Doctor Who 2.03 The Rescue
First Doctor with Ian, Barbara and Vicki
Follows on from Season One, Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth
DOCTOR: "We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that 'old box' as you call it, regardless of space and time."
VICKI: "Then it is a time machine?"
DOCTOR: "And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it."
Overview
Following in the wake of Carole-Ann Ford's departure from the show in the previous story, The Rescue is a lovely little two-part adventure engineered to introduce Susan's replacement, the bubbly, spirited 25th century orphan Vicki.
The story has quite a simple little plot, very cleverly set up for a Scooby Doo ending wherein the various plot points that have been seeded throughout suddenly come together for a final twist in the tail, but the main focus of the adventure is on the characters rather than merely serving the plot throughout, they are given time and space to breathe and converse and be themselves, which I always enjoy. While Barbara is getting acquainted with Vicki, Ian and the Doctor are off having a little adventure of their own, and then they all come back together later in the story to mix and match the dynamics a little. Some of the character interactions are a real delight, in particular the Doctor's conversations first with Ian and later with Vicki, who he almost immediately takes under his wing as a surrogate granddaughter, as he is clearly missing Susan dreadfully, already. The loss of his granddaughter seems to have both mellowed and aged him, but Vicki is just the right age and temperament to fill the gap Susan left, and, despite his sorrow over Susan's departure, the Doctor is in excellent form throughout, particularly once he gets wind of a problem in need of solving always his favourite pastime!
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
The TARDIS is looking pretty battered in our first glimpse of it, as it materialises in a cave but not nearly as battered as the model rocket we see next, down in the valley nearby, which has crash landed and is broken in two!
The opening scenes of episode one, 'The Powerful Enemy', invest quite a bit of time in introducing us to Vicki and her current difficult circumstances: we are shown that she is one of only two survivors of the crashed spaceship, that her youth and naivety allow her to remain hopeful despite her situation, that her fellow survivor Bennett is bed-ridden and surly in stark contrast to her energy and optimism, that they are expecting a rescue ship to pick them up but it won't arrive for another couple of days and will need to be guided to the planet, and that they are being menaced by one of the natives of the planet, one Koquillion, who claims to be protecting them from the rest of his people. That's quite a lot of information to convey in a short space of time, and it is delivered fairly smoothly, as well, conveyed naturally through the sequence of events and conversation.
The first TARDIS scene is all kinds of entertaining as well as enlightening. Susan has gone and although all three remaining travellers are careful not to mention her, her absence is keenly felt, by the Doctor in particular. He seems older and frailer, somehow, sleeping through a landing for the first time which Ian and Barbara find amusing, puzzling and worrying in equal measure. The conversation is a wonderful mix of comedy and pathos; I am especially entertained by the way the Doctor automatically corrects Barbara when she says they have landed the correct word to use is materialised and Barbara just nods her agreement, not about to debate that one. I love the way Barbara and Ian have learned to humour the Doctor in his moods, after their thorny early days with him. But then the Doctor calls for Susan to open the door, momentarily forgetting that she is no longer aboard, and is visibly upset by the slip, which Ian and Barbara handle with gentle dignity, Barbara gently encouraging him to show her what to do, instead, stepping into Susan's granddaughter role for the moment in hopes of providing some comfort to the old man. It is really nicely played, a lovely little scene.
Heh, I really enjoy the way Ian and Barbara gossip about the Doctor just outside the TARDIS only for him to stick his head out of the door to remind them that he can hear every word!
I'm not sure what's up with the fluctuating light in the cave where the TARDIS has landed, but it is quite effective in setting a nicely creepy atmosphere as Ian and Barbara explore.
The first appearance of Koquillion is very well played he looks menacing, but his manner is ambivalent, and you can see that Ian and Barbara aren't sure how to take him. Assuming that he is a native of the planet, their instinct is clearly to suspect the worst, but they try hard to give him the benefit of the doubt rather than judge him by his appearance only for their gut instinct to be proved correct when he neatly separates them, triggers a rockfall to trap Ian in the cave and then pushes Barbara off a cliff!
We shan't comment on the fact that Koquillion's weapon of choice appears to be some kind of sonic spanner!
The Doctor has a very funny little monologue as he potters around the TARDIS working on rock samples from the cave, identifying the planet they've landed on as Dido, a place he has visited previously so cute that he wonders aloud for a moment whether or not he stands any chance of convincing Ian that he landed here deliberately, before remembering that he slept through the landing, which scuppers that idea! Ian's scepticism about the Doctor's piloting skills and the Doctor's indignation about it has been a running theme for quite some time now! The Doctor seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself I really miss this aspect of him in his later incarnations. The First Doctor loved to travel both for the sake of travel and also for the thrill of scientific study. He loved visiting new places in order to find out more about them, was forever taking rock samples and the like. His later incarnations seem to have lost that love of scientific study, travelling more for the sightseeing and thrills.
Aww, in the wake of the rockfall, Ian is all dazed and desperate, which means the Doctor has to be the voice of reason, calming him down and checking him over for injuries and proposing alternate solutions when they are unable to dig through the rockfall to get to Barbara, last seen just outside the cave. Ian is usually so stalwart, it's always good to see the cracks in his armour, and I just love this side of the Doctor, so reassuring and sensible and reliable and grandfatherly.
So Barbara survived her cliff plunge more or less unharmed by catching at a branch, which broke, but was enough to break her fall? Okay. We'll run with that.
I'm not entirely sure how she manages it, but I like that Vicki finds Barbara and single-handedly sneaks her back to the crashed ship and hides her there, all pro-active and resourceful only for Barbara to end up having to look after the girl and comfort her when she begins to relate the story of how the ship crashed and its occupants were all killed by the natives, including her father. I really like how well-drawn and three-dimensional Vicki's personality is in this story. She comes across as a typically teenage mixture of independence and insecurity, all headstrong defiance one moment and grief-stricken fear the next, on the one hand desperate for Barbara or anyone, really to take charge and lift the responsibility from her shoulders, but on the other hand resentful of an outsider interfering in a situation that she has been coping with for so long now, all alone other than Bennett. She feels very real.
Exploring their way through the cave system in search of another exit, the Doctor and Ian make an absolutely fabulous double act their banter is just hilarious. So much of this episode revolves around the two of them just talking, bouncing off each other, as they make their way through the caves, but it works. I love the dynamic they've established between their characters, after such a rocky beginning.
The episode one cliffhanger sees Ian accidentally triggering some kind of Indiana Jones booby trap installed in the cave walls. Leaving aside the flimsiness of the trap, which the 1965 BBC production team simply did not have the resources to portray effectively, this is never really explained. Who installed the trap? What is its purpose? The Doctor is adamant that the Didonians are a peaceful people, so surely they wouldn't have constructed such a thing? But Koquillion, as he is ultimately unveiled, has no reason to, either. And anyway, the trap only seems deadly for as long as you can buy that Ian has a choice between being skewered by extending blades or plummeting into a ravine with a deadly beast at the bottom of it. But not only does he manage to sidle around the flimsy-looking blades with some ease, in the end, and not only is the ravine no more than a few feet deep (the trials and tribulations of being confined to a studio set), but the ravenous beast is almost immediately revealed to be a harmless herbivore anyway. So what was the trap all about, other than a cheap cliffhanger?
You know, I really like the Scooby Doo plot of this story, which is cleverly set up and all. But even on my first viewing, I was onto Bennett by the end of the first episode. He's so adamant that he and Vicki must not go against Koquillion, and gets so angry about it when Barbara proposes other solutions and we never see him and Koquillion in the same place at the same time
Sandy the Sandbeast's herbivore nature is revealed early in episode two, 'Desperate Measures', when Barbara shoots him, believing he is about to attack Vicki. It's a really good scene, very well set-up, because we are with Barbara all the way we've just seen the creature in the cave with the Doctor and Ian discussing how fearsome it looks, and now we see it exiting the cave and coming up behind Vicki, and we can see Barbara's fear and panic. There is a gun in the cupboard and she completely believes that she is saving Vicki's life when she fires it, killing the creature. But the scene then twists because Vicki is absolutely distraught. It wasn't a fearsome beast after all, despite appearances. It was a harmless herbivore that she had tamed and considered a pet the one friend she had to cling to, trapped as she is on this unwelcoming planet where her father was killed and her only companion is a bedridden grouch. It's a bit of a metaphor for the story in general, really just as Sandy the Sandbeast wasn't what he seemed, on the surface, neither is Koquillion. Barbara, who is rarely wrong about anything, is deeply distressed by her tragic mistake, while Vicki is both devastated and furious at the loss of her pet, blaming Barbara and refusing to forgive her very teenage in her grudge-bearing!
Aww, the travellers are reunited once more. Reunion scenes are always good value.
The Doctor is so parental grandfatherly with Vicki, almost from the moment they meet. He is definitely projecting Susan onto her as he gently talks her into forgiving Barbara, but she responds in like kind. The Doctor has just lost Susan and Vicki has just lost her father; they each fill a need in the other and the relationship they build out of that mutual need is lovely. And it's got to be said, the First Doctor is absolutely adorable in this adventure.
Also, it's lovely to see the Doctor standing up for Barbara and defending her to Vicki, a reminder of how much he has grown to love his human friends, after the acrimony of their early adventures.
Ha, Ian mispronounces Koquillion as 'Cocky-lickin'! Heeee. The First Doctor is famous for getting Ian's name wrong on numerous occasions, usually on purpose but Ian's mispronunciation of unfamiliar names is also a bit of a recurring trait! He had trouble with Autloc's name in The Aztecs, too!
Hang on. The Doctor decides that he needs to talk to Bennett, but when the man won't unlock the door to let him in he starts hammering at it with an iron girder! That's a bit of an overreaction, isn't it? I mean, he is right, as it turns out, but still!
Vicki tells us that she left Earth in the year 2493. I like it when an adventure is grounded in a reasonable sounding date. I also like how gobsmacked she is at the concept of her new friends having travelled through time the scene where she marvels over Ian and Barbara coming from 1963 and how old she thinks that makes them is very cute and very funny.
The ending really is Scooby Doo, as the Doctor unveils Bennett as the real evil killer he has been masquerading as Koquillion all this time, dressing up in ceremonial Didonian costume to frighten Vicki. He killed all the survivors from the crashed spaceship and also killed all the Didonians, who had taken them in, setting the oblivious Vicki up as his unwitting alibi, and all that slaughter was to escape justice for a previous murder committed aboard ship! Seems a little excessive to me, but then again, I'm not homicidal psychopath, so what do I know?
I'm rather impressed by the little action sequence the Doctor gets at the end there usually the First Doctor supplies the brains while Ian provides the brawn, but on this occasion he has confronted Bennett alone with no back-up and so must defend himself, which he does rather ably at first, swinging for the man first with a rod and then with a sword. Bennett quickly overpowers him, though, since this body of his is elderly and frail, so it is just as well, really, that a couple of the Didonians seem to have survived the massacre after all, and come to the rescue at the nick of time
At least, I think that's what happened there. It's all a bit unclear, really, and it's a shame the plot gets so wobbly right at the death. There are quite a few unanswered questions: how did these two Didonians survive the massacre and why have they not taken action against Bennett before now, since they are clearly capable of it? Also, since both are male, how exactly are they supposed to ensure the survival of their race now ?
Hang on. While the Doctor was unconscious, Ian found his key and used it to get back into the Tardis? Since when is Ian able to unlock that door? Susan was at great pains, back in The Daleks, to explain the defence mechanisms on the lock that would make it impossible for anyone but herself or the Doctor to unlock it! Presumably Ian and Barbara have now been granted access those defence mechanisms on the lock seem to have been permanently disabled ever since!
Since Vicki is now all alone and the Doctor is certain that the two surviving Didonians will not allow the rescue ship to land to retrieve her, he invites her to join the crew of the TARDIS instead. It is a very sweet scene as she takes her first steps inside that incredible machine the first passenger ever to be specifically invited aboard. Of course, no one bothers to tell her that they can't actually steer it but regardless, Vicki has a new family now.
The Didonians destroy the equipment in the crashed spaceship when they hear the rescue ship radioing that they are close and need a signal to guide them in. Poor rescue ship they came all this way for nothing and will never know what happened!
It kills me that the story ends with a very literal cliffhanger, as the TARDIS materialises on the edge of a cliff and promptly falls off! Way to hook viewers for the next adventure!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "Might be a cave, or even perhaps underground."
BARBARA: "You mean we could be trapped down here?"
DOCTOR: "Oh, it doesn't necessarily mean anything, my dear Barbara. We can, of course, always travel through solid matter in flight."
BARBARA: "Look, Ian, all the old associations are still in the ship. You can't expect him to say goodbye to Susan and then forget about her the next minute."
IAN: "No, I suppose not. I wonder what she's doing now?"
BARBARA: "If I know anything about David, she's learning to milk cows."
BARBARA: "Are you going to tell the Doctor about this?"
IAN: "Yes. Why not?"
BARBARA: "Well, knowing the Doctor, he'll want to go down there and investigate."
IAN: "Well, for once I'd agree with him, Barbara."
DOCTOR: "Well, undoubtedly we've landed on the planet Dido. How remarkable. Well, I must say. it'll be rather nice to meet these friendly people again after all these years. Fancy landing back here again. I wonder if I were to tell Ian that it was deliberate, whether he'd believe me or not? Oh no, of course, I was asleep. Oh, pity, pity, pity."
DOCTOR: "This thing, was it armed?"
IAN: "No, no, it wasn't. Wait a minute, it was carrying some sort of jewelled club. About so long."
DOCTOR: "With a big head, resembling a spanner?"
IAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Yes."
IAN: "I don't know why you bother to ask."
DOCTOR: "Come along. Don't just sit there, my dear boy, stand up, stand up. Come along, that's it, mind your head. It's only dust. No bones broken."
IAN: "Thank you, Doctor. The most thorough-going medical I've ever had."
DOCTOR: "Yes, it's a pity I didn't get that degree, isn't it?"
IAN: "Well, you ready to carry on?"
DOCTOR: "Me? Carry on? My dear fellow, it was you that stopped."
IAN: "It's got eyes. I saw them. Green. Used to daylight. Must have come in from the outside."
DOCTOR: "Oh. Very good, yes. Very intelligent reasoning. So good I might have said the same thing myself."
IAN: "Well, you see, Vicki, our space ship, well, isn't like this one. It travels through time."
BARBARA: "We left in 1963."
VICKI: "1963! But that means you're about five hundred and fifty years old."
BARBARA: "Why, yes, I suppose I am. Yes, it's a way of looking at it, but I'll try not to look at it too often."
VICKI: "They didn't have time machines in 1963, they didn't know anything then."
IAN: "Oh, we weren't entirely ignorant, young lady. Even the Doctor thought it was worth paying us a visit."
DOCTOR: "My dear, why don't you come with us, hmm?"
VICKI: "In that old box?"
DOCTOR: "We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that old box as you call it. Regardless of space and time."
VICKI: "Then it is a time machine?"
DOCTOR: "And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it. Apart from all that, well you'll be amongst friends."
The Verdict
Overall and on the whole, I love this one. It is a really well constructed, character-rich little adventure that serves as the perfect introduction for the Doctor's new companion.
Written June 2012; revised July 2013
Follows on from Season One, Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth
DOCTOR: "We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that 'old box' as you call it, regardless of space and time."
VICKI: "Then it is a time machine?"
DOCTOR: "And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it."
Overview
Following in the wake of Carole-Ann Ford's departure from the show in the previous story, The Rescue is a lovely little two-part adventure engineered to introduce Susan's replacement, the bubbly, spirited 25th century orphan Vicki.
The story has quite a simple little plot, very cleverly set up for a Scooby Doo ending wherein the various plot points that have been seeded throughout suddenly come together for a final twist in the tail, but the main focus of the adventure is on the characters rather than merely serving the plot throughout, they are given time and space to breathe and converse and be themselves, which I always enjoy. While Barbara is getting acquainted with Vicki, Ian and the Doctor are off having a little adventure of their own, and then they all come back together later in the story to mix and match the dynamics a little. Some of the character interactions are a real delight, in particular the Doctor's conversations first with Ian and later with Vicki, who he almost immediately takes under his wing as a surrogate granddaughter, as he is clearly missing Susan dreadfully, already. The loss of his granddaughter seems to have both mellowed and aged him, but Vicki is just the right age and temperament to fill the gap Susan left, and, despite his sorrow over Susan's departure, the Doctor is in excellent form throughout, particularly once he gets wind of a problem in need of solving always his favourite pastime!
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
The TARDIS is looking pretty battered in our first glimpse of it, as it materialises in a cave but not nearly as battered as the model rocket we see next, down in the valley nearby, which has crash landed and is broken in two!
The opening scenes of episode one, 'The Powerful Enemy', invest quite a bit of time in introducing us to Vicki and her current difficult circumstances: we are shown that she is one of only two survivors of the crashed spaceship, that her youth and naivety allow her to remain hopeful despite her situation, that her fellow survivor Bennett is bed-ridden and surly in stark contrast to her energy and optimism, that they are expecting a rescue ship to pick them up but it won't arrive for another couple of days and will need to be guided to the planet, and that they are being menaced by one of the natives of the planet, one Koquillion, who claims to be protecting them from the rest of his people. That's quite a lot of information to convey in a short space of time, and it is delivered fairly smoothly, as well, conveyed naturally through the sequence of events and conversation.
The first TARDIS scene is all kinds of entertaining as well as enlightening. Susan has gone and although all three remaining travellers are careful not to mention her, her absence is keenly felt, by the Doctor in particular. He seems older and frailer, somehow, sleeping through a landing for the first time which Ian and Barbara find amusing, puzzling and worrying in equal measure. The conversation is a wonderful mix of comedy and pathos; I am especially entertained by the way the Doctor automatically corrects Barbara when she says they have landed the correct word to use is materialised and Barbara just nods her agreement, not about to debate that one. I love the way Barbara and Ian have learned to humour the Doctor in his moods, after their thorny early days with him. But then the Doctor calls for Susan to open the door, momentarily forgetting that she is no longer aboard, and is visibly upset by the slip, which Ian and Barbara handle with gentle dignity, Barbara gently encouraging him to show her what to do, instead, stepping into Susan's granddaughter role for the moment in hopes of providing some comfort to the old man. It is really nicely played, a lovely little scene.
Heh, I really enjoy the way Ian and Barbara gossip about the Doctor just outside the TARDIS only for him to stick his head out of the door to remind them that he can hear every word!
I'm not sure what's up with the fluctuating light in the cave where the TARDIS has landed, but it is quite effective in setting a nicely creepy atmosphere as Ian and Barbara explore.
The first appearance of Koquillion is very well played he looks menacing, but his manner is ambivalent, and you can see that Ian and Barbara aren't sure how to take him. Assuming that he is a native of the planet, their instinct is clearly to suspect the worst, but they try hard to give him the benefit of the doubt rather than judge him by his appearance only for their gut instinct to be proved correct when he neatly separates them, triggers a rockfall to trap Ian in the cave and then pushes Barbara off a cliff!
We shan't comment on the fact that Koquillion's weapon of choice appears to be some kind of sonic spanner!
The Doctor has a very funny little monologue as he potters around the TARDIS working on rock samples from the cave, identifying the planet they've landed on as Dido, a place he has visited previously so cute that he wonders aloud for a moment whether or not he stands any chance of convincing Ian that he landed here deliberately, before remembering that he slept through the landing, which scuppers that idea! Ian's scepticism about the Doctor's piloting skills and the Doctor's indignation about it has been a running theme for quite some time now! The Doctor seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself I really miss this aspect of him in his later incarnations. The First Doctor loved to travel both for the sake of travel and also for the thrill of scientific study. He loved visiting new places in order to find out more about them, was forever taking rock samples and the like. His later incarnations seem to have lost that love of scientific study, travelling more for the sightseeing and thrills.
Aww, in the wake of the rockfall, Ian is all dazed and desperate, which means the Doctor has to be the voice of reason, calming him down and checking him over for injuries and proposing alternate solutions when they are unable to dig through the rockfall to get to Barbara, last seen just outside the cave. Ian is usually so stalwart, it's always good to see the cracks in his armour, and I just love this side of the Doctor, so reassuring and sensible and reliable and grandfatherly.
So Barbara survived her cliff plunge more or less unharmed by catching at a branch, which broke, but was enough to break her fall? Okay. We'll run with that.
I'm not entirely sure how she manages it, but I like that Vicki finds Barbara and single-handedly sneaks her back to the crashed ship and hides her there, all pro-active and resourceful only for Barbara to end up having to look after the girl and comfort her when she begins to relate the story of how the ship crashed and its occupants were all killed by the natives, including her father. I really like how well-drawn and three-dimensional Vicki's personality is in this story. She comes across as a typically teenage mixture of independence and insecurity, all headstrong defiance one moment and grief-stricken fear the next, on the one hand desperate for Barbara or anyone, really to take charge and lift the responsibility from her shoulders, but on the other hand resentful of an outsider interfering in a situation that she has been coping with for so long now, all alone other than Bennett. She feels very real.
Exploring their way through the cave system in search of another exit, the Doctor and Ian make an absolutely fabulous double act their banter is just hilarious. So much of this episode revolves around the two of them just talking, bouncing off each other, as they make their way through the caves, but it works. I love the dynamic they've established between their characters, after such a rocky beginning.
The episode one cliffhanger sees Ian accidentally triggering some kind of Indiana Jones booby trap installed in the cave walls. Leaving aside the flimsiness of the trap, which the 1965 BBC production team simply did not have the resources to portray effectively, this is never really explained. Who installed the trap? What is its purpose? The Doctor is adamant that the Didonians are a peaceful people, so surely they wouldn't have constructed such a thing? But Koquillion, as he is ultimately unveiled, has no reason to, either. And anyway, the trap only seems deadly for as long as you can buy that Ian has a choice between being skewered by extending blades or plummeting into a ravine with a deadly beast at the bottom of it. But not only does he manage to sidle around the flimsy-looking blades with some ease, in the end, and not only is the ravine no more than a few feet deep (the trials and tribulations of being confined to a studio set), but the ravenous beast is almost immediately revealed to be a harmless herbivore anyway. So what was the trap all about, other than a cheap cliffhanger?
You know, I really like the Scooby Doo plot of this story, which is cleverly set up and all. But even on my first viewing, I was onto Bennett by the end of the first episode. He's so adamant that he and Vicki must not go against Koquillion, and gets so angry about it when Barbara proposes other solutions and we never see him and Koquillion in the same place at the same time
Sandy the Sandbeast's herbivore nature is revealed early in episode two, 'Desperate Measures', when Barbara shoots him, believing he is about to attack Vicki. It's a really good scene, very well set-up, because we are with Barbara all the way we've just seen the creature in the cave with the Doctor and Ian discussing how fearsome it looks, and now we see it exiting the cave and coming up behind Vicki, and we can see Barbara's fear and panic. There is a gun in the cupboard and she completely believes that she is saving Vicki's life when she fires it, killing the creature. But the scene then twists because Vicki is absolutely distraught. It wasn't a fearsome beast after all, despite appearances. It was a harmless herbivore that she had tamed and considered a pet the one friend she had to cling to, trapped as she is on this unwelcoming planet where her father was killed and her only companion is a bedridden grouch. It's a bit of a metaphor for the story in general, really just as Sandy the Sandbeast wasn't what he seemed, on the surface, neither is Koquillion. Barbara, who is rarely wrong about anything, is deeply distressed by her tragic mistake, while Vicki is both devastated and furious at the loss of her pet, blaming Barbara and refusing to forgive her very teenage in her grudge-bearing!
Aww, the travellers are reunited once more. Reunion scenes are always good value.
The Doctor is so parental grandfatherly with Vicki, almost from the moment they meet. He is definitely projecting Susan onto her as he gently talks her into forgiving Barbara, but she responds in like kind. The Doctor has just lost Susan and Vicki has just lost her father; they each fill a need in the other and the relationship they build out of that mutual need is lovely. And it's got to be said, the First Doctor is absolutely adorable in this adventure.
Also, it's lovely to see the Doctor standing up for Barbara and defending her to Vicki, a reminder of how much he has grown to love his human friends, after the acrimony of their early adventures.
Ha, Ian mispronounces Koquillion as 'Cocky-lickin'! Heeee. The First Doctor is famous for getting Ian's name wrong on numerous occasions, usually on purpose but Ian's mispronunciation of unfamiliar names is also a bit of a recurring trait! He had trouble with Autloc's name in The Aztecs, too!
Hang on. The Doctor decides that he needs to talk to Bennett, but when the man won't unlock the door to let him in he starts hammering at it with an iron girder! That's a bit of an overreaction, isn't it? I mean, he is right, as it turns out, but still!
Vicki tells us that she left Earth in the year 2493. I like it when an adventure is grounded in a reasonable sounding date. I also like how gobsmacked she is at the concept of her new friends having travelled through time the scene where she marvels over Ian and Barbara coming from 1963 and how old she thinks that makes them is very cute and very funny.
The ending really is Scooby Doo, as the Doctor unveils Bennett as the real evil killer he has been masquerading as Koquillion all this time, dressing up in ceremonial Didonian costume to frighten Vicki. He killed all the survivors from the crashed spaceship and also killed all the Didonians, who had taken them in, setting the oblivious Vicki up as his unwitting alibi, and all that slaughter was to escape justice for a previous murder committed aboard ship! Seems a little excessive to me, but then again, I'm not homicidal psychopath, so what do I know?
I'm rather impressed by the little action sequence the Doctor gets at the end there usually the First Doctor supplies the brains while Ian provides the brawn, but on this occasion he has confronted Bennett alone with no back-up and so must defend himself, which he does rather ably at first, swinging for the man first with a rod and then with a sword. Bennett quickly overpowers him, though, since this body of his is elderly and frail, so it is just as well, really, that a couple of the Didonians seem to have survived the massacre after all, and come to the rescue at the nick of time
At least, I think that's what happened there. It's all a bit unclear, really, and it's a shame the plot gets so wobbly right at the death. There are quite a few unanswered questions: how did these two Didonians survive the massacre and why have they not taken action against Bennett before now, since they are clearly capable of it? Also, since both are male, how exactly are they supposed to ensure the survival of their race now ?
Hang on. While the Doctor was unconscious, Ian found his key and used it to get back into the Tardis? Since when is Ian able to unlock that door? Susan was at great pains, back in The Daleks, to explain the defence mechanisms on the lock that would make it impossible for anyone but herself or the Doctor to unlock it! Presumably Ian and Barbara have now been granted access those defence mechanisms on the lock seem to have been permanently disabled ever since!
Since Vicki is now all alone and the Doctor is certain that the two surviving Didonians will not allow the rescue ship to land to retrieve her, he invites her to join the crew of the TARDIS instead. It is a very sweet scene as she takes her first steps inside that incredible machine the first passenger ever to be specifically invited aboard. Of course, no one bothers to tell her that they can't actually steer it but regardless, Vicki has a new family now.
The Didonians destroy the equipment in the crashed spaceship when they hear the rescue ship radioing that they are close and need a signal to guide them in. Poor rescue ship they came all this way for nothing and will never know what happened!
It kills me that the story ends with a very literal cliffhanger, as the TARDIS materialises on the edge of a cliff and promptly falls off! Way to hook viewers for the next adventure!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "Might be a cave, or even perhaps underground."
BARBARA: "You mean we could be trapped down here?"
DOCTOR: "Oh, it doesn't necessarily mean anything, my dear Barbara. We can, of course, always travel through solid matter in flight."
BARBARA: "Look, Ian, all the old associations are still in the ship. You can't expect him to say goodbye to Susan and then forget about her the next minute."
IAN: "No, I suppose not. I wonder what she's doing now?"
BARBARA: "If I know anything about David, she's learning to milk cows."
BARBARA: "Are you going to tell the Doctor about this?"
IAN: "Yes. Why not?"
BARBARA: "Well, knowing the Doctor, he'll want to go down there and investigate."
IAN: "Well, for once I'd agree with him, Barbara."
DOCTOR: "Well, undoubtedly we've landed on the planet Dido. How remarkable. Well, I must say. it'll be rather nice to meet these friendly people again after all these years. Fancy landing back here again. I wonder if I were to tell Ian that it was deliberate, whether he'd believe me or not? Oh no, of course, I was asleep. Oh, pity, pity, pity."
DOCTOR: "This thing, was it armed?"
IAN: "No, no, it wasn't. Wait a minute, it was carrying some sort of jewelled club. About so long."
DOCTOR: "With a big head, resembling a spanner?"
IAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Yes."
IAN: "I don't know why you bother to ask."
DOCTOR: "Come along. Don't just sit there, my dear boy, stand up, stand up. Come along, that's it, mind your head. It's only dust. No bones broken."
IAN: "Thank you, Doctor. The most thorough-going medical I've ever had."
DOCTOR: "Yes, it's a pity I didn't get that degree, isn't it?"
IAN: "Well, you ready to carry on?"
DOCTOR: "Me? Carry on? My dear fellow, it was you that stopped."
IAN: "It's got eyes. I saw them. Green. Used to daylight. Must have come in from the outside."
DOCTOR: "Oh. Very good, yes. Very intelligent reasoning. So good I might have said the same thing myself."
IAN: "Well, you see, Vicki, our space ship, well, isn't like this one. It travels through time."
BARBARA: "We left in 1963."
VICKI: "1963! But that means you're about five hundred and fifty years old."
BARBARA: "Why, yes, I suppose I am. Yes, it's a way of looking at it, but I'll try not to look at it too often."
VICKI: "They didn't have time machines in 1963, they didn't know anything then."
IAN: "Oh, we weren't entirely ignorant, young lady. Even the Doctor thought it was worth paying us a visit."
DOCTOR: "My dear, why don't you come with us, hmm?"
VICKI: "In that old box?"
DOCTOR: "We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that old box as you call it. Regardless of space and time."
VICKI: "Then it is a time machine?"
DOCTOR: "And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it. Apart from all that, well you'll be amongst friends."
The Verdict
Overall and on the whole, I love this one. It is a really well constructed, character-rich little adventure that serves as the perfect introduction for the Doctor's new companion.
Written June 2012; revised July 2013