Episode 2 opens with a brief recap (basically the final few seconds from episode 1), and we get to see who is watching the TARDIS - accompanied by a slightly cheesy musical sting. A nice fade to another watching face, and we are introduced to the tribe of Gum. This section has two aims, and accomplishes both of them well. For one it establishes the setting, the core conflict, and the guest cast. In just a few minutes we know enough of what's going on and who's who that we won't be wasting time catching up when the regular cast arrive - and we can see that this is going to be a story about happenings (rather than mysteries, like last time). If we were watching modern Who, this would form the teaser section before the titles; but it would be a poor teaser because of it's second aim, which is to slow the pace down after the climax of episode 1. In keeping with the times, modern Who is faster, more frenetic than it was at the beginning. As with the use of incidental music this is not in itself good or bad, but does affect how we see it nowadays.
The tribe's introduction is noteworthy for the number of people present. Apart from the regulars An Unearthly Child had one policeman and about half a dozen schoolchildren, none of them speaking parts. Here we've got three speaking (with another two to come later in the episode) and a whole crowd of extra tribesfolk, including real children. This story has a wider focus.
Still, we have to get back to the regulars and resolve the tension of episode 1's climax sometime, so (with a nicely symmetrical repeat shot of Kal's awed face) we return to the TARDIS interior and its familiar hum. Iananbarbara are just waking up, the Doctor and Susan are checking the instruments. We get some more effective exposition, and learn that the ship is not working as it should. The Doctor delights in baiting Ian, who (it must be said) is easily baited, but Barbara is settling in already. It ends with a lovely run: the Doctor's "cries of strange birds" speech, the doors opening on the landscape of the past, Ian politely refusing Susan's help (I dunno - men, what are we like?), and then the doors closing again behind them. It's another Oz moment for Iananbarbara, but not, this time, for the audience - we are now ahead of them.
I don't want to turn these reviews into a shot-by-shot guide, but oddly enough I watch the episodes chronologically and it's often the easiest way to organise things. Especially when I'm talking as much about the direction as I am here. Still, let me skip ahead to the cave scenes with the Doctor as bringer of fire, just for a bit of contrast.
And what a contrast it is! What's happened to the pacing, the dialogue? They take twice as long as they did at the start to say less, repeating the same arguments over and over. They try to ratchet up the tension too quickly, so that it's draining away by the end of the scene. Hartnell almost rescues it - he certainly grabs our attention as soon as he's up and about - but he's not given much of an opening. I was just about coming round again when the rescue party arrived, led by an impressively fierce Susan; but it's over in a matter of seconds, an abortive attempt that fails to rescue either the Doctor or the story. I would happily have watched more of the fight and had less RP grunting about fire and leaders. Finally the regulars are tied up in a cave, but - aha! - the stupid cavemen have tied their wrists in front of them, so they can just untie each other! Unfortunately the travellers are even more stupid than the cavemen, and don't realise this. Instead we get a closeup of a couple of skulls, and it's time for the (much less effective than last episode) cliffhanger.
So, where did it all go wrong? At 10 minutes and 34 seconds into the episode, to be precise.
Carole Ann Ford and the Decline of Susan, Part 2
It's time for the characterisation of Susan to drop several more notches. Her hysteria when she finds her grandfather missing is completely over the top. Unfortunately, Carole Ann Ford can't make OTT hysteria believable - very few actors can, to be honest. Or perhaps it's that she won't; this isn't what she signed up for, after all. Can you imagine Honor Blackman behaving like that in The Avengers? Ford has no problem with realistic worry and fear, as she has already shown us in episode 1, and she can even do desperate anger as we see when she attacks Kal. We will also get a few chances to see her show off other emotions in later episodes before she gets abandoned in Earth's future; but it's mostly screaming abdabs from here on in.
Actually, Ford's performance in this scene is probably to do with her womb. As every ancient Greek philosopher knows, hysteria is caused by the womb wandering around the abdomen in pursuit of fragrant smells. But Ford was a mother and her womb would have had to settle down and be a bit more responsible, I guess, so obviously hysteria was now a no-go.
There. I've fulfilled this blog's educational remit (which is a topic for another entry), and can sign off with a clear conscience.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 30th November 1963
Viewers: 5.9 million
Chart Position: 85
Appreciation Index: 59
Rating:
4.5/10. Much higher for the first ten minutes, lower for the rest; a bonus half-mark for introducing a Chekhov's gun so far ahead of The Dead Planet.
Next Time:
The Forest of Feeeaarrrr!! </vincent price>
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