Before I start talking about the episode proper, it's worth noting that this was the last episode recorded before An Unearthly Child was broadcast. At this point the cast and crew still had no idea how the show would pan out, and had been busy with publicity as well as rehearsals (including a press launch the previous evening). It was only on the day of shooting - 22nd November - that BBC TV Controller Donald Baverstock finally agreed to a second batch of 13 episodes. Of course this was also a day with a different kind of shooting, and Kennedy's assassination was announced between rehearsals and recording; so it must have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for everyone.
I'd also like to mention the title. It was at one point a draft name for the story as a whole, and Terry Nation must have liked it because he used it for a TV series in the 1970s about the survivors of a devastating plague. I remember it, a little, from my childhood; I was ten when it started and I thought it was pretty grim. I lapped it up.
Anyway, what of this show? Again there's a lot to like. The radiation plot continues to build tension, and even though we do get another Billy-fluff ("anti-radiation gloves"), Hartnell manages to turn it around and it feels a bit like an effect of the Doctor's deteriorating health. He benefits from fine characterisation this week, nervously contrite when confessing his mercury link trick but turning angry to cover any feelings of guilt, then managing to keep thinking even when sick. His finest moment is when he's on his knees but still fighting in the only way he knows - with his cunning.
The others don't get so much to do this time, and their performances are slightly disappointing at times. Russell doesn't quite manage to convince with his physical "paralysed leg" acting, although Ian's desperation to recover comes through strongly; and Ford is stuck with more panic and close-up running action, along with an unconvincing technobabble speech about the TARDIS door lock. Finishing the episode with Susan frightened to step outside the ship because of a storm, even though everyone else's lives are depending on her, means that Ford didn't really stand a chance.
But why am I talking about all this? There's an elephant in the room, even if it's not a problem...
Monsters!, Part 2: Introduction of the Daleks
Here we are then, with the first true monsters of the show. Sydney Newman famously said that he wanted "no bug-eyed monsters," and made it clear what he meant - the Daleks were definitely part of that category. Verity Lambert managed to slip them in, though, helped by horrendous production problems and a lack of usable scripts. (To give Newman credit, he later admitted that he was wrong on this - and he did a lot of other, good things for both the show and British TV in general.)
I've got quite a few episodes to talk about the Daleks, so for now I'm just going to concentrate on their introduction. It began in last week's cliffhanger with Barbara menaced by a sink plunger, which instantly grabbed people's attention. Terry Nation hadn't thinking much about the show after submitting his script as he was concentrating on his comedy work, but with friends calling him up straight away he couldn't ignore it. Two days later, a pair of Daleks went out in London to drum up some publicity during the Christmas holidays.
The in-story introduction continues this week as the others are looking for Barbara. What surprises me now is how chilling the pepperpots are in these scenes - they are mostly just standing about wiggling their plungers and shouting, but the actors really sell their terror to the audience. Ian isn't yet the über-hero he becomes in later stories, and the scene where he makes a hesitant escape bid only to be shot in the legs (with a much more successful use of negative images than last episode's forest opening) is startling.
Another thing that I really enjoyed was the first scene of the Dalek control room, for one main reason: the background "thrum". That constant "BEEP-beep, BEEP-beep, BEEP-beep" is hotwired into my brain now; I feel an immediate frisson whenever it first plays in a story. I noticed it immediately in Bad Wolf, having not heard it for many years.
This reaction brings home to me just how strange it is to watch these stories out of order: I'm effectively feeling nostalgia for later Dalek stories while watching the original.
Which, given the parachronological nature of the show, is entirely appropriate.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 28th December 1963
Viewers: 6.4 million
Chart Position: 78
Appreciation Index: 58
Rating:
7/10. A great start, but it tails off towards a limp cliffhanger.
Next Time:
The Escape.
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