Day 5: The Dead Planet

It's in this episode that the most important part of Doctor Who ever occurs, and it's when Barbara is menaced by a bloke holding a sink plunger as he advances on her. It's the old joke of how the series isn't that scary, it's just cheap, however that's overlooking the simple fact that it is scary. When the Doctor and his companions arrive at the alien city, and agree to explore, we mostly follow Barbara, and we are able to feel her terror as she explores. All the roofs are ever so slightly too short, adding to the claustrophobic nature, and we can see the doors silently closing behind her as she gets further trapped. There's a joke about how "all the corridors look the same on Doctor Who", and whilst that may be true, here it's used to frightening effect. Barbara is trapped in a maze, where everything looks the same and she gets hopelessly lost. And then, when she get's trapped in the lift and we see her move away, we're gripped. And we're even more gripped when she sees the creature advance on her. Much like yesterday's episode, we're able to use reactions to just as good an effect as we are to showing the cause of the reactions, and her scream as she sees this alien creature advance slowly towards her is enough to allow us all to feel her terror.