I started writing these reviews in mid May 2011; it's now early December, so I've been working on them for nearly seven months, on and off. In that time I've covered not quite ten months of Doctor Who on television, which doesn't sound like a lot; but in fact, I am almost a third of the way through William Hartnell's run. At this rate - even allowing for a higher proportion of audios and books - I'll finish the First Doctor some time in 2013, which is appropriate.
When I began I didn't know whether I'd go beyond the first three serials, though I hoped it would be both possible and worthwhile. A few positive comments combined with continuing underemployment persuaded me that I might as well continue; and since I made that decision I've always intended to write an entry on the whole first season, assuming (perhaps naïvely) that there would be some overall tone that I would be able to pinpoint, some feeling of development that would spring out at me as I watched the stories in order (and in some cases for the first time). After all, it had happened with the first thirteen episodes. Now I get here, though, I find myself lacking any particular insight. Still, there's one thing that a wide variety of children (though admittedly mostly boys) can agree on, whether they're geeks or sports mavens: stats can be fun. So, after a few minor observations, I'll turn the rest of the post over to the numbers.
The first development of note is that the stories become more independent as the season progresses. The first three serials all end on a cliffhanger; thereafter, only The Sensorites does so (and it's a problematic one at that). As a consequence, what begins as a continuous narrative becomes a collection of individual tales. This introduces the possibility of inserting new stories, and so opens up the universe to future embellishment; it also makes it a lot easier to dip in and out of the program.
In general the level of violence in the show drops during the season, though it's still surprisingly graphic for teatime viewing. Towards the end there is also less of a sense that the regulars are in grave peril. Partly this is due to the viewers discovering what sort of a show it is - one that keeps its regular cast of main characters rather than killing them off and bringing in others - but it's also a sign of confidence. The show doesn't have to keep the stakes quite so high to hold its audience any more, it can afford to relax a little and focus more on what is going on around them.
And that's it for my general thoughts. Let's move on to the stats with a round-up of the scores:
Episode Rankings
10/10:
001. An Unearthly Child
9.5/10:
022. The Velvet Web
9/10:
012. The Edge of Destruction
020. Assassin at Peking
028. The Warriors of Death
8/10:
1'. An Unearthly Child Pilot
005. The Dead Planet
008. The Ambush
010. The Ordeal
025. Sentence of Death
027. The Temple of Evil
030. The Day of Darkness
7.5/10:
007. The Escape
017. The Wall of Lies
CC3.7a. Voyage of Discovery
041. A Bargain of Necessity
7/10:
003. The Forest of Fear
006. The Survivors
013. The Brink of Disaster
038. Guests of Madame Guillotine
042. Prisoners of Conciergerie
6.5/10:
014. The Roof of the World
6/10:
004. The Firemaker
016. Five Hundred Eyes
026. The Keys of Marinus
CC3.7b. Dangerous Endeavours
5.5/10:
032. The Unwilling Warriors
033. Hidden Danger
035. Kidnap
037. A Land of Fear
039. A Change of Identity
5/10:
015. The Singing Sands
024. The Snows of Terror
040. The Tyrant of France
4.5/10:
002. The Cave of Skulls
029. The Bride of Sacrifice
036. A Desperate Venture
4/10:
019. Mighty Kublai Khan
023. The Screaming Jungle
034. A Race Against Death
DWMSS92. Playtime
3.5/10:
018. Rider from Shang-Tu
031. Strangers in Space
3/10:
011. The Rescue
021. The Sea of Death
The Forgotten, part 1
2/10:
009. The Expedition
Looking just at the TV episodes now, my average score is 6.2; but the good and bad are not evenly spread. The scores in general get more consistent as time goes on, but without the peaks of the early stories. The biggest upward jump (+6.5) is from The Sea of Death to The Velvet Web; the biggest downward jump (-6) is either just before that, or from The Ambush to The Expedition.
Here are some averages based on different categories. First, early documents divided the stories into forwards (futuristic SF), backwards (historical) and sideways (weird stuff). The original intention was to cycle round these three types; but there were very few sideways stories even in the first season, the only ones being the first episode and Inside the Spaceship.
Sideways: 8.5 including the pilot; 8.7 without it
Backwards (Historical): 6.3
Forwards (SF): 5.7
While this does reflect my liking for the offbeat, it's mostly down to the quality of the stories. Good ol' BBC production values help boost the historicals, too.
We could also look at how episodes fare based on their position within a story:
Opening episodes: 6.7
2nd episodes: 6.8
3rd episodes: 5.7
4th episodes: 6.2
5th episodes: 5.3
6th episodes: 5.9
7th episodes: 6.0
Penultimate episodes: 6.7
Closing episodes: 6.3
Because of differing story lengths it's hard to draw too many conclusions from this, but it can be seen that in general stories start strongly (with the second episode being the high point) and then dip in the middle before ending well, though not quite as well as they began. This is seen more clearly if we ignore the final episode of The Aztecs, since that's the only four-parter: the other 4th episodes average 5.9.
The pattern is clearer if we count the episodes from a particular director within a story, though this time 6th episodes even beat 2nd:
1st episodes: 6.5
2nd episodes: 7.3
3rd episodes: 5.1
4th episodes: 5.3
5th episodes: 6.3
6th episodes: 7.5
Final episodes: 6.0
I believe the "final episode" score is brought down because of the times a director came in to direct a single episode of a story.
Speaking of directors, how do they stack up?
John Crockett: 7.4 (s.d. 1.7)
Richard Martin: 6.9 (s.d. 2.7)
Henric Hirsch: 6.4 (s.d. 1.1)
Waris Hussein: 6.3 (s.d. 2.1)
Christopher Barry: 6.3 (s.d. 2.9)
John Gorrie: 5.9 (s.d. 2.2)
Frank Cox: 5.7 (s.d. 1.3)
Mervyn Pinfield: 4.6 (s.d. 1.0)
I added standard deviations here when I saw who the leaders were. John Crockett takes the very top slot by being (in the main) consistently good, while Richard Martin gets second place since his wild moments of genius outweigh his "what were you thinking?" ones. Of course, I'm ranking the directors based on the episodes they happened to direct, rather than their direction specifically. Which is unfair, but there you go.
I could go on, but while I love a good statistic as much as the next man, dealing with too many can make my brain dribble. And I have one more set to present:
Story Rankings
10/10:
An Unearthly Child only
9/10:
TEL01. Time and Relative
8.5/10:
F. The Aztecs
8/10:
A. 100,000 BC
C. Inside the Spaceship
MA12. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
7/10:
CC3.7 The Transit of Venus
6/10:
B. The Daleks
Dr Who and the Daleks
D. Marco Polo
E. The Keys of Marinus
H. The Reign of Terror
5.5/10:
The Tribe of Gum only
4.5/10:
G. The Sensorites
1/10:
Abridged Marco Polo
Quite by chance I've covered one novella, one novel, one film, one comic, one audio and (briefly) one short story. I'll be reviewing quite a few more books, audios and shorts before we get to the next TV story - which is the last one I can review on first experience until we get to the missing episodes of The Crusades.
Next Time:
I'll be taking another break, before tackling a number of stories squeezed into the supposed gap between seasons. During the break you should get at least one story set before An Unearthly Child - Quinnis - but no guarantees of when. This would be a good opportunity to give some feedback on how this is going - is it still fun to read? Has it got boring? Let me know.
Have a great Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah/Whatever!
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