Day 114: The Final Test

The final game that Steven and Dodo are put through is a twisted version of Snakes and Ladders, with electrified floors and the like. However, there is a major problem with this, in that there is no strategy to be had with Snakes and Ladders, it is instead a game of chance. It's why their opponent comes across so well here, because even though he blatantly cheats and causes problems for the two companions, he is attempting to implement some sort of strategy. He has spotted the trick to winning the game, not to play by the rules, but to amend them as you go to allow for a more fun experience. In some ways, this sums up the complete adventure, The Celestial Toymaker. It is an adventure where rules are set out, and the outcome is often left to chance more than our heroes' intelligence. And whilst the adventure is reasonably entertaining, you are left empty inside, because our heroes didn't do anything interesting, they just took part in things that seem interesting, but they have no impact on the eventual outcome. Like Snakes and Ladders, it may seem like a cool game to play, but when you realise that there's no strategy to it, it loses its charm.

Meanwhile, the Trilogic game is incredibly interesting, and I will come back to that in the future. Yes, I know that tomorrow I'm going to start a new adventure, and the Trilogic game doesn't appear at all in the future of Doctor Who, but at some point in the future, there will be something on this blog about the Trilogic game. As for now, We've still Got Work To Do.

Day 113: The Dancing Floor

The Doctor is barely in this one, reduced to a hand moving game pieces across a puzzle. The story behind why this is happening is actually quite interesting. William Hartnell is not a well man, and he is also not getting along with his producer John Wiles, who is reducing Hartnell's role in the series because it is becoming more and more apparent that he is unable to cope with the making the show. And so, when this story came about, it was suggested that the Doctor would reappear with a new face, allowing Hartnell to be quietly written out of the programme. This was vetoed by the head of serials at the BBC, and thus John Wiles left the series in protest. On the one hand, you can see why they kicked him out, because he was being unfair to this older actor, who was actually capable, it was just that his health was failing him. But that doesn't mean that he was wrong, because the problem was still there of a show that had a protagonist who was not in his best of health. This is still an issue, and it needs to be addressed quite soon.

Meanwhile, because I feel that I never properly said so, I would like to say farewell to John Wiles. He's overseen some very good stories in his tenure, although to be honest he was given the unworkable brief of a 12 part Dalek serial, and his tenure was unfortunately short due to the aforementioned Hartnell problem. Yet, he still managed to pull things off and produce some fine television. It's a shame that his era remains mostly missing from the BBC archives, as an awful lot of it is absolutely brilliant, leading the programme into a slightly darker time.

Day 112: The Hall of Dolls

The annoying thing about this episode is that, for the interesting idea of having to play games for an omnipotent being in order to fight for your freedom, the programme fails to do anything unique with it over the course of the episodes, which is to say, it follows the same pattern as the last episode. Steven and Dodo play a game against the Toymaker's playthings. They win the game, but their TARDIS is in another castle, amd so they must continue onto the next game. Meanwhile, the Doctor annoys the Toymaker by continuing to solve the puzzle of the Trilogic game. Granted, there are some differences between this episode and the last, such as in the portrayal of the Toymaker's minions. In The Celestial Toyroom, they were evil little people who created mischief and cheated at every turn. This episode, the new minions are slightly nicer, although there is a strain of evil within them, as they try and get others to potentially commit suicide before them in order to further their goals. But the crux of the matter is that the same structure has been used for the past two episodes, and I can pretty much guarantee that it will be used for the next two as well. It's not looking good for this story so far...

Day 111: The Celestial Toyroom

A new serial brings with it a new nemesis, this time The Celestial Toymaker. He's introduced as something that we've never really seen before, a character with godlike powers who has captured the TARDIS crew. And not only that, but he's captured them presumably in order to meet the Doctor again, and to beat him in his twisted games. This whole fantasy like concept, with godlike creatures and deadly parlour games is a realm that Doctor Who has never travelled to, although it possibly should have. When the series was first proposed, it was deemed that there would by three possibilities for story ideas: trips to the past, trips to the future/alien worlds and 'side trips' where odd things would happen to the TARDIS crew, such as being shrunk down, or driven insane by the TARDIS going faulty. Here, we get what is arguably the third of these 'side trips', with a weird fantasy world and an all-powerful game player behind it all and it becomes apparent to see why these concepts haven't really occurred in Doctor Who before. It has previously been a show that, despite the science fiction elements, has had a degree of possibility and rational explanation behind it. Here, we've broken the rules and can do whatever we like because we're in fantasy land now, and we don't need things like rationality for us. It's an interesting experiment, and we'll see how it plays out over the course of the next couple of episodes.

Day 106: Bell of Doom

There are some things that are amongst the most terrible things in the universe, like what happened in this episode: on the 24th of August, 1572, there was an authorized massacre of the Huguenot population living in Paris, after tensions between the Huguenots and the Catholics reached fever pitch, and a series of events sparked the mass murder of about 10,000 people. And meanwhile, the Doctor has found Steven, and sends Steven's young companion, Anne Chaplet, off to leave Paris immediately. We do not know what happens to Anne. We can only assume that she didn't make it. In another story, this would be a hidden detail, glossed over. But today is different. Steven has witnessed a lot over the past couple of stories. People who he has known and grown to trust have been murdered or destroyed before his very eyes, and today he witnessed the Doctor, the man who he trusts more than any other, send a young girl off to certain doom. 

For the fourth story in a row, we witness as thousands of people die before our eyes. For a story that focuses so much on tensions between people of faith, it is interesting that here we lose our faith in the Doctor. He had to let history run its course, and in doing so, he, as well as Steven and the audience at home, are forced to witness the consequences of his inactions, death and destruction. And the death and destruction of a young serving girl. We've had enough, we can't take it any more, we want to leave. And so we do, like Steven, leave the TARDIS, never to come back. We leave the old man in his magic box, as he contemplates the past 106 episodes. He's met two schoolteachers, who taught him compassion, Susan who gave him something to care about, Vicki who brought so much fun, and Steven, with whom he had a strong mutual trust. But that's all over now.

And then a young girl bursts into the TARDIS, full of energy and stupidity. She doesn't realise where she is, she doesn't realise what the hell is going on, but she doesn't care. And Steven returns, because to warn the Doctor of the fact that some policemen are coming to inspect the police box shaped TARDIS and the Doctor is forced to leave, with Steven and this impossible young girl. The young girl's name? Dodo Chaplet. Like Anne Chaplet. There's a possibility that Anne survived. There's hope that things turned out for the best. There is hope that the Doctor isn't a man who sends young girls to their death, instead he sends them to their life. For the first time in what feels like an age, we have hope. And that is one of the most beautiful things in the universe.

Day 105: Priest of Death

The Doctor, as mentioned in the last entry, is not present for these two episodes. This isn't the first time that this has happened, we've had the Doctor be off-screen before, but they've normally featured an absence of William Hartnell as well, however he is present throughout this story. He doesn't play the Doctor, instead he is the villainous Abbot of Amboise. It's a shame that this episode is not currently present in the BBC archives, as it would be a joy to observe Hartnell's performance in another role, and to see how he made the two characters distinctly different, because Hartnell is a good actor, and he would have made them both distinct characters. But the key thing to notice here is the way that the issue of the doppelgänger is addressed. The audience knows that the Doctor is not the Abbot, however Steven doesn't and believes that they are one and the same. So this means that the audience is one step ahead of Steven, and this changes the way that the story is told, allowing for more focus on Steven as he reaches conclusions that are already known, instead of just making it a normal historical adventure. It does have the nasty side effect of changing the impact of this episode's cliffhanger though, which features the body of the Abbot, now deceased, as Steven realises that the Doctor must be dead. But we know that the Doctor isn't dead, and so the shock of this is no longer present, we instead look at Steven's reaction and know that he is wrong, and move on with our lives. But there's another dimension to this, as people are getting blamed for the murder and the Huguenots may be in trouble very soon...

Day 104: The Sea Beggar

This story is a bit Doctor-lite, (we'll focus on what Hartnell is actually doing tomorrow) and as such Steven is forced into the role normally taken by the Doctor. He is the one who is going out and meeting people, and getting himself into historical hijinks. He's even got himself a companion, in the form of Anne Chaplet, a young serving girl. But the problem is, and this is quite a big problem, he's not very good at being the Doctor. There are two reasons for this, one is that he doesn't know things. The Doctor is a man with universal knowledge, and while there are always points where he is able to learn things, he still tends to wards having strong ideas as to what is happening around this time. Steven, on the other hand, comes into this completely blind, with no real idea of what is happening around him. All he knows is that he needs to find the Doctor, but he's not sure of how he's going to do that. The other point of why Steven can't be the Doctor is that he lacks authority. When the Doctor, particularly Hartnell, walks into a room, he is able to take full control, and become a trusted figure quickly. Steven, on the other hand, is losing allies left, right and centre. Everyone that he has met is turning against him because they fell that he is acting against their interests, and whilst he is trying his best to explain to them the truth of the matter, he is failing. Behind the scenes of this period of Doctor Who, it is becoming far more apparent that Hartnell's health is rapidly deteriorating, and the production staff is trying to write him out and find a replacement. If anything, this is showing to them that they can't just promote any character, you need to be special in order to be the Doctor.

Day 103: War of God

We've arrived in 16th century France, a period that is not one of the more commonly known spatial-temporal periods in history, at least to my understanding, but the basics are uncomfortably familiar. The Huguenots are being oppressed by their Catholic overlords, due to them believing slightly different things to eachother. The natural defense to this is subjugation. Which would be funny, if it weren't true, because we know that people all over the world are being subjugated because of their beliefs, their lack of beliefs or indeed just their general way of life. But sometimes, we can find hope. Charles Preslin is a character who was almost certainly invented for this story, but he is important nonetheless. He's an apothecary who is being ridiculed for his work in discovering little creatures that cause illnesses, and he is being shamed for his work. So when he meets the Doctor, he does not wish to see anyone, but upon discovering that work is being done in Germany in order to further develop his research, and that these things will soon have a name, germs, he finds hope. Because sometimes, even in the darkest periods, hope can still be found. Whether it will stay is another matter entirely.

Day 102: Destruction of Time

The Time Destructor, the force that has been driving the series for the past 12 episodes, has finally been activated. As Mavic Chen goes fully bonkers, so too does the world, decaying into dust. And whilst the Doctor tells Steven and Sara to go to the TARDIS, but Sara goes back to help him with the Time Destructor. As they make their way back to the TARDIS, the temporal forces become to great, and Sara decays into a pile of dust, while the Doctor is only saved by chance when Steven throws the Time Destructor into reverse.

I hope that you'll forgive me for making that paragraph exposition heavy, but the truth of the matter is that al, of this that has happened is astonishing. Characters have died, not just random allies, but people who we assumed would live. Bret Vyon, Katarina, Sara. They're all dead now. We haven't really expected Doctor Who to be this dark before, it's sometimes mistaken for fun adventures either through history or through space. But the past 3 storylines have had impossibly dark endings as we witness things go horribly wrong for the characters within the story. It's perhaps due to the story editor, Donald Tosh, or the producer John Wiles, both of whom have been recent additions to Doctor Who and have made the show darker. The show can still be fun, yes, you only have to watch The Myth Makers or most of the Spooner penned episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan, but it also knows when to be serious. It knows that while sometimes we can be fun and happy, and that's good, but there's darkness behind the smiles. And Doctor Who can show that. When I first embarked on watching The Daleks' Master Plan, I was worried. It was 12 episodes long, the 2nd longest in Doctor Who history. What I had not realised, however, was that thanks to everyone involved, from Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, to John Wiles and Donald Tosh with wonderful performances from William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Kevin Stoney, Jean Marsh, and Nicholas Courtney, with, when we can appreciate it, some beautiful direction from Douglas Camfield, I've realised that this is an astounding story. And with that impossibly dark ending, leaving the Doctor regretful and Steven in shock, I can only hope that their next adventure is a bit more kind to them.

Day 101: The Abandoned Planet

It's about time that we had a mention of Mavic Chen, the villain in league with the Daleks. He is presented as Guardian of the Solar System, however his blinding ambition and greed for power means that he is forced into fighting against his allies, and it is becoming more obvious that he considers himself greater than the Daleks. So he's a character who believes that he is the most important person in the Universe, and will fight everyone who stands in his way, or in other words, a politician. It's a fascinating performance from Kevin Stoney, because he is always in complete control. It's only in this episode that we get hints that things might not be going as well as they seem, when he begins ranting and raving and shooting other characters. But what makes the shooting interesting is that he shoots a character who is in league with the Daleks, and it acts as a watershed moment for the other allies of the Daleks. They finally come to their senses and realise that in order to succeed, deaths must occur, but they also realise that the person who is in charge isn't the one who they want. Couple that with the Daleks abandoning them and people begin to realise that perhaps there are more important things in life. But Chen still seeks power, and power is the force that drives him, even if it's driving him over the edge of a cliff.

Day 100: Escape Switch

100 days of this. We've come a far way, haven't we? The Doctor's less grumpy, the companions are far more trusting and elements like a Police Telephone Box are now more recognisable as time-space machines than objects to be used by policemen wanting somewhere to hide from the cold. Of course, we've encountered different writers and their differing writing styles, and here we've got a conclusion of sorts to a plot point, the Daleks' quest for the Taranium core. But the important thing about this is that these past couple of episodes is that they've been written by Dennis Spooner, beloved writer of this blog, and he writes them incredibly cleverly. What he does with the Daleks is have them intrude on another adventure, reminding the viewer how important they are. There would appear to be a separate story running featuring the Meddling Monk, who decides to re-enact The Chase, by pursuing the Doctor as a revenge plot. But the Daleks interfere and as such, we are left with an open end to this story, because the Daleks have demanded that it has to be about them, much like how they are being treated at the moment on the series, as characters who need to be on the show all the time because it reminds them how much they are loved and admired, and so they have to take over the Doctor's show in order to remain popular. But the Doctor and co. still remain the protagonists, and we are still more interested in what they are up to than what the Daleks want, and in a way, you feel cheated out of a fun Meddling Monk story because of the Daleks. That's one of the awesome things about Dennis Spooner, he's able to turn the premise of some things on their head. We began with a Dalek story featuring the Doctor. Now, the tables have turned and now it's a Doctor Who story featuring the Daleks. Because this is Doctor Who, and it always has been, over the past 100 days and for the next 700 or so days.

Day 99: Golden Death

The Doctor's TARDIS has now landed in Ancient Egypt, closely followed by the Daleks and the Meddling Monk. It is, once again, interesting to note how little the Daleks make appearances, they stick to the sidelines mostly, making only intimidating orders or attacks on slave workers. The Doctor, for instance, never encounters the Daleks directly, and Steven and Sara only get a brief moment with them before being captured by some Egyptians. What this means is that the Daleks get to have more control over the story by not being on screen for as much of it, which is to say, their role is defined by their absence. Each scene that they appear in is important, and has repurcussions for the scenes that follow. The Monk, for instance, goes from being meddlesome to carry out a revenge scheme, to having to fight the Doctor for his life, while Steven and Sara don't just have to escape from their captors for freedom's sake, they need to warn the Doctor that the Daleks are here. Whilst the Daleks may not be on screen for long in this episode, their presence is felt throughout.

Day 97: The Feast of Steven

Annoyingly, the way that this blog is written means that, on the 27th of February, we look at Doctor Who's first Christmas special. Because this episode deserves to be seen at Christmas. It's unlike anything that we've had before, it is Doctor Who doing a full comedy episode. Previous comedy episodes have had some degree of dramatic tension, here every other moment is either a joke or a build up to something funny happening later on. And, oddly, it works. You might think that putting the Daleks away for an episode to have some fun might not be in the series' best interests, but, sometimes we just want to have fun, a breath of fresh air after the epic nature of the past moments.

And more than that, this episode is genuinely funny. It helps that the writer of this was Terry Nation, a former writer for Tony Hancock, because he brings an excellent knowledge of how to write comedy. Take, for instance, the sketch which is set on a film set. Each character is based on recognisable stereotypes, such as the emotional actress or the obsessive director, and they, whilst being not in the best of working relationships, can still work together. We then put three time travellers into the mix, and watch as things get completely out of hand. We are used to seeing the TARDIS crew land and then the surroundings changing because of their interference. Here, their interference, however unintentional, leads to farce, and creates a good deal of comedy. So, whilst others may dismiss this for being silly, it's actually rather fun, and something to be celebrated. And incidentally, a happy 27th of February to all of you at home!

Day 96: Coronas of the Sun

An interesting thing happens in this episode with regards to Steven. He, being the most headstrong member of the TARDIS crew insists that one way that they can create a fake version of the Taranium core, the item that the Daleks need to destroy the universe, is the best way to do it, whilst the Doctor and Sara dismiss it as primitive, as their science is beyond his. Which is interesting because Steven was explicitly introduced as being from the future, so it's nice to see that the series is developing a timeline, where some futures are far more advanced than others. And yet, it shows us that Steven is essentially being treated as just a character from the modern day, and it goes to show the sad lack of development that characters have. We might meet them and they might have interesting back stories, but that sort of thing won't really get developed or mentioned. They still have character, but for a show about time travel, it is sadly lacking in history.

Day 95: Counter Plot

It is perhaps now worth mentioning our new companion, Sara Kingdom. She's been created as a response to programmes like The Avengers, with their fighting heroines who aren't content with just screaming. And, in order to show this, one of her first actions in the series is to kill Bret Vyon, under the belief that he is a traitor. Which is one way to make an entrance, I suppose. And so this episode then has two functions: to put the Doctor and Steven in Dalek based peril for them to escape from, and to make Sara more likable. This is achieved through pitting her against Steven, probably the most headstrong companion we've seen so far, a man who has witnessed Katarina, someone who he was in care of, die before his eyes, and he is going to ensure that she sees sense, because he needs her to, if they are going to survive. And through this, she is able to slowly realise what has been happening, but she still continues to fight, not wishing to believe the truth of what she did. Because Bret Vyon, the man she killed, was her brother, and she desperately needs to believe that he was killed for a greater good, and not to further the Daleks' conquest. Through all of this, we are able to warm to Sara, we are able to see that she is an interesting character, and someone who we want to see more of. And on top of all that, we are able to appreciate the fact that we haven't got another mistake like Katarina,mthis companion has a degree of potential.

Day 94: The Traitors

We should probably talk about the Doctor's latest companion, Katarina. She's a handmaiden from Troy, has been hastily introduced, and is quite obviously a massive mistake. For a start, being from ancient times, she needs everything explained to her. Not just the futuristic stuff, but more mundane things like keys. It's annoying, and what makes it worse is that she just airs about the place thinking of the gods, and showing the audience just how much of a wonderful character Vicki was, because she was able to take situations and make them fun, lighten them up, and provide a wonderful viewpoint for the audience. Honestly, Katarina is an awful, awful mistake.

And within 5 minutes of this episode, she is ejected into space. It's a shock, because we assume that she is a companion, we assume that we will get to know her better over the course of the series. But suddenly, she dies. It's the first time that we see a companion, someone explicitly in the Doctor's care, die. And so we realise the true horror of this serial. Because we now know that this is unlike anything that has ever come before, because we always knew that the people in the TARDIS were safe. We didn't know how they would survive, but we knew that they would. And so to see a character die so suddenly, it goes to show that things are different now, this is what the Daleks bring. They don't have to be directly involved, but they lead to death and destruction, and we have just learnt that here is nothing that they will stop at for complete power.

Day 93: Devil's Planet

This episode sees the Doctor and co. attempt to escape from the clutches of the Daleks, and in the course of this, they find themselves crashed on the prison planet Desperus. It's described as a place where they dump convicts to go off and make their own society, free of any influence, no guards, no borders, nothing. Which is an interesting, but depressing concept. Prisons are intended not just as a place to put misbehaving members of society, but also as a place for rehabilitation, so that people can learn the error of their ways, and become functional members of a better society. And we have now been told that it is easier to just pick all the baddies up and put them away where we don't have to think about them. But isn't it right to actually care for these criminals, to give them hope of a better tomorrow? Or should we just leave them to their own devices, even if that means that they disrupt other people on this planet who perhaps want to make a new life for themselves? The case here is interesting, and one that is not dealt with too strongly, instead just being used as a simple plot related excuse. But even in excuses, gems of interesting concepts can be found.

Day 92: Day of Armageddon

Another thing that's wonderful is the way the villainous Mavic Chen,
about whom we will deal with later, holds his pens.

Once again, we find ourselves in the middle of an episode that has been mostly wiped from the BBC archives. And as such, we must cherish what little survives, as is the case with this episode, one of three to survive from this 12 part serial. Take for instance, the subtleties of the performance from Nicholas Courtney, the actor who would play the Brigadier in the future. Here, he plays a character who is subtly different from the Brig, Bret Vyon. Like the Brig, he's a military man, and he will fight if he needs to, but they're both different characters. Bret Vyon is a man who is secretly afraid, and whilst he manages to hide it in his voice, his eyes show the discomfort that he is facing. He looks on in horror as the Daleks begin to burn down the jungle, and he acts as a contrast to the regulars, who are far more used to this sort of thing, and are able to remain reasonably calm in these situations. It's a decision that allows for our main cast to become safer for us, and to remind us of who the real heroes are in this situation. We've already seen that the Daleks could theoretically have their own programme in Mission to the Unknown, but they don't, they're still in Doctor Who's territory and the main cast are the heroes here, not some deranged pepperpots. This is not the Dalek show with Bret Vyon, this is Doctor Who, with the Doctor, Steven and Katarina, who is jumping straight into the deep end with her first trip in the TARDIS. Hopefully, things will turn out better for her.

Day 91: The Nightmare Begins

This episode has an apt title, as The Nightmare does indeed begin today. The Daleks have now threatened to take over the Solar System, as hinted at in the previous Mission to the Unknown, and they mean business. These Daleks aren't the Daleks who are riding the wave of their own popularity that we saw on their last adventure, here they mean business. Their first appearance within the episode is striking, for instance. We encounter two space security agents, they spilt up, and one of them is terrified, he turns around, and a Dalek immediately kills him. What's striking is how swiftly this happens. You doubt for a brief second as to what has actually happened before your eyes, whether the Daleks really have come back. Indeed, most of this episode is spent with everything in the shadows. We know that the Daleks are going to dominate the Solar System, but we don't know how, and there's a mysterious character called Mavic Chen, in league with the evil metal creatures, and we don't know much about him either. Indeed, the one thing that we do know, is that the TARDIS has landed in a place where terrible things are about to happen. The nightmare, has indeed, begun.

Day 90: Horse of Destruction

I suppose that I was predisposed to like The Myth Makers. Because for all its gags and hijinks in Ancient times, the final episode is where things really start to happen. If you were expecting the culmination of the Siege of Troy to be a farce, you are wrong. It is a war. People die. It is shocking and disturbing to see Paris, Cassandra and King Priam, three characters that have previously been figures of fun in the story, get killed, because this is how history plays itself out. Odysseus is no longer the comical straight man, he is instead a soldier, fighting to kill all who get in his way. It's nice to see Doctor Who tell stories like this, where they do not talk down to the audience and make it into a simple case of goodies vs baddies, it instead allows for sympathetic characters to play their part in history, and if that means that they'll be brutally killed, then so be it. This is partly down to the writer, Donald Cotton, but also due to our new script editor, Donald Tosh. He won't be with us for very long, and we'll deal with this concept more when we reach his final story in a couple of weeks, but he has been able to help make Doctor Who more adult, while still keeping the children's programme status, and all the fun and adventure that it implies.

We also, this episode, bid farewell to Vicki, as played by Maureen O'Brien. Vicki has been a wonderful character, more fun and light hearted than Susan ever was. She was the first new companion that the show has seen, and she has been able to take to travelling in the TARDIS well, and form a much missed double act with the Doctor, where she was able to act as granddaughter figure for him, where Susan, due to being mostly paired off with Ian or Barbara, was unable to. Vicki has been a wonderful character, fun and full of energy,nand has helped the show survive theough the loss of three of the four original regular characters. Her replacement is Katarina, a Trojan handmaiden, and as the TARDIS flies off to a new adventure, she is left questioning her own fate, particularly as it was prophesied that she would die. But that won't happen surely, the Doctor will save her, won't he?