The Rescue

2 episodes
Aired between 2nd January 1965 and 9th January 1965

Written by David Whittaker
Produced by Verity Lambert
Directed by Christopher Barry


Synopsis

The rocketship UK 201 has crash landed on the planet Dido,  The only survivors are a young girl named Vicki (not short for anything), and an injured man called Bennett.

As Vicki is performing routine checks, a flashing light comes on her scanner, indicating that a craft is here.  She excitedly tells Bennett that the rescue ship they know has been sent for them, has landed already.  Bennett disbelieves it, saying that the ship is still three days away.  Vicki is insistent that they've arrived, and Bennett tells her to check it out, reminding her to be careful of Koquillion, an alien creature that's keeping them prisoner.

Vicki contacts the rescue ship to guide them to the crash site, but the rescue ship confirms Bennetts belief, they are still 69 hours away from the planet.

On the TARDIS, the Doctor has decided to take a nap, sleeping through the ships dematerilisation. Iian and Barbara wake him up and they find out they're inside a cave.  The Doctor forgets himself and asks Susan to open the doors, looking a little sad as soon as he remembers.  Barbara kindly offers to open the doors instead and they go out.

Indeed they are in a cave with a strange smell to it that the Doctor is familiar with but can't place why.  He decides to go back in and take a nap whilst Ian and Barbara investigate.  Ian thinks this is most unusual, indicating that the Doctor is getting a little bit old (even though he makes a schoolyard sign for disabled).  Barbara says he's just coming to terms with leaving Susan behind and they should be considerate.

The pair explore outside the cave, finding that they are on a mountainside.  A hideous looking creature turns up with a gem encrusted monkey wrench.  It starts to question them about where they've come from and how many of them there are.  It orders Ian to fetch the Doctor so that they can all be brought to the city.  Ian reluctantly obliges.  Barbara is at unease and tries to follow Ian but the creature steps in her way.  They tussle and the creature ends up throwing Barbara off the cliff, and destroying the cave entrance with its mystical monkey wrench, knocking Ian out in the process.

in the TARDIS, the Doctor has decided not to take a nap after all, but instead run some tests to find out where they are.  He realises that they're on the planet Dido, a place he's visited before.  He's quite pleased about it because the Dido people are pacifists and he looks forward to meeting them again.  He leaves the TARDIS to tell Ian and Barbara the good news, and finds Ian unconscious.

At the bottom of the mountainside, a shadowy figure falls over the unconscious Barbara.

The Doctor brings Ian around and they discuss the creature that Ian saw.  The Doctor is puzzled when he hears that it was responsible for the cave in.  They decide to search the cave for another way out and to find Barbara as quick as they can.

Back at UK 201, Vicki is visited by the horrendous creature which is revealed to be the dreaded Koquillion.  It says that it saw Vicki returning to the ship with a sack, which she explains were rocks.  Koquillion is angry and tells her that she isn't allowed more than fifty feet from the ship.  He also explains that he saw the other craft that had landed, but his people got to it first and killed all the crew.  Koquillion reminds Vicki that it is the only thing that stopped the others killing them, and leaves Vicki to threaten Bennett,

Once Koquillion is gone, Vicki uncovers the hidden Barbara who has regained consciousness.  She begins to explain the predicament she's in.  Bennett comes in and reiterates that Koquillions people have killed the ship crew.  Vicki smiles and uncovers Barbara again, announcing that he didn't kill all of them.  Bennett faints from the shock.

Back in the caves, Ian and the Doctor are shuffling on a narrow ledge with a terrifying 6 ft chasm below them.  Near the end of the chasm, there is some kind of "nightmarish" bulldog that doesn't look too dissimilar to the Magnodon (see the Daleks).

Ian is conscious that there are no handholds on this ledge, and is relieved to find some ornate brass rings not too further along. As he uses them however, one slips away from the wall, activating a trap that begins to push him off the ledge towards the terrifying beast.

Ian escapes the death trap by putting his coat across the razor sharp blades so he can grip them and ease his way around them to safety.  From there, it's a simple matter to replace the ring and thus retract the spikes so they can carry on to the exit.

Vicki and Barbara revive Bennett and propose a plan to lure Koquillion to the ship and then shoot him with the flare gun.  Bennett refuses to let them do this, saying that if they do, the Dido people will come along and kill them all.  He retires back to his room and locks the door.

Vicki and Barbara decide to have a dinner party, and Vicki goes to fetch some water for it whilst Barbara lays the table.  When Vicki returns, Barbara sees one of the hideous sand beasts moving towards her, so takes it into her own hands to use the flare gun to kill the beast.

Vicki is distraught, telling Barbara that she has killed her pet herbivore (his name was Sandy the sand beast).

Vicki breaks down in floods of tears, just as Ian and the Doctor turn up at the ship, relieved to see Barbara has survived.  The Doctor too suggests finding a way to deal with Koquillion but Vicki becomes angry, arguing Bennetts point that they should wait for the rescue ship.

The Doctor calms Vicki down and agrees to speak to Bennett to discuss the plan, and if he doesn't agree, then they will think of something else.

Vicki agrees and leaves the Doctor to it, but not before he encourages her to give Barbara a chance, after all, she thought Vicki was being attacked.

Vicki returns to Ian and Barbara and apologises whilst the Doctor finds Bennetts door locked.  Bennett tells the Doctor to go away, but he doesn't accept that for an answer and decides to use a steel support beam to smash his way in. Once inside, he finds Bennett gone, but it does contain a recording of Bennetts voice telling people to go away.

Ian, Barbara and Vicki sit at the table talking about how trustworthy the Doctor is.  Ian and Barbara reveal to Vicki that they are actually time travellers, but Vicki doesn't believe them.

Back in Bennetts room, the Doctor finds a trapdoor, explaining where he went.

The trapdoor comes out into a large Dido temple.  As the Doctor is examining religious items, he hears Koquillion enter, but he calls him out as Bennett, stating that the outfit he wears is the same sort of ceremonial clothing.

Bennett unmasks himself and reveals that he killed all the Dido people and the inhabitants of their ship to make sure he stayed a free man.  Bennett had been arrested on board the ship after killing a man.  When the ship crashlanded, he knew that his crime wouldn't have been called in, so he decided that if he could kill everyone, then nobody would know of his crime.  So, he used the rockets armaments to blow everyone up.

The Doctor and him fight with the magic wrench, until two strange men appear behind them.

They are the last remaining Dido people.  Bennett is so shocked that he ends up falling off a cliff as they advance towards him.  The Doctor falls unconscious.

When he wakes up again, he is back in the TARDIS with Ian and Barbara.  Vicki is outside.  The Doctor explains the situation to everyone and invites Vicki to travel with them.  Vicki accepts and comes to realise that Ian and Barbara were serious about it being a time machine.

They all laugh as the TARDIS dematerialises from Dido.  In the wreckage of the rocket ship, the remaining people of Dido smash the beacon so that the no one else from Earth will find the planet.

The Doctor quips that he hopes the next place is somewhere they can have a rest, and indeed the scenery looks like a nice mountainside filled with plants and flowers.  The problem is, the TARDIS landed on the very edge of the cliff and eventually topples off it.

Trivia

• Vicki was eventually chosen as the new companion over the originally intended Jenny from the previous story.  Verity Lambert had searched for someone who could fill Carol Ann Ford's shoes with all the same qualities.  Vicki was portrayed as a young, space faring girl who was intelligent, and fun, and could get scared too.

• Maureen O'Brien (who played Vicki) was told by Sidney Newman at the start of her run, that she should dye her hair dark and get it cut, to which she replied "why don't you just get Carol Ann Ford back!"  Despite this, Maureen fitted in well to the dynamic, and found herself capable of bringing William Hartnell out of the most terrible rages and have him jolly again by the end of the day.

• During the filming of the showdown between Barbara and the sand beast, the flare pistol went of prematurely in Jacqueline Hill's face.  She escaped with minor burns and came back to film the scene again.  What a trooper.

What worked

• I liked the costume for Koquillion.  It was like a 60's version of the Predator.  

• The music is pretty good too, and the incidental music following Koquillion sounds like something out of Space Invaders

• It's lovely to see the Doctor being as mild mannered in this episode, as he was at the start of Marco Polo.  He really does seem like a nice old man, not some cantankerous kidnapper of teachers.

• The remaining native's of Dido are a nice touch and seeing as this story was produced before the Doctor who explanation for every historical event was alien intervention, we can happily assume that they may well have been intended as some kind of spirits of the old people.  Then again, the Doctor feels confident that they were alive, and they do physically smash the beacon.

What didn't work

• The sand beast just looks awful

• If the Dido people are pacifists, why did they set up a trap on the ledge?

• If the Dido people set up a trap, why have it push the intended victim into a pit with a herbivore?

• When the group first leave the TARDIS, you can see the box has an open back, showing the cave behind it.

• When Vicki enters the TARDIS, the roundels on the outside are clearly stapled onto the door.

• Vicki said that all the crew of her colony ship were killed.  That means everyone - women, children etc.  Why did they all go to the meeting and leave one VERY ill girl unconscious and alone?

Overall Feelings

Apparently, this story doesn't get much love from the fandom.  It's often referred to as a whodunnit with only one suspect.  But this conclusion can only be drawn once you've actually watched it all.  Looking with the eyes of the innocent 1965 viewer, the question is never "who is Koquillion".  It leads the viewer to assume that Koquillion IS a native of Dido.  The question it poses is "why have they decided to be violent?"

By the time that we do get around to the mystery of Bennett's disappearance, and the reason for the tape recorder of his voice, we are already at the showdown with the Doctor and Koquillion, so it's all revealed in a matter of minutes and becomes redundant.

Despite this, Bennetts reason for blowing everyone up is just as unbelievable as the Dalek Invasion of Earth, and it even brings a monster as terribly realised as the Slyther with it.

Rating

5 out of 10

The concept of the bad guy was good, but it's delivery was poor,  The still effects are ok and the monster mask is actually pretty good, but that beast in the mountain just spoils a lot of it and goes a long way to proving how bad Doctor Who effects can be.

Rewatchability Factor

4 out of 10

It's short enough to not be a chore to get through, but the entire thing is just there as a screen test for Maureen O'Brien to try her skills out.

Watch this if you liked...

• Psycho

• Terror of the Vervoids 

• The Unicorn and the Wasp (Doctor Who Series 4)

Consulting the Matrix

Did this story do what it was intended, or would you have made it more substantial?  If so, how?