Day 30: The Day of Darkness

The climax of this episode features a fight between the two young males of the cast: Ian (schoolteacher who travels with the Doctor) and Ixta (Aztec warrior). It's well directed, as the fights often have been so far, and it's a pleasure to actually be able to appreciate seeing it, as this story is in the archives. It's interesting to note as well that it's a fight to the death, and Ian kills Ixta, his opponent. It's the first time that we see one of the companions be overwhelmingly responsible for the death of another character, and what makes it difficult is that Ixta seemed to have been a likeable chap, who just found himself under the influence of Tlotoxl, the main antagonist. And so we see the impact that is had by the travellers in a large way, they have caused the death of someone. But, as the Doctor comments at the end of the episode, they have made some minor victories, such as with Autloc, the High Priest of Knowledge, who they helped find a better belief system, and a better life. And so as we depart the land of the Aztecs, we reflect on this dark tale, where our heroes, on the whole, lost. But even within the losses, there can be tiny gains as they try to help other races, cultures and people.

Day 29: The Bride of Sacrifice

The Doctor, upon being informed that he is now engaged

In this adventure, each character gets their own plot line which interweaves with the others at key moments. It's a fun concept, and it's nice to see what each character gets up to over the course of the adventure. Ian finds himself having to fight for his life, Barbara puts herself at odds with Aztec culture, Susan is forced to learn about Aztec teachings and the Doctor accidentally gets engaged. It's the last plot-line that's the most fun, because it's nice to see the show go into a slightly more comedic route after the comparatively serious plots that we've had before. William Hartnell also excels at comic acting, he is easily able to play his accidental engagement well, not realising until it's far too late what he's done, at which point he gives the face seen above, one of the truly great moments in Doctor Who history. It's nice to see how far we've come with the character of the Doctor as well. Just under a month ago, he was not a likeable figure, constantly putting himself at odds with the other members of the crew. Now he's able to be more loveable, and we're able to actually enjoy his scenes, because he is now recognisably the Doctor.

Day 28: The Warriors of Death

This story has an interesting villain in the form of Tlotoxl, the High Priest of Sacrifice. He's interesting because he represents the way things are in Aztec culture, and the resistance to change that these things have. He's also interesting because we know that history states that he wins this battle. In previous adventures we either know that the good guys will win, or we have no idea who will win, but we have a strong suspicion that it's going to be the good guys. This time, we know that the Aztecs continue their tradition of sacrifice, and thus the bad guys win. It's refreshingly realistic to see history played out in front of our eyes with no need to shield us from some of the less nice aspects. Only last episode did we see a man, upon being informed that he will not be sacrificed, commit suicide. It's a dark tale that's being weaved, because sometimes stories aren't light and fluffy, they can be dark as well.

Day 27: The Temple of Evil

Whilst the discussions about the implications of time travel go on,
Ian becomes a warrior and dresses up as a chicken.

This episode contains probably one of the most important scenes in Doctor Who history, namely the one where the Doctor informs Barbara that "You cannot change history, not one line!". The context of the piece is simple, the TARDIS arrived in an Aztec temple, and they made Barbara their god. As their god, she wishes to decree that human sacrifices are, on the whole, a bit stupid and should be stopped. The Doctor knows that this will have a major effect on the web of time, and wishes to keep history on its course. This scene is important for so many reasons. Firstly, it shows a rift between two of our main characters. This is nothing new, it was, after all, the thing that made the first couple of episode interesting. However, it is the first time where we can actually see an argument for both sides, and the script and direction aren't clear on whose side you should take. In earlier episodes, we would take Ian or Barbara's side, because they were the easiest to relate to, and they were the ones who were doing the more sane options. But now, we see both sides. One the one hand, Barbara is right, human sacrifice is barbaric, and is something that should be stopped. And they've interfered before in the course of events, the Daleks would have wiped out the Thals had they not interfered, and Marco Polo would surely have died in the desert had they not saved him from dehydration. But the Doctor is more experienced in these events, he is someone who has travelled in time before, he knows what the limitations are, and what the consequences are for meddling in these affairs. And that's another point that's made here, this is one of the first times where time travel is no longer a mechanism to go from one story to another, it's a plot point, and integral to the way that the story unfolds. It goes to show that this story is taking the concepts that have been laid out, and using them in more lateral ways. Other writers would just use time travel as a way to go from A to B, something that's just like a boat or a plane except with the added bonus of history as a destination, but this is one of the first times where we see the consequences of time travel and we're able to see that time travel is not as simple as just using a boat or a plane, it's far more complex than that.

Day 17: The Wall Of Lies

In the middle of this episode, the Doctor is finally able to fix the problem that has been plaguing the TARDIS crew over the course of this serial, and he fixes the TARDIS. And so we expect that events will begin to wrap up as we finish this serial and move onto the next adventure, and indeed things do seem to be happening along that train of thought, primarily with the Tegana (this adventure's unambigiously evil chap who we'll examine in greater detail later on) plotline, as Ping-Cho provides what she believes to be damning evidence against Tegana, but isn't really all that great. But we believe her for a second. We believe that this story will wrap up. For when this story was broadcast, there was no official BBC press release stating how long each story would go on for, it would just finish one week, and a new one would start the next week, with no idea of what would be ahead for our intrepid travellers on either their side, or the audience's side (or if the scripts were running late, the production side). So we have no idea how long this story will go on for, and that keeps things going, because it means that at any moment things could go one way or another.