Relative Dates: 12th February 2012 - 27th March 2012
Galaxy Four
And so the reconstructed episodes begin! Galaxy Four had no surviving episodes at the time I was due to watch it. I'm thrilled beyond measure to say that between me watching this episode and today, Episode 3 has been found! Along with the discovery of Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace this brought the number of missing episodes of Doctor Who down to 106. Fingers crossed that some are still out there, waiting to be discovered!
Anyway, the basic premises of this story is that there are two groups of aliens on a planet that is about to explode. But which side can the Doctor trust? The beautiful Drahvins, or the terrifying looking Rills. Well, as this story demonstrates looks can be deceptive.
Also included in this story is possibly another contender for the "new Daleks". It's the Chumblies! Although that isn't their real name, this is just what Vicki calls them due to the way they "chumble along".
This story doesn't have a great reputation but I don't think it's all that bad. And it's just nice to see an episode returned no matter what episode it is.
Mission To The Unknown
First of all this serves as a preview to a later story, secondly it is only one episode long and thirdly none of the regular cast are in it at all!
I believe this was because Planet Of Giants, that was originally planned as 4 episodes had been abridged into 3 episodes meaning that the Doctor Who production team owed the BBC an additional episode but the cast had already filmed their allotted episodes so they could not be included.
As such we get this strange little story, with the Daleks calling a meeting of other alien delegates to organise a plan to take over the world. Meanwhile some special agents try to send a warning off to Earth.
Not really much else I can say about this, except it is unfortunately another story that no longer exists in the BBC archives. That's 5 reconstructed episodes in a row! Things are really getting bad...
The Myth Makers
What a con this must have felt for the viewing public back when this was first broadcast! Children tuned in to see the Daleks and were greeted with sword fights on an open plain..
Aside from that this is still a fantastic story. The Doctor has always been unwilling to get involved with the events of historical stories such as these, believing that history cannot be rewritten. Which doesn't really make much sense when you think about it because surely if the Doctor interferes with events in the year 2050 then this is still history to people in the year 2100...or maybe I'm over thinking this.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make before my meandering rant was that this story actually shows the Doctor getting stuck into the history unfolding around him. He gives the Greeks the idea of building the wooden horse with which they can storm Troy.
Meanwhile there is a burgeoning romance brewing between Vicki and Troilus which can mean only one thing..yep, it's time for Vicki to leave the series. Which is a real shame as she was a great companion and an improvement on Susan who limited stories somewhat with the Doctor having to serve as her protective Grandfather.
This another 4 part story that no longer exists so that's 9 episodes in a row! I really am entering a barren stretch in the BBC archives!
Steven is injured in the battle of Troy and is nursed back to help by the Trojan hand maiden Katarina who ends up joining the Doctor and Steven as they escape Troy. I have high hopes for Katarina, I think she'll go on to be a great character in the series.....
The Daleks' Master Plan
Oh... Katarina is dead! She got sucked off *sniggers* through an airlock in one of the first few episodes of this 12 episode epic story.
To kill off a companion was a first for Doctor Who (but sadly it wouldn't be the last. I won't say anymore right now. Spoilers!) It became clear early on in this story that a companion from that far back in history was ill suited for travels through time and space as she would clearly spend most of her time asking dumb questions! It's not her fault that her mind is so primitive that she would probably be stumped by the operation of toaster!
So the Dalek's are back for a fourth time! (Or a fifth time if you count Mission To The Unknown as it's own story and not just a prelude to this one... you see how Doctor Who fans can argue over such matters?)
Teaming up with them is the dastardly Mavic Chen, played to perfection by Kevin Stoney. Honestly one of the greatest villainous actors ever! Why was he never a Bond villain??
A 12 part story that unfortunately I have only seen once and as such my memory of it now is pretty sparse. However I do remember that a very strange thing happened in episode 7. This episode was broadcast on Christmas Day in 1965. Now today Doctor Who would be considered event television and the Christmas episode would be the highlight of the year. However in 1965 it was very different. It was believed that hardly anyone would be watching television and therefore few people would see episode 7. Therefore this episode is just a bit of fluff. It's complete nonsense and does not move the story of the Dalek's plot along at all. You could literally skip from episode 6 to 8 and wouldn't notice a thing. However you would be missing one of the truly shocking moments in Doctor Who so far! At the end of episode 7, the Doctor turns to face the camera directly and says "And a merry Christmas to all of you at home!" The fourth wall isn't just broken! It's pulverised!!
This story also see the return of the meddling monk from The Time Meddler. It's great to see him but to be honest I forget what he adds to the story. It's still nice to see returning characters.
The other moment I remember from this story is the ending. The Doctor and his new companion Sara Kingdom are fighting their way back to the TARDIS. In order to defeat the Dalek's the Doctor has activated the Dalek's time destructor and everything around them is ageing to death. Before they can reach the safety of the TARDIS, the Doctor witnesses Sara age and die before his very eyes.
Very bleak stuff indeed. Need to re-watch this one. And with 3 out of the 12 episodes actually existing, this was a bit of a treat.
The Massacre
Back to a story that is lost in it's entirety from the BBC archives. I was watching this story for the first time and was excited to see it as I had heard many good things about it.
As historical stories go, this has got to be the darkest in the shows history. I mean the title sort of gives away what the unfortunate outcome of the story will be.
I'm struggling to remember much about this story. I remember finding parts of it confusing because I was never sure whose side everyone was on. Also the Doctor disappears for a great deal of the story so the plot is very much being driven by Steven and his involvement with the locals. Meanwhile the character of the Abbot of Amboise is played by William Hartnell leading to Steven's confusion as he believes the Doctor is masquerading as the Abbot..until the Abbot is killed.
This leads me to the main theme of the story...death! A lot of death. In fact..it's a massacre! (see what I did there?) The Doctor arrives back into the story in time to force Steven to leave with him immediately in the TARDIS. The Doctor knows of the impending massacre and it seems that this is one of those moments where the events of history must run their course without the Doctor's interference. This leads to one of the greatest scenes in the first Doctor's era of the show as he and Steven have a huge argument in the TARDIS about the rights and wrongs of altering history, leading to Steven storming out. Steven is apparently leaving the Doctor, not because he has found something better like Susan and Vicki, but simply because travelling with Doctor has become so intolerable.
For the first time ever, we see the Doctor alone in the TARDIS with no companions as he begins to reflect to himself about his past...
THE DOCTOR "My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe. [Steven leaves the TARDIS] Steven... Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. And now, they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton — Chesterton — they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can't... I can't...
Absolutely fantastic!!
Steven does eventually change his mind and comes back. Along with another young girl called Dodo. Poor..poor Dodo..
The Ark
And more excitedly, a complete story! No missing episodes! The complete story of this season.
The TARDIS arrives in an ark in space (but not The Ark In Space - that's a whole other story). The human race is escaping the Earth before it's death. Serving the humans are the mute Monoids, one of the strangest races yet seen. One eyed and with a Beatles mop of hair.
Unfortunately things soon unravel (don't they always!) when the common cold, brought aboard by Dodo, starts killing off the crew of the ark. It seems the common cold was wiped out years ago and as such human beings no longer have the immune system to cope with it. It's a good idea for a story actually and it's not overly stretched out as it only runs for two episodes. Or so it seems...
With the emergency over, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo leave in the TARDIS only to arrive back on the ark but several hundred years in the future. They find the great statue that the humans were working on when the Doctor first met them. The statue that took generations to finish is now complete, but rather disturbingly the head of the statue is not that of a human...but a Monoid! Best cliffhanger so far!
So the two parter becomes a four parter, separated by several hundred years. The after affects of the common cold infection brought aboard by Dodo have had devastating consequences as the Monoids are now in charge, using humans as their slave labour.
The Celestial Toymaker
The series makes a turn in to the world of surrealism. The Doctor, Steven and Dodo meet the Toymaker who forces them to take part in games of life and death...
The Doctor is separated from his companions and forced to play the Tri-Logic game, involving moving wooden pieces between three points of a triangle. To punish the Doctor for trying to help Steven and Dodo the Toymaker makes the Doctor invisible apart from his hand which is of course needed to play the game. A further punishment leads to the Toymaker removing the Doctor's voice.
Now this effective removal of the Doctor from the story was necessary to allow William Hartnell a holiday from the show. However behind the scenes there was a far more under hand plot being developed. It was decided that it was time that William Hartnell departed the series due to the relationship between himself and some of the production team breaking down. Therefore it was nearly decided that in this story, when the Doctor finally got his body and voice back, that he would reappear as a completely different man allowing another actor to take on the role of the Doctor.
It's an interesting idea, and given the surreal nature of the story they could have gotten away with it. However the main problem of course would be, what the hell would they do NEXT time they needed to change the actor. Another trip to the Celestial Toymaker?? Of course this didn't happen in the end and William Hartnell was given a reprieve..
All the same, his time aboard the TARDIS was drawing to an end...
The Gunfighters
Another complete story! Oh what a treat!
Doctor Who meets The Wild West. I can't understand why Doctor Who has done so few westerns. In fact this and A Town Called Mercy with the eleventh Doctor are the only two westerns I believe.
Apparently this story was not greatly received when it was first broadcast which may explain why they didn't risk doing another western for a very long time. I'm not sure why is wasn't considered to be very good back in the 60s because I actually find it it quite an amusing romp. It's not to be taken seriously at all and William Hartnell has one of his last great stories as the Doctor, especially in the scenes he shares with Doc Holliday who is extracting the Doctor's tooth. I also love the Doctor's delight when he learns to do a trick with his gun, spinning it around his finger, and proudly shows it off to a rather bemused Wyatt Earp.
I think it may be a case that I am far more forgiving of this story's faults than the viewing public would have been when it was first broadcast. It's not hard to be forgiving when your just so grateful that the pictures are actually moving and you are not just watching a reconstruction of a missing story.
This story also includes a song, which is something new to Doctor Who..it does go on a bit sometime and slows the story down but you've got to admire them trying something new.
The Savages
Back to another completely missing story I'm afraid. I'm very aware that I'm banging on about which stories do and do not exist but it is a crying shame that some stories are lost (seemingly forever).
Also I'm taking about them here because I have no idea what went on in this story!
It's not that the story is hard to understand, it's just that I've only seen it once and it didn't really stick in my mind. But from what I can remember..
The Doctor arrives on a planet and is enthusiastically greeted by the inhabitants as someone they know of as they have been following his travels...I'm not sure how.
Anyway I think it turns out that they are performing experiments on the local savages and then Steven leaves...Man! I really am drawing a blank here. I believe Steven leaves the TARDIS so that he can stay behind and become the new leader as they need and independent leader from both the savages and the people in the village/spaceship/wherever the other group lives!
Good story, bloody awful write up! Sorry! Need a repeat watching of this I feel.
The War Machines
The final complete story for some considerable time!
The TARDIS lands in modern day England. Which is actually pretty unusual for this time in the shows history. And when I say "modern day" I do of course mean 1966. Upon stepping out of the TARDIS the Doctor tells Dodo that he has a very peculiar feeling, the same feeling he gets whenever the Daleks are near. Now, the Daleks aren't in this story but bare this comment in mind as it will pay off several posts down the line...I can almost sense your intrigue!
The villain of the story takes the form of a super computer. The computer impresses the Doctor by calculating a square route correctly. For God's sake don't show the Doctor a calculator, it will blow his mind! As smart as the computer is, it unfortunately makes one of the most grievous errors ever when it states "Doctor...Who...Is... Required"... No No No No!!!! Doctor Who is not the name of the character, that's the name of the show! This is repeated several times throughout the story as the writer was unfortunately not aware that that was not the character's name.
The computer hypnotises people so that they can build the War Machines. These are huge machines and I'm not really sure what to make of them. Part of me feels pretty impressed but part of me just thinks it another vain attempt to replicate the success of the Daleks.
We meet Ben and Polly for the first time here also. The two new companions for the Doctor. Dodo has one of the worst leaving scenes in the shows history ever! In fact it's technically not correct to say she has the worst leaving scene and she actually has NO leaving scene AT ALL. What??? Ben and Polly turn up at the end of the story to tell the Doctor that Dodo has decided to stay on Earth. Very strange. Not to be cruel to Dodo but she wasn't exactly a great companion.
I wonder if Ben and Polly know what they've got themselves in for? Companions have come and gone a great deal over the last few years but Ben and Polly would be there to see the show through one of the biggest and riskiest changes the show had experienced...the change of the Doctor himself!
Another season was complete! Come back soon to hear my thoughts on Season 4
Awesome! This is one of the best blogs ever! :D keep it up dude!
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