The Rescue

So you destroyed an entire planet just to save your own skin?

The introduction of Vicki is an interesting little story. It's just a bit unfortunate that Vicki herself is probably the least interesting thing in it.

Plot Summary

The TARDIS materializes on the planet Dido where an Earth rocket has crashed. Vicki sees the TARDIS on the radar and informs her crewmate Bennett. Vicki thinks it's the rescue ship but Bennett tells her to contact the rescue ship, which informs her that they are still three days away.

Ian and Barbara realize that the TARDIS has landed while the Doctor was sleeping. They wake him and they prepare to investigate the planet. The Doctor initially asks Susan to open the doors before realizing that she isn't there. Ian and Barbara head out to explore the cave they are in while the Doctor grabs a rock to run some experiments. They emerge on a cliff and see a settlement and the crashed rocket ship. Ian decides that it would be good to go get the Doctor and find out who is down there.

They turn around to see an alien life form looking at them. It asks them who they are and where they are from. It also asks them to retrieve their third companion from their ship. Ian heads back to get the Doctor. Barbara is very wary of the creature and when it attempts to grab her, she slips off the edge of the cliff, although she manages to slow her fall by grabbing on to a branch. The creature then takes a tool and causes the cave opening to collapse.

Hearing the collapse, the Doctor emerges from the TARDIS having figured that they are on the planet Dido which he has visited in the past. He finds Ian choking on the cave dust. The Doctor pulls him back and when they find the opening filled, they decide to look for another way out of the cave.

Vicki finds Barbara and helps her back to the ship. Barbara hides when the alien, named Koquillion, arrives. Koquillion informs Vicki that he has killed the travelers who arrived and reminds her that he is her only defense from his people. He then goes in to Bennett's quarters to talk with him. Barbara emerges and Vicki explains that after the ship crashed, the crew went to see the people of Dido. Vicki stayed behind as she was sick with a fever. She heard an explosion and Bennett crawled back shortly afterwards saying that the natives attacked them but one named Koquillion held them off to allow Bennett to return to the ship. Bennett enters Vicki's part of the ship and Vicki shows him that Koquillion did not actually kill all the crew. Barbara is convinced that the Doctor and Ian are still alive but Bennett remains skeptical. The strain of walking was too much and Vicki and Barbara take him back to his bed.

The Doctor and Ian shimmy along a narrow ledge. They come to a wider part but when Ian crosses over, they trigger a booby trap. Sharp bars block each side of Ian while another set of spikes emerge to push him off the cliff where a creature is waiting. Ian then uses his suit coat to protect his hands and swings back around the bars with the Doctor. They reset the ring that triggered the trap and the bars retract. As they reach the cave entrance, the Doctor sees a door in the path that seems to trigger his memory.

Vicki heads out of the ship to gather food. Barbara waits for her in the ship, setting the table. Hearing strange growls, Barbara grabs a flare gun and heads out. She sees a creature emerging from a cave and walking towards Vicki who seems oblivious. Vicki notices at the last minute and yells at Barbara to stop but Barbara shoots the creature with the flare gun, killing it. Vicki screams at Barbara that she killed it and how she trained it to come at eat plants at that time of day. Attracted by the noise, Ian and the Doctor arrive and they all head back to the ship.

Vicki falls in with the Doctor very well and seems to like Ian well enough but she is angry at Barbara. The Doctor sends Ian and Barbara out and has a little talk with Vicki which settles her down and eases her anger. The Doctor then goes to talk to Bennett and discuss things with him. The door is jammed but the Doctor forces it open to find an empty room. The Doctor finds both recording and listening equipment in the room. He also finds a trap door and follows it down.

After patching things up, Ian, Barbara and Vicki go to Bennett's room to see about him and the Doctor. Finding no one, they leave the ship to look for them. The Doctor sets himself down in the Didoan hall of justice. Koquillion emerges and the Doctor addresses him as Mr. Bennett. Koquillion takes off his mask to reveal that he is Bennett. Bennett informs the Doctor that he had been arrested on the ship for murdering a crew member but that his crime was not reported before the crash. After the crash, the crew was being entertained by the natives when Bennett detonated a bomb, killing the village and the crew. He invented Koquillion to convince Vicki of what happened and that she would then verify his story when the rescue ship comes. The Doctor attacks Bennett with his own weapon, setting off a small explosion in the cavern. The two struggle but Bennett overpowers the Doctor. However, two Didoans emerge from the shadows. Bennett, unnerved by seeing people he thought he killed, flees the room but looses his balance on the ledge and falls to his death.

The Doctor sees the Didoans but passes out. He wakes up in the TARDIS, Ian and Barbara having taken him there after finding him. The Doctor surmises that the Didoans will not now allow the rescue ship to land and the three decide to offer Vicki a chance to travel with them. With both her parents dead, Vicki agrees to come with them. They dematerialize as the Didoans destroy the radio sending a signal to the rescue ship. The TARDIS rematerializes on the edge of a cliff and then topples over.

Analysis

You don't always say this about a story in classic Doctor Who, but this story was too short. Obviously this was a quick story invented to introduce Vicki as the replacement for Susan, but the writer actually crafted an interesting mystery that could have played out for another episode and perhaps given Vicki a touch more development.

As of this story, I'm not impressed by Vicki. I know she gets better, having seen other stories with her in them, but she comes off as a bit simple in this story for my tastes. The only bit of proper character development she gets is in the aftermath of Barbara shooting "Sandy". She does instantly have a nice rapport with the Doctor and he in turn clearly takes a shine to her. She has less development with Ian and Barbara although I did greatly enjoy it when she states that Ian and Barbara must be over 500 years old. Barbara looks affronted but it's clear that William Russell actually breaks character as he starts laughing at Jacqueline Hill's face and quickly turns away to hide it and regain his composure. That was unintentionally funny.

I was a bit spoiled going in to this story as I had already known that Bennett and Koquillion were the same person. But, if you hadn't known, any one who had seen a basic mystery should have been able to figure they were the same person by the end of Episode One given that there was the obvious trope of never seeing the characters together, nor of seeing Koquillion leave the ship when Bennett emerges to speak to Vicki and later Barbara. But still, it would have been nice to have played it out a bit more. I'd also have liked to see Koquillion offer a bit more menace than just his appearance. Much of that was due to limited mobility from the costume and stage area I would imagine, but given the style of the costume, he could have been so much scarier if he just had the ability to move with any speed.

One other thing that disappointed me a bit was the confirmation that the Didoans who emerged after Bennett knocked the Doctor down were real. I very much liked the Doctor taking Bennett on as it was a nice change from Ian always being the muscle man. Granted the Doctor didn't win, but it was nice to see him try. I did like the Didoans emerging and more or less scaring Bennett into killing himself, but I think the story would have been a bit more interesting if it had been more ambiguous as to whether those were real Didoans who escaped the bomb or if they were apparitions who were a function of the hall of justice playing on Bennett's own since of guilt. Because with the knowledge that they were real, it draws up questions as to where they have been and why they didn't attack Bennett earlier since he had moments of being exposed earlier when patrolling around the ship and village.

If a bit more depth had been paid, I think I would liked this story a bit more. As is, I'd have to put it in the same average range as most of the rest of the First Doctor era has seemed to fall with me. It's not bad and much of the nit picking comes from a difference in view regarding the era, but there are other stories that just grab you and this is not one of those, although I can see how it could have had that potential. Being as short as it is, I wouldn't have a problem watching it again, but I also wouldn't pull it off to rewatch it without a good reason.

Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5