Episode 45 (J3): Crisis

(Apologies for the late posting, which is due to that annoying distraction, Real Life. Hey ho.)

I wondered if this might feel rushed; and sure enough, it did. There's a reason for that (and for the episode having two directors, although Mervyn Pinfield was uncredited). Serial J was originally conceived as a four-part story, and they even filmed all four episodes before orders came down from on high (well, BBC Head of Serials Donald Wilson) to combine the last two episodes, Crisis and The Urge to Live, into one. Everyone was hyped up about the forthcoming Dalek story, and Wilson wanted to change the order to open with that; but of course it wasn't possible, because of series-changing events in that story. He then decided that this serial wasn't exciting enough to be a season opener, and ordered it cut to make it faster-paced. To be honest, I think this was just to get to the return of the Daleks sooner; but I haven't seen the uncut version, so I may be wrong.

Still, what of the episode as it went out? The cliffhanger is resolved in a fair way, and the effective 'waterfall' helps to sell it. In fact, all the sets and special effects continue to impress: considering the fact that a large part of the budget must have gone towards beefing up the next serial, this is doubly surprising. I guess that the small scale of the story (no pun intended - at least originally) helps to keep things manageable.

And speaking of sets, we get a whole new human-scale one: the telephone exchange. Wow. If there's one thing that dates this serial, it's the scenes set here. I remember when my son was young looking at one of those ABC books with pictures for each of the letters, and when we got to 'T' there was a telephone. It had a dial, a base and a tethered handset; and he had no idea what it was because the only ones he'd seen were cordless with buttons. The exchange is another step into the past: some things have changed so rapidly.

Sadly, the quality of the music doesn't match the sets. Dudley Simpson (later a regular composer for the show, but on his first foray in this serial) gets the tone wrong, with a score that is far too light and humourous to match the events on-screen.

And those events are pretty scary. Again we have things happening on two scales. The threat of DN-6 is, of course, the most serious for the world; but the one we care about most is Barbara's deterioration. I wasn't sure how I felt about her not telling the others; it seems plausible at first, but goes on too long. The others notice that something is wrong, of course, but - cleverly - they are kept too distracted to think about it properly. William Russell has toned down his acting a little, which helps with the mood, but there is a bit too much cut out for the story to run smoothly. For instance, Smithers' growing suspicion of Forester is handled rather too subtly because of missing scenes, and some conversations have become a bit disjointed. Still, overall the plot is solid. I particularly liked the way the TARDIS crew's attempt to use the phone looks as if it is a dead end, only for it to prove key to the resolution of the plot. And Susan gets an active part to play as well, both with the phone and the match.

The direction is fine, but nothing special. I assume the original cliffhanger was Barbara collapsing (which happens in abbreviated form about halfway through the combined episode); after this point we get more confident camera movement and some nicely framed shots from Douglas Camfield. Like Simpson, Camfield would go on to further success with Who, being one of the best-loved directors of the classic series. He had already worked as a production assistant on the show, but this was his first directorial assignment.

Like the episode itself, I've rushed through this. I want to point out the Doctor's "always at your service" speech at the end as further evidence of their inter-season adventures, but apart from that I'll move swiftly on.

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 14th November 1964
Viewers: 8.9 million
Chart Position: 33
Appreciation Index: 59

Rating:
6.5/10.

Next Time:
Serial J as a whole - hopefully after a shorter wait!