The Mind Robber

‘The Mind Robber’ is an example of ideas coming together and working well. Far away from the ‘base-under-siege’ formula common throughout the previous year, ‘The Mind Robber’ is a fresh, interesting and well played out story, and one of the very best of Patrick Troughton’s era.

Jamie and Zoe face the White Robots in Episode One.

We start with the intriguing Episode One, written by Derrick Sherwin to make up for the shortfall of an episode in the previous serial, and with no sets to call on bar the TARDIS and no actors to emply but the regulars and a couple of extras playing white robots, we get an episode reminiscent some ways of the first episode of ‘The Space Museum’. It’s eerie and atmospheric and the regulars are great.

Wendy Padbury has stepped into the role of Zoe and from the get-go it’s like she was always there. She’s a different companion to Victoria, although she also has a decent scream on her. She works very different with Jamie compared to Victoria – she is very smart and from the future and so patronises Jamie at times, but the dynamic is great.

There are some great images conjured in Episode one, including Jamie and Zoe holding onto the TARDIS console as it spins through space. The director has come up with clever ways to achieve a lot of shots through the serial and mostly they pay off. It’s the sort of creativity sadly missing from ‘The Dominators’.

Zoe about to fight the Carcus (Christopher Robbie)

With Frazer Hines sick during the shooting of the second episode, Sherwin came up with a great idea to use a different actor in Jamie’s place – when the Doctor miss-assembles Jamie’s face as a test. Hamish Wilson steps into the role of Jamie effortlessly. We have a story set in a world of fiction. It’s a step into fantasy, and a step away from Science Fiction. It’s the opposite of a story like ‘The Wheel in Space’ and it works very well. There are some wonderful comic moments, it’s well paced across five episodes, and the cast seem to enjoy this story a lot.

It’s still rough at the edges. Wendy Padbury to this day bemoans the fact that they didn’t have time to shoot her fight with the Carcus properly. It’s great to see her throwing a big superhero around, but unfortunately at times it’s clear he is just jumping over Zoe.

The sets are well done, and there are some nice touches of humour, especially in the final episode. Bernard Horsfall is a great Emial Gulliver, and Emrys Jones as the ‘Master’ was a wonderful piece of casting. In the final scene when he says ‘oh you mean I’m going home?’, he’s a joy. That set is rather good too. Jamie and Zoe have doubles at some stage, and they are truly creepy. This story has a lot of creepy elements to it.

Bernard Horsfall as Gulliver.

Peter Ling, the writer (bar episode one) came up with a truly imaginative story. Sometimes it might feel like it’s really aimed at a very young audience, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. The only downside is the ending, which is a bit flat, a bit simple. When everything appears lost for the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe just press every button on the computer console, the world goes crazy, the TARDIS reappears and everything is ok again. Still, it’s a minor quibble on an excellent story.

8.5/10

Hamish Wilson as Jamie - Episode Two.

The Wheel in Space

After the excellent ‘Fury from the Deep’, and the sad departure of Victoria, it’s hard to view ‘The Wheel in Space’ as anything but a major come-down.

Whereas ‘Fury from the Deep’ was high energy and well paced, ‘The Wheel in Space’ is easily the dullest Cybermen story thus far, extremely formulaic and one dimensional. For starters, the Cybermen take until mid-episode four to get onto the ‘Wheel in Space’, the entire first episode is almost solely the Doctor and Jamie rummaging around an abandoned space ship, and then the Doctor hits his head and Jamie destroys a servo-robot and well, it’s just not very engaging at all. We get a glimpse of life inside the wheel but nothing more during the first episodes.

Then Troughton takes a holiday for episode two, although the set and model work for the wheel must be complimented. However, the Doctor and Jamie are rescued from the space ship by men from the wheel, who get to the ship by walking across space in space suits. Completely in plausible in my eyes. Then how did they get the unconscious Doctor back? They would have had to put a suit on him and carried him! Not that we see that.

The Cybermen appear at the end of episode two, which is mostly dialogue-heavy between the crew of the wheel. Jamie sabotages the wheel’s laser so they don’t destroy the ship with quick seal plastic conveniently labelled in the laser control room. It just sort of trundles along, Cybermats appear to destroy the bernalium store so that they have to go back to the ship to see if there’s any there. The Cybermen hide in a crate of bernalium and that’s how they get to the wheel. In episode four.

Zoe look out! Behind you!

The characters are pretty light on for character development. Zoe, played by Wendy Padbury, joins the TARDIS crew at the end of this one, and her character is rather good. She displays the angst of being so smart and yet not understanding others, and the sadness that goes along with that and being thought of as a computer very well. The Commander, Jarvis, is suitably and predictably mad, but why? There’s not a lot of explanation behind his actions and his pointless death scene where he attacks a Cyberman armed with nothing is just odd.

The Cybermen want the wheel so they can use it to get to Earth. Very little else is used to explain their motivation. They say ‘You know our ways’ a lot to the Doctor. The Cybermen voice in Episode Three is weak and very hard to understand, however from Episode Four onwards it is louder and better, even on the reprise from episode three.

I think the story looks very good for its time, but it is full of mystifying scenes of people walking a long way through space – how they propelled themselves I have no idea. Space walks are usually done on surfaces, not just through nothing. David Whitaker was handed a story idea from Kit Pedler and produced his most disappointing story, with typical Kit Pedler/Gerry Davis two-dimensional characters that merely serve a purpose. Plus one mad guy thrown in for good measure. It’s slow and very ungripping!

Look out for the use of a photo to represent a dead body in episode six, so they could save on money and not have to employ the actor for another episode!

3.5/10

The Web of Fear

The Yeti and the Intelligence are back! This adventure, a fan favourite, is yet another six-episode story, featuring the somewhat familiar ‘base under seige’ plotline that seems to have become very very common at this point in Doctor Who’s history. Not that the stories don’t stand out well individually, but it has already started to become repetitive.

A redesigned Yeti.

For six episodes, as well, it’s always going to be a bit of a stretch, which is why ‘Enemy of the World’ is so far my favourite story of the fifth season. It’s different. ‘The Web of Fear’ is at its heart a strong story though, even if it is going over old ground and ideas.

The setting of the London Underground is a very good one, and one that the production team managed to realise very well. There’s a great blend of characters for the story too with the return of Jack Watling as Professor Travers, Nicholas Courtney was Colonel Alistair Lethbridge Stewart, the strange Welsh soldier Evans played by Derek Pollitt who is terrified of everything.  Anne Travers, Professor Travers’ daughter and scientist is well played by Tina Packer. Chorley the reporter (Jon Rollason) and staff Sergeant Arnold (Jack Woolgar) who turns out to be being controlled by the Intelligence are both good characters well portrayed. Add three regulars in splendid form (even if Patrick Troughton does disappear for all of episode two) and the ensemble is one of the best gathered for a Doctor Who story.

Jack Watling savaged by a Yeti.

The joy is in the shades of light and dark in each character, mixed with moments of comedy and the twist that Arnold is the traitor at the end which shocks everyone. Jack Watling plays Travers’ thirty years after ‘The Abominable Snowmen’, and perhaps lays it on a bit thick, but Anne, his daughter, balances out the ‘William Hartnell’ aspects to Travers in ‘The Web of Fear’.

It’s unclear when exactly the story is set, but we can presume if it’s not present day (for the series at the time) it is the near-future. There’s some lovely twists in episode six, an episode worth finding for all those out there looking for missing Who episodes. The Doctor this time turns the Yeti on the intelligence, but Jamie lets them loose and destroys the Doctor’s plan to completely drain the intelligence.

Anne Travers and a Yeti

It’s a rare story in as much as the primary goal for the Intelligence is to capture the Doctor and consume his mind. It’s somewhat unclear why the Intelligence has taken over the London underground system, but it does supply a very claustrophobic atmosphere for the story. As for the web – there’s a lot of fungussy web-like stuff throughout the story. It’s a nice idea but at the end of the day, as a viewer you’re half expecting to see a spider or two.

The Yeti, god bless them, have been slightly redesigned and putting them in the underground with dim lighting does make them more menacing than when they were out on the mountain-side and they were, dare I say, a bit cuddly? Apparently the director, Douglas Camfield (who did a great job with this one) spent a lot of time trying to make the Yeti sound less like a flushing toilet! The sound does have a bit of a flushing feel to it!

At six episodes it didn’t drag as much as I feared it would, especially as the plot is really not that complicated. The characters drive it when not much is happening with the plot, which saves it a bit in the middle there. Episodes two and three, rather than the later ones, are probably the slowest for a change.

It’s not often the sequel is better than the original, but in this case I believe it is. Comfortably. The first episode, the only one that exists today, is very enjoyable. It has a wonderful hammer-horror feel to it with the Yeti now in a museum of sorts run by the strange Julius Silverstein.  It would be nice to see this one in full. It’s thoroughly enjoyable.

8.5/10

The Abominable Snowmen

It's the Yeti!

Back to a story with only one episode in existence, ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ presents the viewer with a great location/setting for a story – Tibet, and a great idea for a monster – the Yeti. I thought that this would mean ‘winner’.

Deborah Watling in her first full adventure as companion Victoria.

Now I know five episodes were reconstructions (and included some good CGI for the Yeti at times), but there’s just nothing to this six-part adventure. It’s slow and very little happens, and in the end the answer to stopping ‘The Great Intelligence  – the entity controlling the Yeti and the real villain of the piece – is basically to smash all the machinery up.

Again, the one episode that exists looks very clean and sharp, great work on that. It’s just rambles along very slowly. The pace never really picks up. The Doctor is taken for a murderer and put in a cell, then used as bait for the Yeti, then freed. The story is set mostly in a monastery, where ‘The Great Intelligence’ is controlling the Abbot, who has lived for three hundred years, and his face is the worse for wear!

The imagery is very good in this story, and the design and use of location filming excellent. The Yeti look great, they are controlled by spheres which are shiny and make a great pyramid, the make-up of the Abbot also done very well. However, then we have the monks.

It’s again some embarrassing makeup on English people to make them look ‘Asian’. It’s not very convincing and obviously not the way things would be done today. I don’t think there is a single Asian actor appearing in ‘The Abominable Snowmen’! Were there really none available? Instead we have Norman Jones as the Warrior Monk Khrisong with his deep booming voice and bizarre moustache (there are a few of them in ‘The Abominable Snowmen’) and other white actors doing embarrassing accents.

Jack Watling as Travers with Victoria and Jamie.

It’s not all bad though, Patrick Troughton has another wonderful story as the Doctor, Frazer Hines has a lot of fun wrestling Yetis and Deborah Watling gets to act with her real-life father, Jack Watling, who plays the rather disagreeable Professor Travers. However, the real issues of the piece lie with the pacing and lack of action.

By about episode four very little has changed from episode one, and there’s a lot of talking about what to do if and when the Yeti attack. My concentration waned around this time, but it turns out if only they’d looked around the Monastry thoroughly they would have discovered the futuristic control room and been able to defeat the Great Intelligence by the end of episode two. I had a hard time understanding what it was all about as well. What exactly is the Great Intelligence? Some sort of sentient being – pure thought or something I guess. How such a creature builds (or indeed needs) a control room and can control robot Yeti is beyond me!

5/10

The Faceless Ones

A strangely-titled beast, ‘The Faceless Ones’ returns us to a story in six parts after another string of four part adventures. After a story that was a bit ‘weird’ in ‘The Macra Terror’, we find the Doctor and his companions returned to Earth in present day England for this one. It’s played pretty straight, and involves a fair bit of filming at Gatwick airport, a departure (pun unintended I swear) from any sort of location shoot Doctor Who had enjoyed previously.

Doctor and Jamie behind the tyres of a 'flying beastie'.

I was impressed that Episode One in fact starts off with the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie running around the runway under planes. There’s a chilling and mysterious murder to kick start the saga, oh and the episode exists! However, four of the six episodes of ‘The Faceless Ones’ do not exist.

Polly, avec long hair. Compare please to her pic in 'The Macra Terror'

The strangest thing about this story is Polly’s hair. In episode one of the Macra Terror her hair is cut very short, but suddenly it’s back to full length in the opening episode of ‘The Faceless Ones’. The only guess I could make was that pre-filming for ‘The Faceless Ones’ took place before ‘The Macra Terror’, an entirely studio-bound story, began shooting. Anneke Wills had not had her hair cut yet, and then had it cut just before shooting started for ‘The Macra Terror’. Then they realised they had all this film shot with long-haired Anneke, and had to get her a wig for the studio scenes in ‘The Faceless Ones’. As conspiracy theories go, it’s not one of the most interesting, but it’s the best I could come up with.

This story features pens that freeze people, doppelgangers aplenty and the writing out of Ben and Polly. It is sad to see them go. Michael Craze had been told his contracted wouldn’t be renewed, and Anneke decided to leave with him. In all fairness, they had taken on Frazer Hines (the production team) back in ‘The Highlanders’ almost on a whim, and the three companions did appear to be one too many. It would have been nice if we’d had more adventures with Polly. As it stands for Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, only one story exists complete in the archives, and it’s their first – ‘The War Machines’.

They were apparently contracted for all six episodes plus two of the next story. It’s a bit odd then that they were written out of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, as well as episodes four and five of ‘The Faceless Ones’. They just reappear at the hanger at the end of episode six to say goodbye! Bit unfair on both that they couldn’t have a decent send-off, but at least they go to say ‘goodbye’, which is more than poor Jackie Lane got with Dodo.

Pauline Collins guest stars are Samantha Briggs in this story, and they hoped she would agree to become the next companion. A lot of the action centres around her and Jamie, and that may be why Ben and Polly disappear for so long, however she decided not to sign a contract and only features in this story. Samantha and Jamie did make a nice pair doing their investigating, there was good chemistry between them and it would have been interesting to watch that relationship develop. Frazer Hines’ role as Jamie had been limited up to this point, and it’s the first time Jamie gets to hold a fair strand of the plotline.

Another notable cast member is Bernard Kay, back again for his third (I think) role in Doctor Who. This time he plays Police Inspector Crossland, who in the end becomes the director of the Chameleons, a faceless race of aliens wanting to replace young people and take over the Earth. He plays the two roles very differently and very well. And we have Donald Pickering, the perfect villain, cast in the role of Captain Blade.

 The plot, written by first-time Who writer Malcolm Hulke and David Ellis, struggles to hold up for six episodes – it was originally planned as a four part adventure. There is an awful lot of investigating going on through the middle of the story. The Doctor has trouble convincing anyone that he’s not a lunatic, people escape, get captured again, evidence disappears, classic stuff to pad things out.

Pauline Collins, Bernard Kay and Frazer Hines.

Donald Pickering

Speaking of Patrick Troughton, he is very strong in ‘The Faceless Ones’, and in this story the Doctor really takes the lead. He plays the straight and serious stuff – which he is getting more of now – brilliantly and his Doctor is warm and honest and basically fantastic! Troughton may have taken a little while to sort out what would be the main characteristics of his Doctor, but now that he has he has quickly overtaken Hartnell as ‘my favourite Doctor’. Well, he only had one Doctor to overtake as they’d only been one!

The final part and a bit sees some of the action taking place up in space. The cgi in the reconstruction may have been better than what was originally done – the satellite that the Chameleons are based apparently frustrated the director, Gerry Mill, a lot. A bit slow in places, poor treatment of Ben and Polly, but Troughton, Hines and Pauline Collins make this story quite good.

7/10

The Underwater Menace

And so I moved onto this story. As hard as I try I can’t steer the TARDIS to Atlantic, but the good Doctor, Jamie and co got there alright. Down a lift shaft naturally! Finally, we see Troughton take on the persona of one who seeks what’s right and to save people from grisly fates and all that. The back drop is the most bizarrely camp story so far!

Things area fishy with the fish people!

I hear that episode two turned up and year and a half ago now, but still hasn’t been released anywhere sadly, so I had three episodes of reconstructions to watch along with the one surviving episode – episode three. It’s probably the best episode to survive too, full of chases and over the top characters which showcase what this story is all about.

Joseph Furth as Zaroff

Let’s start with the cast. Jospeh Furth is Professor Zaroff. What are your expectations for a crazy European scientist? He’s got them all covered –the accent, the shouting, the hair and the moustache! He’s given people plastic gills to become fish people. But I was confused. I think there are also real fish people as well. Some of them are wearing stockings and strange masks/makeup, where as other just have goggles. Anyways, like all good Professor Who villains, he is wearing a chemist’s top, supplemented with a cape. Perfect.

Peter Stephens confronts Zaroff

BUT he is not the only camp crazy dude in the story. Special mention goes to Peter Stephens who played the high Priest Lolem. He is without a doubt the campest character I have seen in Doctor Who, and unless they give a role in Doctor to who to someone like, I dunno, Paul Darrow for example, he may be the campest character throughout the series. Will have to wait and see. Graham Crowden and Richard Briers are guys who are pretty camp too, but it’s unlikely any of them will be in future ‘Who’ I expect.

The regulars are good, and I think Patrick Troughton really starts to show how good his Doctor can be, playing the confrontational serious man, the clever clown and all between when necessary. He’s magical in his own way. New companion Jamie shadows Ben for a lot of the story, with not a lot to do. Polly’s costume – the Altantan girl costume – works really well for her. Some of the costuming is very good, some is very bad.

Anneke Wills in her Atlantan gear whilst Patrick Troughton is disguised as a gypsy.

The start of the recently recover Episode Two. Which I couldn't see.

The fish people. Sigh. I imagine that this is a sore point amongst Doctor Who fans. They aren’t realised very well. Their costumes are basically stockings with bits stuck on. The faces look okay, but the bodies are clearly not wet. Dry as a bone. Some shooting took place on location in caves, and is thusly more convincing. As a viewer, I looked at the fish people and thought ‘some poor soul had to wear that costume and pretend to be part fish/part man’. I imagine when doing their CVs, all fish people may have neglected to mention this role.

The design team had to recreate a whole under-ground city, a tall ask on any budget, so I guess we can forgive them to some extent. There is a temple, a market-square, two laboratories, corridors, rock-hewn passageways, they had a lot on their plate in a small studio. The question has to be asked though, is it a bad SCRIPT?

I ask this because, well, I personally believe most bad productions are because, primarily, of the scripts. I can forgive tackiness if there’s a great story under it. Here, there isn’t. It’s not a dreadful script, it has some nice ideas, but the story is so full of stereotypes and a lot of escapes and getting captured agains. The fourth episode, after the third episode revealing to all and sundry just what a nutter Zaroff is as he declares ‘Nothing in ze vorld can shtop me now!’ is basically everyone escaping, and not a big exciting end it might had been.

Still, it’s fun to watch. It’s bad, but enjoyable bad. Episodes two and three especially are filled with hilarious over the top characters and embarrassing costumes. What more could you ask for?

4/10

The Tenth Planet

The Doctor and Polly get rugged up for the South Pole.

And the biggest change comes over the series in this serial since the programme began. This is Hartnell’s  final story as the Doctor, and it must be said as he was too ill to make it to the filming of episode three it probably was time to move on. He seemed to be absent for a number of episodes in the third season – with the exception of ‘The War Machines’ where he had to take on a heavier than normal workload.

Mondas!

‘The Smugglers’ saw him featured heavily throughout the four episodes, and in some way that felt quite different to the way the character had been used before. ‘The Tenth Planet’ is his last story, as he leaves the programme for health reasons. I can only imagine the schedule was murder on him as they filmed an episode a week for most of the year. Even in his final story he required a week off because of illness, and he is not in the third episode. This, like an episode (3?) in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, was an unplanned absence so Gerry Davis, script editor and co-writer would have had his hands full doing a rewrite and many of the characters must have been given more lines.

The final episode was only a reconstruction, and now that I am in the Troughton years the episodes really dry up – so many are missing. It’s not going to be easy. As for ‘The Tenth Planet’, it’s a solid story but something about it doesn’t quite sit right for me. It just doesn’t quite click as a piece of television in my humble opinion.

We have astronauts in space, but with the limited... space in the studio their capsule is the bare minimum always shot on close up. The absence of exterior/model shots for the capsule is notable too, they would have helped. A shot looking out of the capsule is poor - it's hard to make out what you are looking at.

The story line itself is pretty linear and un-explosive, even if the Cybermen to make an immediate ‘big-time’ impact. Planet appears. Kills astronauts. Cybermen arrive, are killed, arrive again, are killed again, planet melts away incredibly fast.

Barclay to the rescue!

I guess the conclusion – just waiting for the planet to melt away, is quite disappointing. The cast is solid enough, only a few accents are really ludicrous. General Cutler (Robert Beatty) is the main protagonist amongst the humans, and I found the character and the characterisation very odd to be honest. He’s very gun-ho, and there’s something very stupid about the bomb entitled ‘the Z-bomb’. He explodes in peoples’ faces for not agreeing with him. He is over the top, but not in a sending it up sort of way. The script is centred around him for the first three parts and you think he will change and be the hero in the end, but then he’s killed off way before the end. Luckily, the very British character of Barclay (David Dodimead) balances things a little. Nice to see a show where the insane guy is the American! ;) That's for all the British villains in American shows!

Radiation kills the Cybermen – at least in this story. I have heard of the Cybermen and had no ideas that small amounts of radiation could do them in. I liked the lilted up and down way they spoke, I thought it was very original and clever, although in close up sometimes they look a tad ridiculous and I’m sure at times the costumes weren't on properly. I have been told they will reappear but as in this story they draw their power from Mondas, their planet with disintegrates by the end of the tale, that seems highly unlikely!

Michael Craze and Anneke Wills.

Hartnell is rather good in this story again, until he collapses in episode three and is passed out for the whole episode. Michael Craze has to carry a lot of the story and there are moments when he has to motivate those working on the Antarctic base to try and stop the Cybermen. I've never seen so many characters so hell bent on not trying! They appeared to have given up! It was hard to believe.

It is a base-under-siege type story, one that you’d think would work well with the show and its limited budget. And it gets a pass mark, but so many characters were stereo-types and all characters were purely functional. 

Just what is going on in Geneva?

Not to mention the crazy accents! Well, not so many of them, but we do keep cutting back to Geneva where a strange guy with an accent is trying to come to terms with the Cybermen invasion. On top of this character are a couple of men in traditional African dress which is really odd. The two astronauts also gain accents - one is Australian, the other I am not sure.

Then we have the final scene where Hartnell morphs into Troughton. Am I the only who thinks that it’s very hard to tell the difference in the two faces? People may have been confused at what had happened because it’s not very clear.

It’s a different sort of science fiction story, more grown up in many ways yet simplistic and linear, helpful for kids watching who were and are the primary audience. I think in that respect they hit a good balance. But I found it a hard story to concentrate on with a lot of loud characters.It's all a bit bizarre I think, I spent half the time wondering what was in the author's mind!

I’m now up to a new Doctor, which is very exciting, and the return of the Daleks.

6/10

The Smugglers

Well, both Andrew and myself sat down to watch another full four-part reconstruction with little idea about this story. Andrew told me he had never watched the full reconstruction and didn’t know a lot about the story. So it began.

Hartnell, Craze and Wills in episode one of 'The Smugglers'

And what followed was quite a cracking tale. Yes, there are smugglers in the story, but it’s not about smuggling. It’s about pirates and treasure. A great subject for a historical Doctor Who story! And it’s quite enjoyable too. It’s  nicely paced, especially after the first episode which is mostly about Ben and Polly, recently joined companions, realising what’s going on. It’s a very different dynamic than we’ve had before, mainly because Ben is a very different sort of male companion. He’s much younger than Ian or Steven and a little more niave, and indeed probably more head strong.

The idea appears to have been to give William Hartnell a couple of younger, more ‘hip’ companions. Polly as well – it’s a totally different relationship. With Susan and Vicki, and to a lesser extent Dodo, the Doctor was quite paternalistic. Polly is a little older than those three, presumably early twenties, so a very different feel is created.

Michael Godfrey as Captain Pike.

Back to the story though. It’s a hunt for Every’s treasure, a pirate back in the 17^th century. The Doctor and his companions head to a church to get their bearings and discover when and where they are (Cornwall, 17^th century). The priest, Longfoot (Terence De Marney) directs them to the inn, but not before he has left a baffling clue with the doctor – four people’s names.

Longfoot is then killed by a bald-headed chap called Cherub, played by George A. Cooper. The Doctor and his companions are soon embroiled in the whole plot involving Captain Pike, very well played by Michael Godfrey, the Squire (Paul Whitsun-Jones) and other ruffians, all after the treasure. It’s a very bloody story, which may be my only major critiscm of it. For kids, I think they probably did go a bit far. There’s plenty of blood and violence though if it takes your fancy. A few clips exist because they were censored for the content.

Cherub threatens the Doctor. His bald cap is showing!

Pike and Jamaica

The finale is extremely bloody indeed, with most people dying, including Pike and all the pirates. The cast is good, with Paul Whitsun-Jones giving perhaps a somewhat predictable performance as the squire (just see some his other work and you’ll understand) however, the character mellows by the final episode, and unlike most character he plays, he sees the error of his ways. John Ringham returns to Doctor Who (he previously appeared in ‘The Aztecs’) as Josiah Blake, on the side of good this time. He is forced to wear one of the worst wigs ever to appear on television. This is rivalled by George A. Cooper’s bald cap, as he plays Cherub.

John Righam acts well despite the worst wig in TV history.

I enjoyed the story, written by Brian Hayles, who came up with the original idea for ‘The Celestial Toymaker before it was totally changed. Twice. It’s got good pace, a bit of action, and a fair bit of fun until the bloodbath occurs. There could have been a tendency to go very silly and ramp up the humour, but unlike ‘The Gunfighters’ and ‘The Romans’, they didn’t go down this path. The story is probably the stronger for it.

All in all, a nice little piece. William Hartnell was very good in this, Craze and Wills were good foils. I look forward to many more William Hartnell adventures after this one!

8/10

PS. My friend Andrew, who watches all the episodes with me, also writes a blog. A travel blog. Still, he hasn't been to half the places I have! However, today he wrote a blog about a Doctor Who convention. Whatever that might be. He also mentioned his friend Rob Lloyd who does a Doctor Who show called 'Who, Me.' A one-man stage show. I hear he is very good. So here are the links for ye:

Geeking out at a professional level - Andrew's latest blog post

Rob Lloyd's website - info about his show and the man himself.

Next time you join me, I will be talking about what has turned out to be William Hartnell's final Doctor Who story - 'The Tenth Planet'. Expect it up in the next 24-48 hours!

The Savages

New writer to the series, Ian Stuart Black, wrote this story, and it’s a very interesting one too. Since ‘The Daleks Masterplan’ every Doctor Who story has been four parts, and the series really is really benefiting from shorter stories and a regular pattern and pace. ‘The Savages’ starts with a lot of location work, and it continues throughout the story. This was something I really noticed, and it occurred to me that to this point the amount of location shooting  throughout the series had been extremely limited.

Apart from ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ and ‘The Myth Makers’, location shooting had only been the occasional linking shot or something like that. Nearly the end of the third season, ‘The Savages’ provides us with the first alien planet shot outdoors – in a quarry naturally! There is a fair bit of outside stuff shot on film for this one, possibly the most to date. It represents a shift in the way the show is produced – now with Innes Llyod at the helm and script editor Gerry Davis. I thought the previous team of Wiles and Tosh were doing some very interesting things with the series, but from watching Donald Tosh interviewed on ‘The Gunfighters’ DVD I see that Lloyd’s ideas for the show were quite different from Tosh and Wiles’, who didn’t have a good crack at the series in all fairness to them. Not all of their stories hit the mark but they were always trying to do something different.

William Hartnell gets all scientific as savages watch on.

Lloyd and Davis took over from ‘The Celestial Toymaker’, however I think this was the first story they commissioned and really had their mark on. And it’s a good start! Sadly, not existing at all in the archives, I realise now that the next couple of seasons’ worth of stories will be hard to get through as there will be a lot of reconstructions. My friend Andrew told me he had never watched the full reconstruction of this one before. He has now!

It’s very much a (well executed) ‘ideas’ story. The concept is interesting, and political too. I’m not sure if it was inspired by apartheid or colonialism in general, but the theme is taking things off others to make you strong. The elders take the life force from ‘the savages’ on this world. They have found a way to take this life force from the savages making them smarter and healthier, whilst the savages are left to live in caves and run around in skin. Perhaps the story is representing the concept of the poor making rich people rich?

Presumably this world is some sort of human colony far in the future, but it wasn’t 100% clear to me. It is mentioned that the savages are the same as the elders – they are both the same race in other words. It’s quite an horrific idea really, and a very adult concept for the show to deal with. I wonder what the children watching back in the day would have made of it.

It's a sad farewell to Steven
and Peter Purves

It is also Peter Purves’ final story as Steven Taylor. Lloyd and Davis had decided to move on both companions as soon as they could, and wasted little time in moving on Peter Purves sadly. At least it was a decent story to go out on for Steven, staying behind to help rebuild a society that couldn’t see that what they were doing was wrong. The leader of the Elders, Jano, is well played by  Frederick Jaeger.

The Doctor and Jano

It’s a nice twist to the plot and the character of Jano when they drain the Doctor of his essence and transfer it to Jano. He can suddenly see that what they have been doing is wrong. Destroying the machines may have been an effective way to stop the plundering of innocent people, but I’m not sure it would have effectively changed the planet. Most of the Elders were far from convinced that what they were doing was wrong.

It’s a good little story. It has a good look to it, with effective use of location work and some nifty looking corridors. Broadcast in 1966 it would have been the sort of story to get people thinking. Also the first story to abandon individual titles for each episode and just have a title for the whole story. An effectively told, interesting story.

7/10