

It's something which has become something of a theme with these longer stories - both The Daleks and Marco Polo stretched on for a long time, but the final episode had me wanting more. It always feels as though five episodes are sent setting things up, and then 25 minutes at the end isn't enough to pay it all off. A shame.

Meanwhile, with the Doctor and Ian, I really enjoyed the stuff about the survivors of the previous visit to the Sphere. I'd (sort of) pieced together what was happening in the Aqueduct, so it's nice to see that coming to fruition. What did surprise me, considering my complaints earlier in the story about how obvious the script was (the whole water instance, for example…) is how well it all ties together.

We're told early on that the previous spaceship had blown up when it tried to take off and that they suspected the other humans had stowed away on board. Here, we find that they'd been hiding down in the Aqueduct, and the destruction of the ship was their doing.

The warfare angle is an interesting one, and again, it all ties in to the way we've seen the Sensorite's mind-reading powers affecting John early on in the story. The captain of the little group is particularly fun, and it's a bit of a shame that we only get him for the one episode.

On the whole… The Sensorites is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

There are times - Episode Four, to be precise! - where I thought the reputation this story has gathered over the years was going to turn out to be entirely accurate, but then it manages to swing itself round quite well during the second half.

There's enough variation in the story to keep things interesting. The first two episodes are heavily focussed on the spaceship, before shifting to the city for episodes three, four, and five, and then to the Aqueduct for the final part. The dialogue is possibly the story's biggest failing, but even that improves as time goes on.

One thing, though… What was the 'monster'? Was it just the rebel group of humans trying to keep the Sensorites out of the Aqueduct? Why did they batter up the Doctor's coat if they'd been waiting for a 'human' as a sign that the war was over? That was a bit of a letdown…

Next Episode: A Land of Fear

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

Day Thirty-Five: Kidnap (The Sensorites, Episode Five)

Dear diary,

It's strange, really. We're back to a situation where not much happens in this episode, and yet it's held my attention throughout. It looks like the third episode really was just a blip - The Sensorites isn't half bad.

There's quite a lot to love in this episode, too. I enjoyed the continuing schemes of the City Administrator, and the way he turns the death of the Second Elder to his advantage, trying to frame the Doctor was rather good work. As soon as the jacket defence came up, I thought it would be a case of drawing it out a bit to fill some time, so I was glad to see it dealt with immediately.

The whole situation with the jacket is something to praise, actually. In so many episodes (and this isn't something that Doctor Who is uniquely guilty of), our heroes go through all manner of things, and then return to the TARDIS looking as pristine as the moment they stepped out of it. It's quite odd to see the Doctor's jacket torn to shreds, but it's effective.

The only other story to use this to such a good effect is right back in An Unearthly Child - the regulars are all much worse for wear by the end.

It's nice, too, to see them making plans for the return of Jackie Hill in the next episode - I'd worried that she'd either just appear from nowhere, or that she wouldn't turn up until somewhere near the end, when the rest of the cast make it back up to the space ship. I wonder what she's been doing up there all this time?

Something I've been meaning to talk about for a few days (but keep forgetting!) is the TARDIS' role in the stories to this point. In every story (with the obvious exemption of The Edge of Destruction), the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan all have to be forcefully separated from the ship in some way - the story is usually about them trying to get back to the TARDIS.

In An Unearthly Child, they're banged up in the Cave of Skulls. In The Daleks, they can't leave until they get the fluid link back from the Dalek City. Marco Polo has the TARDIS physically taken away from them, and the same is true of The Keys of Marinus, when Arbitan puts it inside a force field until they do his bidding. The Aztecs sees the ship shut away inside the locked tomb, and here the Sensorites steal the lock.

I've mentioned (lots!) how the Doctor has changed over the last month or so, but it's interesting to note how the others have, too. Ian and Barbara are a part of the adventure, now, not just looking to get home (though they do still have that ambition). Susan gives the impression that she's always quite enjoyed the adventures.

The point is; following the Doctor's announcement yesterday that he wasn't content just curing a problem if he could stop it at the source, the idea of having to take the TARDIS away from him is growing less important. We're at a stage, now, where the crew will get involved in the adventures because they want to, not because they're forced to. That's going to be interesting to keep an eye on as we move forward…

Next Episode: A Desperate Venture

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

Day Thirty-Four: Race Against Death (The Sensorites, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

It's not something you often see said, but actually, I quite like the design of the Sensorites. No, genuinely! I've been meaning to mention it for a few days now. There's one or two obvious flaws (those feet are very impractical. You'd better hope they never have to run anywhere…), but on the whole it's a good design.

It's quite well realised, too. There's one or two instances where the joins are perfectly visible, but as I've said before, I'm watching a VidFIREd version of this story on a 21.5" iMac screen. This isn't the natural format for this show. On the whole, I really like them.

Shortly before watching this story, I stumbled across a redesign of the creatures on the blog 'Mels Art Stuff'. I really liked it, and I've had it in mind while watching… but it's not a million miles away from what we've got here! It's this exact design with a bit more freedom of budget.

Now then, if that opening has sounded pretty positive, it's because I've enjoyed today's episode! I know! I resolved to go into it with a positive outlook, as assuming it would be like yesterday's installment was going to get me nowhere. It's a good thing, though, because this one's been rather good.

The Doctor very quickly deduces that it's the water infecting the planet, which is good. I'd worried that even after it was so spelt out in the last episode, they'd leave it running as a mystery for a while. The main complaint that I hear about The Sensorites is that it's dull, and I feared that would be because the solution was clear to us long before the characters arrived at it.

And once that deduction is out of the way, the story rattles on at quite a pace! There's even chance for a montage, with the Doctor working on an antidote, Susan caring for Ian, and the Sensorites testing water for the poisons. Part of the fun of watching the montage is seeing everyone get into position ready for the shot to return to them, as cutting was out of the question due to time and budget. Plus, Hartnell pulls some wonderful faces while trying to look as though he's concentrating.

Alongside this, we've got the thoroughly evil City Administrator trying to get rid of 'The Humans' as best he can. There's some interesting parallels to The Aztecs, here, but with the morality angle almost completely removed. There, Tlotoxl was desperate to show up the TARDIS crew as false (when they actually were being), while here, the City Administrator is trying to prove that Ian's 'illness' is false (though it's not).

And then there's the Doctor. His transformation into the character we know and love is pretty much complete, now. He's found the solution for curing Ian, and it can be scaled and applied to the rest of the planet, but that's not enough for him. To quote the Doctor himself; 'Why cure something when we can stamp it out?'. It's great to see him at this stage, finally.

Oh, and then there's even room for a cliffhanger involving a monster! Brilliant!

Next Episode: Kidnap

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

Day Thirty-Three: Hidden Danger (The Sensorites, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

Oh, all right, then. This one was a bit of a slog. I'm starting to worry that my desperate attempt to find good in a story usually considered to be terribly dull may be a tougher task than I'd anticipated.

I'm not even completely sure what the problem is. Plenty happens in the episode; they have another encounter with the Sensorites, they leave Barbara on the ship so that Jackie Hill can take a couple of weeks in Spain, we meet another group of Sensorites, and Ian falls victim to the disease that's been wiping them out, as we discover by the filling on of a lot of back story.

Actually, that's it. That's the problem. The 'filling in'. It's not the greatest writing of all, is it? There's a very real attempt to make the Sensorites seem like a three-dimensional race, but it's not done very subtly. Perhaps the worst offender is the scene where two of them set up a disintegrator machine to use against our heroes.

The dialogue between the two is along the lines of 'Is their hurt on the left, or the right? Or is it in the centre, like ours [because we're aliens! See? Aliens! Our hearts are in a strange position! Because we're aliens!]'. As if that wasn't clunky enough, they then decide to set it to the centre anyway. If they have no reason to assume that their hearts wouldn't be in the centre, then why bring it up? Poorly done.

And the disease is none-too-subtle, either. It's actually quite a nice set up, and a good way of shifting the focus of the story slightly for the remaining episodes; the first two were about encountering the Seonsorites, the other four are about curing their ills. Except…

When the Doctor, Ian and Susan are given glasses of water, a big point is made that they've been served the 'basic' water, which is filtered down through an aqueduct from the hills. The Elders don't drink this water, but Ian takes a sip. A few minutes later, a point is made that the disease affects all of the Sensorites. Except the Elders. Who don't drink that water. And then Ian suddenly starts to show symptoms of the illness. Shortly after drinking the water.

I know that Doctor Who is aimed at a family audience with a large number of children watching, but after we've sat through four episodes of The Aztecs, which is rich in history and very deep, this just feels… well. patronising.

The dialogue, aside from being so clunky, continues to be functional as in the last episode. There's even one exchange which goes along the lines of 'But how?' / 'I will explain…'. I think this is the main thing making The Sensorites a bit of a chore now.

Still, we're at the half-way point. Maybe things get better from here as Peter R Newman gets used to writing for the series? Once the world of the Sensorites is set up, he may be able to tell a decent story to keep me hooked…

Next Episode: A Race Against Death

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

Day Thirty-Two: The Unwilling Warriors (The Sensorites, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

It's January 2008. I've recently moved out of home for the first time, and I'm living with a fellow Doctor Who fan called Alex. I don't know if Alex reads the 50 Year Diary, but I hope he does. Hi Alex.

Anyway, around the same time, I'd gained a new girlfriend, who when she was back from university on one occasion told me she wanted to watch Doctor Who. Hooray! Good times! What was even better is that she wanted to watch it from the start. Apparently, I was raving about the classic stuff so much, she wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

So the deal was made, we'd watch one story a week, during her couple of days back from uni. We started, of course, with An Unearthly Child, followed by The Daleks (Though I seem to recall skipping most of this one because it was boring!) and then The Edge of Destruction. We skipped Marco Polo, as a description of a recon had met with a stoney stare. For some reason, we ended up skipping The Keys of Marinus and The Aztecs, too. If I had to guess, I'd say that by this stage, she'd given up on wanting to watch them all, and decided to just go for ones she liked the sound of, instead.

So, The Sensorites was the next on the list. I was excited, I'd never seen it before! What's more, living with Alex meant that I suddenly had access to all the Doctor Who stories that I'd never owned on VHS or DVD. The whole library! In the same house as me! I remember setting up The Sensorites in the VHS player (having to take the plastic wrapper off first. Evidently, Alex hadn't ever watched it, either…), watching Episode One, thinking it was quite good, starting Episode Two…

And the tape cut out. The tracking went all weird, then the screen went to static. Fast forwarding back and forth brought some brief images of men in a sewer (I'm guessing that's still to come) and not a whole lot else. We more-or-less gave up on trying to watch the classic ones after that.

The one thing I did get to think at the time, thanks to seeing the first few minutes of this second episode before the tape cut out, has still held true today, though. Basically; 'How does the cliffhanger look so good at the end of Episode One and so stupid at the start of Episode Two?!'. The cliffhanger works so well because of the eerie way that the Sensorite is pawing at the window. Here, he just stands there like an over-familiar neighbour watching you eat dinner through the window.

Thankfully, standing around staring is still very effective when used in the right way - and John is pretty unnerving while he's in contact with the Sensorites. There's something about the way he stares right down the camera lens at us that really jars with what we're used to in the series, so it leaves you feeling a bit on edge. It's one of the things that's saving the story for me.

I can't say I've yet seen why it's got such a reputation among fandom. Sure, it's not the most action-packed of stories, but it's not bad (at least so far). If anything, I found that this episode held my attention even more than the last had. There's some unusual things in here, such as a full two minutes in which only two lines of dialogue are shared, while Ian and Barbara explore the ship looking for the Sensorites.

What does strike me as odd, though, it the way Ian reacts to them. He finds something to use as a weapon, and scares them with it if they try to move. Doesn't he even think to try talking to them? It seems a bit strange, especially given that they're perfectly willing to have a chat just a few minutes later…

So far: not as bad as reputation suggests. It's just bog-standard Doctor Who …

Next Episode: Hidden Danger

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

Day Thirty-One: Strangers in Space (The Sensorites, Episode One)

Dear diary,

The Sensorites has a bit of a reputation, doesn't it? It's the 'boring' story of Season One, and one of the most boring ever, supposedly. I've seen it said that many people give up trying to do a Doctor Who marathon while trying to get past these six episodes. A shame, really, because this first episode offers up a lot of promise.

Oh, now, don't get me wrong. Even in this first episode there were a couple of minutes when I noticed my attention wandering (Still, nowhere near as badly as during The Screaming Jungle*…). It's very much a *talking episode, isn't it? But although we've got all these characters talking to each other, none of them are actually saying anything. Whereas The Aztecs was full of lovely dialogue between the cast, this feels much more functional. It's all very much descriptive dialogue.

It's a good thing, then, that this episode sports some of the best direction that we've had in the series to date. Over Christmas recently, BBC Wales was singing praises to the heavens for the shot of Clara entering the TARDIS for the first time, in a camera move that takes us from outside the small box to the inside in one sweeping motion.

Here, though, we've got the opposite - a shot that follows the TARDIS crew from a discussion inside the ship, out through the doors and directly onto the spaceship. As if that wasn't a grand enough moment, Susan then turns back around… to face the police box exterior. It's very well done, so much so that I actively had to skip back on the DVD to watch it again and make sure that my mind hadn't just filled in some gaps itself.

The direction continues to be great throughout, as we see closeups of hands, with the Sensorite removing the TARDIS lock, and then John cutting out the door opening system so that he can stalk Susan and Babs around the corridors. It has to be said, John is one of the most disturbing things we've had in the series. Forget the Daleks, here we've a man staring solely down the camera lens in silence before clutching his head and breaking down. It's genuinely un-nerving, and the direction only serves to help.

And then we've that stunning cliffhanger, as a creepy figure paws at the window of the ship. I've seen that cliffhanger before, and it's still a bit off-putting now. The sheer weirdness of the creature helps to make it one of the best we've had…

…Which is certainly more than can be said for the cliffhanger to the last episode. The whole thing hinges on the fact that the TARDIS says that it has stopped, but is also still moving. The Doctor is stumped. Susan hasn't ever seen anything like it. It's Barbara who hypothesises that they've landed inside something, and then they're all surprised to find that it's a spaceship.

Coming at the same time as a scene in which our regulars reminisce over recent events, and the Doctor even talks of adventures he's had 'quite some time' before Ian and Barbara joined them, are we really supposed to believe that this is the first time the TARDIS has ever landed on a moving spaceship? Really? The Doctor even helps to fly it later on in the episode!

Still, it's a strong start to the story. Now fingers crossed that this is one which might surprise me. You see, I've seen this first episode before, but I've never made it to the end. But not because I was bored! That's a story for tomorrow… (how's that for a cliffhanger!)

Next Episode: The Unwilling Warriors

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

Day Thirty: The Day Of Darkness (The Aztecs, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

The Aztecs is something of an odd one, morally. There's a moment in this episode where Autloc - the time traveller's only supporter among the Aztecs for some time now - declares that Ian and Susan 'serve a false goddess', and out heart really sinks. Their final friend has turned against them, and joined sides with the evil Tlotoxl.

Except… well… he's only stating the truth! Barbara is a false God! She is deceiving Autloc, and trying to deceive the rest of the Aztecs for her own reasons, however 'right' she may believe her reasons to be. It's an interesting stance for a Doctor Who story, when villains are often painted as far more black and white.

During Marco Polo, I commented on how Tegana was almost a pantomime villain. He was evil for his own reasons, planning to steal the TARDIS and use it to help wage war. The only reason that he was a part of Polo's caravan was so that he could assassinate Kublai Kahn. He was just pure evil, in the same way that the Daleks, or the Voord have been in this season, too.

Tlotoxl, on the other hand, while still being prone to a few pantomime outbursts, is only trying to seek the truth. He knows that Barbara is lying to them (even more so after yesterday's episode, where she specifically tells him she's fake!), and seeks only to prove this to the others. Oh, sure, he goes about it in something of a devious way (trying to get them all killed on more than one occasion is one way to deal with your problems!), but it's hard to dislike him entirely.

What's interesting is that the character's painted throughout as truly believing in sacrifice. After an attempt to halt one earlier in the story sees the intended victim throw himself from the temple, Tlotoxl claims that his death is still the cause of godly intervention. During this episode, though, it's made much more clear that he knows it's all a farce, commenting that 'the darkness will come and go! A sacrifice must be made!'.

While on the subject of Tlotoxl, I've been waiting until now to praise John Ringham's performance. He's simply fantastic throughout this story. He's genuinely chilling when he wants to be - never more so than during his stare to camera during the story's first cliffhanger - and great fun throughout. I'm going to miss him as we move on to a new time and place.

It's nice, too, to see the Doctor gently supporting Barbara, as he tells Cameca that the gods really do want sacrifice to stop. He knows it's all fruitless, but it's nice to see him siding with his companion when he knows how strongly she feels about it.

As the story's rating will attest, I've really rather enjoyed The Aztecs. I've always known that it's quite a good one, somewhere in the back of my mind, since the first time I saw it, but it's nice to have that confirmed here.

I won't go into much detail about the story as a whole, as I've done that through the various entries on the four episodes. It's lovely to see Barbara given a story that is so totally 'hers'; the series at this stage is still very much an ensemble piece, and it works so well as a result of it.

Next Episode: Strangers in Space

 Day Twenty-Nine: The Bride of Sacrifice (The Aztecs, Episode Three)

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

Day Twenty-Nine: The Bride of Sacrifice (The Aztecs, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

There's some fabulously elaborate hats in this story, aren't there? Barbara's, Tlotoxl's, even Autloc's. If you're something of a hat fan, this really is the story for you.

But actually, the design of this story on the whole is really rather good. I spent a lot of time during the last story praising the design and the thought that had gone into the world, especially during the later episodes. A similar praise can be given to this story, as well. The temple, in particular, is a wonderful design, and there's a lot of great detail involved - occasionally, the camera follows characters as they roam from the inside to the out, and you can see the 3D effect on the patterns carved into the surface - it's all really effective.

Less attractive is the school they've got Susan shut away in. During the last episode I wondered why they'd shot Carole Ann Ford's scenes on film, when there were no fights or stunts involved. It was only today that I realised she must be on a holiday (and a quick check confirms that, yes, she was away for these two weeks, her scenes in the school being filmed alongside Episode Five of The Keys of Marinus), and so only just involved in the plot.

It's to the story's credit that I've never noticed this before. Just as the Doctor's absence was successfully explained away in the last story, they've managed to keep disruption to a minimum here. This feels much more like the 'Doctor-lite' episodes of the 21st century incarnation of the show - I'm thinking in particular of Midnight, in which Donna appears for a couple of minutes at the top and tail of the story, but you never realise she's not there.

What surprised me, when we cut to a pre-filmed insert of Susan during this episode was that I actually smiled to myself. I was pleased to see her! I stated a few weeks ago that I wasn't the biggest fan of Susan, and that I'd likely spend a lot of time complaining about her, but actually, she's nowhere near as bad as I recall. Oh, sure, there's a few moments of over-reaction and one or two instances where I'm less-than-keen, but I've warmed to her more than I'd expected. I like that.

The downside to all this, though, is that while I was glad to see her, I hadn't actively missed her from the plot. If you'd asked me before her scene what was missing from the story, 'Susan' wouldn't have been my first thought. I sung praises yesterday for Ian and Barbara as characters, and the pair of them with the Doctor is more than enough to keep me satisfied.

Speaking of which, we've another one of those moments where I praise how far the character of the Doctor has come! Oh, I know, I do it every few days, it seems, but we keep on getting these moments! I'll stop doing it at some point. Promise. Here, as he tells Ian of the secret tunnel into the tomb;

IAN

Where did you get hold of this?

THE DOCTOR

My fiancée.

IAN

I see. (beat. He realises.) Your What!?!

It's a great little moment, and it's beautifully played by both men. I couldn't let it pass without a mention…

Next Episode: The Day of Darkness