There are a lot of different timescales to consider when thinking about a TV program, even in the 1960s with its relatively compressed production schedule. For the actors it generally takes place over a week, with rehearsals up until Friday evening when the actual shooting takes place. At this point in the show's history there is no location shooting so the main exception is the filming of necessary sequences at Ealing Studios, which had better facilities than Lime Grove Studio D where the show was based. After shooting came editing, but not too much because of the expense of the tape, and then a gap of a couple of weeks before broadcast (down a week since the episode 5 remount). All this means that everyone on the production has moved on to something else by the time it airs.
The episodes don't begin with the actors, though. Before that there's the scriptwriting (usually involving multiple drafts), and before that the story needs to be commissioned. Which means it all needs to start a few months before viewers finally get to see anything. And that can sometimes be a problem.
In this case, the story after The Daleks needed to be commissioned when the BBC had only agreed to a run of 13 episodes. Verity Lambert and David Whitaker were confident and went for another long story, but when filming began on the second serial with the extension still not agreed they decided they needed a two-parter to potentially round things off - just in case. There was also a problem with money. For most drama series, there are a number of sets that are reused in nearly every episode. This wasn't true of Doctor Who; the only set that recurred between stories was the TARDIS interior, and that was seen mostly at the beginning and the end. Lambert had planned to amortise the cost of this set over a longer period, and if the show was to finish early that would not be possible, so there was virtually no budget for the final two episodes. An episode set entirely within the ship made sense financially, and offered a good excuse to avoid paying for a guest cast. Whitaker decided the only option was to write it himself, beginning a long tradition of pinch-hitting script editors. This was somewhat frowned on at the BBC, and he only got official permission to do so after the first episode had been broadcast!
Two-parters are something of an oddity in Doctor Who. There's another next season which introduces Vicki, then no more for a decade (when an unworkable six-parter was replaced by a four and a two), then none until long stories fell out of favour in the 1980s. Because of fixed costs such as sets episodes in longer stories are generally cheaper to produce, but sometimes two parts is the ideal length. Both of the Hartnell ones work really well; any more episodes would have spoiled them. This one in particular is an underrated gem - although not so good as The Rescue, it gets far worse press. I like the way it uses one episode to set up the mystery, then the second not only to solve it but to show us that - from a storytelling point of view - it's not the solution that's important but how the characters learn and grow along the way.
Inside the Spaceship was Whitaker's preferred title for the story. Confusingly it was sometimes called Beyond the Sun (an early name for the previous serial), and both episode titles have also been used, although (as usual) the first episode won out.
20-20 Hindsight, Part 1: Birth of a Cultural Icon
So, that could have wrapped up a short-lived, creative series, a footnote in TV history. But it didn't. The BBC had high hopes for it from the start, and invested more effort in publicity than was common at the time; William Hartnell was also supremely confident that it had legs. By the end of the first block of 13 episodes it still isn't quite the show we know now, but the groundwork is there (and the rest of the first series has been guaranteed). I've talked about a lot of the recognisable elements as I went along, but I just want to take stock of where we've got to.
First, there's the premise of the show: a strange man in a 1960s police box (bigger on the inside), who can travel anywhere in space and time. This is nailed in the first episode, and never changes. It's a glorious idea, offering so much scope, and the episodes we've seen so far have demonstrated that well.
An Unearthly Child also introduced the idea of the Doctor's companions. The role of the companion has changed over the years, and hasn't yet settled down into any sort of formula - but the initial antagonism seems to be resolved, in a "story arc" that also sees the beginning of the Doctor's evolution from a scared and selfish old man into the heroic adventurer of later years.
Finally, there's the monsters. It's not yet primarily a monster show (and won't be for some time), but the Daleks gave the show the shot in the arm it needed to become successful, and their influence is immense.
The journey has begun.
Rating:
Single Sitting: 7/10.
Episodic: 8/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 60.15%, 158th.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.89, 156th out of 211.
Next Time:
I'm going to be taking a break for a while to do summer holiday stuff, and to get a bit ahead again (I'm only on episode three of Marco Polo at the moment). Now might be a good time to post any thoughts on how it's going so far. Don't worry, though - in the words of Captain Jack Harkness in The Stolen Earth, "I'm coming back!"
Friday, 22 July 2011
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Episode 13: The Brink of Disaster
One thing that occurs to me only now is that the last episode didn't really have anything in it to show the crew were at the "edge of destruction." Still, David Whitaker has dug out some synonyms and reused the titles for an episode where it's much more appropriate.
Let's start with the direction. Richard Martin couldn't make it this week, so newcomer Frank Cox stepped in. His direction is certainly competent (moreso than Martin's on The Rescue, for example) and he places the actors well, but after last time I just find it less interesting. Likewise, there is some good use of music and sound - I particularly noticed the foghorn, this story's version of the cloister bell - but again not so much to praise.
So far, not quite so good; but what about the dialogue and acting? Let's get the bad out of the way first: William Russell can't do falling or being helpless. I've noted this before but it's a bigger problem here. All actors have strengths and weaknesses (I don't find David Tennant convincing at "hot" anger, for example), but it is unfortunate. William Hartnell apparently compained about the number of speeches he needed to learn, and he does stumble sometimes, but the stumbling actually works well in context, making it feel more real - and when it really matters his delivery is perfect.
In fact, this episode belongs to the Doctor and Barbara. Which is not to say that the other's don't get a decent look-in. Ian "doing a Sixie" and throttling his friends, for example (though the explanation that he was trying to pull them away from the console hardly works even in such a surreal story), or Susan demonstrating that her sense of time is as good as her sense of direction. Still, their finest moments are in their interactions with the Doctor. For Ian there's the gradual peacemaking seen throughout and shown clearest when they are conniving to protect the others from the truth of their fate, as well as in the discussion of Gilbert and Sullivan's coat (and notice how the Doctor is beginning his habit of name-dropping here). For Susan it's her demonstration of loyalty to her grandfather. This is key; it was her threat to leave with Iananbarbara in An Unearthly Child that prompted the Doctor to take off, kidnapping the teachers in the process and launching the show. That tension is resolved here, just as Ian and the Doctor - who clashed straight away - become allies, even friends. If this had been the final episode the crew would have been left in a much better position, and viewers could have imagined them travelling on in (relative) harmony. Which was, after all, one of Whitaker's goals.
What of Barbara, then, who I have identified as important but mostly ignored so far? She was at the heart of the story last time, and is the other pole to the Doctor here. It was she who, unlike Ian, quickly accepted the reality of the ship and her travels in time and space when they unwillingly joined the crew; and Barbara's role here is to oppose the Doctor in a way she has not done before. It started last time with ranting at the old man, and continues here with her being the one to figure out what's going on. This is not a side of her we have seen much of before, confrontational and analytic; and it forces the Doctor to acknowledge her as he has not done so up till now. The scenes where the Doctor fails to quite apologise to her in the console room, and then when they have a quiet chat and break down the barriers between them, form the emotional heart of the episode - and complete the resolution begun above.
And, of course, there's still one character I haven't mentioned.
I'm a fan of Firefly as well as Who. In one of the DVD extras Joss Whedon talks about the tenth character of his ensemble cast, a character called Serenity; and we have someone similar here. She has a name, although at this stage she is generally referred to as "the ship," and we learn quite a bit about her in this episode. Forget the guff about the fast return switch - it's just an (admittedly unconvincing) article of technobabble which provides the excuse to throw the crew into peril, and it's not what the story is interested in. No, I'm talking about the nature of the ship as a living, thinking being, albeit one that is far more alien than Thals or Daleks (or, indeed, anything they'll meet this season). This revelation echoes down through the show, along with some of the details. The energy beneath the central column and her telepathy and intelligence, for instance, play an important part in the revived series. The events of Boom Town and The Parting of the Ways have their roots here; and there's another, more recent story that very obviously owes a lot to the groundwork laid down here, in only the third serial of the show. We can never see the ship in quite the same way again.
Oh, and we also discover that she has a very extensive wardrobe, which comes in handy in later years.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 15th February 1964
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 31
Appreciation Index: 60
Rating:
7/10
Next Time:
Serial C as a whole, and a quick look back on the first thirteen.
Let's start with the direction. Richard Martin couldn't make it this week, so newcomer Frank Cox stepped in. His direction is certainly competent (moreso than Martin's on The Rescue, for example) and he places the actors well, but after last time I just find it less interesting. Likewise, there is some good use of music and sound - I particularly noticed the foghorn, this story's version of the cloister bell - but again not so much to praise.
So far, not quite so good; but what about the dialogue and acting? Let's get the bad out of the way first: William Russell can't do falling or being helpless. I've noted this before but it's a bigger problem here. All actors have strengths and weaknesses (I don't find David Tennant convincing at "hot" anger, for example), but it is unfortunate. William Hartnell apparently compained about the number of speeches he needed to learn, and he does stumble sometimes, but the stumbling actually works well in context, making it feel more real - and when it really matters his delivery is perfect.
In fact, this episode belongs to the Doctor and Barbara. Which is not to say that the other's don't get a decent look-in. Ian "doing a Sixie" and throttling his friends, for example (though the explanation that he was trying to pull them away from the console hardly works even in such a surreal story), or Susan demonstrating that her sense of time is as good as her sense of direction. Still, their finest moments are in their interactions with the Doctor. For Ian there's the gradual peacemaking seen throughout and shown clearest when they are conniving to protect the others from the truth of their fate, as well as in the discussion of Gilbert and Sullivan's coat (and notice how the Doctor is beginning his habit of name-dropping here). For Susan it's her demonstration of loyalty to her grandfather. This is key; it was her threat to leave with Iananbarbara in An Unearthly Child that prompted the Doctor to take off, kidnapping the teachers in the process and launching the show. That tension is resolved here, just as Ian and the Doctor - who clashed straight away - become allies, even friends. If this had been the final episode the crew would have been left in a much better position, and viewers could have imagined them travelling on in (relative) harmony. Which was, after all, one of Whitaker's goals.
What of Barbara, then, who I have identified as important but mostly ignored so far? She was at the heart of the story last time, and is the other pole to the Doctor here. It was she who, unlike Ian, quickly accepted the reality of the ship and her travels in time and space when they unwillingly joined the crew; and Barbara's role here is to oppose the Doctor in a way she has not done before. It started last time with ranting at the old man, and continues here with her being the one to figure out what's going on. This is not a side of her we have seen much of before, confrontational and analytic; and it forces the Doctor to acknowledge her as he has not done so up till now. The scenes where the Doctor fails to quite apologise to her in the console room, and then when they have a quiet chat and break down the barriers between them, form the emotional heart of the episode - and complete the resolution begun above.
And, of course, there's still one character I haven't mentioned.
I'm a fan of Firefly as well as Who. In one of the DVD extras Joss Whedon talks about the tenth character of his ensemble cast, a character called Serenity; and we have someone similar here. She has a name, although at this stage she is generally referred to as "the ship," and we learn quite a bit about her in this episode. Forget the guff about the fast return switch - it's just an (admittedly unconvincing) article of technobabble which provides the excuse to throw the crew into peril, and it's not what the story is interested in. No, I'm talking about the nature of the ship as a living, thinking being, albeit one that is far more alien than Thals or Daleks (or, indeed, anything they'll meet this season). This revelation echoes down through the show, along with some of the details. The energy beneath the central column and her telepathy and intelligence, for instance, play an important part in the revived series. The events of Boom Town and The Parting of the Ways have their roots here; and there's another, more recent story that very obviously owes a lot to the groundwork laid down here, in only the third serial of the show. We can never see the ship in quite the same way again.
Oh, and we also discover that she has a very extensive wardrobe, which comes in handy in later years.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 15th February 1964
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 31
Appreciation Index: 60
Rating:
7/10
Next Time:
Serial C as a whole, and a quick look back on the first thirteen.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Episode 12: The Edge of Destruction
I mentioned a few entries ago that the cast needed a break, or failing that a change. I knew, of course, that this was going to be as close as they got: the strangest story of the first season. This also was the cheapeast story ever made, costing barely more than a typical single episode; and the script was apparently written in two days by the script editor, David Whitaker. So, does the rush and the lack of money show?
It all starts off very well with possibly the best mood-setting music so far, ending on a simple repeating two-note theme that fades out just as Susan's headache fades for the first time and just before it becomes annoying. Richard Martin is back directing again but it seems that he's got some of his energy and creativity back since his dreadful previous episode. There are some interesting camera angles with the picture very slightly off-kilter, and quite a few shots of two people at different depths so that one is always out of focus. This all helps to maintain the dreamlike feel of the episode.
The regulars have to make most of the running, though. With no guests and no monsters there's only them and their interactions to tell the story. They each begin acting somewhat out of character - or rather, some aspect of their character has been taken to an extreme. Like the movie versions, they have become cartoon-like - particularly Susan the ultimate stressed screamer and Ian the catatonically calm stoic - but here it's a deliberately bad cartoon. The actors had differing opinions of this, with Ford complaining and Hill enjoying herself, but then Barbara the concerned carer wasn't really so different.
Speaking of the movie, I laughed at the scene here with Ian approaching the ship's doors only to have them shut in his face - not because it was funny in itself (it wasn't) but because I was struck by the similarities with the other Ian trying to get into the Dalek city. I also found I didn't mind the screaming women this time around, as it fitted with the stagelike exaggerated dialogue and delivery.
Overall I liked the consistently strange atmosphere in this episode. The melting clocks were a low point simply because I couldn't see them clearly enough but Ian's reaction to his watch drew me quickly back in. There were some good speeches too, the standout being Barbara ranting at the Doctor. And despite the scolding Verity Lambert and David Whitaker (quite rightly) faced for the scenes with Susan and the scissors they worked for me, heightening the tension. There are a lot of nice little touches too, including showing us the crew's beds (even if they do look uncomfortable) and the mention of past adventures - with one occurring before the series started. That single line has been spun into a whole new production, the Big Finish audio Quinnis, which I'll hopefully get to hear and write about sometime.
All this - combined with a personal fascination with stories that question what is real - earns this episode my second-highest rating to date. Bravo!
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 8th February 1964
Viewers: 10.4 million
Chart Position: 21
Appreciation Index: 61
Rating:
9/10.
Next Time:
The Brink of Disaster.
It all starts off very well with possibly the best mood-setting music so far, ending on a simple repeating two-note theme that fades out just as Susan's headache fades for the first time and just before it becomes annoying. Richard Martin is back directing again but it seems that he's got some of his energy and creativity back since his dreadful previous episode. There are some interesting camera angles with the picture very slightly off-kilter, and quite a few shots of two people at different depths so that one is always out of focus. This all helps to maintain the dreamlike feel of the episode.
The regulars have to make most of the running, though. With no guests and no monsters there's only them and their interactions to tell the story. They each begin acting somewhat out of character - or rather, some aspect of their character has been taken to an extreme. Like the movie versions, they have become cartoon-like - particularly Susan the ultimate stressed screamer and Ian the catatonically calm stoic - but here it's a deliberately bad cartoon. The actors had differing opinions of this, with Ford complaining and Hill enjoying herself, but then Barbara the concerned carer wasn't really so different.
Speaking of the movie, I laughed at the scene here with Ian approaching the ship's doors only to have them shut in his face - not because it was funny in itself (it wasn't) but because I was struck by the similarities with the other Ian trying to get into the Dalek city. I also found I didn't mind the screaming women this time around, as it fitted with the stagelike exaggerated dialogue and delivery.
Overall I liked the consistently strange atmosphere in this episode. The melting clocks were a low point simply because I couldn't see them clearly enough but Ian's reaction to his watch drew me quickly back in. There were some good speeches too, the standout being Barbara ranting at the Doctor. And despite the scolding Verity Lambert and David Whitaker (quite rightly) faced for the scenes with Susan and the scissors they worked for me, heightening the tension. There are a lot of nice little touches too, including showing us the crew's beds (even if they do look uncomfortable) and the mention of past adventures - with one occurring before the series started. That single line has been spun into a whole new production, the Big Finish audio Quinnis, which I'll hopefully get to hear and write about sometime.
All this - combined with a personal fascination with stories that question what is real - earns this episode my second-highest rating to date. Bravo!
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 8th February 1964
Viewers: 10.4 million
Chart Position: 21
Appreciation Index: 61
Rating:
9/10.
Next Time:
The Brink of Disaster.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Dr Who and the Daleks
I started watching Doctor Who during season 5, but got scared during Fury from the Deep and stopped again for a while. I was three at the time. The significance of this is that I missed the last appearance of the Daleks in the show, at the end of season 4, and its repeat just after season 5 finished. And this really was supposed to be their final appearance, too, because Terry Nation was taking them away to work on a spin-off show. The plan never came to pass; and after a five year gap they returned to the BBC in Day of the Daleks, which I watched on original broadcast. In between (I think), I got to see Dr Who and the Daleks. Released in 1965, with Dalekmania running rampant, I watched this technicolor production much later on a small black and white TV. I already knew the story a bit because a series of (again black and white) photos had been published in the pages of The Dalek World, a treasured book that I read and re-read until it finally disintegrated. I therefore had no idea that it wasn't a black and white film (unlike Fireball XL5, which I remember watching in colour even though it was actually made in black and white). I loved it, and when I got to see the sequel soon after I loved that one even more. Now I'm watching it again in colour, as an adult, having finally seen the Hartnell version.
Film is a surprisingly different medium from 60s serial TV, with different needs and constraints. You don't have as much space for character introduction and development; you've got less time for events to unfold; and you can assume even less about what the audience already knows. On the other hand, you have a bigger budget and don't have to worry about cliffhangers, recaps, or the pacing being messed about by week-long gaps. You're also making it for a bigger screen with better sound and for a different audience, all of which may or may not be advantageous.
This film has to do some work at the start to introduce Dr Who and his companions. This section does double duty, also setting the tone, which is broad comedy - and right away we have to throw out the idea that this is a straight adaptation. Anybody watching it for that is doomed to disappointment.
The Doctor is a doddering old inventor, Ian a pratfalling klutz, Barbara - well, there's nothing much to this Barbara, who seems to be here mostly so that we can admire her hairdo. These are cartoon characters who wouldn't look out of place in the days of Hollywood silent comedies. Only Susy breaks the pattern. She's obviously meant to be The Plucky Kid, but Roberta Tovey's performance - playing it straight, and so giving some weight to the comedy - makes her stand out. Apparently one of Peter Cushing's conditions for returning in a sequel was that they got Tovey on board too. The good thing about this, watching it as a child, was that the child identification figure was essentially the focus...
...At least among the humans. The real focus, of course, is on the Daleks. And don't they look good! This is how I remember Daleks (although my memory added slats) - bright, primary colours, but the "proper" shape (unlike Steven Moffatt's bustle-wearing reinvention) - and there really are lots of them rather than a few supported by cardboard cutouts.
This is where the motion-picture budget really helps. The pull-back shot to reveal the massed Daleks is great, and it works just as well revealing the petrified jungle after Tardis arrives and in the shots of massed Thals outside the city. "Massed" is a good word to reuse; everything about this feels BIG. It's what makes the cartoon characters work, and what Gordon Flemying directs best. His smaller-scale and character shots are nowhere near as good as Barry and Martin's usual efforts (though he never sinks to the depths of The Expedition or The Rescue either), and away from the set-piece "money shots" it feels a little flat. Fortunately the film concentrates on the spectacle that it does best.
Not that they always make full use of the budget. The city corridors are, quite frankly, rubbish compared to the originals, and the entrance to the swamp is less effective too. I'm not even going to mention the Romans at the end. Still, these are outweighed by scenes like the final battle, which is much better choreographed and so more exciting, and by details like the dry-ice Dalek guns and claws (on some, so we get a mix of the familiar and the original intended look). The sound is much better, too, and we even get repeated themes which remind me of the new series. Though the theme music doesn't really do it for me like the TV version, and the Dalek voices are. Too. Full. Of. Pauses.
That's a lot said about the production and I do want to include a little about the writing. The film has roughly half the time of the TV serial to tell its story, and they decided to keep pretty much the same plot. Not needing recaps helps, of course, and the pace is a bit faster throughout; but they still needed to cut some stuff, and this was mostly the quieter, character moments. It's noticeable how much Barbara suffers from this. In the original she doesn't actively contribute much to the action but it's not obvious because she's heavily involved in the interactions between characters, so she still has a part to play in the story - and all of this is completely cut from the film. It's no wonder she comes across as window-dressing when apart from slapping some goo on a Dalek eyestalk and finding a door switch her main contribution is to keep Ian's testosterone levels up.
The other script changes are to do with tone. Going along with the simplified characters and broader comedy we have fewer scares and less "bad stuff" happening - for instance, Antodus surviving his fall. And this is because the film isn't about the people, really. Temmosus' death was all we needed to cement the feeling of danger; another (and particularly one not directly caused by the Daleks) would have just been a distraction from the main thrust of the film, which is spectacle - and in particular the threat of the Daleks.
Rating:
Mine: 6/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 62.91%, not included but just behind 144th.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.99, 149th out of 211.
As you can tell, I find the movie a bit of a mixed bag. Nostalgia gives it a boost, but it still only reaches the averaged episodic score for the TV version.
Next Time:
Back on track with The Edge of Destruction.
Film is a surprisingly different medium from 60s serial TV, with different needs and constraints. You don't have as much space for character introduction and development; you've got less time for events to unfold; and you can assume even less about what the audience already knows. On the other hand, you have a bigger budget and don't have to worry about cliffhangers, recaps, or the pacing being messed about by week-long gaps. You're also making it for a bigger screen with better sound and for a different audience, all of which may or may not be advantageous.
This film has to do some work at the start to introduce Dr Who and his companions. This section does double duty, also setting the tone, which is broad comedy - and right away we have to throw out the idea that this is a straight adaptation. Anybody watching it for that is doomed to disappointment.
The Doctor is a doddering old inventor, Ian a pratfalling klutz, Barbara - well, there's nothing much to this Barbara, who seems to be here mostly so that we can admire her hairdo. These are cartoon characters who wouldn't look out of place in the days of Hollywood silent comedies. Only Susy breaks the pattern. She's obviously meant to be The Plucky Kid, but Roberta Tovey's performance - playing it straight, and so giving some weight to the comedy - makes her stand out. Apparently one of Peter Cushing's conditions for returning in a sequel was that they got Tovey on board too. The good thing about this, watching it as a child, was that the child identification figure was essentially the focus...
...At least among the humans. The real focus, of course, is on the Daleks. And don't they look good! This is how I remember Daleks (although my memory added slats) - bright, primary colours, but the "proper" shape (unlike Steven Moffatt's bustle-wearing reinvention) - and there really are lots of them rather than a few supported by cardboard cutouts.
This is where the motion-picture budget really helps. The pull-back shot to reveal the massed Daleks is great, and it works just as well revealing the petrified jungle after Tardis arrives and in the shots of massed Thals outside the city. "Massed" is a good word to reuse; everything about this feels BIG. It's what makes the cartoon characters work, and what Gordon Flemying directs best. His smaller-scale and character shots are nowhere near as good as Barry and Martin's usual efforts (though he never sinks to the depths of The Expedition or The Rescue either), and away from the set-piece "money shots" it feels a little flat. Fortunately the film concentrates on the spectacle that it does best.
Not that they always make full use of the budget. The city corridors are, quite frankly, rubbish compared to the originals, and the entrance to the swamp is less effective too. I'm not even going to mention the Romans at the end. Still, these are outweighed by scenes like the final battle, which is much better choreographed and so more exciting, and by details like the dry-ice Dalek guns and claws (on some, so we get a mix of the familiar and the original intended look). The sound is much better, too, and we even get repeated themes which remind me of the new series. Though the theme music doesn't really do it for me like the TV version, and the Dalek voices are. Too. Full. Of. Pauses.
That's a lot said about the production and I do want to include a little about the writing. The film has roughly half the time of the TV serial to tell its story, and they decided to keep pretty much the same plot. Not needing recaps helps, of course, and the pace is a bit faster throughout; but they still needed to cut some stuff, and this was mostly the quieter, character moments. It's noticeable how much Barbara suffers from this. In the original she doesn't actively contribute much to the action but it's not obvious because she's heavily involved in the interactions between characters, so she still has a part to play in the story - and all of this is completely cut from the film. It's no wonder she comes across as window-dressing when apart from slapping some goo on a Dalek eyestalk and finding a door switch her main contribution is to keep Ian's testosterone levels up.
The other script changes are to do with tone. Going along with the simplified characters and broader comedy we have fewer scares and less "bad stuff" happening - for instance, Antodus surviving his fall. And this is because the film isn't about the people, really. Temmosus' death was all we needed to cement the feeling of danger; another (and particularly one not directly caused by the Daleks) would have just been a distraction from the main thrust of the film, which is spectacle - and in particular the threat of the Daleks.
Rating:
Mine: 6/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 62.91%, not included but just behind 144th.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.99, 149th out of 211.
As you can tell, I find the movie a bit of a mixed bag. Nostalgia gives it a boost, but it still only reaches the averaged episodic score for the TV version.
Next Time:
Back on track with The Edge of Destruction.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Serial B: The Mutants? The Daleks!
I mentioned at the end of serial A that story names are controversial for this period of the show and said I'd go into more detail here. Now it comes to it, though, I'm not inspired; but I guess I'd better say a little.
For stories up to and including serial Z - The Gunfighters - there was no overall on-screen story title. This didn't matter at all at the time, of course, but when people started looking at the history of the program they wanted some way of referring to stories as a whole. Many production names were unknown, and in 1973 the Radio Times Tenth Anniversary Special decided to refer to each serial by the name of its first episode. Sometimes these were appropriate and stuck, sometimes not.
This story is a particularly awkward case. The Dead Planet doesn't really do it justice, The Survivors and Beyond the Sun were abandoned early, and the name under which it was commissioned - The Mutants - was reused for a 1972 Jon Pertwee story and is therefore confusing. It wasn't until 1980 that a new contender arrived: The Daleks. This came from the movie and book adaptations and had no historical link to the story, but was certainly fitting. Some sources such as Doctor Who Magazine stick to the original name, but most use The Daleks.
Again I've covered pretty much everything I want to say about the story in the individual episode entries, so instead I'll talk about a new phenomenon - the one that led to that 1980 name:
An Expanding Universe, Part 1: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks!
Since I started writing this blog I've bought two books, two audio plays and a back-issue of a magazine dedicated to the program, all of which feature William Hartnell's Doctor. I've also ordered some more books from the library and downloaded a free audio short story read by William Russell. If I wanted there's any number of reference works I could consult (and for the next serial I will be referring to another issue of Doctor Who Magazine, which has a "Fact of Fiction" feature giving some of the background details).
We take all this for granted now, but back in 1963 it was just a TV program. The popularity of the Daleks opened up the possibility of more and just about the earliest spin-off product, published less than a year after the show began, was David Whitaker's novelisation of the second story: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. I'm not going to review it because I've not read it - in fact I've only read three of the novelisations in total, and with a limited budget I'm going to focus on the original novels - but it was part of a trickle that became a flood in 1965 (if you'll forgive the cliché). I'm just focusing on stories for this blog, but there are now about 175 of the blighters set in the First Doctor's timeline (only 29 of which were on TV); far more than I'll ever be able to experience, let alone review. And that doesn't include stories about the Daleks from this era that don't feature the Doctor.
Some of the stories are quite odd. Take, for example, Playtime (from Doctor Who Magazine, 1992). I choose this because (a) I've read it, and (b) it's set at the same time as the very first episode of the TV series. In it a young girl called Sarah Jane Smith visits a certain junkyard, playing games and dreaming of adventure. That's it. The whole point of the story is to enjoy the connections with two eras of the program (though she did meet the First Doctor eventually, in yet another era). I enjoyed it, in a "short diversion" sort of way, but it's not something that would have made sense to viewers in the 60s or 70s. In 1964 that level of cross-referencing is far in the future; but with The Daleks, the change from "TV program" to "franchise" has already begun.
Rating:
My opinion of this story has changed significantly watching it episode-by-episode, so I'm going to give my original rating and also take an average of the episode scores so I can compare the two. You can guess the result:
Single Sitting: 3.5/10.
Episodic: 6/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 80.51%, 37th.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 7.82, 50th out of 211.
I still rate it lower than most people; I wonder if that's because I'm not taking into account its historical significance and most of them are? Or that anything with Daleks in will be popular? Then again, it could simply be that my tastes are different when it comes to this story (and, as we shall see, serial C).
Next Time:
Another side step, as we move into glorious technicolor (and 1965) for Dr Who and the Daleks!
For stories up to and including serial Z - The Gunfighters - there was no overall on-screen story title. This didn't matter at all at the time, of course, but when people started looking at the history of the program they wanted some way of referring to stories as a whole. Many production names were unknown, and in 1973 the Radio Times Tenth Anniversary Special decided to refer to each serial by the name of its first episode. Sometimes these were appropriate and stuck, sometimes not.
This story is a particularly awkward case. The Dead Planet doesn't really do it justice, The Survivors and Beyond the Sun were abandoned early, and the name under which it was commissioned - The Mutants - was reused for a 1972 Jon Pertwee story and is therefore confusing. It wasn't until 1980 that a new contender arrived: The Daleks. This came from the movie and book adaptations and had no historical link to the story, but was certainly fitting. Some sources such as Doctor Who Magazine stick to the original name, but most use The Daleks.
Again I've covered pretty much everything I want to say about the story in the individual episode entries, so instead I'll talk about a new phenomenon - the one that led to that 1980 name:
An Expanding Universe, Part 1: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks!
Since I started writing this blog I've bought two books, two audio plays and a back-issue of a magazine dedicated to the program, all of which feature William Hartnell's Doctor. I've also ordered some more books from the library and downloaded a free audio short story read by William Russell. If I wanted there's any number of reference works I could consult (and for the next serial I will be referring to another issue of Doctor Who Magazine, which has a "Fact of Fiction" feature giving some of the background details).
We take all this for granted now, but back in 1963 it was just a TV program. The popularity of the Daleks opened up the possibility of more and just about the earliest spin-off product, published less than a year after the show began, was David Whitaker's novelisation of the second story: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. I'm not going to review it because I've not read it - in fact I've only read three of the novelisations in total, and with a limited budget I'm going to focus on the original novels - but it was part of a trickle that became a flood in 1965 (if you'll forgive the cliché). I'm just focusing on stories for this blog, but there are now about 175 of the blighters set in the First Doctor's timeline (only 29 of which were on TV); far more than I'll ever be able to experience, let alone review. And that doesn't include stories about the Daleks from this era that don't feature the Doctor.
Some of the stories are quite odd. Take, for example, Playtime (from Doctor Who Magazine, 1992). I choose this because (a) I've read it, and (b) it's set at the same time as the very first episode of the TV series. In it a young girl called Sarah Jane Smith visits a certain junkyard, playing games and dreaming of adventure. That's it. The whole point of the story is to enjoy the connections with two eras of the program (though she did meet the First Doctor eventually, in yet another era). I enjoyed it, in a "short diversion" sort of way, but it's not something that would have made sense to viewers in the 60s or 70s. In 1964 that level of cross-referencing is far in the future; but with The Daleks, the change from "TV program" to "franchise" has already begun.
Rating:
My opinion of this story has changed significantly watching it episode-by-episode, so I'm going to give my original rating and also take an average of the episode scores so I can compare the two. You can guess the result:
Single Sitting: 3.5/10.
Episodic: 6/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 80.51%, 37th.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 7.82, 50th out of 211.
I still rate it lower than most people; I wonder if that's because I'm not taking into account its historical significance and most of them are? Or that anything with Daleks in will be popular? Then again, it could simply be that my tastes are different when it comes to this story (and, as we shall see, serial C).
Next Time:
Another side step, as we move into glorious technicolor (and 1965) for Dr Who and the Daleks!
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Episode 11: The Rescue
Darn. I was really hoping to be positive about this episode after last time's change of heart, but it's more on a par with The Expedition. Everything about it feels tired. There's no energy from the actors, the choreography of the final battle is lacklustre, the direction's full of static shots (and sometimes when the camera moves the shot doesn't quite come off anyway), we're offered blind, deaf Daleks who don't notice people in plain sight or hear a yell of "get back!" from a few feet away... No wonder it's the shortest episode so far, less than 22½ minutes. I certainly wouldn't have wanted any more of it.
To be honest, everyone probably was tired at this point - it's notable that the worst episode from each director in this story is his last, and the regulars have been working for three months with only a week off for Christmas. What everyone needs (if they can't get a holiday) is a change, perhaps something wild and wacky so they can stretch different muscles. But more on that in a few entries' time.
Unfortunately, understanding the pressures the production team were under doesn't actually make this any more enjoyable. There's some wooden acting from a couple of Thals that I was less tolerant of this time around, simply because there was too little good stuff for me to cut it any slack.
Still, at least there was some good stuff. I was amused by the comment about all the corridors looking the same, and some of the best shots were of corridor scenes. The Doctor being blasé about the fluid link, together with Ian's reaction, was a great moment. In fact, the whole section after the climactic battle was probably my favourite part of the episode - we also had the revelation that the Doctor was a pioneer among his own people (a claim to take with a pinch of salt given his past form) and the natural conclusion to Barbara's "holiday romance" with Ganatus, something I meant to mention last time and which was handled in a much more believable fashion during these last few episodes than similar incidents later in the show. Then it's back to the ship for some more falling about acting in a console room that seems curiously smaller than hithertofore and yon.
And that's all I want to say about this episode, which gives me an opportunity to include a topic I've had hanging around for some time:
Monsters!, Part 3: Origin of the Daleks
I mentioned a while back that 1963-4 was the cusp of a generational shift between the births of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. There's another shift going on at the same time. The Second World War ended 18 years ago, which means that up to now all adults had been alive during the war, and a year or two earlier they would all have had memories of it; Terry Nation certainly did. This is not true of the current teens, whose earliest memories will be from the postwar period. Youth culture is about to make the jump from the quieter rebellion of the 1950s to the full-blown "60s experience;" but it is not yet this generation that is running the show.
I hesitate to bring up 60s culture or politics because I don't want this blog to turn into an inferior copy of Elizabeth Sandifer's, but I can't really talk about the origin of the Daleks without it. Everyone working on the show has that wartime background, and is living at the height of the Cold War (along with the audience). It's only a year or so since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of nuclear destruction is a part of everyone's lives, so there's a lot of speculation about what would happen in the aftermath of such an event.
The Daleks takes these two experiences - one from the past, one a current fear - and blends them into something designed to hit the buttons of the entire audience, children and adults. Nation succeeds beyond all expectation; the result weathers uneven production to produce something iconic, and in the process ensures the future of Doctor Who.
Of course, he didn't do this alone. Without Raymond Cusick's visual design, those voices, and even the other actors going all-out to sell their terror, I doubt the Daleks would have been such a hit; and it's handy that Christopher Barry was on form for their initial introduction. Still, hit they were, and the BBC, unprepared at first, went with the flow. Before the story had even finished airing, Walter Tuckwell had struck up a deal with for merchandising rights (despite the BBC declaring the Daleks to be a one-off monster in a limited-lifespan series).
Collaborative development is a funny thing. A couple of months before the Cuban Missile Crisis a new comic book hero appeared across the pond: Spider-Man. Most people consider him to have been created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, but Lee's personal opinion is that while Ditko undoubtedly did a lot to make the character a success, Lee was sole creator. Over here, Nation received the bulk of the credit for the Daleks. In particular, he (along with his agent and the BBC) took a cut of all merchandising, while Cusick received nothing. Sometimes there's no justice.
Before I go I'd like to sum up my feelings about The Rescue. Last time I raised the spectre of Warriors of the Deep when talking about lighting, and (again by chance) the final words of that story - spoken by the Doctor and used by countless fans and documentary-makers to express their opinion of that ill-fated production - are a distant echo of something Ganatus says here after the battle:
"If only there'd been some other way."
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 1st February 1964
Viewers: 10.4 million
Chart Position: 25
Appreciation Index: 65
Rating:
3/10.
Next Time:
A look at the story as a whole... whatever it's called.
To be honest, everyone probably was tired at this point - it's notable that the worst episode from each director in this story is his last, and the regulars have been working for three months with only a week off for Christmas. What everyone needs (if they can't get a holiday) is a change, perhaps something wild and wacky so they can stretch different muscles. But more on that in a few entries' time.
Unfortunately, understanding the pressures the production team were under doesn't actually make this any more enjoyable. There's some wooden acting from a couple of Thals that I was less tolerant of this time around, simply because there was too little good stuff for me to cut it any slack.
Still, at least there was some good stuff. I was amused by the comment about all the corridors looking the same, and some of the best shots were of corridor scenes. The Doctor being blasé about the fluid link, together with Ian's reaction, was a great moment. In fact, the whole section after the climactic battle was probably my favourite part of the episode - we also had the revelation that the Doctor was a pioneer among his own people (a claim to take with a pinch of salt given his past form) and the natural conclusion to Barbara's "holiday romance" with Ganatus, something I meant to mention last time and which was handled in a much more believable fashion during these last few episodes than similar incidents later in the show. Then it's back to the ship for some more falling about acting in a console room that seems curiously smaller than hithertofore and yon.
And that's all I want to say about this episode, which gives me an opportunity to include a topic I've had hanging around for some time:
Monsters!, Part 3: Origin of the Daleks
I mentioned a while back that 1963-4 was the cusp of a generational shift between the births of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. There's another shift going on at the same time. The Second World War ended 18 years ago, which means that up to now all adults had been alive during the war, and a year or two earlier they would all have had memories of it; Terry Nation certainly did. This is not true of the current teens, whose earliest memories will be from the postwar period. Youth culture is about to make the jump from the quieter rebellion of the 1950s to the full-blown "60s experience;" but it is not yet this generation that is running the show.
I hesitate to bring up 60s culture or politics because I don't want this blog to turn into an inferior copy of Elizabeth Sandifer's, but I can't really talk about the origin of the Daleks without it. Everyone working on the show has that wartime background, and is living at the height of the Cold War (along with the audience). It's only a year or so since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of nuclear destruction is a part of everyone's lives, so there's a lot of speculation about what would happen in the aftermath of such an event.
The Daleks takes these two experiences - one from the past, one a current fear - and blends them into something designed to hit the buttons of the entire audience, children and adults. Nation succeeds beyond all expectation; the result weathers uneven production to produce something iconic, and in the process ensures the future of Doctor Who.
Of course, he didn't do this alone. Without Raymond Cusick's visual design, those voices, and even the other actors going all-out to sell their terror, I doubt the Daleks would have been such a hit; and it's handy that Christopher Barry was on form for their initial introduction. Still, hit they were, and the BBC, unprepared at first, went with the flow. Before the story had even finished airing, Walter Tuckwell had struck up a deal with for merchandising rights (despite the BBC declaring the Daleks to be a one-off monster in a limited-lifespan series).
Collaborative development is a funny thing. A couple of months before the Cuban Missile Crisis a new comic book hero appeared across the pond: Spider-Man. Most people consider him to have been created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, but Lee's personal opinion is that while Ditko undoubtedly did a lot to make the character a success, Lee was sole creator. Over here, Nation received the bulk of the credit for the Daleks. In particular, he (along with his agent and the BBC) took a cut of all merchandising, while Cusick received nothing. Sometimes there's no justice.
Before I go I'd like to sum up my feelings about The Rescue. Last time I raised the spectre of Warriors of the Deep when talking about lighting, and (again by chance) the final words of that story - spoken by the Doctor and used by countless fans and documentary-makers to express their opinion of that ill-fated production - are a distant echo of something Ganatus says here after the battle:
"If only there'd been some other way."
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 1st February 1964
Viewers: 10.4 million
Chart Position: 25
Appreciation Index: 65
Rating:
3/10.
Next Time:
A look at the story as a whole... whatever it's called.
Monday, 4 July 2011
Episode 10: The Ordeal
Now we really are on the second episode directed by Richard Martin. (I checked on Wikipedia beforehand, which is sort of like cheating, but after last week's mess I just wanted to know. So nyer.) It certainly starts off better with a quick resolution to the journey through the swamp - and the shot of water bags swirling away, while held slightly too long, is the most effective since the expedition's initial steps into the mire. After that, the action divides into the journey through the caves and the Doctor's infiltration of the city. Martin contrasts the two nicely with the former underlit and the latter bright, a technique I found effective.
In the early 80s, the show was (with some honourable exceptions) consistently overlit. There's a story that this was to stop the grannies worrying about something being wrong with their TV sets; quite apart from being insulting to elders this makes little sense, so I don't know if it's true or not. If it is true, either the grannies of the 1960s were more intelligent or else the picture quality on the old 405-line sets was so poor that nobody worried about it anyway.
My mum and dad had got a TV before I was born, but were not among the first by whom the new is tried. Like many in Britain, a good chunk of Jon Pertwee's run was in Black and White for our family. I used to love the TV at my granny's house in Coventry - there was certainly nothing suspect about that one - which was much better than ours. (I also loved discovering Fireball XL5, which wasn't broadcast in our ITV region.) I say "ours," but like a lot of people we didn't own a TV - we rented it. This has several advantages, not least being a predictable outlay which covered repairs and replacement. As time went on it got more expensive and the price of consumer electronics (including TVs) plummeted, until it ceased to be viable. It's something I'm sorry to see go, though. I'm currently writing these reviews on paper because my computer's died and I need to sort out another - which will set me back at least £350, not good in our current circumstances. A rental agreement would have cost as much, but it feels better when spread out. A bit like the episodes of this story, in fact, to get back on topic.
So, as I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, we have the highly atmospheric cave sequences where it's really hard to see people - but it's still made very clear what's going on through dialogue and the actor's movements. Contrasted with this we have the scenes of the Doctor and Susan, which feel blander but work because that's not all there is, unlike (say) Warriors of the Deep. Throughout, Martin mixes long shots and closeups to provide variety. So, it's thumbs up from me for the directing.
The acting is competent throughout, though nothing really stands out. That leaves the plot, and I have mostly positive things to say about this too. We get another scene with Susan using her brains as well as more realistic scenes of people figuring things out. This last feature also provides my main criticism of the script, though, since there's not enough happening to support this level of 'um'ing and 'er'ing and the pace suffers. Still, I'm mostly satisfied and don't want to end on a negative note so I'll point out one little piece of realism that enhances the scene, which is Ian aborting his first attempt at a jump across the chasm. That hesitation really enhances the action.
What is at the back of my mind as I'm heaping praise on this episode is that when I watched the story all together - or at least in two sittings on consecutive days - I considered it a low point. It lived up to its name, in fact, feeling like an ordeal to watch; just a lot of padding following on from the padding of The Expedition until my brain started running out of my ears. I honestly couldn't notice its good points because the whole thing felt so tedious and I just wanted to get to the end of the story. None of which is true when I space it out over a couple of weeks. I've seen this story three times before, the last two for the benefit of my son, but I've never been able to appreciate it like this. I'm actually looking forward to the next episode for its own sake, rather than simply because it's the last.
To end, I'll just tip my cap to Terry Nation for making this cliffhanger exactly what it says on the tin...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 25th January 1964
Viewers: 10.4 million
Chart Position: 29
Appreciation Index: 63
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
The Rescue.
In the early 80s, the show was (with some honourable exceptions) consistently overlit. There's a story that this was to stop the grannies worrying about something being wrong with their TV sets; quite apart from being insulting to elders this makes little sense, so I don't know if it's true or not. If it is true, either the grannies of the 1960s were more intelligent or else the picture quality on the old 405-line sets was so poor that nobody worried about it anyway.
My mum and dad had got a TV before I was born, but were not among the first by whom the new is tried. Like many in Britain, a good chunk of Jon Pertwee's run was in Black and White for our family. I used to love the TV at my granny's house in Coventry - there was certainly nothing suspect about that one - which was much better than ours. (I also loved discovering Fireball XL5, which wasn't broadcast in our ITV region.) I say "ours," but like a lot of people we didn't own a TV - we rented it. This has several advantages, not least being a predictable outlay which covered repairs and replacement. As time went on it got more expensive and the price of consumer electronics (including TVs) plummeted, until it ceased to be viable. It's something I'm sorry to see go, though. I'm currently writing these reviews on paper because my computer's died and I need to sort out another - which will set me back at least £350, not good in our current circumstances. A rental agreement would have cost as much, but it feels better when spread out. A bit like the episodes of this story, in fact, to get back on topic.
So, as I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, we have the highly atmospheric cave sequences where it's really hard to see people - but it's still made very clear what's going on through dialogue and the actor's movements. Contrasted with this we have the scenes of the Doctor and Susan, which feel blander but work because that's not all there is, unlike (say) Warriors of the Deep. Throughout, Martin mixes long shots and closeups to provide variety. So, it's thumbs up from me for the directing.
The acting is competent throughout, though nothing really stands out. That leaves the plot, and I have mostly positive things to say about this too. We get another scene with Susan using her brains as well as more realistic scenes of people figuring things out. This last feature also provides my main criticism of the script, though, since there's not enough happening to support this level of 'um'ing and 'er'ing and the pace suffers. Still, I'm mostly satisfied and don't want to end on a negative note so I'll point out one little piece of realism that enhances the scene, which is Ian aborting his first attempt at a jump across the chasm. That hesitation really enhances the action.
What is at the back of my mind as I'm heaping praise on this episode is that when I watched the story all together - or at least in two sittings on consecutive days - I considered it a low point. It lived up to its name, in fact, feeling like an ordeal to watch; just a lot of padding following on from the padding of The Expedition until my brain started running out of my ears. I honestly couldn't notice its good points because the whole thing felt so tedious and I just wanted to get to the end of the story. None of which is true when I space it out over a couple of weeks. I've seen this story three times before, the last two for the benefit of my son, but I've never been able to appreciate it like this. I'm actually looking forward to the next episode for its own sake, rather than simply because it's the last.
To end, I'll just tip my cap to Terry Nation for making this cliffhanger exactly what it says on the tin...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 25th January 1964
Viewers: 10.4 million
Chart Position: 29
Appreciation Index: 63
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
The Rescue.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Episode 9: The Expedition
After the false end last time, this episode needs to set the plot in motion again - and while the writing does so, it is sabotaged by the weakest production so far.
Terry Nation doesn't get off the hook completely, but he only makes two missteps. It's unfortunate that these are the beginning and end. The problem with the conclusion is that the cliffhanger isn't. I said last time that Nation was writing a serial, which means he should have got this right; but Barbara and the others in the swamp are under no more threat at the end than they have been for the last ten minutes, and the death of a Thal was so well telegraphed that my reaction when he died was, "finally!" - a release of tension rather than a build up. They have also just spotted the way out of the swamp, so there's nothing new and the threat is reduced.
The problem with the opening shot of Daleks is to do with tone. This scene is supposed to bring new viewers up to speed and convince us that the travellers are still under threat from the Daleks, but it feels more like one Dalek showing holiday snaps to the other. "And here's a view of our ho-tel. You can't see it clear-ly be-cause Zeg got in the way, but it was quite com-fy rea-lly. I've still got a sou-ven-ir bar of soap if you want to see it." Pictures at an Exposition worked fine for ELP, but it's not so good here.
Still, Nation gets a lot right. Even that scene has the Daleks assuming the Thals will attack because it's what Daleks would do, which is a nice touch. The initial discussions in the Thal camp work very well, with some great moments such as the Doctor assuming he will lead and that his brains will triumph. The "Chesterton" discussion is fun, and makes me wonder whether it was written in response to the first Billy-fluff or whether that original wasn't a mistake after all. Ian taking such a strong moral stance while the usually more empathetic Barbara sides with the Doctor works surprisingly well, and though the show's anti-pacifist stance is obvious the Thals were at least given rational arguments rather than straw men. Even the swamp scenes probably sounded good on paper.
Which brings us back to the problems with the production, and particularly the direction. Given Richard Martin's reputation I wondered if this was the episode that put people off, but (as I found out at the end) it's one of Christopher Barry's. Barry had the longer history with Who, directing such popular stories as The Daemons and The Brain of Morbius, but there's little promise on show here. Again there are some moments that buck the trend - the low shots in the early swamp scenes are good, and there are some nice transitions - but mostly it's a mixture of the too wildly experimental and the bland, with some absolute clangers. The worst of these is shooting the cardboard cutout Daleks (a) low so we can see their stands, and then (b) at an angle so we can see they are flat! The experimental includes a Dalek-eye viewpoint that is just weird (unlike the extremely effective version used 42 years later in Dalek), some camera moves that were beyond the capability of the cameraman, and some of the "dangers of the swamp" shots (though others, like the creature lifting itself up and revealing two eyes, are effective). The bland includes the uninvolving shots of a dying Dalek, which is not helped by the humourous vocal performance.
So, a bit of a letdown for me - though not for the original audience, since it maintains the AI of 63 reached last week for the first time since the opening episode, when the audience was less than half its current level.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 18th January 1964
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 27
Appreciation Index: 63
Rating:
2/10
Next Time:
The Ordeal.
Terry Nation doesn't get off the hook completely, but he only makes two missteps. It's unfortunate that these are the beginning and end. The problem with the conclusion is that the cliffhanger isn't. I said last time that Nation was writing a serial, which means he should have got this right; but Barbara and the others in the swamp are under no more threat at the end than they have been for the last ten minutes, and the death of a Thal was so well telegraphed that my reaction when he died was, "finally!" - a release of tension rather than a build up. They have also just spotted the way out of the swamp, so there's nothing new and the threat is reduced.
The problem with the opening shot of Daleks is to do with tone. This scene is supposed to bring new viewers up to speed and convince us that the travellers are still under threat from the Daleks, but it feels more like one Dalek showing holiday snaps to the other. "And here's a view of our ho-tel. You can't see it clear-ly be-cause Zeg got in the way, but it was quite com-fy rea-lly. I've still got a sou-ven-ir bar of soap if you want to see it." Pictures at an Exposition worked fine for ELP, but it's not so good here.
Still, Nation gets a lot right. Even that scene has the Daleks assuming the Thals will attack because it's what Daleks would do, which is a nice touch. The initial discussions in the Thal camp work very well, with some great moments such as the Doctor assuming he will lead and that his brains will triumph. The "Chesterton" discussion is fun, and makes me wonder whether it was written in response to the first Billy-fluff or whether that original wasn't a mistake after all. Ian taking such a strong moral stance while the usually more empathetic Barbara sides with the Doctor works surprisingly well, and though the show's anti-pacifist stance is obvious the Thals were at least given rational arguments rather than straw men. Even the swamp scenes probably sounded good on paper.
Which brings us back to the problems with the production, and particularly the direction. Given Richard Martin's reputation I wondered if this was the episode that put people off, but (as I found out at the end) it's one of Christopher Barry's. Barry had the longer history with Who, directing such popular stories as The Daemons and The Brain of Morbius, but there's little promise on show here. Again there are some moments that buck the trend - the low shots in the early swamp scenes are good, and there are some nice transitions - but mostly it's a mixture of the too wildly experimental and the bland, with some absolute clangers. The worst of these is shooting the cardboard cutout Daleks (a) low so we can see their stands, and then (b) at an angle so we can see they are flat! The experimental includes a Dalek-eye viewpoint that is just weird (unlike the extremely effective version used 42 years later in Dalek), some camera moves that were beyond the capability of the cameraman, and some of the "dangers of the swamp" shots (though others, like the creature lifting itself up and revealing two eyes, are effective). The bland includes the uninvolving shots of a dying Dalek, which is not helped by the humourous vocal performance.
So, a bit of a letdown for me - though not for the original audience, since it maintains the AI of 63 reached last week for the first time since the opening episode, when the audience was less than half its current level.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 18th January 1964
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 27
Appreciation Index: 63
Rating:
2/10
Next Time:
The Ordeal.
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