Day 84: Air Lock

First things first, this episode was found a couple of years ago, completely out of the blue. My recollection of discovering this news was to fall out of my chair in the middle of a study period and to walk around for the rest of the day with a massive smile on my face. Which is odd, because this story isn't really that well regarded, indeed due to being missing from the archives for several years, it was just a story that most people had never seen before. But upon watching it, it becomes apparent that it's actually not that bad. The story isn't that spectacular, yes, but the direction is absolutely phenomenal. It was previously mentioned that Derek Martinus showed promise in the brief pieces of surviving footage for this story, and seeing him do a full episode is spectacular. He has a fondness for crane shots, showing off the alien spaceships well by bringing to light their alienness. We are able to truly witness alien structures, as opposed to just seeing the same shot of three people over and over again.

One other thing that Martinus brings is the way he directs a monologue from Maaga, which chooses to, as it becomes more and more horrific, as she describes the destruction of the planet, keep a never ending close up on her unblinking face, bringing to light her despicable nature, as the audience slowly turns towards the notion that she might not have the best intentions for the people around her. We also, in another scene, witness her killing one of her fellow crewmembers, who was obviously in some distress at the time, and she chooses to blame it on the Rills, the other species occupying this doomed planet. And this is cruel because the Rills are peaceful, and she probably knows this, or is unwilling to ask, instead choosing to make things easier for herself, to help her maintain order so that her crewmembers know that they have nowhere to turn to, and that she is their only hope. Fear is something which brings us all together, but there are those who only use it to further their own goals. We must stand up against these people, and realise that whilst there are some things to fear, sometimes it's better to open up negotiations with the monsters and find out about why they are here, instead of jumping to conclusions.

Day 83: Trap of Steel

Peter Purves, the actor who played Steven, has stated his disappointment with this story, on the grounds that it wasn't actually written for him. The story was commissioned before it was known that he would join the TARDIS crew, and as such, it had to be rewritten to allow for a new character to be introduced. And so naturally, this young male hero, filling the gap that was left through the departure of Ian Chesterton, fulfils the role in this story originally taken by Barbara Wright. Which makes it a little awkward. We know that Steven is a little bit more action oriented than what he is given to do in this script, which involves using wits in an attempt to escape, a scene which does come across as quite nice, but it is obvious that it was written with someone else in mind.

So why was this decision made, why didn't Steven go off to have action based fun with the Doctor? Well, there are two reasons. The first is that we need someone on the ship, allowing what happens on the ship to become more relatable, as we know that when we cut back to the spaceship adventures, we know that they are worth viewing as a character that we already know is in immediate danger due to the events that happen on the ship, we want them to survive what happens here and so we remain interested in the story.

But there's also another reason, and it's simple. The writer, William Emms, may not have known about Steven, but they certainly knew about Vicki. And so, they are able to take the relationship of the Doctor and Vicki and have fun with it, bringing out some of the on screen chemistry between the two actors, and allowing to show a wonderful teacher-student relationship. This would have been impossible with Susan, as it is a fundamental part of the series that Susan knows more about the universe than the viewer, and thus to see her having to be taught betrays the whole concept of the character. But with Vicki, we are able to show her learning from the Doctor and his compatriots, a relationship that simply wouldn't transfer to the connection developed with Steven and the Doctor, which is more similar to what was developed with the relationship between the Doctor and Ian. Which, I suppose, brings up the question of what Ian's role in the plot would be, which I can't answer, but I assume that it would be him with the Doctor and Vicki, but as we need someone with on the villainous Drahvin ship, that role falls to Steven, as Vicki already has her place in the plot. For it is better to write one character well, and one character poorly, than to end up with all characters written poorly and a poor story to show for it.

Day 82: Four Hundred Dawns

We begin a new series today with what seems to be just a standard run of the mill episode. It takes place on a world that's going to be destroyed in a couple of days, and the TARDIS crew are being held there against their will by the seemingly evil Maaga, who, whilst to all intents and purposes is acting reasonably friendly, is so obviously evil that you half expect her to have Sean Connery tied up in a chair somewhere off screen for purposes of torture. But the sad thing about this episode is that little video footage exists of it, most of it was wiped from the BBC archive, and what remains is about a 5 minute clip of mostly dialogue and a few pieces of footage from some bloke with a video camera pointed at the TV. But what does exist shows that the director, Derek Martinus, seems to be quite innovative, with a wonderful ability to move camera positions from looking down at something to moving in one manoeuvre to a level position with the other cameras. It's a shame that this one is lost, because the direction does seem as if it would lift this story up.

Day 81: Checkmate

In this episode, we get a discussion about what would happen if history were to change. Over the course of a second, the complete history of the world would change and noone would realise it, they would just go about their day to day lives not knowing that history had ever changed. Which is oddly terrifying, because it means that history could have changed, but we would never have realised, instead just going about or lives as if nothing had ever happened. It's an oddly chilling line that's stated by Vicki in this conversation in response to a question about history books and how they'll cope with being rewritten "That's alright. They're not written yet. They'll just write and print the new version". Which wonderfully manages to destroy the important thing about history books, that they are set in stone and are reminders of the past, and how it happened, and yet they can be rewritten because history has changed, meaning that they haven't been rewritten at all, just been made into an alternate time where things are different. So history has now gone from being the fixed points that we've known to a more fluid entity, and it's all thanks to Dennis Spooner.

Spooner has either written or been story editor for the past 28 episodes, and he has left a sizable mark on the series. Aside from introducing other members of the Doctor's race, and the concept of being able to change history, he has also brought a wonderful and brilliant sense of fun to the series. Characters now joke with eachother, and more comedic plotlines surface to show that sometimes drama doesn't have to be dramatic, it can still be fun, just with some serious moments chucked in there. And, of course, we're not done with him yet. There are still two stories that he will have a hand in, and one of those is one of, if not the, most important episodes of Doctor Who of all time. But we won't just skip to it, because, We've Still Got Work To Do!

Day 80: A Battle of Wits

Doctor Who cliffhangers are important. They act as hooks, to make it more likely for the audience to tune in for the next episode, and can be done through a variety of ways, but it mainly boils down to having one of the characters in mortal peril, or a plot development that changes the course of the entire series. It's the latter case that this week's cliffhanger falls into, as we discover that the Monk not only is a time traveller, but also has a TARDIS, and it can be assumed that he is a fellow member of the Doctor's little mentioned race. As has been said, this changes the course of the entire series, acting a wonderful hook to keep people interested. Because we've already known that the Monk must have been a time traveller, but to see that he is a fellow member of the Doctor's race shows that we are discovering about the Doctor's people for the very first time in the series. We know that the Doctor has left them, but the circumstances through which he left are cloudy, and all we've really heard about his home planet is a vague description given by Susan in The Sensorites. So to see hints of this hidden past, and hints that there may be more to the Doctor, than him just being a wanderer through time and space, it intrigues the audience, and makes us wonder more about the time before the junkyard on Totter's Lane. Perhaps we will meet more members of his race, and perhaps we will discover more about his past. Either way, it's a hell of a cliffhanger, as for the first time, we learn that the Doctor is not alone, changing the course of the series forever, and opening the doors wide for more adventures like this in the future.

Day 79: The Meddling Monk

The eponymous monk in this episode represents one of the most important and pivotal moments in Doctor Who. To explain, the show effectively plays a game with us. It sets us down in a historical setting, with Viking invaders and the like, and as such, the viewer settles down for a historical adventure, with no science fiction stuff happening. And then, we discover a record player in the monastery, and we realise that things are not as they seem. Things have now completely changed, because now we have to accept the fact that there could be other forces besides those that we already know about that may affect history and historical adventures. The Meddling Monk represents that, he is an anomaly in what is known, we know that record players weren't around in 1066, let alone toasters or watches. It's refreshing to come across this mystery, as it brings new life into the format, and shows us that sometimes we can be surprised by what is presented to us, that Doctor Who isn't just a show that has historical adventures or alien adventures, sometimes we can now have both. This represents one of the most important and pivotal moments in Doctor Who, as it shows that we can sometimes have both historical and alien in the same story.

Day 78: The Watcher

We have gained a new addition to the TARDIS crew: Steven, the Doctor's new companion. He's a futuristic space pilot whom we encountered on the planet Mechanus, so let's have a look at how he fares in his first trip in the TARDIS. He brings a nice air of scepticism, choosing not to believe much of what the Doctor and Vicki have to say, but unlike our first sceptic companions, Ian and Barbara, where their disbelief was also that of the audience, here we have the leg-up, and can be entertained by seeing him be perplexed by everything, and immediately search for rational explanations. It helps as well that the Doctor and Vicki are quite nice people now, and so there's less unease about the whole affair, instead just enjoyment, which also could lead to his reactions, being fairly good humoured about everything that's happening, because the Doctor and his companion are helping him along, instead of being a nuisance towards him. It's the first time that we've really seen a character's first trip in the TARDIS since An Unearthly Child, and once again we can see how the show has evolved. Before, it was two school-teachers who were abducted into terror, here it's a space pilot who has unwittingly found himself in adventure. He greets this with a good humour, and is subtly different from what has come before, being far more headstrong than Ian or Barbara and willing to jump into a fight. And so we welcome Steven, on what will surely be the trip of a lifetime.