The Chase

Dear Gary—

“I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them.” No histrionics, no running mascara. Just a simple, heartfelt “I shall miss them.” For me, Gary, this is the single most heartbreaking scene in all of Doctor Who.

I hate writing this, Gary, because this time it’s not goodbye Susan but rather goodbye Ian and Barbara. Never again will the Doctor have companions as valuable. Although dependent on the Doctor, Barbara and Ian were very much independent. Never again could a companion of the Doctor carry the show sans the Doctor. It’s fitting that the two go out in a Dalek episode, and just like Susan’s farewell, Barbara and Ian go out on a high note.

In this their third appearance, the Daleks have identified the Doctor and his companions as their greatest enemy, referring back to the second Dalek episode when their attempted conquest of Earth was thwarted. I’m not even going to try to fit this into the Dalek/Doctor timeline but will rather take a cue from Doctor Who and deflect the questions. The Daleks, after all, have discovered time travel, so who can say when any of these stories take place relative to each other? What with the Doctor traveling and the Daleks traveling, crisscrossing through time. Any attempt at reconciliation would be like the Doctor “rattling off explanations that would have baffled Einstein.”

No matter. The Dalek Supreme has identified the Doctor and company as arch enemies  to be pursued through all eternity.  This is truly the beginning of a beautiful hostility. Now it is personal. It is not the Doctor stumbling upon the Daleks and happening to defeat them. This is a concerted and directed effort by the Daleks to pursue and exterminate. Do not deviate.

And it is a wild ride through time and space that results. It starts with some light hearted TARDIS scenes involving the Time-Space Visualiser, a sort of time TV that was a souvenir from the previous story The Space Museum. Using this device our adventurers peek in on the Gettysburg Address, Queen Elizabeth conversing with Shakespeare, and a 1965 performance by the Beatles. A precursor to the actual time ride on which they will soon find themselves.

Similar to The Keys of Marinus, The Chase consists of several episodes that are mini stories within a story, and each one entertaining. We start with a typical Doctor Who alien planet with assorted beings, a sandstorm, our adventurers separated, collapsing tunnels, threatening Mire Beasts, and the TARDIS guarded by Daleks (all the while Ian is running around in a dapper barbershop quartet shirt). Once out of this jam, the crew is on the run, from the top of the Empire State Building to the deck of a sailing ship (the mysterious Mary Celeste); they stay one step ahead of the Daleks.

Their next landing is my favorite in this story—a haunted house exhibit complete with Dracula, ghosts, bats, and of course Frankenstein’s monster. I love how Doctor Who during William Hartnell’s run was not afraid to show up the Doctor. He is convinced that this house of horrors is a nightmare world existing within the human mind. They are, he claims, lost in an area of human thought and therefore safe for the moment from the Daleks who cannot enter. Of course he is wrong.

I also love the interchanges between Ian and the Doctor during this episode. The Doctor is so sure of himself and Ian is equally unsure. “Where’s your spirit of adventure?” the Doctor enquires. “It died a slow and painful death when those bats came out of the rafters,” Ian replies. The Doctor ventures on, down into the eerie lab, and even after beating a hasty retreat upon encountering the monster he maintains his game face bravado.

And again, Gary, we have a lovely little scene of Ian getting irritated when they return to where they left Vicki and Barbara only to find that the two are nowhere in sight. “The girls have gone,” he says in that resigned, I-should-have-known-it disgust of his.

The chase finally takes them to another alien planet with another robot race to contend with—the Mechonoids. After being so sure of himself about the haunted nightmare world they just left (while all the time being so very wrong), the Doctor now admits to several failings. He takes complete blame for having inadvertently left Vicki behind—“all my own stupid fault”—and later he states, “I don’t mind admitting I feel rather exhausted.” For all of his arrogance and bravado, William Hartnell’s Doctor is willing to admit his faults.

I want to take an aside here, Gary, to mention some things we learn in this story about the TARDIS. First, the Doctor has a TARDIS magnet that he gives to Ian so that he can always find his way back (the Doctor doesn’t need it as he has “the directional instincts of a homing pigeon”). I don’t believe this magnet is ever mentioned again, so I can only assume that Ian either lost it or still had it when he left.  We also learn more of the indestructibility of the TARDIS as it resists the Daleks attempts to destroy it. The TARDIS is also equipped with a Time Path Detector, and most startling, this detector, the Doctor says, has been on the ship ever since he “constructed it.” The Doctor ‘constructed’ the TARDIS? I’m picturing him with a TARDIS kit, reading the instructions, inserting piece B into slot A. No wonder it never works properly. What he does not have yet, apparently, is a sonic screwdriver, for at one point in this story he does ask for his screwdriver, but it is most evidently non-sonic.

We’re winding down The Chase now. The Daleks use a Reproducer to make a robot version of the Doctor, but thankfully our travelers ultimately can tell the real from the fake. We are also introduced to Steven Taylor (who must be a descendent of the Arkansas tourist they ran across on top of the Empire State Building as he is portrayed by the same actor) who is destined to become the Doctor’s new companion.

But it is the final scenes that are the most powerful.  Barbara and Ian want to go home, to “belong somewhere” rather than the “aimless drifting” they have been doing. They have been dependent on the Doctor to this point, hoping someday the unreliable TARDIS with its broken time mechanism will miraculously land them back in their own time and place. But now they have the Dalek time machine at their disposal and the sudden realization that this is their chance.

A sudden realization it is. Too sudden for the Doctor. At least with Susan he had an adventure long time to reconcile himself to the fact that his granddaughter was growing up and needed to move on. He himself made the decision to part with her. The departure of Barbara and Ian, however, is sprung on him, and his angry reaction is born of grief and fear.

“You are absolute idiots,” he declares. He will not aid their suicide. They will end up “a couple of burnt cinders,” he sputters. He cannot bear this parting. The Doctor’s vulnerability comes shining through in these last scenes. Ian and Barbara, the kidnapped schoolteachers, have become his companions, his friends. They are the last link to his granddaughter. They are leaving him.

In the end he must let them go, and we get a nice little montage of the two delighting in their return to London (even though it is 1965—2 years out) as the Doctor and Vicki observe them on the Time-Space Visualiser.

And then we have the simple, “I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them.” All of the emotion is felt in those few simple words, and we grieve with the Doctor.

The loss of true friends is always the hardest, Gary.

The Space Museum

Dear Gary—

“Doctor, we’ve got our clothes on!”

“Well, I should hope so, dear boy, I should hope so.”

What a relief The Space Museum is after our last two stories, Gary. Doctor Who has again found its humor, its warmth, its creativity. And it’s so simple, as the Doctor says. “It’s time and relativity my dear boy.” Time and relativity, “that’s where the answer lies.”

“All this fussation about a change of clothes.” Yes, a fussation such as this puts us right back on course for an entertaining ride with our travelers. Although Ian would be a lot happier if the Doctor would explain it to him, as per Doctor Who usual explanations take a back seat to action.

When the Doctor ultimately does provide a semblance of explanation (“time, like space, although a dimension in itself, also has dimensions of its own”) we’re still left scratching our heads along with Ian. And so too the Doctor: “You know, I don’t mind admitting, I’ve always found it extremely difficult to solve the fourth dimension.” What I really find amusing is that the culprit eventually turns out to be yet another stuck switch in the TARDIS.

But who cares? The mystery of the wardrobe change, the broken glass that mends itself, the sand that leaves no footprints, the planet’s inhabitants who can’t see or hear our adventurers, and finally the group coming face to face with themselves on display in glass cases draws us in, and then the attempts to alter the looming future sweeps us along, and who cares about nailing down the truths behind dimensions within dimensions?

Each of our adventurers has his or her own idea about how to change their display case fate, and each is set upon their own course to that end. And despite the Doctor saying, “I think you’re all going to be delighted. I’m going to come up with the answer,” it is Vicki who actually has the most influence on their destiny by aiding the revolution. In fact, she instigates it. The native Xerons are full of grand plans but never seem to follow through. It takes Vicki to simply say do it.  In this particular story, at least, Vicki is one step up on Susan.

I love how Barbara and Ian bicker in this story, too. Ian especially spends much of the story irritated, and I notice that this seems to be a character trait of his. Barbara calls him on this, and at first he denies it, but he quickly admits that yes, he is irritated. This time it is the Doctor’s disappearance that is annoying him (usually he is irritated when ‘the girls’ wander off).

His separation from the group puts the Doctor in the most danger of ending up as an exhibit in The Space Museum, and in fact the process is started on him. But this is where we learn more of the resilience of his alien body. While the process would be sure to kill most, as the governor states, the Doctor is thawed out with only a touch of rheumatism to show for it.  In fact, he claims that his brain was active the entire time he was under, and not only active, but “working at the speed of a mechanical computer.” He goes on, “I was asking myself questions, and the answers were arriving with remarkable alacrity.”

The Doctor’s mental powers are further illustrated by his ability to use mind control on the truth machine that the governor hooks him up to. The Space Museum clearly sets the Doctor apart as an alien being with extraordinary capacities of both body and mind; and I love, Gary, how the show parcels these tidbits out to us. We never had a true definition of the Doctor from the beginning, but we accepted him, just as we accept each tiny revelation along the way. He truly is a puzzle that we put together as we travel with him on his incredible journeys.

This story also marks the beginning of the Doctor’s passion for space museums, although from my recollection, it is not until modern era Doctor Who that this passion is ever again mentioned.  That is something, Gary, that I will have to look out for as I watch my way through. It is on our present planet of Xeros, though, that the Doctor first encounters a space museum; as he says, “I always thought I’d find one someday.”

Just a few last parting thoughts. The food machine is still with us on the TARDIS in this story, however I notice that the water no longer comes out in plastic pouches as it once did—it now conveniently comes out in a glass. Maybe it has different settings to choose how one wants one’s water delivered.

And finally, we have another name dropping by the Doctor. This time it is James Watt. “The least important things sometimes, my dear boy, lead to the greatest discoveries.” Like steam from a kettle.  This observation is prompted by another exasperated outburst by Ian who can’t understand why the Doctor is bothering about a missing button when they have bigger concerns. Ah that Ian; I just love him.

Those bigger concerns are of course resolved as we knew they would. Our travelers do not end their days as museum displays on a forgotten planet but go on to further adventures. The Doctor does pick up yet another souvenir, a Time-Space Visualiser, which is the source of more entertaining displeasure on the part of Ian and entices us with visions of Daleks to end our story on a tantalizing note.

And so, Gary, I send this out, perhaps to catch those Time-Space Visualiser wavelengths and to someday reach you and echo back.

The Crusades

Dear Gary—

The Crusades finds the Doctor lamenting how they seem to go from one trouble to another. How true. To quote Barbara from a previous story (The Romans), “I’ve got a friend who specializes in trouble.” The trouble with the Doctor’s trouble in The Crusades, however, is that it isn’t very imaginative. Previous stories have found our travelers embroiled in history to much greater effect (namely The Aztecs, The Reign of Terror, and The Romans). Granted, two of the four episodes for The Crusades are missing so it might not be fair to judge.

While the story is interesting and well acted, it is acted by all of the guest stars. Our regulars don’t really have much to do with the plot, in particular the Doctor and Vicki. Barbara gets herself kidnapped again, which serves to keep them there, but her story of escape and recapture and escape again are independent of the main storyline featuring a perpetually petulant King Richard and his angry sister Joanna.

Ian gets knighted and goes off to rescue Barbara and gets involved in his own little adventure, again independent of the story, while the Doctor and Vicki kind of hang out around court and observe the bickering siblings.  “I might get entangled in court intrigue,” the Doctor warns, but at least in the two surviving episodes he doesn’t really. He is nothing more than an idle bystander.

The Doctor does have an extended exchange with the Lord of Lester regarding the merits of diplomacy over violence: “You stupid butcher; can you think of nothing else but killing?” But I don’t know, I can’t help but agree with Lester that marrying Joanna off against her will is not the best route to peace.  “I admire bravery and loyalty, sir,” the Doctor continues. “You have both of these. But unfortunately you haven’t any brain at all. I hate fools.” It’s a fine speech, but again I can’t help feeling that it is misplaced.

This forced marriage plotline—“a last appeal for peace from a weary man”—is interesting enough, and the scenes with the Saracen brothers Saladin and Saphadin are compelling, but for a story called The Crusades, there is no crusading going on. It seems there is much more missing than just two episodes.  It almost feels like the Doctor and company fell into the middle of a play or Masterpiece Theater production and quickly donned costumes to blend in until they could make their way off the stage.

Speaking of those costumes, Gary, the Doctor decides when they first land that if they are going to stay they will need to go into town to find suitable clothes. Why didn’t they at least first check the TARDIS wardrobe? Instead the Doctor turns thief, justifying his act by the fact that they are hot goods to begin with. “Having been stolen once they can be stolen again . . . or perhaps borrowed shall we say?”

Despite this touch of larceny in his heart(s), the Doctor still inspires trust in those he meets. Joanna: “There is something new in you and yet something older than the sky itself. I sense that I can trust you.” Vicki, too, had this instant sympathy for the Doctor, and now, as she tells him, “Your ship’s the only home I’ve got now.”

Thankfully it only takes them four episodes to find their way back to that home. Since my first writing, Gary, I have found the two reconstructed episodes that are missing. They do serve to flesh out the Barbara and Ian storylines, but overall The Crusades still doesn’t do much for me.

Sorry, Gary. I don’t have any more to say on this story.

The Web Planet

Dear Gary—

I’m so sorry, but try as I might I just can’t bring myself to like The Web Planet. And I have tried. I thought that, like with previous Doctor Who stories An Unearthly Child and The Sensorites, I would come to a greater appreciation upon repeated viewings. Not so. I think this story was a victim of its lofty ambitions overreaching its budget and time constraints.

It’s not just the cheesy costumes our bug creatures are forced to wear; the story itself seems unfocused and I hate to say it, but our regular cast doesn’t seem to have their hearts in it. After the ease of The Romans, The Web Planet seems forced.

The first episode, before the bug creatures enter the picture, is OK, but it too seems a bit jumbled. There is an odd bit where the Doctor implies his ring has mysterious powers, and he does something with it to open the jammed TARDIS doors, but it’s never quite explained or explored properly. There is a nice domestic bit between Barbara and Vicki as they discuss the differences in their times and ages, and some funny interactions between the Doctor and Ian as they take their first tentative steps out onto the planet’s surface. (“We very nearly had the remnants of a Colehill school teacher in there instead of this wretched old, ragged old tie.”)

But on the whole, this story feels rather like Vicki just pushing any old button on the TARDIS console and accidentally realigning the fluid link to get the power back.

Even the TARDIS life doesn’t seem consistent. New elements are thrown at us and then never referred to again. Like the Atmospheric Density Jackets (ADJ) that the Doctor pulls out for him and Ian to safely walk about in the alien atmosphere, or the pills he gives Ian for the same purpose. And then there is the Astral Map that just plugs into the wall, but apparently one should never unplug it—“You must never break the time and relative dimension link!” Scary thought, that. What if Barbara accidently trips over it one day? What if the electricity goes out?

And what’s with the Doctor’s ring? Not only can it mysteriously open the TARDIS doors, but it can mesmerize ants.

Ants. “They’re relentless. Indestructible.” And they’re annoying. That grating noise they make every time they are on screen is unbearable. They’re such clumsy villains too—why doesn’t the Doctor simply push them out of the way? At least the Daleks have a lethal gun arm; what do these ants (Zarbi) have to threaten with? Supposedly they have a poisonous sting, but this is never really made clear, and they can so easily be turned or overturned, how much of a threat is this really? Then the centipede-like gun creatures are thrown at us as an explanation for the Zarbi threat. Really? I’m not buying it.

Next we’re introduced to the bee/butterfly creatures (Menoptra). The tragic tearing off of their wings and their enslavement would be rather touching if I could only get past their costumes. The wings are rather nice, and the flying scenes are noteworthy, but we don’t see them often enough. Their odd way of speaking and inability to properly pronounce our adventurer’s names is a nice touch, except that it would be have been more effective if all the aliens on this planet didn’t have odd or annoying speech patterns.

And there are more aliens to meet. We are next introduced to the slug creatures living underground (Optera). This is where the budget had clearly run out, and where the plot was clearly thrown together at the last minute.

Like The Romans, we have three strands of story all leading to the same place, but to what purpose?  Unlike The Romans, our three strands do meet up in the middle. Buy Why?

Now we meet the spider like Animus in the Carcinome at the center of this web of a story. The Doctor and Vicki uselessly stumble in having left their weapon, the Isop-tope, behind. The Doctor falls immediately. Vicki bounces around in this bouncy castle for a bit before falling as well. Barbara manages to find the Isop-tope and enters at the same time that Ian for some reason comes crashing up through the hole he ripped in the bouncy castle floor. And somehow, miraculously, the Animus dies and all is well.

We’re never given a decent explanation as to what this Animus is, where it came from, how it could so easily overcome, what its purpose was, nothing.

“History doesn’t mean anything when you travel through time and space.” Apparently, in The Web Planet, nothing really means anything. It’s rather a scrap heap of a story with rag-tag elements retrieved from the bargain bin.

Sorry Gary.

The Romans

Dear Gary—

What a refreshing change of pace The Romans is. Like our travelers idling about in an ancient Roman villa for a month, this comic little thrill ride gives the viewer a much needed respite from sometimes overlong and grim adventures of Doctor Who. While there are some harsh realities, the story as a whole is played for comedy, and at times turns to outright farce. Lovely. The William Hartnell era is definitely the most varied and unpredictable, and thus the most rewarding in many ways.

In The Romans we are rewarded with a relaxed crew joking familiarly amongst themselves; a spry Doctor scuffling with a mute; a Benny Hill like Nero chasing Barbara through palace corridors; a wily Doctor pulling a twist on The Emperor’s New Clothes with the lyre; a puckish Vicki playing poison, poison, who’s got the poison; a hunky Ian musing on his scheduled arena bout with an MGM lion. And at no point does a Dalek round up slaves for auction; at no point does a spaceship come crashing through the coliseum; at no point does a Cyberman take up the gladiator’s sword; at no point does a Pyrovile burn Rome.

The events unfolding are deadly serious. Slave auctions. Ship wrecks. Galley slaves. Gladiators.  Plottings. Poisonings.  Assassination attempts. Arson.  And yet we laugh at every twist and turn.

“The adventures come without our looking for them,” Barbara states. How right she is. The Doctor and company have been ‘resting’ (“There’s a great deal of difference between resting and being sort of bone idle”) for nearly a month in the villa when our story begins. A bored Doctor and Vicki head off for Rome while Barbara and Ian remain for a wonderfully acted scene of playful fun before slave traders break in to steal them away, with the aid of Barbara who, in her best sitcom form, accidently hits Ian over the head with a jug.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is mistaken for a lyre player on his way to Nero’s court and he and Vicki are off to see the Emperor. The Doctor is clearly delighting in this new adventure, and William Hartnell is clearly delighting in this comedy role.  The tone is set from the start when the Doctor plays a homophonic game with lyre/liar. The Doctor/William Hartnell deftly dances his way through court intrigue with words and wit.

But it’s not just verbal sparring for the Doctor. At one point he is jumped from behind and wrestles with his attacker. When Vicki comes in and his opponent falls out the window, a disappointed Doctor exclaims, “Young lady, why did you have to come in and interrupt just as I got him all softened up and ready for the old one two?” He goes on, “I’m so constantly outwitting the opposition, I tend to forget the delights and satisfaction of the arts . . . the gentle arts . . . of fisticuffs.” So invigorated by his bout, the Doctor continues to brag on his abilities, claiming to have taught the Mountain Mauler of Montana.

An aside, here, Gary, on the lovable and endearing befuddlement of William Hartnell. He was near the end of his life when playing Doctor Who and dealing with both age and illness.  There were many times when he flubbed lines or lost his way, but he always managed to make this work for the character. That was just the Doctor being the Doctor. None of us in real life have scripted lines. We all lose our way at times. We all misspeak and backtrack and restate.  The Doctor, William Hartnell’s Doctor, is so very human in this way and so very sympathetic. Even in the midst of bragging he can reveal a weakness.

Vicki has her own contribution to the comedy, although hers is a tad more irresponsible. “I think I poisoned Nero,” she states calmly and matter-of-factly.  The Doctor takes her to task: “We’re here as observers. We must not interfere with the course of progress or try to accelerate man’s achievements or progress.”  The resulting death of the poor hapless servant is horrific; and yet we laugh.

Despite the comedy, the story does not get lost. We still care about Ian helplessly chained in the galley and plotting his escape. We follow his course to Rome and the arena. We worry that he will have to kill his new friend in order to save himself. We cheer him on as he sneaks into the palace in search of Barbara.  And we don’t forget about Barbara either, sold as a handmaiden to Poppaea and relentlessly pursued by Nero. Nor do we lose sight of the peril the Doctor and Vicki are in, imposters caught up in a tangled web of conspiracies.

And it is a tangled web that we are following, these separate threads of a story, all striving to one point but somehow never quite meeting. It’s like Barbara scampering down corridors, running in one door and out another, the Doctor popping in just as she goes out, Vicki walking by just as Barbara turns the corner.  All roads lead to Rome, but the travelers on those roads don’t always meet up in the middle.

But we know it will all come right in the end and they will all meet up again in The TARDIS.

The Doctor, after having admonished Vicki for her meddling in the historical timeline, admits to his own minor meddling in having given Hans Christian Anderson the idea for The Emperor’s New Clothes, and now, on his way back to the TARDIS while Rome burns behind him, is chuckling to himself at the thought that perhaps the great fire of Rome was actually his fault. But they must be on their way; no time to stop and ponder on this, Vicki’s first sight of history.

And so our four are reunited at the villa, unaware of the other’s adventures, and after another jocular bit of shared camaraderie they return to the TARDIS (which we learn is capable of taking off from an angle) to resume their journey in the stars.

I wonder, Gary, how you responded to the tone of this story. It certainly has its share of critics. But I think you would have enjoyed the impish quality. All I can do is wonder and send this out and hopelessly wait.

The Rescue

Dear Gary—

And so it is goodbye to Susan and welcome to Vicki in this, The Rescue. Another young adult actress is hired to play a presumably teen role. The character of Vicki, however, does succeed in playing younger than the character of Susan. Susan and the Doctor had an established relationship at the beginning of the series. She was a veteran of the TARDIS. She was more knowledgeable than her teachers. She had travelled the universe over. Vicki, on the other hand, is an orphan stranded on an alien planet, frightened and mostly alone. She has a naïve vulnerability that Susan never possessed.

This little two part story is quite moving as the Doctor, who has just left behind his granddaughter, and the orphaned and betrayed Vicki find refuge in each other; a mutual rescue.  The story starts with the Doctor uncharacteristically sleeping through the TARDIS landing. (“Excuse me—‘materialized’ I think is a better word.”) However, despite this seeming lapse, the Doctor is in complete charge throughout The Rescue.

Barbara and Ian are concerned about the Doctor; he seems quite frail and aging now that his granddaughter has gone. With a sudden ache the Doctor realizes Susan is no longer there when he automatically turns to her to open the TARDIS doors. He falters briefly but recovers quickly (with the gentle aid of Barbara) and carries on, showing Barbara how to open the doors (it’s the number 4 switch).

Barbara and Ian have a worried conference, believing that the Doctor has retired back to the TARDIS leaving them to explore. They begin to doubt the Doctor's abilities, but they needn't worry. In fact the Doctor is inside making a careful study of the rocks from the cave floor and taking notes. He has been on this planet (Dido) before, we learn. 

Then, as the cave wall collapses leaving Barbara stranded on one side and Ian knocked down on the other, the Doctor emerges, armed with his knowledge, and takes over. This is not a Doctor of retirement but a Doctor of action. He makes a hurried going over of Ian, tut tutting him to get up. Ian laughingly comments how that is the most thorough examination he has ever had, and the Doctor replies, “Pity I didn’t get that degree, isn’t it?” (Yet another reference to the fact that he is not in reality a medical doctor.)

The Doctor then very much takes Ian in hand as they make their way through the cave to find an exit. Each step along the way we can see the Doctor taking mental notes. He discovers a door that surely leads to someplace interesting, but there is no time at the present to explore. They must locate Barbara. And in locating Barbara they also find the young waif Vicki.

Vicki is in awe of the Doctor from the first.  “As soon as he walked in,” she later confides to Ian and Barbara, “I . . . I felt that you could trust him.” The Doctor, in his turn, lights up around Vicki. His tender, grandfatherly side was already familiar with Susan, but here we see the truly kind and benevolent nature of the Doctor shining through. He calmly soothes her fears; he gently chides her out of her pique with Barbara; he patiently persuades her to see his point of view.

Next the Doctor turns his attention to the apparently lame Bennett, the only other survivor of the crashed ship that is home to Vicki. He doesn’t listen to the canned “You can’t come in” for one second. He doesn’t even let the jammed door dissuade him, but rather crashes his way in. Quickly he takes in all the evidence of the room and pieces together the entire history of Vicki and Bennett and Koquillian and what has truly happened on Dido. He doesn’t call for Ian and Barbara or even inform them of his plans. He ventures off to confront the enemy on his own.

It is a marvelous moment when we see the Doctor standing in full command while Bennett/Koquillian sneaks in behind him. William Hartnell is at his expressive best in this story and most especially at this moment; we know just from his posture and air that he is fully aware of everything and is brimming with the cool and calm confidence that is so characteristic of him. For me, at least, Gary, this is the defining moment for William Hartnell’s Doctor. The Doctor in all his glory, fully revealed, in total possession of himself. William Hartnell truly is The Doctor at this moment.

The Doctor doesn’t back down from the struggle that follows, either. He comes at Bennett with full force; we never notice the frailty of his aging body. He doesn’t need Ian to fight his battles, never mind that he is eventually knocked out. Harking back to The Planet of Giants, he’s not going to give up before trying. With all of the unspoken knowledge stored up in his head, I can even imagine that he knew the silent surviving Didoians were there, and perhaps the Doctor even engineered his own defeat so as to allow those wronged hosts their revenge. But that last is really stretching a point.

Yes, the Doctor misses his granddaughter. Yes, he has moments of sudden grief. Yes, he takes the time to rest and even sleep when needed. But the Doctor is far from incapacitated and The Rescue skillfully demonstrates the point. And the addition of Vicki has reinvigorated him.

“If you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it,” the Doctor says as he invites Vicki to join him in the TARDIS. “Apart from all that . . . well, you . . . you’ll be my friend.” What a wonderfully warm and poignant welcome.

A new companion—the first new companion. Welcomed into a world of adventures. A destiny in the stars. And they travel off into that same time swirl as I send this out . . .

(PCGHEKTQPUFQ)

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Dear Gary—

And so it is goodbye to Susan. I wish that I knew your opinion of Susan, Gary. I realize I have maligned her throughout, but it’s not her fault and it certainly is not Carole Ann Ford’s fault. It is simply the way her character was developed, or not developed. I understand why the creators wanted a young girl—someone the children could relate to. This is surely nobler than later minds that needed a hot young woman who the fathers could relate to. However they made a few mistakes. One was casting an older actress to play an obviously younger character. The other was underestimating children. Kids wouldn’t connect merely based on the age of a character. From all reports children adored William Hartnell’s Doctor despite his age. Substance is just as important. A young girl for the children is a good idea if the young girl has some dimension.  (I often wish the child Amelia had been retained as a companion for Matt Smith’s Doctor.)

Of course the character of Susan is really ageless.  Being a Time Lord (as we can only assume from future knowledge of Doctor Who) she could be any age and in any regeneration. She is a young teen by Earth standards, and since that is where we first meet her and that is what Barbara and Ian know her as, this is how we perceive her. And in this our story, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, she has a proper send off. Yes, she has her share of twisted ankles and screaming at unexpected threats, but she also has a romance. A sweet and delicate romance that plays out without ever having to explicitly ram it down our throats. For all the Dalek threat and rebel activity thrashing about, there are so many understated layers of emotion artfully filling out this gripping drama.

Our little Susan is growing up. She is also longing for a time and place of her own. She grows weary of this constant travel.  David offers her “a place, a time . . .identity.” But, Susan counters, “Grandfather’s old now ; he needs me.”  Grandfather is not as old or as needy as she thinks. It is touching to watch William Hartnell’s Doctor gradually come to realize that he must part with Susan for her own good. We can witness this realization, unspoken but present through his looks and gestures as they give new meaning to his words. And then, he ‘double locks’ the TARDIS doors against her and sends her off to have roots of her own, to “live normally like any woman should do.” He advises her to ‘”go forward in all your beliefs” and to prove to him that he is not mistaken in his. “One day I shall come back,” he promises. But he never does.

 Parenthetically, Gary, I always wondered in the modern era of Doctor Who, about the fate of Susan. The Doctor today emphasizes how he is the Last Of The Time Lords, but what of Susan? And any young Susans she might have had? For that matter, what of Romana off in E Space? I suppose we can only assume that in this final fatal last Time War all Time Lords scattered throughout time and space and dimensions were called back and did not survive. Or maybe someday the Doctor will remember that he has a granddaughter back in 2164 London and will return for a visit, or find a way back to E Space and make little Doctors with Romana.

But to return to our story. Not only is Susan’s character finally allowed to develop and grow, but the story itself is compelling and the atmosphere is marvelously gritty and eerily, fantastically real. Our year is 2164 and our place Earth. (Another marker to note, Gary, in our Doctor Who timeline.) The opening shots of this familiar yet strange place are fantastic, from the decaying bridge, to the overgrown shore, to the alarming signboard warning against body dumping, to the chilling sight of a man not a man grimly and vacantly walking into the filthy river and to his death. In just a few powerful seconds our stage is brilliantly set.

I find Ian particularly interesting in the early going of this story. “Why? Why do they do it,” he exclaims disgustedly upon returning to find the girls have gone. I don’t know why, but I find this irritation of his endearing. Just a few words, gestures, and inflections reveal so much to us about Ian and the group as a whole, their relationships and history. Another fascinating aspect to Ian early on is his total disinterest in the fate of his world. The Doctor, ever curious, wonders what has happened to this London of 2164, but no, Ian states, “I don’t want to know.” This intrigues me, these flashes of irritation and disinterest on the part of Ian to begin our story. He gets over them, and goes on to play an integral part in saving the Earth from the Daleks, but how wonderful that his character is given this chance to explore the inner workings of his mind as he has been whisked out of his own time and space, faced countless dangers, traveled throughout history, explored alien planets, and now he is back on his own planet in his home city but still out of place.

There are so many things to discuss about this story, Gary; it’s hard to know where to go next. I suppose an obvious point of discussion is the Daleks.  This is our second meeting with this arch enemy, and we learn that it is taking place a million years prior to our first encounter, at least by the Doctor’s reckoning. I’m not sure how this fits in with the Dalek timeline. We will come to learn that the Daleks were created by Davros on Skaro back during the war with the Thals, which would mean that in 2164 the Daleks had not yet been created. However with time travel involved, we can only assume that the future Daleks have traveled back in time, just as the Doctor has. So are these Daleks from the time before or after their first meeting with the Doctor? Is the first Dalek adventure in these Daleks’ history or future? The Daleks in our first story had been wiped out, at least on Skaro. Are these Daleks who are now invading Earth Daleks who survived that extermination, or are they Daleks who had gone out to explore other worlds prior to that first meeting with the Doctor? Perhaps it is best not to think too much about such time traveling matters. They all get mixed up in that time swirl of the Doctor and who knows where they get spit out.

When last we saw them, the Daleks were confined to their metal city on Skaro. Here they are digging through mines, traversing the streets of London, even emerging through the waters of the Thames. By way of explanation we are told that the disc they now sport on their backs has allowed them to adapt to various terrains. Of course this begs the question, if the Daleks of one million years prior had such discs, why didn’t the Daleks from our first story have them? But again, too much thinking . . . the Doctor’s time swirl . . . . In this story, too, we are first introduced to the term ‘Dalekanium’—the metal used in the Dalek’s outer casing. And we first get to meet a ‘different’ Dalek, in this case the black Dalek. One final thought regarding the Daleks, Gary. It’s more of a question, really. Why? Why do they do it? (To quote Ian.) Why do they dig down to the Earth’s core in order to replace it with a power system to pilot it through the universe? Why?

There are so many things I could discuss about this story, Gary. How I wish you were here. But I guess I’ll wind things up with a few brief observances. The robomen, for instance. Did you happen to notice how similar in concept and design they are to Cybermen? And the Doctor, as always, has a few gems, despite sitting out one episode of the story. “You’re a genious,” he is told. “Yes,” he responds, “and there are very few of us left.” Someone else calls him Doc. “Thank you,” he says, “but don’t call me Doc. I prefer Doctor.” A second reference to himself as the Doctor, solidifying it in our Who annals.

But it is the touching send off of Susan that will always define this story. The Doctor’s granddaughter. The reason we, along with Ian and Barbara, are on this magnificent ride. The beginning. The end. The end of the beginning. It started in a junk yard. It ends along the decaying shores of the Thames. Good bye, Susan. “Go forward in all your beliefs.”

Go forward . . . .

Planet of Giants

Dear Gary—

Planet of Giants—another story that could not be done by any other than William Hartnell’s Doctor.  The Doctor, in attempting to sidestep the TARDIS from the 18^th Century back into the 20^th, lands our heroes in yet another predicament. The TARDIS doors open during materialization (which we learn is the most dangerous moment of the flight), and the resulting space pressure causes them to shrink, TARDIS and all. Now, while these initial moments are steeped in Doctor Who science fiction, the succeeding adventure contains no gimmicks, no gadgets, no aliens. It is pure adventure with our travelers using nothing but their wits to maneuver their way through this very human (if giant) world of danger they have stumbled into.

It is also interesting, Gary, that the human story of intrigue and murder carries on oblivious to the presence of the Doctor and his diminutive companions. It would have been so easy (and lazy) of the writers to fall back on the typical storyline of giant humans capture miniaturized heroes for nefarious purposes. But no, the nefarious purposes of the humans in this story are outside of the Doctor’s sphere. That is what makes this story so compelling. We are interested (at least I am interested) in the independent plots and schemes going on above the Doctor’s head just as much as we are in the Doctor’s plight.

I’m going to stretch a point here, Gary, and say that this journey of the Doctor’s to be restored to full height is a journey of personal growth as well. William Hartnell is magnificent as always as he sputters about, fussing and fuming that his old reliable TARDIS has let him down again, despite his vehement protests to the contrary. And then what a touching little moment when he calms down and apologizes to Barbara, “I always forget the niceties under pressure.” What a sweet moment of self-recognition. I may be wrong, but I think this is the first sincere apology the Doctor offers with no coercion or reluctance or compelling circumstance. A simple ‘I’m sorry’ for the mere act of being himself, his gruff, rude self.

As usual, the first impulse the Doctor has is one of curiosity. He encounters huge dead earthworms and a bewildering maze that seems to have been built with some purpose in mind, and he is determined to discover the secrets behind these mysteries. When he does realize the truth, that he and his companions have shrunk, his next motivation is his standard one of self-preservation. He must return to the TARDIS and be restored to full size. He continues to be intrigued by the strange world around him; “What an awe inspiring sight,” he says of a dead bee that has fallen at their feet.  But, he decides, they must leave this little mystery and get back to the ship.

Of course, there is a stumbling block to their return to the TARDIS. Ian has been separated from the group, and first they must find him before they can escape. The Doctor has come a long way from the times when he was willing to leave Ian and Barbara in danger, or when he would occasionally threaten to put them off his ship. He has in several episodes shown concern for these hijacked hitchhikers and risked his own life in order to come to their rescue, so this is not a first. But it does solidify this gradual transformation of his. Barbara and Ian are important to him. Ian is lost and he must be found. They do find him but again are separated. Barbara and Ian rather stupidly hide in the same briefcase that had carried Ian away initially, and they find themselves indoors, leaving the Doctor and Susan behind.

I can’t help but digress here, Gary, for something that I know you would appreciate. I find it irritating that the cover art on the VHS cassette depicts a menacing cat. I understand why they did this, but the cat in the story does not present a very real danger. The cat in fact quickly loses interest in our tiny heroes and runs off. The cat does not take on the rather obvious and cliché villainy that our cover art would have us believe. The cat only serves as a minor diversion to keep our adventurers from returning too soon to the TARDIS and allowing for the separation of Ian and Barbara from the group.

But back to our story. Ian and Barbara are trapped inside and the Doctor and Susan are faced with the puzzle of how to get themselves inside. They find a drain pipe that they can crawl up, and the frailty of William Hartnell’s Doctor, who is after all an old man, becomes a significant obstacle. I love how they never shy away from the Doctor’s physical limitations in these William Hartnell stories. It is something that is lost with future Doctors.  However, the Doctor does not let this stop him. “I’m not going to give up before I try,” he tells a worried Susan.  They must think of the other two, he tells her. After all, there are “only the two of us to help them.” Wow, a resounding turnaround from our Doctor of the junk yard.

Once the four are reunited, a subtle change takes place. After determining the facts of the larger world around them, that a man has been murdered and that an insecticide is being manufactured that kills indiscriminately and will eventually harm human life, the Doctor decides that something must be done to expose and stop the scheming humans who are so far removed from his present realm. Initially, the Doctor had stated that while normally he would not hesitate to help there wasn’t much he could do given his diminished size. In itself this is a startling statement.  From what I have seen of the Doctor up to this point, he would not normally offer help with no hesitation. In each prior story he has ended up helping only to further his own ends. The closest he came to a more altruistic view was toward the end of The Sensorites. This is the first hint that the Doctor would actually volunteer to right a wrong that he stumbles upon.  Now that the four are together again and they are faced with a treacherous journey back to the TARDIS, the Doctor decides that first something must be done to prevent the insecticide from being made.

We know, of course, that Barbara has in the mean time become infected and will die if not returned to normal size; and we expect of Barbara that she will keep this knowledge to herself rather than worry and distract the others. However, when the others do come to realize this they still remain on task. “We must find a way to stop it.” They know they risk losing one of their own, yet they continue with their tiny efforts. Ian and Susan are naturally hesitant, but Barbara’s selflessness and the Doctor’s determination carry them on for the greater good. As the Doctor had mused earlier in the story, “The destruction of the life force is frightful,” and they must do everything in their diminished capacity to stop it. Escape to the TARDIS and the recovery of their friend become secondary.

And of course they do succeed, as we know they will, with a little help from our nosy phone operator; and they make their way back to safety and to normal size; but they are altered, at least the Doctor is altered, in outlook. The larger world now has more meaning than the insular world of the TARDIS.

The larger world . . . a journey to the stars . . . swirling echoes of time and space . . . . As ever, Gary . . . .