Whatever Happened to Susan?

There are a number of ways of looking at this question. Let's start with perhaps the most literal.

Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?
Back on 9th July 1994, Radio 4 broadcast a half-hour spoof documentary with this title, purporting to examine the disappearance of a schoolgirl and two of her teachers in 1963. Thanks to the Dalek Invasion of Earth DVD, I got to hear it in 2006 - and again just now. I could also have got it on a CD, Doctor Who at the BBC vol. 3, or caught one of its radio repeats.

This sort of thing is often done by people who judge a subject though the filter of common knowledge (which would have been largely negative at the time, when a more commonly-asked question might have been "whatever happened to Doctor Who?") but here the writer, Adrian Mourby, obviously knows his subject (mention of Zarbi notwithstanding) and seems to have a fondness for it too. I say "seems to" because it is fairly brutal in its parody - but its targets are mostly those that fans themselves skewer, like the Doctor abandoning Susan with a bloke she's only just met. The program is quite an odd beast, fairly evenly divided between targeting the more ludicrous aspects of the show and of modern life. The central conceit of looking at the events of the program from the parents' nightmare perspective of possible child abduction works surprisingly well, but this premise isn't enough to fill half an hour. The main cast - Jane Asher as Susan, James Grout (of Morse fame; I recognised his voice straight away) as Ian and Someone Else as the interviewer - play it mostly straight-faced, and this helps to keep things grounded; but this is undercut by the aliens working for the E.U. in Brussels.

It's hard to judge how to rate this, because it's only a Who story in the broadest sense; so I'll pluck a very off-the-cuff 3/10 from the ether and move on to my next version of the question.

Whatever Happened to Carole Ann Ford?
I remember Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, but only vaguely - except for the theme song, which is as clear as anything. I may cover it in more detail in a later story - possibly during the fifth Doctor's era - but for now I only bring it up because of the title, and the fact that Ford appeared in an episode. Which was one of only a handful of TV and film appearances after her time on Who, partly because she kept being typecast as a teenager; and Ford concentrated on theatre work until 1977, when she suffered a back injury and reacted badly to the medication given. Since her second daughter (Tara-Louise, who appears in Quinnis) was born the same year, she decided to retire (for the most part) from acting and focus on her family. She has since become a voice and presentation coach, though she is still involved in Who on audio.

Whatever Happened to the Unearthly Child?
Now, this is a more retrospective question; and one we've tackled several times before, most notably here and here. I don't want to go over too much old ground, so I'll briefly pass the baton to Isaac for the ten-year-old viewpoint:

Isaac's Corner
Carole Ann Ford did a very good job of playing Susan, acting her as she was told to even though it wasn't what she expected it to be like. Susan mostly seemed to be there to hurt herself (e.g., twisting her ankle) so that she had to be rescued. I liked the bit in The Sensorites when she finally got to be what she was supposed to, and that's probably the best story for her although that's not the best story she was in (which was either The Daleks or The Keys of Marinus).

OK, back with Isaac's dad again, and that prompts me to take a brief look at some of the high points of her (fictional) journey so far. On TV, she started really well with my only 10/10 episode so far, An Unearthly Child, and to be honest I can't think of an episode that is better for her - close behind would be The Edge of Destruction, and although I agree with Isaac that Susan's exploits in The Sensorites were a highlight, they were spread too thinly to counter the generally poorer quality of the episodes overall.

In books, my favourite was (obviously) The Time Travellers - but the best part for Susan has to be in Time and Relative. There's not much choice for short stories as most of them focus so heavily on other characters, so I'll go with The Exiles; and there are no comics that I would consider. Her best audio has to be Quinnis.

It's obvious in all this that the latest story in her timeline among these picks is An Unearthly Child! If I disallowed the pre-season-1 stories, I could still happily pick The Sorcerer's Apprentice in books and Here There Be Monsters in audio, but I'll lose the short story category.

Whatever Happened to Susan Campbell?
Of course, Susan's fictional journey doesn't end here, either. She makes some minor appearances over the years - the highest profile being in The Five Doctors - before she catches up with her grandfather more properly in the eighth Doctor's era. With some companions I may cover their future lives at their departure point, but this time I don't feel the need. If this marathon lasts long enough we'll see her again...

Next Time:
Something completely different; but if it takes too long there'll be a half-term holiday break.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

I've nearly finished writing the next entry - it's currently over 700 words, with just a couple of paragraphs to go - so I didn't need to delay things; but I decided to post this anyway, for no real reason other than "just because".

I recently watched Timelash for the first time and the presence of H. G. Wells must have stuck in my mind, because when I was randomly flicking through my music CDs looking for something to listen to while cooking (vegetable risotto with goat's cheese and Roquefort plus outdoor reared Yorkshire ham for the non-veggies - very tasty, but quite a bit of prep and it needs watching) this album jumped out at me. So I stuck it on for the first time in well over a decade.

I'm not going to say much about the music, which is very 1970s (a phrase that covers a multitude of different genres); nor about the vocal performances, which in some cases rival Paul Darrow's Tekker for enjoyable scenery-chewing. They're good enough, but I just want to talk about the story; and since I haven't read the book version for at least two decades, this will be my window into that world.

I have a familial connection with the setting of the tale, because back in 1921 my mum was born (and then grew up) in the village of Knaphill - mentioned (and burned) in the book, and close enough to Horsell Common (site of the first cylinder landing) that it was a regular dog-walking spot. Indeed, my aunt and two cousins still live in the area, though none of them now go "car spotting", which involved sitting by the side of the road during the long summer holidays from school, chatting with mates, and when a car came by noting down the number! Similarly, my grandfather was pleased when they painted white lines down the middle of the road because it gave him something to follow when walking home from the pub in the dark! Truly another world.

And speaking of other worlds (see what I did there?), this story is so obviously a major influence on The Dalek Invasion of Earth that I'm surprised I didn't think of it at the time. You have implacable aliens that have evolved to be almost entirely brain encased in hard-to-destroy metal machines killing people with heat-rays. You have a guy in an underground shelter dreaming of building a better world, man on top again, but with an enormous gulf between his dreams and his powers. You have a dead, empty London acting as a symbol for the entire world, you have an alien lifeform that the invaders have brought with them and let loose, you have the invasion defeated by natural forces rather than military might. Heck, there's even a plague, though in this case it's working for us, and an adaptation for the cinema.

Just thought it was worth a mention.

Next Time:
As we wave goodbye to the Doctor's granddaughter for some considerable time, we ask the somewhat ambiguous question, whatever happened to Susan?

Telos Novella 11: Frayed, by Tara Samms

Well now, I hadn't read this before, and it fits rather neatly as a follow-up to The Exiles. For a start, Tara Samms provides us with an origin for the names 'Susan' and 'The Doctor' - one that makes sense, and comes out of the story rather than being tacked on. It's the travellers' first contact with humans, and as usual we run the gamut from the noble, through the venal, to the downright psychopathic.

There are plenty of contrasts between the two stories as well. The Exiles does a great job of feeling like the early series, to the extent that I pictured it in monochrome - although I only realised this at the mention of Susan's brown robes. Frayed doesn't even try. Actually there is no time when it would have fitted with the TV series, as it has a definite 1990s/early 2000s feel. The main aspect that it does take from the parent show is from later in the 1960s: this is a classic 'base under siege' story, complete with a commander crumbling under the strain, suspicion of the Doctor and internal conflict amongst the humans. Unlike some parts of the Troughton era, however, we don't have a surfeit of such stories; and it works as a refreshing change.

Unfortunately, and this is no reflection on the writing, I'm not a big fan of the gruesome and ultraviolent tendencies that were so prevalent in the "long 1990s", particularly in comics; and this book is a part of that movement. The action effectively takes place in two worlds, with people in both suffering horrific injuries and death. This lessens my enjoyment considerably, and probably knocks a couple of points off my rating.

It's the use of two worlds that makes this story much more than just a base under siege. Susan's telepathic abilities play an important role once again, though it is only in her interactions with Jill, another telepathic girl, and she doesn't directly affect anything. The Doctor - in the "real" world - is kept at more of a distance, but is handled well...for the most part. He starts out appropriately selfish and concerned only with himself and his granddaughter, but then seems to take up a moral stance which is out of place for a pre-Unearthly Child tale. His dialogue is also a little too variable, sometimes dipping into a "generic Doctor" voice which certainly wasn't Hartnell's.

Samms' prose is good, with some particularly fine phrases - to pick an example that struck me as a great chapter ending, "he was alone with the screaming in a silent room." He also writes characters well, and we see inside the heads of several humans in the base. This really helps the "real world" part to live.

I said "he" above, because "Tara Samms" is actually a pseudonym for Stephen Cole, who has written more than a dozen Who novels, a similar number of audios, some short stories and even more comics; as well as acting in an editorial capacity for the BBC and elsewhere. I haven't read enough to see if there is a pattern behind his use of the pseudonym (and another, "Paul Grice"). His books, at least, tend to be quite varied, so that I never know quite what to expect.

Overall, then, a mixed bag; but being a novella it was an easy read, even if the tone didn't really suit me. And I applaud the experimental nature of the book. After all, you can't innovate while trying to please all the people.

Published:
Date: 20th November 2003
ISBN: 1-903889-22-7

Rating:
4.5/10.

Next Time:
An odd aside, as I reminisce about Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. There is a reason for this, honest!

Short Trips, A Universe of Terrors 6.01: The Exiles, by Lance Parkin

Of the seven Short Trips books I've read - three from the BBC, four from Big Finish - this collection is my least favourite. Doctor Who can be anything, and one of the things it frequently turns out to be is scary. Which is fine, but (for me) there has to be something more than that, so a whole book focusing on the fear is too much - regardless of the quality of the writing.

The Exiles is the first story in the collection, and has the advantage that I read it before I became glutted on terror; but it is also a fine tale that does have something more anyway.

This is the earliest story of Susan and her Grandfather on their travels - indeed, it begins with the ship parked on their home planet as they enter for the first time. I choose my words carefully here, because at no point is there mention of Gallifrey, the TARDIS, or the Doctor. The use of "home planet" keeps the story grounded in the early days of the show, and although it's written in the third person we see events entirely from Susan's point of view: it implies that she came up with the acronym for the ship during their travels, and that the name "Doctor" may also have been adopted later. Certainly "Grandfather" is used in a similar way, as a name rather than just a familial relationship. Whether Susan is her Gallifreyan name is more problematic. At first glance the prose seems to think so, using it many times per page; but Grandfather always refers to her as "Child", so I'm inclined to think this is for convenience rather than saying anything about her past.

Like Inside the Spaceship, the story takes place entirely within the ship. It covers the first night of their hurried flight, and the first half describes their initial attempts to suss out the console room. The pacing and mood here is very well handled, expressing a palpable sense of desperation that gradually fades (though not completely) as the would-be travellers figure out how to bring the ship back to life. Or rather, Grandfather does; Susan is very much the passenger here. This feels realistic rather than patronising, with him having acted as an ambassador and watched technicians operating the controls of other timeships.

There are a number of hints like this about life on their home planet, most of them fairly vague or inconsequential; a story set in this timeframe can't help but tie down the past to an extent. It's a tricky line to walk. When my children were into Thomas the Tank Engine on TV I became irritated that the show introduced so many new characters that weren't there in the original books - until I realised that, in my own childhood, meeting new characters had been one of the main things I looked forward to when I read a new book! It's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, and I've been more tolerant since.

The second half of the story is entirely Susan's, as she heads off to investigate the interior of the ship. This part has a certain Castrovalvan feel to it, particularly when she encounters a full-length mirror just sitting in the corridor. It also touches on her telepathy, subtly, as she thinks thoughts that are definitely not hers, tempting her to explore. Is this the being she later encounters, or is it the ship itself? I'm tempted by the idea of the latter, as a strong telepathic link between the two would explain why she was the most violently affected in Inside the Spaceship. Again it's only a hint, though, and the lack of a concrete answer is part of the mood setting.

We also get to see Susan in the wardrobe, choosing from the "rails and rails and rails and rails and rails of clothing." She transforms herself through this, ditching her brown robe and assembling an outfit not too dissimilar in style to the fashions of 1963.

Throughout, there is good use of imagery. Mirrors, of course, have a special place in our mythmaking, and - having compared entering the ship to falling "down the rabbithole" in my last review - I can't avoid thinking of the second Alice book here. The gradual retreat of darkness in the first half also makes me think about the long warm-up time of 1960s televisions, or the early moments of the universe. The fact that Grandfather is the first of their people to think of leaving also emphasises the idea that we are here at the birth of something new.

My only real complaint about The Exiles is that it feels like a fragment of a tale. Obviously this is something that could be said about almost any vignette, but there is an over-reliance on "unfinished" stories in this collection and it begins here. The odd thing, though, is that it really is a fragment. I know, because I've read the next bit of the story in another collection! It makes me wonder how many more sections are out there. I won't get to that second instalment for about six Doctors-worth of reviews, and given the prices that the Big Finish Short Trips books go for I may never find out if there are any more. Perhaps they only exist as echoes, glimpsed in mirrors reflecting other universes? Whatever. It's very cool, but also very annoying.

A Confused Chronology, part 4: Ahistory
I have to bring this up now, even though the positioning of this tale is totally clear-cut, because we won't be seeing another Lance Parkin story for quite a while. Parkin is the author of a mammoth tome organising as many stories as he can into historical order. He is also the author of a couple of novels that throw the idea of a single continuity out of the window. Elizabeth Sandifer describes this as "hilarious" in her entry on Parkin's Cold Fusion, and while I can see her point I don't see the situation as at all contradictory. (Dr. Sandifer also dislikes the idea of a Whoniverse, a term I use with gay abandon; but there we are simply using the word to mean different things.)

Actually, I've already mentioned Ahistory - in the first entry of this sidebar series - and I have no doubt that it'll crop up again. Most of the book is a history of the universe, but the history of Gallifrey is given a separate section as it would be meaningless to try and line it up alongside the passage of normal time. And there are a few stories that can't be placed at all for some reason or other, some because they take place entirely in the vortex. I look forward to the edition that includes short stories such as this one...

Published:
Date: 23rd December 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84435-504-4

Rating:
7/10.

Next Time:
I've still got a couple of weeks before the blog's anniversary, so (all being well) I'll say a little something about Susan's next chronicled adventure: Frayed.

Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD

This was my favourite Dalek story for much of my childhood. As an adult, I picked up a secondhand copy of the two-movie DVD set on a market stall - always a slightly worrying way of buying such easily-damaged items, though this time both disks were fine - and enjoyed it again. Very much so, in fact; I rated it 8/10 (as opposed to the 2/10 I gave the TV version in 2006, when I watched it over two evenings). Watching it this week I didn't expect my opinion to have changed much over the last few years, but it has. Quite a bit.

Let's start at the beginning, though. We have a quite un-spacy opening, with a policeman dreaming of far-away lands while a robbery is about to take place and some classic piano music setting the tone. There's an effective explosion, some thuggery, and another "down the rabbit-hole" moment, this time for policeman Tom Campbell. I like the echoes of An Unearthly Child, here - in another reality it could have been the bobby from that first episode who found his way into the TARDIS - and this time, appropriately for the film that concludes the series, there's also a matching "back to reality" moment. We have a reprise at the very end, but not quite as before because Tom gets his reward, and his dreams have changed. It may be a feelgood ending, but it's not without its issues: if he prevents the events that caused him to enter Tardis in the first place, what happens? Are there now two Toms running around London? Shades of The Time Travellers! Tackling this paradox isn't in the purview of the film, though - it's just a bonus for people like me who enjoy thinking about such things.

For me, it takes a step down in enjoyability immediately after this opening, when the random passer-by tries to lean against the dematerialised Tardis and breaks the Fourth Wall by shrugging at the audience. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this particular style of humour - I'd been busy at school helping out with SATs in the morning (with more to come next day), and was looking to escape into another world; but that's not really what you get. Oh, Tom is a lot less pratfally than the Pete's World version of Ian, but there's still quite a bit of basic humour - the "blending in with robomen" and "food machine on fast forward" scenes in particular.

Ah yes, Ian. This film was originally intended to use the same main cast as Doctor Who and the Daleks but neither Roy Castle nor Jennie Linden were available, so we got Tom and Louise instead of Ian and Barbara. Has there ever been a more pointless character than Louise? I complained about Barbara last time, but I think I'm right in saying that her successor gets nothing to do that affects the plot at all. There's no way to tell how good or bad an actress Jill Curzon is, beyond the fact that she can deliver lines, doesn't look awkward and can fall over! This isn't a good film for Roberta Tovey's Susy, either. She still gets to show off her brains a little, but is in all other ways disempowered. It's a darn good job Bernard Cribbins is a good actor, then, because he - even more than Peter Cushing - has to carry the film.

Still, it's an action movie rather than a character piece, and needs to be viewed in that light. Unfortunately, the bigger budget for the TV version (plus the fact that we've seen colour Daleks before so the wow factor from that is reduced) makes the contrast less marked - the fights, for instance, are only a little better than the TV version. This is compounded by some unfortunate design choices, such as the clean and clean-cut rebels in their well-organised hideaway. In fact, the whole effort is more... sanitised. There's a lack of grim and grimy desperation that really should be there, and it looks more like 1950s England than ever. The music doesn't help, with the scene of the van charging the Daleks undermined by the jolly tune accompanying it. I still really like Dalek/Roboman march, though, and the theme music is better than in the last film.

There's a lot to like. Some of the set-piece scenes very work well - the destruction of the van, for instance - and the saucer is wonderful. The robomen look and sound a lot better, though again the loss of their zombie nature reduces the horror factor (almost certainly deliberately). The robotiser is snazzier, even if the head covering does look like a hairdryer, and we have Daleks with proper voices using their claws. The mineshaft is vastly improved, with some great pulsing lights, and the bomb looks like one.

On the other hand the direction is largely flat and static. Gordon Flemyng seems to think that a Dalek rolling down a ramp is interesting, and he lacks the eye of Richard Martin (though he also has a higher baseline of quality).

What of the script? David Whitaker does some good things here. The Doctor's escape from the cell on the saucer is much less contrived, the aforementioned bomb doesn't have a stupid person-holding area, and the way he mixes up the characters to keep those aspects that are most important to the plot is skilful. David becomes more interesting having ditched the Zeppo-style romantic lead aspect: he has a bit of an edge, and is the crack shot instead of Tyler (whose film alter ego Wyler has more compassion to make up for it). David's line "I always did prefer the country" is a nice nod to the end of the TV version. In contrast, Dortmun is far less interesting and has had the heart of his story ripped out. Jenny, being a woman and therefore by definition useless, has disappeared entirely.

There are other women, of course: the clothes menders. And look who's there! Old Mother, from the tribe of Gum! She's been appearing regularly on the Gallifrey Base alternate history thread, working with the Daleks, so now is an appropriate time for me to be watching this. My review is getting long, though, so I don't have time to say much about Philip Madoc (who we'll see again - but why did the Daleks shoot him here?), or the Sugar Puffs adverts that appear because the company that made them sponsored the film, or the even-worse-than-TV technobabble, or the rubbish volcano. Though I can't help mentioning the revelation that Daleks go to sleep when you put a cloth over them. Genius!

It's Thingy, from That Other Program, Part 4: Bernard Cribbins and Ray Brooks
I'm well over my word count, but I also can't resist the temptation of combining these two. Or rather, two programs for which they provided the voices.

I only remember seeing Brooks in this movie (though I might have seen him in guest roles in other shows I watched), but his voice is instantly recognisable to me. He was the narrator of Mister Benn, another of my favourite children's TV shows from the early 1970s. It's much like Who in some ways: the eponymous hero visits a costume shop run by a mysterious, magic-using shopkeeper and then is sent to other worlds, times and genres where he sorts out problems before returning to the changing room. Fans of the show who also watch The Sarah Jane Adventures may well have spotted a tribute in the fourth series. I bought the DVD for my children, but am quite happy to watch it without them!

Meanwhile, one of the many things Cribbins was famous for three decades before his return to Who was The Wombles, which aired a couple of years later than Mister Benn. I didn't like this quite so much, but it was still a lot of fun (and with a breakthrough theme song by Mike Batt). I can't see much of a connection with Who, though, other than the narrator, so I'll leave it there. See you next time.

Rating:
4/10.

Next Time:
A brief step back in time for The Exiles.

Serial K: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

For once, I'll let my son have first say on how this serial went:

Isaac's Corner
It was good, but much too long - and the book was better, because it explained more. The best moment was Barbara driving the truck through the Daleks; the bit with Ian in the spaceship was fun too. The original spaceship model looked rubbish but the CGI one was much better, and the scenery worked well, particularly the mines and ruined London. They did a very good job with Susan leaving.

The Book
Ah yes, the novelisation. I don't own any of the Target adaptations, but my children do; and as a result I was able to read along. After each episode (occasionally a day or two after) I'd turn to the corresponding section of the book. This is the second novelisation I've read, and they've both been written by Terrance Dicks based on other writers' scripts. Elizabeth Sandifer has written at length on Dicks' books, and from my more limited experience I have to agree with her general opinion; so rather than repeat a lot I'll point you there. I will say, though, that Dicks has an engaging, breezy style which makes the books very easy to read; but they are short, and adapting a six-parter doesn't offer a lot of leeway. So I agree with my son that it explains more - or, more accurately, explains things better - and some of the dialogue is sharper; but the necessarily sparse writing means that we lose a lot of the nuances that come from the actors' performances as well. And William Hartnell's famous speech at the end is cut to shreds. There are some great passages, though, often conjuring up a much better visual image than the TV serial could achieve; and (although it's repeating an endorsement from the above-linked page) I really do want to emphasise the brilliance of the opening line:

Through the ruin of a city stalked the ruin of a man.

Brr. It sends shivers down my spine.

Firsts and Lasts
Meanwhile, on TV this is a bit of a landmark. The final serial of the first production block is also the original script editor's final story - though we will be seeing much more of Whitaker wearing his writer's hat, so I don't need to give him a proper farewell. I find it hard to assess the contribution of the script editor without another to contrast him with, so I'm not going to try at this point.

It's also the first story with extensive location shooting, the first to use a quarry, and (as discussed already) the first shot in Riverside studios. The list goes on - the first Earth invasion story, the first return to England, the first future Earth setting... and, of course, the first time a 'monster' returns. Indeed, the Daleks are the only returnees in the entire Hartnell run, other than a certain monk who appears for a couple of episodes alongside the pepperpot moneyspinners.

Its influence is hard to overrate, despite its flaws. Journey's End, more than 40 years later, is a blatant tribute show - right down to direct quotes and the "someone tried to move the Earth before, but that was a long time ago" comment.

Another first, of course, is the departure of a regular - and I will soon be devoting a whole post to Susan (and Carole Ann Ford). But there are a few other matters to attend to first.

Rating:
Single Sitting: 2/10.
Episodic: 4.5/10. The average would be 5.5, but the weak episodes still drag it down further than that for me.
Novelisation: 5/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 79.21%, 44th.
2011 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 7.84, 50th out of 222.

Next Time:
Crossing the void once again, we revisit Pete's World on the big screen for an alternative take in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD!

Episode 51 (K6): Flashpoint

It's Boxing Day - and we've got Daleks at Christmas again! This time, of course, Dalekmania is in full swing. Look at those ratings: 12.4 million, the joint highest to date. And this is a bit different from the last Dalek climax, The Rescue, which fell apart for so many reasons. This time, the team attempt an epic conclusion and succeed, which is probably why this story is so highly regarded despite such a weak middle section.

Of course, it's an episode of two parts, and the conclusion to the main conflict only takes up the first two thirds; so I'm going to split up the review.

V.E. Day: Victory in England
Let's get this clear: I don't believe blowing up the mine and saucer is the end of the conflict. Daleks are the masters of India, after all, and they're not going to manage that with one ship based halfway around the world! The humans have a long struggle ahead of them. Which isn't to diminish the scale of the victory here.

So, hyperbolic claims apart, how was the story? We open with Ian in the bomb capsule, using his brains to escape (though it admittedly looks more like pulling out random wires); then we switch to the control room and some good shots of well-choreographed Daleks. Barbara's hilarious (in a good way) history-based distraction is brilliant, and she gets to come up with the plan that will eventually defeat the Daleks. It should have been Susan, of course, but Jacqueline Hill deserves the moment too, and she was the most sidelined of the regulars in the last Dalek story. This is followed by a nice pan and cut to the Doctor's group, and even if the task he gives David and Susan isn't well explained the scene works well - mostly.

Its the sets and props that let this part down, at least a little. The returning appearance of the offscreen shaft, the wobbly rock as the Doctor climbs down, the magnetic neck clamps that have to be held in place - these take the edge off. Still, it's not a big deal, and there's a decent helping of character-based material even in the midst of the action; this is, in fact, what makes the scene with the Doctor's group worthwhile. It's interesting how Tyler has taken centre stage from the guest cast when one might expect that role to go to David, but the latter has been set up as a "nice kid", and that gives both writer and actor less to work with than the more ambiguous and intense Tyler. Jenny, meanwhile, has fallen off the radar. She was initially given an interesting background but this was never developed further, leaving her as Barbara's grumpy sidekick.

Back in the mine, Ian's falling and blocking the shaft scenes are fun (and this is the most ruffled we've seen him for a long time). The way he straightens his tie and looks pleased with himself as he walks away in a suit ripped right down the back is a nice touch. In fact, this episode gets the balance just right between urgent action, humour and quiet moments. Even at the climax we have Iananbarbara's reunion.

Speaking of the climax, it's certainly full of action. Much of this is made up of prefilmed sequences, and again it's impressive just how many extras they've hired. The quarry shots are very effective, and the studio-based aftermath with the escapees looking past the camera doesn't bother me at all. Perhaps it's because we do see what they are looking at for once, with the stock footage used to show the explosion working surprisingly well. And the stillness after the thunder leads us nicely into the second part...

A Farewell to Susan
The final section of the story is directed in a very different style to that which has come before. Earlier we were treated to a variety of tricks like tilted cameras and Dalek viewpoint shots, along with lots of noise; here it is very quiet, and very simply done. There's nothing more complicated than slow pans and zooms, and this is a good decision: the contrast changes the tone completely. Indeed, the first shot of Susan is so framed and static that it looks like she is posing for an oil painting. The actors' movements are stagelike, and combined with the lack of background music (until the final moments) this focuses our attention on the matter at hand: whether Susan will stay or go. I complained about lack of eye contact in an earlier episode, but here it's put to good use.

The writing is spot on, with one small piece of humour (Ian chatting to David while Barbara tries to get Susan some space) used for pacing, and to get everyone where they need to be for the final scene. William Hartnell's speech is famous, of course, but all the dialogue works together.

The first few times I watched this story I was shocked by the Doctor's high-handedness. This time, having read The Time Travellers (and also having spaced out the episodes), I was able to see it slightly differently. It's still a fairly dodgy decision, but I can see more what he was thinking.

It's a shame Susan is in "throw herself around in despair" mode, but it's also appropriate (for once); and Carole Ann Ford gets as good a send-off as could be hoped for.

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 26th December 1964
Viewers: 12.4 million
Chart Position: 12
Appreciation Index: 60

Rating:
7/10.

Next Time:
At last! Serial K as a whole.

Episode 50 (K5): The Waking Ally

What does that mean, "the waking ally"? Who is waking? Whose ally are they? The episode titles for this serial have generally been rubbish, either meaningless like this one or atmospheric but general: "Day of Reckoning", "The End of Tomorrow". The only two I like are at the start: "World's End", which is both atmospheric and descriptive; and "the Daleks", which is just good advertising.

This episode is unusual because it was shot entirely on 35mm film. This was a purely practical decision, and came about because there were no available videotape machines at the BBC! Happily, there was one available William Hartnell this time around.

This is an improvement on last episode, but there is still a sense that everyone involved is tired. The script is 90% padding, the actors have upped their game only slightly from last time, the direction is still lacking much of the verve shown at the beginning of the serial - and I still don't have much enthusiasm for writing about it. Still, let me make a start.

When last we left our heroes Ian and Larry were being threatened by the slyther, but found it impossible to jump off the bottom of the set because the drop was too deep. The slyther looks more effective, but still works best in extreme closeup or when seen partially. Richard Martin makes a better attempt at this, but his efforts are rather sabotaged by the obviously fake mining bucket. This scene doesn't leave me in a hopeful mood...

...but then we see that William Hartnell's back - and involved in probably the best fight scene of the serial so far. This is a far more sensible use of the sewers, and even manages to expand on the character of David and (particularly) Tyler. Susan is pretty ineffectual; but you can't have everything, and this scene is followed by another corker as Barbara and Jenny are betrayed by the women in the woods.

Unfortunately we then go back to the mine, and writing this I realise that it's these scenes that drag the episode down. The robomen work best when they don't speak (which certainly isn't the case here); the plot's meandering; and the action is overly-melodramatic. It looks good, with plenty of extras as slave-workers; but none of it is necessary. Ian could have gone straight to the Dalek HQ from the saucer, Barbara and Jenny could have been taken to see the black Dalek when they were captured. Cut out the back-and-forth in the sewer last time and that's a whole episode saved.

Again unfortunately, the scenes of Ian and the bomb are necessary - and silly. Why would the bomb casing have a convenient man-sized space, and why would it be kept in two parts like that? It's got Plot Device written all over it. At least the model shot at the end is effective.

I've saved my favourite scene for last, though I suspect it's my son's least favourite! The bit with David, Susan and the fish is very well written and played; and the Doctor's line "I could tell something was cooking" rounds it off nicely. These quiet character moments work well as a contrast to the big action plot, and everyone (writer, actors, director) seems to take care with them.

All in all, a mixed bag. The weak parts are as bad as last time, but there are also more strong moments to enjoy.

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 19th December 1964
Viewers: 11.4 million
Chart Position: 18
Appreciation Index: 58

Rating:
3.5/10.

Next Time:
Will I summon up more enthusiasm for the concluding episode, Flashpoint? With luck Friday will provide the answer...