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.

Big Announcements and Cynicism

See that picture. Yep, that's me. Taken in 1991-2. Ish.

When the BBC announced last night that there was a new spin-off series of Doctor Who, set in and around Coal Hill School, I have to admit my reaction to the 'big announcement' was underwhelming. The BBC had teased their big announcement earlier in the day having failed to learn that Doctor Who fans are more than capable of imaging better, bigger announcements than the BBC. So when it was 'just' a spin-off and not a Missing Episodes announcement or a new companion or something else that we'd hoped it might be it kind of landed with a disappointing splat.*

That's when I thought of that me. The one up there with the ridiculous glasses and half-arsed beard. The one who couldn't look more like a student if he tried.

That me** was a massive Doctor Who fan. Obviously. But this was the early 1990s. Doctor Who had died with a whimper in 1989. Being a Doctor Who fan in the 1990s in the UK wasn't always fun. Geeks hadn't taken over the world then. Being a Doctor Who fan in the 1990s required a certain amount of faith and a willingness to be called a 'sad twat' by complete strangers who saw you reading Doctor Who New Adventures on trains. Doctor Who wasn't a glowing part of the BBC schedules then. It was an embarrassment.

Only DWM and the New Adventures kept Doctor Who alive.

It wasn't necessarily a lonely place to be. The Lancaster and Morecambe Doctor Who Society introduced me to a number of other fans. I persuaded a random group of my fellow students to watch 'Terror of the Zygons' on the Media Departments*** video and they enjoyed it, even if the special effects were roundly mocked.

It seemed to be a very male place then. I don't think I met a female Doctor Who fan for years, although I knew there were some. I just never seemed to meet them. Now Doctor Who fandom feels more balanced. I can listen to the Verity podcast, which is hosted/presented/podded by a group of women. Not a male voice to be heard there. I couldn't have imaging that possibility in 1991. Well, I could have done but it would have felt very odd.

So if you'd taken that me aside, say on a quiet Sunday afternoon over a bowl of chili and a pint in the John O'Gaunt and said that you'd popped back from 2015 and that you had some news for me I'd have probably choked on my pint of Thwaites.

The conversation would go something like this:

Me (44): I'm from 2015. (Don't ask) Doctor Who has been back for 10 years. The BBC treats it with respect. It's become an international hit. When you go to Forbidden Planet there will be American fans there. And Italians. And Russians. And French. And...well...everyone. It's on a Saturday night. There's been two spin-off series already. One of which had Sarah Jane Smith in it! People seem to have fallen in love with Doctor Who again.

Me (21): What? Really.

Me (44): Yep. Oh, that'd had one go at it before. In 1996. Paul McGann. But it didn't quite work.

Me (21): O. Anything else.

Me (44): Last night the BBC announced another spin-off. Set in Coal Hill School. Aimed at teenagers but still, it's another spin-off.

Me (21) : Wow.

Me; (44): Well, not really. We were expecting a Big Announcement about Missing Episodes or a new companion or something bigger than we got so we were mostly a bit disappointed with that.

Me (21): What? Disappointed! DISAPPOINTED!! What the...[RANT continues]

So to cut this blog short I wanted to remind myself how lucky we are. It might not be the return of 97 missing episodes but it is a new spin-off. A sign of faith in the Doctor Who 'brand' by the BBC - even if I have suspicions about there being no (or limited amounts) of actual Doctor Who. But it's a good thing.

I should remember the 21-year-old me and stop being so cynical.


*Like the Dalek mutant Tom Baker slaps against the sand in Destiny of the Daleks
**I was 21. I was in Lancaster.
***For younger readers I should explain that when I was at University we had to use a shared TV and Video, which you borrowed from the Media Department. I know. I used to have to write everything in long hand too. I'm SO OLD.

The Keys of Marinus

The Keys of Marinus was Terry Nation's second Doctor Who script after The Daleks but The Keys of Marinus has none of the iconic status of that story. There is certainly no villain as memorable as The Daleks, although The Voord has a certain kitschiness about them being obviously men in rubber suits that are meant to be men in rubber suits.

It's a collection of separate adventures loosely tied together by a quest. In this case, the quest is for the McGuffins Keys of Marinus. These keys are valuable components of a massive computer, THE CONSCIENCE, which is supposed to keep Marinus in a state of cuddly loveliness.

Part One sows the seeds of the adventure. There are a glass beach and an acid sea. There's a mysterious set of men flopping about in wetsuits and flippers falling through hidden doors and then there's Arbitan. Arbitan is the man who built THE CONSCIENCE. It apparently needs re-booting but to do that means finding 'The Keys', which I'm going to pretend are basically some kind of glorified memory sticks to be slotted into THE CONSCIENCE's USB ports.

Arbitan is played by George Coulouris, who was probably the first impressive piece of guest casting in Doctor Who. At least based on his career prior to this. Even if he does only last an episode. Er, spoiler. He wants the TARDIS crew to help him find 'The Keys', which have been scattered across various locations on Marinus and forces them to do so after they initially refuse. Handed their Blake's 7 wrist tra travel dials, course pre-plotted in advance by Arbitan, off they go for a series of budget-stretching episode-by-episode adventures.

We see the City of Morphoton, apparently a paradise but with a nasty little secret at its heart. This is my favorite episode. Jacqueline Hill gets to be marvelous. There are some brains in jars. Sort of. And William Hartnell and William Russell get to admire a rusty old mug. They're joined at the end of the episode of Altos (Robin Phillips) and Sabetha (Katherine Schofield).

Altos was one of those sent by Arbitan to fetch the Keys but got waylaid. Sabetha is Arbitan's daughter. They come across like a pair of Noel Coward character actors have wandered into the building by mistake, which I think becomes especially annoying in the final episode.

The Doctor splits the party up so that William Hartnell can take a holiday. He skips ahead two keys...at least I think that's how it works. Whilst the others go on.

Part Three finds us in the 'Screaming Jungle'. It's creepy, initially. Then it all gets a bit silly. The problem with this story as a whole is lots of people behave in a very stupid fashion. They also seem to delay acting on anything for about five seconds after it becomes obvious a thing is going to happen. Instead, they stand there as if waiting for a cue. It's all a little aggravating. And poor young Carole Ann Ford only gets to stand around being scared and looking for a hug. I wonder whether this was the point at which she decided enough was enough. Finally, we get Edward Warwick putting in a heroically theatrical performance as Darrius.

Moving on it is time for snow. And Wolves. And potential rapists. This is an odd episode. There's a lot of bad design going on. Sets that look like sets. A gorge that looks easily jumpable in a story by the same writer who had his characters jump over a far wider looking gorge back in The Daleks. It's almost as if Terry Nations got a gorge obsession. Susan is particularly jumpy in this episode too. To the point of irritation.

What does make this episode feel genuinely dark though is Vaslor, played by Francis de Wolff. Vaslor is a nasty man and at one point in the episode clearly has his mindset on raping Barbara. It seems a particularly adult theme for a television series for families. I suspect you'd find it difficult to do anything like that in New Doctor Who. And Francis de Wolff is actually pretty good at being creepy and menacing. It's still a bit uncomfortable.

Having recovered the key from a giant ice cube we find ourselves in the city of Milennius where Ian is set-up for a crime he didn't commit. Barbara and Susan get to play Detective, Sabena and Altos get to be research assistants and The Doctor gets to play at being Rumpole of the Bailey. Hartnell's excellent at this. He's sussed the whole plan out from the start and - despite a hiccup here and there - he eventually gets Ian free, rounds up the suspects and makes the forces of law and order look a bit amateurish. It's Sherlock Who.

It all ends happily but not before Ian gets to show off and Yartek, Leader of the Alien Voord, gets his comeuppance. THE CONSCIENCE is buggered but as The Doctor isn't convinced that letting a computer make people good by effectively programming them to be good is the right thing he isn't too disappointed. Sabetha and Altos head off in the sunset hand in hand* and the TARDIS crew dematerialise for further adventures in time and space. Or should that be space and time.

I have to admit to liking this less this time around. It's all a bit untidy. It has some wonderful moments but not enough of them to make this a great - or even good - story. There are lots of theatrical performances from guest stars, although I should mention Fiona Walker's Kala and Donald Pickering's Eyesen as being pretty good.

Fundamentally though I think it's Nation's inability to give Ian, Barbara and Susan the brains they obviously have that annoys me. They're constantly blundering into obvious traps. Or standing around gawping whilst a terrible weapon is about to cleave their heads from their shoulders.

So alas this becomes the first Hartnell story to be a bit disappointing.

O well. Next up, The Aztecs. 






*Metaphorically not literally.

Marco Polo

With Marco Polo, we encounter the first Missing Story in the Doctor Who archive. I don't intend to dwell at length on Missing Episodes. For the best and most detailed account read Richard Molesworth's excellent book, 'Wiped'. Suffice it to say a large number of Doctor Who episodes were destroyed by the BBC during the 1970s and 80s. There are still 97 episodes of Doctor Who missing. And alas that includes all 7 episodes of Marco Polo

Fortunately - perhaps even miraculously - the audio soundtracks of every Doctor Who story still exist, which means we can at least listen even if we cannot see. Now, in the case of Marco Polo, that feels like a distinct shame as the still photographs seem to show an impressively designed historical epic. 

I decided, with missing episodes, to listen to the audio. I could have watched a reconstruction but for some personal reason, I chose not to go that route. I find reconstructions oddly distracting. So this review is based on the BBC audio, with William Russell's narration.

Here is a classic example of an early Doctor Who episode managing to balance adventure - even if it is a gentle adventure - and education. Running parallel to the overall educational aspects of meeting with the Marco Polo upon his journey through Cathay are a couple of little lectures: on how condensation is formed and there's Ian's clunking teacher moment after Ping-Cho's tale of Al-adin. The most important thing is that none of this gets in the way of the actual story, which basically revolves around Marco Polo claiming the TARDIS as a bribe for Kublai Khan in an attempt to get back to Venice. The Doctor and crew spend more of the tale trying to escape whilst Tegana (Darren Nesbitt) a Mongol war-lord tries to play-off the travellers and Marco Polo for reasons of his own. 

The main guest cast is resolutely excellent. Mark Eden as Marco Polo manages to do a fine job of making Polo seem like a real human. Trying not to be too much of a bad guy, when dealing with the TARDIS crew, even when the Doctor is at his most belligerent and patronizing. There's a lot of First Doctor grumpiness throughout and a magnificently bizarre moment at the end of the first episode when the Doctor's response to Polo taking the TARDIS is a sort of mad giggling. As if he really can't take it all in.

Eden gets to narrate some of Marco Polo's diary too, which has the odd effect of making this story almost as much an 'Adventure of Marco Polo' as a Doctor Who story. Indeed you might argue that a better title for this story might be 'The Dilemma Of Marco Polo'. I like the way William Russell and Mark Eden build up a friendship between Ian and Marco Polo even as they argue. There's a lovely line from Marco Polo where he says to Ian, that he doesn't care why Ian lies but that he is capable of lying. The implication being that he can't entirely trust any of Ian's explanations. 

Derren Nesbitt is excellent as Tegana. He's the pretty obvious bad guy but has a certain clever deviousness that enables him to play the TARDIS crew off against Marco Polo. It keeps things cooking nicely. 

Ping-Cho is played by Zienia Merton (who is half-Burmese.)  She is marvellous too, especially when she gets to tell her story, which is probably the longest single speech anyone in the series has had to this point. Her relationship with Susan is really nicely played too and it is nice for Susan to get a person to interact with who is age appropriate. She must get so bored hanging out with the Doctor, Ian and Barbara. 

There's also a nice performance by Martin Miller as Kublai Khan, which brings up a point about how many of the alleged Asian characters were played by white British actors in 'yellowface'. The pictures seem to hint at make-up but it is hard to tell how far down The Talons of Weng-Chiang route they went. It doesn't get the stick for this that Talons does, but I suspect that is because it is missing from the archive. If it were to be rediscovered there would have to be some reckoning with this issue. 

The Kublai Khan - Doctor scenes are a joy to watch. Another small highlight in a story full of highlights.

This is definitely worth listening to if you get a chance but it is certainly high up on the list of stories I'd like to see found. The combination of historical adventure and excellent performances makes for a brilliant story. How many people will ever get to hear it though is moot?

The problem with doing these blogs as 'stream of consciousness' is that you often forgot to mention stuff that actually you really want to mention until it is too late. One of those is sound. Listening to this as audio I was really impressed with both the music and the sound design. Particularly during the sand storm when the shrieking wind sounds genuinely terrifying. It makes me want this story found so much. I want to see how they did the sand storm in the studio. I know it might end up being massively disappointing but I want to see it. And I want to see the Cave of Three Hundred Eyes. And the court of Kublai Khan in Peking.

Here's hoping someone, somewhere has got their mitts on a copy.

The Edge of Destruction

The Edge of Destruction is an odd fish. A two-part story designed to be a short-notice, cheap space filler. Doctor Who might have finished after this. Might. It's one of the strangest stories in the programme's history.

Only the main cast are in it and for most of the story, they're all acting in a rather odd way. As if they've been possessed. The Doctor thinks Ian and Barbara have sabotaged his ship. Susan is having a major freak out. Ian's dazed and confused. Only Barbara seems to keep her wits about her for most of the story.

Indeed the first episode has the sinister feel of one of Pinter's darker plays. Lots of pauses. The scene where Susan threatens Ian with a pair of scissors - which upset some people in the BBC - is genuinely creepy. It's Carole Ann Ford's best moment as Susan so far. Ian's reaction is bafflement. It's almost as if he's woken up with a terrible hangover.

Something weird is happening. The TARDIS is doing odd things. Its doors are opening and closing. The console is electrified. Clocks are melting. The scanner is showing images that clearly aren't what is outside. No one has any proper explanation. There are hints that someone - or something - has got inside the ship (and the first episode certainly plays like their something taking control of people). Then the Doctor starts to think that there's dodginess afoot from Barbara and Ian, which gets short shrift for Barbara.

There's a great speech from Barbara, delivered with real bite by Jacqueline Hill, where she points out to the Doctor that if it wasn't for Ian and Barbara the Doctor and Susan would never have escaped either the Cave of Skulls or Skaro. In the second episode, the Doctor threatens to throw Barbara and Ian off the ship. He's not thinking straight.

As the problem is solved - and turns out to be both disappointingly mundane and marvelously unusual - the Doctor has to come to make his apologies. Ian accepts them without hearing the words. It takes a bit longer for Barbara to come round. After all the Doctor has said some terrible things to both of them.

In a way, though this is the story that changes the Doctor. After this, he accepts Barbara and Ian. They've nudged his morality. The Doctor, from here on in, is gradually 'infected' with a 'humanity' that he didn't seem to have before. Hartnell's still not quite the Doctor we've come to expect but this is the first step towards changing that.

All the main cast get to explore their parts and there's a real strength to Jacqueline Hill's performance above all, although both Carole Ann Ford and William Russell have moments. You could see the potential of Susan here, which is why you then can understand why she was a bit disappointed with how the part was panning out. But Jacqueline Hill stands out for me.

Hartnell is good and gets probably his most complicated speech - so far - as the Doctor, which is his soliloquy on the creation of a solar system. How much of it Hartnell understood I don't know but he delivers it as if all this has come rushing straight from the Doctor's mind. It's as if his internal monologue has escaped in all the excitement. It's a complicated speech and there's not a single fluff, which might be the result of Hartnell worrying about it so much. I like it. Mainly because of the final half-suppressed excited giggle.

The sound design in this story should also be praised, especially the way the TARDIS comes to back to life gradually after the problem is solved.

Indeed the TARDIS is the fifth character in this story. It's the ship that drives the adventure. It's the ship that is trying to communicate. There's a hint that the TARDIS has an intelligence. Not an intelligence like ours perhaps but an intelligence (and we get to see the TARDIS in her true glory in The Doctor's Wife almost fifty years later.)

So it's an odd little two episodes but worth a watch. Whether you come out of it at the end baffled, frustrated or amused I don't know. Me, I enjoyed the oddity of it.