Episode 84 (T3): Airlock

My regeneration into a 'proper' Doctor Who fan didn't begin until 2006. As a result the fact that some episodes of the show were missing had passed me by, and when I finally learned of it I was saddened. I did read with interest about the discoveries of the past, but it was all on an intellectual level.

Until December 2011, when I heard about the return of two episodes, Airlock and an early Patrick Troughton. I literally shouted in glee, then rushed around the house telling everybody (including a 'not-we', who was somewhat bemused but glad I was happy). I would never have predicted the strength of my reaction - if it had been something iconic like The Power of the Daleks or The Myth Makers, sure; but for a couple of individual episodes from minor, relatively unloved serials?

So, what's it like? Well, the plot's no improvement: space pilot Steven tries to escape but fails due to being scared by a Chumbley and ends up trapped in an airlock, before forgetting how differences in air pressure work; the Doctor spends ages trying to figure out how to sabotage an atmospheric converter; and Vicki learns that (gasp!) the Rills are good and the Drahvins evil. Oh, what a surprise.

Fortunately, it's a lot of fun to watch. The moving lights in the Chumblies weren't visible in the clip from the first episode (and so weren't included when they were reconstructed); this adds to their weirdness. Similarly, the Rills had previously only been glimpsed in a couple of poor quality photos, and we finally have a chance to see what they were actually like. The results are mixed: they look impressively alien, but their only animation is to rock back and forth, which ironically would have made them a great subject for the limited sort of animation Loose Cannon uses elsewhere! Both these character designs add atmosphere.

Seeing more of the set design also helps. The expansive Rill ship set is fairly unique - and a genuinely wobbly set to add to Toby Hadoke's short list! The Doctor's cry of "I can't move it, it's immovable!" is particularly ironic. We also get a better view of the relatively cramped Drahvin spaceship - which looks like Maaga has set out her garden furniture on the decking to enjoy the limited British summer weather. OK, so I mock; but I would much rather this than something generic. Even the (fairly bare) planetary surface is more reminiscent of The Web Planet than The Chase.

Still, the biggest asset this episode has, visually, is Derek Martinus. This is his third ever episode directing anything, and already he seems more ambitious than he did during Four Hundred Dawns (though there are also certain aesthetic choices there that stand out more in retrospect). Would the Rill spaceship have made such an impression without the shot down through the top panels? Probably not. And I am confident that we wouldn't have got that with the serial's intended director, Mervyn Pinfield, who mainly shot television as if it were theatre. Similarly, the Drahvins making very little eye contact, and the movement and positioning of actors inside the Drahvins' ship being so carefully choreographed, produces some quite unsettling effects.

And speaking of unsettling, Stephanie Bidmead is the other key component of the visual team. She puts in a stellar performance here, full of little facial movements that are so understated she needs to stand very close to the camera so we can see them. The way she expresses her frustrations over the limitations of her troops almost made me feel slightly sympathetic towards her, before this is turned right around the next instant. Steven's look of horror at Maaga's speech says it all.

The Doctor Who Restoration Team have done their usual meticulous job of cleaning up the episode. When it was returned to the BBC, there were a number of problems including a break in the film near the end which meant that almost half a minute of action was missing (as well as the credits); and a large, vertical scratch across Maaga's face during some of her speeches to camera. I couldn't spot either.

If it weren't for a casual conversation between Ralph Montagu of the Radio Times and former TVS engineer Terry Burnett - who had no idea that the couple of Doctor Who episodes he had in his film collection were significant - we would never have seen this. And before that, if someone hadn't rescued the cans from a skip when they were being junked - technically illegal salvage - they would have been lost in the 1970s.

Fingers crossed for many more such unlikely chains of events!

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 25th September 1965
Viewers: 11.3 million
Chart Position: 13
Appreciation Index: 54

Rating:
5/10.

Next Time:
The Exploding Planet.