Surprisingly, this is going to be a three-part Companion Chronicle review, and again I've made up my own episode titles. Do let me know what you think, and feel free to offer your own alternatives!
The framing story here is painted in broad brushstrokes. It's set earlier in the post-Dalek Invasion world than Quinnis - Susan is hiding her lack of ageing from husband David and they are still childless. It does the job, and offers one mystery: who is she talking to?
The early part of the story suffers from one major problem for me: the author, Andy Lane, feels the urge to fill in lots of details about the Doctor and Susan's past. Sometimes this works, but even when it does it feels like it's closing off possibilities for the sake of throwaway lines. For instance, explaining that the Doctor left their homeworld to experience wonders and that Susan was an accidental passenger is fine, but it's not a fact that's central enough to the plot to eliminate the idea of Susan's presence being planned. Similarly, the explanation that the TARDIS is not faulty and their problems are caused because the Doctor doesn't know how to control the craft makes sense - but works better through implication than exposition. And as for Susan having a perfect memory - well I'm sorry, but although it's very good she is exaggerating somewhat. We also learn that she is older than Iananbarbara put together, which may be true chronologically but only goes to show that humans gather life experience quicker; and that the Doctor is no more than an adolescent, which is just plain ridiculous unless he's been artificially aged in an unseen (and unsuspected) pre-series-1 adventure.
Moving swiftly on, the opening of the main story is very 1964. Something mysterious is happening to the TARDIS (which would have worked as a cliffhanger to end the previous episode), and then there is discussion of where they have landed. There are some nice touches here, particularly the Doctor hesitating as part of him wants to leave the teachers behind and continue the journey with just Susan, and his sparring with Ian. The latter, of course, opens up the question of when this story takes place. Unless this is a throwback (like the lead-in to The Reign of Terror), of course; and to be honest there's no better place to put it than here.
At this point I must break off to mention the soundscape. The jungle sounds and background music are very good - not exactly of the time, but certainly appropriate to the story. It really helps with the atmosphere.
And so, as the crew move away from the TARDIS, we enter the alien world of Earth Benchmarking Vessel Nevermore. I imagine it in black and white, a kind of mix between The Sensorites and The Screaming Jungle, particularly when the plants go for the control panel. This impression lasts until we meet Captain Rostrum, who isn't really the sort of character who could be realised on TV at the time. This is not a criticism of Lane, as he's not writing for television; indeed, Rostrum is what really makes this episode fun for me. He represents a truly bonkers idea, and it's a tribute to writer, cast (well, Carole Ann Ford) and crew that he works anyway. Some of the discussion felt slightly odd - for instance, are they really punching holes every tenth of a light year? That would mean they could place over 600,000 markers in a cube centred on Earth without reaching another star! Still, given the historic confusion between stellar systems, galaxies and the universe in Who, that's a fairly minor quibble. And I enjoyed the debate anyway.
Some might say there was too much talking, but I don't mind at all - and it did give a reason for Susan to wander off. Although this was overdone in later years, it hadn't yet become a habit; and Lane manages to tie it into her development.
The peril level goes up a notch as Susan encounters the mysterious crewman who advises her to make her own decisions, to stretch her wings - and then she starts to feel weak and dizzy as we approach the cliffhanger. But I'll postpone a discussion of that until episode 2's review.
The pacing is particularly good in this episode, building nicely to a climax that left me wanting more.
Rating:
7/10.
Next Time:
Stick around for episode 2.
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