4 episodes
Aired between 11th September 1965 and 2nd October 1965
Written by William Emms
Produced by Verity Lambert
Directed by Derek Martinus
Synopsis
The TARDIS has resumed normal life, with Steven demonstrating this by getting a haircut from Vicki, (whilst inside a moving vehicle - not very smart!).
The Doctor as usual tinkers with the TARDIS controls until it lands on a very desolate planet. Despite this, Steven is keen to find somewhere to swim. As they exit the TARDIS, they see a tiny robot made from circular domes. It has a look around the outside of the TARDIS before it talks in beeps and whistles to another such robot and then scuttles off. Vicki names them "Chumblies" after the way they seem to move.
The group continue on their exploration, discovering some plant life, and three suns, but are aware that there seems to be no animal or intelligent life anywhere. A Chumbley returns to them as Steven is preparing to go swimming. He doesn't seem to like it hanging around and goes to aggressively shoe it away. From beneath its domes, a small, thin cannon appears and obliterates a flower. It begins pointing in a way to suggest that the crew should follow its direction, which they do.
The Chumbley begins to lead them away, but it is soon disabled by a bunch of similar looking women, who throw a metal mesh over it, cutting off its communication signals.
The women explain that they're called Drahvin's, a race of warlike women from the planet Drahva in Galaxy 4, who suspiciously resemble Fembots (Google Austin Powers if you don't get the reference). They say that the machine belongs to a rival race called the Rill's who have also come to this planet. The Drahvin's explain that the Rill's are evil and they will find better hospitality with their leader, Maaga. At that point, three more Chumblies turn up and force the Drahvin's to flee with the TARDIS crew. The Chumblies free their counterpart and begin the pursuit, albeit very slowly.
The group are taken to an old battered spaceship, where they meet Maaga (who looks very similar to the rest). Maaga tells the other Drahvin's off for loosing their net, and dismisses them.
When the group question her, Maaga explains that the Drahvin's are a race of warrior women, who need men only to reproduce. She says that both races are new to the planet, but the Rill's shot them down here. Since then, the Rill's have announced that the planet will blow up in fourteen days. Maaga asks the group to help her capture the Rill ship and escape the planet.
Steven is suspicious of the Drahvin's, and Vicki is downright rude to them, but before the matter can be resolved, the group of Chumblies turn up. The Drahvin's attack them and drive them away.
The Doctor seems to be suspicious too, but agrees to help Maaga find out if the planet really is going to blow up. Maaga agrees to their aid, but insists on someone being kept in their camp, obviously so that the Drahvin's are not left to die. Vicki agrees to be the "hostage", and the Doctor and Steven set off back to the TARDIS.
When they get there, they see another Chumbley trying to break its way through the TARDIS force barrier. The Doctor and Steven hide until the Chumbley fails and goes away, then go inside the TARDIS themselves.
The Doctor checks his astral map and discovers that the planet hasn't got fourteen days left, it's got two! They agree to get back to the Drahvin ship, only to find that the Chumblies have returned with heavy explosives. The machines try to "blow the bl***y' doors off", but fail, and go away again. The pair take their chance and race back to the Drahvin ship.
Once they get there, Steven points out that the ship is a bit crap, and surely the Chumblies could get through the hull if they wanted. They keep the information to themselves and try to convince Maaga that the planet will explode in fourteen dawns time. He urges them to make friends with the Rill's. Maaga refuses and grows desperate, pulling a gun on them all after they absolutely refuse to help leave the Rill's. Maaga demands to know for sure if the timescale really is fourteen, forcing the Doctor to reveal the truth of only two dawns remaining. The Doctor manages to convince Maaga to let him go and try to make peace with the Rills, but she keeps Steven as a hostage this time.
Left under guard by a docile Drahvin, Steven tries to manipulate her into taking Maaga's gun and destroying the Chumblies. Unfortunately, Maaga overhears his attempts and stops them. She tries manipulation herself, attempting to get Steven to pilot the TARDIS and take the Drahvin's with him, but he reveals that he can't actually pilot it.
Out in the wasteland, the Doctor and Vicki are forced to hide from a patrol of Chumblies. Vicki takes the scientific approach of observing-noting-correlating-concluding and then throwing a rock at the machines. The rock lands behind one of them, leading her to believe that the Chumblies can only detect movement in front of them. Together, they follow the Chumblies back to the Rill ship. when they get there, they discover that the Rill's have been busy, creating some sort of drilling rig, and an air purifier. The purifier doesn't seem to work too well though, because it stinks of ammonia.
The Doctor and Vicki head further into the Rill ship until they come across a Chumbley repair workshop. As they look around, Vicki screams at the sight of a large scaly, tusked creature that appears at the window.
Vicki's scream alerts the Chumblies, who chase her and the Doctor through the Rill ship. They manage to evade capture for a while, but ultimately, Vicki is trapped by an iron gate.
The Chumblies arrive and take her away, whilst the Doctor tells her to stall for time whilst he breaks the air purifier.
Back at the Drahvin ship, Maaga chastises her soldiers once more as Steven sleeps. She is frustrated and bangs on about how they're only good for killing things. but she needs to be able to manipulate the Doctor into getting the Rill ship so she can take it from them and leave the Rills and the TARDIS crew on the planet, whilst the Drahvin's can escape. Little does she know, Steven is only pretending to be asleep and hears the whole thing, but says nothing.
Vicki is herded back into the Rill ship, where she is confronted by the big tusked slug who watches her through a window. Beside her, the Chumbley begins to speak in an authoritative voice, and explains that it is actually the voice of the Rill (the creature watching her). The Rill's speak telepathically, and are communicating via the Chumbley. It begins to question Vicki, and soon explains that they are peaceful race. They encountered the Drahvins in orbit, and had a standoff for four full days, as they never wanted to attack the Drahvin's, but they couldn't turn their backs. Eventually, the Rill's relented and tried to leave, but the Drahvin's fired anyway. The Rills returned fire and they both crashed. Once they recovered from the crash, the Rills went out to help the Drahvin's, finding one of them injured. However, as they started to give first aid, Maaga turned up and fired on the Rill's chasing them off. They backed off, but saw Maaga shoot her own solider and blame the Rill's for it. Ever since, they have been trying to convince the Drahvin's that they mean no harm, but the warrior women just keep attacking them.
When Vicki asks why the Rill's don't show themselves, they explain that their appearance is too hideous for humanoids to look upon, and besides, they need to stay in that chamber as they survive by breathing Ammonia. Vicki realises that the Doctor's well intended vandalism would actually kill the nice Rills, and rushes back, reaching him just in time.
Back at the Drahvin ship, Steven waits until his guard has fallen to sleep, and he takes her gun, knocking her unconscious when she stirs. He sneaks out but runs into one of the Chumbleys (which he still things is hostile). He races back into the ship, but finds that Maaga has sealed the airlock, trapping him between them and the Chumbley. She gives Ian an ultimatum, surrender or he will have to take his chances with the Chumbley,or suffocate. Slowly, the air begins to drain out of the airlock.
The Doctor gets to talk to the Rills and explains that they have less time than they thought before the world blows up. The Rills panic, explaining that they've mined gas, but will not be able to process it in time. Luckily, the Doctor says he can jump-start their ship with the help of the TARDIS. At that moment, one of the Chumblies receives a signal from the one outside the Drahvin ship, explaining Steven's dilemma. The Doctor and Vicki rush off with the Chumblies to save Steven before it's too late.
The Chumbley at the Drahvin ship begins to attack the airlock to release Steven, and succeeds, with more turning up to drop Ammonia bombs inside the ship itself. Maaga and the Drahvin flee the ship, being captured by the Chumblies. The Rill speak through the machines, explaining that they are a pacifist race, but because of their repeated threats towards others who would help them, they will be treated as hostile in return. The Drahvin's and Maaga are ordered to get back into their ship, and if they're ever seen outside it again, they will be shot. Maaga typically blames her mindless soldiers for this predicament and from her new confinement, begins making a new plan to capture the Rill ship.
The Doctor meanwhile puts the finishing touches to the Rill ship and goes off to get the jump cables with Vicki, leaving Steven to recover in the Rill ship. Whilst there, Steven reveals that he's skeptical of the Rills pacifism. He believes that if the Doctor's plan fails, the Rills will keep them prisoner, just like the Drahvins. The Rills talk it through and explain that they really aren't interested in any violence if they can at all help it. Steven apologises and the Doctor and Vicki return from the TARDIS.
As the equipment is being hooked up, the Rill ship is attacked by one of the Drahvin women (ordered by Maaga), but she is paraylzed before she can do any damage. Outside, the rest of the Drahvin's and Maaga turn up, ready to make a fight of it, taking on the Chumblies.
The Doctor, Steven and Vicki are led through the Ammonia filled chamber of the Rills and are indeed shocked by their appearance. They do however come to accept it as the Rills really are kind creatures. They start the Rills ship and then are escourted out the back door, with the help of a Chumbley.
Outside, Maaga and the Drahvins decide to storm the ship, but they are just too late, having to settle for watching it in despair as it flies away into orbit and beyond. They do however catch sight of the Doctor and his companions who are rushing back to the TARDIS, and they give chase. Unlucky for them, the group reach their ship first and lock the Drahvin's out. The TARDIS dematerialises, leaving Maaga and her warrior women to suffer the fate of the planets destruction.
On the TARDIS, the Doctor and co. sit back and reflect on how they've not had a chance to relax for a bit. Vicki looks through the scanner and sees a far off planet. She ponders what's happening on it.
On the planet itself, unknown to the TARDIS crew, an astronaut awakens in the depths of a jungle, with only one thing on his mind: the need to kill.....
Trivia
- This story was originally intended for Ian and Barbara to be part of it too. As a result, a lot of Barbara's lines were given to Steven, and Peter Purves has since voiced his displeasure at how it made his character sound a bit too effeminate and at odds with the other stories. Sure enough, this seems plausible. If it were Jamie McCrimmon encountering the Drahvin's, he'd have been the first to put his hand up to remain prisoner!
- If Steven was meant to be Barbara, then the Drahvin's were meant to be men. Verity saw the possibility of switching the genders, and suddenly, every dad who ever saw the TV advert tuned in the following week!
- A lot of the sound effects were recycled for this show. The incidental music is from the Web Planet, the doors to the Drahvin's ship are knicked off the Daleks, as is the sound of the Rill's ship (although that effect is played backwards - not that it makes much difference).
What worked
- It is nice to see a female villain for once, and I'll give her credit, she does a good job of not comprehending the possibility of friendship with the Rill's and sounding desperate when she says it's us or them
- Although the Rills look similar to sandy the Sand Beast (see The Rescue), there is something quite creepy about them. It maybe their size, or it maybe the tusks and googly eyes, but there's something there.
- Even by this stage, Steven seems to be fitting in well with the Doctor and Vicki, having lots of banter between them, and even having valid viewpoints that the Doctor doesn't simply dismiss as nonsense.
- The decision to make the Rills stay behind the door adds suspense and mystery to their hideous appearance
- When the Rills speak, they sound an awful lot like Morbius (see the Brain of Morbius). I thought the Rills were good guys?!
- The flashback scene from the Rill's perspective was really good
What didn't work
- The Chumblies. Apart from having a name as childish and stupid as the term "Muggles" (sorry Harry Potter fans, but those stories were also created for kids, and there's no denying it), they are reasonably small and squashy, which gives them about as much of a threatening stature as a Quark (see The Dominators).
- Whilst we're on the subject, the sound they make, gives them the same role as the Zarbi, just in robot form. They run around and do their masters bidding with farts and whistles galore, and we're subjected to trying to figure out what the hell it is that they're trying to do. At least this story was wiped, so the audio CD cuts down on the length of the scene and just explains it.
- Ok, so you're telling me that the Drahvin's mortal enemy stopped by to let them know that the planet they're all stranded on will blow up two weeks from now. Did Douglas Adams write this under a pen name?! I know it's a story cooked up by Maaga, but blummin' heck, why did she ever think they would just accept that as read?
- The Rill spaceship is a series of pipes and screens, but between each of these, there are massive gaps. How on earth would it survive space travel?
- The Drahvin's act more like robots than people.
- Why did they decide to trap Steven between a Chumbley and Maaga, when we already know the Chumblies are friends? It does still work, when we put ourselves in Steven's shoes, but seems a bit redundant
- I reckon half of episode 4 is full of exposition and Steven asking questions. Even if his lines are Barabara's, I can't recall her throwing out that many queries.
Overall Feelings
in a lot of ways, Galaxy 4 feels like the Sensorite's, only done better in some ways and given whole new problems in others. The production team don't seem to have got the mystery angle right, with the Chumblies looking more cute than threatening, but once you start getting to the point where you can poke holes in Maaga's obvious lies, then things cheerfully pick up.
Maaga does a good show of being unashamedly evil, a novel concept when most other baddies are content to skulk around in the shadows for ages before having a confrontation with the Doctor. Here she is from episode 1 announcing to everyone that only the Rill's death will do. What lets her down are the bits where she has to address the camera directly in episode 3, and where she always threatens the Drahvin soldiers and then doesn't bloody do anything. Her hollow threats are about as effective as a bad parent's!
The Rill ship looks bizzare and pointless, but it makes up for it with appearance of the Rills themselves. Episode 3 gives some awesome scenes between the Rills and Vicki, and the airlock dilemma gives you some good suspense, especially with the injured Drahvin.
I would love to say that this is one of the best Hartnell stories made, but it is spoiled by the obvious holes in Maaga's story, the insistence for lots of exposition and Rill voice overacting, and the head scratching dilemma of why the planet is going to blow up and how do they know this. And I wish the Chumblies would pipe down too...
Rating
7 out of 10
Great story but with poor explanation as to why some things are happening, and the dialogue is wooden in places
Rewatchability Factor
8 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- Enemy Mine
Consulting the Matrix
How do you think the Rills and Drahvin's held up on screen? Would you have been happy to see either of them in the new series?
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