Hooray! After a long time I've finally got to an episode with some proper, animated visuals. Not all of them are great, but quality is not really relevant when I'm seeking grist for the reviewer's mill.
Let's start at the very beginning, which is, I'm reliably informed, a very good place to start. The story opens with a rather nice model shot of an island. The camera slowly zooms in on the beach, and we see the TARDIS materialising for the first time. Except that it's very obviously a model. We'll soon see another model shot, of boats arriving at the island, and like the TARDIS the models look considerably worse than the full-size versions. This is almost a metaphor for the episode, which is ambitious but repeatedly let down by small things that ping my disbelief suspenders. Like the falling Voord in a later model shot.
Still, let's not focus entirely on the negative. The set dressing on the first live action scene is good, giving an alien feel to the beach; and actually the idea of focusing on the travellers' faces as they look at the landscape works, even though it is a money-saving rather than an artistic decision. I thought the Voord looked like men in rubber suits, but then the revelation that they actually are wearing full-cover bodysuits to protect them from the acid means they work as well.
The TARDIS crew look tired, and although Jacqueline Hill is her usual quietly reliable self the rest are not on top form. William Hartnell is fluffing from the start (though the line about Ian's shoes is wonderful); the moment when William Russell is standing by the acid pool and obviously just waiting to say his line is his weakest moment of the series so far; and there are moments when Carole Ann Ford appears to have given up and is screaming on autopilot. Similarly, George Coulouris as Arbitan, despite being an acclaimed actor of stage and screen, adds very little to the proceedings.
The scenes outside the tower are mixed. There is a very effective false perspective backdrop that does a good job of making a small set look larger, but the rotating wall trick works about as well as it generally does in live action - which is to say, not well at all. On one occasion you can clearly see a stagehand who is presumably turning the wall: this didn't matter the first time I saw it because I assumed he was one of the inhabitants grabbing the intruder, but this doesn't hold up on subsequent viewings.
OK, I'm going to take a diversion here for a brief mention of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation puppet shows, which were on the rise at the time. Fireball XL5 had finished its original run shortly before Who started and was the last to be made in black and white; Stingray was in production, the first all-colour series ever made in Britain (thanks to Anderson and ITC head Lew Grade, who were both keen to market the shows in the US). Still to come was Anderson's biggest hit, Thunderbirds, amongst others. We'll return to the actual Supermarionation TV programs on other occasions, but for now I want to mention an odd theatrical spin-off: Thunderbirds: FAB. I went to see the show sometime in the 1990s, with my wife-to-be and another very good friend. It's a mime show, with two performers from The Mime Theatre Project acting out all the parts - including the vehicles. It was hugely entertaining, and took the mickey out of some of the tropes of the show in a gentle, affectionate way.
I bring this up because of one of my favourite scenes. Someone is trapped in rising water, which is rapidly getting to the point where they won't be able to breathe. The action cuts away to the other performer, and when it cuts back the water is lower again, and rising fast. Rinse and repeat. This same thing happens with Susan approaching the corner outside the tower when the Voord is waiting for her - we cut away, and when we return she's further away. It made me laugh, and when the regulars find themselves having to act "trapped outside of a glass box" - reversing a mime stereotype - I decided I had to say something.
The direction is very flat to start with, in some cases emphasising rather than hiding the cramped nature of the sets, but loosens up later on with a good mix of angles, closeups and midshots. The alien-sounding music is also effective, and the travel dials - forerunners of the new series' vortex manipulators - are handled well. The videogame "collect the pieces of the sacred MacGuffin" plot is introduced, the death of Arbitan promising trouble at the finishing line, and - while this episode has not been up to much - there are certainly opportunities for adventure over the next few weeks.
There. I did say I'd try not to be entirely negative, didn't I?
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 11th April 1964
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 22
Appreciation Index: 62
Rating:
3/10.
Next Time:
The Velvet Web.
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