Day 71: The Final Phase

Halfway through this episode, the Doctor and co. discuss whether they have changed the future at all, and whether the events that they have performed have really made any difference to their plights. It should come across as a depressing scene, with a semblance of hope at the end, as they comment that while they may not be able to change the future, they can possibly have their future changed for them through other forces, such as the revolution that has been started with the help of Vicki. However, there is one small detail that has been wonderfully forgotten and I was shocked that this was not picked up on in the entire story. Barbara has her cardigan on in the 'future' version of her. Midway through episode 2, it is taken off to make a trail, so that they don't end up getting lost in the museum. And in destroying that cardigan, they change the future. One of my personal little joys is the notion that even the tiniest of choices can change the very future of the Earth, because it means that everything and everyone is in their own way, important. In changing what clothes Barbara was wearing, a chain reaction was set off that prevented them from being placed as exhibits forever. But what really thrills me is that this is a tiny story feature, never mentioned, but to the observant viewer, it stands as an easter egg, allowing the plot conclusion to be foreshadowed. One of my favourite things that the internet has brought up is the amount of Easter Eggs placed in films foreshadowing their conclusion, and it;s nice to see Doctor Who doing that in 1965.

Day 70: The Search

Once again, the series dips into the past, although we're still set on a Space Museum on a distant world. The history here is in the themes dealt with in the serial, as we look back on colonialism, and the effects it has. Last episode, we met a bunch of characters who didn't seem to be on the same side as the museum guards, but were still morally dubious, kidnapping the Doctor for instance. Here, they explain to Vicki their situation, they are rebels, whose planet was colonised by the evil Moroks, and they are trying to overthrow their regime. The Moroks, on the other hand, are bored. It would seem that their space museum doesn't really bring in the tourists, and that it's just a bit of a dump. They have this planet purely for the purpose of having a planet. Which strikes me as a bit colonial. A bunch of people come to a land, overthrow the natives and take command. They don't really know what to do with it, but it's theirs, and it's all for the good of Empire, and all that. The major point of this is that colonialism was still a big thing when this was first broadcast. There's still guilt being thrown on people over what was done for colonialism, and how people came and destroyed cultures in the name of Queen and country. And so we see the natives, in this case the quite nice Xerons, as the good guys, because they overthrow the past, and the old ways. And in doing so, we come back to the guiding thread that holds this serial together, fighting the future of the Doctor and co. being trapped in glass cabinets, as exhibits. This is all being done to change the future, so that by fighting the past, we may fight the future.

Day 69: The Dimensions of Time

The Doctor in a Victorian bathing costume,
feel glad that he didn't think of more modern swimwear

After the initial weirdness of the first episode, which was all to do with time and other such fourth dimensional fun, we now settle into what will form the rest of the plot of this serial, revolving around the Space Museum itself. And whilst this may be seen as a disappointment by some, the major thing to be missed is how funny this episode actually is. For a start, you have the Doctor and co.'s first major obstacle. They're lost, mainly due to the fact that all the corridors look the same, and they can never tell where they are at any given moment. Which is a hilarious idea, because it's subverting one of the perceived tropes of Doctor Who, that all the corridors look the same, and that it's all just running up and down the aforementioned corridors. And what is being shown here, is that the writers are recognising this fact and implementing it. And whilst it was done in the series' second serial, The Daleks, to horrifying effect with it feeling as if everything is closing in upon you, here because the corridors are wider, and there aren't many scenes with just one person, that is to say, there is always someone to talk to in every scene, it feels less scary, and gives more opportunity for humour to arise from other factors such as dialogue, and situation, such as the events leading up to the cliffhanger, where the Doctor has his mind probed by a machine, however he manages to fool it into thinking all sorts of various pieces of nonsense, such as what can be seen above, where the Doctor is seen in a Victorian bathing costume. Silly, yes, but sometimes silliness isn't such a bad thing.

Day 68: The Space Museum

The Doctor and co. encounter themselves, bringing a
new meaning to the term, take a good look at yourself

The TARDIS malfunctions in this episode, and time travel based hijinks ensue. For a show that deals with time travel, this sort of scenario hasn't really occurred, so it's nice to see the show try new things out. Ad so what we get is an episode where weird things happen, and we are forced to figure out exactly what has gone wrong, and like previous stories of this vein, The Edge of Destruction and Planet of Giants, we learn these things alongside the characters, which is fun, because it gives the audience something to do, instead of just sitting back and enjoying the ride. But if there's one thing that makes this episode stand out from any other, it's through the following. Time travel has never been used in such a way as it is now as a driving force in a plot. To explain, near the conclusion of this episode, the Doctor and co. discover their bodies in glass cabinets, and realise that they are viewing their own personal futures. So it now becomes their job to rewrite their futures and prevent what they have seen from coming to pass. So don't rewrite history, not one line, except when the plot says so. But it's more than that. We are subverting the very nature of televisual serials themselves, choosing to have our characters witness the end and then have that as a driving force as something to build up to. It's like peeking at the last chapter of a book, to find out what happens to the characters. You now know what will happen, but you don't know how, or why. Time travel changes that, because, unlike books, which tend to stay the same every time you read them, timelines can be in flux, and so we see a possibility of a last chapter, a possible conclusion. And so we now have something to drive the plot, to make sure that what will happen does not come to pass by changing history, and by rewriting not just history, but also the script.

Day 44: Dangerous Journey

So the henchman in this episode
is called Smithers. When the bad
guy finds the Doctor and co., will
he have to release the hounds?

This is the first time since the first episode that the TARDIS has landed on what was then contemporary Earth. And so we get to see Doctor Who attempt to look at modern issues, not through allegories or comparisons, but through explicitly showing these things. The plot here revolves around insecticides, a topic that is still relevant today, particularly with both the agricultural community and the environmental community, because it has a large range of issues and problems with it. All the time it has to be considered whether the products are safe for human consumption, what the danger is to the ecosystem, and whether they will actually work, but they're balanced out by showing that these products can help save crops, and contribute to the fight against hunger. And it's a complex issue that is well explored here. Fortunately, the villain is only interested in the monetary gain from it, and so whilst the bad guy is clearly shown, it also allows for the sidekick, in the form of a man called Mr Smithers (I am seriously hoping that the next episode ends with him accepting a role at a nuclear power plant), to be more sympathetic, because he is the one who has the hopes for the future, and he is the one who wants to prevent starvation, and he is not the one who has killed people who have gotten in his way. And so this leaves the audience not sure as to whether these things are bad or not, because the bad guys have control over them, yet the sidekick seems like a reasonable chap, and thus the audience may think that these things aren't so bad after all. And so they're left to make up their own minds on this issue, maybe learn more about it to make a better judgement. And maybe this will inspire a future scientist to look into this issue, and develop it for future use. So, in effect, Doctor Who is showing a modern issue, strongly relevant to society, with strong implications for the future, and indeed the present and it is showing multiple viewpoints of this, and leaves the audience never quite sure as to which is the bad one. So in essence, it's doing a better job at being a current affairs programme in 1964 than Today Tonight or A Current Affair ever have. (For overseas readers, insert awful 'current affairs programme here, also, hello!)

Day 43: Planet of Giants

This episode, as the title would suggest, takes place in a planet of giants, where everything is much taller than our heroes. Or so it would seem, however 10 minutes into the episode, it is revealed that they have in fact been shrunk down, and they have landed on contempary Earth and are viewing the world from the perspective of ants. This is a brilliant concept, and one that was put forward for the first serial, before being recycled for the opening of the second series. One must remember that for almost every single episode, the TARDIS crew have been visiting worlds that have been alien to them, be they Aztec temples or acid seas, they are all different to the things that one would see at home. And so to see everyday objects made into an alien setting, it's fascinating, as it allows us to realise how terrifying the world can be, if viewed at the wrong size. And so we are brought to mind that this is one of the most alien worlds that we have encountered, and it can be found in your backyard, bringing the danger closer to home, something we'll get to in a couple more episodes, but for now, let's just appreciate the world that we don't often get a close-up viewing of.

Day 34: A Race Against Death

The 'monsters' for this serial are the Sensorites, and they're a curious beast. On the one hand, they represent the first time that we see proper 'aliens' in Doctor Who, all of the other villains have just been presumably people who look extremely like humans who are for the purposes of this story inhabiting a suit. Their design is quite nice, and whilst with our 21st century high quality decices where we can see every tiny little join in their costumes, to someone in the 1960s, they must have looked quite impressive. They're telepathic as well, which is a nice concept to have, however they are all quite stupid. Some of them are quick to jump to conclusions and shun outsiders like the plague, others when faced with an actual plague, have no idea how it came about, and no idea how to solve it. It should be noted that when the Doctor does find the cure for the plague, it's not with the sonic screwdriver, it's with the scientific method. It's a shame that they are so flawed, and we'll have a look at some more of their flaws later, because they, much like the Daleks, are unlike anything we have seen before.

Day 33: Hidden Danger

One of the remarkable things about this episode is how well written Susan is. The cliff-hanger to the last instalment is Susan agreeing to go down to the alien planet with the Sensorites, this week's menace, essentially as a willing hostage, her doing this as a sign of trust. The major problem with this is that no-one actually likes this idea, and so they fight to go against it. It's interesting that this is done, because previously Susan has done not much more besides scream and wait for Ian, Barbara or the Doctor to sort things out. Thus, when she actually does do things by herself, I find myself on her side, as she moves towards peace with these creatures. The Doctor disagrees, claiming that her actions are rash, and that she should not do such a thing without knowing that they are to be trusted, however she does not think this and believes that in order to gain trust, you must have a degree of faith in the other party. It'd the first time that Susan and the Doctor, her grandfather, have had an argument but it's commented that this is probably just her growing up. Not just physically as the character gets older, but mentally as well, as her character develops before our very eyes.

Day 32: The Unwilling Warriors

The original aim of the programme Doctor Who was to educate and entertain. This was held up for about two minutes until it was realised that entertainment is far more interesting for kids than education. It's a fact that's gleefully mentioned in one of this episode's laugh out loud moments when Ian goes to explain spectroscopy to Susan, who offhandedly remarks that she actually does know this already, and so the lesson is stopped. It's funny because it shows the inner silliness in having the educational aspect, in that the child who should be taught things is actually smarter than her teachers, and her teachers already know the things that would be relevant for school curriculums so there is often no need to explain things, except for the other-worldly business that they often come across. And yet, the episode also is able to throw in little facts here and there, to keep you learning, such as the uses for Molybdenum, and how cats can see better in the dark than we humans. This is most likely due to Peter R Newman, the writer, sticking to the original concepts of the programme, showing us that the ideas that went into at first still can work, it's just that the show moved on from its original remit to move towards entertain and terrify.

Day 31: Strangers In Space

One of the first things to be noticed about this story is how atmospheric it is, an effect which is largely created through the lighting. Unlike other stories, which have been brightened to within an inch of their lives, this one feels dark, as shadows cover the sets, props and cast, allowing for us as an audience to feel the character's fears as they face this new alien menace, the Sensorites. The old adage of 'Tell, not Show' works incredibly well here, as we only get glimpses of these creatures, and hear of their powers. We can see the effect that they have on these people, and that is far better than just showing them appearing and relying on their design to do the work for us, which makes this serial one to look forward to the rest of, as we come to deal with these all powerful creatures who can probably kill you with just a single thought.