The Edge of Destruction

2 episodes
Aired between 8th February 1964 and 15th February 1964

Written by David Whittaker
Produced by Verity Lambert
Directed by Richard Martin and Frank Cox

Synopsis

Shortly after leaving the planet of Skaro, something goes terribly wrong with the TARDIS, causing all the passengers to be knocked unconscious.  When they awake, each have a moment of amnesia to varying degrees.  Susan acts like a puppet on a string, nodding her head and being drowsy, Ian thinks he's on Earth still, and the Doctor begins mumbling that he can't take Susan back.

The doors to the TARDIS stand open, but every time Ian tries to go out, they close all by themselves.

As they all begin to come around, Barbara bandages a cut on the Doctors head whilst Ian tries to get some water for Susan who promptly threatens him with a pair of scissors before stabbing the couch.

Ian successfully calms her down and asks her to get some rest.

Once awake, the Doctor begins to check the TARDIS' fault locator with Ian and finds that there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, except a curious series of images on the screen of different planets causing Barbara to hypothesize that something must have entered the ship and is affecting them.  The Doctor's having none of it, and Susan's gets really attached to the scissors again, this time threatening Barbara.

The Doctor comes to the conclusion that Ian and Barbara must have sabotaged the ship in order to force him to take them home. Susan decides she agrees with him and they both plan to throw Ian and Barbara off the ship.  After a blazing row, Barbara goes out of her mind when she see's the TARDIS' clock melting in the same manner as all their wrist watches are.

The Doctor goes and fetches everyone water in a surprisingly calm manner suggesting that they all sleep on it.  Turns out the water was drugged (I know, shocking, right?) and believing he's knocked out Ian and Barbara, he tries to look at the console and figure out what's wrong, only to be strangled by Ian.  The Doctor pushes him away, causing Ian to dramatically faint as they are quickly joined by a revived Barbara and Susan.

The Doctor gloats at his ability to outwit the would be saboteurs and still threatens to throw them off the ship.  Susan changes her mind though just in time for all the faults on the locator to go off at once and explosions begin to rock the ship.

The Doctor changes his mind and believes that the "heart" of the TARDIS is trying to force itself free and they will all be destroyed in ten minutes if they can't work together.

Barbara has the idea that the TARDIS is actually trying to tell them something with the doors, melting the clocks and showing the planets on the scanner.  Working it through, the Doctor finds out that the problem is the fast return switch is stuck down, therefore not sending them back to their last location as he thought, but instead sending them further and further back until they reach the big bang.

He fixes the problem and sheepishly apologises.  Ian is quick to forgive but Barbara is having none of it for at least five minutes.

The Doctor pilots the TARDIS away from the big bang and goes and gives a personal apology to Barbara again, who this time is willing to put it all behind them and go on the next adventure.

The TARDIS has landed in a snowy landscape and is the perfect place for a snowball fight and merriment until Susan and Barbara find a giant footprint in the snow...


Trivia

• This story is a bit of a filler as the original run of the show was only commissioned for 13 episodes (4 for the first story, 7 for the second).  What made it worse was that due to the fact that two episodes from the previous stories had to be re-shot, and the enormous cost of building the TARDIS; it meant that there was simply no budget at all for new sets, actors or props.  So David Whittaker who was the script editor at the time, took it upon himself to come up with the solution and this is what we get.

• It's widely believed that the writing above the fast return switch was there for William Hartnell to find it, but the production team had forgotten to rub it out before the filming began!

What worked

• Although threatening people with scissors in a children's TV show isn't the best idea in the world, it adds a great bit of tension to the story.

• The atmospheric music when the Doctor is sneaking about at night is quite apt

• The basis of the story is to make people believe that the TARDIS is in some way mythical, and alive.  And yes, this does work.

What didn't work

• I can't place the blame solely on Carol-Ann Ford's performance here as all the cast are guilty of some really over the top acting.  There are some moments where it works great, but make no mistake the hysterical screams are in full flow this time.

• The melting clock doesn't come through right on monochrome TV, and I distinctly remember the first time I watched this episode, I sat there thinking "what have I just been shown?"

• The changes in attitudes are a little too sudden for me.  

Overall feelings

This is Doctor Who trying to do Alfred Hitchcock, and getting it half right.

If we look at the the story as if it were the final part of a trilogy, where a crotchety old man and his weird Granddaughter kidnap two school teachers there's lots to like.  The story gives us a resolution to the ongoing problem of dealing with the villain (the Doctor) and sets up the relationships for the rest of the series.

The story also gives us insights into the much larger Who mythology, such as the Doctor's throw away line of "I can't take you back Susan".  We see glimpses that something's not right, bearing in mind that as an audience of 1964, we have no idea who the Doctor really is, or where he came from, and not even an iota of an idea of what he was doing on Earth or what his current goals are.

The TARDIS is also revealed here as something more than just a time machine.  It thinks, it can get inside our heads and it can melt clocks.  This was the beginning of something that would be developed a lot more in the future.

When we look at the story as a psychological thriller however, things begin to fall apart.  There are some great scenes in there that, again, putting ourselves in the position of not knowing HOW this will end, show terrific tension.  The argument between the Doctor, Barbara and Ian is great, even Susan going round the twist is really great, if in fact that's what's happening.  But that's the problem isn't it?  Susan isn't actually going around the twist (she's already around it), and the other plot thread of something inside the TARDIS with them could have been fantastic, but it never delivers what it promised.  The characters have some great interaction ,but change opinion on a dime, going from willing to stab them to throwing them out, to being on their side.

When we finally discover that the problem is a simple fault locator being held down, all the things that have gone before seem illogical, even if we assign their doing to the TARDIS, then it seems a bit heavy handed that the machine that's trying to save them is damn near causing them to kill each other.

This type of story has only been tried a few times since and arguably done better (they were all after the classic series).  If the story began with all in amnesia and used flashbacks to work its way backwards to the fault occurring and the eventual discovery of the fault locator problem, then it would have worked better, but as the story was cobbled together with barely a budget and no time, it does an admirable job.

Rating

5 out of 10

The story is ok, but just doesn't do well at delivering on all it promises.

The music is ok, and eerie in places.

The sound effects aren't great.

The acting is good and awful in different scenes.


Rewatchability factor

4 out of 10

The show has its good moments, but it's not a story I would find easy to watch independently of the previous two.

Watch this if you liked...

• Amy's Choice (Doctor Who Series 5)

• The Doctor's Wife (Doctor Who Series 6)

• Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (Doctor Who Series 7)

• Psycho

• ...to run around with scissors as a kid

Consulting the matrix

"Do you think the fast return switch resolution was a good enough ending for the story, or would you have preferred the alien entity plot thread to be explored further?  Or, would you have done it differently?"

The Daleks

7 episodes

Aired between 21st December 1963 and 1st February 1964

Written by Terry Nation

Produced by Verity Lambert

Directed by Christopher Barry and Richard Martin

Synopsis

The Doctor, his granddaughter, Ian and Barbara explore a strange jungle that they've landed in,  There's a thin mist in the air and gentle breeze, but none of the leaves sway.  The group soon realise that it's a petrified forest, where everything is ash and rock.  

It's not long before Barbara see's something that she thinks is like it's carved out of a sculptors nightmare...I'll let you make up your own minds:

Barbara becomes morose at the fact that they're not on Earth, so Ian asks her to believe they will, stopping just short of asking her to repeat "there's no place like home".

As the group explore, they find a 60's version of a futuristic city that looks like something the Mysterons would live in.  The Doctor is adamant that he wants to explore it.  Ian forbids it and they go back to the TARDIS.  On the way, "someone touched" Susan and she freaks out.  Nobody believes her, since she's seemingly always hysterical at the slightest thing.

Whilst inside they all have a bacon and egg biscuit and someone knocks at the TARDIS door, but the scanner can't pick up who it is so they ignore it.

Ian, Barbara and Susan insist on going back to Earth so the Doctor hesitantly sets off .  All is good, except that the TARDIS fault locator says it's the fluid link that's drained.  Barely containing a smirk, the Doctor says that it's a simple matter of refilling it with Mercury which they will surely find in the mysterious city.  

The next morning the group find a metal box containing glass phials outside the ship.  Everyone begrudgingly apologise's to Susan for not believing her, and the Doctor puts them in the ship for analysis later.  

Once at the city everyone is feeling unwell and the Doctor needs a rest. Ian has the brilliant idea of splitting up and searching to meet back outside in ten minutes. Barbara gets inside the city and goes through the corridors of mirror card where camera's follow her and doors lock her in.  Ian gets worried that his plan has backfired and the rest go after her.  

As her fear is growing in the deserted corridors, Barbara is suddenly assaulted by a sink plunger.

The group are captured by robotic pepper pots called "Daleks" and placed in a cell.
The Doctor is soon retrieved and interrogated by the Daleks, as they believe he is a Thal.

He learns far more from them than they of him. including the fact that they are in a city-sized fall out shelter, built for a neutronic war that took place 500 years ago, and that the Thals are still their enemies, living outside the city thanks to the use of anti-radiation gloves...erm I mean drugs.

The group realise that they are all sick from radiation and want to live, and the Daleks want to synthesize the drugs, so they allow one of the group to go and retrieve the phials.

Barbara and the Doctor are too sick to go, Ian is still paralised from his heroic attempt to escape so Susan steps up and goes forth into the petrified jungle amidst a thunderstorm.  She's followed by a bloke in a hexagonal cloak, but she gets to the TARDIS without incident.  She remembers Ian's words not to dawdle and fearfully sets back off into the jungle with the drugs.

As Susan exits the TARDIS, she comes across the bloke in the hexagonal cloak.  He's called Alydon and he's a Thal.  He explains that the Thals were old enemies of the Daleks, but that was generations ago, and the Thals are now pacifistic.  He convinces  her that he's a good guy and gives her more drugs to take for her friends.  Together they come up with a plan to ask the Daleks to help them by exchanging drugs for food and science.

The Daleks allow Susan to heal the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and herself and spy on her, overhearing her plan via the use of a security camera  and decide to hatch a plot themselves to kill all the Thals.  They get Susan to write a letter agreeing to the terms and place it outside the city where the Thals pick it up.  Once she's signed the letter, the Daleks aren't bothered about being civil anymore and throw her back in the cell.

Whilst in prison, the group discover that the Daleks are powered from the floor by static electricity and after disabling the security camera, they come up with an escape plan.  When the Dalek comes to give them food, they disable it by throwing mud over the lens of its eyestalk; rolling it onto the Thal cloak Susan was given.  The cloak  acts as an insulator, shutting the Dalek down.

Ian and the Doctor drag the (presumably dying) Dalek creature from its casing and Ian takes its place.  The companions tentatively make their way out of their cell using the disguise of the Dalek machine as a cover story, managing to bluff their way to the upper levels of the city.  They are eventually discovered, and destroy the Dalek pursuing them up the lift shaft with a polystyrene brick.

The group escape just in time to see the Thals arriving at the Dalek city to trade for food. Ian goes back to warn them and is polite enough to wait until they are all in the jaws of the trap before telling them to look out.

Most of the Thals are massacred, but those who do escape take Ian and the rest of the group back to their camp.

At the Thal camp, the group realise that the Daleks took the fluid link off them and so they need to go back and get it.  There's a lot of talking about how the Thals are pacifists until Ian rials Alydon into giving him a clout by bluffing to trade his girlfriend.  Ian triumphantly announces that they "will fight for something."

Whilst all this is going on, the Daleks find out that the anti-radiation drugs are having the opposite effect by killing Daleks.  It turns out that they need the radiation to survive.  With this revelation in hand, the Daleks decide to flood the planet with radiation, thus allowing them to move outside the city once more.

Back at the Thal camp, the Thals agree to send a small party with Ian and Barbara to the terrifying swamps, and enter the city through the back door whilst the Doctor, Susan, Alydon and the rest of the tribe reflect the sun at the city's external cameras to confuse the Daleks.

The backdoor group manage to get through the swamp, loosing only one man to the dweller in the deep that guards the entrance to Moria... erm, I mean the Dalek city.

They eventually find a series of pipes that carry the water to the Dalek city and follow them.  The Thal leader of the backdoor group called Ganatus takes a shine to Barbara and engages in a bit of cock-blocking against Ian before having a fight with his brother who's scared of the dark.

The Doctor meanwhile engages in a bit of vandalism and uses Susan's TARDIS key to destroy the cameras looking outside the Dalek city.  He and Susan are captured and taken before the Daleks for a good telling off and a gloat that the Daleks have a plan to vent the radiation from their reactors.

The backdoor group manage to pull themselves together and carry on until they come to a ledge, which the scared Thal manages to fall off, almost dragging Ian down into the huge chasm with him.  After failing to lift him up, the Thal takes his own life by cutting the rope and plummeting to his death.  Shortly afterwards, the group manage to find their way into the Dalek city.

Outside the city, the remaining Thals realise that the Doctor and Susan have been captured, and decide that they do need to fight. and thus invade the city.

The Daleks begin their countdown to vent the radiation from their reactors and get assaulted by the Thals as well as the backdoor group, who successfully release the Doctor and Susan.  With seconds left, the group manage to destroy the control panel that manages the static electricity for the city.  The Daleks all loose power (and presumably die) and the threat is ended.

The Thals use the Daleks food and technology for themselves, and after Barbara kisses Ganatus goodbye, they leave in the TARDIS.  Shortly into the flight however, something goes really wrong...

Trivia

• Terry Nation (only) came up with the concept of the Daleks.  Apart from a couple of specification, the actual pepper pot design was the work of Ray Cussick.  He was eventually given a small ex gratia payment, but it was nothing compared to the revenue and fame that Dalekmania brought to Terry Nation.

• Sydney Newman (Director of Drama for the BBC and near as dammit creator of Doctor Who) felt strongly that the show should concentrate on historical events and be more based around science,  He was famously quoted as saying that he wanted absolutely no "B.E,M's"  that's bug eyed monsters to you and me.  Well, when the Daleks showed up he was absolutely furious and was ready to cancel the show, but for the insistence of Verity Lambert to give it a shot.  He took a risk and it paid out a million times over.  As soon as the story was shown, school kids all over Britain were mimicking the Daleks and it wouldn't be too long before the merchandise would start rolling off the production lines.

What worked

• The long reveal of the Daleks works well here.  Considering what I said in An Unearthly Child, watching this in ignorance of all that came after gives you a brilliant sense of wonderment to the petrified forest, and the strange city, as well as the mysterious visitor to the TARDIS.

• The production team could have totally ignored Sydney Newman and gave the nation an alien jungle that James Cameron would be envious of, but they didn't.  And in doing so, they played it very, very right.  As the characters were given good motivations in the previous story, the rich background history of Skaro that unfolds here gives you a real sense that something terrible has happened here and you are on anywhere but Earth.  Well... oh alright, I'll give you the exception of the petrified Magnadon creature.

• Ian usefully asks all the questions that we want answers to (with the exception of if the Doctor is styling his hairdo on Mozart).  We get answers such as how the ship is navigated, and what the crew eat between journeys.  At the expense of slowing down the story for a couple of minutes, we get information that makes it all just a little bit more grounded and allows you to suspend your disbelief, and dammit, also makes you want to be part of the crew and have bacon and egg biscuits all round!

What didn't work

• William Hartnell's line fluffs include calling Ian Chesterton, "Chesterfield", and he says to Susan "I hope the effects outside the ship haven't affected you too much".  What effects?  We could forgive him if they actually knew they were slowly getting radiation poisoning, but the way the lines are delivered sound like he's stumbling through them.  Another dialogue triumph was the immortal line "it's possible that they may be anti-radiation gloves...drugs".

• You can see the shadow of a boom mike on the door to the city when Ian is saying he's worried about Barbara

• The Daleks know that the Thals exist but yet haven't any idea what they look like?  That seems odd, especially when they have manacles perfectly made for holding humanoid people.

• Why does Barbara even theorise that the Daleks might be more than just robots?  

• It's a bit cold out there in the petrified jungle isn't it?  With the Thal's exposing so much flesh, it's a wonder they haven't all died off!

Overall Feelings

The Daleks takes the concept of an alien planet and does the opposite of what's expected of it.  Instead of vibrant alien jungles and strange creatures, we get a war torn desolate landscape.  This isn't by accident.  In October of 1962, the world came as close as it ever has to nuclear annihilation at the hands of the superpowers.  The Cuban missile crisis was the height of the Cold War, and something that in 1963, people were living with every day.  This story shows every viewer out there what could happen if we don't learn to get along.  If that's not good enough for you, it was probably a decision to shoot it in ashen gray anyway due to the fact that it will be filmed in Monochrome.  If this was the case, then it's more of a happy accident.

The Daleks are revealed in all their glory.  The first time we hear them speak they use authoritative words in a strange robotic voice that we've never heard before (well, most of us).  The effect is quite chilling, coupled with their willingness to shoot without hesitation, and the tense atmosphere from the radiation sickness.  It gives a good, high stakes opening act.

One of the only things that lets the story down is the rushed ending.  With so many episodes here, you would have thought that the defeat of the Daleks would have been something more elaborate than just pushing one of them into one console and boom, Daleks killed. 

Rating 

8 out of 10

The atmospheric music is more fitting to Stingray than this, but it's designed to have a sense of the alien and strange, which it does in spectacular 60's fashion.

The acting is quite good too, especially the disagreements between the Doctor and Ian.  Some of it is cheesy, but it's easily forgivable.

Rewatchability factor 

6 out of 10

The story is good, yes.  But in my opinion, it's 3 episodes too long.  The only real filler episode is ep 6, but even so, it's a bit of a trawl to get through when you know what's coming up, in the same way that (get ready for the blasphemy), Star Wars Episode 4 gets laborious to watch once the team have made it out of the Death Star.

I would watch it again, but some time needs to pass between viewings.

Watch this if you liked...

• The 1965 movie: "Doctor Who and the Daleks"  (hint, it's the same story but with a family of Who's, and multi-coloured Daleks)
• Genesis of the Daleks
• Destiny of the Daleks

Consulting the matrix

"What were your earliest memories of the Daleks?  Did they scare you?  Were you one of the millions that hid behind the sofa?"

An Unearthly Child

4 episodes 

Aired between 23rd Nov 1963 and 14th Dec 1963

Written by Anthony Coburn

Produced by Verity Lambert

Directed by Waris Hussein

Synopsis

After some really eerie music and a shot of a Police Box in a scrapyard; history   teacher Barbara Wright shares her concerns of a weirdo school pupil: Susan  Foreman, with her fellow teacher, Ian Chesterton.  They both discuss the fact that at times, Susan knowns far more things than most kids at her age, but at others  she’s as thick as pig shit e.g. when it comes to spending money (something which ALL kids instinctively know how to do).  On top of all that, it sounds like her  Grandfather’s a bit dodgy.

Barbara and Ian decide to follow Susan home which is apparently the scrap yard.  The two teachers go in after her and stumble around a perfectly lit set as if it were pitch black until they run into Susan’s grandfather, a cantankerous old codger who (perhaps rightly so) refuses to let them look inside the Police Box.  They get the  impression that he’s somehow imprisoning Susan and when they hear her voice,  they both rush into it (even though it’s a tiny space) to rescue her.

Lo and behold, the inside is huge and alien.  

The cantankerous grandfather shares his granddaughters delusion that they are  both aliens and “wanderers in the fourth dimension” piloting something called the TARDIS.  Despite the pleas from both Susan and the teachers, he refuses to let  them go.  The group argue until Susan’s grandfather accidentally sends the  TARDIS to a desolate landscape with a shadowy figure looming outside.

After more arguments and disbelief of the situation from Ian, “Doctor Foreman”  (wait, Doctor Who?) and the group all go outside to explore the barren landscape.   

In the meantime, two potential leaders from a tribe of cavemen take part in  protracted metaphorical dick measuring based around whether or not they can  make fire.  The first contender is the current leader of the tribe: Za, whose selfish  father had the knowledge to make fire and didn’t pass it on before his death.  The second contender is an outsider to the tribe known as Kal.

Kal kidnapped the Doctor and tried to force him to use fire.  The others tried to  rescue him but they all ended up being captured.  Za holds them prisoner in the  cave of skulls and says they will be killed in the morning.  As they are lead away, a crazy old cave woman predicts that fire will kill them all. 

That night, as the tribe slept, the crazy old woman gets a flint knife and goes to the cave of skulls. We’re meant to think she’s going to kill our new found adventurers,

 but she’s come to release them, telling them to go away and not show the tribe  fire.  

Hur (the elders daughter) wakes Za and tells him she saw the old woman going to kill them.  Za goes to the cave of skulls, but he’s too late, they are gone.  

Za and Hur give chase through the jungle as the group are trying to get back to the TARDIS.  On the way, they are confronted by some kind of beast presumably  a sabretooth tiger) that we never see.  The group hide, and Za takes the creature on himself, being wounded in the process.

Barbara takes leave of her senses and goes back to help Za, much to the protests of everyone else, not least of which is the cantankerous Doctor who even 

resorts to attempted murder to get back to the TARDIS.  Ian stops him and they  patch up Za, forming an uneasy friendship with Hur.

Meanwhile, Kal finds the group gone and kills the old woman in a paddy.  He uses the murder to frame Za for releasing the Doctor and friends.  Almost by the speed of light they leave the camp in pursuit of the group.  

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Susan and Hur carry Za on a stretcher and arrive back  at the TARDIS to be confronted by Kal and the tribe.

The group are surrounded by the tribe where Kal accuses Za of killing the old  woman openly.  The Doctor shows the tribe that it’s Kal’s knife with the blood on  it, and helps the tribe drive him out instead.  

Za, now unopposed decides to hold the group prisoner again, forcing them to  show him fire, or he will kill them.  With no other option left, Ian shows Za how to  use fire.  

Kal turns up like a bad penny and tries to kill Za but Za smashes his head in with a large rock and declares himself leader.  

Thanks to the idea from Susan, the group put skulls on flaming sticks and use  them to fool the cavemen into thinking they are evil spirits whilst they escape out  towards the TARDIS once more.   

The cavemen give pursuit, but only long enough to watch their spears pass  through a disappearing TARDIS.  

Onboard, Ian begins his argument with the Doctor once more to return home.  The Doctor gives them the lame excuse that they had to take off in a hurry, so he  doesn’t really know where they are going, and he needs that info to calculate 

 a route back to Ian and Barbara’s time.  

The TARDIS lands in a desolate jungle, but it’s ok, there’s no radiation showing, at least, not until the crew have left the ship...

Trivia

l Sydney Newman hated the pilot episode and told Verity Lambert and Waris  Hussein to shoot it again.  In comparison with the final version of episode 1,  it’s easy to see why.

l The day before the episode aired, President Kennedy was assassinated.  The subsequent media  coverage ensured that barely anyone watched Doctor Who  on its inaugural airing, and due to a lot of complaining, was successfully aired again a week later before episode 2.

What worked

l The music is suitably eerie, even if the continuing title music does go on a bit  too long

l The fact that the Doctor’s a lot more chilled out in the first episode compared  to the pilot, the way it works shows a little more reason why the time travellers  are there: to do some superficial repairs to the TARDIS (although see  Revelation of the Daleks for the real reason).  By playing the Doctor aloof  rather than angry,  I think William Hartnell made the story flow much better

l The first (and subsequent) episodes show the Doctor with a more eccentric  outfit than the pilot, but still within the bounds of human fashion, which adds  to the feeling that he is “alien”.

l The disbelief Ian shows towards time travel is nice and realistic, opposed to  the casual acceptance of it that would have been so easy to do in order  to get on with the plot.  

l The concept of the TADIS’s outward appearance becoming stuck is pure  genius!  It helps give the feeling of these people being out of place and  the contrast of the box on the desolate landscape is quite iconic

l The descriptions the cavemen use are quite cool, and the fact that these cavemen have motivations and goals means that they are made more “human”,  a trait which is vital to any good bad guy.

l Despite Susan’s OTT hysterical outbursts (see What didn’t work, below) the  ones performed by Barbara do seem to be appropriate and believable.  

What didn’t work

l Why are they confused that Susan goes to a junkyard.  I know it’s at odds  when she says her grandfather’s a doctor, but the name is Foreman.   They never even consider the fact that she may have lied at some point,  or that the Doctor is no longer a practicing one?

l The camera work on the pilot episode is so shaky that it could give you sea  sickness.

l I was almost tempted to say that I preferred the weird squeaking when the  TARDIS took off in the Pilot episode, but after 30 seconds it was enough, 
and it just seemed to go on and on.  I think it would have become unbearable
 if they had  kept it on.  Indeed it does drag on in the first episode too,  
but we’ve got to bear in mind that this was the first ever time audiences 
would see the TARDIS in flight, and be thankful that they eventually  thought the same as us and shortened the take off to watching the  time rotor move up and down.

l Susan’s hysterical and very highly strung, and god is it annoying!  She goes  batshit crazy when the Doctor goes missing (kidnapped by Kal),  and goes even more so when the old woman turns up.  I know  she’s creepy, but do we really need to be on the verge of a  nervous breakdown?

l The arguments with cavemen go on and on and on.  Yes we get it.  You want  to be the one to  make fire, you want to be the leader... Sigh 

l I could add the fact that the Doctor smokes a pipe to this section, but in 1963, it’s something that a stereotypical grandad would do, and that’s what he’s  meant to be, so... 

Overall Feelings

To get the most appreciation out of this story (and the next two), you really need to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and watch with the innocent mind of  

someone who’s never heard of Doctor Who before, because that’s the  audience of 1963.  

When you do, it’s not surprising at all to see why people were captivated by this  show.  It was originally designed to be for children and families, but there’s a real  sense of...well...Twighlight Zone about it, with the hook being that there’s a weird  school girl with inexplicable knowledge.  The show also dared to tackle adult  issues (remember, this was a family show in very traditional times).  It raises  issues of domestic violence and abuse; and at times it’s very tense.  

What IS surprising based on that fist episode is why people grew to like the  Doctor.  Especially in the Pilot where his words are more harsh, it’s  like watching a trans-dimensional bond villain at work!

Although the subsequent first episode mellows out the roles a bit, it still keeps the sentiment; Ian and Barbara are clearly the heroes, Susan is a strange and  fascinating alien that we are drawn to watching and I hate to say it, but the Doctor  is actually the bad guy here, kidnapping innocent school teachers!  

But what makes this really interesting for a 60’s family show is that even then, this “villain” isn’t fully evil is he?  The script makes sure we understand, perhaps even sympathise with the Doctors situation.  If we’re being generous, we can see that  despite the stupid move of allowing Susan to attend public school, the Doctor  didn’t ask for any of this, and is just trying to protect the timeline; all high brow  concepts for a children’s show.  This is also carried over to the cavemen, each  have their own motivations and reasons for survival, which just makes gripping  viewing as it’s not just as simple as get captured-escape-stop the bad guy  scenario formula.  

These people are just trying to survive, it’s just that they intend to sacrifice the  Doctor and his companions in the process.

Rating

8 out of 10

The plot is quite gripping (if you follow the instructions from the first paragraph of  the overall feelings section).  

The music (apart from the protracted theme tune) is quite appropriate for this story 

The sound effects are adequately futuristic and something that 60’s audiences are  just not used to.  Even in 2014, they seem to convey the impressions they were meant to.  

The acting in general is good, with only a couple of long pauses in fight scenes or  wooden dialogue.  

Re-watchability factor

8 out of 10

Admittedly, my interest waned a bit after the first episode, but there’s still plenty  here to keep any fan of classic TV, or Doctor Who interested, even if it is to  just marvel now and again at how the original concepts were put together.

Watch this if you liked....

l The Twighlight Zone, or the Outer Limits.  

l The Face of Evil

l Remembrance of the Daleks (as it helps give you a better picture as to why  the TARDIS went to London in 1963)

l An Adventure in Space and Time

Consulting the Matrix

No, despite this years Christmas Special, we aren’t all in a dream, and I’m not  Morpheus.  You’ll not really get this reference until you’ve watched up to at  least 1976.

Anyway, this is the part where I ask you a question and you can feel free to  share your views or answers.  
Simple as that.  So this episode’s question is:  

“Where do you think the TARDIS’ first trip should have been?” 

Were you happy with the one shown, or do you think they should have really  pushed the boat out and gone for freakishly alien planet from the get go?  

Let me know.

The pilgramage of a fan

So, it's Christmas Day and the audio box set of missing Doctor Who adventures lays amid the tattered remains of the wrapping paper on my floor.  This marks my nearly complete collection of William Hartnell episodes.

I have been collecting Doctor Who DVD's now for the best part of four years, and I have been a fan of the show since 1984.  I would have been a fan earlier, but to be honest, I couldn't comprehend much before then!  In fact, one of my first childhood memories was sitting down to watch the Five Doctors on Children in Need where I was both promptly terrified and in awe of the Cybermen and the Raston Warrior Robot.

Needless to say, I've followed the show to its current incarnation, and always thought of this day when the collection is getting to a stage of near completion.  As many have pointed out. there comes a time when it WILL be complete and to quote responses I get...."then what?"

Those two words stopped me in my tracks, and made me think of all the times I've waited days on end for the packages to drop through my letterbox for a brand new adventure in time and space to whisk me away from the mundane.

"Then what"...it's a sobering thought, and one that's brought us here, my friends.

Looking at my shiny new CD's in front of me, I had an epiphany, lost my marbles and the doors of the fourth dimension were open to me in one brilliant, daunting and crazy idea.  It's an idea that I'm sure every fan of Doctor Who has thought of at some point, and then dismissed as pure lunacy.

Then what..."well, I'm going to watch them all in order, of course!"

So, dear reader.  My intention is to watch fifty years of time and space unfold before me in sequential order.  I decided that if I am to do this, I will do it in style and write about my feelings on the stories, and perhaps even make some companions of my own if you decide to step through that dimensionally transcendental doorway and come along for the ride!

Whether you're a veteran of the Hartnell years, or know only the tenth and eleventh incarnations, I hope that there will be something in this blog for everyone.  I will try to upload a new story each week and if you're in the same time quadrant, why not stop by and share your memories of these episodes?

So, put on your extra long scarf, don your hat, make sure your jelly babies and sonic screwdriver is at the ready and hold on tight, this is going to be fun!