Story 3 - The Edge of Destruction
As always, running commentary first, very stream of consciousness, then a summary with some opinions.
It's been a while. I stopped for a Veronica Mars Marathon, and then re-reading the Harry Potter books, and then a couple of longer history tomes. And many meantimes as well.
Episode One - The Edge of Destruction
Short Summary: There's a vast explosion and everyone gets knocked out. Slowly the crew wakes up, disoriented and seeming to not remember much of what has happened. The Doctor is hurt, so his head is bandaged. Everyone gets more and more paranoid and angry--Susan has a fit and tries to stab Ian with some scissors. When the Doctor accuses Ian and Barbara of deliberately sabotaging his ship, Barbara lets him know what she thinks about him in no uncertain terms. However, she is distracted from her tirade by the revelation that time itself has some disappeared from the ship. All the clocks and watches are melted. The Doctor becomes very calm and tries to think, becoming his inscrutable self. The Doctor, imagining everyone asleep, goes out to the control room, when hands reach around his neck...
Boy Howdy, is what I'm saying. It must have really been something to have this be the episode right after the Daleks! A bottle show, even.
And so very quiet. It feels like a play at this point. Everything is static and there's just that slight pulsing humming. And no one knowing each other, being so dazed and confused.
HO ho! Only one heart?!
They really are taking a lot of time to establish the total weirdness of what is happening. And still no music at all. Would any TV show allow there to be so much time without music? How will I know what to think? It's funny how disconcerting it is without any music sound.
Why would the back of the neck be the place for the pain? The Tardis is a weird beast.
Oh my goodness, Susan is so creepy. That "who are you" was excellent. And stabbing and first music. It is shocking they were allowed to get away with that crazy Susan craziness. I like this creepy Susan much better than screamy scared Susan. She seems more in control.
Oh here it goes, them beginning to hate each other. Nice. I do have a "bickering crewmembers" kink.
And Barbara angry is hot.
But the melted clock is not quite as scary as they think it is. The kooky music is awesome, though. Things get settled down and the Doctor retreats into himself to think. Susan starts to apologize to Barbara. It is interesting to me that Barbara is so important to Susan from the very beginning.
And seriously, has the Doctor drugged everyone? What a crazy man. What is he up to, anyway? And what's up with slomo strangling?
Episode Two - The Brink of Disaster
Short Summary: And they belong to Ian, though he is thrown back when he gets too close to the controls. Barbara is the first one the scene, followed by Susan. The crew continues to bicker and make accusations, with the Doctor's paranoia increasing. Ian passes in and out of lucidity. Suddenly the fault locator rings out, and everything is wrong at once. The Doctor intuits that the ship is on the brink of destruction, and Barbara figures out that time is the key to the problem. Through trial and error, they figure out that the power is trying to escape the ship and the ship is guiding them to the solution. They watched the scanner and then the Doctor figures it out--that the fast return switch took them back to the beginning of time, where the big bang is trying to destroy the ship. The fast return switch switch was stuck, a small problem that caused a big trauma. So they fix it and all is well. The Doctor fumbles his apologies and the group come out more united for their next adventure. It's a winter wonderland, and a giant's footprint?
Viewing Figures were down, but not by as much as one would have thought. This really is a weird episode--no aliens, everyone acting crazy with no pin-pointable danger.
Ian was the one trying to strangle the Doctor.
Barbara is the source of reason. And Susan wants Barbara to be true-telling so badly.
Funny that the fault locator makes such a crazy noise. Everything is wrong! Oy!
Why doesn't Ian have pants on, yo?
Total destruction is scary. I love the Doctor turning on a dime--"Oh I never really believed you were working against me, and how about that sleeping drug I gave you?"
If only I had a clue? That's a bit of a clunker line. Here's a clue, says Barbara, I'm a clue bringer.
I love this William Hartnell speech--the way his mind works behind his eyes. Supposedly he was nervous about the length of the dialogue, but it feels like a person thinking as they speak, and it's marvelous.
Sometimes the Doctor is a chauvinist chauvinist. But that's okay.
And it turns out to be a faulty spring in a switch. Honestly kind of a lamer explanation; it should have been left more mysterious.
Oh, I do love the closeness between Susan and the Doctor. I know I've already said it, but they do feel related. His protectiveness and her trust are excellent.
Ian and the Doctor fumble right into an apology.
I like the Doctor trying to compliment Barbara, and how hard it is for her, at the end. It's an excellent performance by both of them. Barbara has born the emotional strain of trying to be a peacemaker, and isn't ready to joke her way back into peace--she's just too hurt by the things the Doctor said. Nice.
And I like Ian's laugh here too--just such a "WTF I can't believe here we go again" laugh. He's given in to the madness, in a good way.
And so the Doctor's sincerity in the last bit is also lovely, and earned. Lots of giddy silliness. And snowballs! And Giant tracks.
The End is the End
This is an episode whose logic shouldn't be examined too closely. Why in the world would the Tardis, when in extreme danger, want to cause its passengers to go mad and start attacking each other? How in the world are these clues? Melting time, and arguments, and then ringing fault locator bells? Running around with scissors? Giving pain randomly? It doesn't make sense at all.
Small mechanical errors that seem so dumb but which cause huge problems--that is kind of interesting. And it's also interesting that they really chose that it was some kind of spring in a switch. These aren't the kind of errors that generally happen on ships in spaaaaaace.
Where this episode works splendidly is in the exploration of the tensions among the leads. I know I say over and over again that Susan is the weak link, but her character is necessary to the dynamic of this group for all my whining. As long as the Doctor doesn't trust Ian and Barbara, his complete loyalty and protectiveness towards Susan soften and sympathize him. It actually allows the actor to broaden the mercurial temper of the Doctor, for as long as we know he has affection for a human being, we look for human motivations in his erratic demeanor.
Ian is just kind of jovial and angry and then bemused, but Barbara goes on a real emotional journey in this episode, and it means something. It's really rare to take the time in a TV show to portray this kind of hurt, and to give it time to heal. To have the Doctor have to make a couple of apology attempts before he can reach Barbara, and to show that is only when he comes to a true empathetic understanding of where her hurt comes from that the breach is healed... well, that's quite a lesson. And I do like the random talk of outfits, and the silliness of everyone at the end. Having been in my fair share of fights, you do feel quite silly and strange when you feel like things have been resolved, as you try to refind your footing with others.
I really don't know how to rate this episode. I've talked more about what I liked, but the pacing was just kind of off. The first episode was slow slow slow--taking a lot of time to establish that "things is weird" without giving any connection to the weirdness. The problem solving portion went very quickly and the exposition only highlighted the thinness of the root of the danger. Not that I want a lot of magic and mumbo jumbo, but it didn't quite take me there plot-wise. The sound and music choices were still interesting and different. I think I need to learn more about how TV music was done at this time to know whether they are making startling or pedestrian choices, but from my "all music all the time" experience of tv sound, it's different and interesting.
But the emotional journey of the crew, with the emphasis on how much of a surrogate mother Barbara had already become for Susan and thus her divided loyalty between her grandfather and her new Mom, and Barbara's growing desperation and fear, and Ian's bizarro man role and the Doctor's rollercoaster moods, all made the scenes tense and unexpected. The group that emerges from the Tardis to play in the snow is a very different group than were knocked out in the beginning. There will always be a base of trust between these characters now; the Doctor had to make a choice, and when he chose to let Ian and Barbara in to his inner circle it changed him fundamentally. It's awesome.
I think I give it a 5.5 for story, with the addition of a 1.5 points for the great character stuff. Total 7? Inflated, but I do like the work between William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill in the last ten minutes so very much. I wonder if later Doctor Who actors watched these episodes and envied the actors the arcs they got to play. Real character growth and change, how novel!
It's been a while. I stopped for a Veronica Mars Marathon, and then re-reading the Harry Potter books, and then a couple of longer history tomes. And many meantimes as well.
Episode One - The Edge of Destruction
Short Summary: There's a vast explosion and everyone gets knocked out. Slowly the crew wakes up, disoriented and seeming to not remember much of what has happened. The Doctor is hurt, so his head is bandaged. Everyone gets more and more paranoid and angry--Susan has a fit and tries to stab Ian with some scissors. When the Doctor accuses Ian and Barbara of deliberately sabotaging his ship, Barbara lets him know what she thinks about him in no uncertain terms. However, she is distracted from her tirade by the revelation that time itself has some disappeared from the ship. All the clocks and watches are melted. The Doctor becomes very calm and tries to think, becoming his inscrutable self. The Doctor, imagining everyone asleep, goes out to the control room, when hands reach around his neck...
Boy Howdy, is what I'm saying. It must have really been something to have this be the episode right after the Daleks! A bottle show, even.
And so very quiet. It feels like a play at this point. Everything is static and there's just that slight pulsing humming. And no one knowing each other, being so dazed and confused.
HO ho! Only one heart?!
They really are taking a lot of time to establish the total weirdness of what is happening. And still no music at all. Would any TV show allow there to be so much time without music? How will I know what to think? It's funny how disconcerting it is without any music sound.
Why would the back of the neck be the place for the pain? The Tardis is a weird beast.
Oh my goodness, Susan is so creepy. That "who are you" was excellent. And stabbing and first music. It is shocking they were allowed to get away with that crazy Susan craziness. I like this creepy Susan much better than screamy scared Susan. She seems more in control.
Oh here it goes, them beginning to hate each other. Nice. I do have a "bickering crewmembers" kink.
And Barbara angry is hot.
But the melted clock is not quite as scary as they think it is. The kooky music is awesome, though. Things get settled down and the Doctor retreats into himself to think. Susan starts to apologize to Barbara. It is interesting to me that Barbara is so important to Susan from the very beginning.
And seriously, has the Doctor drugged everyone? What a crazy man. What is he up to, anyway? And what's up with slomo strangling?
Episode Two - The Brink of Disaster
Short Summary: And they belong to Ian, though he is thrown back when he gets too close to the controls. Barbara is the first one the scene, followed by Susan. The crew continues to bicker and make accusations, with the Doctor's paranoia increasing. Ian passes in and out of lucidity. Suddenly the fault locator rings out, and everything is wrong at once. The Doctor intuits that the ship is on the brink of destruction, and Barbara figures out that time is the key to the problem. Through trial and error, they figure out that the power is trying to escape the ship and the ship is guiding them to the solution. They watched the scanner and then the Doctor figures it out--that the fast return switch took them back to the beginning of time, where the big bang is trying to destroy the ship. The fast return switch switch was stuck, a small problem that caused a big trauma. So they fix it and all is well. The Doctor fumbles his apologies and the group come out more united for their next adventure. It's a winter wonderland, and a giant's footprint?
Viewing Figures were down, but not by as much as one would have thought. This really is a weird episode--no aliens, everyone acting crazy with no pin-pointable danger.
Ian was the one trying to strangle the Doctor.
Barbara is the source of reason. And Susan wants Barbara to be true-telling so badly.
Funny that the fault locator makes such a crazy noise. Everything is wrong! Oy!
Why doesn't Ian have pants on, yo?
Total destruction is scary. I love the Doctor turning on a dime--"Oh I never really believed you were working against me, and how about that sleeping drug I gave you?"
If only I had a clue? That's a bit of a clunker line. Here's a clue, says Barbara, I'm a clue bringer.
I love this William Hartnell speech--the way his mind works behind his eyes. Supposedly he was nervous about the length of the dialogue, but it feels like a person thinking as they speak, and it's marvelous.
Sometimes the Doctor is a chauvinist chauvinist. But that's okay.
And it turns out to be a faulty spring in a switch. Honestly kind of a lamer explanation; it should have been left more mysterious.
Oh, I do love the closeness between Susan and the Doctor. I know I've already said it, but they do feel related. His protectiveness and her trust are excellent.
Ian and the Doctor fumble right into an apology.
I like the Doctor trying to compliment Barbara, and how hard it is for her, at the end. It's an excellent performance by both of them. Barbara has born the emotional strain of trying to be a peacemaker, and isn't ready to joke her way back into peace--she's just too hurt by the things the Doctor said. Nice.
And I like Ian's laugh here too--just such a "WTF I can't believe here we go again" laugh. He's given in to the madness, in a good way.
And so the Doctor's sincerity in the last bit is also lovely, and earned. Lots of giddy silliness. And snowballs! And Giant tracks.
The End is the End
This is an episode whose logic shouldn't be examined too closely. Why in the world would the Tardis, when in extreme danger, want to cause its passengers to go mad and start attacking each other? How in the world are these clues? Melting time, and arguments, and then ringing fault locator bells? Running around with scissors? Giving pain randomly? It doesn't make sense at all.
Small mechanical errors that seem so dumb but which cause huge problems--that is kind of interesting. And it's also interesting that they really chose that it was some kind of spring in a switch. These aren't the kind of errors that generally happen on ships in spaaaaaace.
Where this episode works splendidly is in the exploration of the tensions among the leads. I know I say over and over again that Susan is the weak link, but her character is necessary to the dynamic of this group for all my whining. As long as the Doctor doesn't trust Ian and Barbara, his complete loyalty and protectiveness towards Susan soften and sympathize him. It actually allows the actor to broaden the mercurial temper of the Doctor, for as long as we know he has affection for a human being, we look for human motivations in his erratic demeanor.
Ian is just kind of jovial and angry and then bemused, but Barbara goes on a real emotional journey in this episode, and it means something. It's really rare to take the time in a TV show to portray this kind of hurt, and to give it time to heal. To have the Doctor have to make a couple of apology attempts before he can reach Barbara, and to show that is only when he comes to a true empathetic understanding of where her hurt comes from that the breach is healed... well, that's quite a lesson. And I do like the random talk of outfits, and the silliness of everyone at the end. Having been in my fair share of fights, you do feel quite silly and strange when you feel like things have been resolved, as you try to refind your footing with others.
I really don't know how to rate this episode. I've talked more about what I liked, but the pacing was just kind of off. The first episode was slow slow slow--taking a lot of time to establish that "things is weird" without giving any connection to the weirdness. The problem solving portion went very quickly and the exposition only highlighted the thinness of the root of the danger. Not that I want a lot of magic and mumbo jumbo, but it didn't quite take me there plot-wise. The sound and music choices were still interesting and different. I think I need to learn more about how TV music was done at this time to know whether they are making startling or pedestrian choices, but from my "all music all the time" experience of tv sound, it's different and interesting.
But the emotional journey of the crew, with the emphasis on how much of a surrogate mother Barbara had already become for Susan and thus her divided loyalty between her grandfather and her new Mom, and Barbara's growing desperation and fear, and Ian's bizarro man role and the Doctor's rollercoaster moods, all made the scenes tense and unexpected. The group that emerges from the Tardis to play in the snow is a very different group than were knocked out in the beginning. There will always be a base of trust between these characters now; the Doctor had to make a choice, and when he chose to let Ian and Barbara in to his inner circle it changed him fundamentally. It's awesome.
I think I give it a 5.5 for story, with the addition of a 1.5 points for the great character stuff. Total 7? Inflated, but I do like the work between William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill in the last ten minutes so very much. I wonder if later Doctor Who actors watched these episodes and envied the actors the arcs they got to play. Real character growth and change, how novel!