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Resistance Is Vital

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Review of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (#10)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 21 Nov – 26 Dec 1964
Doctors/Companions: One, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
Stars: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill
Preceding Story: Planet of Giants (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara)
Succeeding Story: The Rescue (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)

For once, during my rewatch for an entry in the Everything Else series, I found that the things I could spontaneously recall beforehand were both accurate and fairly important details. Although that recall was on the slow side, once I got my head in the right story space, a picture formed pretty easily: a “No Dumping” sign, cyber-ized humans, a bomb in the center of the earth [okay, that part was slightly mixed up], and Susan gets ditched.

The story opens with the TARDIS crew landing—finally!—in London. Ian and Barbara aren’t fussed about being off by a couple of years either way from their departure, but it soon becomes apparent that they’re actually 200 years in their future, in the year 2164. Worse, the world is in a post-apocalyptic state where the Daleks are the self-proclaimed “masters of Earth.”

Given that the adventure spans six episodes, it is unsurprising that our TARDIS crew of four soon gets split into two, then three, and even four groups. Each of our heroes make their own acquaintances and allies among the human resistance as they are chased, and sometimes captured, by the Daleks and their enslaved human “Robomen.”

After performing too well on an intelligence test (which serves as a reminder to the modern viewer that these episodes were first broadcast only a year into the show’s run, while it was still very much meant to be teaching history and/or science to a young audience), the Doctor is himself selected to be robotized. Luckily, our story arcs converge here and Barbara and Susan help bring the chaos that allows for a rescue.

One of the things that keeps this particular six-parter from dragging too much is the aforementioned splits and convergences of subsets of the TARDIS crew. More often than not, Ian gets to hare off by himself and do something heroic (par for the course) while the others each do their own thing. But we get more instances than usual of other party members having interesting experiences, too.

For one thing, Barbara gets to be even more badass than usual, driving some sort of tanker truck (conveniently stolen from a vehicle museum, in perfect working order) straight through a rank of Daleks. Her experiences with the Doctor serve her well in other sections of the story, too, allowing her to contribute important ideas and skills to a group or to devise her own plan of resistance to escape from Daleks and try to stop their plan.

Perhaps more obviously, though, Susan finally gets a little more screen time. Although her romance is not very well developed, writer Terry Nation at least gives it a jolly old try. He’s clearly not a romance writer, but he even takes it so far as to give Susan and David an on-screen kiss, which is vastly superior to the romantic endings some Companions have had (:cough: Leela :cough:).

And then we reach the iconic First Doctor speech. “One day, I shall come back,” he tells Susan, who he has locked out of the TARDIS to force her to stay on a ruined Earth with her new beau. “Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”

I’ve always been kind of angry with the Doctor for treating Susan that way. But this time, somehow, it wasn’t as hard to swallow, and I’m not sure why that is the case. Perhaps this time I bought into Susan’s attachment to David more than I had before. Perhaps it’s just that I was expecting it, mulling the idea over in the back of my mind all along. Or perhaps I’ve just had that much more time to think about familial separation from both generational directions.

Whatever the case, I’ve come out the other side of this rewatch with an overall more positive impression of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. While there are still a few cringe-worthy “product of its time” moments, it’s a relatively solid story that speaks to both the continuing will to resist oppression and the mental and emotional exhaustion that come with that. It’s a good reminder that even though those in power might, like the Daleks, insist that “resistance is useless,” it is instead one of the most important—and human—experiences we can ever have.

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The Power of Fan Service

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Review of The Power of the Doctor
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

There was nothing subtle about The Power of the Doctor. It was pure fan service, from start to finish. Some of it we knew about beforehand, and some of it came as a surprise—again and again—but it was blatantly obvious that showrunner Chris Chibnall wanted to check off every single item on his bucket list on the way out.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2022 BBC

For the most part, I was happy to go along for the ride. Only in the final thirty seconds or so did I balk. (Yes, we’ll talk about that more, but under the cut.) It made me want to use my full-on Mom Voice: I’m not upset with you; just disappointed.

But let’s back up for a while, and leave that moment for later. First, let’s talk about the bonkers hour-and-a-half of Jodie Whittaker’s last episode in the lead role. This was Chris Chibnall’s ultimate fanfic moment; he threw in every plot thread and character he could think of (and book), and wrote a huge fix-it fic.

For those who may not be familiar with fanfic (I am only peripherally so, as I don’t read fic myself, though my kids do), the biggest purpose of the genre—as far as I can tell—is to tell the stories with beloved characters that the fan writer really wanted to see/read in the original media property, but was never given. (In other words, all of modern Who is basically fanfic of Classic Who, show-run by Classic fans.) And one sub-genre of fanfic is the “fix-it fic,” in which the fan writer fixes something that they felt was inherently wrong with the original.

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In Pursuit of a Throughline

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Review of The Chase (#16)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 22 May – 26 Jun 1965
Doctors/Companions: One, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki
Stars: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien
Preceding Story: The Space Museum (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
Succeeding Story: The Time Meddler (One, Vicki, Steven)

Who really ever talks about The Chase? It’s one of those early-era stories that neither gets fans excited nor makes them cringe, so there is once again no surprise at finding it here in the ranks of Everything Else. Sure, it’s technically a Dalek story, but it barely feels like one to me. But perhaps I’ve simply missed its hidden charms over the years.

Truth be told, it’s been long enough since I last watched this one that I had barely any recollections of it at all. Before I sat down to view the six-episode adventure this time, all I could remember was broad strokes: Daleks pursuing the TARDIS, Peter Purves as not-Steven at the top of some tower in NYC (that would be the Empire State Building; thanks, brain), the (proper) introduction of Steven, the departure of Ian & Barbara, and—last but not least—the iconic photo of producer Verity Lambert at least pretending to try to light her cigarette with a Mechonoid’s flame-thrower arm.

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Brain-twisting Bonbon

Review of The Edge of Destruction (#3)

DVD Release Date: 24 Mar 09
Original Air Date: 08 – 15 Feb 1964
Doctors/Companions: One, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
Stars: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill
Preceding Story: The Daleks (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara)
Succeeding Story: Marco Polo (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara)

The broadcast schedule for the current, new series has disrupted the timing for my usual monthly DVD reviews, but I decided not to let it replace my November edition of the Highs and Lows series entirely. That’s why there’s this bonus Saturday post!

Fortunately for me, the adventure that was already slated for this month is one of the shortest in Classic Who, so rewatching it was not a huge investment in time. Unfortunately, it was a decent investment in brainpower (of which I am in sadly short supply lately).

“The Edge of Destruction” (EoD) comes very very early in the history of the show, preceded only by the pilot adventure (“An Unearthly Child,” which includes the crew’s subsequent trip to “The Cave of Skulls”) and the Doctor’s first-ever encounter with the Daleks (in the eponymously titled story). Viewing it through a lens nearly sixty years of media evolution onwards, it feel surprisingly modern. Sure, it has all the trappings of ’60s Who, feeling more like a stage play than what we would recognize as television today, but it has an almost psycho-drama bent, and keeps the viewer on the back foot almost the whole way through.

Set entirely inside the TARDIS (we’ll ignore the obvious budgetary reasons for that, and pretend it’s just great storytelling), EoD begins with the Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara all getting thrown to the floor and knocked unconscious. As they slowly come to their senses, disoriented and barely recognizing each other, they quickly realize something is amiss. Just what that is—and who is to blame—is much less clear.

The rapid changes in circumstances and in what each person on the TARDIS thinks they know, about both the situation and each other, keeps the viewer almost as confused as the characters. And for someone who is used to a Doctor who cares deeply about their Companions and who is always the cleverest person in the room, the way this early incarnation handles the situation can be unexpected to the point of being off-putting.

But when one remembers that none of these people quite trust each other yet—in fact, the Doctor basically kidnapped Ian and Barbara to prevent them from exposing his secrets—it makes more sense. The Doctor was still getting used to humans (though at this point we were years away from the Doctor admitting he wasn’t one), the humans had just come off of a life-threatening situation they’d gotten into because the Doctor had deceived them for his own selfish ends, and the show as a whole was still finding its bearings.

I think EoD deserves its reputation as one of the “Highs”—it’s #30 on the trusty io9 list—because it really does provide an interestingly convoluted plot line. It may be both short and somewhat pedantic, as these early stories were wont to be (with some questionable science, by current standards), but it’s a snappy and dramatic little story that doesn’t drag on. This little bonbon twists your brain in all the best ways. Give it a go!

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Hidden in Plain Sight

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Review of The Time Meddler (#17)

DVD Release Date: 05 Aug 08
Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jul 1965
Doctors/Companions: One, Vicki Pallister, Steven Tayler
Stars: William Hartnell, Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves
Preceding Story: The Chase (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Steven)
Succeeding Story: Galaxy 4 (One, Vicki, Steven)

When I looked at my calendar to see which story was slated as the last entry in my 2020 series of Hidden Gems, I was at first taken aback. “How could a gem like The Time Meddler be considered hidden?” I wondered. But my surprise turned quickly to satisfaction; I got to rewatch one of my favorite Hartnell stories.

You see, I’ve always had a particular soft spot for The Time Meddler. When I first started watching Classic Who, I went in chronological order as I could. Since only maybe half of the DVD range had been released at the time, that made The Time Meddler the seventh Classic story I had seen.

Aside from the boxset The Beginning (which included An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, and The Edge of Destruction), my other experiences with Hartnell’s Doctor were The Aztecs, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and The Web Planet. The version of the Doctor who landed in Northumbria in 1066 was thus the least crotchety I’d yet seen (and also the first without Ian and Barbara). He was practically bubbly by comparison, and the story quickly caught my attention.

While it’s clear that the show was still leaning heavily into its remit to teach children about science and history, the idea that someone would actively try to subvert the known timeline was still fresh. Even more significant, though, is the fact that this time meddler—this Monk—is one of the Doctor’s own people. How amazing the reveal at the end of the third episode must have been at the time!

The plot revolves around the Doctor and his Companions (Vicki, initially alone with the Doctor after Ian and Barbara’s departure, and Steven, the surprise stowaway still with them after the end of the previous adventure) stumbling upon a plot by the unscrupulous Monk to change Earth’s (specifically Europe’s) entire history by ensuring that King Harold wins the Battle of Hastings instead of William the Conqueror. Of course, first Steven has to be convinced of the reality of their whereabouts (whenabouts?), but once he buys into his new worldview, he is an asset to the team.

I’m particularly fond of how the story plays out. The various reveals feel natural and just surprising enough (at least one’s first time through) to be delightful. The stakes don’t feel super high as they often do in modern Who, even though Vicki and Steven have a discussion about how if the Monk succeeds, it would change human history as they know it. (I suppose that might have felt like pretty high stakes 55 years ago, when it hadn’t yet become a trope.)

Saying more than I have already would likely spoil any further surprises that might remain for someone who had not yet seen it, so I will just say that Vicki is a delight, Steven is a breath of fresh air, and the Monk is a fabulous foil who should totally come back in the modern show. If you have not yet had the pleasure of watching this Hidden Gem (likely “hidden” mostly because some fans ignore Hartnell; it came in at 79 of 254 on the io9 list), I highly recommend it as slow, mellow approach to a timey-wimey problem—just the sort of thing we could use in the chaos of 2020.

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Where It All Began

Review of The Daleks (#2)

DVD Release Date: 28 Mar 06
Original Air Date: 21 Dec 1963 – 01 Feb 1964
Doctors/Companions: One, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
Stars: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill
Preceding Story: An Unearthly Child (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara)
Succeeding Story: The Edge of Destruction (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara)

As fashions within fandom ebb and flow, and “received fan wisdom” dictates ever-changing opinions about various eras, it’s been my experience that many fans generally dismiss the First Doctor, particularly if they came to the show via the modern era. Yet very few of his adventures regularly rank in the bottom quartile of “best-of lists” like the io9 one I used as reference for my Bad Reputation series. So why don’t more fans appreciate what Hartnell’s Doctor has to offer?

I’m sure a lot of it is plain and simple disdain for the production values associated with television that’s nearly sixty years out of date. Since the first TV I remember in my childhood home was a black-and-white set, the style of the Hartnell era bothers me less than I suppose it does younger fans. But some of the storytelling, slow though it was by modern standards, was really interesting. More even than that, though, this month’s Hidden Gem is immensely important to the show as a whole, as it introduces one of the most iconic science fiction creatures of all time, the Daleks.

Fair warning, in case you want to watch this adventure for the first time: it is seven episodes long. That works out to a nearly three-hour run time, all told, so be sure to account for that in your viewing schedule. You may find you enjoy the experience more if you spread the episodes out over several days, unless you’re mostly looking for a way to fill endless hours stuck at home during your self-quarantine.

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Worth a Visit

Review of The Space Museum (#15)
DVD Release Date: 06 Jul 10
Original Air Date: 24 Apr – 15 May 1965
Doctors/Companions: One, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki
Stars: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien
Preceding Story: The Crusade (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
Succeeding Story: The Chase (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Steven)

As Bad Reputation™ stories go, The Space Museum is not poorly thought of at all. Clocking in at #168 of 254 in io9’s Best-to-Worst ranking, it barely falls into the bottom third. In fact, it’s more than 30 places ahead of the next “stinkiest” entry I’ve had to date—itself another Hartnell adventure.

All that is to say, the Hartnell era is not as unpalatable as some might have you believe. It certainly has its quirks, as a product of its time—sets more suited to a stage than to modern television, one-chance filming that leaves the famous Hartnell line flubs intact, and so on—but especially when one considers how new science fiction television was, it’s actually quite innovative.

The Space Museum makes an excellent case in point. Only the fifteenth storyline of the nascent program’s history, it’s the show’s first real foray into what someday would be dubbed “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.” Our heroes struggle with the mind-bending issue of having seen themselves displayed as exhibits in the Museum in what turns out to be their near future. How can they avoid that fate?

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A Not-Worth-the-Time Machine

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Review of The War Machines (#27)
DVD Release Date: 06 Jan 09
Original Air Date: 25 Jun – 16 Jul 1966
Doctors/Companions: One, Dodo Chaplet, Ben Jackson, Polly
Stars: William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills
Preceding Story: The Savages (One, Steven, Dodo)
Succeeding Story: The Smugglers (One, Ben, Polly)

The First Doctor is always going to be a hard sell for some fans. Even his stories of the objectively best quality would land near the bottom of the rankings for those who just can’t get past the peculiarities of the black-and-white era.

So when we come to The War Machines, which is one of the poorer options (coming in at #199 or 254 in io9’s Best-to-Worst ranking), I would be unsurprised if it was unfamiliar to First-Doctor agnostics (or outright haters). And while I can’t disagree that it probably belongs in that bottom ~20%, I don’t think it’s so much bad as pedestrian.

The plot is typical SF fare: a sentient computer wants to “help” by taking over for mankind, and sets out to subjugate humanity with a few ~ahem~ well-crafted war machines. There’s brainwashing and blatant disregard for human life and a creator turned into the tool/stooge of his creation. Classic stuff. But especially by today’s visual storytelling standards, the plot moves so slowly one wishes for a TARDIS to skip over all the middle bits.

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Confession #123: I Messed Up

The first thing I have to confess today is that after Gallifrey One, I completely lost track of when I was supposed to be posting. What with my kids’ crazy spring schedule, the thirty-nine inches of snow we got in February that are now trying to melt off within a two-week span, and the siren call of my fiction writing, the blog simply fell off the radar.

It doesn’t help that I hadn’t put anything on my 2019 calendar that hadn’t dripped over from 2018 when I adjusted for my Series Eleven posts. Thus, here we are, a week late and a blog post short.

As I look ahead now, I realize that I’ve quite enjoyed the “Bad Reputation” series, and I’d like to continue it. So let me walk you through my decision-making process, and share what’s to come for the rest of the year.

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Marking the Unremarkable

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).

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