February 12: "Air Lock" / "The Exploding Planet"

(Galaxy 4 episodes 3 & 4)

"Air Lock" was one of the two missing episodes recovered in 2011¹⁵, which means that we can actually enjoy watching this episode, rather than just listening to the soundtrack.  And it does make it clear how much the visuals improve things: the soundtrack alone denies you the pleasure of Stephanie Bidmead's performance as Maaga, and how she turns directly to camera to deliver some of her asides; or how the Rill's recollection of events immediately after the crash are augmented by a flashback sequence that shows Maaga gun down her crewmember; or even the appearance of the Rill itself.  We're also treated to an interestingly abstract building that the Rills have constructed, a simple frame with pieces of plastic attached to the geometric design: the Rills, it seems, think in terms of triangles for their structures.

Maaga prepares to kill one of her soldiers. ("Air Lock") ©BBC

Of course, the story itself continues more or less down the same path as the last two episodes.  We're introduced to the Rills and we learn that they're actually quite decent folk.  Meanwhile, Steven manages to escape from the main part of the Drahvin ship, but then he ends up trapped in the airlock for the rest of the episode.  And, er, that's about it.  This episode is more about illustrating the morals of the two sides (the Rills are decent and giving, the Drahvins are ruthless and selfish -- witness their conversation about self-sacrifice) than anything else.  And like I said, it does help tremendously to be able to see things, but this continues to be not the most action-packed serial.

Back to the soundtrack for "The Exploding Planet", which is a bit sad because it sounds like things are actually happening this time around.  We can hear a Drahvin soldier stealthily approach a Chumbley and smack it with an iron rod.  The Drahvins start to attack the Rills' base, and then the TARDIS.  And the planet actually explodes!  One wonders if they used stock footage of volcanoes and things to show the destruction of the planet.  As such this is actually a fairly urgent-feeling episode, as the Rills need to power up their ship before the planet explodes.  Of course, we still get a little poetic moment: "To think that at dawn all this will explode into nothing," Vicki muses.  "No, not just nothing, child," the Doctor replies.  "Hydrogen gas that springs itself out like molten silver against the other stars in the same galaxy."  But beyond that, this is primarily wrapping everything up, as the Rills fly away and the Drahvins are left to their fate.  And then we get a teaser for the next episode: as Vicki wonders what's happening on a planet seen on the scanner, we travel to that planet, to see (well, hear) a man muttering about how he must kill...

Galaxy 4 isn't a terrible story by any means, but it's hardly a stand-out.  The tale seems a bit simplistic, honestly, as it focuses first on showing how ruthless the Drahvins are before then demonstrating how decent the Rills are.  If there is a sense of "appearances aren't everything", it's from the Drahvins, who believe the Rills to be evil just because they look weird.  But as the Drahvins are also shown not to understand things like friendship and loyalty, this more demonstrates that the Drahvins are really in the wrong, rather than just being misguided.  It's entertaining enough, and the existing episode suggests that this might have looked pretty good indeed (certainly "Air Lock" shows us that new director Derek Martinus has put some thought and care into things), but ultimately this is one of those pleasantly average stories that Doctor Who occasionally turns out, not doing anything wrong but not really wowing anyone either.







¹⁵ The other episode being The Underwater Menace Episode 2.

February 11: "Four Hundred Dawns" / "Trap of Steel"

(Galaxy 4 episodes 1 & 2)

So Doctor Who is pretty lucky in that the majority of the episodes from the first two seasons exist (with only 11 out of 81 missing).  But now that we've reached season 3, the number of missing episodes increases sharply -- and there also aren't any more telesnaps until we reach Innes Lloyd's producership, starting with The Savages.  So I'll be listening to a lot of soundtracks for a while, with no pictures to help guide the process.  Ah well.

Of course, "Four Hundred Dawns" is a bit unusual, in that a 5 minute clip exists, which means that we can actually get some idea of what it looked like.  The clip's not the most exciting thing ever, being primarily exposition, but we do get a sense of what the Drahvin spaceship looked like, and what the Drahvins themselves looked like, as well as some shots of the Chumblies.  Before 2011 this was pretty exciting; now with the recovery of "Air Lock", this isn't quite as intriguing, but it's still nice to have a decent chunk of the episode to view.

As far as the actual story goes, though, season 3 opens rather mutedly.  We get a continuity reference back to The Space Museum, and that's about the most exciting thing to happen at the start.  I'll allow for the reasonable possibility that a lot of this was more visual, but still.  Once the Drahvins "rescue" the Doctor, Vicki, and Steven, we get a lot of backstory explaining what's going on, about how the Drahvins and the Rills both crashed on this planet four hundred dawns ago, and the Rills are vicious murderers, and also the planet is going to blow up in fourteen dawns.  And this is the part where people usually point out that the reputation this serial has for being about not judging by appearances is inaccurate, as it's clear from the outset that we're meant to mistrust the Drahvins and their story.  In fact, it's less clear how Galaxy 4 got this reputation in the first place, given just how clearly we're meant to be against the Drahvins.  I blame Peter Haining.

"Trap of Steel" continues the fun, with the Doctor (who previously learned that the planet only had two dawns left) returning to the Drahvins and inexplicably telling them that, yes, the planet's toast in fourteen dawns.  It doesn't even last that long, as Maaga, leader of the Drahvins, quickly cottons on that the Doctor's lying, and forces him and Vicki to go capture the Rills' ship.  There is a nice bit where Steven tries to convince one of the Drahvin soldiers to take Maaga's weapon to fight Chumblies, and he'll just look after her gun in the meantime, and Vicki gets to test her theory about the Chumblies ("I noted, observed, collated, concluded, and then I threw the rock").  And then there's some exploration of the Rills' ship and the structure built around it, which, again, probably looked more interesting than it currently sounds.  And, once again, that's it.  Not the most action-packed pair of episodes around, but they're not too bad.

February 10: "Checkmate" / Dr. Who and the Daleks

(The Time Meddler episode 4 & the first Peter Cushing film)

So by the end of "A Battle of Wits" we knew exactly what the Monk was planning, but the Doctor didn't, so consequently there's a recap where the Monk gleefully tells the Doctor of his plan to change history.  The Doctor is of course outraged, but the Monk rejects his arguments: "Doctor, it's more fun my way.  I can make things happen ahead of their time... For instance, do you really believe the ancient Britons could have built Stonehenge without the aid of my anti-gravitational lift?"  This is a great line, suggesting that the Monk has already changed history to what we "know" it to be, and he's clearly having a lot of fun.

The Monk discovers the Doctor has removed his TARDIS's
dimensional control. ("Checkmate") ©BBC

But the discovery of another TARDIS!  The suggestion before this has often been that the Doctor built the TARDIS himself, but this shows that's clearly not the case.  There are other TARDISes, and other members of the Doctor's race.  It's a bit difficult to convey how significant this is, given how blasé we are about such a thing nowadays, but it proves that there are more than just the Doctor and Susan out there in the universe.

Really though, the rest of the episode is just showing the results of the actions put into motion in the previous episodes.  The Saxons know the Vikings are planning an invasion and that the Monk (who previously requested that the villagers light beacon fires) isn't to be trusted.  The Vikings hiding in the monastery are routed and killed¹³ by the Saxons, and the Monk is chased out as well, foiling his attempt to meddle with history.  Except he still has his atomic cannon and its neutron mortars, but it seems like it's too late for him to carry out his plan.

The Time Meddler is a lovely little story.  It's about history, but really more about history itself: 1066 is little more than a backdrop to the Monk's machinations (albeit an event that really would lead to dramatic differences if it were altered), but they're the actions of someone amusing themselves rather than of a megalomaniac.  It's also a direct challenge to the premise set up in The Aztecs, of the immutability of history.  We've got Donald Tosh editing scripts now, but this is still clearly Dennis Spooner's domain.  It looks great (even if the prints themselves are a bit rough, with "A Battle of Wits" clearly in the worst shape), it's well directed and well acted -- with a superb guest turn from Peter Butterworth -- and it's a great script.  Really, what's not to love?

The Time Meddler is the last story of season 2.  If season 1 saw Doctor Who establishing the guidelines for the show, season 2 saw everyone trying to push the boundaries.  We get more humor, more abstract concepts (such as in The Space Museum), and more ambition.  It doesn't always pay off (stand up, The Web Planet), but there's always a sense of trying to go beyond what they've done before, and when they occasionally try to play it safe (such as with The Chase), the result falls a bit flat.  Season 2 demonstrates that there's still plenty of life left in the show -- it's survived the loss of all three original travelling companions, and it's done so with confidence.  Season 1 ends with a speech about the TARDIS crew finding their destiny in the stars.  Season 2 does one better by ending with the time travellers' faces actually out among the stars.  It's a fitting end.

The Daleks prepare to destroy all other life with a neutron
bomb. (Dr. Who and the Daleks) ©AARU Productions

But we're not quite done yet!  Between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3 came something monumental: that's right, it's time for Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first Peter Cushing film. Which means this is more like two hours of Who today, but never mind.

But Doctor Who, in color and with money thrown at it!  It looks pretty impressive, even if it doesn't always succeed -- full marks for the Daleks, somewhat less for their salmon-colored city.  But you have to admire a production that sticks lava lamps prominently in frame as a symbol of alienness.

This film is a relatively faithful adaption of the first Dalek serial.  Most of the big changes have to do with the main characters: Dr. Who is an eccentric inventor who lives with his granddaughters Barbara and Susie Who (yes, really), and who happens to have invented a time machine, which he keeps in a police box in his garden.  Ian Chesterton is Barbara's bumbling boyfriend.  Everything else is largely in keeping with the original: all the plot beats are there -- almost to the point where it feels mechanical, rather than organic.  Dr. Who wants to investigate the alien city, so he sabotages the fluid link (which is even the same error code on the fault locator).  The Daleks want to ambush the Thals, so they make Susie write a letter inviting them into the city.  Dr. Who needs the fluid link back, so a small party goes around the back of the city while the main force attacks the front.  (This is actually probably the most pointless plot beat to repeat, since Ian's small party doesn't seem to have any real effect on the outcome of events here.)  This is definitively a big color remake of the original story, but it hasn't stopped to consider why events in the original serial were there in the first place, content instead to just forge on ahead regardless.

Dr. and Susie Who are held captive by the Daleks. (Dr.
Who and the Daleks) ©AARU Productions

That's not to say things aren't entertaining -- they're just not as entertaining as they could be.  Peter Cushing steals the show as Dr. Who, playing a version of William Hartnell's character with all the irascibility removed.  He's a kindly old grandfather, and you can see Peter Cushing put the twinkle in Dr. Who's eye in almost every scene.  And although Ian Chesterton is portrayed as an idiot, Roy Castle puts enough sympathy in the role that you can't help but root for him by the end.  On the other hand, Roberta Tovey's Susie Who is one of those precocious child geniuses that film and television companies seem to think audiences will like for some reason, and although she tries, virtually every line of dialogue Tovey has to deliver makes her seem stuck up and unlikeable.  And Jennie Linden, sadly, is rather wasted, as Barbara's character fades primarily into the background.  Special mention, though, for the moment when she puts mud on the Dalek's eyestalk: "Dalek!" she yells.  "Yes?" the Dalek replies obligingly, whereupon Barbara slaps the mud on its eye: "Aaah!"

It's not perfect, and the attempts to artificially graft humor onto the proceedings typically fall flat (and nowhere worse than in the awful ending scene, showing Ian panic about Roman soldiers and start faffing about in Tardis¹⁴ like he's having a seizure), but there's still enough to enjoy here, especially if you can look past the salmon shower curtain walls.  It's not as good as the original, but it is as confident, and that carries things a long way.

Malcolm Lockyer seems to think he's composing music for a Bond film, though.







¹³ Though not in the episode as it currently exists: "Checkmate" is missing 12 seconds of the Vikings being killed -- the result of overseas censor cuts; the audio of the missing segment, though, still exists and is on the DVD.
¹⁴ In an interesting reversal of the custom of the television show, in the entirety of Dr. Who and the Daleks the time machine is always called Tardis, with nary a definite article in sight.

February 9: "The Meddling Monk" / "A Battle of Wits"

(The Time Meddler episodes 2 & 3)

So William Hartnell's off for a week (other than some prerecorded lines), which means that it's the Monk's turn to take the spotlight.  And, having set up the mystery last time, the show proudly presents its anachronisms: the Monk uses a toaster and an electric griddle to make breakfast before perching on a cliff side, using binoculars to look for incoming ships (while trying to take a pinch of snuff).  It's clear the Monk isn't from 1066, and the question becomes, how is this possible?  And Peter Butterworth does a fantastic job as the Monk -- he doesn't seem to be particularly villainous, more just mischievous, which is far more interesting (and entertaining).

And Steven Taylor really shines as a new companion, doesn't he?  His continued skepticism starts to give way to the belief that they really are in 11th-century England ("I mean they'd hardly go to all this trouble for a fancy dress ball, now would they?" he remarks), but he doesn't let it worry him.  His somewhat shamefaced thanks to the Saxons is rather lovely, and his conversation with the Monk shows he has initiative -- even if it's not clear who's tricking who.  I think we're going to be all right with this new companion.

For much of the time, "The Meddling Monk" feels quite fun, which makes the moments with the Vikings more shocking -- there's a clear suggestion that they've raped the woman Edith, and the battle that ensues, although a bit more stagey than one might like, still is pretty intense, with Saxons brutally stabbing downward into what one presumes are fallen Vikings.  It's a somewhat striking juxtaposition, albeit one that the show has played with before (notably in Dennis Spooner's last contribution, The Romans), but it still works.

The Doctor gets the better of the Monk. ("A Battle of
Wits") ©BBC

"A Battle of Wits" features the return of William Hartnell, and we get to see the Doctor and the Monk engaged in a lovely little struggle as each tries to get the better of the other, with the Doctor usually coming out on top.  But we also learn the full extent of the Monk's plan: he's going to repel the Viking invasion at Stamford Bridge, thus leaving King Harold Godwinson fresh to repel William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.  He is, in other words, going to change recorded history.  What's striking about this is how much of a sea change this represents for the programme: before it had been established that you couldn't rewrite history at all, and then that was stretched a little to suggest that time travellers could be the cause of established history (namely the Doctor giving Nero the idea for the Great Fire of Rome), but this seems to be a suggestion that history can in fact be altered -- the Monk's plan doesn't make any sense otherwise.  The history of Earth, it seems, is becoming no more inviolable than any other world.  And it's a great cliffhanger, too: the Monk has his own TARDIS!  Now that's a sea change.

February 8: "The Planet of Decision" / "The Watcher"

(The Chase episode 6 & The Time Meddler episode 1)

And so the Mechonoid takes them up into that big city we saw last time, and it turns out there's another person already there: Steven Taylor, an astronaut who crashed two years earlier and was taken prisoner by the Mechonoids.  Yes, it turns out that the TARDIS crew has escaped the Daleks only to be held captive by the Mechonoids.  Steven Taylor is, of course, played by Peter Purves, the same actor who played Morton Dill three episodes ago, but here he portrays such a different character that, other than appearance, you'd have no reason to believe they were the same actor.  He does a good job behaving as someone who's been without human contact for two years, yet he doesn't overplay the moment.  But that doesn't last before they've worked out a way to escape, by climbing down off the roof.  Meanwhile, the Daleks invade and attack in what's quite a well-shot battle (though the inclusion of the cartoony explosion graphics is a tad much), and the city burns.

The Daleks prepare to attack the Mechonoids. ("The Planet
of Decision") ©BBC

This only takes about half the episode, leaving the remainder to deal with the almost unthinkable: Ian and Barbara's departure. It starts with an argument, when Ian and Barbara realize they can use the Daleks' time machine to get back home and the Doctor thinks it's too dangerous ("I will not aid and abet suicide!" he says angrily).  But this almost seems more bluster than genuine worry, and Vicki talks him around into helping them.  When they do make it back to London 1965, we're treated to a photo montage of Ian and Barbara frolicking around some of the landmarks and having a good time -- and then we pull back to see that the Doctor and Vicki have been watching them on the Time and Space Visualizer.  "They made it!" Vicki exclaims, and the Doctor agrees, but he looks so crestfallen: "I shall miss them.  Yes, I shall miss them, silly old fusspots," he says, and you're not sure if it's the Doctor speaking or William Hartnell, but either way I teared up a little -- and they say Doctor Who wasn't emotional until the 21st century.  What rubbish.

This concludes The Chase, and it's probably the best thing about it.  You get the impression that the production team don't really know what to do with the Daleks anymore, so they've gotten Terry Nation to do up The Keys of Marinus with Daleks in it and hired Richard Martin to shoot it because he always does Dalek stories, and let them turn it into a romp -- rather missing the point of having the Daleks, but there you go.  It has its moments here and there, but The Chase is ultimately somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

But the show is always moving on, and "The Watcher" is no different.  We get a very sweet opening scene, though, as the Doctor talks gently to Vicki in the wake of Ian and Barbara's departure: "Their decision certainly surprised me, although it shouldn't, I know.  But it was quite obvious they intended to take the first opportunity of going back home."  He then asks Vicki if she wants to go home too, but Vicki refuses -- and any further discussion is curtailed by a sound coming from the living quarters.  It's Steven Taylor, last seen wandering the jungle on Mechanus.  Apparently he made it on board the TARDIS but is still a little confused about where he is, and he doesn't really believe them when they tell him the TARDIS is a time machine.  "Look, Doctor," he says, "I've seen some spaceships in my time...admittedly nothing like this.  What does this do?"  "That," the Doctor replies wonderfully, "is the dematerialising control and that, over yonder, is the horizontal hold.  Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a panda on it.  Sheer poetry, dear boy.  Now please stop bothering me."

Steven takes some convincing that they've arrived in the past, on what appears to be the coast of England in the 11th century, and Peter Purves does a great job of portraying skepticism.  The Doctor goes off on his own and works out that it's 1066, shortly before the Norman invasion.  But something's not quite right, as he hears the chanting from the monastery slow down, like a gramophone unwinding, before speeding back up to normal.  Meanwhile, Steven finds a wristwatch that definitely not from 1066: "You still say this is tenth century England?" he asks Vicki, holding the watch up.  There's a definite mystery going on, and it seems related to the monk who eavesdrops on the travellers and lives in the monastery, yet doesn't seem surprised by the TARDIS's arrival or its appearance.  The episode is set up quite skillfully, setting up an historical time period with a few pieces that don't fit, leaving the viewers wondering what's going on, and the performances of everyone involved help sell the mystery.  It's an intriguing episode, to be sure.

February 7: "Journey Into Terror" / "The Death of Doctor Who"

(The Chase episodes 4 & 5)

"Journey Into Terror" is primarily set in some sort of haunted house, it seems.  Truth be told, I found the whole sequence very uninvolving, and although I generally try to see things from the point of view of a first time viewer, this time I couldn't view it without knowing the twist at the end, and so the Doctor's theories about where they've landed fall flat.  It's also really poorly structured; there's some effort toward building tension and mystery, but that all goes out the window once the Daleks show up, and it's just a mad dash back to the TARDIS.  This means that Vicki's disappearance and Barbara's vanishing into the wall are never dealt with: they're just suddenly back in the main room and ready to leave.  And there's also the odd moment where, when the Dalek first appears, it demands to know where the time travellers are, as if it doesn't recognize two of them standing right in front of it, and then when Ian slams a metal grating down it tells them not to move instead of just exterminating them through the grating. 

Once the haunted house is left behind, things get marginally more interesting as Ian, Barbara, and the Doctor realize that they've left Vicki back at the haunted house, and they resolve to fight and defeat the Daleks at their next stop so that they can capture their time machine and go back for Vicki.  This means the battle will be fought on the planet Mechanus.  "Just look at that vegetation!" Barbara exclaims.  "Yes, just as though it were alive," replies Ian the science teacher.  Vicki, meanwhile, has stowed away with the Daleks.  She might not hear the reappearance of the slow comedy Dalek ("Er...er...in Earth time...er...four minutes..."), but she is present when they unveil their latest scheme: a robot double of the Doctor, with a resemblance so "uncanny" that you wonder if the Daleks can actually see things the way humans do.  Of course, then the close-up is of William Hartnell rather than Hartnell not-really-a-lookalike-at-all Edmund Warwick, which ultimately ends up just being mildly disconcerting than threatening, even when the robot announces he will "infiltrate and kill."  The next episode is called "The Death of Doctor Who" -- wonder how that one will turn out?

The city of the Mechonoids. ("The Death of Doctor Who")
©BBC

And really, when you're naming episodes you'd think you'd know not to give hostile critics titles like that, but no, this is "The Death of Doctor Who" (spoiler alert: it's not).  It's not a bad episode, but it does feel a bit like marking time: the Doctor, Ian, and Barbara spend most of the time holed up in a cave waiting for the right moment to strike.  The battle with the robot Doctor is quite entertaining, even if it's even more apparent that Edmund Warwick looks almost nothing like William Hartnell.  And Vicki is reunited with the others!  But meanwhile, the jungle set, while reasonably good (except for the obvious studio floors, but there's not much you can do there when you're dealing with Daleks), means that we have lots of gaps through the set in which you can see things.  Including a BBC camera in virtually full view for an awfully long time.  But at least the Fungoids are a good design and reasonably menacing.  And that final part with the Mechonoid is pretty good, even if it takes a couple listens to work out what it's saying.

February 6: "The Death of Time" / "Flight Through Eternity"

(The Chase episodes 2 & 3)

"The Death of Time" is one of those episode titles that sounds good until you start to think about what it actually means.  Why is this the death of time?  Is it because the Daleks have a time machine?  You'd think that would mean the Daleks are rampaging through time killing everything, but instead they're chasing after the Doctor and friends and not really doing a great job there.  You'd think the Daleks would just go through and exterminate everyone, but instead they make a deal with the native Aridians to capture the travellers, while also using them as slave labor to dig up the TARDIS, which you'd think would be the last thing they would want to do since it gives their enemies easy access to their ship.  I mean, they do try to destroy it with their guns, but really, it would have been better to leave the thing buried.

The more interesting part of the episode is the gesture of examination of the Aridians' plight, as Terry Nation gives us a look at collaborators.  It's not dwelled on, of course, but it's interesting how the Doctor doesn't condemn their decision to hand them over to the Daleks, and in fact they only escape because a Mire Beast happens to knock down a wall and distract everyone long enough for the TARDIS crew to leave.  Which they do.

Morton Dill isn't taking the Daleks very seriously.
("Flight Through Eternity") ©BBC

"Flight From Eternity" gives us a couple locations this time around: New York 1966 and on board a ship 1872.  But first it starts out with a scene inside the Dalek time machine, with another use of a photographic blowup but also some motionless Dalek props (they're the ones without the base or the vertical "solar panel" slats).  For once the photograph isn't shot from an angle that reveals it to be a photo, but there's an extremely misjudged moment with what appears to be a Dalek reading to itself out loud before giving its report: "Er...one...er...forty...er..." it mumbles to itself.  This has to be considered an attempt at comedy, but it falls woefully flat.

The scene on top of the Empire State Building, on the other hand, is much more entertaining.  There are some subtle moments with the tour group at the beginning: I love the way the big tourist knocks that young woman out of the way just so he can get to the front, and as the tour guide talks about gazing "out across the panorama", he appears to be checking out said young woman (it's difficult to tell for certain, since unfortunately they've put a piece of stock footage in the middle of this line, but when we cut back he's plainly staring at her chest and has to bring himself back and start his sentence over again).  And then we're introduced to Morton Dill, who's portrayed as a stereotypical hick from Alabama.  He's consequently the only person to see either the TARDIS and its occupants or the Dalek time machine with a Dalek.  I know Morton Dill bothers some people, but for me he fits into the tone of the scene and his belief that it's all a Hollywood trick is quite lovely.  And at one time I probably would have thought he was overacting, but that was before I met a guy who laughed and moved almost exactly the same way, so now Peter Purves' performance just reminds me of him instead.  I was quite pleased with the whole scene.

The next bit isn't as great though.  The TARDIS materializes on a sailing ship, Barbara gets accosted, and then they leave before the Daleks show up, at which point the entire crew abandons ship.  This might have more impact if the words "Mary Celeste" weren't plainly visible at the start, but then they insist on slow panning across the empty vessel (and showing the name plate again) before finally doing a slow zoom in on the name.  All right, maybe the words wouldn't have been as obvious on a '60s 405-line resolution television until the final zoom in (although I'm not convinced of this).  But then the next scene has Ian mention it in the dialogue, just in case you missed that!  And an ancient mystery is solved.  And the cliffhanger shows the Daleks still chasing the TARDIS through time and space -- not the most exciting cliffhanger by any means.