The Savages

They are men. Human beings like you and me; although it appears at the moment you are behaving in a rather subhuman fashion.

The Savages is a story you don't hear about much which is rather surprising given that it is Steven's departure story. Some of that stems from it being all recon and probably also that with much of Steven's performances lost, he is viewed as a lesser companion among some groups of fans. I happen to enjoy Steven and was rather curious about this somewhat overlooked story.

Plot Summary

The Doctor lands on a planet set in the far future. He heads out to take some scientific readings while Steven and Dodo wait outside the TARDIS. The Doctor is observed by men dressed in skins and armed with spears and clubs. They make to attack him but retreat when soldiers with laser guns appear. The soldiers welcome the Doctor, informing him that his movements have been tracked by the city elders and they wish to welcome him. The Doctor agrees to go with him and one of the soldiers named Exorse is sent to collect Steven and Dodo.

Steven, growing worried, scouts for the Doctor but is called back by Dodo screaming that she saw a savage man. The men reappear and hurl spears at them but Steven and Dodo take cover behind the TARDIS. The savages retreat when Exorse appears and takes the pair to the city.

At the city, the elders proclaim the Doctor an honorary elder and wish to discuss science with him. They are surprised at the arrival of Steven and Dodo as they had not expected companions, but they are given gifts and taken to another part of the city to enjoy refreshment. The Doctor sits with the elders and inquires about their source of energy, to which the elders both boast but are also vague about.

Meanwhile, city soldiers head out on patrols. The savages, observing from hidden locations, send messengers to warn their people to hide. One of the messengers is a woman named Nanina. She is captured by Exorse and taken back to the city where she is given over to a group of scientists. The scientists release a different savage whom they have just finished with and take Nanina down to the lab. The released savage, exhausted and dazed, walks slowly to the exit.

Steven and Dodo are escorted around the city but Dodo becomes suspicious as their two guides, Avon and Flower, take pains to ensure Dodo cannot see anything they do not want her to see. She sneaks a peek out a window and observes Exorse leading Nanina in to the city. Seeing him emerge from a room later, she manages to sneak away from the group and explore on her own. While walking down a passage, she runs into the savage just released from the lab. He ignores her and shuffles out through a door that leads outside the city. Outside, he is collected by the savage leaders.

The scientists place Nanina in a machine and begin to extract energy from her. Dodo, hearing Nanina's screams, makes her way into the lab to observe. She is grabbed and dragged into an adjoining chamber by the assistants who mistake her for another savage to be processed. Dodo however, fights back, threatening to destroy the equipment.

Steven, Avon and Flower finally notice that Dodo has gone missing and go to look for her. They interrupt the Doctor and elders to tell them but the Doctor dismisses their concerns as he trusts Dodo to take care of herself. The elders order guards to assist with the search. The guard believes that she may have gone down a restricted corridor. He prepares to go after her and threatens Steven that he is not go down the corridor either.

Dodo's actions arouse the awareness of the chief scientist Senta. He learns that she is not a savage and one of the Doctor's companions. He pulls her aside as the guard enters. The guard takes her back to Steven while Senta ends the extraction of Nanina. Nanina is then taken by the guards and released outside the city.

Dodo is taken back to Steven and the two of them are taken back to the Doctor. A guard then comes and arrests Avon and Flower for their negligence. The Doctor finishes his conversation with the elders and offers to show them some of his charts on time travel. He takes Steven and Dodo with him and heads back to the TARDIS. The chief elder, Jano, worried about what Dodo saw and suspects, orders the guard captain Edal to follow them.

The group heads back towards the TARDIS where the Doctor confirms to Dodo that he suspects something foul afoot as well. They find the man Dodo ran into earlier lying on the ground. The Doctor sends Steven and Dodo back to the TARDIS for medicine while he attends to him. Edal comes across them and tries to drive the man away. The Doctor resists and decries the practices used by the citizen of the city. Edal, worried about the Doctor's attitude, takes him back to the city under force.

Steven and Dodo return and give the man two capsules that help reenergize him. However, they are soon surrounded by other savages who mean to kill them. The man they helped protests, proclaiming them friends. He also tells them of how the Doctor was taken away when he stood for him. Steven and Dodo try to convince the savages to help them rescue the Doctor, but they protest, fearing how they are overmatched.

In the city, Jano tries to convince the Doctor of the good of their method but the Doctor still decries it and vows to fight them. Jano orders the Doctor taken to the lab where he is forcibly placed into the extraction machine. Senta begins to transfer energy from the Doctor into their vats. The operation successful, the Doctor is pulled out and sent to a cell to recover. Jano then states that he will take all the Doctor's vitality, not wanting to risk anyone else. He also orders Edal to find and bring back the Doctor's companions for similar treatment.

The savage leader Chal takes Steven and Dodo into a cave which is their refuge to escape the guards, whom they have learned are pursuing them. The guard Exorse learns of their location and follows them into the cave. Chal takes Steven and Dodo down a passage, hoping to discourage Exorse in his pursuit. Exorse cows the remaining savages in the cave and one reveals which passage the companions went down and he follows them.

The passage ends in a dead end and Chal gives themselves up as lost. Steven however, learns from Chal that the light guns may be vulnerable to reflection. He takes the jeweled mirror that Dodo was given and orders the other two to lie down. As Exorse approaches, he activates the light gun. As he does so, Steven lifts the mirror and the light shines back, freezing Exorse. Steven picks the gun up and pushes Exorse back to the main chamber, suspended in his own beam. The savages look with wonder on Steven turning the tables on the guard.

With the gun in his possession, Steven asks for help to get into the city. Chal agrees to lead them to the door the savages are expelled from after extraction. Steven also orders that no harm come to Exorse unless he tries to escape. A savage named Tor, drunk on the victory, ignores this and attacks Exorse. He wounds him but his blow is defected by Nanina who insists they listen to Steven. She then tends to Exorse's wound and he is softened by her kindness and humanity.

After dismissing the assistants Senta places Jano in the receiving chamber. He switches it on and transfers the Doctor's vitality into Jano. Jano emerges after the procedure, talking and acting like the Doctor for several moments before attempting to reassert his own mind. He tells Senta that the procedure was hard on him and needs rest. Senta agrees and leaves Jano alone in the lab with orders not to be disturbed.

Steven surprises a the guard at the city door and knocks him out when the light gun hits him in the eyes. Chal agrees to wait outside while Steven and Dodo enter the city to find the Doctor. Their entrance is monitored by Edal who orders the Doctor be placed at the end of the passage for them to find. Their transmissions are also monitored by Jano. Upon finding the Doctor, they attempt to lead him out of the city, but the Doctor merely shuffles about like a zombie. Edal orders the doors closed and the passageway flooded with gas. The gas renders the light guns inert and the group begins to choke on the gas.

Edal orders them to drop their guns and Dodo complies. Steven refuses and Jano, under the influence of the Doctor's mind, opens the door behind them. Dodo takes the Doctor out while the sudden rush of air, clears the passage of the gas, allowing Steven to fire his gun at Edal and his men. Steven retreats out through the door and Jano closes the door.

Edal prepares to go after the group and Jano declares that he will lead the patrol. He orders one set of guards to head to the TARDIS while the others head towards the caves. Steven and Dodo meet up with Chal and Chal and Dodo take the Doctor back to the caves. Steven stays behind to delay the patrol. He fires at the patrol from the undergrowth, scattering the guards and retreating steadily. Once Jano has a shot on Steven but declines to take it, his mind still struggling against the Doctor's.

Chal, Dodo and the Doctor arrive at the caves just as Tor is preparing to fight Nanina over the life of Exorse. Steven arrives with the guards directly behind him. They see Jano leading the patrol and Steven makes an effort to take him down. Suddenly the Doctor speaks, ordering Steven not to harm Jano. Steven complies and the group retreats in to the cave. Jano's patrol then breaks off the attack, but Jano stays behind.

The Doctor slowly begins to come around. He states that they cannot leave and leave the savages in their current state. He proposes to destroy the transference machine with help from inside the city. As darkness approaches, Jano enters the cave, just as the Doctor had told them he would. Jano, in taking the Doctor's vitality all to himself, has absorbed thoughts and grown a conscious. He agrees that they must change their ways and offers to help destroy the transference machine.

While Jano is talking, Exorse manages to free himself and flees into the jungle. Nanina follows and begs him not to betray them. She also points out that he owes her his life. Exorse acknowledges this but continues to the city.

Edal returns to the city and informs Senta of what happened. Senta believes Jano may have absorbed some of the Doctor's ideas and tells him and the other elders of the transference. Edal declares martial law and takes command. Exorse enters and informs them that he was captured but escaped. He also tells them that Jano was around but does not reveal Jano's plan. Edal is suspicious and orders Exorse taken away to be interrogated later.

Jano returns to the city with the Doctor and his companions as well as some of the savages posing as his prisoners. He denounces Edal and his attempt at seizing power and orders his arrest. Senta and the elders side with Jano and Edal is taken away. Once out of the room, Jano attempts to convince Senta to dismantle the transference machine. Senta is taken back by this and refuses. Jano then releases his "prisoners" and the group falls upon the machine and destroys it.

The guards burst in with Edal back in command and enraged at Jano's treason he prepares to shoot him. Steven however anticipates this and shoots Edal down instead. As the smoke clears from the destruction of the machine, Jano and Chal agree that they must have a neutral mediator to help both sides accept the other. They ask the Doctor to stay but he refuses. Chal then declares that Steven is the man they will accept. Jano, already in Steven's debt agrees. Steven protests but the Doctor insists that he is prepared to accept the challenges offered.

Steven agrees and after saying goodbye to the Doctor and a tearful Dodo, heads up to the main chamber to meet with both sides. Dodo asks if they will see him again and the Doctor offers a hope given the nature of their travels. He and Dodo then depart in the TARDIS.

Analysis

I must say that I was quite surprised by how much I liked this story. Generally when a story is generally overlooked by fans, you expect it to be more of the middling variety; something that doesn't sway people much one way or the other. Instead, I found this to be a very engaging and well acted story. There was tension as well as good action that actually translated fairly well to an audio only format and I'm sure looked pretty good on screen.

I must first praise the acting, especially of the Doctor. In the first episode and a half, he is very subtle. It would be easy to think him impressed and awed by the fawning attention he is getting. But there is a note in his voice indicating that he is well aware that something rotten is going on. He is certainly much more aware than Steven who is easily taken in by the wonders of the city. But the Doctor's best moments are his stands first again Edal and then Jano in defiance of their practices. It is an excellent denouncement of what they are doing. and very engaging. The Doctor has less to do in the following two episodes but what he does do is both well acted and entertaining. He is the Doctor who is in full command of the situation and he lets you know it.

Steven and Dodo do well here as well. Steven is a little off character in the first episode as he is normally not that trusting but he comes around as the proper man of action. Dodo is also engaging as she finally gets some proper spunk in her investigating as well as proper action sequences both with Steven and in helping the Doctor. She also has a nice emotional reaction in Steven's departure as someone clearly losing a good friend.

Most of the guest cast was pretty good. I especially enjoyed Jano both in his noble, yet barbaric mind but even more so when channeling the Doctor at the end of Episode Three. I found his impression to be quite impressive and I can imagine the bit of joking there was on set in his performance. The others were pretty good too, although I didn't really care for Tor. He seemed a bit too stereotypical young hothead and I didn't really buy his performance. There was no subtlety to it and his scenes mostly went nowhere except to create false tension that wasn't really needed.

Something else that is somewhat interesting is the carryover in production from the original title. It is fairly well known that the working title of this story was The White Savages, giving the impression that if that moniker is left off, the natural inclination toward savages is to imagine someone of non-Caucasian stock. More intelligent minds prevailed and the story was retitled. However it is interesting to note that all of the important players among the city dwellers are blacked up. Jano is the darkest but other characters are definitely wearing darker foundation than their natural skin tone. About the only ones who aren't are Avon, Flower, and Exorse. I am not sure if this was some sort of social commentary or if it was an expression of natural racism. In the end, it didn't bother me and if I hadn't been aware of the working title, I might not have paid much attention to it. Of course, the lack of moving pictures also helps to overlook it. If it were more visible, it might have stuck out more and perhaps affected my enjoyment of the story but I cannot say at this time.

One of the things that I found myself imagining with this story while watching it is that while the Doctor recovers from his vitality extraction, he loses a measure of his life to the machine. The First Doctor only lasts for an additional three stories before regenerating at the end of The Tenth Planet. I've not seen The Smugglers yet but in both The War Machines and The Tenth Planet, the First Doctor is clearly beginning to ail. Behinds the scenes, it is well known that the producer Innes Lloyd was actively working to both sideline and potentially replace William Hartnell. He gets a bit of a reprieve in both The Gunfighters and here, but throwing in a plot element about having part of your life sapped away to be playing in Lloyd's mind as another potential way of getting rid of Hartnell.

Unfortunately I can't speak to the production values too much for this story given that we can't see it. But the costuming and set design that we can see looks fairly decent. The helmets and light guns are a bit odd but that's pretty well par for the course in any 1960's Sci-Fi story. At the very least, nothing looked so odd or out of place that it distracted from the overall story.

One thing I do remember being brought up in a discussion of this story that I listened to was why the city dwellers didn't domesticate the savages and create less work for themselves. I think the answer is two-fold to that question. First, as anyone who works with animals will tell you, a wild animal will have more vitality and vigor than a domesticated one. This is even more true with animals that are not naturally domesticated and attempting to keep a group of humans locked away would probably diminish their overall vitality beyond what was needed. The Doctor and his companions would have been exceptions to this (and they were planning to keep them prisoner) but only because they got such a high yield of vitality from the Doctor and presumably would have from Steven and Dodo.

The second reason is actually alluded to in the story. While the people of the city had an idea of what was going on, they were clearly discouraged from discussing it and kept in the dark about the full nature of the procedures. This is demonstrated in Avon and Flower's evasiveness in answering Dodo's questions as well as trying to shield her from evidence of the truth. How much harder would it be to keep the people fully in the dark if a large farm of caged humans were kept nearby. What's more, continuous exposure to the savages would have risked exposing that they were not that different from the city dwellers and a genuine risk of savage rights activists might have appeared. Keeping the savages at a distance and letting them loom over as a threat to those who would go outside the city allowed the elders to maintain the fiction of their intellectual and cultural superiority over the masses as well as continue to encourage the idea that an armed state was necessary for defense.

On the whole, I enjoyed this one. I think it fair to say that I enjoyed it enough that I think I could sit through it again as a reconstruction and enjoy it. Obviously I'd prefer to see it fully realized and if it does manage to come back, I'd be happy to sit through it a second time. There are a couple of niggles outside of the limitations of it being a recon that knocked it down a touch but on the whole, this was a good one and unfortunately overlooked.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5