Watching this, it occurs to me that I missed a trick when reviewing The Thief of Sherwood: I should have had the second episode be a step up in terms of direction rather than down, as this was the case in the vast majority of stories during the first season. I blame writing it on paper on the train, away from my computer, following a long gap after the end of Season One. Still, it's interesting to note that the directorial trend continues here - although this time it's only a little step up.
The best thing about it is the way Mervyn Pinfield makes a distinction between the 'big' scenes and the 'small' ones. Generally the latter open with either very close-up shots or distant ones, and these continue to dominate; while the former have more mid-shots. There are also occasions where he contrasts the music of the small with the silence of the large. The changes are well-signposted, too; my favourite is probably the pull back early on from the view of the briefcase to a full-length shot of Smithers being shown the corpse by Forester.
Having said that, I'm still not that impressed with Pinfield - the camera moves are sometimes quite hesitant, and there are too many cases of actors staring out to one side of the frame while talking to someone standing behind them - but it is his best effort on the show so far.
The acting's a bit of a mixed bag as well. William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill hit it just right, making the most of the material they are given; but Carole Ann Ford is just coasting, and the usually reliable William Russell is over-egging the pudding here. Guest stars Alan Tilvern and Reginald Barratt do what they can given that they are little more than standard stereotypes of the greedy, callous businessman and the obsessed scientist. The fact that they are given some truly awful lines that simply declare upcoming plot points - "I'll put his briefcase in the lab first", "there's a sink in the lab" - really doesn't help.
Raymond P. Cusick's sets, on the other hand, are quite simply fantastic. There's huge attention to detail - the expanded (and briefly glimpsed) woodgrain on the tabletop, for instance - and I can really believe that they are at the foot of a downpipe, or in the sink. (Well, not really, since I understand why miniature people are impossible; but you know what I mean.) Even the fly is convincing, much more so than many giant insects from later years of the show.
Having two intertwined but separate plots going on (at different scales) works well. They do need to come together more at some point, but I'm in no hurry. To be honest, this seems more like a four-parter than a three-parter, and I wonder how rushed the final episode is going to be.
This is definitely Iananbarbara's episode, and it's notable how much more comfortable they are with being physically close. In that sense, it feels like quite some time has passed since The Reign of Terror, supporting the existence of the stories in the nonexistent inter-season gap. Actually, it's been a long while since we saw so much of them alone together on TV, so you could argue they just don't show it around other people; but I'm sticking to the version that supports the existence of lots of extra stories.
The down side is that Barbara is in full-on peril monkey mode: she twists her ankle, poisons herself, and faints. Seriously? That's more Susan's territory.
Meanwhile, what do the Doctor and Susan get? A climb up a drainpipe, and a rest at the top in a sink where the Doctor gets to pant a bit and Susan gets to shout. These are both well shot, but it's no surprise Ford isn't giving it her all.
An entertaining if flawed episode, this still left me wanting more.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 7th November 1964
Viewers: 8.4 million
Chart Position: 45
Appreciation Index: 58
Rating:
6/10.
Next Time:
We complete the article-free trilogy with Crisis.
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