Review of The Rescue (#11)
DVD Release Date: 07 Jul 09
Original Air Date: 02 – 09 Jan 1965
Doctors/Companions: One, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki
Stars: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien
Preceding Story: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara)
Succeeding Story: The Romans (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
On this fourth Wednesday of December, when another regular blog post is due, we find ourselves in that liminal space between the end of Series 11 and the airing of the New Year’s special, looking for a bit of Who-ey goodness to tide us over. With such awkward placement on the calendar, what better choice for a post than another entry in our Bad Reputations series?
Percentage-wise, it was time to return to the First Doctor, but since there aren’t that many of his stories left that are both (a) still on my un-reviewed list and (b) extant, the selection is pretty minimal. That’s why we ended up with this little two-episode bonbon. While it’s the lowest-rated of my remaining First Doctor options on io9’s Best-to-Worst list, it’s only three quarters of the way to the bottom (#194 of 254).
So what makes this one bad-but-not-super-bad? I’ve got one word for you: Koquillion.
Remembering that this story is barely into the show’s second season, it’s hard to be super critical. After all, the previous non-human/historical baddies to this point have all been pretty weird-looking: Daleks (twice), the Voord, Sensorites, and giant insects. Something about Koquillion’s ridiculous gait (his feet are the size of clown shoes) and visage—an unholy mashup of insect and plant features—take the creature’s appearance over the top.
Granted, there are some interesting twists on the character’s origins by the end that I admittedly didn’t see coming my first time through (though I’ve read that others find it “predictable”). But however the original audience might have received Koquillion, a modern viewer is certain to raise an eyebrow at the character design. It’s a bit difficult to look past.
The strength of the episode lies in its introduction of a new Companion—something that hadn’t been done since the show itself premiered. Coming hard on the heels of the departure of Susan in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, it had to provide a compelling reason for this new young friend Vicki to join the Doctor, Ian, and Barbara on the TARDIS.
By making the choice for Vicki to stay on the planet Dido suitably distasteful, writer David Whitaker (whose Who credits include Power of the Daleks and Enemy of the World, among others) makes the audience accept without question the inevitability of her inclusion in the team. And while everyone gets along relatively well, there is—quite realistically, I thought—also some serious tension between characters. (Yes, this snag gets resolved too quickly and smoothly for my taste, but there wasn’t time to play it out.)
Perhaps most interestingly, we see the First Doctor figure things out because he’s been to Dido before. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this is the first time this has happened (aside from Earth, whose history we are well aware he knows). As such, it gives him a more modern feel than we sometimes got from these early days.
Overall, then, it’s a successful little story, transitioning from the original TARDIS crew to the first new configuration and providing a simple-yet-interesting backdrop in front of which to do so. In other words, it’s not actually bad—it’s just… unremarkable. And thus, damned with faint praise, it ends up with a Bad Reputation—one it doesn’t really deserve.