January 17: "Hidden Danger" / "A Race Against Death"

(The Sensorites episodes 3 & 4)

Seriously, there's just something wonderful about the Sensorites.  The wizened head, with its wrinkles and wispy hair, combined with the all-over jumpsuits, makes them look very charming -- especially since, as we learn in these two episodes, the Earth people don't have much to fear from them.  Once again, communication is shown as the way to solve conflicts; once the Doctor shows that he and his friends don't wish to harm the Sensorites, things begin to go much more smoothly.

Jacqueline Hill is only around for the first half of "Hidden Danger" before she's gone completely, off on vacation while Barbara is left on the spaceship with Maitland.  Everyone else gets to venture down to the surface of the Sense-Sphere and enjoy the Ray Cusick-designed sets, with its nice non-angular lines informing the look of the place.  Meanwhile, William Russell gets to drink poisoned water and be sick for the entirety of "A Race Against Death" -- his death being the one the Doctor's racing against.  This seems to be the tipping point for the First Elder, the leader of the Sensorites, who becomes convinced that the humans mean them no harm, and he agrees to give back the Doctor the lock of the ship (removed in "Strangers in Space") in exchange for an antidote to the poison that's been afflicting parts of the population.

The Doctor instructs the Sensorite scientists. ("A Race
Against Death") ©BBC

Of course, you can't convince everyone, and in this case it's the Sensorites' City Adminstrator (as played by Peter Glaze) who is determined to prove that the humans are up to no good.  It's not the world's most subtle performance, but there's something marvelous about his rabid xenophobia, as he goes out of his way to be antagonistic, first trying to kill the humans by force before turning to subterfuge.  "We must match cunning with cunning," he says, still firm in his belief that the Doctor intends to poison the Sensorites with his so-called "cure", and this is what leads him to kidnap the Second Elder and take his place, allowing him more freedom to carry out his villainy.

And lest anyone still be unconvinced of the modernity of this story, note that once the Doctor develops the antidote, he's fulfilled his part of the bargain and can get the lock to the TARDIS back; he can leave at any time.  Yet he decides to go into the aqueduct where the poison seems to be originating from and try and remove the source, not because he has any external obligation to do so, but because it's the right thing to do⁶.  It's quite out of keeping with the previous stories, but not with the direction the current serial is taking -- nor is it out of keeping with the series as we now regard it.  The Doctor is slowly but surely taking steps toward becoming the moral crusader of later years.







⁶ Thanks go to About Time, which first pointed this out to me.

January 16: "Strangers in Space" / "The Unwilling Warriors"

(The Sensorites episodes 1 & 2)

Well, it took 30 episodes, but we've finally gotten a glimpse of the future.  Yes, we had The Daleks and The Keys of Marinus, but those were set on other worlds, unrelated to Earth -- they were futuristic, rather than "the future".  "Strangers in Space" by contrast, is definitively set in the 28th century, with a spaceship and crew that come from Earth.  It's only a small glimpse (a mention of a lot of "air traffic" and that the southern half of England is all known as Central City, and then the design of the spaceship itself), but it's still something.

These two episodes are quite neat: admittedly, they might be a little slow, but the pace always feels measured, rather than dragging.  There's also the development of a theme: the crew (and by extension, the Doctor and company) are frightened of their fellow mineralogist John, and then again of the Sensorites, and in both cases it seems like this is largely because none of them have tried to talk to them; it takes Barbara and Susan talking to John to realize that he shouldn't be feared, and while the Sensorites still seem to pose a threat, Susan's act of communicating with them appears to reduce the tension somewhat.

The Sensorites themselves are (feet aside) rather wonderful designs.  It's really an excellent headpiece, looking alien yet not too abstract.  They're not the most threatening-looking creatures, but then the script drops hints that they're not supposed to be: "I think that they were as frightened of me as I was of them," Ian comments after holding them at bay with some sort of tool.  Indeed, one gets the impression that the Sensorites have been forced into menacing the crew and preventing them from leaving, and that it's not their preferred state of affairs ("Once before we trusted Earthmen, to our cost," comments one Sensorite) -- indeed, it would seem that the Sensorites are the unwilling warriors of the episode's title, rather than the crewmembers (as one might have surmised at the episode's outset).  There are also some nice educational touches, such as the discussion of a spectrograph, melting points for iron and molybdenum, and the bit about the contracting of the iris (as far as the Sensorites go, evolutionarily silly, as has been pointed out before, but not inaccurate based on what we're told).  And special note has to go to the direction of the beginning of "Strangers in Space", as the camera follows the TARDIS crew straight out of the console room and into the spaceship -- and then we cut to the side and see the police box, seemingly standing where the other camera just was.  It's a neat little bit of direction, and slightly surprising to see so early -- they're still trying to do things like this on Doctor Who now, and Mervyn Pinfield was doing it in 1964!

In fact, in many ways this feels a lot closer to the style of Doctor Who as we know it than anything that's come before it.  The Doctor's taken a leadership role, asking the right questions and showing Maitland and Carol that they can resist the Sensorites' control, while Barbara and Susan go off exploring the ship and, while they're threatened initially by John, they become proactive with John and befriend him, rather than needing to be rescued.  As much as people may not want to admit it, it's not too far of a stretch to see this as, say, a Matt Smith story -- the Doctor discovering that they needn't be as afraid of the Sensorites as they have been could just as easily be something that the eleventh Doctor would do as much as the first.  Before it's seemed as if this show could do just about anything.  That's admittedly still the case here, as the production team are just trying out a different style of script here -- there's nothing to say that this will set the tone for the show in the future, but with hindsight we can see the Doctor Who we know starting to really take shape.

January 15: "The Bride of Sacrifice" / "The Day of Darkness"

(The Aztecs episodes 3 & 4)

Tonila and Tlotoxl test Yetaxa's divinity. ("The Bride
of Sacrifice") ©BBC

"The Bride of Sacrifice" is in fact Susan, who viewed an arranged marriage in Lucarotti's last serial and is now the subject of one.  Not bad for someone who's been on vacation for two episodes.  (Carole Ann Ford is included on pre-filmed inserts.)

There's a bit of a course change here, as the focus moves from trying to prevent the Aztecs' sacrifices to simply trying to get back into Yetaxa's tomb.  Which isn't to say that the issue of human sacrifice goes away; it's just not the main thrust of the drama any more.

Quick digression: there's an episode of Star Trek called "The Apple", where (putting it crudely) Kirk and his crew encounter a culture that they disagree with and force the natives to change their way of life.  This always sat poorly with me, partly because it's just assumed that Western European culture is the best, most "right" culture.  By contrast, here we get Ian arguing with Barbara about the Aztec culture of sacrifice: "You keep on insisting that Tlotoxl's the odd man out, but he isn't. ... You can't fight a whole way of life, Barbara."  It's recognition that the Aztecs don't want to be changed, that they're perfectly happy to continue human sacrifice -- indeed, as the Perfect Victim himself points out, "It is a great honor for me to be chosen."  And in fact it's the travellers who are being less than honest, portraying themselves as a goddess and her servants -- though it may have been a case of mistaken identity, they never disabuse the Aztecs of this belief.

But this is one moment in these two episodes: as noted earlier, we're now much more concerned with getting into Yetaxa's tomb.  This leads to some wonderful moments in the garden with Ian and the Doctor and then with Ixta.  And special mention must go to the lighting, which does a fantastic job of evoking a moonlit night, as well as giving the impression of water rising up around Ian at the cliffhanger to "The Bride of Sacrifice".  And if we're discussing the garden, we have to talk about the Doctor's inadvertent marriage proposal to Cameca: we get a great comedic look from William Hartnell when he learns what he's actually done by preparing cocoa, but afterwards he doesn't seem to be terribly upset at the notion and seems genuinely sad that he has to leave Cameca behind, even though he knows he must.  And it leads to my favorite moment of the story, where the Doctor puts down the brooch Cameca gave him, starts to leave, then turns and snatches it back before entering the TARDIS.  It's an understated and beautiful moment.

All this plus continued excellence from the actors shows why The Aztecs as a story is so highly regarded.  This is the only complete surviving 'straight' historical from the '60s (as opposed to, say, The Romans, which is largely comedic, or The Time Meddler, which is about someone attempting to change history), and one sometimes wonders if the high reputation the historical stories currently enjoy is due in no small part to how well this story pulls it off -- feeling nearly Shakespearean at times, as, e.g., Tlotoxl schemes to destroy Barbara or Ian announces that his and Ixta's next meeting will be their last one (as indeed it is, with a fight sequence shot on film that's far ahead of the stylized movement we got in "The Temple of Evil").  The Aztecs is magnificent.

January 14: "The Temple of Evil" / "The Warriors of Death"

(The Aztecs episodes 1 & 2)

Standard and special edition DVDs

"But you can't rewrite history!" the Doctor exclaims to Barbara, halfway through "The Temple of Evil".  "Not one line!" It's at the heart of this story: can Barbara change the course of history and save the Aztec civilization from the conquistadors?

Let's back up a bit.  We've just left Marinus (as the opening moments helpfully remind us) and have now arrived in late 15th/early 16th century Mexico, in the heart of Aztec lands.  When Barbara is mistaken as the reincarnation of a high priest, she is revered as a god, and thus is a position of power to change history, to turn the Aztecs from their custom of human sacrifice.  She's determined to try, despite the Doctor's protests, and this is what drives things.

It's interesting: the main motivation of the others is to simply gain access to the TARDIS, which is locked inside Yetaxa's tomb.  If the travellers could gain access, they'd leave immediately, but they're forced to interact with Aztec society while they figure out a way in.  This has been happening before, mind; so far they've been denied access to the Ship by way of capture, a missing component/key, and a forcefield.  But this feels like the least contrived and thus most frustrating barrier yet: a stone door that they can't open.  So while they try to break in, Barbara is going to make the most of her situation, and try and change things.

In both of these episodes, we see Barbara try to prevent or change some aspect of Aztec culture (not just the sacrifice, but also smaller things, such as Susan's removal to a seminary or Ian's fight with Ixta), and each time it almost seems like she makes things worse: Tlotoxl, High Priest of Sacrifice, loses faith in her, and then Susan is separated from the others.  But still she refuses to give in.

Ian defeats Ixta with his thumb. ("The Warriors of
Death") ©BBC

Of course Barbara's not the only one with the good role: Ian ably acquits himself as he vies with Ixta for leadership of the Aztec armies.  The bit with the thumb is really lovely, and the unarmed fight that concludes "The Warriors of Death" is quite well done, especially for a studio session (the initial fight with Ixta and an Aztec warrior, in "The Temple of Evil", is also in studio and decidedly less impressive, since they have to be careful not to hurt anyone).  It's also interesting to see how Ian maintains the upper hand in the fight, doing quite well even after he's been scratched by Ixta.

The Doctor too gets some nice moments: his interactions with Cameca are especially noteworthy, being rather more flirtatious than one might expect.  "You're an old rogue," Barbara says after he mentions Cameca to her, and the Doctor doesn't deny it.  And I haven't even mentioned the guest cast yet, who all perform excellent work -- John Ringham is often singled out for his Richard III-like performance as Tlotoxl, but actors like Ian Cullen as Ixta and Keith Pyott as Autloc also deserve high praise for playing things with sincerity and conviction, making things very believable.  In their hands, and those of writer John Lucarotti, the Aztec world of Mexico is just as dangerous as Skaro or Marinus.

January 13: "Sentence of Death" / "The Keys of Marinus"

(The Keys of Marinus episodes 5 & 6)

Well, this is more like it!  Maybe I'm just a sucker for mysteries, but the parts of this story that take place in Millennius are far more engaging than in the last three locations.  There's a sense of drive through "Sentence of Death", as the Doctor must prove Ian's innocence, lest Ian be executed for murder.  The fact that we go out and explore a bit as the Doctor and his team search for exonerating evidence and such means that Millennius feels more fleshed out than, say, Morphoton from "The Velvet Web".  We start to get a sense of how these people actually live, with hints dropped casually in dialogue and sets showing us apartments and such.

Of course, it's still a mystery that they have to get through in an episode and a half, which means that villains repeatedly start to utter self-incriminating statements before they stop themselves just to move things along.  Although I do enjoy Aidan's death as he starts to reveal his co-conspirators -- it feels an awful lot like Jack Ruby killing Lee Harvey Oswald.  I'm not sure if it's an intentional reference or not, but either way it does add to the air of mystery.

Yartek, leader of the alien Voord. ("The Keys of
Marinus") ©BBC

Sadly, it does start to sag a bit in the second half of "The Keys of Marinus", once the real killer has been caught and they return to the island with the Conscience of Marinus.  Yartek, the leader of the Voord (remember them from "The Sea of Death"?) has taken over and is trying to disguise himself as Arbitan.  It's been noted before how Ian and Susan seem suspicious of him because of what he said, not because his head appears to have grown several inches under his hood, but to be fair it's not like Terry Nation knew what those headpieces were going to be like.  But even so, Ian tricks not-Arbitan by giving him the fake key from "The Screaming Jungle" -- except Ian wasn't convinced not-Arbitan was an imposter, so he potentially gave the real Arbitan the fake key.  Of course, he didn't know it would blow up the whole building when inserted, so we can probably excuse him.

The main problem with The Keys of Marinus as a whole is that it's too ambitious; it wants to be a globe-trotting epic, but there's not enough time or money to fully flesh out all the locations, so the production team has to spend a lot of time hinting at things.  To their credit, they do really quite an excellent job with what they've got, but that can't hide the fact that Terry Nation has to spend time establishing each new exotic location and not developing the ones we've already gotten.  It's not terrible by any means, but given what we've gotten from Doctor Who so far, its flaws become rather more apparent.

January 12: "The Screaming Jungle" / "The Snows of Terror"

(The Keys of Marinus episodes 3 & 4)

So last episode they had a fairly lengthy discussion of how the Doctor was going to go two jumps ahead and look for the fourth key; in other words, William Hartnell's on vacation for these episodes (the first time a regular's been given time off this way), which means it's up to Ian, Barbara, and Susan to carry the day.  Unfortunately, Terry Nation seems to think that Susan's only there to scream and act generally hysterical -- realistic, perhaps, but not terribly pleasant viewing.  So that leaves Ian and Barbara.

Really, though, "The Screaming Jungle" feels like pure pulp.  There's what seems to be an abandoned building in the middle of a thick jungle, and it's simply full of traps.  And they're not very exciting traps either.  Ian getting nearly cleaved in two is probably the best; his getting trapped behind bars isn't very exciting, while Barbara being trapped under a net as a spiked ceiling descends might have been better had it not been shot quite so undramatically from the side, showing a shaky board with obviously not-at-all sharp blades juddering down.  (I do have to say, though, that I quite like the idol with the obviously human arms that grab people.)  Then there's some guff about nature's "tempo of destruction" having been accelerated; this seems to mean that plants crawl around and smash windows and things.  Like I said, pure pulp.

The ice soldiers awaken. ("The Snows of Terror") ©BBC

Things get better in "The Snows of Terror", but that might be because the actors have someone to react to, rather than just some vines wrapped around a pole.  Francis de Wolff turns in a memorably creepy performance as Vasor the trapper.  He's thoroughly nasty, even at the beginning when he's ostensibly helping Ian and Barbara, but there's a nice turn of cowardice from him when fortune shifts against him.

Other than that, though, this is simply the next place on the quest list: we had a jungle, so the opposite is clearly a snow-blasted mountain range.  That said, there's clearly effort being put into the design side of things: the jungle set last episode was quite nice, and the ice caves here are really good.  It's just a shame that the script doesn't have the same degree of care.  To be fair, this was a serial written in a great hurry after another script fell through⁵; it's just a bit of a pity that you can tell.







⁵ This was apparently The Hidden Planet by Malcolm Hulke; we'll hear more about him starting at the end of Patrick Troughton's run.

January 11: "The Sea of Death" / "The Velvet Web"

(The Keys of Marinus episodes 1 & 2)

The TARDIS has arrived on Marinus -- and Barbara and Susan have changed their outfits since the end of "Assassin at Peking" (so Missing Adventure authors take note -- Christopher Bulis has already taken advantage of this potential gap).  It's an odd episode, to be sure; there are some nice ideas from Terry Nation, like the acid sea which leads to a glass beach, but it's somewhat thwarted by the direction.  "The Sea of Death" feels rather loose because of this: there are an unusually high number of moments where characters are required not to see things that should be plainly visible to them until the plot needs them to: no one sees the first Voord on the beach, the Doctor suddenly sees submarines that have clearly been in front of him for some time, Ian somehow misses the whacking great building dominating the skyline for the first half of the episode...it's almost theatrical in this approach, but it requires a larger-than-normal amount of good faith to see things through.  Which would be fine if it weren't for the obvious errors and bizarre choices that are also plentiful: Hartnell's having a bit of bother with his lines while he's on the beach; a stagehand is visible through the first swinging door; a Voord is stabbed in the back despite being up against a solid wall -- this is just after George Coulouris as Arbitan appears to wander on set, look at Susan, and then wander off for no obvious reason; there's even a script left open and visible on the Conscience set!

This probably would be less of an issue if the script were up to it, but it's essentially marking time until it's time to send the travellers off on a quest.  So we have a number of Voord who lurking menacingly before they get killed, some exploration on a beach, and a plot dump by Arbitan explaining what's going to be happening.  It's functional writing rather than evocative.  Still, as I said before, there are some nice ideas: the trouble is that there aren't enough of them to paper over the other problems.  Even the TARDIS crew's agreement to look for the missing keys feels perfunctory.

Barbara destroys the brains ruling Morphoton.
("The Velvet Web") ©BBC

Fortunately, the next episode goes some way toward redressing the balance.  There's a lot tighter direction this time around, with the scenes from Barbara's point of view showing the city of Morphoton the way it really is worthy of particular praise. It's also interesting how the episode begins with Ian being the most suspicious of their hosts' generosity, yet ultimately it's Barbara who fails to be affected by the hypnosis.  And can we take a moment to acknowledge how gorgeous Katharine Schofield (Sabetha) is?

Really, if anything lets this episode down it's the nature of the overall story.  Because Terry Nation has crafted a quest epic, it means that we're only just starting to know a place when it's on to the next.  This just means that a) everything tends to be painted in broad strokes, with little subtlety; and b) the resolution of the problem is rather abrupt; it's great seeing Barbara smash up the brains, but it does feel a little sudden and therefore unsatisfying -- especially since they also need to spend time setting up the next episode, in a completely different location.