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

Galaxy 4

Oh look it's got a sort of... chumbly movement.

Galaxy 4 is up there with Enlightenment in my having difficulty getting a copy of. I was able to watch an animated recon of the first episode (Four Hundred Dawns) but it was close to terrible in terms of quality. I scavenged around some more and finally was able to locate some of the Loose Cannon versions which made watching the story so much easier. It also helped that Episode Three (Airlock) has been found as getting a moving episode break in a recon story helps so much more.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Steven and Vicki land on an unknown planet that despite being conducive to life, does not appear to have any. They prepare to go out but stop when hearing a strange beeping sound. A machine is bumping it's way around the TARDIS, investigating. Vicki seems amused by the machine and dubs it a Chumbly. The Chumbly sends a signal and then rolls off.

The three exit the TARDIS to explore. They find a Chumbly with a gun pointed at them. Though blind, the machine is sensitive to their movements. It demonstrates the power of it's gun and then herds the three across the landscape. As they walk, two women emerge and cast a metal net over the Chumbly, causing it to shut down.

The women identify themselves as Drahvins. They desire to take the Doctor and his companions to their leader, Maaga. They also warn the three against the masters of the Chumblies, the Rills. Vicki hesitates but when more Chumblies arrive, the group dashes off, forced to leave the metal net behind. The other Chumblies pull the net off the trapped Chumbly, freeing it.

The party arrives at the Drahvin's ship and Maaga enters. She is pleased at the capture of the Doctor and his party but angry at the loss of the metal net. She dismisses the guards and speaks of the Drahvin's war with the Rills. She also notes that the planet they are on will explode in fourteen dawns. She plans to take over the Rill ship as her ship was damaged in a firefight with the Rill ship while on a scout mission, looking for additional territory.

A Chumbly approaches her ship and Maaga fires the ship's lasers at it. The Chumbly is undamaged but flees the ship. The Doctor offers to head back to the TARDIS to see if the information the Rills have given the Drahvins about the expected death of the planet is true. Maaga accepts but demands a hostage to ensure the Doctor's return. Vicki volunteers and the Doctor and Steven leave. After they leave, Vicki overhears Maaga berating her soldiers for the loss of the metal net.

As they approach the TARDIS, they see a Chumbly circling around it, trying to gain access. Eventually it leaves and the Doctor and Steven enter the TARDIS. The Doctor checks his instruments and verifies what the Rills have said. He also notes that their timing is off and that the planet will actually explode tomorrow after only two dawns.

They attempt to leave the TARDIS but are forced to wait by the return of the Chumbly. The Chumbly again tries to enter the TARDIS, this time by detonating explosives around it. The Doctor and Steven are rocked but unharmed. The Chumbly retreats in failure and Steven and the Doctor return to the Drahvin ship. Before entering, the Doctor notes that the Drahvin ship is poorly made and not really fit for space travel. He suspects the Drahvins are not particularly technologically advanced.

Meeting again with Maaga, the Doctor lies and tells her what she originally told him: that the planet would explode after fourteen dawns rather than the two he discovered. Maaga demands that they help her take the Rill ship by force. The Doctor refuses but Maaga threatens to kill them if they don't. Steven tries to disarm her but a patrol returns and he is subdued. The Doctor agrees and he and Vicki leave to investigate the Rill ship with Steven being left behind as a hostage.

Steven attempts to incite an uprising among the Drahvin soldiers by pointing out the inequality between them and Maaga. He then tries to trick a soldier into giving him her gun and her taking Maaga's more powerful gun while on patrol. Maaga however enters and reprimands the soldier for nearly being tricked. Steven retreats to side and pretends to go to sleep so as to listen on other conversations.

The Doctor and Vicki find the Rill ship being patrolled by Chumblies. Vicki does a quick experiment and discovers that the Chumblies do not sense what is behind them. She and the Doctor follow a Chumbly until they can duck into the ship. The Doctor immediately notices that the Rill ship is a much higher technology level than the Drahvin ship. Vicki also notes a strong smell of ammonia in the air.

As Vicki and the Doctor continue to explore, Vicki is startled when she sees a Rill looking at them from the other side of a door. They flee the room but run into a Chumbly, forcing them back into the ship. They hide and evade the Chumbly and run to the edge of the ship. The Doctor gets through the gate but Vicki is trapped. The Chumblies arrive and take Vicki while the Doctor works on modifying the outside exchanger which converts the air into ammonia for the Rills to breathe.

Maaga is confronted by her drone soldiers about going on patrol. She rues their lack of intelligence and overrides their patrol order to ensure Steven is kept prisoner. Maaga plots to take the Rill ship, leaving the Doctor's company and the Rills to die in the planetary explosion. Steven overhears this but continues to pretend to sleep.

Vicki in brought back into the ship where she is confronted by a Rill through the compartment. Vicki tells the Rill that she and the Doctor were sent by the Drahvins to take the ship due to their companion being held prisoner. The Rill denies killing a Drahvin but is not surprised at the Drahvin's use of them. The Rill tells Vicki that Drahvins attacked them in space but they shot down the Drahvin ship as well. The Rill tells Vicki that they encountered a wounded Drahvin after crashing and tried to help her but Maaga shot at them and they retreated. They then saw Maaga kill the wounded Drahvin.

Steven notices his guard has fallen asleep and overpowers her, stealing her gun. He runs out of the ship, holding Maaga and another soldier at bay with the captured gun. However a Chumbly arrives outside the ship and he is forced back into the airlock. Maaga orders Steven to drop his weapon and enter. When he refuses, she orders a soldier to empty the oxygen from the airlock.

Realizing that the Rills are friendly, Vicki runs out to stop the Doctor from finishing his sabotage of the air filtration machine outside. She stops the Doctor and leads him inside. The Doctor informs the Rills that their calculations are off and that the planet will explode in one more dawn. The Rill admits that is not enough time to get power from drilled gas. The Doctor offers to help the rill build their power supplies. They also receive word from one of the Chumblies about Steven's escape attempt and his cries of distress.

The Rills tell the Doctor and Vicki to take two Chumblies and save Steven. They are stopped a soldier on patrol who doesn't trust them. They trick the soldier into believing they have captured the Chumblies and then disarm her. They continue towards the Drahvin ship.

Steven decides to take his chances with the Chumbly but finds the pressure has decreased too much for the outer door to open. He starts to collapse due to oxygen depravation. As he does, a Chumbly fires a projectile, smashing the ship window and flooding the Drahvin ship with gas. The Chumbly breaks open the airlock and Steven revives with the atmosphere rushing back in. The Doctor takes hold of him pulls him away from the Drahvin ship, helping him to get his breath back.

Maaga clears the air and orders her soldiers to arm and advance on the Doctor and the Chumblies. The Rills, speaking through the Chumblies, order Maaga and her soldiers back. The group withdraws to the Rill ship with two Chumblies providing cover. The Drahvins withdraw back to their ship and plan a night attack on the Rill ship.

Back at the Rill ship, the Doctor continues to work on transferring power from the TARDIS to the Rill ship. Vicki and the Doctor head out to the TARDIS to complete the transfer. Steven stays behind in the Rill ship to recover and look around. Steven is skeptical of the Rills motives but the Rills tell Steven that if the Doctor is wrong about the time required, they will send the Doctor, Steven and Vicki away in their ship. Chagrined, Steven apologizes and tells the Rills of Maaga's plan to take the Rill ship and leave them to die on the planet. Steven and a Chumbly then begin work on the cables in the Rill ship.

One of the Drahvin soldiers exits the ship from the rear entrance and sneaks up behind the guarding Chumbly. She manages to destroy it with a piece of pipe. Maaga then takes the other two soldiers out and they march towards the Rill ship.

The Doctor and Vicki arrive back at the TARDIS and set up the cable between it and the Rill ship. They return, followed closely by the Drahvins. One of the soldiers enters the ship just as the Doctor and Steven activate the power transfer. A Chumbly paralyzes the Drahvin soldier and the Doctor and his companions are pulled inside the inner sanctum for their safety where they see the Rills unobscured.

The Rills dispatch more Chumblies to keep the Drahvins at bay. Maaga fires at them but they are forced to stay under cover. When the power transfer is complete, the Doctor, Steven and Vicki say goodbye to the Rills with a Chumbly to escort them. As they leave, the Rill ship takes off.

Terrified, the Drahvins try to head towards the TARDIS but the Chumbly escort beats them back. The Doctor and his companions enter the TARDIS and the Chumbly powers itself down. The TARDIS disappears as the planet begins to erupt. On the scanner, they observe the planet explode into dust.

As they travel, the Doctor remarks how he could do with a rest. They turn on the scanner and Vicki makes an idle comment about a planet they are passing. The scene then shifts to the planet Kimbel where a member of the Space Patrol wakes in a thick jungle.

Analysis

Galaxy 4 may hold an interesting distinction as the only story I've seen where it actually went down in my estimation when I could see it move. Most of the time, movement will draw you further into the story, but in this case, direction choices by Derek Martinus actually pulled me further out of the story rather than further in.

One of the few things I think I can that I liked about this story is the Doctor. The Doctor is a lot more perceptive than he is shown to be on the surface. It is tempered with his mischievous, almost doddering nature, but he is still thinking well ahead of the Drahvins and not taken in by them at all. Of course he also still has a few foolish moments that keep him in that silly vein, but overall, I enjoyed the Doctor here.

Steven and Vicki weren't bad here but neither gave a particularly good performance. It is fairly well known that when this story was originally written, it was written with Ian and Barbara in mind so Steven ended up playing more of Barbara's role and Vicki absorbed some of Ian's more action oriented scenes (such as disarming the guard when going to rescue Steven). Vicki's Ian moments are actually pretty good as she sounds like a rational, thinking person. It's the overly silly and cutesy lines (such as creating the Chumbly name) where she is actually just annoying.

Steven is far more passive than he should be, although it does demonstrate that Barbara was not a wilting violet in Steven's escape attempt. His performance on the whole wasn't bad overall, even in this more passive state, with the strong exception of his being left alone with the Rills early in Episode Four. Whomever it was written for, Steven's scene where the Rills convince him of their decent nature is pretty painful for him. Cynicism is one thing, but that scene plays into a near racist trope. Even if you wanted to think of Steven (or Barbara) as having racist tendencies, to be that openly hostile about it and to have the Rills put such a strong emotional slapdown on it is just painful to watch.

The Rills aren't bad but they are a bit too noble for my taste. It's something of a cliché to talk about ugly on the outside but good on the inside and vice versa and this story is all about that. I would have liked a touch more nuance with the Rills, even if it was a developed coldness towards the Drahvins as being deserving of death for murdering their own kind. It would have been just a touch of grey that would have done well I think.

The Drahvins are boring. There is some light potential there with the three soldiers being tube manufactured drones with no intelligence and Maaga being the only one with the ability to think. That could have been explored both in the maintaining of military order but also in the shortfalls of having only one thinker in the form of the commander. However, it is only implied at best given the Drahvin's limited technology and very black hat attitude.

That actually was one of the worst scenes in the recovered episode: Maaga's soliloquy of evil to the camera. There started to be some nuance in her performance but it quickly devolved into how she will kill the others in their escape and how great she is because she can envision it in her mind. I suspect they were going for an Iago style moment where the darkness of the mind would be made manifest. It even had the background turn dark and her silhouetted as though alone in her mind. But the decision for her to look directly in camera and just stare at it while fantasying just didn't work for me at all. She was stepping out as though trying to scare the audience rather than muse on her thoughts and I found it to be a huge distraction with her performance.

There is a bit of a reputation for the last story in a season of Doctor Who to look a bit bad because the budget has run out and that does seem to apply to Galaxy 4 as well. Galaxy 4 actually led off Season 3 but it was filmed at the end of Season 2 so it was subject to the money issues. But the story just looks cheap. The Chumblies do not look very robust, especially with all the interaction they have to go through. The backdrop was clearly visible and the sets for both ships seemed flimsy. It just looked very much like a story on a studio set and a small one at that.

The overall story was very simple and it got a bit boring at times. There were sections in every episode where someone would go on a long talk that usually was only a bit of superfluous backstory. Many of these scenes were with Maaga and the other Drahvins but there were moments where the Doctor and Vicki would be shown in a little scene and it had nothing to do except pad the story's run time. When the story is that simple and you drag it out even longer, it becomes tedious and not having any interesting visuals to go with it only makes it worse.

Overall, I can't recommend this one. If it is was found, I might try to watch it again as maybe Episode Three was an aberration in the direction, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Aside from the acting of the Doctor and a few little nuances here and there, there's not a lot to enjoy with this one. I think even if there was an improvement in the directing in the other three episodes, there still wouldn't be a whole lot to pull the story up. So, I wouldn't worry about this one if you have trouble finding it. It's not worth the effort.

Overall personal score: 1 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

The Chase

No, what is that other awful noise?

There is a small bit of irony in The Chase. Doctor Who is probably one of the best known shows to have episodes wiped from BBC archives. However, this story escaped wiping and contains a clip of the Beatles from their appearance on Top of the Pops. The irony is that the remainder of that episode of Top of the Pops was wiped and this little bit from The Chase is the only surviving footage.

That amusement aside, The Chase is fairly derided among fans as being a boring and rambling mess. At the very least, it was a bit of a jumble behind the scenes as Peter Purvis, who appears as Morton Dill in Episode Three, was subsequently recast as the new companion Steven in less than three weeks. That gives light to some of the other little problems that cropped up along the way.

Plot Summary
While relaxing on the TARDIS, the Doctor develops a time-space visualizer, allowing the crew to witness any event that has happened in the past. Ian observes the Gettysburg Address, Barbara observes Queen Elizabeth talking with Shakespeare and Vicki observes a performance by The Beatles.

They then land on the desert planet of Aridius. Barbara and the Doctor relax around the TARDIS while Ian and Vicki go exploring. Vicki and Ian discover a trail of what appears to be blood and follow it, unaware that something is starting to follow them.

Barbara overhears the visualizer and when she goes to turn it off, she observes a group of Daleks entering a time machine in pursuit of the Doctor. Realizing the danger, the Doctor and Barbara head out after Ian and Vicki so they can all leave before the Daleks arrive. However, night falls and they are forced to hunker down amid some rocks due to a sandstorm.

As night is falling, Ian and Vicki decide to turn around, but Ian finds a ring protruding out of the sand. He pulls it and opens a hatch in the sand. He and Vicki head down the hatch but turn to find that it has been closed behind them by a tentacled creature that had been pursing them.

As day breaks, Barbara and the Doctor emerge from the sand, unsure of where to go. They are forced to hunker down again as a Dalek also emerges from the sand. They overhear the Dalek plans to search for the TARDIS and it's occupants and begin to creep away. In doing so, they run into a small group of Aridians, a fish people with underground cities. The Aridians offer to take the Doctor and Barbra to their city to look for Ian and Vicki.

Vicki and Ian flee through the tunnels away from the various tentacled creatures, called Mire Beasts by the Aridians. They are nearly caught however above ground a Aridian sets off an explosion designed to trap the Mire Beasts in the abandoned parts of the city and the resulting rock fall, knocks Ian out and kills the attacking creature. Vicki continues through the tunnels to find help for Ian.

The Daleks discover the TARDIS buried in the sand. They capture a group of Aridians and force them to dig it out. Once finished, they kill the Aridians and attempt to destroy the TARDIS. However, it is immune to their weapons. They instead set guards over it. Vicki emerges from one tunnel near the TARDIS to see the Daleks guarding it and heads back for Ian.

Back in the main part of the city, the Doctor and Barbara are informed that the Aridians have been contacted by the Daleks and ordered to give the Doctor and his party over by sunset. The elders are forced to agree as they cannot fight the Daleks. Vicki is captured by an Aridian and brought into the chamber with the Doctor and Barbara to be handed over. She tells them that she found the TARDIS and that Ian had apparently woken up and was wandering in the tunnels.

As the Aridians prepare to hand the Doctor over, a Mire Beast breaks through one of the walled off sections and attacks the Aridians. In the confusion, the Doctor and his friends run though the tunnels to the exit Vicki told them about. There they find Ian, setting a trap for the Dalek guard. Using the Doctor's coat and Barbara's sweater, he creates a tiger trap and lures the Dalek guard over. The Dalek falls into the tunnel pit and the group runs to the TARDIS and take off. The Daleks, seeing their escape, move to pursue in their own timeship.

Temporarily elated at their escape, the crew soon realizes that the Daleks are pursuing. They rematerialize on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 1966, hoping to replot and lose the Daleks. There, they meet a man from Alabama named Morton Dill who assumes they are Hollywood performers. They quickly leave and Dill then sees the arrival of the Daleks. Still amused, he tells the Daleks that the other performers have already left and the Daleks depart once more.

Trying again to replot, the TARDIS lands on the deck of an American cargo schooner. Barbara walks about and is mistaken for a stowaway by the mate. Before he can take her below, Vicki hits him on the back of the head with a club, knocking him out. She mistakenly does the same to Ian when he comes up to tell them they are ready to depart. The two women then assist a groggy Ian back to the TARDIS, which then departs.

The Daleks materialize on the ship just after the mate has woken up and set the alarm among the crew about a stowaway. Upon seeing the Daleks, the crew panics, screaming about the "white terror." The entire crew, including the captain's wife and child, jump overboard to escape the Daleks. In the pursuit, one Dalek also accidentally falls overboard. The Daleks realize the TARDIS has left again and depart, leaving the abandoned ship (shown to be the Mary Celeste).

Checking the instruments, the Doctor sees that the Daleks are still pursuing and are actually gaining on them each time they replot their course. He sets down with the intension of finding a place to fight the Daleks and the group finds themselves in a derelict mansion. The Doctor and Ian head upstairs to see about defenses while Barbara and Vicki remain downstairs with the TARDIS.

Ian and the Doctor discover a lab with a Frankenstein type monster, which begins to rise to pursue them. This causes them to double back and head back downstairs. Meanwhile Vicki and Barbara see someone claiming to be Count Dracula and get separated in different areas of the house. Ian and the Doctor come back downstairs but discover the Daleks have landed, causing them to run back upstairs. They once again enter the lab and arouse the Monster, who advances on the pursuing Dalek, unaffected by it's gun.

Doubling back downstairs, the Doctor and Ian are reunited with Vicki and Barbara who were merely lost. The remaining Daleks advance on them but they are distracted when Count Dracula appears again, immune to their guns. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara dart into the TARDIS and the Doctor takes off. Vicki however is overcome with fear and doesn't move. The Daleks move to kill her but are distracted once again as the Frankenstein Monster emerges and attacks another Dalek. Vicki finally runs and hides in the Dalek time machine. As the Daleks withdraw to pursue the Doctor, a sign shows that the place was an elaborate haunted fun house on Earth.

On the TARDIS, the crew suddenly realize that Vicki was left behind. Unable to direct the TARDIS back there, they decide to make a stand wherever they land, defeat the Daleks and use their time machine to go back and rescue Vicki. They land in a swamp on a planet identified as Mechanus.

In the Dalek ship, Vicki tries to signal the TARDIS but gets no response. The Daleks, frustrated with their failure, create a robot duplicate of the Doctor to act as an infiltrator and assassin. As they land, they send the robot out while they patrol the jungle looking for the Doctor and his team. Vicki also slips out in search of the TARDIS.

The Doctor and his team are accosted by giant mushrooms but the fungi retreat when a series of lights are activated. The lights form a path and the crew follows it to a cave in the cleft of the cliff face. They hunker down and prepare to fight the Daleks. Barbara also finds the control rod for the lights and she deactivates it. The extinguishing of the lights causes the mushrooms to move in and attack Vicki. They hear her scream and the Doctor and Ian go looking for her.

While they are gone, the robot Doctor enters the cave and convinces Barbara to follow him out to look for Ian, claiming they were separated. The real Doctor, Ian and Vicki come back and after a moment's disbelief, informs them of the robot Doctor. Ian heads out again and finds the robot Doctor as it is attacking Barbara. The robot flees and Ian takes Barbara back to the cave. The real Doctor had also slipped out to look for Barbara and as they approach the cave, both Doctors arrive, each accusing the other. Ian begins to attack the real Doctor but they soon realize that it is the wrong Doctor. The two Doctors engage each other but the real Doctor gets the upper hand and disables the robot. Exhausted, the group returns to the cave and falls asleep.

In the morning, the Doctor and Ian spy a city built high above the forest. However, the Daleks attack before they can move and the retreat in to the cave. The Doctor attempts to fool the Daleks by posing as the robot but the Daleks realize it is him and attack, forcing him to duck back in to the cave. As they prepare to make a last stand, an elevator door opens and a robot bids them enter. They quickly do so and are taken up into the city.

In the city, the robot places them in a large room with Steven Taylor, an astronaut who crashed on the planet two years ago. He tells them the robots are called Mechanoids and were sent to the planet to prepare it for colonization. However, the colonization never happened and without the trigger code, the Mechanoids treat all life as potentially hostile. If no defined threat is observed, they enclose it for study as Steven and the TARDIS crew now are. Showing them around, they get on to the roof and find a spool of power cable. With Ian to help, the group decides to try and escape.

The Daleks invade the cave but find it empty. They determine that their prey escaped up to the city and they pursue, summoning all Daleks from the time ship. The Daleks attack the Mechanoids and the Mechanoids fight back. The Doctor also contributes to the fight by leaving his bomb which destroys the lead Dalek. The fight escalates and the city begins to burn as both Mechanoids and Daleks are destroyed in the fighting.

The group begins to lower each one down to the ground but Steven runs back into the holding cell to rescue his stuffed panda Hi-Fi. Not knowing his fate, the group flees back to the TARDIS. Steven actually does escape but is behind the group and out of sight. The TARDIS crew find the Dalek time ship and discover that it is empty with all the Daleks killed in the battle. As they examine it, Ian and Barbara realize they can use the ship to get back home.

Their suggestion angers the Doctor and he initially refuses to help them but Vicki calms him down and reluctantly agrees, warning them of the risks. They accept that and disappear in the machine. They arrive back in London in 1965, nearly two years after they left. The Doctor observes them on the time-space visualizer, whispering how he will miss them. He and Vicki then take off, unaware that Steven has snuck aboard.

Analysis

There are two caveats required to enjoy The Chase. First, because each episode is so radically different from the last in both story and tone, it must be watched in episodic fashion. The mind needs time to process each episode and then compartmentalize it before moving on to the next part of the story. Second, do not apply any primary sense of logic. Much like Silver Nemesis, many parts of this story are built to be a fun thrill ride and will fall completely to pieces if you try to put any sense of either cohesion or intellectual thought into it. Many of the character's moods and behaviors will change from episode to episode as the situation warrants it. They aren't bad from an overall perspective, but it is another reason to put some space between each episode.

Looking back over the whole thing, I imagine that Terry Nation had a four-part story in mind with Episodes One and Two, then followed by Episodes Five and Six. These four seem to have a bit more flow together and use each location on a longer term. Whether it was his idea or the production team, the story was expanded to six episodes and it then gets very weird. I believe that Terry Nation was still looking to get a science fiction series of his own off the ground in the United States (either with or without the Daleks) and the radical change in tone and style shown in each of the episodes feels a bit like an audition of the various types of episodes he felt he could write.

Episode One is a happy jaunt showing the crew in a holiday like setting. Episode Two becomes bleak with Aridians murdered at will by the Daleks and only a bit of chance sparing the crew from being turned over by the helpless Aridians. Episode Three becomes light again with the cornpone Morton Dill and the silly reactions of the crew of the Mary Celeste. Episode Four is horror with a genuinely creepy haunted house, straight out of Scooby Doo. Episodes Five and Six veer back into the adventure tone with Five having a spy flavor and Six being an all out war, punctuated by Ian and Barbara's departure.

You would think, given the way I railed against the tone shifts of The Romans that these radical shifts would really bother me. However, in The Chase, the tone is consistent through the episode, unlike The Romans, which oscillated within the episode. I found that this made the changes much easier to digest, especially, as I mentioned earlier, if you watch and episode and then give a little time to digest it before jumping in to the next one. It is still jarring and doesn't make for a great overall story, but it at least doesn't produce whiplash while watching an episode.

The production values in this story were not great. Normally I don't have a problem with them in 1960's stories but were so many in this one that they just stood out to me. The Dalek emerging from the sand in Episode One is obviously evoking The Dalek Invasion of Earth Dalek emerging from the water. However, that doesn't do it any favors as in that story, it was a full Dalek that was submerged and this is obviously a little model placed in a sand box. In Episode Two, you can see the flap of the skull cap worn to give the Aridian's their top fin peeling up. There is little done to hide the obvious backdrops, giving the story a penned in feel. It doesn't help that in Episode Five there is a strong focus downward in several shots, clearly showing the crew walking on a stage floor rather than earth. There is also something that appears in the cave when Barbara finds the rod controlling the lights that looks suspiciously like a microphone of some kind. Perhaps it was supposed to be something of the Mechanoids, but it looked more like a busted shot to me.

However, I think the worst aspect of production error was in how Edmund Warwick was shot. Warwick played the robot version of the Doctor and while he did a serviceable job as a stand-in, it is painfully obvious that he is not William Hartnell. So why isn't Hartnell used for the face shots and Warwick kept for the rear and double shots? Hartnell's voice is used throughout, although it is very obviously prerecorded. But even in distance shots, like the closing of Episode Four, it is so obvious that that is not William Hartnell. It actually gets worse in the final confrontation when Ian fights the Doctor. He is clearly fighting William Hartnell while Edmund Warwick is shown in medium shot next to Vicki and Barbara. These are cut shots and there is no reason you couldn't have had William Hartnell in both places. If that was too difficult due to time constraints, then the robot plot needed to have been dropped or at the very least, reworked so that only William Hartnell's face was shown at any one time.

There was one subtlety in Episode Three that caught my eye and I'm not sure what to make of it. Near the beginning of the story, a New York stereotype is giving a tour and a large man in a white hat comes over to listen. As he walks into shot, he give an African-American woman standing nearby a hard elbow in the back to get her out of the way. I would love to know whether this was a motion suggested by the director or if it was something done by the actors independently. Morton Dill is such an "aw shucks" kind of Southerner that it is interesting that to contrast this, a shot of hard racism is thrown in as well. What's more that it is done with subtlety and not splashed as a hard point is also quite a contrast with the rest of the episode.

Earlier I mentioned needing to turn off the logical center of the brain to enjoy this story. I think that is at it's greatest point in Episode Four. The explanation offered for the haunted house just doesn't make any sense. Dracula was played as you would expect a fun house robot to be. Likewise the ghost that crossed Ian's path. However, neither the ghoulish woman nor Frankenstein's monster act as fun house robots. Both move independently and change direction based on stimuli. The monster goes one step beyond and actively attacks the Daleks, both in their entry in to the lab and then afterward in the main hall. No fun house robot is going to have that level of independent thought and action. Yet the sign outside make it clear that they are only robots. I would also like to know why these robots are immune to the Dalek lasers but the Mechanoid robots are not. Also, if there is a great entrance to the fun house just beyond the hall, why didn't Barbara or Vicki see it when they were in the hall by the TARDIS. Heck, why didn't Ian and the Doctor see it when they were coming back down the stairs. I would have much preferred it if Ian's suggestion that they had come to a region of space where thoughts were manifested were the real one. That that idea ended up being the basis for The Mind Robber demonstrated that it would have been a perfectly valid one.

Finally, there is the Ian and Barbara goodbye. It is pretty good and spends a good amount of time with them as deserved. I think the most interesting thing about it is the Doctor's actual reaction. With Susan, there was this sense of inevitability and letting go as a parent (or grandparent) would. Here, the Doctor is angry and his anger turns him back into a petulant child. That it takes Barbara getting angry in turn with him shows the emotional level the First Doctor still is at despite his seasoning through the show.

I think it is also reflective of the fact that with someone you are rearing, there is an expectation that they will grow up and leave eventually. You don't have that with someone you see as a friend. You expect friends to stay as long as possible. What's worse for the Doctor is that Ian and Barbara are leaving voluntarily. In a way, you can imagine the Doctor questioning whether they ever considered him a friend if their only hope was to get back to mid-60's London as soon as they were whisked away back in An Unearthly Child. That would make the wound the Doctor feels by their leaving so much worse. But it is fairly well done: staying with them for a bit but not overly sentimental. It is possibly the best part of the story.

So where to come down on this one. I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't watch this one again without good cause. It is too disjointed episode to episode to form a cohesive story. That being said, in each individual episode the story zips along fairly well and you never get a sense of boredom that you do in some stories. That's not enough to save it but if you do sit down with it, the story will keep you engaged. Given that's the same saving grace I gave to Silver Nemesis, I'd say it deserves the same score.

Overall personal score: 1.5 out 5

The Time Meddler

I count myself very fortunate person indeed, to be here in the time to prevent this disgusting exhibition.

The Time Meddler is the beginning of a major turning point in Doctor Who. With the departure of Ian and Barbara at the end of The Chase, all of the original companions have gone leaving only the Doctor. In addition, The Time Meddler was the last story of Season Two and the beginning of the final production block where Verity Lambert would oversee the show as producer. The production block extended into the first five episodes of Season Three, but with The Mythmakers, John Wiles fully took over. It is somewhat understandable that the first ten minutes or so of Episode One feel a bit like a pilot episode with a lot of information being passed to Steven (and the audience) as the Doctor and Vicki explain the premise of the show and how things work.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and Vicki reminisce about Ian and Barbara leaving when they hear a noise in the living quarters of the TARDIS. They prepare to defend themselves thinking that it might be a Dalek when Steven stumbles out and collapses. They carry him to a chair to recover. To ease things, the Doctor dematerializes the TARDIS on a beach, where it is observed by a man in a monk's cowl.

Steven is impressed with the ship but does not believe the Doctor or Vicki when told it is a time machine. Piqued, the Doctor tells Vicki to help Steven get cleaned up and then they will go out to show him that it is a time machine. Outside, they find a rusted Viking helmet, leading the Doctor to suspect they are in the 9th or 10th century. Unbeknownst to them, the monk has crept forward and is eavesdropping on their conversation. The Doctor, opting to investigate, walks along the beach while Steven and Vicki elect the climb the cliff face. The monk creeps forward and investigates the exterior of the TARDIS before noticing that he is missing something from his wrist.

Two other men observed the TARDIS on the beach and have come forward to investigate. They leave behind a woman, Edith, to manage the fire and house. The Doctor meets her and from her learns that it is the summer of 1066 and they are near York, just prior to the Viking invasion that will be beaten back by King Harold II just before losing the battle of Hastings. While sitting near the fire, the Doctor hears monks chanting in the abbey nearby, but the sound suddenly warbles as it would on a recording. He learns from Edith that the abbey had been abandoned until a few weeks ago but only one monk had been seen moving around the countryside. The Doctor thanks her and heads up to the abbey.

Vicki and Steven have gotten lost in the dark and stop to rest. While resting, they observe a local man, Eldred, bringing back a rabbit he has killed. He stops to pick something lying on the ground. Curious, and still not believing in time travel, Steven calls out to Eldred. He attacks Steven and then runs off. Steven however has grabbed the object he picked up. It is a modern wristwatch, further cementing Steven's belief that this is not the 11th century.

At the abbey, the Doctor sneaks in and finds a recording playing the Gregorian chants. He stops it but bars drop down and the monk peeks in and laughs at him. He moves the Doctor to a cell in the abbey and offers him breakfast, cooked using modern equipment but the Doctor refuses it. The monk leaves the abbey and watches the horizon. There he spies an approaching Viking ship.

Steven and Vicki awake in the forest but are captured by the villagers. They bring them back to the village where Edith recognizes their clothing style. The headman of the village, Edith's husband Wulnoth, decides to let them go while Edith tells them that the Doctor was headed to the abbey. They leave but Eldred, remembering their attack on him earlier, is fearful that they are spies for a Viking attack.

The Viking scout ship lands on the coast. Most of the warriors stay on the coast and the captain sends out two parties to scout the land and look for food and water. They are given orders not to engage unless necessary for they are a scout force preparing for the larger invasion by King Harald Hardrada later that year.

Steven and Vicki arrive at the abbey but when speaking to the monk, he denies ever seeing the Doctor. Steven sets a trap when asking and the monk gives evidence that he had seen the Doctor. Vicki is suspicious that it could be a trap for them but Steven decides that they will sneak in at nightfall to find the Doctor.

One of the Viking scout parties find the village with Edith being the only one around. They steal supplies and rape her. After they leave, the village men return from the fields to find what happened. Wulnoth leads a group after the Vikings, who have left a trail being drunk. They find them and attack. One of the Vikings is killed along with a couple of the villagers in the melee but the remaining two Vikings escape into the forest. Eldred is wounded and Wulnoth takes him to the abbey to get medical help.

At dark, Steven and Vicki sneak in to the abbey. The monk is aware of them entering but he is distracted when he hears knocking at the door. It is Wulnoth and Eldred, whom he escorts inside. Steven and Vicki find the record player of the chanting and then find the cell where the Doctor is being held. They break in but under the Doctor's cloak they find only straw. They guess that the Doctor found a secret passage to escape. Searching the cell, they also find it and follow it.

The monk treats Eldred's wounds and tries to get Wulnoth to take him back but they realize he is too weak to travel. Leaving Eldred to rest in the abbey, Wulnoth heads back to the village. The monk checks on the Doctor to find him gone. He also asks Eldred when they might expect the main Viking force and Eldred guesses a couple of days. The monk seems pleased and leaves him to sleep.

The Doctor returns to the village and talks to Edith, learning of what has happened. He reassures her that the Vikings will not bother them again as the main force will land further to the South and that it will be defeated by King Harold. He then returns to the abbey to deal with the monk. At the same time, Steven and Vicki emerge from the secret passage and continue to search for the Doctor in the woods.

The two surviving Viking raiders try to figure what to do. They elect to head to the abbey to seek sanctuary. Once inside, they will hold the monks as hostages until the main fleet arrives and they can return safely.

At the abbey, the Doctor surprises the monk and prepares to get his story out of him. Before he can, the door knocks again. To not cause any trouble, the Doctor dons a monk's cowl and opens the door. The Vikings enter and lock the Doctor back in his former cell with one standing guard. The monk, having hidden behind the door when the two Vikings entered, sneaks around and knocks out one searching the abbey. He ties up the Viking and then leaves the abbey.

Steven and Vicki return to the cliff overlooking the TARDIS but find the tide has come in and the TARDIS is inaccessible. They also find a futuristic cannon hidden in the bushes nearby. Hoping the Doctor headed around to stop the monk, they crawl back through the secret passage into the Abbey.

In the cell, the Doctor opens the secret passage entrance. The Viking, checking and seeing the open passage, enters to investigate. The Doctor, hiding behind the door, knocks him out. He heads out looking for the monk. Steven and Vicki arrive shortly after to find the unconscious Viking. They walk through the abbey and find an electrical cable leading to a sarcophagus. Doors are hidden in the bottom and inside they find a TARDIS. Searching through, they find many relics and weapons. They also find a log book demonstrating how the monk has given modern ideas and technology to primitive peoples to influence history.

The monk travels down to the village and asks Wulnoth to have the villagers prepare signal fires to be lit in a couple of days. He informs them that he is expecting materials to rebuild the monastery to be coming by ship and wants to guide them in. Wulnoth reluctantly agrees. Edith cautions him, telling him of what the Doctor said about a Viking fleet approaching.

The Doctor gets the drop on the monk upon returning to the abbey. The monk confesses his plan to change history. He will lure the Viking fleet further North than originally. Then he will use nuclear weaponry to destroy the fleet. With no northern invasion to sap his strength, Harold II will face the Norman invasion with a fresh, full strength army, allowing him to win the Battle of Hastings. The monk then plans on introducing other things into this alternate timeline, introducing the modern era over 400 years before it actually happened. The Doctor is appalled and forces the monk into his TARDIS. There they meet Steven and Vicki.

The Viking the Doctor knocked out comes to and finds his companion tied up. He releases him and the two search for the monks. As they search, they are spied by Eldred who hurries back to the village. The Vikings spy the monk and the Doctor's party emerging from the sarcophagus. The monk flees to them, professing loyalty to King Hardrada and the Vikings tie up the Doctor, Steven and Vicki. The monk gives the Vikings some warheads, telling them that they are charms that will aid their fleet.

In the village, Wulnoth is telling the rest of the village that the monk may be a Viking spy as they believe that the signal fires will actually lure the rest of the Vikings there. Eldred arrives in the middle and informs them that he saw Vikings in the abbey. Convinced, the villagers head to the abbey armed. They see the two Vikings emerging with the warheads with the monk. Upon seeing the mob, the three drop the warheads and flee into the forest. The monk misdirects the Vikings to a hiding spot and then flees in the opposite direction. The Vikings are cornered by the villagers and killed.

Edith frees the Doctor and his companions, inviting them back to the village to celebrate their victory. The Doctor accepts but says he must take care of something in the abbey first. Heading back into the monk's TARDIS, he sabotages it and then heads back to his own TARDIS with Steven and Vicki.

The monk circles back to the abbey to find everyone gone. He decides to leave but finds a letter written to him by the Doctor. He is amused at the Doctor's threat but is then horrified to find that the Doctor has stolen the dimensional transformer from his TARDIS. The control room is now shrunk down proportional to the sarcophagus exterior, rendering it impossible for him to enter and leave. He realizes he is marooned as the Doctor's TARDIS dematerializes.

Analysis

This was an excellent episode. I had unfortunately already been spoiled to the ending of Episode Four so I knew what was coming, but even with that, the story was very engaging. As each episode ended, and a couple of points where I had to stop in the middle, I was disappointed because I was genuinely interesting in seeing what happened next.

One of the best things about the episode is the production value. Nearly everything, except for a couple of quick bits of stock footage, is filmed in studio. Yet this fact is very well disguised. The forest sets look realistic as do the buildings, both exterior and interior. In fact, the only time where it is a bit obvious that they are in studio is when they are on the cliff face overlooking the TARDIS. There is nothing wrong with the set but the whole focusing on the characters while they point to and talk about something below or off the in distance is a fairly well known trick and did bring it back in.

One of the best tricks is the use of sound. It is subtle but whenever there is a forest scene, there is a chirping of birds in the background. Likewise, there are seagulls when on the beach or overlooking the cliff above the TARIDS. But the best is when they are in the abbey. The sounds is undamped so that there is an actual echo going on as if they are in a large cavernous space. It is not something that you would expect people to really notice but its addition just adds a whole level of realism that your brain picks up on. It is quite impressive.

The acting is very good in it as well. I think the two Vikings get a little over the top at one point, but they are still decent. The monk himself is a rather cool customer with a joking sense of humor. Even the Doctor seems greatly amused, even when he is obviously put out by the monk's actions. There is a good bit of humor even though the story goes to some very dark places. The aftermath of the Viking raid, including the rape of Edith, is striking for how dark it is. When Wulnoth finds Edith, I thought she was actually dead at first, but instead is catatonic. That is both impressive acting and a very dark place to go to in 1965 for a children's show. I certainly appreciated it.

I personally wish Doctor Who would actually do more stories along this line of this one. This is an alternate history lover's dream. I'm sure a number of stories and papers have been written about how King Harold could have won the battle of Hastings, with the removal of the Viking invasion being a good starting point. From there you go down the rabbit hole of what would have happened. It is interesting to see the show teach history by showing the possibility of it being changed. It also marks an interesting contrast to the Doctor's statement in The Aztecs about how history cannot be changed, even if you try. Of course, the monk did try and he was thwarted so one could argue that time did preventative maintenance by bringing the Doctor there.

If I had any quibble with the story, it is with the monk's motivations. He speaks about changing history to keep Harold on the throne and turning Britain into more of an insular place; not getting involved with all the wars in France. He estimates that with uninterrupted prosperity, they might have flight in less than 400 years and have Shakespeare produce his stories for broadcast on television. But the question is why? What does the monk gain out of this? If the monk were human, you might argue that it would be for the betterment of his race and power. After all, a Britain with powered flight and other modern technology could easily take over any location that they might desire.

However, it had been established in The Sensorites that the Doctor and Susan were from another planet and by implication, the monk was as well. So why is he interested in altering the course of Earth history? About the only thing I can think of is that he is interesting in staying on Earth for the long haul. Steven reads a passage in the monk's log that he placed a sum of money in a bank and jumped forward 200 years to collect a fortune based on the compound interest. The Doctor never worries about money but the monk does. From this, we can guess that he has a vested interest in improving his life on Earth and has little to no interest in going anywhere else. Either that or he is just someone who gets his jollies from causing trouble; like a prankster. It's a minor point but it does leave you scratching your head.

Overall, I think I would have to say that I think this is the best First Doctor story I've seen so far. It was on an interesting subject, it was well acted, it had moments of dark seriousness but was also tempered with a measure of levity. It was also well produced and well directed. I think I would happily watch this one again with no complaints.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5

The Romans

She keeps track of the lyres.

The Romans is billed as a comedy and there are certainly a lot of little puns and farcical moments. I personally wonder if there wasn't a bit of an influence from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which debuted in 1962. The Romans doesn't go that broad and perhaps it might be better if it had.

Plot Summary

After falling off a cliff, the TARDIS is shown covered in brambles. Ian and the Doctor are shown relaxing in a Roman villa where they have been staying for the past month. Barbara and Vicki are heading down the road to market. They stop at a cloth merchant where Barbara chastises Vicki for not doing a better job of trying to blend in. The two are spotted by a couple of slave traders who ply the cloth merchant for information and learn how they are squatting in a villa whose owner is currently in Gaul.

Barbara and Vicki head back to the villa. Also traveling on the road is an older man with a lyre. The older man is waylaid and killed in the bushes by a swordsman.

After dinner, Ian asks if they should check on the TARDIS. The Doctor gets annoyed with him for bringing it up and announces that he will be taking a trip to Rome. Vicki asks to come with him as she is bored and the Doctor agrees. Ian suggests that they all go but the Doctor, put off by Ian's talk earlier, resolves to go without him and Barbara. As the Doctor and Vicki walk down the road, they find the body of the old lyre player. The Doctor takes his lyre and upon emerging from the bushes meets a Roman centurion. The centurion asks if the Doctor is the lyrist Maximus Pettulian and the Doctor gives the impression that he is without saying so. The centurion promptly escorts the Doctor and Vicki to Rome to play at the court of Emperor Nero where he had been summoned and was late.

Back at the villa, Ian and Barbara have been drinking wine when they are attacked by the slave traders. They fight them but Barbara accidently knocks out Ian and the two are dragged to the slave line for escort and sale in Rome. Before they leave, the traders are approached by a man who negotiates the purchase of three male slaves. He shows interest in Barbara but the slavers refuse to sell her prior to arrival in Rome. The other man takes two men from Gaul and Ian.

In Rome, the man who killed the real Maximus Pettulian is berated by the centurion who tells him he must have killed the wrong man. He orders him to kill the Doctor or he will lose another body part besides his tongue. The Doctor however sees him before he strikes and disarms him. He then fights him before Vicki enters and stuns him by knocking him on the head with a vase. Stunned, the man hurdles himself out the window to escape. Vicki and the Doctor discuss how he was probably hired by the centurion but the Doctor has made up his mind to head to Rome and Nero's court anyway.

Barbara and the rest of the slaves arrive in Rome and are stored before the slave auction. Barbara's kindness towards one of the other slaves catches the attention of a man, Tavius, who offers to buy her directly. The slave dealer refuses but encourages him to come to the auction. He does and buys her quickly with an excessive bid. He is the slave procurer for the Imperial household and he takes Barbara back to the palace just as the Doctor arrives.

Ian, meanwhile, has been sold as a galley slave. He and his oarmate Delos make an attempt to escape but are beaten back. Later the galley is caught in a storm and driven on the rocks. In the melee, Ian subdues the oar master but is knocked out by a falling timber. Delos drags him ashore and the two men make their way to Rome to find Barbara. In the city, they are captured and given to the slave dealer who plans to have them fight in the arena.

The Doctor and Vicki arrive at Nero's palace and have a quick audience with Nero. The Doctor immediately flatters him and defers his own attempts at playing to Nero. Nero, pleased at having his ego stroked, bids the Doctor be taken care of and will grant him a full audience later. After dismissal, the Doctor and Vicki discover the body of the centurion who escorted them to Rome, something that had been alluded to by Tavius just prior to the Doctor's initial meeting with Nero.

Barbara is presented to Nero's wife Poppaea as a servant and Nero immediately lays eyes on her. Poppaea assigns a task to Barbara and gives her a warning not to advance on Nero. After she leaves, Nero pounces and begins to chase Barbara through the palace. Nero does eventually corner her after being interrupted several times but Poppaea returns before Nero can take advantage of her.

At this same time, the Doctor attempts to get an audience with Nero. Tavius has alluded to a conspiracy and the Doctor is curious if Nero is in on it. While he pursues Nero, Vicki wanders through the palace and meets a woman who brews poisons. Whilst Vicki is visiting, Poppaea, having broken up Nero's attempts on Barbara, enters and has the woman prepare a poisoned wine for Barbara to be paired with a clean one for Nero to be served during the banquet at which the Doctor will play. After preparing the goblets, Vicki sneaks out and switches the goblets to see if she can poison Nero.

Just before the banquet, Nero corners Barbara and offers her a piece of jewelry to which he expects to be rewarded with a kiss and maybe more. The paired goblets arrive and Barbara offers to drink to Nero's health. She downs the unpoisoned one and runs off. But before Nero can drink the poisoned one, the Doctor stops him, Vicki having told him of her switch. Nero thanks him and then test it on his dressing slave. The man promptly dies.

Her plan having failed, Poppaea arrests the poison preparer and sends Barbara back to the apartments to work, keeping her away from the banquet. After eating, Nero has the Doctor play for everyone. The Doctor announces that he will play a tune so delicate that only the most refined ears will be able to hear it. He pretends to play but the audience acts as though they can hear and appreciate it (The Emperor's New Clothes). Angered at the strong reaction the Doctor gets, Nero races back the apartment, grabs Barbara and heads to a small theater where he summons the gladiator master.

Nero orders the gladiator master to prepare the arena for a concert to be given by Maximus Pettulian. In the middle of the concert, lions will be released into the arena to eat him. Nero also orders that a pair of gladiators be brought in for his amusement for that evening. Ian and Delos are brought in and made to fight. Ian disarms Delos briefly but refuses to strike him down. Delos reclaims his sword and this time catches Ian. Nero orders Ian to be killed but Delos refuses and instead goes for the guard. Ian also attacks. The two fend off the soldiers and Ian tries to grab Barbara as well, but Nero has her too tightly. As they run off Nero calls off the pursuit and instead decides to lay a trap for them. Knowing they will return for Barbara, Nero alerts his guards to all the palace gates so that they can arrest them when they come back.

The next morning, Poppaea summons Tavius telling him to dismiss Barbara. Barbara finds him shortly afterward, telling him that Ian will be coming for her and that she will try to escape and that she would appreciate his help. She also informs him of Nero's plan to murder Maximus Pettulian. Tavius thanks her and promises to help her escape if he can.

Tavius approaches the Doctor and warns him about Nero's plan, cautioning him that if he is to kill Nero, it must be done that day. The Doctor then realizes that Maximus Pettulian was an assassin who had been intercepted by the loyal member of Nero's guard who had discovered it. But with the centurion killed, Nero was unaware of the plot against him. Nero enters shortly and the Doctor puts Nero off guard by guessing of the arena concert and throwing in a number of allusions to being eaten as well. While talking, the sun catches the Doctor's glasses behind his back and start a fire on Nero's plans for improvements to Rome.

Seeing the fire, Nero is angered at first that his plans have been burnt but then is overjoyed as he gets the idea that if he burns Rome, he could rebuild it with no one objecting to his plans. He immediately summons a soldier to gather lowlifes from the city and bring them to the palace. With guards around all the entrances, Ian and Delos slip in with the riffraff to gain entrance back to the palace.

Nero gives the men gold and orders them to set fire to the city. While the men line up to get torches, Tavius pulls out Ian and brings him to Barbara. Donning a cloak, the two slip out into the crowd of men. Delos shoves his torch into the guard captain's face and the three break for the outskirts of the city. The Doctor and Vicki also leave in the chaos to avoid Nero's wrath. Tavius watches both groups go, silently biding them well while holding a small cross.

The Doctor and Vicki pause outside of Rome to watch the fire, Vicki ribbing the Doctor that the Great Fire of Rome was his fault. The Doctor argues a bit but seems amused at the idea. Ian and Barbara reach the villa by the morning. They clean up a bit and after refreshing themselves, fall asleep. The Doctor and Vicki find them that evening, believing that they have lounged about the villa the whole time they are gone. Ian and Barbara opt to not tell them and the group returns to the TARDIS. They then leave but the Doctor confides to Ian that some force is pulling the TARDIS towards it.

Analysis

Labeling this story as a farcical comedy does not properly suit it. Yes, the Doctor's scenes are clearly played for comedy to the point of being a farce. But Barbara and Ian's scenes are not. They are played with the same level of seriousness seen in The Reign of Terror. My assumption is that Dennis Spooner (the writer) was attempting to add levity to a potentially dark story by giving the Doctor over to comedy, but in playing the comedy so broadly with the Doctor and giving no levity to Barbara and Ian's scenes, it sets up an almost schizophrenic story.

Episode Three comes closest to being a true farce comedy as Ian is only given a short scene in the middle and then at the end when he and Delos fight before Nero. Barbara's scenes are played for comedy but there is a touch of discomfort in that given that Nero is trying to rape her for the first half and Poppaea is trying to poison her in the second half. Again, it struck me similar to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Nero in the role of Senex and Poppaea in the role of Domina, except with a darker flavor.

Nero himself is also played off with him being done as a old fop in Episode Three and then as more of the psychotic he actually was in Episode Four, but with still an air of incompetence about him. The overall focus and tone is hard to truly pick up on throughout.

Making things even more confusing is the way Ian and Barbara play up the ending. When they arrive back at the villa, Barbara lets slip that she was the one that smashed Ian over the head with the vase accidentally. Ian gets indignant and chases after her before forcing her to clean the mess. It's intent is to be played for laughs but there is an air of sexual dominance to the scene as well and that if Ian had done worse than hold Barbara's face into the edge of the fountain, it still would have been seen as justified and perhaps even funny. They also laugh at their adventures after the Doctor and Vicki head back towards the TARDIS, despite the fact that there was nothing funny to Ian and Barbara's side of the story, with a number of people killed or put into great misery around them.

On an overall scale, I think Episode Three was the only one I genuinely liked. I didn't care for the Nero attempting to rape Barbara bit, but there were funny interruptions to the chase and the other parts of that episode, especially involving the Doctor, were quite funny. Episode Four wasn't bad until towards the recap scenes as it took more of a serious tone with comedy only accenting the Doctor and Vicki's scenes rather than creating that sharp contrast in Episodes One and Two. But things went to pot in the end as everyone just dismissed what they had been through with a flip of the hand.

About the only thing I can say for this story was that it was well acted for the most part. Delos and Tavius were enjoyable characters that you were able to get a good bead on through their limited exposure. Nero himself was entertaining in whatever focus he was being pulled by the script. His style was also over the top just enough to fully separate his role in this story from the historical madman, who was much younger and even more bloodthirsty than portrayed here.

I know there are strong defenders of this story and I could see their point if this story had fully decided what it wanted to be. If it was a full farce, I can understand that. If it wanted to be serious, I can understand that too. But stacking farce and drama next to each other just prevents getting a handle on any sort of tone. I could pull down Episode Three and enjoy it for the most part, but if anyone suggested watching the whole thing, I would probably beg off as this one is just not for me.

Overall personal score: 1 out of 5