Category: Episode by Episode
Doctor Who episode 12: The Edge of Destruction (8/2/1964)
This episode is easy to understand in a modern TV context: it’s the cheap one, the ‘bottle show’ as Star Trek used to call them – just the regular cast and the standard sets. I wonder what they made of it back in 1964. The AI was better than the first Dalek episode, so it can’t have been that badly received.
Continue readingDoctor Who episode 11: The Rescue (1/2/1964)
‘Can’t you use your brains for right?’ the Doctor asks the Daleks at the start of the episode. It suggests he’s learned an important lesson since The Survivors and this exchange with Ian:
THE DOCTOR: They’re intelligent, anyway. Very intelligent.
IAN: Yes, but how do they use their intelligence? What form does it take?
THE DOCTOR: Oh, as if that matters.
Perhaps he’s started to realise that there is a moral dimension to his travels, and that he does have a responsibility to his fellow travellers. Certainly, from this episode on he starts to change his tune a bit. It’s an interesting theme, although I’m not convinced anyone watching in February 1964 would have remembered a brief dialogue exchange from December 1963. It’s interesting that he’s now ready to use the TARDIS itself as a bargaining tool, revealing its ability to travel in time and space, and promising to explain its ‘philosophy of movement’ if the Daleks halt their plans.
Continue readingDoctor Who episode 10: The Ordeal (25/1/1964)
Most of this episode concerns Ian, Barbara and the Thals’ journey into the mountains behind the Dalek city. The most impressive thing about it is the cave sets, which are excellent: boulders, pebbles and dirt on the ground, and a convincingly uneven, rocky interior that genuinely sells the episode. The lighting is good as well. It’s played well, with virtually no music, and some naturalistic dialogue between Ian, Ganatus and Antodus. There’s also an exchange between Ian and Barbara that is particularly eyebrow-raising if you listen with your eyes shut:
Continue readingOh, no, not that way. Now stay still. Give me your other hand. You’ve got to come back. Now, swing. Now this time, face the rock. And reach round with that arm. Reach higher. Can you feel?
Doctor Who episode 9: The Expedition (18/1/1964)
After the talky previous episode, this is much more action-packed. The first half picks up on the themes of pacifism and morality from The Ambush, with a surprisingly intense debate between the TARDIS crew on the right thing to do. The Doctor, as in The Survivors, is uninterested in the ethics of challenging the Thals’ values – ‘This is no time for morals,’ he exclaims. More surprisingly, Barbara backs the Doctor, fearing that if the Thals won’t fight with them, then the Daleks will destroy the time travellers and the Thals alike. This is a new development given that so far Barbara and Ian have pretty much been in agreement. Ian expresses the view that it’s wrong to ask the Thals to die for the sake of the TARDIS fluid link: ‘I’m not having anyone’s death on my conscience.’
Continue readingDoctor Who episode 8: The Ambush (11/1/1964)
The first half of this episode picks up where The Escape left off. It’s exactly the kind of thing we’re going to see a lot of in the future with the regulars pretending to be prisoners, and the baddies cutting through doors with blowtorches. It’s done reasonably well, but it’s very routine and mainly noteworthy because the Daleks start using ‘exterminate!’ as a catchphrase.
Continue readingDoctor Who episode 7: The Escape (4/1/1964)
Having spent the previous episode introducing the conniving, duplicitous Daleks, Terry Nation now introduces the other inhabitants of this planet: the Thals. Susan goes a bit overboard when she encounters Alydon outside the TARDIS. ‘You’re perfect!’ she squees, as the storm subsides and this blonde Adonis is bathed in radioactive sunlight. The first half of the episode largely focuses on the Thals. They turn out to be a race of farmers, eking out a subsistence living from the poisoned soil. As there’s been a prolonged drought, they’ve been forced to abandon their farms and are planning to approach the Daleks for assistance.
Continue readingDoctor Who episode 6: The Survivors (28/12/1963)
The most significant thing about this episode is that it introduces the Daleks: the first and most enduring monsters the Doctor ever encounters (I like that in the 21st Century series they also waited until episode 6 for the Daleks). That’s remarkable: they got it right first time. A lot of effort goes in to making them seem like more than robots. They’re constantly moving, rolling back and forth or side to side, twitching their protuberances, which suggests a kind of barely controlled nervous energy. Even in this first appearance we get lots of point of view shots, reinforcing the message that there is something intelligent watching from inside the case. The Dalek actors and the director have obviously given some thought to how to make these metal creatures seem alive, so that Barbara’s speculation that there is something inside them makes sense (Susan’s hysterical giggle at this point is deeply unsettling).
Continue readingDoctor Who episode 5: The Dead Planet (21/12/1963)
This one sets the scene for most of the early ‘space’ adventures. Whereas the history stories usually begin with the crew being captured and separated in fairly short order, the space adventures take a bit more time to explore the environment. The Dead Planet is particularly memorable because of the effort that’s gone in to making the planet so alien. The petrified jungle is stark, with weird, rectangular leaves – quite a difference from the prehistoric Earth forest last week. It’s also shot with a weird ‘negative’ effect, at least for the first 30 seconds, which makes it look as strange as Vortis and creates a link between the dead planet and the Daleks’ death ray effect.
Continue readingThe Avengers: Series Three reviews
Concerto
Series Three begins as it means to go on – a new, glossier title sequence with a big, bold new logo. Glossy and bold – just like the episode itself. There’s a new sense of self-assurance here, as the pieces all start to fall into place. Steed is much more to the fore than previously. Macnee positively sparkles in his scenes with Nigel Stock as the lugubrious foreign agent Zalenko – their verbal sparring is the shape of things to come. Zalenko’s description of him as ‘a man about town whose other activities are fairly obscure’ pretty much sums up Steed from here on in. The focus on Steed does tend to be at the expense of Cathy – here she’s tied up and subjected to a nasty game of one-sided Russian roulette – but even this is a taste of the future, when Mrs Peel tended to get tied to something most weeks. Nevertheless, Cathy and Steed’s relationship, whilst retaining a hint of the antagonism of the previous series, has mellowed. This is much more like it. Confident, fresh, sharp and witty, this is a smashing episode with more than a little playful self-awareness – such as Zalenko’s comment that he learned his fighting techniques from watching British TV! Splendid stuff.
Doctor Who episode 4: The Firemaker (14/12/1963)
The start of this episode gives Hartnell a great moment of showmanship, unveiling Kal as the murderer of Old Mother by manipulating him into revealing the murder weapon, and then encouraging the tribe to turn against him. It’s a fantastic scene, and I think an inspiration for the Millennius trial sequence in The Keys of Marinus. It’s probably this moment of cunning that later convinces Ian to acknowledge the Doctor as the TARDIS ‘tribe’s’ leader to Za, although the final moments of the episode make it clear that this is only a temporary rapprochement.
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