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Tag: Steven

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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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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The Should’ve Been Better Corral

Review of The Gunfighters (#25)

DVD Release Date:  12 Jul 11
Original Air Date:  30 Apr – 21 May 1966
Doctor/Companion:  One, Steven Taylor, Dodo Chaplet
Stars:  William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane
Preceding Story:  The Celestial Toymaker (One, Steven, Dodo)
Succeeding Story:  The Savages (One, Steven, Dodo)

During Doctor Who‘s third series – the last for William Hartnell (One) – there came one of the last pseudo-historicals for a long while. Why was it among the last? Because audiences stayed away in droves. Although The Gunfighters is perhaps better than the viewing numbers at the time indicated, I can’t altogether blame the public for shying away, either. An otherwise decent storyline is utterly ruined by the ubiquitous presence of a horrific saloon-style song created just for this episode: “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon.”

A line or two (or eight) of this horrific tinkly little tune is sung over every single scene change in the entire story. The first one or two, OK, I can tolerate that – setting the tone, giving some “local color” by having the bar floozy sing her song. But every time? By the end of the first episode, I had such an ear worm I was longing for the strains of “Copacabana,” “Hotel California,” or even “The Brady Bunch” to get the damn thing out of my head! I was somewhat gratified to learn, when watching the extras, that I was not alone. The production staff and cast were also put off by the song, and still embarrassed by it years later (as well they should be).

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An Eye to the Future

Review of The Ark (#23)

DVD Release Date: 08 Mar 11
Original Air Date: 05 – 26 Mar 1966
Doctor/Companion:   One, Steven Taylor, Dorothea “Dodo” Chaplet
Stars:  William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane
Preceding Story:  The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve (One, Steven)
Succeeding Story:  The Celestial Toymaker (One, Steven, Dodo)

Although we don’t really figure it out until halfway through, The Ark is sort of two stories wrapped into one. Beginning with a rather typical “outsiders bring harmless-to-them germs into a closed population, threatening to wipe out said population” plot, the story soon takes a turn toward more socio-political themes.  Groups are set against each other and make plans of varying degrees of stupidity and brutality.  Obviously, this being Doctor Who, there’s also a time-travel twist to the tale (which I won’t completely spoil here), but that is primarily clever storytelling rather than a necessary element for plot advancement.

Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the story, at least on the surface, is the abysmal quality of the monster-of-the-week, which is poor even by Doctor Who‘s standards (and that’s saying quite a lot!).  The actors playing the Monoids could not have been comfortable with body-length rubber sheaths that included huge (clearly visible) zippers up the back, mangy wigs draping down over half their faces, and ping pong balls painted as eyeballs in their mouths.  Every time one of these pathetic critters waddles on set, you can’t help but snicker and think about the mechanics of wearing the costume (particularly the moutheyeball – nor does it help to learn that it actually was ping pong balls they used).  Yet somehow, the Monoids manage to fulfill their literary roles in (both parts of) the story relatively well.  Clearly that’s a testament to the quality of the tale the writers had to tell.

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