Episode 81 (S4): Checkmate

And unexpectedly, I managed to write up my review of A Battle of Wits the following morning and watch this one later in the day! Now that's a turnaround. And hopefully a sign of things to come.

Unfortunately this episode is the weakest of the serial, though still reasonably strong overall; and the first part of this review is little more than a random collection of thoughts. So I'll keep it short, before moving onto what it represents for the series.

One of the things that makes this feel weaker is that there seems to be less attention to detail from all parties. The pacing is slightly off, with some well-performed discussions nevertheless moving too slowly; Eldred's injury seems to come and go; William Hartnell makes some more obvious slips; and the camerawork is not quite as sharp.

There's a lot to love too, though. The comedy continues to be well done - I love the scenes where the Monk persuades the (very stupid) Vikings to help him, and the one with the Saxons running into and then out from the monastery. Peter Butterworth's expressions continue to provide good value for money, particularly as he reads the letter from the Doctor; and the final resolution is both clever and funny. I thought the clifftop scene with the Doctor emphasising how happy he is with his new team was heartwarming, and the final credit sequence is very effective.

A final word on Edith. There is little indication that she is recovering from trauma this time, though the fact that she insists on accompanying the men in the attack is significant. She remembers her English middle-class manners, and invites the travellers back for tea and gives them a smile. I'm inclined to be charitable and read this as a sign she is on the road to recovery and will be OK.

Let's turn to the science fiction elements of the story. A few minor points first. Vicki and Steven's discussion of how history can change is interesting, and possibly the clearest so far; though keeping the Doctor out of the discussion is, perhaps, a cunning ploy to allow for the production team to change their mind at a later date. The business with the Doctor's TARDIS being an earlier model than the Monk's Mark IV can be reconciled with the later Type 40 designation if you squint, though it's hardly worth bothering with; and the whole sequence with the dimensional stabiliser, while slightly too drawn out, is a great way of making use of the show's mythology to affect the plot.

And now, on to the main feature:

The Beginning of the End for 'Pure' Historicals?
So, we reach the era of the 'pseudo-historical', with a story where a time traveller attempts to use their knowledge of the future to change and improve the past. The Doctor expresses his disapproval and anger, the nature of history is discussed, and there is violence (although none of the time travellers are harmed); the changes are averted. What am I describing? The Aztecs, of course.

People always point to The Time Meddler as the birth of the pseudo-historical, but in terms of science fiction interfering with history there is very little it does that is new. The anachronistic has been there ever since a caveman watched a man step out of a police box and light a pipe.

So what makes the difference? For there surely is one! I believe the explanation belongs in the extradiegetic realm, in the fact that this is a television drama and not a news report. The Doctor and his companions occupy a privileged position: in a sense, their SF influence doesn't count because they are the window through which we get to see the drama happening in the past. When we marvel at a TV presenter in an inaccessible place and ignore the fact that there must be a camera operator there too, so we fail to register the difference the mere presence of the TARDIS crew makes on the past. The Monk externalises that influence so that we can see it.

There were good, solid reasons for fiddling with the historical format. Just as the idea of 'one serial backward in time, one forward, one sideways' had been quietly dropped when it became apparent there wasn't enough mileage in sideways stories to do them more than occasionally, it had become obvious over the second season that historicals were just not as popular as SF stories. The first season's "drop them down in history and see what happens" methodology had already been replaced with "drop them into a historical genre such as Up Pompeii or Shakespeare", but it wasn't enough. More had to be done.

There are only five more 'pure' historicals in the 1960s, and then nothing until a single outlier in the '80s; the revived series has not done any to date. Ironically, these (and the ones that came before) are some of the best-loved stories of the era.

Which just goes to show that there is no accounting for taste.

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 24th July 1965
Viewers: 8.3 million
Chart Position: 24
Appreciation Index: 54

Rating:
7.5/10.

Next Time:
Serial S as a whole.