March 8: The Tenth Planet Episodes 1 & 2

And so here we are: William Hartnell's final story as the Doctor.  You can't help but feel a little saddened by that.  And look, another story with special credits,  with this time the opening and closing credits getting special "computerized" treatment (albeit different from the version in The War Machines).  And there's apparently something incredibly difficult about spelling writer Kit Pedler's name: having spent all of The War Machines as "Kit Pedlar", here episode 1 sees him become "Kitt Pedler".  But anyway.

The Tenth Planet is business as usual in many ways.  There's no sign of anything untoward as the TARDIS lands at the South Pole in 1986, and the Doctor seems just as spry as ever.  But that said, there are a couple wrinkles on display here.  The first is that this is the first  "base-under-siege" story, where an isolated place is attacked from the outside by alien invaders.  Get used to this; it's going to become a common plot for the next couple years.  But the more interesting twist is how, despite being set twenty years in the future, The Tenth Planet is treated more like an historical story than a "future" story.  The Doctor already seems to know what's going to happen -- he knows about Mondas, and he tells them to expect visitors as if it's an obvious fact.  It's an unusual take, but it's actually quite pleasing -- after all, why should the Doctor's knowledge of events be limited to our knowledge?  Past and future should be the same to him.  It really helps sell the point that the Doctor is indeed a time traveller, and it's such a neat story trick that it's rather surprising that it doesn't really pop up again until 2009, with The Waters of Mars.²⁷  This has the additional side effect of making the Doctor an observer of this event, rather than an active participant: indeed, other than telling the base's crew what it is they're going to see and to expect visitors, the Doctor does nothing but watch things unfold.

For being the first "base-under-siege" story, though, it's surprising how many of the soon-to-be-familiar features are already in play: isolated base with little to no help of outside support, check; international crew, check; commander of the base accustomed to doing things his way and unwilling to listen to anyone else, check.  Really, where The Tenth Planet differs is how it shows us things happening beyond the base.  We get a little look into the headquarters of International Space Command in Geneva, where the Secretary General of ISC tries to deal with this new planet in his own way, even if that primarily means trying to get a hold of the Polar Base.  We also get a newsreader keeping us up to date on the latest events (played by, entertainingly, one Glenn Beck -- presumably not the same one as the American conservative pundit).  And we get a look into the space ship that the South Pole is trying to guide down, with Zeus 4 being flown by an Australian and a black Englishman, a sign of how forward thinking the production team is trying to be.  It's the second time in as many stories that a black actor gets a prominent role, and Glyn Williams seems to be a more thankful role than Jamaica was.

The Cybermen announce that the people on the base will become
like them. (The Tenth Planet Episode 2) ©BBC

And now we come to the Cybermen, who show up at the end of episode 1 and become prominent in episode 2.  This is their first appearance, of course, and they're significantly less sleek-looking than in any future story.  Here they look more cobbled together, yet that's actually a strength: Kit Pedler was exorcising some personal demons as he wrote this, concerned by the idea of people slowly replacing body parts with artificial limbs and organs -- at what point is the result no longer a human being?  The Cybermen are that idea taken to an extreme, and it looks like they've slowly replaced their body parts a bit at a time, such that, other than the general shape, the only human features are the vaguely human face, and the obviously human hands.  (The exposed hands, by the way, were apparently an accident, as costume designer Sandra Reid was going to give them silver gloves but forgot/ran out of time/ran out of money (delete according to which version of the story you prefer), but it's a happy accident as it really helps drive home Pedler's idea.)  Occasionally in episode 2 you can see the actor's eyes glinting underneath the Cyberman's mask -- you're probably not supposed to be able to, but it's nevertheless a creepy effect, seeing a human eye vaguely inside this very not-human face.  They would look more sophisticated in the future, but these Cybermen are really quite wonderful -- even if their "jug handles" are clearly held on with clear tape.  And I haven't even mentioned the eerily inflected robotic voices, made to sound as if they'd learned English from a series of recordings but haven't quite got the stress patterns down.  It's very cool, and very effective -- especially coming from a mouth that just opens, without any visible articulation to show how the sounds are being produced.  And finally, we can't talk about sounds without mentioning the incidental music -- I think this is the first time "Space Adventure" by Martin Slavin is used; it'll keep cropping up in Cyberman stories (and also The Web of Fear), so much so that it's sometimes referred unofficially as the "March of the Cybermen".

So other than the Doctor being largely sidelined from the action, so far this has been an entertaining and memorable story.  Let's hope they can keep it up.







²⁷ And the possible exception of Episode 1 of The Ambassadors of Death, where (jumping ahead here) the Doctor's approach is pitched in such a way that it might be considered foreknowledge, but it could equally be logical thinking, knowing that the alien message will be repeated -- except then you have to explain why the sound of the message is familiar to the Doctor.  But he spends the rest of the story as if he doesn't know how events are going to turn out, so we can probably safely rule out the "it's history to him" theory.

March 7: The Smugglers Episodes 3 & 4

Having spent the first two episodes acquainting us with the various players of his piece, writer Brian Hayles now begins to really set things moving.  The Doctor and Kewper trick their captor Jamaica by reading fortunes from playing cards, while the revenue officer, Blake, takes Ben and Polly into his custody -- but not to arrest them.  No, he believes their story, and needs their help against the Squire and his smuggling ring.

Episode 3 is more bloodthirsty than the last two, it must be said.  Captain Pike kills Jamaica for allowing the Doctor and Kewper to escape, and the moment where he wipes Jamaica's blood off his pike hand with a handkerchief before dropping the bloodied cloth onto Jamaica's sightless, staring corpse is quite horrific (so horrific, in fact, that it survives as one of the Australian censor clips).  And Jacob Kewper is killed by Cherub at the cliffhanger, a knife thrown in his back.  But these moments punctuate the main decision: now that the Doctor has been reunited with Ben and Polly, he decides to find Avery's treasure, thus giving him a bargaining chip with Pike that will hopefully delay him, giving Blake time to bring the militia back.  The Doctor partly works out the clue given to him by Joseph Longfoot in the first episode²⁶, but realizes there should be a fourth name in the rhyme.  (And does the meter of the rhyme bother anyone else?  It goes, "This is Deadman's secret key: Smallbeer, Ringwood, and Gurney", but everyone says "GURney", with stress on the first syllable.  I really want it to be "GurNEY" though, to match the meter of the first line's "SECret KEY".  But anyway.)  But Cherub's overheard enough, and he's come to claim Avery's treasure for himself.

Pike kills Cherub for his treachery. (The Smugglers
Episode 4) ©BBC

Episode 4 has two main plot threads: Cherub's betrayal of Pike, followed by Pike's discovery of Avery's treasure; and Blake's return with the militia.  Both of these events are obviously intertwined, with Pike bringing his men to the church to unload the smuggled goods from their hiding place, making them easy picking for the militia later on.  But the most dramatic part occurs when Pike kills his "faithful" mate, intent on retrieving the treasure for himself.  The Doctor tries to stall for as long as he can, but is forced to reveal the clue: the intersection of the four names (the fourth being Deadman, as Cherub helpfully noted before his demise) is the location of the treasure.  And it seems that there is in fact a hidden treasure: Pike reaches into a hole under the relevant flagstone and pulls up a string of pearls.  But it's too late: Blake's men have arrived, and what sounds like a rollicking battle goes on between the pirates and the militia.  It's a shame we can't see it, as it does sound quite exciting, but alas, we have to make do with the telesnaps.  But the good guys come out on top and the village is safe from Pike and his pirates.  It's less clear what the Squire's fate is; he's learned the error of his ways by the end, and even saves the Doctor from death at Pike's, er, pike, but he was the leader of the smuggling ring in the village, so who knows what Blake does with him at the end.

It's sort of hard to come to a firm conclusion about The Smugglers: on the one hand it's quite entertaining while it lasts, but there's not much of a lasting impact -- little of what happened remains in the memory afterwards.  It's a relatively simple, uncomplicated tale.  Not that that's a problem, but it does make this one of the more forgettable stories we've had so far.  Still, it's not trying to be anything deep; as I said last time, it wants to be a literary pastiche, and at this it succeeds well enough (even if the lack of a young boy pressed into service by pirates means it's not quite as close a match as might be hoped for).  Not every story has to be Marco Polo.

And then, in the cliffhanger into the next episode, the Doctor notes that the TARDIS has arrived "at the coldest place in the world", and you suddenly realize that Hartnell's time is almost up...







²⁶ Yes, the names have changed slightly, going from "Smallwood" to "Smallbeer" -- this is because Terence De Marney, playing Longfoot, got the line slightly wrong in Episode 1.

March 6: The Smugglers Episodes 1 & 2

So we're starting season 4 (though The Smugglers is actually the last story filmed as part of season 3), but we're picking up where we left off at the end of The War Machines, with Ben and Polly pushing their way into the TARDIS.  The telesnaps hint that the last scene of The War Machines might have been played in over the theme music before going back to the titles -- obviously it's hard to tell, but, at least as they're displayed in Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #34: The Missing Episodes - The First Doctor (to give the publication its full title), the impression is one of title sequence, scene, title sequence (and certainly the theme music runs much longer than normal, supporting this).

But Ben and Polly barge in, pointing out that the Doctor dropped his key, so they used it to get in (and just to reiterate, this isn't a goof as is often claimed; it's not Dodo's key, it's the one that fell out of the Doctor's cloak in the previous episode).  But the Doctor states that he's already moved the TARDIS, and so there's no telling where they are.  It takes a bit of convincing, but eventually Ben and Polly believe that they've been transported to 17th-century Cornwall, full of thieves, smugglers, and ships crewed by men of ill repute.  Yes, it's Doctor Who's pirate story.

It's got to be said, Ben and Polly sure do adjust to having been taken back in time rather quickly.  There's no extended period of disbelief, like Steven had.  Instead it's "Well, guess we really did travel to the past, then."  This means that they can launch themselves into the proceedings without too much angst; indeed, Polly seems to treat it as a big lark, while Ben seems more concerned about making it back to his ship on time.  But it doesn't take long for the Doctor to be captured by pirates who are convinced he knows something about a hidden treasure, and for Ben and Polly to be framed for the murder of the churchwarden.  They're thrust into a terrifying situation, cut off from their own time and place, and the only person who can get them back home has been taken to who-knows-where.  Ben and Polly cope with this, er, quite well, actually.  They don't seem terribly concerned about the murder charge, and they're more interested in finding the Doctor so they can leave.

Episode 2 shows the Doctor in charge, wrapping Captain Pike (leader of the pirates and owner of a metal pike in place of a hand) around his finger.  Well, maybe.  There's a suggestion that Pike's toying with the Doctor as much as the Doctor is toying with him, but before Pike can begin to lay into the Doctor, he's interrupted by a new arrival.  It seems there's an opportunity for some smuggling to be done...

Meanwhile, Ben and Polly, displaying a surprising amount of resourcefulness, trick their jailer into thinking they're witches who've taken over his soul and will kill him unless he lets them go.  Then they go back to the church to look for clues into the warden's murder.  They don't find any clues, but they do find a revenue man named Josiah Blake, who has tracked the smugglers to the church crypt.  They tie him up, thinking he might be connected to the murder, and Polly goes to tell the Squire.  Only it turns out the Squire is in on the smuggling, and isn't going to let a stranger tell her that his new-found compatriots Pike and his crew are involved in anything dodgy (as Polly recognizes Cherub as the man who kidnapped the Doctor).  But he will lock Polly and Ben back up in jail...

So the thing about these first two episodes is how entertainingly unsophisticated they are.  There's none of the nuance of The Massacre to be found here, nor much of the humor of The Gunfighters.  Instead this is more a literary pastiche, recalling the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as J. Meade Falkner's novel Moonfleet.  This means it moves along at a relatively fast clip, wasting no time exploring the morality of Captain Pike or of the Squire.  Pike and his men are pirates, so therefore they're not to be trusted, and the Squire is in league with them, so he's no more trustworthy than anyone else.  The only one who seems to have a glimmer of morality is Joseph Longfoot, and he's killed for his sins by Cherub in the first episode (in one of the few remaining clips from this serial -- funny how some of the most violent and terrifying moments that were deemed unsuitable for broadcast in Australia and New Zealand are now all that remain of these episodes).  Ok, and maybe the innkeeper's helper Tom, but he's portrayed as fairly thick and thus a figure of fun at Ben and Polly's expense.  No, this is an uncomplicated tale (despite all the treachery on display thus far), and there's nothing wrong with that.  It makes for entertaining listening at the very least.

March 5: The War Machines Episode 4 / Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

(The War Machines episode 4 & the second Peter Cushing film)

On to the fourth and final episode, and I haven't even mentioned the special title graphics for this story, in that 60s "computer" font that denoted futuristic.  It's certainly different, the way the titles show up, one syllable at a time, on their own title card (as opposed to superimposed over the action, as has usually been the case in Doctor Who); it's as if, now that they've decided each serial gets its own title and they don't have individual episode names anymore, they have to do something different to make up for it.  Or it could be the new production team trying things out to put their own stamp on the show.

And one other thing to note (just to jump ahead slightly): the use of real BBC newsreaders (albeit not quite in their normal roles) helps sell the immediacy of this story, as we see a few random citizens' reactions to the news -- showing the threat isn't just isolated to a small area.  It's a nice little tactic that hasn't been used in Doctor Who before, but which adds some verisimilitude.

The Doctor examines the captured War Machine. (The War
Machines Episode 4) ©BBC

But the action continues as the Doctor stares down the oncoming War Machine, which decides not to attack him -- apparently because its programming is incomplete.  "This is a computer, and this computer hasn't been completely programmed," the Doctor tells the Minister (presumably of Defence).  "Can you make that a little clearer, Doctor?" the Minister asks, baffled.  Yes, clearly things have moved on since 1966.  Oh, and while we're here, as Toby Hadoke rightly points out in Running Through Corridors, it's not the case that the Doctor's cloak knocks off the end of the War Machine's gun; it's the Doctor's key that falls out of his cloak, and Ben reaches down to pick it up and starts to give it to him before deciding he'll do it later (which is why he has a key at the end of the episode).

And this is really Ben's chance to shine, isn't it?  He helps the Doctor trap the War Machine by running the cable that traps it, he goes up to the GPO Tower to rescue Polly before the converted War Machine attacks, and he generally gets to act heroic while still aiding the Doctor.  Michael Craze won't have a chance to be quite as good on Doctor Who again.

The action concludes when the Doctor, having reprogrammed the captured War Machine, sends it off to the GPO Tower to destroy WOTAN (presumably people can't do that because WOTAN would just hypnotize them).  There's an amazing shot where we see the top part of a War Machine as a back projection moves swiftly behind it -- it looks like it's taking a fun jaunt down the streets of London.  But the War Machine arrives at the top of the GPO Tower and smashes WOTAN, ending the threat.

It's not the most perfect story ever, but The War Machines is trying something different, setting its story in the present day and in a recognizable city.  It's occasionally awkward, but there's a charm and style to it -- certainly Michael Ferguson's direction is quite dynamic, shooting at different angles and often through bits of foreground scenery, which helps things no end.  But we also get to see Hartnell in charge of the authorities in a way we've never seen before.  He's helped out leaders and such previously, but he's never had such a commanding role before.  Here he's less an advisor and more a leader, and it's interesting to see how comfortably Hartnell-as-the-Doctor slips into said role.  The War Machines is really something quite special, presenting as it does a new way of doing Doctor Who.

But then that's been the remit of season 3 in a nutshell.  Season 2 was about seeing how far they could go.  Season 3 has been about expanding the boundaries of the show even further, but in different ways.  Season 2 experimented with different styles, increased humor, and more ambition, whereas season 3 has tried for different experiments that it (largely) pulls off.  We get a 12-part Dalek epic, but one that's played deadly straight, and any humor introduced comes naturally (and here I'm thinking of the Meddling Monk) rather than grafted onto the story.  We've had a story in the unbelievably far future, an historical tragedy with some doppelgänger action thrown in, a somewhat surreal tale with weirdly different tones from moment to moment...we've even had a comedy Western thrown in!  Season 3 showed us a new take on Doctor Who, with two new production teams, and it demonstrated that there's still plenty of life left in the format.

The Dalek saucer in London. (Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)
©AARU Productions

And now, just as there was a special event between seasons 2 and 3, the break between seasons 3 and 4 saw a second Doctor Who movie: this one based on The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  But where Dr. Who and the Daleks saw a very faithful (one might say too faithful) adaption of the first Dalek serial, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. follows the basic plot beats of the second Dalek story without slavishly following every moment.  This means that, while the overall storyline is the same, the film moves much more quickly, cutting parts that aren't needed (for instance, the Slyther is missing entirely, and there's no David Campbell romance -- obviously partly because Susie Who is only 12 years old, but there's no romance with Dr. Who's niece Louise either) and streamlining other parts.  And here we note that David Whitaker received an "additional material" credit: one wonders how much influence he had on the scripts.

So the fact that the source material has been treated a little more loosely is actually a strength for this movie.  It means that we don't spend time retreading old ground (admittedly, not as much of a problem back when these movies were initially released and the original episodes couldn't be reseen) but instead getting to the action.  Roy Castle, who played Ian in the first movie, is gone; in his place is Police Constable Tom Campbell, as played by Bernard Cribbins.  This is an improvement; no disrespect to Roy Castle, but he always seemed slightly ill at ease in Dr. Who and the Daleks.  Bernard Cribbins, meanwhile, is immediately at home in his role, playing both action and comedy with such a sympathetic bent that you can't help but cheer him on.  And Jennie Linden's Barbara is also absent, so in her place we get Jill Curzon's Louise, who gets just about as much to do as Barbara had in the first one (which is to say, not much).  But Roberta Tovey's back as Susan, albeit a less irritating version, which is also welcome.  (And side note to say that it's probably not Tovey's fault, but Susan has quite appalling grammar: the note she leaves includes the phrase, "We heading for Watford.")

Brockley (Philip Madoc) betrays Dr. Who to the Daleks.
(Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) ©AARU Productions

But once again it's Peter Cushing's performance as Dr. Who which steals the show.  Sadly, he's not present quite as much as in the last movie, but he lights up the screen with his portrayal.  He's just as curious and energetic as before, and he's a delight to watch.

And of course the supporting cast is also well chosen.  Ray Brooks as David and Andrew Keir as Wyler are both marvelous, with Keir just getting the edge as a gruff freedom fighter who's nevertheless charged with protecting a young girl.  He pulls it off with aplomb.  Godfrey Quigley's Dortmun also gets some nice moments, and his death attempting to bury the Daleks under a ton of rubble is at least more heroic-looking than his TV counterpart's demise.

But it's the collaborators who steal the show.  You really learn to dislike Eileen Way and Sheila Steafel as the two who betray Wyler and Susan to the Daleks in exchange for a bit more food; Steafel in particular looks wonderfully underhanded and devious in her scenes.  But the one who really wins the award is Philip Madoc as the black marketeer Brockley.  He has such an air of self-interest about him, calculating and cold, that even when he's helping our heroes (for payment, naturally) you can't help but love to hate him.  His final fate inside a shack destroyed by Daleks is a great moment.

Dr. Who, Wyler, and Susan in the Dalek control centre.
(Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) ©AARU Productions

So the story is good, the cast is excellent, and the design is also great.  One of the places where The Dalek Invasion of Earth was let down was in its rather cheap-looking design: they tried, they really did, but in a lot of cases they couldn't quite stretch the resources to achieve what they needed.  No such problem here.  The Dalek saucer is really a spectacular design well realized, but it's not just the saucer: the Robomen uniforms are really great (perhaps losing a bit of that "zombie-fied" look that the originals had, but the images of secret police that these Robomen conjure up more than make up the difference), and the interior of Tardis also appears to have had an upgrade.  There are less loose wires hanging about and odd bits of technology scattered about haphazardly, in favor of computer banks and more sophisticated equipment.

As you've no doubt worked out, this is a movie with a lot to love.  The kinks present in the first film have been ironed out, and this stands as an exciting adaptation of a story that wasn't itself nearly as successful (or as much fun) as this is.  Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. would prove to be the final Peter Cushing film, but at least Dr. Who went out on a high note.

(Oh, and the final tag scene, with Tom arriving back in contemporary London just before he left, so that he can apprehend the criminals he was chasing at the beginning of the film, is wonderfully charming.)

March 4: The War Machines Episodes 2 & 3

My goodness!  Dodo is under the influence of the enemy and trying to betray the Doctor!  Has this ever happened before on the show?  I should know, I've been watching the thing, and I can't recall anything like this (a bit of hypnosis in "The Velvet Web" (The Keys of Marinus 2) maybe, but that's about it).  It should be faintly terrifying, turning the previously safe and trustworthy into the opposite, but it never quite feels that way.  Instead it feels more matter-of-fact, as if to say, "Oh yeah, I guess this is what the story's doing now, OK then."  Maybe it's just because, as The War Machines has existed in the archives for 30 years (and as far as my experiences are concerned it's never been missing), its major plot beats and twists have become overfamiliar from repeated rewatchings.  But you'd still think that this twist would engender some sort of reaction beyond, "Oh, all right then."

Dodo's final moment on Doctor Who. (The War
Machines Episode 2) ©BBC

It probably doesn't help matters that this part gets overshadowed by the nonexistence of Dodo's departure.  The scene starts off great: Dodo suggests they go visit Professor Brett again, so the Doctor phones ahead to make sure he'll be around.  So WOTAN tries to take over the Doctor via the telephone, which leads to an amazing scene where the Doctor is trying to pull the handset away from his head with both hands.  Dodo tries to tell him it's okay, contact has been established -- only it hasn't.  "It was as if... as if something enormous and terrific was trying to absorb me!" the Doctor cries.  Out of context it's a bit silly-looking, to be honest, but viewed in sequence with all the other stories, it's quite terrifying, much in the same way that Dodo's takeover isn't.  We've never seen the Doctor quite this scared and vulnerable before.  The moment quickly passes, but the memory lingers.  But then the Doctor regains his composure and successfully deprograms Dodo.  "I think she'll sleep for 48 hours," the Doctor says.  Sir Charles offers to take her to his home in the country, where his wife will look after her, and that's it for Jackie Lane -- we never see Dodo again.  There's a reason it's considered the worst companion send-off ever; she doesn't get any sort of proper goodbye whatsoever (and, to jump ahead briefly, the Doctor's departure is shot on location while Jackie Lane was still around, so there really is no excuse).  But goodbye, Dodo Chaplet; you often reacted in the strangest way to things, but you were fun in a cheeky sort of way.

Well, at least we've got companion surrogates Ben and Polly hanging about.  Polly gets captured pretty early on, undergoing the same hypnosis as Dodo, but Ben gets to do some investigating of his own, which leads him to the warehouse where one of the War Machines is being built and tested.

A War Machine chases after a soldier. (The War Machines
Episode 3) ©BBC

There's a bit of action in episode 2, but episode 3 of The War Machines is where the action really lies.  Ben gets to scramble around at the beginning, and then the action focuses primarily on him and Polly, as he sees what's going on, is captured and put to work, and then escapes to warn the Doctor. The Doctor gets Sir Charles to call in the army (more or less), which leads to a pretty good fight scene in the warehouse, as one War Machine takes out a squad of soldiers.  Of course, this is one of the scenes that was rather heavily censored, which means that we don't quite the full effect -- full props to the Restoration Team for restoring it the way they did, but there are a number of repeated shots and such that most certainly weren't in the finished product.  Nevertheless, we see the War Machine shoot down soldiers, cause their weapons to jam, and be impervious to any form of attack.  And then it gets loose into the street, and begins to bear down on the Doctor...

March 3: The Savages Episode 4 / The War Machines Episode 1

No worries; our heroes manage to escape, thanks to...Jano?  Yes, it seems the in-transference of the Doctor's energy has had more lasting side effects.  This of course means that we can regroup with the savages in the cave and plan the next move, which turns out to be to wait for Jano to arrive.  It seems the Doctor knows Jano's mind better than Jano does (probably because it's what the Doctor himself would do in that situation, although this is never clearly expressed), and so Jano does in fact turn up, after some guerrilla tactics from Steven that probably looked a lot more exciting than they sound (and to be fair, with the telesnaps it's not too bad).

The Doctor wishes Steven good luck. (The Savages Episode 4 -
from Doctor Who Photonovels: The Savages - Episode Four)
©BBC

This leads to the climactic moment where Jano takes everyone we care about into the laboratory, seals the door, and unleashes them on the machinery.  You can hear all the smashing going on in the background, even as Captain Edal frantically tries to gain entry and stop them.  But it's too late; the machinery has been smashed and the Elders and the savages now must live in peace together.  But they'll need a leader they can both trust, so they turn to Steven.  He's ultimately willing, and so he leaves the Doctor and Dodo behind as he starts the next phase of his life.  It's a nice, sweet departure -- we see that Steven has grown during his travels with the Doctor, and that he's now ready to take up new responsibilities.  After all, if he can look after the Doctor, he can look after this planet.

It's an odd tale, The Savages.  It's pleasingly situated firmly in the moral compass that the show has established with its "exploitation is bad" theme, but it's a theme that's not really developed.  The Elders try to justify their actions with a few "they're subhuman" lines, but you never get the sense that they believe that.  Instead we get a number of exciting action sequences in caves and things (filmed in Ealing, which suggests they were a little more dynamic and interestingly directed than might otherwise be expected) that just leads to frustration that we can't actually see what's happening.  Like The Celestial Toymaker before, this is a story that probably can't be adequately judged based on what's left.  We at least have the telesnaps, so we have a sense of what this looked like, but that's just not enough here.  It seems unlikely that this was an incredible story, but one gets the suspicion that it was more interesting than what the soundtrack suggests.

All of The War Machines exists on video²⁵, which means we can see the TARDIS arrive in '60s London.  We even get some location filming as Dodo and the Doctor look around.  "Oh, the tower!  It's finished!" Dodo exclaims while looking at the GPO Tower (so she must have left with the Doctor between 1961 and 1964).  "You know, there's something alien about that tower.  I can scent it," the Doctor says, making one of the better-known fluffs from this serial...except then Dodo replies with, "Smells okay to me; good old London smoke."  So either Jackie Lane is incredibly good at covering Hartnell's fluffs, or this was actually intentional.

But just take a moment to let the location sink in: we're back in contemporary London, a place we haven't visited in any detail since "An Unearthly Child" (brief stops at the end of "The Planet of Decision" (The Chase 6) and "Bell of Doom" (The Massacre 4) notwithstanding).  In many ways, then, this is as alien a world to Doctor Who as Skaro or Refusis II.  So take that moment, because the story certainly doesn't.  We go from the Doctor sensing danger at the GPO Tower to his arrival at the top, in the midst of a top secret lab containing a supercomputer named WOTAN.  It's really quite an astonishing shift, especially for this era -- you'd expect at least a little bit of the Doctor's efforts to enter the Tower and the lab, but here it's just presented as a fait accompli, as writer Ian Stuart Black clearly just wants to get to the main plot as quickly as possible (the novelization - also by Black - at least has the Doctor wave some paperwork courtesy of Ian Chesterton at the people in charge). 

And so we're introduced to the most advanced supercomputer ever, invented by a Professor Brett.  The Doctor tests it by asking it the square root of 17422 and is impressed when he gets the right answer back.  Er, yes.  Clearly the standards of impressive technology have moved on since 1966.  How it knows what the word "TARDIS" stands for is slightly more impressive, although that just suggests Ian and/or Barbara wrote it down somewhere and that's where WOTAN saw it.  Oh, and say hello to Professor Brett's secretary Polly -- she'll become important later.  Yet as impressive as WOTAN is, the Doctor still seems suspicious of it -- probably because of that sensation he had earlier, but there's also a subtext present that suggests he thinks computers shouldn't control too much.

But then Dodo mentions how she'd like to go to "the hottest night spot in town", and the name of the place hasn't even left Polly's mouth before we're transported to the Inferno; clearly this story is all about action.  And here we're introduced to a sailor named Ben Jackson, who will also become important later.  So Polly and Dodo have a good time with Ben, while the Doctor heads to the press conference for WOTAN, only Professor Brett is really late, and when he does arrive he behaves very oddly.  It turns out that the Doctor's suspicions were right, and WOTAN is indeed dangerous.  It's trying to hypnotize people into carrying out its bidding, and to this end it takes over Dodo, who heads to the Tower.  So when the Doctor wanders into the Inferno ("He looks like that disc jockey!" club owner Kitty says, presumably referring to now-disgraced-isn't-really-strong-enough-a-word DJ Jimmy Savile), Dodo's nowhere to be found.  She's meeting with WOTAN, who informs her that "Doctor Who is required."  Get used to this, by the way...Gerry Davis appears to be operating under the impression that the Doctor's name really is Who.







²⁵ Well, except for some missing censored clips from episodes 3 & 4, but these have been recreated on the DVD using the original soundtrack and some clever editing.

March 2: The Savages Episodes 2 & 3

So the inhumanity upon which the Elders' society has been created is revealed by the end of the last episode.  Yet it's not immediately clear if Dodo understands the full implications of what she witnesses in the transference room.  But the Doctor is willing to listen to her suspicions (albeit outside of the city, where they're less likely to be overheard).  This, combined with his own uneasiness about the Elders, starts to sway him.  The discovery of the savage from the top of the episode (the one who "threatened" Dodo in the last cliffhanger) and his callous treatment at the hands of one of the guards seems to set the Doctor firmly against Jano and his people.  This leads to a great confrontation between the Doctor and Jano.  "Do you not realize that all progress is based on exploitation?" Jano asks.  But the Doctor is indignant: "Exploitation indeed!  This, sir, is protracted murder!"  As the Doctor is opposed to the Elders' way of life, they decide to subject the Doctor to the same treatment as the savages.

The Doctor confronts Jano over the actions of his society.
(The Savages Episode 2 - from Doctor Who Photonovels: The
Savages - Episode Two) ©BBC

The thing that's interesting about this is that, after having set up the amoral actions in the first episode, the second sets the Doctor against it but powerless to do anything.  He is helpless in the clutches of the Elders and finds himself on the receiving end of their machinery.  That means it's up to Steven and Dodo to take action.

This is primarily what Episode 3 is about.  The Doctor has been drained of his life energy and thus can't even help himself, much less anyone else.  (Although it doesn't seem to be the case that William Hartnell is actually on vacation, as he's present for a number of scenes here.)  But Steven and Dodo not only befriend the savages, they also help capture one of the guards sent to look for them.  It sounds like a reasonably exciting sequence; pity we only have the soundtrack now.

But what the soundtrack does convey effectively is Frederick Jaeger's performance as Jano.  He decides to take on all of the Doctor's life force (the "in-transference") for himself, ostensibly to protect anyone else from unknown side effects -- the Doctor, after all, is a much higher source of energy than they've ever used before -- but really more so that Jano can take on some of the Doctor's characteristics.  It's really quite amazing to hear Jaeger take on so many of the Doctor's mannerisms and inflections; you could almost believe that someone's simply treated Hartnell's voice to make it sound a little different than normal.  But it's not just the vocal part; Jano seems to have acquired some of the Doctor's morals too, initially making to smash the transference machinery before he recovers himself.

The Doctor, of course, is still helpless, and when Steven and Dodo go back to the city to rescue him, he's used as bait in a trap, allowing the guards to capture all of the time travellers, so that they can each be used to give of their life force...