Story 6 - The Aztecs
The Aztecs! I want to love it more than anything, I think.
Well I remember loving it anyway. I love the extras on this DVD, too. The interviews with the actors who played the various Aztecs were excellent, even if they mostly didn't remember working on the piece itself. But they had a lot to say about what it was like to work in television in those early days, which is really interesting.
And the titles to these serials are so very silly… the Temple of Evil? Really? Because it can't be that bad.
Episode One - The Temple of Evil
Short Summary: Susan and Barbara come out of the Tardis and determine they are in an Aztec tomb. A door opens and Barbara explores more while Susan goes back for the rest of the group. Susan and Ian and the Doctor come out and can't find Barbara. They have landed among the Aztecs who are at the height of their power. The door closes again with the Tardis behind it-now they are trapped. They meet Autloc, the High Priest of Knowledge, then Tlotoxl, the High Priest of Sacrifice, who scares Susan. Barbara is seen as Yetaxa, the reincarnation of the god of the tomb. Ian and the Doctor are given free reign to walk around the city, while Susan and Barbara stay together. Ian is given to escort the first sacrifice victim, an honor taken from Ixta the Army Captain. This First Victim is the one who they say will bring rain. The Doctor cautions both Ian and Barbara not to interfere with the oncoming sacrifice. Susan tries to interfere, and Barbara does, but the victim still jumps off the temple to avoid the shame of escaping his honor. Tlotoxl declares Barbara a false god and vows her downfall.
Goobye Marinus!
This must not have been in very good shape-even with the cleanup it's very muddy. And we're already getting quite the history lesson. Yeah, the Spanish thought the Aztecs were uncivilized, but mostly they wanted to steal their gold and enslave them. Not that the Aztecs were very kind to those they conquered, either, but Cortez was certainly no paragon of virtue. I'm definitely having to handwave Barbara being able to be so confident in her dating of the artifacts.
Barbara meets Aztec warriors. The Goddess of the tomb is Yetaxa, and Autloc her priest takes her prisoner.
Autloc honors them. They are confused, and Susan realizes it's the bracelet that caused Autloc to "recognize" Barbara.
Susan cringes in fear when meeting Tlotoxl, the sacrificial priest of Yetaxa, due to his gruesome face paint. Geez, I wonder if he's a bad guy? It's a little too much to have the one with the face paint be the bad guy, but hey. This part gets played so shakespearean villain that I don't care.
Autloc and Tlotoxl are manipulating the people, trying to present sacrifice and miraculously bring the rain. It is obvious they already know when the rain is going to come. This is actually an interesting look at faith. Autloc seems to believe in his gods, but is wary of too much manipulation, while Tlotoxl is all over the place. Autloc isn't sure there should be sacrifice, since he knows there will be rain to clear the drought. But Tlotoxl is bloodthirsty and wants sacrifice.
Therefore we have the conflict of the piece-what does it mean to serve the gods? What do they demand of their servants? And who, after all, is the true believer?
They think Barbara is the representation of the priest.
Ian and the Doctor are granted free reign to move about the city while Susan, the "handmaiden" stays with Barbara.
Tlotoxl wants Ian to lead their armies, to the dismay of a man called Ixta, who is supposed to be the chosen commander of the armies. The Doctor goes the garden to wander about, while Ixta trains for battle.
The costumes in this are quite fantastic.
Tlotoxl has some kind of master plan, but I don't know what it is yet.
Oh now we see Ixta in combat. Well, he likes to fight, anyway. Are these traditional Aztec weapons? Someone did a lot of research.
Ixta is looks forward killing Ian, as only the best warriors remain. So, Ixta likes to fight, and is jealous of any who might try to usurp his place.
The honor they are competing for is to bring the final sacrifice to Tlotoxl at sundown.
Everyone over 52 lives in leisure as consultants. The doctor sees the beautiful Cameca and seeks her out.
"Better to go hungry than starve for beauty."
The man who build the temple also designed the garden. It's nice to see the doctor using his smarts… trigging to get information, going roundabout and indirectly to get the information he needs. And of course the son of the designer of the temple is a warrior. I wonder if it's Ixta. We haven't really met any other warriors.
Ian is still freaking out about the human sacrifice and not really wanting to escort anyone anywhere.
Interesting admonishments from the Doctor here; "For God's Sakes! Don't interfere!" But isn't that all they do? Maybe this is his fixed point thingy. But he's off to tell Barbara.
More music in this, mostly flute; it's quite nice.
It's fun to see Barbara and Susan play around.
This is a little heavy handed, Susan and Barbara expositioning about culture. It's all well for Barbara to see herself as quite civilized and above it all. Her stance as a teacher of history would view things a little differently now.
Barbara decides as a goddess that she can makes things change… she can stop the human sacrifice. The Beginning of the end of the sun god, eh?
She thinks that without human sacrifice that when Cortez lands the Spaniards won't destroy the Aztec culture. She is very very naive.
Oh, I like this too "what you are trying to do is utterly impossible. I know, believe me, I know."
What experiences has he had that we don't know about? Of course, it's still a little weird, just that they've interfered on other planets a lot at random times in history. Is only earth history sacrosanct? I think later canon tried to fix this logically with his "fixed" points thing. And that mostly works. So I'll let it go here. Maybe.
Barbara's mind is made up. She quite determined. She's already got her hubris of the gods in her favor.
I think this set is quite fantastic. Quite. Even with the painted backdrop, the tomb is detailed. And if they say it's high up, well, it is.
Ugh, now Susan is like a 4 year old. Barbara is nicely horrified at what she has to do. And Tlotoxl is all snaky.
Tlaloc, God of Rain, brings the rain.
Oh Barbara. You are trying.
Tlotoxl tells the sacrifice to jump to his death. And it starts to rain. So Yetaxa loses. With Death came Rain.
Tlotoxl wants Susan punished for trying to interfere with the law, and Barbara wants her taught respect. It's ironic that Barbara is using their complete obedience to a person in authority to try to teach them kindness and respect. it's kind of… patriarchal.
This story does a good job of setting up its central conflicts early. We get the history infodump, and then various characters with varying motivations all working at cross purposes and sometimes together. Tlotoxl is the only completely amoral character-wanting only to centralize and keep his power. Perhaps this is why is it so easy for him disbelieve that Barbara is Yetaxa; he doesn't believe in anything except his own power, and he has been manipulating supernatural events for too long to put complete faith in their being about what he says they are about.
Episode Two - The Warriours of Death
Short Summary: The doctor yells at Barbara for interfering but says he thinks he can find them a way out, if she can play Autloc and Tlotoxl off of one another. The Doctor and Ian go their different ways to see if they can learn anything about the tomb and get back in to the Tardis. Ian tricks Ixta into being defeated, which rouses and angers him. Tlotoxl works the Perfect Victim into getting Ixta and Ian into hand-to-hand combat. The Doctor, in the meantime, goes back to the garden to commune/flirt with Camera and try to find the plans of the temple. Cameca reveals that she knows the son of the temple builder, who happens to be Ixta. Ixta disguises himself, and gets the Doctor to give him a surefire way to win in combat (a drugged sharp) in exchange for the temple plans.
Tlotoxl manipulates Autloc into denying Barbara access to her "servants", but not before Barbara reveals to the Doctor that it's Ixta he has given his fight cheat to. Ixta and Ian wrestle, and Ixta is able to scratch Ian, who finally succumbs to the drug. As Tlotoxl urges Ixta to kill Ian, Barbara intervenes. Tlotoxl taunts Barbara that as a god, she should be able to stop it herself…
Closeup of scary face painted man. did they really go around with their faces painted all the time? And did the really hang out up at the top of the temple so much? Even though it looks nice.
The Doctor is still really upset at Barbara. This is a great argument. He is quite harsh. And I like that he backs off as well. These are people with long standing relationships. And the Doctor, for all his anger at Barbara for her unnecessary move, still believes she can keep things together and be strong enough to stay Yetaxa long enough for them to get back to the Tardis.
Barbara doesn't trust herself, though. Even though she's quite good at that autocratic queen thing.
The Doctor tells Barbara to play Autloc and Tlotoxl off of each other, playing off of Autloc's reason and against Tlotoxl's machinations.
The doctor says he will learn about the temple and Barbara must be strong.
And the Tlotoxl comes in and there's some great verbal sparring. Tlotoxl really has no honor, even though he's trying to bring down an impostor. What does he believe, after all? Is he a fanatical believer, or a cynical unbeliever? I can't tell. Ixta is a believer, Autloc is a believer, but Tlotoxl?
Barbara, it's a good thing she studied the Aztecs, right? Still, it's pretty harsh for her to reveal to Autloc of the future desecration of his society. Does she really believe she can prevent it? I mean, I guess she does-they've made some pretty grand changes to other world's histories, after all.
Now Ian is going to prove his knowledge of biology and makes a fool of Ixta-perhaps not the wisest move.
Tlotoxl is surprised. Tlotoxl is good at bringing up the conflict.
Boy that Doctor really is a grand flirt. His conversations with Cameca are all multiple entendred. I do like watching Hartnell play delighted-he does get enjoyment when he thinks he is clever.
Since I don't know how much time the Doctor has actually spent around Ixta, is the disguise really necessary? Still, it's nice to see that the head of the army for the Aztecs isn't a total rube. He is obsessed with his own strength and afraid to be outshined, but it also seems like he has some smarts on him.
It's Tlotoxl who wins all the awards, though. His cynical manipulations are varied as he gets all his cards in place-Autloc to lose faith in Barbara, the Doctor to unwittingly cause Ian's death, Ixta to murder Ian. Meanwhile Susan is in training to be a wife?
Hmmm… how will Barbara save Ian. Only time (3 minutes to the beginning of the next episode) will tell.
Episode Three - The Bride of Sacrifice
Short Summary: Barbara pulls a knife on Tlotoxl and threatens to kill him unless Ixta stops. As everyone moves back to their respective safe places, the Doctor and Tlotoxl converse about the plans Ixta was to bring to the Doctor. Tlotoxl finds from Ixta that no such plans exist. Tlotoxl tries to trick Barbara into drinking poisoned wine, but she catches him out with the help of Ian, and tells him she will destroy him. Barbara and Autloc have many philosophical conversations about the morality of sacrifice.
Cameca in the meantime, shows the Doctor a broach worn by the temple designer that leads him to think that there is a secret entrance to the tomb in the Garden. Cameca also gets the doctor to drink cocoa with her, which is a proposal of marriage in Aztec culture. The Perfect Victim chooses Susan as his bride before he dies, but she refuses to marry him. Tlotoxl uses this refusal as a way to entrap Barbara, getting her to go along with punishing a wrongdoer. The Doctor finds a removable panel in the temple, and Ian goes inside while the Doctor keeps watch…. except that Ixta has been spying and gets the Doctor to put the panel back before the nightly release of water floods the Garden. Will Ian escape the rising water?
Nice more, Barbara. She is quite patrician. She has nerves of steel, sometimes. The Barbara of the first show could not have acted like this.
Winning is more important to Ixta than anything.
Barbara is pushing Autloc very hard to change his whole belief system. Does she realize what a crisis she is provoking in the this priest of knowledge? Her arrogance that she knows better than he does is something to behold. I like this performance by the actor playing Autloc. Barbara pushes and rocks his whole worldview, over and over again. And he begs her not to be false to him! Barbara, are you even aware of yourself?
The doctor is good here, manipulating Tlotoxl as much as he is trying to manipulate.
Ixta's pronunciation of Ian is bugging me.
Ixta is all gleeful to kill Ian. And Tlotoxl bends Tonila to his will again. It's like the drowning test for the witch.
Oh Cameca is awesome.
This is almost like slapstick, this marriage thing, except that Cameca is amazing.
Good argument, Ian. Barbara is removed from the everyday people and she is being deliberately obtuse.
Whoa, dude. I forgot about this. Why would Barbara so openly proclaim to her enemy that she is not Yetaxa? She could have taken any other tack. Admonish him for his audacity in thinking that he could test the gods. Make him cower in fear for overreaching his place in the hierarchy. Instead she gave him fuel enough to make his crusade burn and his machinations triple. She is quite confident that she can continue being Yetaxa until they get back to the Tardis, isn't she? Anger made her stupid? He was actually cowering from her for a moment.
"Dear Heart." Awesome.
Now Tlotoxl is angry and humiliated. And smart.
And yet another episode where Susan is horrified by marital practices from a culture not her own. I agree, okay? But she really needs to learn something about diplomacy. She knows advanced science but not cultural anthropology? And it's not as if Tonila or Tlotoxl are being subtly manipulative, either. Pay attention, Susan! I'm not sure I remember why she is isolated anyway. Is it still the punishment from interrupting the sacrifice?
And now Autloc asks the real hard question, the one that Barbara and the show have no answer for, "will you sacrifice us to save your handmaiden pain?" Does she see now that her selfishness all along is having unintended consequences?
Although I am being unfair and treading too much the party line as well. I can't help but find the idea of human sacrifice abhorrent. And the manipulations by the priest classes to maintain power through fear and pomp terrifying. And Barbara fighting them with their own weapons is one tactical approach. But I don't think she sees it that way, and she has, in a sense, betrayed the faith she demanded from Autloc right here. Because she was using Autloc's faith in Yetaxa for her own purposes. All of her arguments with Autloc were with the voice of Yetaxa's authority behind them. He would not have listened to her otherwise, it's true, but does she see the double-handedness of her appeal to authority to overthrow authority?
Why exactly are Ixta and Ian sleeping together?
Yes yes, Ian, take the flashlight. Did Ixta actually see Ian go in there?
Oh, I see. And now we know the cliffhanger. Amazing that the tunnel fills with water just as Ixta tells us it might.
Episode Four - The Day of Darkness
Short Summary: And the answer is yes, narrowly. Ian finds his way back to the Tardis, and rigs a mechanism so that they will be able to open the door from the outside so they can escape. Now they all just have to arrange to get out from scrutiny. Tlotoxl arranges for Ixta to guard Susan, but Ian knocks him out. Tlotoxl then frames Ian for an attempted murder on Autloc, and they are caught before they can get back to the Tardis. Barbara is able to convince Autloc that she is not a false goddess, but he has had one too many crises of faith, and leaves to wander in the wilderness to get in touch with the gods. He leaves the deed to his lands and wealth with Cameca to use to give the guards to free Susan.
Cameca has realized that the Doctor won't be staying with her, but uses her influence and cunning to get the Doctor and his companions back to the Tardis. Tlotoxl continues to manipulate people and events, getting his lackey Tonila into Autloc's old position as High Priest of Knowledge, setting up the Perfect Victim to be sacrificed at the moment of the eclipse. Ian and Ixta get into a final battle as the companions get back to the Tardis, and Ixta is thrown off the top of the tomb. Barbara feels despair that nothing changed despite all her efforts, but the Doctor shows her she was able to change one man (Autloc) and that is sometimes more than enough. And the Doctor keeps the seal Cameca gives him to remind him of her love. But where have they landed now?
Luckily Ian is able to find a way out. I never saw that coming, I'll tell you. William Russell is quite good at making polystyrene appear heavy.
Whew, the Doctor really feels he has caused Ian's death. Good show, William Hartnell, I really feel your horror.
This is quite a long scene without dialogue and just a single instrument of music. I'm glad they thought we could follow Ian's thought processes and smarts, no need for ponderous voiceover. Even though it's for kids! Chris Carter could learn from this.
I'm glad they didn't leave the Doctor too long thinking Ian was dead.
The other Aztecs are like Zombies.
Ian, you are superman, dude. Ixta won't be happy when he wakes up.
All this talk of pulleys. Would the current version of Who have made it so difficult to get that door open? There's a nice sense of tension in this scene, because you know Tlotoxl is a smart enough adversary that he's close behind, even if he doesn't know what they are trying to do. He just wants them in his grasp. Oh and the leather strap doesn't work! I guess Ian should have tested the leather a little more.
It's interesting to me that Tlotoxl is still trying to destroy Autloc's faith in Yetaxa. It says that he does not mind the way that he shares power with Autloc, and is willing to go back to the old status quo. Again I wonder, what is his true faith? Does he believe in the gods or is he willing to do whatever he must to maintain his personal power, which must include a professed belief in the gods. It really is hard to tell.
Okay, I'm not totally following this framing plan. Why would Autloc automatically assume a weapon similar to all other weapons that Ian could only have had for a few days have been wielded by Ian alone? Did the Aztecs really only use their own personal weapons? But then why would Ian's weapon be available for anyone to steal? This plan is very very thin.
Oh lord, now they have to go back through the garden.
Boy when Barbara gets all fatalistic she really gets morbid. And the Doctor has nothing to say to that.
Oh, well this frame-up makes more sense. Although Ian stepped right up as the perfect patsy.
Oh poor Autloc.
Tlotoxl's plan is quite good-making Barbara disappear right when the eclipse happens.
And I do really like the relationship between Cameca and the Doctor. She is not a dupe; she can see quite clearly that his loyalties lie with others. But he treats her with real respect as well, relying on her intellect to draw her own conclusions. He doesn't seem gleefully manipulative, but more like he trusts her with his thoughts. That's the way I'm taking it, anyway. I think William Hartnell's performance lends itself to my interpretation.
Poor Autloc. He says he does not know what she is, and she cannot answer him. This portrayal of faith in crisis. His story is sad.
I like the friendship between Autloc and Cameca. But seriously, this Autloc story is so tragic!
This plan of the Doctor's seems a little slapdash.
Cameca is so very brave. Ha Ian, make up his mind!
And smart plan, Ian, too, disguised as your own guard.
Tlotoxl now has a High Priest of Knowledge who will go along with all his plans.
Doctor, why do you walk away from love?
What do these drumbeats mean? Will there be a final fight… to the death? This fight is much more dynamic than their last fight. It looks like their are stuntpeople doing the fighting maneuvers, so they could hit each other a little harder. I didn't talk too much about the fight in episode 2, because I think I feel asleep during it. I know there were a lot of limitations on filming with no edits and a 3 camera studio floor setup. So I am forgiving.
Tlotoxl at least has his priorities in order-maintain his power base by performing his sacrifice at the correct time, rather than exacting his personal revenge on a woman who is probably out of his reach anyway. I wonder where he thinks she went to. Would this cause him to revisit his faith? That she could appear and disappear from nowhere? And who will be the head of the armies now that Ixta is dead? At least he has his puppet Tonila in place.
I'm glad Barbara sees that she forced Autloc to lose his faith. And I'm glad to see her accepting responsibility for the pain she caused him. But Doctor, what was the better faith? A belief in what? Barbara and the Doctor didn't hear Cameca and Autloc's final conversation, but it didn't sound to me like Autloc had really found something new and better to believe in, just that Barbara/Yetaxa had shaken his faith in all gods and replaced this with doubt and sadness. If Autloc had stayed in power to try to convince others of his new beliefs, maybe. But I think Barbara filled him full of doubt, not "something better." I think the Doctor is placating Barbara, and I think he is wrong.
Yes Doctor, keep your momento of Cameca. Because you didn't really deserve her.
Oh, they've changed their clothes!
Oh, landed inside something. Like… a spaceship?
The End
I really don't know what I think about this story! It has some cracking good moral dilemmas, mixed in with action and love and religion and war. The guest characters were quite excellent and the performances up to par (except for the Zombie Aztec non-speaking parts). I think it was a fun idea to make the language of this story so play-like. Really, they were almost speaking in rhyming couplets sometimes.
If there hadn't been this deliberate level of artificiality, I think Tlotoxl would have been a bit harder to take. His character was very large, and very baldly villainous. Where Lucarotti succeeds here, just like in Marco Polo, is that he makes the type of villainy culturally specific. You can always see motivations that are quite specific to the time and place, instead of people just being "bad" because they are bad. Even Ixta, selfish and prideful, had a reason and purpose behind his actions.
The Doctor's sudden and emphatic attempts at non-interference seemed more out of place. That's all they do is interfere. That's the nature of the time travel, right? As soon as they land at a place and talk to the locals they have started a sphere of influence that will change small things. And it will maybe change large things, they don't know? Is is just that Barbara tries to strong-arm her own sense of morality on another culture? For a while there it feels like she really believes she is a god.
Except again, the story doesn't punish Barbara for being wrong in her morality, just for trying to change the historical consequences of the Aztecs lack of morality. The Aztecs most wedded to their traditional beliefs are face-painted murderers, or warriors blinded by pride. The most reasoned and well-thought Aztecs are punished-one by a loss of his life-long faith with nothing to replace it (whatever you say, Doctor) and the other to briefly experience love and then be denied.
And Barbara keeps assuming that if she can stop the human sacrifice, that somehow the Spaniards won't destroy that culture? Because look at what they did to the Incas? And, really, all the indigenous cultures they came across. The natives of the Americas would have been slaughtered "barbarians" no matter what happened. Barbara was, in some ways, no better than Cortez-assuming her culture was better and more enlightened. She should feel bad for destroying Autloc!
And I'm not trying to be a cultural relativist; yes, I do think human sacrifice is wrong. I can't step outside of my own belief system to think differently. And I don't think Lucarotti intended for this to be one of the grey areas of his text (if authorial intent means anything).
I tried to mostly ignore Susan's story here. She truly was a plot device, trotted out at convenient spots to get things going. Shrieking at the sacrifice, refusing to marry the Perfect Victim. Smart enough to learn her letters when taught by Autloc. Although now I think about it, it was a nice contrast to hear Susan learn what it meant to be a good Aztec woman from their official literature, and then to see it contrasted in the behavior and actions of Cameca. Too bad Susan couldn't see it.
I think the limitations of sets were put to good use here. I thought they looked fantastic, the costumes were also quite amazing, and there was enough variety of locations that the world felt like a world. Limiting the setting to the world of the priests and their acolytes also made it feel more likely that there would be fewer people around, so that the large location doesn't feel artificial by the constraints of the costs of extras. (That's why base under siege stories work so well for me as well).
So, a 9? The episodes moved well for me, and made me think lots of thinly thoughts. Plus it had lots of Barbara, whom I love. Even though I've done a lot of condemning of here in this review for her arrogance with Autloc, because his story was a full-on tragedy. An epic tragedy.
Well I remember loving it anyway. I love the extras on this DVD, too. The interviews with the actors who played the various Aztecs were excellent, even if they mostly didn't remember working on the piece itself. But they had a lot to say about what it was like to work in television in those early days, which is really interesting.
And the titles to these serials are so very silly… the Temple of Evil? Really? Because it can't be that bad.
Episode One - The Temple of Evil
Short Summary: Susan and Barbara come out of the Tardis and determine they are in an Aztec tomb. A door opens and Barbara explores more while Susan goes back for the rest of the group. Susan and Ian and the Doctor come out and can't find Barbara. They have landed among the Aztecs who are at the height of their power. The door closes again with the Tardis behind it-now they are trapped. They meet Autloc, the High Priest of Knowledge, then Tlotoxl, the High Priest of Sacrifice, who scares Susan. Barbara is seen as Yetaxa, the reincarnation of the god of the tomb. Ian and the Doctor are given free reign to walk around the city, while Susan and Barbara stay together. Ian is given to escort the first sacrifice victim, an honor taken from Ixta the Army Captain. This First Victim is the one who they say will bring rain. The Doctor cautions both Ian and Barbara not to interfere with the oncoming sacrifice. Susan tries to interfere, and Barbara does, but the victim still jumps off the temple to avoid the shame of escaping his honor. Tlotoxl declares Barbara a false god and vows her downfall.
Goobye Marinus!
This must not have been in very good shape-even with the cleanup it's very muddy. And we're already getting quite the history lesson. Yeah, the Spanish thought the Aztecs were uncivilized, but mostly they wanted to steal their gold and enslave them. Not that the Aztecs were very kind to those they conquered, either, but Cortez was certainly no paragon of virtue. I'm definitely having to handwave Barbara being able to be so confident in her dating of the artifacts.
Barbara meets Aztec warriors. The Goddess of the tomb is Yetaxa, and Autloc her priest takes her prisoner.
Autloc honors them. They are confused, and Susan realizes it's the bracelet that caused Autloc to "recognize" Barbara.
Susan cringes in fear when meeting Tlotoxl, the sacrificial priest of Yetaxa, due to his gruesome face paint. Geez, I wonder if he's a bad guy? It's a little too much to have the one with the face paint be the bad guy, but hey. This part gets played so shakespearean villain that I don't care.
Autloc and Tlotoxl are manipulating the people, trying to present sacrifice and miraculously bring the rain. It is obvious they already know when the rain is going to come. This is actually an interesting look at faith. Autloc seems to believe in his gods, but is wary of too much manipulation, while Tlotoxl is all over the place. Autloc isn't sure there should be sacrifice, since he knows there will be rain to clear the drought. But Tlotoxl is bloodthirsty and wants sacrifice.
Therefore we have the conflict of the piece-what does it mean to serve the gods? What do they demand of their servants? And who, after all, is the true believer?
They think Barbara is the representation of the priest.
Ian and the Doctor are granted free reign to move about the city while Susan, the "handmaiden" stays with Barbara.
Tlotoxl wants Ian to lead their armies, to the dismay of a man called Ixta, who is supposed to be the chosen commander of the armies. The Doctor goes the garden to wander about, while Ixta trains for battle.
The costumes in this are quite fantastic.
Tlotoxl has some kind of master plan, but I don't know what it is yet.
Oh now we see Ixta in combat. Well, he likes to fight, anyway. Are these traditional Aztec weapons? Someone did a lot of research.
Ixta is looks forward killing Ian, as only the best warriors remain. So, Ixta likes to fight, and is jealous of any who might try to usurp his place.
The honor they are competing for is to bring the final sacrifice to Tlotoxl at sundown.
Everyone over 52 lives in leisure as consultants. The doctor sees the beautiful Cameca and seeks her out.
"Better to go hungry than starve for beauty."
The man who build the temple also designed the garden. It's nice to see the doctor using his smarts… trigging to get information, going roundabout and indirectly to get the information he needs. And of course the son of the designer of the temple is a warrior. I wonder if it's Ixta. We haven't really met any other warriors.
Ian is still freaking out about the human sacrifice and not really wanting to escort anyone anywhere.
Interesting admonishments from the Doctor here; "For God's Sakes! Don't interfere!" But isn't that all they do? Maybe this is his fixed point thingy. But he's off to tell Barbara.
More music in this, mostly flute; it's quite nice.
It's fun to see Barbara and Susan play around.
This is a little heavy handed, Susan and Barbara expositioning about culture. It's all well for Barbara to see herself as quite civilized and above it all. Her stance as a teacher of history would view things a little differently now.
Barbara decides as a goddess that she can makes things change… she can stop the human sacrifice. The Beginning of the end of the sun god, eh?
She thinks that without human sacrifice that when Cortez lands the Spaniards won't destroy the Aztec culture. She is very very naive.
Oh, I like this too "what you are trying to do is utterly impossible. I know, believe me, I know."
What experiences has he had that we don't know about? Of course, it's still a little weird, just that they've interfered on other planets a lot at random times in history. Is only earth history sacrosanct? I think later canon tried to fix this logically with his "fixed" points thing. And that mostly works. So I'll let it go here. Maybe.
Barbara's mind is made up. She quite determined. She's already got her hubris of the gods in her favor.
I think this set is quite fantastic. Quite. Even with the painted backdrop, the tomb is detailed. And if they say it's high up, well, it is.
Ugh, now Susan is like a 4 year old. Barbara is nicely horrified at what she has to do. And Tlotoxl is all snaky.
Tlaloc, God of Rain, brings the rain.
Oh Barbara. You are trying.
Tlotoxl tells the sacrifice to jump to his death. And it starts to rain. So Yetaxa loses. With Death came Rain.
Tlotoxl wants Susan punished for trying to interfere with the law, and Barbara wants her taught respect. It's ironic that Barbara is using their complete obedience to a person in authority to try to teach them kindness and respect. it's kind of… patriarchal.
This story does a good job of setting up its central conflicts early. We get the history infodump, and then various characters with varying motivations all working at cross purposes and sometimes together. Tlotoxl is the only completely amoral character-wanting only to centralize and keep his power. Perhaps this is why is it so easy for him disbelieve that Barbara is Yetaxa; he doesn't believe in anything except his own power, and he has been manipulating supernatural events for too long to put complete faith in their being about what he says they are about.
Episode Two - The Warriours of Death
Short Summary: The doctor yells at Barbara for interfering but says he thinks he can find them a way out, if she can play Autloc and Tlotoxl off of one another. The Doctor and Ian go their different ways to see if they can learn anything about the tomb and get back in to the Tardis. Ian tricks Ixta into being defeated, which rouses and angers him. Tlotoxl works the Perfect Victim into getting Ixta and Ian into hand-to-hand combat. The Doctor, in the meantime, goes back to the garden to commune/flirt with Camera and try to find the plans of the temple. Cameca reveals that she knows the son of the temple builder, who happens to be Ixta. Ixta disguises himself, and gets the Doctor to give him a surefire way to win in combat (a drugged sharp) in exchange for the temple plans.
Tlotoxl manipulates Autloc into denying Barbara access to her "servants", but not before Barbara reveals to the Doctor that it's Ixta he has given his fight cheat to. Ixta and Ian wrestle, and Ixta is able to scratch Ian, who finally succumbs to the drug. As Tlotoxl urges Ixta to kill Ian, Barbara intervenes. Tlotoxl taunts Barbara that as a god, she should be able to stop it herself…
Closeup of scary face painted man. did they really go around with their faces painted all the time? And did the really hang out up at the top of the temple so much? Even though it looks nice.
The Doctor is still really upset at Barbara. This is a great argument. He is quite harsh. And I like that he backs off as well. These are people with long standing relationships. And the Doctor, for all his anger at Barbara for her unnecessary move, still believes she can keep things together and be strong enough to stay Yetaxa long enough for them to get back to the Tardis.
Barbara doesn't trust herself, though. Even though she's quite good at that autocratic queen thing.
The Doctor tells Barbara to play Autloc and Tlotoxl off of each other, playing off of Autloc's reason and against Tlotoxl's machinations.
The doctor says he will learn about the temple and Barbara must be strong.
And the Tlotoxl comes in and there's some great verbal sparring. Tlotoxl really has no honor, even though he's trying to bring down an impostor. What does he believe, after all? Is he a fanatical believer, or a cynical unbeliever? I can't tell. Ixta is a believer, Autloc is a believer, but Tlotoxl?
Barbara, it's a good thing she studied the Aztecs, right? Still, it's pretty harsh for her to reveal to Autloc of the future desecration of his society. Does she really believe she can prevent it? I mean, I guess she does-they've made some pretty grand changes to other world's histories, after all.
Now Ian is going to prove his knowledge of biology and makes a fool of Ixta-perhaps not the wisest move.
Tlotoxl is surprised. Tlotoxl is good at bringing up the conflict.
Boy that Doctor really is a grand flirt. His conversations with Cameca are all multiple entendred. I do like watching Hartnell play delighted-he does get enjoyment when he thinks he is clever.
Since I don't know how much time the Doctor has actually spent around Ixta, is the disguise really necessary? Still, it's nice to see that the head of the army for the Aztecs isn't a total rube. He is obsessed with his own strength and afraid to be outshined, but it also seems like he has some smarts on him.
It's Tlotoxl who wins all the awards, though. His cynical manipulations are varied as he gets all his cards in place-Autloc to lose faith in Barbara, the Doctor to unwittingly cause Ian's death, Ixta to murder Ian. Meanwhile Susan is in training to be a wife?
Hmmm… how will Barbara save Ian. Only time (3 minutes to the beginning of the next episode) will tell.
Episode Three - The Bride of Sacrifice
Short Summary: Barbara pulls a knife on Tlotoxl and threatens to kill him unless Ixta stops. As everyone moves back to their respective safe places, the Doctor and Tlotoxl converse about the plans Ixta was to bring to the Doctor. Tlotoxl finds from Ixta that no such plans exist. Tlotoxl tries to trick Barbara into drinking poisoned wine, but she catches him out with the help of Ian, and tells him she will destroy him. Barbara and Autloc have many philosophical conversations about the morality of sacrifice.
Cameca in the meantime, shows the Doctor a broach worn by the temple designer that leads him to think that there is a secret entrance to the tomb in the Garden. Cameca also gets the doctor to drink cocoa with her, which is a proposal of marriage in Aztec culture. The Perfect Victim chooses Susan as his bride before he dies, but she refuses to marry him. Tlotoxl uses this refusal as a way to entrap Barbara, getting her to go along with punishing a wrongdoer. The Doctor finds a removable panel in the temple, and Ian goes inside while the Doctor keeps watch…. except that Ixta has been spying and gets the Doctor to put the panel back before the nightly release of water floods the Garden. Will Ian escape the rising water?
Nice more, Barbara. She is quite patrician. She has nerves of steel, sometimes. The Barbara of the first show could not have acted like this.
Winning is more important to Ixta than anything.
Barbara is pushing Autloc very hard to change his whole belief system. Does she realize what a crisis she is provoking in the this priest of knowledge? Her arrogance that she knows better than he does is something to behold. I like this performance by the actor playing Autloc. Barbara pushes and rocks his whole worldview, over and over again. And he begs her not to be false to him! Barbara, are you even aware of yourself?
The doctor is good here, manipulating Tlotoxl as much as he is trying to manipulate.
Ixta's pronunciation of Ian is bugging me.
Ixta is all gleeful to kill Ian. And Tlotoxl bends Tonila to his will again. It's like the drowning test for the witch.
Oh Cameca is awesome.
This is almost like slapstick, this marriage thing, except that Cameca is amazing.
Good argument, Ian. Barbara is removed from the everyday people and she is being deliberately obtuse.
Whoa, dude. I forgot about this. Why would Barbara so openly proclaim to her enemy that she is not Yetaxa? She could have taken any other tack. Admonish him for his audacity in thinking that he could test the gods. Make him cower in fear for overreaching his place in the hierarchy. Instead she gave him fuel enough to make his crusade burn and his machinations triple. She is quite confident that she can continue being Yetaxa until they get back to the Tardis, isn't she? Anger made her stupid? He was actually cowering from her for a moment.
"Dear Heart." Awesome.
Now Tlotoxl is angry and humiliated. And smart.
And yet another episode where Susan is horrified by marital practices from a culture not her own. I agree, okay? But she really needs to learn something about diplomacy. She knows advanced science but not cultural anthropology? And it's not as if Tonila or Tlotoxl are being subtly manipulative, either. Pay attention, Susan! I'm not sure I remember why she is isolated anyway. Is it still the punishment from interrupting the sacrifice?
And now Autloc asks the real hard question, the one that Barbara and the show have no answer for, "will you sacrifice us to save your handmaiden pain?" Does she see now that her selfishness all along is having unintended consequences?
Although I am being unfair and treading too much the party line as well. I can't help but find the idea of human sacrifice abhorrent. And the manipulations by the priest classes to maintain power through fear and pomp terrifying. And Barbara fighting them with their own weapons is one tactical approach. But I don't think she sees it that way, and she has, in a sense, betrayed the faith she demanded from Autloc right here. Because she was using Autloc's faith in Yetaxa for her own purposes. All of her arguments with Autloc were with the voice of Yetaxa's authority behind them. He would not have listened to her otherwise, it's true, but does she see the double-handedness of her appeal to authority to overthrow authority?
Why exactly are Ixta and Ian sleeping together?
Yes yes, Ian, take the flashlight. Did Ixta actually see Ian go in there?
Oh, I see. And now we know the cliffhanger. Amazing that the tunnel fills with water just as Ixta tells us it might.
Episode Four - The Day of Darkness
Short Summary: And the answer is yes, narrowly. Ian finds his way back to the Tardis, and rigs a mechanism so that they will be able to open the door from the outside so they can escape. Now they all just have to arrange to get out from scrutiny. Tlotoxl arranges for Ixta to guard Susan, but Ian knocks him out. Tlotoxl then frames Ian for an attempted murder on Autloc, and they are caught before they can get back to the Tardis. Barbara is able to convince Autloc that she is not a false goddess, but he has had one too many crises of faith, and leaves to wander in the wilderness to get in touch with the gods. He leaves the deed to his lands and wealth with Cameca to use to give the guards to free Susan.
Cameca has realized that the Doctor won't be staying with her, but uses her influence and cunning to get the Doctor and his companions back to the Tardis. Tlotoxl continues to manipulate people and events, getting his lackey Tonila into Autloc's old position as High Priest of Knowledge, setting up the Perfect Victim to be sacrificed at the moment of the eclipse. Ian and Ixta get into a final battle as the companions get back to the Tardis, and Ixta is thrown off the top of the tomb. Barbara feels despair that nothing changed despite all her efforts, but the Doctor shows her she was able to change one man (Autloc) and that is sometimes more than enough. And the Doctor keeps the seal Cameca gives him to remind him of her love. But where have they landed now?
Luckily Ian is able to find a way out. I never saw that coming, I'll tell you. William Russell is quite good at making polystyrene appear heavy.
Whew, the Doctor really feels he has caused Ian's death. Good show, William Hartnell, I really feel your horror.
This is quite a long scene without dialogue and just a single instrument of music. I'm glad they thought we could follow Ian's thought processes and smarts, no need for ponderous voiceover. Even though it's for kids! Chris Carter could learn from this.
I'm glad they didn't leave the Doctor too long thinking Ian was dead.
The other Aztecs are like Zombies.
Ian, you are superman, dude. Ixta won't be happy when he wakes up.
All this talk of pulleys. Would the current version of Who have made it so difficult to get that door open? There's a nice sense of tension in this scene, because you know Tlotoxl is a smart enough adversary that he's close behind, even if he doesn't know what they are trying to do. He just wants them in his grasp. Oh and the leather strap doesn't work! I guess Ian should have tested the leather a little more.
It's interesting to me that Tlotoxl is still trying to destroy Autloc's faith in Yetaxa. It says that he does not mind the way that he shares power with Autloc, and is willing to go back to the old status quo. Again I wonder, what is his true faith? Does he believe in the gods or is he willing to do whatever he must to maintain his personal power, which must include a professed belief in the gods. It really is hard to tell.
Okay, I'm not totally following this framing plan. Why would Autloc automatically assume a weapon similar to all other weapons that Ian could only have had for a few days have been wielded by Ian alone? Did the Aztecs really only use their own personal weapons? But then why would Ian's weapon be available for anyone to steal? This plan is very very thin.
Oh lord, now they have to go back through the garden.
Boy when Barbara gets all fatalistic she really gets morbid. And the Doctor has nothing to say to that.
Oh, well this frame-up makes more sense. Although Ian stepped right up as the perfect patsy.
Oh poor Autloc.
Tlotoxl's plan is quite good-making Barbara disappear right when the eclipse happens.
And I do really like the relationship between Cameca and the Doctor. She is not a dupe; she can see quite clearly that his loyalties lie with others. But he treats her with real respect as well, relying on her intellect to draw her own conclusions. He doesn't seem gleefully manipulative, but more like he trusts her with his thoughts. That's the way I'm taking it, anyway. I think William Hartnell's performance lends itself to my interpretation.
Poor Autloc. He says he does not know what she is, and she cannot answer him. This portrayal of faith in crisis. His story is sad.
I like the friendship between Autloc and Cameca. But seriously, this Autloc story is so tragic!
This plan of the Doctor's seems a little slapdash.
Cameca is so very brave. Ha Ian, make up his mind!
And smart plan, Ian, too, disguised as your own guard.
Tlotoxl now has a High Priest of Knowledge who will go along with all his plans.
Doctor, why do you walk away from love?
What do these drumbeats mean? Will there be a final fight… to the death? This fight is much more dynamic than their last fight. It looks like their are stuntpeople doing the fighting maneuvers, so they could hit each other a little harder. I didn't talk too much about the fight in episode 2, because I think I feel asleep during it. I know there were a lot of limitations on filming with no edits and a 3 camera studio floor setup. So I am forgiving.
Tlotoxl at least has his priorities in order-maintain his power base by performing his sacrifice at the correct time, rather than exacting his personal revenge on a woman who is probably out of his reach anyway. I wonder where he thinks she went to. Would this cause him to revisit his faith? That she could appear and disappear from nowhere? And who will be the head of the armies now that Ixta is dead? At least he has his puppet Tonila in place.
I'm glad Barbara sees that she forced Autloc to lose his faith. And I'm glad to see her accepting responsibility for the pain she caused him. But Doctor, what was the better faith? A belief in what? Barbara and the Doctor didn't hear Cameca and Autloc's final conversation, but it didn't sound to me like Autloc had really found something new and better to believe in, just that Barbara/Yetaxa had shaken his faith in all gods and replaced this with doubt and sadness. If Autloc had stayed in power to try to convince others of his new beliefs, maybe. But I think Barbara filled him full of doubt, not "something better." I think the Doctor is placating Barbara, and I think he is wrong.
Yes Doctor, keep your momento of Cameca. Because you didn't really deserve her.
Oh, they've changed their clothes!
Oh, landed inside something. Like… a spaceship?
The End
I really don't know what I think about this story! It has some cracking good moral dilemmas, mixed in with action and love and religion and war. The guest characters were quite excellent and the performances up to par (except for the Zombie Aztec non-speaking parts). I think it was a fun idea to make the language of this story so play-like. Really, they were almost speaking in rhyming couplets sometimes.
If there hadn't been this deliberate level of artificiality, I think Tlotoxl would have been a bit harder to take. His character was very large, and very baldly villainous. Where Lucarotti succeeds here, just like in Marco Polo, is that he makes the type of villainy culturally specific. You can always see motivations that are quite specific to the time and place, instead of people just being "bad" because they are bad. Even Ixta, selfish and prideful, had a reason and purpose behind his actions.
The Doctor's sudden and emphatic attempts at non-interference seemed more out of place. That's all they do is interfere. That's the nature of the time travel, right? As soon as they land at a place and talk to the locals they have started a sphere of influence that will change small things. And it will maybe change large things, they don't know? Is is just that Barbara tries to strong-arm her own sense of morality on another culture? For a while there it feels like she really believes she is a god.
Except again, the story doesn't punish Barbara for being wrong in her morality, just for trying to change the historical consequences of the Aztecs lack of morality. The Aztecs most wedded to their traditional beliefs are face-painted murderers, or warriors blinded by pride. The most reasoned and well-thought Aztecs are punished-one by a loss of his life-long faith with nothing to replace it (whatever you say, Doctor) and the other to briefly experience love and then be denied.
And Barbara keeps assuming that if she can stop the human sacrifice, that somehow the Spaniards won't destroy that culture? Because look at what they did to the Incas? And, really, all the indigenous cultures they came across. The natives of the Americas would have been slaughtered "barbarians" no matter what happened. Barbara was, in some ways, no better than Cortez-assuming her culture was better and more enlightened. She should feel bad for destroying Autloc!
And I'm not trying to be a cultural relativist; yes, I do think human sacrifice is wrong. I can't step outside of my own belief system to think differently. And I don't think Lucarotti intended for this to be one of the grey areas of his text (if authorial intent means anything).
I tried to mostly ignore Susan's story here. She truly was a plot device, trotted out at convenient spots to get things going. Shrieking at the sacrifice, refusing to marry the Perfect Victim. Smart enough to learn her letters when taught by Autloc. Although now I think about it, it was a nice contrast to hear Susan learn what it meant to be a good Aztec woman from their official literature, and then to see it contrasted in the behavior and actions of Cameca. Too bad Susan couldn't see it.
I think the limitations of sets were put to good use here. I thought they looked fantastic, the costumes were also quite amazing, and there was enough variety of locations that the world felt like a world. Limiting the setting to the world of the priests and their acolytes also made it feel more likely that there would be fewer people around, so that the large location doesn't feel artificial by the constraints of the costs of extras. (That's why base under siege stories work so well for me as well).
So, a 9? The episodes moved well for me, and made me think lots of thinly thoughts. Plus it had lots of Barbara, whom I love. Even though I've done a lot of condemning of here in this review for her arrogance with Autloc, because his story was a full-on tragedy. An epic tragedy.