The Aztecs

You can't change history, not one line!

The Aztecs is one of those stories that I set aside for special purpose. It was the second full story I ever saw after The Masque of Mandragora and it was quite jarring as I had only been exposed to pre-Romana Fourth Doctor stories at that point. You can imagine that going from those to the slow paced, full historical story where the Doctor takes a backseat to both Barbara and Ian was a real shock to the system. It didn't sit that well and I had a rather negative opinion of the story ever since. However, having gotten used to the style of the First Doctor stories, I wanted to give this one another chance and thought it fitting that I should close out the First Doctor with the first story of his that I ever saw.

Plot Summary

The TARDIS arrives in the tomb of an Aztec priest named Yetaxa. Susan examines the mummified body, takes a bracelet off and puts it on. Susan walks back to see the Doctor and Ian while Barbara passes through a hidden door. She is discovered by the priest Autloc who sees her bracelet and believes she is the manifestation of the goddess Yetaxa.

The Doctor, Susan and Ian find Barbara missing and go look for her. They pass through the same hidden door and find that it is a one way door, leaving them trapped outside the tomb and away from the TARDIS. They are also discovered by Autloc who takes them to Barbara. Autloc believes that Barbara has come to alleviate a drought that has plagued them and attends to her. His colleague, Tlotoxl, is more suspicious of them.

Barbara keeps Susan near her as a handmaiden while Ian the Doctor are free to go about the city. The Doctor is taken to the gardens where the older citizens relax and offer wisdom when asked. There the Doctor meets Cameca who knows the son of the man who built the tomb in which Yetaxa is buried. The Doctor asks to meet this man in hopes of finding an entrance back in.

Ian is taken and dressed as a warrior chief as he is the favored of Yetaxa. He is also introduced to Ixta, who will be his rival to decide who is to command the whole army. Tlotoxl informs both of them that they will hold down the man who is to be sacrificed to appease the rain god later that day. Ian then goes to the garden where he warns the Doctor of what is going to happen.

Concerned, the Doctor warns Ian to not interfere and then heads up to see Barbara and warn her to do the same. Horrified, Barbara decides to interfere in hopes that she can destroy this side of the Aztecs and keep their good qualities, potentially preserving them from destruction by the Spanish. She steps out and orders the sacrifice stopped before Tlotoxl can kill the man. Believing he has been dishonored, the sacrifice appeals to Tlotoxl who orders him to throw himself off the pyramid. As he does so, the rain begins to fall.

Angered at Susan's cry during the ceremony, Tlotoxl orders her punished. Barbara overrules him and orders Susan sent to be educated in the customs of the Aztecs. Tlotoxl then accuses Barbara of being a false goddess and vows to destroy her. The Doctor reproaches Barbara for her foolishness and then warns her to play Tlotoxl and Autloc off each other, which she does to buy time.

In the city below, Ian demonstrates cunning and superior knowledge by knocking out Ixta using only a pressure grip technique. Angered by this humiliation, Ixta and Tlotoxl plot revenge by having Ixta kill Ian in single combat. They arrange for the next man to be sacrificed to the gods to request the battle and his request cannot be refused by law. Ian agrees, thinking it will be a non-lethal fight.

Ixta, as the son of the man who built the tomb, is summoned by Cameca to speak with the Doctor. Having been warned by Tlotoxl, Ixta agrees to provide the Doctor with plans of the tomb after his fight. He warns the Doctor that if he loses, he will be shamed and not allowed to speak to anyone for days. The Doctor, unaware that the fight is against Ian, takes a cactus needle and punctures the stem of a plant with it. The sap coats the needle and the Doctor tells Ixta to simply poke his opponent with the needle in the wrist and he will become woozy, allowing Ixta to win easily.

The Doctor heads back to see Barbara, unaware that Tlotoxl had invoked solitude for Barbara during her godhood testing. Barbara warns the Doctor to leave but not before telling him that Ixta's fight is against Ian. The Doctor rushes to warn Ian but is arrested by Tlotoxl's men. Barbara appeals to Autloc who agrees to release him if he was ignorant.

Ian and Ixta begin their fight at sunset. Ian drops Ixta several times but he gets up to reengage. The Doctor is brought in by the guards and he shouts to Ian to warn him. Distracted, Ian lets his guard down, allowing Ixta to stab him with the tainted needle. Ixta gets the drop on a drugged Ian and prepares to kill him. Barbara enters and demands that the contest stop. Tlotoxl refuses and orders Ixta to kill Ian until Barbara takes a knife and holds it to Tlotoxl's throat. Barbara states that if Ian dies, so will Tlotoxl and he orders Ixta to relent.

Autloc orders the Doctor released and he and Barbara retire to the temple. Ixta crows over Ian as he wakes up and Ian reluctantly admits that Ixta's plan was cunning. Ixta claims Ian's friendship but also vows to ultimately kill him to claim mastery of the army. Ixta also informs Tlotoxl of his arrangement with the Doctor, which was a lie as his father left no plans of the temple. As Ixta and Ian walk away, Ian overhears Tlotoxl plotting with the master of herbs Tonila to test Barbara via poison as poison would not hurt a god. Ian gets away from Ixta and warns Barbara in the temple.

Ian hides as he is not supposed to be there when Tlotoxl and Tonila enter with a cup offering atonement and friendship. Ian signals silently for her not to drink it and she offers it to Tlotoxl first as a test of his loyalty to her. When he refuses, she tosses it aside and rebukes them. Tonila runs away but Tlotoxl cowers. Barbara then confesses to him that she is not Yetaxa but will continue to play so to protect herself and her friends. Tlotoxl flees and vows to get proof of her lack of divinity.

In the garden, the Doctor sees Cameca with some cocoa beans and offers to make them drinking chocolate. Cameca, pleased, agrees to his proposal. The Doctor returns with two cups of chocolate which they share. Cameca then thanks him for his proposal and the Doctor realizes that the act was that of a marriage proposal. Flustered by what he has accidentally done, the Doctor still manages to learn from Cameca that Ixta's father disappeared a number of years ago after finishing the temple. He later informs Ian that he believes that there is a secret passage from the garden to the tomb and has a guess as to where it is located. Ian agrees to come that night to investigate.

Knowing that Barbara is too cunning, Tlotoxl decides to use her friends against her. He takes the man who is to be sacrificed during the solar eclipse a couple of days from now and takes him to see Susan, who is being educated in the customs of the Aztecs. The sacrifice is impressed with her knowledge and beauty and agrees to take her as his wife for the next few days of his life. Susan balks and refuses. Offended, the sacrifice storms out and Susan is deemed guilty of breaking religious law and sentenced to be punished.

Tlotoxl and Tonila go to see Barbara where Barbara forgives Tonila of his attempt to poison her. They pose the question of punishment to her regarding one of Autloc's acolytes, not revealing that it is Susan. Horrified at the nature of the punishment, Barbara objects and orders the person brought to her during the sacrifice of the eclipse along with her three servants. Tlotoxl readily agrees. Afterwards, Barbara learns from Autloc that Susan is the guilty party and that her punishment is to be carried out before the sacrifice, thwarting her plan of showing that the sun will return after the eclipse without the sacrifice.

Ian slips out of the warrior's quarters at night to meet the Doctor. He is unaware that Ixta has also awoken and is following him. The Doctor shows Ian the panel and Ian manages to lift the stone, revealing a passage. Ian climbs in, taking the Doctor's penlight to explore the passage. Ixta surprises the Doctor and offers to help him replace the stone, which the Doctor claims to have discovered while out for a walk. Ixta informs him that the passage is a means to divert water and tunnel floods on occasion. As he replaces the stone, Ian notices the water rising in the tunnel.

Ian dislodges a stone with graffiti on it and climbs out of the rising water. He follows a passage and emerges from the bier in the tomb where the TARDIS has landed. He takes a thin decorative rope from the mummified body and ties it to the fulcrum of the trick door, allowing the door to be opened from the outside. He takes the other end of the rope and exits the tomb to meet Barbara and the Doctor, who is greatly relieved to see Ian alive.

Ian then sneaks down to the military quarters where Ixta is guarding Susan and boasting about killing Ian. Ian knocks him out and takes Susan back to Barbara. However, although Ian tied the rope well, it takes more strength than they have to lift it. The Doctor realizes they need a pulley but suggests that Ian just go back and reopen the tomb from the other side. He takes Susan as a lookout.

Ian and Susan reach the gardens but before they can move the stone, they find an unconscious Autloc having been attacked from behind with Ian's club. Ian and Susan are immediately arrested by Tlotoxl and Ixta, though Ixta actually attacked Autloc on Tlotoxl's orders, and Autloc proclaims Barbara a false goddess, giving Tlotoxl permission to have them punished before the eclipse ceremony.

Barbara appeals to Autloc once he has recovered, but his faith has been destroyed. He offers to try and save Susan but cannot do anything for Ian. He then goes to see Cameca, who has learned that the Doctor is planning to leave, though regretfully. She offers her help and Autloc gives her his badge of office and title to his possessions to help bribe the guard to free Susan. Autloc then leaves the city to wander in the wilderness to find his faith again.

On the day of the eclipse sacrifice Ian and Susan are taken to a waiting room. Cameca enters and offers the guard the badge to dismiss the guards which he does. She then informs him that she is to take Susan but Ian knocks the guard out while distracted. Susan and Cameca head up to the temple while Ian steals the guard's headdress and joins the sacrifice escort.

Cameca meets the Doctor in the temple where he is finishing a pulley he carved to open the door. He and Cameca say their goodbyes with the Doctor remaining stoic when Cameca asks if she could come with him. He and Susan hide when the guards come to escort Barbara for the sacrifice. Tlotoxl moves to kill Barbara but Ian comes from behind and pins Tlotoxl and his knife.

Tlotoxl calls for Ixta and he flees when Ian faces the new threat. Barbara retreats into the temple and the three of them use the pulley to start opening the door. Ian and Ixta fight with Ian eventually knocking Ixta off the temple, killing him. He then retreats through the door which the Doctor pulls shut, taking the pulley with them.

Tlotoxl moves to try and chase them but the eclipse reaches it's peak and he calls it off to perform the sacrifice, which he believes honors his victory over the false goddess. In the tomb, the Doctor comforts Barbara that the Aztec civilization must die as history says it did but that she did save Autloc from sharing that fate. They enter the TARDIS with the Doctor initially leaving the broach Cameca gave him but then changing his mind and taking it with him.

Analysis

The Aztecs was definitely much better a second time around, but it is still not without some issues. Some of those elements are just products of being a first season story (such as the city-scape backdrop), but there are a number of other things that are conscious choices by the actors or director and some of them just don't quite work.

One of the most basic things to discuss about this story is that it is one of the few stories where the bad guy wins. Tlotolx does not succeed in killing Barbara or Ian, but he does drive them away and Autloc retreats to the wilderness, leaving him free to replace Autloc with someone loyal to him. I think the villain of just about any story would be thrilled with that outcome. Of course, you also have to factor in that even though Tlotoxl is villainous in his actions, he is also right. He is right that Barbara is a false goddess and that she is wrong to try and change their culture via fiat. Distasteful as the Aztec practice of sacrifice may be to Barbara's modern sensibilities, it is still a vital component of their culture and to try and change it while leaving the other aspects alone will not work. If one changes, other changes will radiate outward. This might have been a touch more satisfying if Tlotoxl wasn't quite so sinister in his ways. If he merely moved to expose Barbara and preserve their culture, he would have been more understandable. But Tlotoxl does go out of his way to be as black a character as he can be.

Some of that comes from the take on Tlotoxl. I doubt he was fully written this way so there must have been some discussion between the director and the actor to turn him into Richard III. Tlotoxl even has a hump when none is ever called for so this was a clear choice made outside of the script. I'm of a mixed mind on it because while I enjoyed the performance for the most part, it did feed into one of my principle complaints about the overall story and that was it's treatment as a televised play.

Nearly every aspect of this story put this into more of a play dynamic rather than a regular television story. Tlotoxl has a breaking the fourth wall moment at the end of Episode One, he hams it up the way you would expect in a performance of Richard III and even the staging reminded me strongly of scene i to scene ii transition. Again, the backdrop didn't help much either, but I expected that level of limitation. Of course, they were still finding their feet, but a television story that does little things to remind you that this is staged takes me out of the action far more than it draws me in.

Like most early stories, Ian is front and center in this one. He is "man of action" the whole way and much of the plots and plans require his central involvement. Of course, he also draws a lot of the drama to himself as well. Ixta is an asshole but Ian also goes out of his way to constantly bait him. I'm actually not even sure why Ian constantly does draw attention since he should be trying to deflect attention from himself and Barbara as much as possible. Yet he shows off the ability to disable a man using pressure point techniques (which I doubt the British Army taught to it's National Service members) and also spends far too much time toying with Ixta rather than dispatching him immediately. In the fight at the end of Episode Two, Ian manages to drop Ixta several times, always letting him up to try again until he manages to sting Ian with the cactus needle. Ian, for showing off that technique, should have held Ixta down the first time he flipped him and knocked him out, ending the fight in thirty seconds. Yet it goes on so we can get the cliffhanger. I like Ian and he is important but this is probably the most arrogant and silly we've seen him so far and that is a bit out of character.

Barbara is also somewhat out of character, though she is clearly meant to be shown as empathetic. Still, Barbara is smart enough to know that one can't just cancel out one aspect of a culture and expect the "good side" flourish in the absence of the "bad side." What's more, even if she had succeeded, did she still expect that a flourishing culture would have resisted Cortez's invasion? This is drama to create drama and I don't believe that Barbara would have made such foolish decisions in a vacuum. Nevertheless, her performance is quite good and it allows the further development of the respectful relationship she has with the Doctor. Ian and Susan might have been highly berated by him, but although he does lecture, he does show more empathy towards her and talks softly in how they may work to fix the problem. I do also enjoy the performance she gives when she is in complete control of the situation and not held to any standards that might have affected her earlier situations.

The Doctor is actually rather pleasant in this one. Susan is taken away for two episodes and even when she is around, she is in either Ian or Barbara's company, leaving the Doctor to do as he likes. Despite his ulterior motives in trying to get access to the tomb and back to the TARDIS, his affection for Cameca seems genuine. His comedic reactions when finding out he has actually proposed marriage are quite funny and add some much needed levity to the story as everyone else is very serious. But it is still one of his most pleasant performances and although his involvement is less than future Doctors (as what caught me off guard the first time I saw it) he is still very much involved in the whole plot.

Susan was again the weakest of the group. Carole Ann Ford was on holiday for Episodes Two and Three so her two short scenes were filmed inserts. While she showed herself as independent, expressing the modern idea of choosing a partner for herself, she still went to pieces when confronted with a minor bit of resistance. It makes her whiney and she does effectively nothing in the plan to get back into the tomb. She actually is a liability since it is her punishment for expressing the modern ideas that draw Barbara further into Tlotoxl's plans to destroy her. Once again, the story would have been better without her.

The direction was pretty decent although the lack of space in the studio becomes apparent in the fight scenes, especially the one at the end of Episode Two. But aside from the problem with the fight scene, the pace and manner of the direction was pretty good. Again, there were those play moments, such as the fourth wall break at the end of Episode One, but even with that in mind, there was nothing that I caught as being a problem.

Overall, I'd say this was pretty decent but with some small flaws. It is a bit slow to get started but once the plan to get back into the tomb is set in motion towards the end of Episode Two, the story rolls along and draws you in. Unlike other stories, the end doesn't feel rushed and that is appreciated. So it's only real limitations is the play-like aspect and the somewhat unsatisfying feeling of Tlotoxl winning. Even though it's necessary, Tlotoxl getting some level of comeuppance would have been satisfying. Yes Ixta's death felt satisfying, but a setback for Tlotoxl would have felt better. Perhaps if it were clearer that Cortez would be landing in a short span of time and that Tlotoxl would be destroyed through him, that would have sat better, but it's unfortunately vague on how soon it will be before the Spanish invade. So I think I can say that it's a decent story, but not fully satisfying at times.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5

The Web Planet

Come along! Drop this hairdryer or whatever it is.

The Web Planet is another of those stories that is talked about a great deal in how one has to try and look past the production design to see the story beneath. I have to say that doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence, but I've been surprised before. This also happens to be the last First Doctor story that I have not watched. I've one more to review after this but it was also both the first First Doctor story I saw and the first classic story I saw in it's entirety after The Mask of Mandragora so I made a point of saving it for last. So feels a bit strange to know that I'm effectively done with the William Hartnell era given how much of the overall archive he takes up.

Plot Summary

The TARDIS is pulled by a strong force to an alien planet. The Doctor attempts to break free by supplying more power but it fails to work. As he does, insectoid aliens emerge and communicate with each other using high frequency. The high frequencies are painful to Vicki and she passes out.

Barbara sees to Vicki while the Doctor and Ian head out to investigate the power drain. Before giving her a sedative, Barbara shows Vicki a gold bracelet given to her by Nero with a promise to tell her about their Roman adventure later. As Vicki drifts off, Barbara feels her arm tugging involuntarily away from her towards the outside.

The Doctor begins to examine the rocks and surrounding area but Ian becomes unnerved when his gold pen disappears out of his hand. They continue to explore, finding an old pyramid structure and something that looks like a pool of water. The Doctor tests it with Ian's tie and finds it filled with acid.

Barbara is pulled by her arm until she slips into a trance and walks out of the TARDIS. Vicki wakes and finds Barbara missing and the doors open. She calls out for her and the echo alerts the Doctor and Ian. They rush back towards the TARDIS but Ian is trapped in webbing. He tells the Doctor to go on. Vicki panics and begins to try and make the TARDIS dematerialize but only succeeds in closing the doors. The Doctor arrives back at the spot and finds the TARDIS gone.

The Doctor goes back and frees Ian from the webbing, reviving him from a stunned state. The Doctor informs Ian of the TARDIS's disappearance but they find evidence that it was dragged away and follow the trail. After walking for a bit, they come across a chrysalis and the Doctor realizes they are on the planet Vortis. He is confused though as Vortis was not supposed to have a moon but several objects can be seen in the sky.

Barbara walks in a trance until she is taken by a moth-like creature called a Menoptra. The creature removes the gold bracelet from her arm and Barbara wakes up. Two other Menoptra debate on whether to kill her, fearing that she will betray their presence to the Zarbi, the ant-like creatures that created the chirping. Barbara manages to get away but runs into a couple of Zarbi who re-hypnotize her with a gold collar. The Zarbi overrun the Menoptra hideout, killing two of the Menoptra but leaving Barbara and the third alive.

Another group of Zarbi bring the TARDIS into their lair where Vicki emerges and is captured. A Zarbi attempts to enter the TARDIS as Vicki left the door open but that seems to put it in great pain. It's cries attract Ian and the Doctor, who shuts the door of the TARDIS. Vicki and Ian are restrained while the Doctor is placed in a cylinder that communicates with him.

A voice in the cylinder accuses them of being agents for the invading Menoptra and tries to destroy the TARDIS. The attack fails and the Doctor counters with an offer to assist in finding the Menoptra fleet with his star charts. The voice agrees, allowing the Doctor access to the TARDIS. Inside, the Doctor devises a plan to stall the voice while Ian goes to find Barbara, who has been taken to the Crater of Needles.

The Doctor pulls out his charts but informs the voice that he cannot search due to the defenses raised. The voice reluctantly agrees to a lowering in the area which allows Ian to work his way though the webbing. The Doctor picks up traffic signals from the Menoptra fleet and hones in on their signal. Meanwhile, Ian is detected and alarm is raised. He manages to get free where he is rescued by a Menoptra. The voice is angry with the Doctor but he plays coy with the information on the Menoptra fleet and it is unwilling to risk losing that information.

Ian learns that the Menoptra, whose name is Vrestin, was stunned in the attack which captured Barbara but escaped. He also learns that the Menoptra and Zarbi lived in peace on Vortis until a force called the Animus came and brainwashed the Zarbi, who are of a lower intelligence level. The Menoptra were driven off the planet to a recently captured moon but now are prepared to fight to drive the Animus away and reclaim Vortis.

Ian and Vrestin travel towards the Crater of Needles to free Barbara and other Menoptra who have been captured. They are pursued by the Zarbi and they hide in a rock crevasse. There is a cave in and Ian and Vrestin fall through a hole into an underground cavern. They are captured by a group of creatures calling themselves Optera. They are fearful of Ian and Vrestin since they are surface dwellers and threaten to kill them. Ian however realizes that the Optera are descendants of Menoptera who fled underground. At the mention of Menoptra, the Optera react as they are worshiped as gods. Vrestin unfurls her wings and requests that the Optera help her and Ian.

At the Crater of Needles, Barbara toils along with several other Menoptra, who've had their wings ripped off, including Hrostar, who was captured with her. They pour vegetation into pools of acid to feed the Animus. Hrostar also informs Barbara of a fleet of Menoptra who are to arrive at the crater to attack the Animus. He is fearful if the Zarbi are aware as their weapons were designed to attack the Animus and not the Zarbi.

Back at the hive, the Doctor's attempts to stall the Animus are making it more angry. It has the Zarbi replace the gold collar on Vicki though the Doctor is able to buy more time with a partial location of the invading fleet. Once the collar is off, the Doctor attempts to short circuit the collar by hooking it up to the projector. The projector short circuits and the Animus finally has enough. It replaces the collar on Vicki and it pulls the exact location of the fleet from the Doctor. With that information, it dispatches the Zarbi and places the Doctor under the same golden collar.

At the end of a work shift, Barbara and Hrostar notice the Zarbi massing towards the attack point of the Menoptra. Fearing for the attack's safety, they attack the lone Zarbi guards, overwhelming them. They make their way up to the top and meet with the initial invasion force. They warn them to leave but they refuse having already been committed. The Zarbi attack and the group is scattered with several rushing into a cave for shelter.

In the cave, they find only one of the original Menoptra attack has escaped along with several de-winged Menoptra. The survivor is despondent but Hrostar rallies them and turns to Barbara for help. They decide to go ahead and try to carry out the attack on the Animus as planned with the isotope weapon the attack force carried.

Also within the tunnels, Ian and Vrestan take command of a group of Optera who are willing to help them. Their group also begins to work its way along the tunnels toward the source of the Animus to try and defeat it. They find their way to cave and break off stalactites to dig their way through a portion where poisonous gas is leaking. One of the Optera uncovers a vein of acid and sacrifices herself by plugging the hole with her body. The others manage to dig a hole and they push further up the tunnels.

At the hive Vicki watches out until the Zarbi are distracted. Her collar had been successfully shorted by the Doctor and she removes his working one. He comes around and forms a new plan with Vicki. One of the Zarbi leave the room and as the second one passes, the Doctor takes the collar and places it around the Zarbi's neck. The collar blocks the Animus' control and it becomes docile, allowing the Doctor to control it with his ring. The Doctor bids it to follow them and uses it as cover to make it look like they are being escorted out. The Doctor and Vicki then make their way with the Zarbi towards the Crater of Needles.

Barbara and the Menoptra make plans in their hiding place when the Doctor, Vicki and the captured Zarbi enter. Together they form a plan where the Doctor and Vicki will take the isotope weapon and try to smuggle it in to the Animus. Barbara and the Menoptra will create a diversion, drawing out the Zarbi and then come in to help the Doctor. The Doctor reluctantly gives his ring to the Menoptra to control the Zarbi as they will be more useful in the attack.

The Doctor and Vicki return to the hive but the Animus has them seized and bound in webbing. It communicates with the Doctor, informing him that for his escape attempt, they will be brought to it and dealt with. Vicki, not hearing this and fearful of capture, hides the isotope weapon in the astral projector. They are then taken to the center of the hive where the Animus blinds them with light and ensnares them in it's roots to absorb their knowledge.

Barbara and the Menoptra successfully draw out the Zarbi, though Hrostar is killed in the feint. With most of the Zarbi out and hunting them, the group makes their way into the hive where they find the TARDIS and the projector. They try to use it to contact the Menoptra fleet but find it isn't working. Checking it, Barbara finds the isotope weapon and the group heads to the center to assist the Doctor.

Ian, Vrostar and the lead Optera find a mesh of roots leading upward at the end of the tunnel. The three climb up though Ian quickly outpaces the other two. As he does so, Barbara and the Menoptra enter the Animus' cavern. It stops it's work on the Doctor and Vicki and attacks this new group. Barbara activates the isotope weapon but cannot get close enough to properly use it. Ian however emerges from a pit just below, distracting the Animus further. Barbara crawls forward and levels the weapon at the heart of the Animus. The radiation kills the creature and the light and resistance fade.

With the Animus gone, the Zarbi return to their docile state and underground streams poke their way back to the surface. Vrostar signals the Menoptra fleet of their victory and instructs them to land. The Optera are also encouraged to come back to the surface where their children may develop wings again and fly as the Menoptra do. With things returning to normal, the Doctor and his party depart in the TARDIS, after the Doctor has recollected his ring.

Analysis

There is a kernel of a good story here, but overall the thing is too bloated, too slow paced and the production is just a bit too far for me to fully take. I think we can applaud taking the risk of doing something this experimental and in the hands of a better director, it might have worked. Here, it just falls a bit flat.

All of the insects had some level of flaw but if things had been directed a bit better, they might have gone alright. Probably the best example of this is the Zarbi. We had seen the use of large ants before with Planet of Giants and although they didn't move as they were dead, there was an acceptable suspension of disbelief with them. Here, that suspension was a bit too much to swallow whenever the human legs of the Zarbi controllers were seen. It worked much better in the few shots where the Zarbi are low enough that these legs are not seen. Then you believe them as giant ants. But when the shots include the whole mass, you see human legs manipulating while the six ant legs just hang out in mid-air. That's a level of disbelief that no one can overcome. I suppose they might have hoped that the smeared lenses might have masked that, but again, the director did nothing to aid the situation by often getting things directly lined up so that the legs were right there.

The smeared lens themselves didn't bother me as I respected the effort to make it look like the atmosphere was different. I think it actually helped with some of the insect effects, which might have been the point. As for the other insects, I didn't have any problem with the Menoptra. I thought those costumes worked fairly well and the wing design was nice. I didn't care for the constant hand movement but that was a minor distraction. The Optera on the other hand were most irritating. They have six legs shown but they just hop around. I also didn't like the stunted, almost pidgin-English they were speaking. I'm guessing it was to make them seem more primitive (like Tonto) but it just came across as labored and annoying.

There are some other issues that were of the director's purview and I'm curious as to whether he could have altered them or not. There is a lot of background noise in this story. Some is obvious and very difficult to alter, like the clank of feet on the boards. That's a problem in a lot of stories and it's something that you learn to tune out. But there are a few instances of other people talking or making sounds off-stage as well as a few other instances of things bumping into cameras or shots including things that should be offstage. It's just looks and sounds like an amateur production and instead of pumping up the story, it downgrades it.

One thing I can say from a positive point of view is about the actors themselves. I thought everyone did well, even the guest cast when they were clearly not given much to work with. The Doctor was pretty good and I think the sheen of The Romans is still on him as he is rather light-hearted throughout the story, even at dire points. His only moments of hardness are when he is looking out for Vicki and at times, even when threatened by the Animus, he seems almost playful. I would have liked to not be the damsel in distress at the end but he did a lot to set up things so I can't quibble too much with that.

Of the four principles, I would argue the Vicki draws the short straw. She doesn't do a whole lot through most of the story and seems a little more paralyzed by fear than in other stories. Granted, she comes out of it in the second half but that is a bit of a slow development. Her rescue of the Doctor from the golden collar is about the only real action she gets. She does hide the isotope device but it's more of a lucky chance that Barbara recovers it and not any significant foresight on her part. On a more visceral level, I also have to say that I didn't care for Vicki's haircut, but that's rather petty.

Ian and Barbara traded roles through the story. Barbara didn't get much to do while Ian was his typical action man in the first half, though some of that is due to the fact that Jacqueline Hill was on vacation in Episode Three. However starting in Episode Four, the tables are turned. Ian fades into the background and Barbara jumps to the fore. It is Barbara the makes the plans and she is the one that delivers the killing blow against the Animus. William Russell never actually went on vacation but I think that if his scenes had been pre-filmed, he could have easily taken a week off with a minimum of effort on the show's part.

The trade off in Ian and Barbara's strength is reflective of certain flaws in the story. This is a bloated story, something that the writer probably envisioned being four or five episodes but was told to make it six. This meant that instead of having Ian and Vrostar reunite with Barbara and form a combined Menoptra force, we are given the Optera. Yet the Optera do nothing. They refrain from killing Ian and Vrostar and they lead Ian back to where the Animus is, resulting in the death of one of their own. It's very reminiscent of the Thals taking Ian and Barbara for a real attack on the Dalek city in The Daleks, but in that case, you got to know the Thals and they were vital in the overall attack. Here, the Optera are just shoved in and do nothing except act as guides. Ian himself does almost nothing except add to the distraction which allows Barbara to deliver the killing blow and the Optera don't even make it to the surface until the Animus is dead. They do nothing and add nothing and could easily have been cut.

Much of the back and forth could also have been cut as well. The Doctor and Vicki didn't need to find Barbara, especially as Barbara carried the isotope weapon into battle anyway. There are at least two different rallying speeches given before the various parties foray into battle and neither one is really needed. They give a little character depth but are just there for padding. Remove all that superfluous stuff and I think this would have been a tight and fairly action-packed four part story with the interesting twist of it being bugs rather than the random primitives that we get in several other stories.

If you carve away the fat, there is some interesting writing. I think the Doctor has good moments as well as Barbara. I think the characters of Vrostar and Hrostar were reasonably well done and portrayed well, even if they get into a bit too much exposition. I even think the Animus was a decent villain, a dark force that was partially plant like but not truly explained. It only mattered that it was evil and it had control over the Zarbi. Perhaps a little simple but in a story about overthrowing an evil dictator, why give that much depth to the villain? Again, there is potential in this story that is lost in its execution.

I applaud the ambition of this story, but the first major problem is that it should have been given to an innovative director rather than someone who was more of a point and shoot director. He had moments but this story needed more imagination that he was able to give. The second is the bloat. I would imagine that for the money that had to be poured into the sets and costumes, a minimum of six parts was demanded. So the fat is added and that drags this story down immensely. It does not have enough depth to justify anything other than a revolutionary action story and slowing it down only makes the flaws and limitations of the production values stand out that much more. I would not call it the worst First Doctor story, but it is a slog to get through and it's easy to find your mind wandering rather than keeping an eye on the screen.

Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5

The Daleks

Make no attempt to capture the prisoners. They are to be exterminated!

This is the story that really kicked things off. Whatever one thinks of An Unearthly Child now, it didn't really grab the public in ways that the BBC wanted. It was the following story that grabbed the public attention and kicked off Dalekmania. Of course, this story is also known for being heavily padded and of the First Doctor still being in his crotchety mode. But can the story as a whole rise up and still be entertaining to a modern audience?

Plot Summary

The Doctor and crew arrive on an alien planet, unaware that the radiation meter has crept up into the danger zone. They exit the TARDIS and find themselves in a petrified jungle where the trees have been turned into brittle stone. The explore a bit more and discover a city over the ridge which also seems devoid of life. The Doctor wants to explore it but cannot due to the approach of dark. The group heads back to the TARDIS. On the way, Susan is touched on the shoulder by an alien hand. She panics and lurches back to the group but both the Doctor and Ian believe that she imagined it.

Inside the TARDIS, Susan mopes a bit though Barbara telling her that she believes her comforts her some. The Doctor treats Ian and Barbara to some food but their meal is interrupted by a knocking sound outside. They turn on the scanner but find nothing there. Unnerved, the other three insist on leaving. Annoyed, the Doctor starts to take off but he loosens the fluid link below the console. The TARDIS fails to take off and he claims to just discover the fault. He also claims that they will have to refill the fluid link with mercury and the only place to find it will be the city.

In the morning they prepare to head down to the city and find a box containing glass vials filled with fluid. Susan puts them in the TARDIS and they set out. They reach the city some time later, all of them starting to suffer from radiation sickness. They split up to explore and Barbara becomes separated by a series of closing doors. She is trapped in an elevator and when it opens, she is captured by an unseen creature.

When Barbara fails to return to the rendezvous point, the other three go to look for her. In the city, they find scientific equipment monitoring the radiation levels and realize that they're suffering from radiation sickness. The Doctor also admits that the fluid link works fine but the Doctor made up the story about needing mercury because he wanted to visit the city. They leave the room but find themselves surrounded by Daleks. The Daleks order them to move but Ian tries to make a break for it. The Daleks shoot him, temporarily paralyzing him from the waist down. The Daleks make the Doctor and Susan drag Ian into a cell where Barbara had already been taken.

Believing the Doctor and his party to be Thals, their planetary enemy, the Daleks pull the Doctor out and interrogate him. The Doctor learns about the neutron war between the Daleks and the Thals while the Daleks realize that the Doctor is not actually a Thal. They also learn that he might have anti-radiation chemicals which the Daleks believe they will need if they are ever to leave the city. They tell the Doctor that one of their party may go to the TARDIS to get the chemicals while the rest stay as hostages.

Ian wants to go but the feeling in his legs has not fully come back and both the Doctor and Barbara are starting to suffer from the advanced stages of the radiation sickness. Ultimately, Susan goes and despite some frights, makes it back to the TARDIS and collects the vials. Upon leaving the TARDIS, she meets a Thal called Alydon. He tells her that he left the chemicals for them and gives her a second box upon learning that they are currently being held by the Daleks.

As Susan returns, the Daleks change their minds about letting the humans die as they might have some value. They seize one of the boxes but allow Susan to keep the second and she distributes the chemical to everyone, allowing them to return to full health. She tells the other three that the Thals have been forced to leave their settlement due to drought and are currently looking for food. They hope to sign a peace treaty with the Daleks in exchange for food. The Daleks overhear this and decide to set a trap to destroy the Thals.

Susan is pulled from her cell and told to write a letter to the Thals including promises of food and mutual cooperation. Susan realizes that the Daleks have been monitoring their conversations in the cell but believes they are sincere in their talk of a truce. However the Doctor is not so convinced and decides they must take action to escape.

The Doctor and Ian stage a fight where Susan leaps on Ian's back and while elevated, destroys the camera watching them. The Daleks suspect it was deliberate but opt to leave them alone. Free to talk, the Doctor figures out that the Daleks are drawing power via static electricity in the floor. They figure that if they can get a Dalek on to the plastic cloak Alydon gave Susan, it will kill the power to the Dalek.

When a Dalek enters to bring them food, Ian jams the door. The Dalek reenters and Barbara blinds it with mud made from dirt that adhered to Susan's shoe. Ian and the Doctor then drag the Dalek onto the cloak where it goes inert. They pull out the mutant inside and Ian climbs in the casing. He then escorts them down the hall and into the elevator as though taking them to the council.

After the main door closes, the trio tries to get Ian out but he find the latch stuck. Meanwhile a passing Dalek informed the council of the prisoners approach and learns that this was actually an escape attempt. The alarm is sounded and other Daleks come and begin to cut through the door. The trio is sent up the elevator while Ian tries to get out. Upon reaching the surface, the Doctor sends the elevator back for Ian, who just manages to get out and in the elevator before the Daleks break through and destroy his casing.

The Daleks pursue them up the elevator but Barbara and Susan send a large rock down the shaft and destroy the elevator and the pursing Dalek. They also spy a group of Thals coming to meet with the Daleks. Unable to get their attention, Ian goes to warn the Thals while the Doctor and the women make their way back to the TARDIS.

The Thal leader, Temmosus, enters the room and offers the Daleks peace. As he begins to invite the other Thals in, Ian leaps out and yells that it's a trap. The Daleks emerge from their hiding places and kill Temmosus. They shoot at Ian and the retreating Thals but only succeed in wounding a couple of them.

Back at the TARDIS, the group prepares to leave but they discover that the fluid link is still in the city as the Daleks had taken it from Ian. Knowing that they will have to fight the Daleks, they try to convince the Thals to fight with them. Alydon, who has become the new leader, refuses until Ian spurs him to anger by suggesting he could get what he needs by trading a woman Alydon fancies, Dyoni, to the Daleks. Alydon knows it's a trick but he attacks Ian anyway and realizes that fighting and dying would be better than living in meager cowardice.

Back in the Dalek city, the Daleks begin to distribute their replication of the Thal's anti-radiation drugs. However, the drug begins to kill the Daleks and they cease implementation. They counteract the drugs with more radiation exposure and most of the Daleks recover. They decide that since radiation levels on the planet are steadily dropping, they must introduce more radiation to the planet and prepare to set off a new neutron bomb.

Alydon, the Doctor, Ian, and another Thal named Ganatus devise a two part attack plan. Ganatus and a group of the Thals with Ian and Barbara will travel through the swamps at the rear of the city and sneak in through the mountains to catch the Daleks by surprise. The Doctor, Susan, Alydon and the rest of the Thals will distract and disrupt the Daleks with feinting tactics at the front of the city. After three days, they will attack the front and meet in the middle.

Gantus leads his group through the swamps where they discover pipes leading from the lake to the city. Figuring the Daleks are pumping their water from the lake, the decide to follow the pipes. However, one of the Thals is attacked and sucked under the lake while filling the water bags.

The remaining group enters the mountain caves a treks through. Ganatus' brother, Antodus, becomes increasingly fearful and wants to turn back. Ganatus tries to restrain him but a sudden cave-in causes both men to fall back. The cave-in blocks their escape and the group presses forward knowing it's their only way out.

Distracting the Dalek cameras with mirrors, the Doctor, Susan and Alydon sneak into the city, destroying antennae and cameras. They find a control box for the power and the Doctor works to short-circuit the system. He sends Alydon back to move the mirrors to a new location and then destroys the box. Pleased with himself, he fails to move quickly and he and Susan are captured by a Dalek patrol sent to investigate.

In the caves, Ganatus and Barbara find an opening that leads to an underground river. The river cuts off their path but they can see another tunnel on the far side. Ian and Ganatus leap across the chasm to investigate and find that it leads back towards the city. They then have all the others leap across with them. However, Antodus mistimes his jump and slips down the cliff face, his safety rope threatening to drag Ian down with him. Antodus then cuts the rope and falls to his death while Ganatus pull Ian back up the cliff.

The Doctor and Susan are taken into the city and held in a room just off the control room. The Daleks are diverting the radiation from their nuclear reactors into a storage device and will release that into the atmosphere rather than setting off a new neutron bomb. The Doctor offers to show the Daleks the TARDIS and how it works in exchange for not releasing the radiation and setting them free. The Daleks however decide that they will simply examine his ship without his help if necessary.

Alydon gathers up the Thals and attacks the city, using the Doctor's knock out of the detection equipment as cover. He meets up with Ganatus' group, who has just emerged from the tunnels in the water pumping area, and the separate groups all converge on the Dalek control room. The Daleks are counting down the release of the radiation but are distracted by the Thal attack. One Dalek is pushed into the power relay which both electrocutes the Dalek and also cuts the power to the rest of the Daleks throughout the city. Without the power, the Daleks simply cease to function, leaving the mutants trapped in cases that cannot support them.

The groups return to the forest with the fluid link and the equipment the Daleks used to grow food. They each say their goodbyes, with Ganatus lingering a bit with Barbara, and then leave in the TARDIS. As the TARDIS takes off, it suddenly lurches violently, throwing everyone inside to the ground.

Analysis

Because Terry Nation had a tendency to recycle various parts of his story elements, it has become a bit fashionable among fans to dismiss all of his work as just the same thing. However, there is something rather unique in the original Dalek story and when you go back and watch it with an open mind, it is actually quite good. Yes, there are elements that come up in later stories and yes it is rather padded, but it almost surprising as how well it holds up as a story and you can see how Dalekmania blossomed in it's wake.

One of the things that I think is very important to enjoying this story is understanding it's context. Unlike most of the other First Doctor stories, this one has Ian and Barbara still pretty pissed at the Doctor for abducting him as well as the Doctor being closer to his nastier self as seen in the caveman adventure (which did not get notes from Sidney Newman). Therefore, there is a natural tension that arises and Ian's attitude of either not trusting or being openly angry towards the Doctor is completely understandable.

The Doctor is better in this story than in the previous one. Yes he sabotages the ship, but not in any meaningful way and there is an inherent curiosity that is appealing in him. He also is clearly the idea man for though Ian and Susan actually carry things out, it is the Doctor that comes up with the various concepts, showing that they must think their way out of the situation rather than just use brute force.

All the companions are pretty good in this one, even Susan. I noted Ian's attitude towards the Doctor but you can see the good man and natural leader pretty much throughout the story. It is also interesting to see that Barbara, who doesn't get as much to do in this story, is already starting to become the Doctor's favorite. She is the one who sides with the Doctor against Ian in provoking the Thals, even though Ian is right. In The Edge of Destruction, it is Barbara who the Doctor specifically makes up with after the events in the TARDIS. Her little dabble with Ganatus is nice but even from this point you know she is Ian's woman. Still it provides a nice reminder that Barbara is a fairly young woman and not defaulting completely into the mom role.

Susan is more of a mixed bag in this story but it certainly is better than her previous one. I think what gets to me most about her is that Carol Ann Ford is clearly in her early twenties and should be playing a character in her mid-to-late teens. However, her dialogue and dialogue about her is more geared towards a character that is closer to ten. I could easily imagine my own daughter (who is eleven) saying these lines and acting like Susan does. She is responsible in a group but so easily hysterical when forced to do something on her own. If Susan was as stroppy a teenager as we might expect, she should have been more independent and less fearful, even with the night run to the TARDIS. I can understand why her character was reduced to a young girl in the movie version. Again her overall performance isn't bad, but the contrast in written age and actual age is just strikes a sour note here and there.

One of the things that really surprised me when I was rewatching this is how different the Daleks were compared to their usual state. I think we have gotten used to Daleks that are rant-y and near insane with hate. Here you have cold and calculating Daleks. They kill with impunity but they have a cold logic that also keeps them from killing indiscriminately. The Daleks as originally written actually are far closer to the scheming David Whitaker Daleks of Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks than they are of even Terry Nation's other Dalek scripts.

My suspicion is that in this original treatment, the Daleks are just written as another alien race and given a cold, logical style. In the next appearance of the Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Nation turned them into a Nazi parallel and I think he never went away from that, which caused the Daleks to lose some of that conniving quality that only reappeared when someone else wrote them.

I find it fascinating that the Daleks are not actually taken in by nearly any of the deceptions tried against them. They know the cameras are knocked out deliberately by the prisoners, they are aware of the infiltrations into the city and even the escape attempt they cotton on to fairly quickly. It is only their limitations to the city and their underestimating of the potential damage these things can do that really harms them.

The Thals are a little generic and a touch boring but not in an overly objectional way. Fortunately, there are very few scenes with them by themselves as those scenes just don't grab you. I should even put a caveat there as the worst offender is Dyoni. The actress seems a bit unsure of how to play the character and ends up being a bit more aloof that I think is needed. Temmosus is actually somewhat interesting given how few scenes he gets as he is the pure optimist, choosing to try peace rather than war. Alydon is more of a blend but I think that style of character was done better as Taron in Planet of the Daleks.

Since I have introduced the concept of the Thals being a bit dull, let's talk about the limitation of this story and that is its padding. Granted, your appreciation of this story is going to be far different if you actually space it out over seven weeks rather than watch it in one or two sittings as most modern fans do. That emphasizes the padding and makes it so much more noticeable. I ended watching this in two sittings and got through Episode Five before I had to stop and the only part that bothered me was Episode Two where they were in the cell. Going back the next day, even the famously drawn out crevasse jump scene in Episode Six didn't feel that bad and I'm sure would have been very tense for the kids watching.

These two instances led me to think that the padding that Terry Nation puts in is only that heavily noticeable when there is no movement. I don't think he does people sitting and talking very well the way Malcolm Hulke or Robert Holmes does. Nation is a writer that is entertaining when things are moving. So even the crevasse scene is not that bad because there is movement and you know that someone is going to fall. It gains tension even if it is too much time paid to. But having the four sit around dying of radiation poisoning while Ian tries to get his legs to work and also convince Susan that she has to go to the TARDIS just gets dull. Contrast that scene to a similar one in Episode Three where they are all working together to escape and even though it is again them confined in a room and talking, there is action in the form of a plan taking shape and stuff being done to implement that plan.

There are two other points that really bother me from a story standpoint. The first is that Alydon joins Ian's team after they emerge from the mountains. If Alydon was able to do that, it effectively means that the entire journey through the swamp and the mountains (with two deaths to beat) was totally pointless. Ian's team gained no advantage if a Thal group that came through a frontal assault was able to join and work with them. It might be argued that the Daleks became aware of Ian's team in the city and that caused them to redirect their defenses which allowed Alydon's team to get in, but that is not made clear. I think it would have worked better if we had seen Alydon's team attack the control room, grabbing the Dalek's attention and then having Ian's team attack and getting the drop on the Daleks as the plan was more originally constructed.

My other objection is the oddity of the Daleks not being aware of their need for radiation. You would think that after several hundred years, the Daleks would have come up with their own anti-radiation treatments and figured out that their physiology had adapted to the radiation long before this. It is this lack of drugs or understanding of their physiology that both drives the plot in Episode Two and then provides the added danger of the countdown (which is rather unnecessary) in Episodes Six and Seven. It's just something added that makes no real sense and don't really add anything to the overall plot of the story.

Going back to the positive side, I think the end of Episode One where an unseen Dalek except for the plunger approaching Barbara is one of the best cliffhangers in the scene. It is played very well by Jacqueline Hill and when done on top of the already disorienting cinematography of her being cut off and herded deeper in, it must have scared the kids watching immeasurably. You can also tell that it was a second go around because there is a different reaction in the recap at the start of Episode Two and it just doesn't work as well in ratcheting up the tension. But the one in Episode One is excellent.

On that note, the design and direction are quite good in this story. Even though a lot of sets are reused, they do it in such a way that it really disguises the reuse. The action flows well and you get very good performances out of nearly all the actors. I think you could show this story to a more modern audience and they would have a measure of respect for the way it looks and their objections would be restricted to story and pacing which is just so different in today's television.

Overall I would say that this is a good story, better than what is generally expected. Because there is so much repetition with Nation, I think fans feel they have the measure of this story and prejudge it based on their knowledge of other stories. They also object to the obvious padding and while that does drag the story at a few points, it is moves pretty well. I wouldn't have a problem sitting down with this one again in the near future but I also think that if you were going to expose a new fan to this, it would be better done in smaller chunks, only one or two episodes at a time to allow them to digest it. It might make the padded nature of it seem like less of a slog if they are not used to that format.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5

The Space Museum

I believe we have skipped a time track.

The Space Museum is a story I've heard mixed reviews over. Nearly everyone I've heard talks about Episode One and what an interesting concept the story set up is, but that it devolves into less than the sum of it's parts. I have no frame of reference here having never even seen a clip from this story. So I'm going into this one nearly completely untainted. I shall be very curious to see if the follow up episodes are the disappointment that others suggest they are.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and his companions materialize on an alien planet but appear to come out of a trance. They find that their 13th century clothes have been taken off and hung up and they are now wearing their regular clothes. While the Doctor looks at the scanner, Vicki goes to get him a glass of water. She accidentally drops it, breaking the glass. A second later, it reassembles itself and pops back into her hand, unbroken. She tells the Doctor what happened but he offers no solution. He instead speculates that they've landed outside some sort of space museum and suggests they go investigate.

As they approach the building, all are unnerved by the eerie quiet. Ian also notices that despite the ground being covered in dust and sand, they are leaving no footprints. The doors open and two men walk out. The time team ducks to the side where Vicki inadvertently sneezes, but the two men do not hear her.

They enter the building where they find space relics of the past, including a Dalek. Two other men enter the room and despite them having a conversation, the group cannot hear them. Walking into another part of the museum, another group has a conversation and even walks by them, but they do not register that they even exist. Vicki tries to touch one of the exhibits but her hand passes right through it.

They proceed onward and find the TARDIS in the museum. The Doctor steps up to it and passes right through. Across the room they see themselves, preserved in glass cases, dressed exactly as they are now. The Doctor theorizes they when they landed, the TARDIS skipped a time track, landing them out of phase with current time. Seeing the TARDIS and themselves preserved in the museum is a possible future outcome. The Doctor also theorizes that they will soon catch up with time and phase back into present time, which will cause the glass case versions of themselves and the preserved TARDIS to disappear.

This does happen as the two men who walked out of the museum initially discover the TARDIS. There is a frozen moment and the team comes to themselves again with the interior TARDIS and the glass cases having vanished. The Doctor and his companions sit indecisively at first, unsure of how to avoid a future in the cases but the Doctor proposes that they act and try to make their way back to the TARDIS. They set off down the corridors, unsure exactly how to get back.

The two guards report back to the planetary governor of their find and he orders one squad to watch the TARDIS while another looks for the visitors. They are Moroks, a race who conquered the planet and use it as a museum now. The other group the time team saw was a group of natives, the Xerons, who are attempting to rebel against Morok rule. The Xerons, observing the Doctor and his companions, decide to try and get them on their side, believing they can get weapons from them.

The Xerons capture the Doctor when he lags behind to look at an exhibit. He pretends to faint but overpowers his guard when left alone with him and hides. Unfortunately, he is almost immediately captured by a Morok patrol when he emerges from his hiding spot. He is taken to the governor, who learns of the Doctor's companions via a machine that produces an image based on the Doctor's thoughts. Seeing this, the Doctor manipulates the image to prevent the governor from learning any more. Frustrated, the governor orders the Doctor to be processed for display.

Realizing they have lost the Doctor, Ian decides that it would be better to find the TARDIS first before going to look for him. He unravels Barbara's sweater to use as a thread to ensure they don't get lost. They successfully find the entrance to the museum but find the TARDIS guarded. The Xerons also find the thread and follow the group to the entrance.

While trying to decide what to do, a Morok discovers the companions and the alarm is raised. Vicki and Barbara dash back into the museum. Ian manages to fight off two Moroks who grabbed him and hides near the TARDIS. Barbara ducks into a storage closet to hide. Her pursuers miss her but she ends up locked in.

Vicki is grabbed by the Xerons who take her back to their hideout. They fill her in on their history, including their attempt to capture the Doctor. One of their number is sent to find Barbara while Vicki convinces the other two to help her break into the armory and steal guns for the Xerons.

Following the failure to recapture the companions, the governor orders his men to evacuate the museum. They will then flood the museum with gas to knock out and paralyze those hiding inside.

The Xenon Dako, discovers Barbara in her hiding space and convinces her to come with him. As they leave, the discover the museum filling with gas. They attempt to cover their faces and fight their way through it. Dako is eventually overcome and passes out. Barbara, attempting to pull Dako through also succumbs to the gas.

Vicki and her two guides, Tor and Sita, enter the armory and examine the computer lock. The lock is designed to stay shut unless the questioner answers the questions both truthfully and correctly. After learning the questions, Vicki rewires the computer so that it will accept answers as long as they are truthful. She opens the vault and Tor and Sita grab as many guns as they can to give to their people.

Ian manages to disarm a lone guard and forces him to take him back to the governor's office. Pretending to have captured him, they are admitted but Ian pulls the gun on the governor. The governor informs him that the Doctor was capture and is being processed. He takes Ian to the room where the Doctor is being held. Seeing the Doctor in the middle of a procedure to lower his body temperature, Ian orders the governor to reverse the process. He does so and the Doctor begins to recover, although he states that only his body was chilled but his mind was fully functional. Ian prepares to leave with the Doctor, but a squad of guard arrive and knock Ian out. The governor locks Ian and the Doctor back into the room, electing to wait until the others have been captured before restarting the procedure.

Vicki tells Tor that she is heading back the museum to find Barbara and Dako. Tor tries to dissuade her but failing there, he has Sita go with her.

Barbara manages to rouse herself once more and helps Dako out of the gas. They emerge from the museum where they are captured by the guard in front of the TARDIS. However, Sita and Vicki arrive and shoot the guards down. Sita tells Dako of the revolution while Vicki and Barbara suggest they head to the governor's office to look for Ian and the Doctor. Other guard arrive though and shoot down Sita and Dako. Vicki and Barbara are taken to the governor's office where they are locked up with Ian and the Doctor.

The governor learns from the guards and Vicki of the revolution. He is unable to raise the barracks on the radio and when another guard heads to the armory, he confirms that the weapons cache has been raided before he too is shot down.

Tor and his men storm the museum, overrunning the guards and learning from a wounded Sita that Vicki and Barbara were taken to the governor's office. The governor and the guard commander prepare to escape in a private ship but the governor decides to kill the Doctor and his companions first. Before they can shoot them though, Tor enters and kills both men.

With the Moroks defeated, Tor wishes the Doctor and his companions goodbye. The Doctor also points out to Ian a faulty switch which was responsible for pushing the companions forward in time before properly arriving. Tor allows the Doctor to take something from the museum, a time-space visualizer, to which the Doctor believes he can repair. As they leave, the scene fades to the planet Skaro where a Dalek speaks of perfecting their own time-space machine.

Analysis

I can understand why a number of fans don't like this story. It is a very simple, even thin, story that's only three episodes long. However, to get it to four episodes, they added an interesting teaser concept of trying to avoid a possible future that results in your death. Episode One draws you in with a meta concept but it is more or less abandoned in the rest of the story except to spur a bit of dialogue or give the heroes a moment's hesitation before choosing what action to take.

All that being said, I kind of liked this story. It is a little slow and the competence level of everyone, including the production staff, is sub-par, but both the Doctor and his companions are engaging enough to buoy this story fairly well. If it had been any longer, I think the sag might have killed it badly, but as is, it's okay.

There are two primary flaws and I think they are closely related. The first is that I believe this story was written with the intent of being a more farcical comedy but that no one really realized that. Outside of the Doctor, everyone plays their lines pretty straight and the direction attempts to give an atmosphere that is more serious that intended. That creates a disconnect that you aren't necessarily aware of but just tickles the back of your brain.

The second flaw is closely tied to the first in the form of Episode One. I believe that the production staff was thrown off because of the nature of Episode One. It is a meta concept and foreknowledge of your possible death lends itself to a much more serious tone than might have been originally intended. I think the production staff read through Episode One, decided that this was a high concept action story and worked with that rather than taking the more comedic bent. So as much as we might praise Episode One for that concept, the faults of the other three episodes are somewhat rooted there.

I think the only person who understood that this story was intended as more of a comedy was William Hartnell. He is unquestionably the best thing about this story. He is serious with some good dialogue in Episode One but funny to a point of playfulness in the rest of the story. The clip of him hiding in the Dalek from Episode Two is fairly well known and typically appalls hard-core fans. I found it very funny. The Doctor does play much up for comic relief, laughing at the governor during his interrogation. Interestingly, although he played up the comedy, the lack of seriousness the Doctor has during the interrogation also has the ability to make the Doctor seem that much more powerful. He gives a sense of almost toying with the governor and it is one of the best in the whole story.

The companions weren't bad, although I think Ian and Barbara were a bit lost in this story. Vicki got a well defined role and she played it with a good level of spunk. Her forthrightness and energy played well when shaming Tor and his band of pathetics into action. Ian is the typical man of action, but I think the director confused him on how to play. There are a couple of scenes where his dialogue is playful and you can sense that they are meant for laughs, but he is playing more for tension and the whole thing doesn't really work. Barbara unfortunately isn't given much to do so her scenes are more or less forgettable.

The guest actors in this story were okay for the most part. I didn't think any of them did a bad job, although I'm not sure of the actor who played the Morok commander. He was a bit stunted in his delivery, sounding like a stuffy, British William Shatner. I did not care for the design of the Xerons. The Moroks were fine but the Xeron's odd unibrow just looked dumb. It wasn't substantial enough to make them look alien. Worse, it didn't even look real. The wigs the Moroks wore at least were believable and gave them a slightly different appearance. A drawn unibrow still looks like a drawing and took you out of the story because it looked too fake to be believable.

The direction in this story is not particularly good. There are random zooms and tight shots when a larger group shot would be better, resulting in a lot of panning of the camera. There are a number of scenes where the switch from one camera to another is just a half second late and an entrance of a character into a scene looks a bit wrong. The final battle between the Xerons and the Moroks is very weirdly shot and paced and is far closer to what you might see on a stage. Even then, I think stage play fighting might come across as more realistic. It just doesn't look that good.

One thing I did like was the music. It was more of the stock type that gets reused in several stories, but it was underplayed and had a general eerie quality that I enjoyed. I never got a sense of the music overpowering any of the scenes and they provided a reasonable ambiance to the scenes. I also didn't mind the sets. They weren't expansive and you can tell about the backdrop, but it never looked particularly shoddy and I could give that a certain suspension of disbelief.

One last point is realizing just how thin this story is overall. As interesting a concept as Episode One presents, it is essentially a filler episode as the plot barely starts. The other episodes progress, including one (Episode Three) where the Doctor is absent but the story ends with a good five minutes left in Episode Four. This leads to the long goodbye, the explanation for the time skip and the teaser for The Chase. It's almost shocking when you realize how tightly this story is compressed. I think the modern series could grab this story and remake it in one 42-minute episode with no problems.

Overall, I would say that this story is slightly below average. Episode One is an interesting set up but it doesn't really substantively go anywhere after that. I think the rest of the story is enjoyable, but it is easy to see where it could have been improved with a touch more skill and dedication. At four episodes, it's a quick watch and something you can pull down any time, but it's definitely not going to be on the immediate rewatch list.

Overall personal score: 2 out of 5

Marco Polo

If I win, perhaps I can have my caravan back again?

Marco Polo is considered by many to be the holy grail of missing stories. It is the longest and the first in that stretch. It was also done in an era when the show was still focused very heavily on teaching so a great deal of effort was put in to it's visual style. As a story it's not too bad, but watching the recons forces one's attention away from the supposedly impressive set design, costumes and directions and instead towards the story and that is where problems start to crop up.

Plot Summary

The TARDIS arrives on the top of a mountain where the crew discovers large footprints in the snow. The Doctor emerges in a foul mood as one of the power circuits has failed rending them without the ability to heat the TARDIS. The Doctor and Susan examine the damage while Ian and Barbara go to look for fuel to make a fire.

While searching, Barbara sees a man skulking among the rocks. She and Ian head back to tell the Doctor, who is increasingly worried as it will take him several days to fix the circuit. Upon hearing of men, they decide to head down the mountain to find these people and shelter. Reaching the same spot, they are set upon by a group of Mongols. The leader, believing they are evil spirits decides to kill them but his hand is stayed by a European who orders them brought back to camp in the name of Kublai Khan.

In camp, the European is revealed to be Marco Polo and he is on a mission to return to Shangdu with the ambassador warlord Tegana and the lady Ping Cho where she is to be married to a lord of the court. Polo offers the TARDIS crew shelter but Tegana remains wary of them.

Polo orders the TARDIS brought down from the mountain top and into camp. He informs the TARDIS crew that they will be coming with them as they head towards the supply town of Lop. Because of the fears that they are spirits among the Mongols, Polo orders that no one enters the TARDIS while they journey and the Doctor agrees.

The caravan travels along the Silk Road until they reach Lop on the edge of the Gobi Desert. The Doctor attempts to enter the TARDIS but is restricted by the Mongols. Polo then reveals to them that he is homesick but has not been permitted to leave by Kublai Khan. Polo intends to give the TARDIS to Kublai Khan in exchange for his release from service. He offers to take the Doctor and his party back to Venice where they can make another TARDIS. They argue with him but Polo has made up his mind. The Doctor is so aghast that he begins to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Tegana meanwhile hatches a plan to poison the water supply of Polo's caravan and seize the TARDIS for his own use to overthrow Kublai Khan. The caravan sets out across the Gobi desert with Tegana planning to poison the water after three days travel into the desert.

The Doctor continues to pout and his actions upset Susan. Barbara consoles Susan while Ian builds friendship with Polo. Susan heads to her tent but she and Ping Cho leave to go look at the desert stars. While out there, they spy Tegana and follow him. But they soon fall behind and go to turn back but are caught in a sandstorm.

Hunkering down, Ian, Barbara, and Marco discover that Tegana, Ping Cho, and Susan are gone. They call out into storm but cannot find them. However, their yells attract Tegana who finds the girls and brings them back into the camp.

They set off again and that evening Tegana brings attention to the water that he poisoned the previous night. Marco suspects bandits and will not head back to Lop, fearing they will be set upon. Ian suggests heading north to an oasis and Marco agrees, though he doesn't favor their chances. Tegana tries to refuse to go and head back to Lop but Marco orders him to stay. They head north but their weakened condition forces them into a slower and slower pace each day. Tegana rides ahead, promising to bring back water. He reaches the oasis but after refreshing himself remains there to wait for the caravan's death.

The Doctor collapses from the heat and lack of water and the others convince Marco to let him enter the TARDIS to rest. He relents and Susan is allowed to go with him. The rest of the caravan continue on through the night and rest in the morning. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Susan wake to find condensation has formed on the walls of the TARDIS and they move quickly to collect it. Marco Polo doesn't believe them at first and accuses the Doctor of hording water but he becomes convinced when the Doctor and Susan drink it without harm.

Renewed, they press on to the oasis where they find Tegana. Tegana claims he was forced to wait due to bandits and when he had collected water for them, he saw them coming over the hills and waited there. They opt to stay one day with Barbara and Ian becoming suspicious of Tegana. As a safety precaution, Marco insists the Doctor turn over the TARDIS key to him.

The continue and arrive at the next city, a tourist destination with the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas and the Cave of 500 Eyes. The Doctor prepares to work in repairing the circuit, revealing to Ian that he gave Marco a fake key while he kept the original. They are all distracted at that moment as Ping Cho settles in to tell a story of the Hashashin, inspired by the tale of the Cave of 500 Eyes.

Tegana slips away and meets messengers from his lord in the Cave of 500 Eyes. He learns that his lord has assembled an army and is awaiting a time to attack. Tegana informs the messenger of the TARDIS and believes it can be used as a weapon. Tegana suggests that they attack the caravan on the road posing as bandits to take the TARDIS and kill the rest. They are interrupted when one detects Barbara in the outer cave, having followed Tegana out. She is captured and Tegana returns to the inn.

The group discovers Barbara missing and Marco organizes search parties to look for her. Susan and Ping Cho inform the Doctor that they think Barbara may have gone to the Cave of 500 Eyes. The three set off to the cave using information supplied by the innkeeper. The innkeeper then goes and tells Tegana that the Doctor, Susan and Ping Cho have gone to the cave. Angry, Tegana sets off after them. The innkeeper also tells Ian and Marco who also set out after them.

In the cave, they find Barbara's scarf and begin calling out for her. Tegana find them and suggests they leave to avoid the evil spirits. The Doctor laughs him off and shows him Barbara's scarf as proof she was here. Ian and Marco arrive shortly after and they to are shown the scarf. Susan points out a point in the cave where she saw the eyes move and Ian and Marco discover a hidden room in the cave.

They find Barbara being held by a man with a knife to her throat but they kill him before he can strike her down. They return to the inn where Tegana suggests they rid themselves of the TARDIS crew as they are diving the loyalties of the caravan. Tegana also suggests that the Doctor is lying to Marco about not having access to the TARDIS. Barbara enters and tells Marco that she followed Tegana to the cave though he denies it. Fearful of Tegana's warning, Marco refuses to believe Barbara and separates Susan and Ping Cho form rooming together.

They continue on, following the river. The Doctor makes progress in the circuit repairs but is fearful that Ping Cho will inform on them. Ping Cho herself is also sad as she does not want to lose Susan as a friend. At the next stop, Ping Cho recalls Tegana's words about never having visited the Cave of 500 Eyes before, despite his knowledge of the passage. She tells Marco but he reacts angrily and dismisses her.

In town, Tegana meets with the messengers again. He sets up an ambush in the approaching bamboo forest with promises to kill the Doctor and to deliver the TARDIS.

The Doctor sneaks into the TARDIS to continue his work but is observed by Tegana. Barbara sees this and tells Ian and Susan. Ian moves to distract Marco and appeals to him against Tegana. Tegana approaches and tells Marco that the Doctor has reentered the TARDIS with a second key. The trio head out in front of the TARDIS and catch the Doctor locking the door as he leaves, having finished the repairs. Tegana wrestles the key away and gives it to Marco. The Doctor refuses to tell Marco how to enter the TARDIS, even with the key and the TARDIS crew is placed under guard.

The TARDIS crew plans an escape. Breaking a plate, Ian uses the shard to cut a hole in the tent allowing him to slip out. Ian moves to knock out the guard but finds him already dead. Ian runs out to Marco's test to tell him that bandits are preparing to attack. They deploy the remaining guards and the Doctor urges them to escape in the TARDIS. Tegana, already thwarted in his ambush attack, urges Marco not to go into the TARDIS. Marco agrees and refuses the Doctor. Ian suggests they pile bamboo on the fire to create a noise to scare the bandits off.

Tegana's allies grow impatient and decide to attack at moonrise whether Tegana signals them or not. Tegana continues to scoff as Ian and Marco make preparations. Ian also confesses to Marco that they intended to escape. Despite Tegana's protests, the soldiers attack and Tegana kills the leader to cover his involvement. The exploding bamboo and the leader's death drive off the other soldiers.

Marco repeals the restrictions on the TARDIS crew in gratitude but keeps control of the TARDIS keys. Tegana is increasingly hostile towards the TARDIS crew and their suspicions of him are confirmed with the Doctor sure that he is after the TARDIS.

A courier arrives from Shangdu summoning Marco Polo to the summer palace. The group heads to the next city and the baggage, including the TARDIS are separated to travel with a trade caravan. Polo and the rest of the group will travel via horseback at a faster pace starting the following morning.

Tegana arranges with a local bandit to steal the TARDIS that night. Ping Cho meanwhile heads to Marco's room to inform him of dinner and steals one of the TARDIS keys. She gives it to Susan but is observed by Tegana heading to meet the bandit captain.

The TARDIS crew sets out from the inn with Ian first distracting then knocking out the guard. Susan doubles back, looking to say goodbye to Ping Cho. The other three make it into the TARDIS and realize that Susan is gone. Susan meanwhile is trapped trying to avoid Tegana but he grabs her as she tries to make a dash for the TARDIS. Ian comes out to help her but Tegana holds a knife to her and orders the Doctor and Barbara to come out as well. Marco arrives to see the situation and Tegana notes their escape attempt. Marco has the Doctor hand over the key in exchange for Susan. When pressed about where they got the key, Ian covers for Ping Cho by claiming he stole it.

In the morning, the group departs for Shangdu. While stopping at a rest area, Ian attempts to persuade Marco to give them back the TARDIS by telling him the truth about it. Marco doesn't believe him but does figure out that Ian lied about stealing the key and that Ping Cho was responsible.

Ping Cho, fearing the discovery and desperate to avoid her arranged marriage, sneaks away in the night to head back to Samarkand. Discovering her disappearance, Ian offers to go back for her and Marco agrees as he must push on for Shangdu. Ian discovers Ping Cho at the previous inn, having just lost her money to the same thief that Tegana hired to steal the TARDIS. Ian discovers that the TARDIS has been stolen when the real caravan driver shows up.

Tegana quarrels with Marco, desiring to go and look for the TARDIS and Ping Cho himself. Marco refuses until he learns that Barbara and Susan oppose Ping Cho's marriage. Learning that all of them oppose it, Marco authorizes Tegana to go after her, fearing that Ian has abandoned the search for Ping Cho and only gone after the TARDIS.

Ian and Ping Cho suspect that the bandits have taken the TARDIS to Karakorum. They set out after it along that road. On the road, they discover both the TARDIS and the bandit leader. Ian gets the drop on the bandit leader who confesses that he stole the TARDIS on orders from Tegana. At that moment, Tegana arrives, prepared to kill all three of them and take the TARDIS for himself.

Marco and the rest of the Doctor's party arrive in Shangdu and are allowed audience with Kublai Khan. The Doctor objects to bowing before Kublai Khan and is unable to fully bow before Khan due to his ailing back. Khan becomes sympathetic to the Doctor due to sympathetic pains. Marco also learns from Khan that Tegana's master Nogai has assembled his army at Karakorum and that they are to leave for Peking in the morning.

As Tegana moves to kill Ian, Kublai Khan's soldiers arrive. Tegana kills the bandit leader as he tries to flee to avoid exposure. Ian and Tegana accuse each other of attempting to steal the TARDIS but the guard captain, who is the same man as brought Khan's summons to Marco, orders that all three and the TARDIS be brought to Peking for Kublai Khan to judge.

In Peking, the Doctor plays backgammon with Kublai Khan and the Doctor keeps winning. They are interrupted by the arrival of the empress, who henpecks her husband over his losses. The Doctor offers to play one more game where he would give all that he has won back in exchange for the TARDIS. Khan reluctantly agrees and informs Marco of this as he informs Khan that Tegana has arrived. Unfortunately, the Doctor loses.

Marco is informed that Ian and Ping Cho are being held under suspicion of theft, accused by Tegana. Marco goes to Ian to hear for himself. Ping Cho validates Ian's story but the captain cannot. Ian is informed that he will have to stand with his word against Tegana as Ping Cho's fiancé has promised to take her away after the marriage ceremony tomorrow.

Tegana attempts to undermine Marco by noting that the Doctor attempted to steal the TARDIS back several times which Marco did not mention. Khan calls Marco out and Marco confesses his hope to bribe the Khan for his freedom. Khan laughs him off and orders the key brought to him, informing Marco that he won the TARDIS in a game of chance with the Doctor.

Ping Cho is informed that during the celebratory banquet, her fiancé died during the feast. Ping Cho is offered the chance to stay at court or to return to Samarkand. Ping Cho accepts the chance to stay. As she leaves, Khan orders Marco to give him the key and bring the Doctor after he meets with Tegana.

The Doctor and his friends realize that the Tegana is planning to kill Khan and allow Nogai to march his army into Peking and take over the empire. To warn Khan, they subdue the guard and rush to the hallway where they are rearrested by Marco. They warn him just as another guard informs him of Nogai's army approaching Peking. They are returned to their room while Marco runs to the throne room.

In the throne room, Tegana attempts to kill Khan but Marco interrupts. The two men fight in the chamber. Khan comes to and summons the guards who try to arrest him. Rather than be caught, Tegana falls on his sword.

Marco slips Ian the key in the confusion and the Doctor and his friends head quickly into the TARDIS and disappear. Marco apologizes to Khan but the Khan waves it off believing that the Doctor would have won it back eventually. Marco, finally believing Ian, idly wonders where they have gone.

Analysis

I've heard this story described as a road trip story and that does apply. It's a series of adventures that happen as the crew travels across China with not a lot of connective tissue in between each installment. Your enjoyment of that is going to be directly tied to whether you are in for an one episode at a time bit or if you are going to try and absorb the story as a whole. I tend to prefer taking the story in larger chunks and in doing so it goes over fairly well but it is not without issues.

Before delving into anything else, I would be very curious to know if this story existed, would it get the same treatment as The Talons of Weng Chiang from a race angle. Despite being set in China, there are almost no Asian actors in the entire story. The only Asian actor in any significant role is Ping Cho. All other actors are European. However, unlike The Talons of Weng Chiang, there is no real attempt to "yellow" any of the actors apart from the facial hair style. There also seems to be less effort to make an attempt at any stereotypical Asian accents either. Kublai Khan does a little vocal trick, but the actor is Eastern European and some of the accent may be native to him. The innkeeper does an accent as well, but it's more of the sycophantic fop rather than anything attempting Chinese. But Tegana, the guards and nearly all the other secondary characters merely speak in their proper theatrical voices.

So does that make the story more or less racist? There were probably east-Asian actors that could have been found but would they have performed as well as the ones they got? Given that you have European actors playing Asian roles, is it better to leave them European looking or would be better to go the Li H'sen Chang route and "yellow" them to make it appear more authentic? I don't know. I think the performances were fine and stressing too much over these type of things diminishes the overall take of the story. If it is something that others do have problems with, then note it as such and pass over the story.

On to the actual story. I think things worked out fairly well but even with the road trip aspect, I think the story goes on too long. The big hang up I have is Marco's continued trust of Tegana, juxtaposed with his on and off trust of Ian. I think it is quite clear that he never really trusts the Doctor and only Ian gains his actual friendship. The story does a fairly good job of showing why Marco trusts Tegana initially and Tegana's constant failures to kill the party or capture the TARDIS are given fairly believable reasons both in why they fail and why he suffers no significant suspicion from Marco.

However, the constant level of coincidence does build and the real breaking point comes after the incident with the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes in Episode Four where Susan and Ping Cho accuse Tegana. Marco may have no good reason to trust Susan, but he should trust Ping Cho and himself. Ping Cho and Susan point out a fallacy in Tegana's own story. I can buy that Marco would not have immediately moved against Tegana as this is only a small bit of evidence. But there is no reason not to believe them and he certainly shouldn't have lashed out at them as if they were accusing his best friend of treachery. Marco should have taken their statement with quiet contemplation and it would have added to the slow deterioration of relations between Marco and Tegana as well as fueling Tegana's own mild hysteria against the TARDIS crew. But instead, things keep reverting back to where they were at the start of the story with Marco fully trusting Tegana and not trusting the Doctor and his companions. It is wheel spinning at it's worst and it just doesn't make sense. A slow build of trust between Marco and the TARDIS crew coinciding with a distrust of Tegana would have paid off better and made complete sense as to why Marco finally gives Ian the TARDIS key in the end. As is, Marco is suddenly repaying Ian for being right all along and that somehow overrules his desires and the Khan's right of ownership? It does not feel earned in that way.

A second issue noted about this story is the number of little threats teased at here and there that just don't pay off. Ping Cho's arranged marriage does nothing except provide a reason for her and Ian to be back at the inn to see the TARDIS stolen. The Doctor losing the TARDIS at backgammon does nothing except keep them in Peking for another day to stop Tegana from assassinating the Khan. Even Tegana's own machinations seem overly complicated. His job is to delay Marco to give Nogai time to move his army. He alters these plans in order to steal the TARDIS, but if he is open to killing the party as is implied in the first couple of episodes, why does he continue to create elaborate schemes to hide his own complicity? Tegana should have just gathered his men, laid an ambush and killed everyone there. He comes closest to this in the bamboo forest in Episodes Four and Five, but even there, he is trying to hide his own involvement and possibly keep Marco alive so that he can continue with his mission to kill Kublai Khan. They work as little adventures to be thwarted by the TARDIS crew but make no sense in the long run.

On the plus side, I can say that this story is clearly well acted with everyone giving their all in various roles. This is also the story where you can see the Doctor shift from being a grump to being a bit more open and friendly. This makes his character much more pleasant to be around although he still doesn't get a whole lot of focus in the story apart from the TARDIS repairs. But all the other characters get nice moments throughout, with the focus of the story mostly on Marco and Tegana, both of whom play their roles well.

I can't speak to the direction of the story as their are only still pictures, but the costuming and set design seem quite well realized. The sets seem fairly elaborate, even when out in the desert and especially at the Khan's palace. Likewise the costuming is elaborate and well tailored. Perhaps it was because this is still the first season, but the show seems to have a lot more money than we are used to seeing them work with. It might also be that they were able to poach some things from other productions to cut costs. But it does make for some nice visuals, what little you are able to see in the recons.

One last gripe about this story is something that is unfortunately common: the rushed ending. With seven episodes to play with you would think that some set up could be made towards the ending as noted earlier with the potential build between Marco and Ian. But instead, we get a first half of the Doctor losing the TARDIS playing backgammon and Tegana ingratiating himself in court. It is only when we get the offstage death of Ping Cho's fiancé that the ending begins. There is the dawning realization between the TARDIS team that Tegana is about to assassinate the Khan (something they should have realized before then) and then the rush to tell Marco, the fight and the departure. All of this is compressed into a span of less than ten minutes and it feels just as rushed as described.

This rush off not only feels like a bit of a cheat at the end, but it leaves a hollow feeling. Tegana dies quickly after a fight and after he has actually made an attempt to kill Kublai Khan. Likewise, Marco slips Ian the key without any real reason given except that it is the right thing to do. This completely undercuts the whole premise that we have gone through the last six episodes four. It gives the viewer the impression of being cheated. Why go through so much if it ultimately didn't matter because of how slipshod things finished?

I think the proper summary of this story is actually best shown in the Wife in Space blog entry for Marco Polo. Neil shows Sue a 30 minute reconstruction of the whole story. She gets it and enjoys it. If you compress the whole thing, there is a lot more to enjoy with this story, but as is, it is long and it drags at times. If you put some space in between each episode, the enjoyment factor will probably go up, but trying to take it in only one or two sittings is a bit much as the wheel spinning becomes very apparent. If this were found I would not hesitate to watch it again to see what is missing by not having moving pictures, but in recon form, it's just too much padding to take in and properly enjoy on any kind of regular basis. It just feels like something to be gotten through.

Overall personal score: 2 out of 5