Susan : In the Beginning

Susan (Carole Ann Ford) was the Doctor's first companion and the first to leave the series. The Doyleist reason for leaving was that Carole Ann Ford didn't feel that Susan was the part she was promised it would be. And, watching her stories, you can see what she means. Only in The Unearthly Child and The Sensorites is Susan anything more than a slightly hysterical peril monkey. Too many writers treat her like a child - see the slightly uncomfortable 'smack bottom' line from The Doctor in The Dalek Invasion of Earth as the most egregious example.

The thing is she is supposed to be the child of an advanced civilization. There are hints of her having telepathic powers - which flower in The Sensorites - but which never get seen again. It isn't the best part for an actress, especially when hopes of something more have been wafted in front of your face.

Susan also seems to have always been less keen on the wandering lifestyle that the Doctor seems to enjoy. She wanted to settle down on Earth for a bit and go to school, even though she can't really be learning much - particularly in sciences - that she doesn't already know. She refers to wanting to 'belong' and when the Doctor talks about going home she seems keen. Perhaps keener than he is. It all comes to a head in The Dalek Invasion of Earth when she meets David Campbell and seems to have found a place and a person to 'belong', even though she is caught between her desire to stay in one time and place and her worries for her grandfather.

The potential for Susan was, alas, never realized.

The other issue with Susan, of course, is that she's created a problem for Doctor Who fans ever since. Because she's the Doctor's granddaughter, which implies a family for a character that, for a long time afterward, avoided any of the baggage of family. Until New Doctor Who picked up on it. Although we've still never seen Susan in the new series - despite Capaldi's recent pitching that as a thing he'd like to see. We've seen her, and her son, in Big Finish though. Used quite effectively.

Also, there's not just all the questions of relatives and sex that follow on from Susan's existence but the questions of her Time Lordness. Some people have tried to suggest that she's not really the Doctor's granddaughter but some kind of waif that he picked up and who calls him grandfather as some kind of sign of affection. That fails to take into account the talk of their homeworld and Susan knowing what Gallifrey...

Here's a clunking point with Susan. We've had to retrospectively question who she is because during her time in the series we don't get to know much about her or the Doctor at all. There's no real strong hint that they're not human beings. Even the line about her home planet in The Sensorites doesn't preclude them from being humans from the future. The TARDIS is clearly technology beyond the realm of current humanity but that doesn't mean much in a science-fiction series. There's no hint that the Doctor has two hearts or is capable of anything as drastic or impressive a regeneration. There are no Time Lords. This isn't the 'First' Doctor. This is just The Doctor. The only Doctor.

When Susan was created no one had any idea of what was to follow. So it is us as fans and those fans who now write for Doctor Who either on television, in novels or Big Finish that has created - or tried to create - theories of Susan.

So here's mine. I think there is a difference between Time Lords and Gallifreyans. Something - a ceremony of some kind (see The End of Time and the Untempered Schism) - is what divides the two. I assume this includes regeneration, which can also be in the gift of the Time Lords as we have seen in The Five Doctors and Time of the Doctor. It might not even be a natural process. So the Doctor fled Gallifrey with Susan before she'd become a Time Lord. The fact that when she appears in The Five Doctors she appears to have aged and that the same thing seems to apply in the Big Finish stories that she is in.

If she was a Time Lord - and could regenerate - then the Doctor abandoning her on Earth seems cruel. To both her and David Campbell. Unless he was intending to come back and pick her up at some point. But just keeps getting distracted.

Of course, there is the possibility that he picked her up in some unseen adventure and took her home finally. Or realizing the Time War was coming along hide her somewhere safe and out of the firing line. Or...

Theory on theory on theory.

And that is Susan's enduring legacy. The possibilities she represents. The stories she could be involved in.

The Rescue

There's not a lot to say about The Rescue really. Its purpose is to introduce us to Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) who is lined up to take the place of Susan. The production team obviously felt that a teenage girl was an essential requirement.

So this two-part story introduces us to Vicki and gives Maureen O'Brien a chance to run through a whole range of emotions - from scared to happy to angry - and complete what is, essentially, a long audition piece.

Vicki is an orphaned survivor of a spaceship crash and a massacre on the planet Dido. Her only companion is the badly injured Bennett (Ray Barrett). They are stalked and threatened by the spiky Koquillion. It will turn out that there's more than meets the eye to this whole scenario.

Except actually, it all seems pretty obvious to me. The final confrontation between the Doctor and Koqullion is nicely done - and it is always lovely when a monster that looks like a bloke in a mask turns out to just be a bloke in a mask - but it is all a little signposted. And I've probably spoiled it for you now. Tut.

That's about it really. There's an apparently misunderstood monster called Sandy, which Barbara effectively misunderstands to death. But as I said this is all about Vicki.

And O'Brien is rather good on her first appearance. It's pretty obvious that they're not straying too far from the Susan model, which may be a problem further down the line of course. She gave enough to do to show that she's a good enough actress and there's a certain charming cynicism to her reaction to being told that the Doctor is a time-traveler and her reaction to the inside of the TARDIS is well-played too. The first new reaction we've had to the 'bigger on the inside' nature of the TARDIS since the first episode. So I'm expecting good things about Vicki / O'Brien.

Hartnell's rather good in this too. He gets a nice balance of comedy and drama. He also gets to be Sherlock Holmes-ish again, which seems to suit the First Doctor.

Alas, Jacqueline Hill and William Russell don't get a huge amount to do, for obvious reasons. Ray Barrett does a fine job too, along with Sydney Wilson as Koquillion. Sydney Wilson is the first example of a kind of casting that will become something of a tradition in the 1980s.

O, I should note that the model work is rather lovely.

Fundamentally though The Rescue has one job, which is to introduce us to Vicki in a sympathetic way. And it is a job it does very well.

The funniest thing though is comparing the relatively casual way Susan's departure is dealt with - one lovely speech at the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth and a couple of references in the first episode of The Rescue - versus the season-long, emotional trauma filled arcs of new Doctor Who. Susan was the Doctor's granddaughter for heaven's sake. Not just any old companion. Now the whole season would be filled with foreshadowing and the finale would be packed full of emotional triggers and tears.

It's a different world.

Which is good. You can't keep things from changing. Just ask Light.*




*I'm assuming people reading this blog will get that joke. If you don't go and watch Ghost Light.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

There are some great things in The Dalek Invasion of Earth but for me, it isn't quite as good as other people seem to think it is. And, heresy upon heresy, I prefer the Peter Cushing film version, which I have blogged about previously.

I think there are two things that give this story a punch that makes you overlook its flaws. Firstly the whole sequence of Barbara, Jenny (Ann Davies) and Dortmun (Alan Judd) escaping across a deserted London whilst dodging Dalek patrols have a real tension to them. The site of Daleks lurking about London's tourist sites has a real impact. The Daleks have always been a metaphor for the Nazis - which is why Doctor Who could never do a proper World War Two story* - and their gliding about the conquered London streets can't help but have that 'Britain conquered by Nazi Germany' vibe. [God, that was an ugly sentence. Forgive me. It got away from itself.]

I was going to compare it to 'It Happened Here', which was also made in 1964 so I'm not sure if it had any influence on this story. Perhaps it did.

The Daleks have marked various important sites with signs in that jagged Dalek alphabet as if there are buses full of tourist Daleks floating about London taking selfies and wanting to try fish and chips.

The second thing that makes this story mythical is Susan's departure and the Doctor's speech. Thanks to An Adventure in Space and Time and The Five Doctors that speech has come to have a weight above and beyond its place in this story. I actually find myself getting a bit teary when it begins now, which I never did the first time I watched it.

Susan is the first major cast member to leave and her departure is hinted at throughout. She meets David Campbell (Peter Fraser), a resistance fighter and they fall in love. How much of this is 'real' love and how much is Susan's desire to find one place and time to settle down in is moot. I don't want to talk too much about Susan at this point as I'm going to write a separate blog on her as a character and deal with some of the issues that this story raises. Looking back my memory of Susan's story is that this desire to return home or to settle down comes up often. In David, she's found that way out. Also, it points out the fact that Susan isn't a child anymore. She's becoming a woman, which might be problematic for the series going forward - which Elizabeth Sandifer explores in fine theory in her TARDIS Eruditorum and she writes it better than me.

Those are the two things that I think help this story have a better reputation than I feel it deserves but there's a lot of things that don't work for me.

A lot of Richard Martin's studio direction is...careless. How much of this is the fault of having too small a studio to work in and how much of it is his fault I can't say but look at how badly blocked out the end of Part 3 and beginning of Part 4 are. The Robomen and their bomb come almost within touching distance of the Doctor, Susan, and David whilst putting down their firebomb. It's impossible to tell whether the Doctor and Co. see or hear them until after the bomb is in place. And let's not even begin on the horribly badly written and directed disarming of the said bomb. It's ridiculously stupid. Then there's the Doctor and Tyler (Bernard Kay) hiding in plain sight as several Daleks glide past them the last of which is looking DIRECTLY AT THE DOCTOR.

I won't complain too much about the Slyther's appearance as this is 1964 not 2015 but its weird keening cry plays out over dialogue and seems to throw poor old William Russell a bit. Almost as if his director hadn't told him what to expect.

Actually I've just remembered another positive: The Robomen. Yes, their headwear is clunky but there's something rather horrible about them. Their sort of zombies...actually they're kind of remote control Cybermen. In fact there's something pleasingly bleak about various sequences, even as they are untidily directed. This does feel like a world that has fallen apart. People are dirty. The main cast get progressively dirtier and their clothes start falling apart, which I do like. I wish the series would remember that now.

Then there's the Dalek voices, which seem weirdly wrong and in one case it sounds like one of them is an utter idiot. It shouldn't annoy me but it does, especially when they are talking to each other.

I should add that most of the acting is great in this. Hartnell is rather good, especially when he starts to spot what's going on between David and Susan (although we could have done without the 'smack bottom' line.) Jacqueline Hill, who is regularly the best of the regulars, gets some good stuff. Her attempt to bluff the Black Dalek in the final episode being a fantastic sequence. She also gets to bounce of the hardened, cynical and scared Jenny well. William Russell is his usual solid self. Carole Ann Ford gets to leave on a high, although there's still a bit too much screaming and flipping out for my liking.

I could go on. And on.

In truth though whilst I enjoy this story - which I suppose is the main point of the thing - I can't quite see it as the brilliant story that (in my head) fandom seems to think it is. It has great moments but overall it is too long and too untidy to be brilliant.

Planet of Giants

Planet of Giants is an odd story. It was originally planned to be four episodes long but got cut down to three at the insistence of Verity Lambert who felt it was dull. Having watched the reconstruction - on the DVD - of episodes 3 and 4 I can only conclude that Verity Lambert was spot on. However, this is a review of what went out not what might have been.

As the TARDIS is about to materialize the doors open. This sets the Doctor into a tizz but seems to have done no real damage until after a bit of exploring the TARDIS crew realizes that they've been shrunk. They're only an inch high (and will turn out to be Private Eyes as well*). An ordinary English garden becomes a series of potential death traps. Except something is wrong. Everything in the garden is far from lovely. Every living thing they come across seems to be dead or dying. And that includes the man whose corpse lies across the path.

That corpse belongs to poor Farrow (Frank Crawshaw). Farrow was the man from the ministry (of Agriculture I'm going to assume) who was writing a report on DN6. DN6 is a new insecticide. It's the brainchild of Smithers (Reginald Barrett) bankrolled - to a risky degree - by Forester (Alan Tilvern). Farrow's worked out that DN6 is lethal to pretty much everything fauna, which means the good as well as the bad. It's world-ending stuff. Forester has committed too much to the project and has killed Farrow. Now he and Smithers must cover it up.

The TARDIS crew is dragged into this when - in order to hide from a cat - they dash about and Ian and Barbara end up hiding in a briefcase.

The rest of the story is spent watching the miniaturized TARDIS crew investigating, plotting and then organizing - indirectly to be honest - the arrest of Forester and Smithers. They're helped in this by the curiosity - or nose poking - of local operator Hilda (Rosemary Johnson) and slightly less curious Policeman Bert.

O and they're helped by Forester's stupidity. He tries the handkerchief over the phone trick to pretend to be Farrow, which Hilda sees right through. That makes her suspicious. She pokes Fred until he's willing to act and he walks in just as Smiths and Forester have been 'distracted' by the TARDIS crew creating a small bomb.

It should be noted that Barbara touches some DN6, which is slowly killing her. She manages to hide this fact for a while despite behaving very oddly. Both Ian and the Doctor notice the oddity but fail to act on it. It's only when Barbara passes out that the truth comes out. Fortunately, at the end of the story, everyone is returned to their normal size, which makes Barbara's dosage of DN6 less than lethal.

As I said. It's an odd story.

It looks magnificent. The work that has gone into the sets - sink, telephone, briefcase, and matchbox, etc - really makes it look like everyone has shrunk. The threat of surprisingly ordinary things such as cats and water-filled sinks is part of the fun of this story. As is watching the TARDIS crew work out how to escape and how to stop Forester.

They never know his name of course. They never interact directly with the villain. The story emphasizes how the difference in scale means that they are incomprehensible to each other. This isn't a whodunnit as we see Forester carry out his dirty deed but more of a 'how can we stop him getting away with it'.

It's hard to say much else about this really. The cast does a fine job. Susan is mostly OK, Barbara is plucky and brave, Ian is brave and steadfast and the Doctor is clever and grumpy. The interesting thing in this story is that the TARDIS crew makes a decision to stay and stop the DN6 problem, even though Barbara is sick. They feel it is their duty. It's a nudge towards how we see the Doctor and his team now.

It's not a bad story. It's not particularly exciting and, as I said in the intro, watching the extended 'restoration' just confirms that at four parts it would have been as dull as ditchwater. There's a lot of handkerchief action though. If you like that sort of thing.

Worth it for the great sets and props, including 'giant ants'.**


*Inch High Private Eye was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 1970s. Take a look at this intro here
**On that score you ain't seen nothing yet. There's Zarbi a-comin'

The Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror ends the first season of Doctor Who. It goes out between 8th August and 12th September 1964. It was, as the DVD extra, a somewhat troubled production with director Henric Hirsch, a refugee from the failed Hungarian revolution of 1956, finding the process of making it somewhat stressful.

If you have the DVD it is well-worth watching the making of documentary btw to give you an idea of how difficult the production of Doctor Who could be.

It is William Russell's turn to take a holiday during The Reign of Terror but this is mostly smoothed over rather well through the use of pre-filmed sequences that are slotted into various episodes. The only way you would know is that they are on film and not video so have that slightly different look that was a feature of BBC productions until...well...until a point which I do not have the knowledge to tell you. It was such a feature that Monty Python uses it for it a sketch, which can be found here

But I am wandering off down country lanes of distraction, which is a neat way of introducing another fact about The Reign of Terror. It features the first outdoor filming in Doctor Who history as we follow The Doctor on his walk from farmhouse to Paris down some lovely French lanes - mostly in Buckinghamshire. It isn't William Hartnell we see because they wouldn't release him from rehearsals. So the First Doctor is played by Brian Proudfoot who spent some time shadowing Hartnell at rehearsal to get his walk right. To the annoyance of Hartnell himself apparently but it works well enough.

The Doctor is throwing a tantrum as this story starts and is going to drop Barbara and Ian off at their next stop, which he claims will be their own time and place. It turns out to be France during the worst period of the Revolution.

In traditional stylee the TARDIS crew is separated, captured and escape. Only to be captured again. And escape again. All they want to do, of course, is catch-up with each other and get back to the TARDIS but they get dragged into The Scarlet Pimpernel  (sort of) as Ian gets caught up in the search for mysterious British spy James Sterling*, Barbara and Susan get rescued by a gang of anti-Robespierre rebels and The Doctor impersonates a senior provincial official and tries to bluff his way to rescue his companions. There is, of course, a traitor in the camp too.

Barbara gets to be mildly flirtatious with Leon Colbert (Edward Brayshaw), which leads to a brilliant scene with her, Ian and Jules Renan (Donald Morley) after Leon's death. It's a short scene with genuinely meaty issues. Jacqueline Hill and William Russell are both excellent in this story. Again. It astonishes me how rarely we talk about Ian and Barbara in the list of great Doctor Who companions but they are a fantastic team and both actors generally give performances worthy of praise.

Alas, I can't say the same for Susan who is mildly irritating throughout this story. She's nervous and pathetic at points, which is a shame after The Sensorites showed you what the character could be and what Carole Ann Ford could do with the part when given a chance. The nadir being her unwillingness to flee the cart which they're being taken to the guillotine in because she's feeling a bit rough. It turns out that she's good a bad cold but that seems to be less preferable than being beheaded. It's a shame but Susan is a real drag in this story.

Hartnell is wonderful again. He's devious and cunning. He's grumpy and impatient. He gets to dress up in a ridiculous costume and pretend to be an important man. He has fun running rings around an overseer and the jailer.

The supporting cast is mostly pretty good, especially James Cairncross as Lemaitre and Edward Brayshaw as Leon.

This is, of course, a historical so it looks pretty good and there's you might argue this is the first celebrity historical in Doctor Who history, which will be a new Doctor Who staple. We get to see Robespierre, Barras, and Napoleon. It's a hangover of the series original brief to educate children as well as entertain them. It's not exactly a documentary, but then it isn't meant to be. It's supposed to be a fun adventure in a historical environment - with its tropes - that we are reasonably familiar with.

In that respect, it works pretty well. It is too long, but then most Classic Doctor Who stories feel like that compared to New Doctor Who but it has enough twists and turns to appeal. It's just a shame about poor Susan.

The Sensorites

I write this blog about The Sensorites a couple of hours before I settle down to watch Hell Bent, which - as you'll know if you're reading this blog - is the final episode of Series 9 of Doctor Who and I am reminded that Peter R Newman's script contains a little speech from Susan, when talking about her home, that 51 years later still influences our image of Gallifrey: "It's quite like Earth, but at night the sky is a burned orange, and the leaves on the trees are bright silver." I think it is the first description of what will eventually be called Gallifrey in the series. 

One line in a pretty average Doctor Who story from 51 years ago that influences the look and design of Gallifrey to this day, which is a tribute not to the line itself but to the way Carole Ann Ford delivers it. Which is the first thing I want to say about The Sensorites. It gives Carole Ann Ford something to do beyond just behaving like a child. Susan is clearly struggling with her role here. The Doctor treats her like a child throughout. Indeed he's as patronizing as hell at points. And Susan puts up a fight against it. Here there are things for her to do. She has a telepathic ability that makes her useful for once. The Sensorites trust her because of it but all along the way Susan has to fight to be treated like an adult. The talk of her home and her line in the final episode about wanting to belong somewhere perhaps foreshadows her fate - or it would do if this was a new Doctor Who. I would write more about this but Elizabeth Sandifer in her interesting (and often pretentious) TARDIS Eridotorium does a fine job when he talks about 'The problem of Susan', which fundamentally is that at some point she's either got to grow up or leave. Read it. She's far better at explaining it than I am.

The Sensorites is a little slow. It suffers from having a wonderfully off-beat and creepy first episode, ending with a lovely cliffhanger and then dragging along mostly for the following five episodes. It doesn't help that a couple of plot points are daft - can Sensorites really not tell each other apart when they're not wearing their badges of office for example and how does the Sensorite get on the ship, remove the TARDIS lock and slide away without anyone noticing? In fact not noticing stuff is a problem throughout. The most irritating being Barbara and Susan missing a really obvious sign with WATER written on it in order that they can go in the wrong direction and get into trouble. It's really stupid, especially as in The Aztecs Barbara was sharp as hell. 

This whole story is a bit Barbara light actually as Jacqueline Hill slips off for a couple of week’s holiday, returning in episode six with a lovely suntan. It isn't that strong an episode for William Russell either who gets to be either tight-jawed impatient hero or ill. 

Hartnell though gets some lovely stuff. I like it when the First Doctor gets to play scientist-detective aka Sherlock Holmes, like in this story.  He's nicely belligerent, self-confident and grumpy to the Sensorites too. The Doctor's a bit obnoxious to Susan, as outlined above, which seems at odds with the character he will become. 

There's also a rather fine performance from Stephen Dartnell as John, the astronaut driven insane by - effectively - an overdose of telepathy. I found it genuinely affecting at points & it oddly reminded me of Simon Rouse's performance as Hindle in Kinda. He's the best of the guest performers. Lorne Cossette as Maitland is wooden and a bit lost, Ilona Rodgers isn't as wooden but still seems lost. They both seem to be suffering from that early 1960s British actor problem of not knowing or being able to adjust their acting from stage to small screen. 

The Sensorites themselves are actually rather well-designed facially. They're obviously men in masks but they're good masks and you wouldn't have to do much with modern prosthetic to create a new series Sensorite that didn't look too dissimilar to these. Their dinner plate feet were a mistake though, especially when they overlap each other. But they do feel like a race with proper culture, even if occasionally they deliver clunking lines to each other to explain things. I give you "Are their hearts on the left or right side or in the centre like ours."

Fundamentally I didn't think this was a terrible story just a bit drawn out and occasionally a little silly. It isn't one I'll rush to re-watch I will admit but it does have its moments. And it is a rare chance for Susan to get a moment in the sun.

The Aztecs

Yes, it has been a while since the last one of these.

So The Aztecs is pretty magnificent stuff. Historicals tend to stand the test of time better than the science-fiction stories. Nothing ages faster than the past's view of the future I find. Plus historical drama is a BBC specialty, even if Aztec dramas are few and far between.

For a production stuffed into a tiny studio Barry Newbery's design work adds real depth to the place even if, on occasion, the painted drapes look a little too obvious. The costume work to is rather lovely. Everything feels right, although I can't swear to the historical accuracy of the thing.

However, this is a Doctor Who story where the acting really shines. This is Jacqueline Hill at her most wonderful. Mistaken for a reincarnation of the high priest Yetaxa she is determined to 'save' the Aztecs. She wants to ween them off of human sacrifice. She wants to change history. The Doctor is determined that she should not. There's a scorching argument between the two of them in the first episode. Both Hartnell and Hill play it with seriousness. It's one of Doctor Who's finest moments.

At the end of the first episode, just as a sacrifice is about to be made, Barbara steps in to stop it and makes an enemy of the High Priest of Sacrifice Tlotoxl (John Ringham). There are two performances in Doctor Who history that model themselves on Shakespeare's Richard III. There is John Ringham's in this story and Paul Darrow's in Timelash. John Ringham stays the right side of ham, even as you can see the influence. Paul Darrow is the hamtastic (and unintentional) joy of an unloved story. Tlotoxl is a devious spider scuttling about the place from the end of Part One trying to bring down the false goddess. His performance is a highlight.

A quick note though it is, actually, unclear if Barbara was going to act to stop the sacrifice because it is Susan who actually rushes forward to stop it and Barbara acts in her wake.

Barbara's actions throw a spanner into the works as Tlotoxl tries to get at Barbara through her servants. Ian is set against Ixta (Ian Cullen) who is the leader of the army. They are destined to fight three times before an end is made of things. Ian and Barbara get a nice scene too when the discuss Barbara's attempts to stop the sacrifice. It is Ian that points out that Tlotoxl is the standard not Autloc (Keith Pyott) the High Priest of Knowledge, who has befriended and belives in Barbara's divinity. Pyott also gives a lovely calm performance giving Autloc the air of a Church of England vicar. It will be Autloc whose faith ends. It will be Autloc who leaves for the wilderness. Barbara loses. History will carry on as before. The Aztecs are doomed. The Doctor though tries to reassure Barbara that in saving Autloc they have done one good thing.

One can argue that there's an interesting morality tale here about colonialism and the danger of positioning oneself as the 'great white savior'. There is a law of unintended consequences in this interference stuff. Barbara probably insures that Tlotoxl (and those that follow him) have more power than they might have done had she left things alone.

I should also add that Hartnell is brilliant in this. One of the sub-plots, based around his attempts to find out important information, is his dalliance with Cameca (Margot Van der Bergh). The Doctor finds himself engaged to her as the result of brewing up a cup of cocoa. The Doctor's response to this is played beautifully by Hartnell. The whole relationship is well-played. Cameca finds herself saying farewell to the Doctor who is genuinely upset at the leaving of her. There's a real sense of loss at the end.

Carole Ann Ford was - I think - on holiday for a couple of episodes of this story so her input is limited to a couple of pre-filmed sequences showing her refusal to kowtow to Aztec traditions. It's not Susan's most exciting appearance alas and she's probably the only regular that gets let down in The Aztecs.

So if you want to pick a Hartnell story this isn't a bad one to start with. It isn't pacy, but that's because most 60s Doctor Who is slow in comparison with modern television but it has loads of good performances, especially from Jacqueline Hill who really shows what she's capable of here and Hartnell himself.

Lovely.