Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (1985)

Patrick Troughton is my favorite Doctor, yet even he can’t salvage the mess that is The Two Doctors. It’s extremely depressing to think that this rather ugly serial would be Troughton’s swan song as the Doctor.  To add insult to injury, Troughton’s Doctor is given little do it and is completely useless. 
The story gets off to a promising start, with The Second Doctor and Jamie in the TARDIS, getting ready to board a space station to see a scientist, Dastari.  There is even a nice stylistic choice by beginning the episode in black and white, to pay homage to Troughton’s tenure as the Doctor, and then gradually changing over into color.  It’s fun to see Troughton and Frazer Hines interact with each other, and these opening scenes are probably the best moments in the entire story. Sadly, once they board the space station things take a turn for the worst. 

The Colin Baker Era (seasons 22 and 23) is widely criticized, justifiably so, for the terrible writing and The Two Doctors is no exception.  The Second Doctor, “unofficially” representing the Time Lords, tells Dastari that he needs to put a stop to time travel experiments being done by two scientists named Kartz and Reimer. This offends Dastari, but before he can demand the Doctor to leave, he is knocked out by a drug, while the Doctor is taken prisoner by a Sontaran; Jamie manages to escape.  This exchange between the Doctor and Dastari perfectly sums up what is wrong with this episode: the two characters spend at least five minutes talking about the experiments of two scientists that we never see.  Why even bring up the names Kartz and Reimer if they don’t make an appearance?  It would have been much more effective, and simpler, if Dastari was the one doing the experiments and the Doctor demanded that he stop.  

The Colin Baker Era was often burdened with endless subplots that didn’t go any where. When the Sixth Doctor, through a series of contrivances, arrives at the space station, he is appalled to find that everyone aboard has been massacred and wonders aloud who could have done such a thing. A computer voice tells him that it was the Time Lords.  The Doctor doesn’t believe it and is certain that some one is trying to frame them. His deductions are correct when, by the description Jamie gives him, he concludes that it was the Sontarans.  This subplot might have been effective if it weren’t for the fact that the audience already knows it was Sontarans who were responsible for the massacre.  This whole sequence confuses me:  are we supposed to believe it was the Time Lords? If so, then why show us the Sontarans in the early going? If not, then why treat it like a mystery? The Sixth Doctor spends a good chunk of the story trying to solve this “mystery”; it's not until the second episode that he concludes it was the Sontarans.  

Jamie is also adamant that he has seen the Second Doctor murdered by Dastari and company. The Sixth Doctor, naturally, dismisses this because if his earlier incarnation had been killed then couldn’t exist. However, the Sixth Doctor postulates that his earlier self could have died and the reason that he is still alive is because he is at the “epicenter” of the time experiments.  He then tells Peri that such a paradox could bring about the end of the universe and, in fact, the “collapse of the universe has started.”  A few seconds later, the Sixth Doctor stumbles across a hologram of the Second Doctor being killed. Yup! All that speculating about the end of the universe was just to eat up valuable running time. Again, what was the point of this scene? The reveal that the Second Doctor’s murder was just a hologram might have been surprising if it weren’t for the fact that, in the previous episode, we see him being carried to hacienda by Dastari and the Sontaran, Stike.  Why create a mystery when there isn’t one in the first place?  

I admit I find the plot of The Two Doctors to be rather confusing:  Dastari, through a series of operations, has transformed Chessense, an Androgum (a bestial alien species) into a beautiful, and brilliant, woman. They form an alliance with the Sontarans so they can unlock the secrets of Time Lord time travel; Kartz and Reimer have even built a prototype TARDIS.  They find out that the Time Lords have a symbiotic relationship with their TARDISes and hope to extract DNA from the Second Doctor, so they can get their TARDIS to work.  Meanwhile, Shockeye, a “pure” Androgrum (and chef), is solely interested in tasting human flesh as he has never tasted it before.  The Sixth Doctor, along with Peri and Jamie, must stop Chessene and the Sontarans before it’s too late.  This is essentially the storyline, but is riddled with inconsistencies:

1)      The whole reason for kidnapping the Second Doctor is so the Sontarans and Chessene can have access to time travel, but everyone seems to overlook the fact that the Sontarans, at least in previous episodes, already have access to time travel. Why would they align themselves with someone as duplicitous as Chessene?  

2)      In the episode three, Chessene says to hell with extracting the “symbotic nuclei,” let’s turn the Doctor into an Androgum.  She has Dastari implant the Doctor with Shockeye’s DNA. This plot really doesn’t go anywhere; the Second Doctor briefly turns into an Androgum and finds a kindred spirit in Shockeye. The two of them go to a local restaurant, managed by Oscar, and sample all of the food. However, the Doctor’s body eventually rejects the transfusion and he returns to his normal state. 

3)      Dastari has a change of heart when Chessene orders that the Sixth Doctor be killed. Dastari protests, fearing how the Time Lords will react when one of their own has been murdered.  Wouldn’t the operations Dastari performed on the Second Doctor upset the Time Lords, too? The Time Lords were already disturbed by the time travel experiments being performed by Kartz and Reimer, so certainly they would be equally upset at Dastari for using own of their own as a guinea pig. 

4)      It should also be noted that during Troughton’s tenure the Doctor was on the run from the Time Lords and it wasn't until his last story, The War Games, that they finally caught up with him.  Therefore, it is rather odd that he is on an “unofficial” mission from the Time Lords, when they technically shouldn't know his whereabouts.  Though, a similar error occurs in The Five Doctors, when the Second Doctor is able to remember events that occurred a few minutes before his supposed regeneration.  Of course, these inconsistencies have been retconned into the season 6b theory, which states the Time Lords didn’t force the Doctor to regenerate after his trial in The War Games, but, instead, used him as an agent to carry out their will. The fact that we never see the Second Doctor fully regenerate at the end of The War Games does lend this theory some credence. 

Oddly enough, while everything that I just described is, basically, the plot to The Two Doctors, it only constitutes about 50% of the actual story; a good portion of the screen time is devoted to the Sixth Doctor and companions wandering around. Hell, it isn’t until midway through the second part that the Sixth Doctor gets involved with the main action.  It’s even more shameful that Patrick Troughton spends most of his screen time strapped to an operating table.  The Two Doctors is the longest of all the multi-Doctor stories (roughly 135 minutes), yet the two Doctors have less than ten minutes of total screen time together.  There’s also a subplot involving the bumbling actor/restaurant manager, Oscar, and his girlfriend, Anita, as they go moth hunting.  There is a lot of filler, but very little suspense.

None of these inconsistencies would really matter if The Two Doctors was actually a fun story, but, sadly, despite the presence of Troughton and Hines, it is one joyless mess.  This, unfortunately, was the rule rather than the exception in the Colin Baker Era (and even for a good portion of the Peter Davison years). The Two Doctors is a mean-spirited and, shockingly, nihilistic story.  We are witness to such repugnant acts like: the murder of an old, blind woman; Shockeye killing a truck driver (this scene is extremely upsetting because the Second Doctor, in his Androgum state, is an accomplice to the crime); Oscar being stabbed in the heart by Shockeye; Chessene, unable to control her primitive urges, lapping up a puddle of the Sixth Doctor’s blood; the Sontarans being melted by coronic acid; Shockeye constantly drooling over Peri and Jamie; and the Docter killing Shockeye with cyanide. Doctor Who, at its best, not only elicits a sense of wonder, but can make you think as well.  The Two Doctors, on the other hand, is merely content with shocking its audience. The murder of Oscar, for example, doesn’t really have any narrative value, it merely exists to jolt the viewer. Even worse is that his death is treated as a joke; after he gets stabbed Oscar quips, “Dissatisfied customers usually just don’t leave a tip.” He recites a passage from Hamlet and tells his girlfriend, Anita, to look after his moth collection, and then he dies.

It’s also hampered by the some of the worst villains in Doctor Who history: Dastari and Chessene are boring; John Stratton chews the scenery as Shockeye and is more comical than scary; Shockeye is supposed to possess super strength, but his flabby physique suggests otherwise; and the Sontarans, Varl and Stike, are absolutely worthless.  They exist mainly to be given gruesome deaths. Why even include them in the story? They were supposedly added at the suggestion of producer John Nathan Turner, much to the chagrin of scriptwriter, Robert Holmes. It definitely shows, because they could have easily removed from the script and no one would be any the wiser. 

However, the main problem with The Two Doctors, and all of the Colin Baker, is the often toxic relationship between the Sixth Doctor and his companion, Peri. Naturally, the first time we meet them in the story, they are bickering; The Sixth Doctor is fishing and Peri is bored.  This moment perfectly sums up their relationship: nonstop bickering.  These moments are supposed to be funny, but they extremely tiresome after awhile. Why would Peri want to travel with this Doctor? Why would the Doctor want a complete wet blanket like Peri as a companion?  The plan for the Sixth Doctor was that he was supposed to start off as a bad apple, but, as his travels progressed, his lighter side would eventually emerge. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, after all, that is how the First Doctor (William Hartnell) started out; in An Unearthly Child the Doctor is, essentially, the villain of the piece.  However, there are two specific reasons why this worked so well in the Hartnell Era and why it fell flat under Colin Baker:

1)      The companions.  An Unearthly Child is told from the point of view of school teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. They are both likable characters and their concern over one of their students, Susan, leads them directly to the Doctor and the TARDIS.  The Doctor is initially hostile towards both of them, but, as the series progressed, he eventually warms up to them and their positive influence wears off on him.  They constantly challenged the Doctor and, as a result, this would force him to rethink his position on many things.  Peri, on the other hand, just complains the entire time. The writers should have spent time trying to develop the relationship of the Doctor and Peri, but it virtually remained the same. There was some attempt, mainly by the actors, to soften the relationship in The Mysterious Planet, but it was too little too late; in fact, the next serial, Mind Warp, would be Peri’s final story.  Also, poor Nicola Bryant, she spent most of her time on Doctor Who, running around in revealing, or tight outfits, and being leered at by grotesque alien monsters. There was never any real attempt to develop Peri into a competent companion, her sole function is to provide eye candy for the male viewers. 

2)      The Doctor’s good side is hinted at with the close bond he shares with his granddaughter, Susan. The Doctor always has her best interest at heart and we, rightfully, suspect underneath his grumpy exterior that he is really a good man; he just needs Ian and Barbara to remind him of this fact. Our suspicions are confirmed later on in the series when the Doctor takes the orphaned Vicki under his wing. It’s interesting that in Vicki’s first story, The Rescue, that it is the Doctor she takes an immediate liking to, while being slightly suspicious of Ian and Barbara. There is not a hint of this in Season 22; instead we are constantly bombarded with unpleasant characters, gratuitous violence, and a very ineffectual Doctor.  Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant did their best with the material they were given, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the poor writing and the shoddy production values. 

It can be argued that is The Two Doctors is supposed to be unpleasant, as it is an anti-meat, anti-hunting, pro-vegetarian parable by Robert Holmes. The problem is that whatever message Holmes was trying to get across gets lost in the endless subplots, boring villains, and ridiculous moments (Shockeye and the Second Doctor eating twelve servings at a restaurant, Oscar’s cowardice, etc). It’s a script that is in desperate need of a rewrite.  Why over complicate such a straightforward message? If Holmes wanted to do anti-hunting story, then why not do a version of The Most Dangerous Game with the Doctor? The simplicity of that story is what makes it great. Why would you even want to shoe horn a message into a multi-Doctor story? It’s not exactly the ideal venue.  Holmes was one of the better writers on Classic Who, The Two Doctors is one of his few misfires.

There is little to recommend in The Two Doctors; because Patrick Troughton is given very little to do, the only bright spot in the story is the character of Anita (Carmen Gomez).  She is immensely likable character and is far more help to the Doctor than Peri ever was.  When the Sontaran spaceship lands, she, mistakenly, believes that an airplane has crashed and immediately wants to help; her character is brimming with compassion - a rarity in the Colin Baker Era.  

It’s a shame that the Sixth Doctor didn’t exchange Peri for her.  Or better yet, the Second Doctor should have invited her to come along traveling with him and Jamie in the TARDIS. That would have made for a fun adventure. 

Credits

Cast: Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor), Patrick Troughton (The Second Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Frazer Hines (Jamie), John Stratton (Shockeye), Jacqueline Pearce (Chessene), Laurence Payne (Dastari), James Saxon (Oscar), Carmen Gomez (Anita), Tim Raynham (Varl), Clinton Greyn (Stike), Aimée Delamain (Doña Arana), Nicholas Fawcett (Technician).

Director: Peter Moffatt
Writer: Robert Holmes
Running Time: 135 min [3 Episodes]

Doctor Who: The Chase (May 22, 1965 - June 26, 1965)

The world of Doctor Who has been and always will be a mixed bag, one story can amaze you with it's creativity and intelligent writing, the next can bore you to tears with it's laziness. There are undisputed masterpieces from both eras of Doctor Who, then there are the complete duds, ones that you would like to forget about. Then there are stories like The Chase which leaves you scratching your head, wondering what in the hell it is you are watching. The Chase is a six part serial from the second season of Doctor Who, it was also the season finale which saw the departure of longtime companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. It's hard to describe The Chase, because while it isn't particularly good, it's also extremely hard to dislike, because it's an extremely ridiculous story, punctuated by bumbling Daleks, a pit stop on top of The Empire State Building, a misadventure inside a carnival horror house, and a robot duplicate of the Doctor. It's borderline surreal at times, the most memorable moment being a long shot of a Dalek slowly emerging from the sand on a desert planet (populated by reptilian like people).

The plot is fairly simple: The Daleks chase the Doctor and his companions throughout time and space. The Chase came early in the evolution of Doctor Who; at this point very little of the mythology had been set. It wouldn't be established until The Tenth Planet that the Doctor could regenerate and it wasn't until The War Games that it was revealed which alien civilization that Doctor hailed from; in The Chase the Daleks refer to him as being a human. The TARDIS is supposed to be Time Lord technology, but the Daleks time machine is exactly like the Doctor's, bigger on the inside. At one point the Doctor implies that he built the TARDIS, whereas in The War Games he tells Jamie and Zoe that he stole it.

However, other than the Doctor and the TARDIS, there was one point of the mythology that had been established, the leaving of the companions. In Dalek Invasion of the Earth, The Doctor's granddaughter Susan falls in love with a future resistance fighter and The Doctor leaves her behind, so she can pursue a life of happiness. Enter Vicki, who is an often overlooked companion, but a noteworthy one as she was the first of many change ups in the TARDIS line up. Vicki, in many ways, was exactly like the Doctor, in that she was a loner that had been separated from her family; she was in a space crash that claimed the life of her father. The Doctor and her hit off from the get go and she became a surrogate granddaughter to him. I rather like the relationship between the Doctor and Vicki, because it allowed the Doctor to show his more gentler side. Susan was his granddaughter, but Vicki was a complete stranger whom he took under his wing. Vicki was also a far more livelier companion than Susan; at one point in The Chase she begins to imitate the voice of a Mechonoid (a robot race that lives on the planet Mechanus), much to the annoyance of Barbara.

Ian and Barbara probably belong in the "TOP 5 COMPANIONS" list, because their relationship with the Doctor grew as the series progressed. Initially, there were unwanted travelers on the TARDIS and the Doctor had an antagonistic attitude towards them. Yet, eventually the Doctor's attitude began to mellow and eventually they wound up the best of friends. It's no wonder the Doctor is at first reluctant to help them when they ask him how to operate the Daleks' time machine to get back to their own time. The Doctor claims he doesn't want to "abet in suicide," but secretly he doesn't want to see his two best friends leave him. After Vicki pleads with, the Doctor acquiesces and shows them how to work the Dalek's time machine. The scenes with Ian and Barbara running amuk London are the best in the entire serial, this could be largely due to the fact that were directed by Douglas Camfield, one of Doctor Who's best directors. They pack an emotional wallop and are extremely bittersweet in their execution. Ian and Barbara are home, but there adventures in the TARDIS have come to an end. The Doctor confides to Vicki that he will miss them. It's a strong ending to a fairly contrived story.

The first episode of the saga ("The Executioners") sets the tone for the insanity that is about to ensue. The Doctor and company are aboard the TARDIS, Ian's reading book, Barbara's making a dress, and Vicki is getting in the way. The Doctor calls them over to have a look at his Time Space Visualiser, which is essentially a "Time Television."

The Doctor has each of the companions choose a historical event they want to watch; Ian chooses Abraham Lincoln giving the Gettysburg address, Barbara picks William Shakespeare visiting Queen Elizabeth, and Vicki delights over The Beatles singing "Ticket To Ride" on Top of the Pops. Barbara is surprised that Vicki, being from the distant future, knows of The Beatles. Vicki, in a bit of prophecy, responds that she's been to The Beatles Museum many times. She thinks they are fantastic, but didn't know their music was "classical." The perplexes Barbara, but Ian moves things forward by suggest music styles change over the years. This sequences up about rough ten minutes of screen time and has practically no narrative value. The Time Space Visualiser does comes into play later in the episode, but the rest of it is just filler.

Finally, the TARDIS has landed, on the desert planet Aridius, and the crew go on their merry way, forgetting to turn off  the Time Space Visualiser. Vicki wants to go off exploring and Ian goes along with her, while Barbara and the Doctor soak up some sun. Barbara, distracted by the humming coming from the Time Space Visualiser, goes inside the TARDIS to turn it off, only to stumble across a "broadcast" of the Daleks. She calls the Doctor and together they learn about the Daleks' plan to chase them throughout the Galaxy and exterminate them.  Yes, it's through sheer happenstance that the Doctor discovers the Daleks' diabolical plan. Granted, Doctor Who has always been contrived, but this is just too much to accept. The Doctor's survival is dependent upon a Time Television accidentally being left on. The Doctor deduces that since the Time Space Visualiser can only pick up events from the past that means the Daleks must have already landed on the planet Aridius. The two of them go to gather Vicki and Ian, only to get lost in a sandstorm. Aridius has two suns and the climate changes rapidly, the sandstorm lasts for only a few seconds, but in that time the TARDIS has been buried. For an episode that is set on an expansive desert planet, it's pretty claustrophobic; at one point Ian and Vicki cast shadows on the painted back drop. It's only too obvious this was shot in a studio, a small one at that. Of course, this was standard for many of old Doctor Who episodes.
Meanwhile, Vicki and Ian have come across a trap door which leads into a cavern beneath the sand. They go down to investigate and the door closes behind them. THEY ARE TRAPPED. Just when things can't get any worse, a tentacled beast starts crawling towards them. Is it the end of Vicki and Ian?
Cut to the Doctor and Barbara still wandering through the desert. The Doctor tells Barbara to get down and, to their complete horror, a Dalek slowly starts to emerge from the sand.

This bit is lifted from the serial Dalek Invasion of Earth, in which one of the cliffhangers consisted of a Dalek slowly emerging from the Thames river.  END OF PART ONE!

Episode Two ("The Death of Time") is the weakest part of The Chase, in large part due to the overall cheapness of the production. The classic Doctor Who always had fairly poor production values, but even by the low standards of 1960s BBC television, they are extremely bad in this episode. How bad are they? Well, I've seen high school plays with better production values.  The most problematic aspect of the episode is the Aridians, a reptilian like species that live underground. What's so bad about that, you ask? Well, just take a look at them:

Yup, they are indeed men in leotards with scales glued onto them and are wearing fin-like helmets. It's a complete credit to William Hartnell that he is able to deliver his lines in a completely straight and sincere manner, despite the silliness that is constantly staring him in the face. The Aridians mortal enemies are the Mire Beasts, which look like this:

The Aridians find the Doctor and Barbara in the desert and give them shelter and food. Meanwhile, Vicki and Ian have successfully eluded one of the Mire Beasts, but are still lost in the underground tunnels. The Aridians hope to contain the Mire Beasts by blowing up their underground strongholds, Vicki and Ian get caught in the blast, but manage to survive. Ian gets knocked unconscious by a rock and Vicki runs off to the find the Doctor. The Daleks force two Aridians to dig out the TARDIS from the sand and then execute them for their effort. The pleasantries between the Doctor, Barbara and the Aridians come to end, when they tell the Doctor they have been issued an ultimatum by the Daleks: Hand over the Doctor and his companion or be destroyed! They refused to allow the Doctor and Barbara to leave, fearing the repercussions bring on their race. Vicki manages to find the Doctor and tells him about Ian. However, their happy reunion is short  lived, when the Doctor gives Vicki the entire low down.  Just when things look bleak for our heroes, a Mire Beast comes crashing through a bricked up wall and attacks an Aridian that happens to be standing in its path. This proves to be enough of distraction that it allows for the Doctor and friends to sneak away. Ian has regained consciousness and manages to stumble upon the TARDIS, which is being guarded by Daleks.  Two of the Daleks have been called away, leaving just one Dalek guard on the TARDIS. Ian bumps into the Doctor and company and they devise a plan to lure the Dalek away from the TARDIS. Ian covers a hole with Barbara's sweater and the Doctor's jacket, and they get the Dalek's attention by shouting insults at it. The Dalek scuttles towards our heroes and falls into the hole. The Doctor and his companions get inside the TARDIS and not a second too soon, for at that very moment a platoon of Daleks fire at the TARDIS. The TARDIS dematerializes and the Doctor and friends are on their way to next week's episode ("Flight Through Eternity.")

I'm going to be completely biased here, part three of The Chase ("Flight From Eternity") is one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, despite being a completely unnecessary one. Nothing in this episode advances the story in the least, it's just filler. Yet, it's so completely ridiculous that you can't but help to love it. What's so special about this episode, you ask? Well, essentially the TARDIS makes two pit shops; one atop of the Empire State Building, the other aboard on old sailing ship. The Empire State Building sequence is especially interesting, because it's seen entirely through the eyes of a secondary character, Alabama Hillbilly, Morton Dill.

Dill is part of tour group and while the rest of them leave, he stays behind, hoping to get a picture of the breath taking scenery. Just then the TARDIS materializes and naturally Dill is completely bewildered by the whole thing. His bewilderment is changed to complete delight when Vicki and Barbara exit from the TARDIS. Barbara asks him what year it is and he, in state of confusion, tells her it is 1966. When the Doctor and Ian exit the TARDIS as well, Dill is convinced that they are from Hollywood, that the TARDIS is a prop, the Doctor is a director, and the companions are actors. The Doctor humors him and they get inside the TARDIS. Dill wants to get their picture, but when he goes to grab his camera that TARDIS has dematerialized. Almost instantly, the Daleks' time machine materializes and once again, Morton Dill thinks they are a form of Hollywood trickery. The Daleks asks him a few questions and he tells them about the "Hollywood people" and how they left. The Daleks follow suit. And, once again, Dill goes for his camera, but before he can get a picture, the Daleks' time machine dematerializes. Dill is convinced that there is a trap door hidden on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and gets on his hands and knees to feel around for it. Just then the tour group returns and the tour guide tells one of them to get a policeman. Thus ends the misadventures of Morton Dill. I absolutely adore this bit, largely due to Peter Purves' wonderful comic performance. Purves seems to have taken his cue from Max Bear, Jr. (Jethro in the Beverly Hillbillies);  he talks in a cheesy southern accent, does lots of double takes, and is boundlessly energetic throughout.Though, Dill is not nearly as dense as Jethro.  I, for one, would love to see Morton Dill make a come back.
The second part of this episode finds the TARDIS crew aboard an old sailing ship. Barbara decides to have a look around, but gets accosted by a sailor who thinks she is a stowaway. Barbara protests, but to no avail. Vicki leaves the TARDIS and sees that Barbara is in distress. She sneaks up on the sailor and knocks him unconscious. The TARDIS is ready to go, so the Doctor sends Ian to gather the girls. Barbara and Vicki hear footsteps and hide. Ian walks into view and gets knocked on the head by Vicki, who mistakes him for a sailor. The girls put his arms around their shoulders and carry him back to the TARDIS. It dematerializes.  The sailor regains conscious and tells the rest of the crew about the female stowaway on board. They spread out to find her, just then the Daleks' time machine materializes on the ship. The crew, terrified by the sight of the Daleks, all abandon ship. The Daleks take off in their time machine. The name of the ship, the Mary Celeste. There is actually a pretty grim moment in what is otherwise a fairly light hearted episode; one of the people seen jumping the ship is a woman clutching a baby in her arms. It's an odd choice, tonally, but they are only onscreen for a brief second.
The Doctor reveals that they only have a eight minute lead on the Daleks and that gap keeps decreasing. END OF PART THREE.

Episode Four ("Journey Into Terror") amps up the absurdity that is The Chase by setting the entire episode in a futuristic theme park, "Frankenstein's House of Horrors" that features an animatronic Dracula and Frankenstein Monster. The major flaw of this episode is that it calls for the TARDIS crew to behave in an extremely dim manner. The animatronic Dracula and Frankenstein Monster go through the same motions over and over, yet the crew never figures out that they are mechanical in nature; at the end of the episode Vicki tries to warn the Dracula mock up about the Daleks, but to no avail. Barbara and Ian may not be familiar with animatronics, but certainly the Doctor and Vicki would know about them. Vicki, is from the future, and the Doctor has traveled throughout time and space, yet it never crosses either of their minds that what they are seeing is mechanical in nature. The Doctor's conclusion is that the TARDIS some how landed in the dark recesses of the human psyche. Vicki manages to get separated by the rest of the group, while trying to warn the clockwork Dracula about the Daleks, and is forced to hitch a ride aboard the Daleks' time machine.  Interestingly, this episode predates the opening of the Disney attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean, by two years. It should also be noted that mechanical monstrosities are immune to the Daleks' death rays.

In one of the most surreal moments in a Doctor Who episode, a Dalek blasts the Frankenstein Monster with its death ray and enrages the creature in the process. The animatronic creature comes to life, lifts up the Dalek, and smashes it into the ground. The Daleks run away in terror. Vicki, inside the Dalek time machine, tries to radio for help, but to no avail. The Daleks enter and Vicki hides. The audience (and Vicki) is then introduced to the next phase of Daleks' plan: a robotic duplicate of the Doctor. Vicki is horrified by what she sees. Meanwhile, back in the TARDIS, the Doctor and crew finally realize that they accidentally left Vicki behind. The strategize a way to get her back and decide the best option would be to seize the Dalek time machine, as it more reliable than the TARDIS. The Doctor then states the next place they land will be the sight of the final battle between them and the Daleks.  END OF PART FOUR!

Episode Five ("The Death of Doctor Who") features the least convincing double in television history. As mentioned above, the Daleks create a robotic duplicate of The Doctor and give it the following orders: Infiltrate, divide, and kill. The TARDIS has landed on the planet Mechanus, which is swarming with giant fungoid plants that attack everything that walks in their path, but are completely sensitive to bright light. Through out this excitement, the Doctor has managed to make a bomb to destroy the Daleks. Meanwhile, Vicki has managed to escape from the Dalek time machine and while wandering through the jungle, gets attacked by a fungoid plant. She lets out a scream that is heard by the Doctor and his companions.

 The Doctor and Ian run to the rescue, while Barbara remains the cave they have stumbled upon. The robot Doctor enters the cave and informs Barbara that Ian has been killed by a fungoid plant and that he needs her help in the jungle. The Doctor and Ian find Vicki and bring her back to the cave. She panics at first when she sees the Doctor, but soon realizes he is the real deal when she sees Ian standing next to him. She then informs the Doctor and Ian about the robot duplicate and the three then go searching for Barbara. Barbara is elated when she hears Ian calling her name, just then the robot Doctor lunges at her, knocks her to the ground, but before he can finish the job, Ian comes to save the day. The robot Doctor escapes.
This episode is particularly confusing, because in some instance the robot duplicate is played by William Hartnell (in close ups), but for the most part is portrayed by a double, Edmond Warwick, who vaguely resembles William Hartnell. At the end of the episode, the two Doctors confront each other and the TARDIS crew can't tell who is Who. (Ha!) On paper, this should be an extremely suspenseful scene; the problem, however, is that the director, Richard Martin, makes the mistake of showing the face of the double (in close up) and the audience is already clued as to who is the real Doctor and who is the fake. The TARDIS crew doesn't figure it out until the robot refers to Vicki as "Susan." The Doctor dispatches of his doppelganger by ripping out it's wiring. With the robot Doctor out of the way, the TARDIS crew can resume it's mission. Or so they think!

William Hartnell - The Doctor.

The Robot Doctor with Vicki and Barbara.

The Doctor and his companions get a good night's rest. Unbeknownst to them, a camera lowers from the roof of the cave and spies on them. When the wake up the next morning, they are surprised to see an entire city above the jungle. They didn't notice it before, because of the darkness.

 However, this serene setting is short lived when the Daleks come charging at them; they take shelter in the cave. Ian suggests that the Doctor impersonate his robot duplicate and try to fool the Daleks, but Vicki and Barbara disagree, stating that it is too dangerous. While the companions have a debate, the Doctor sneaks out and give this plan a try. It is a complete failure. The Doctor makes it back just by the skin of his teeth. Just when things look hopeless for our heroes, one of the walls in the cave opens up to reveal a large, circular mechanical creature, a Mechonoid. It orders them to enter and they reluctantly accept it's invitation.
END OF PART FIVE.

Episode six ("Planet of Decision") is the final chapter in The Chase saga. It introduces a new companion, Steven Taylor (Peter Purves again), while saying goodbye to Ian and Barbara. The Mechonoids are a fairly well realized creation, they move smoothly and are fairly menacing at times. It's amazing to think that this episode is part of the same serial that gave such atrocities like the Aridians and the Mire Beast. The Mechonoid takes the TARDIS crew to a room and they are introduced to Steven Taylor, an astronaut who crash landed on Mechanus two years earlier. The years of isolation has made Steven slightly off kilter; his only companion during that entire time was his mascot, Hi Fi, a small stuffed panda bear. He is completely overjoyed to be in the presence of humans again that he refuses to shut up, asking them endless questions. He reveals that they are all prisoners to the Mechonoids, who regard them all as specimens to study. The Mechonoids were originally devised by humans to clear the planet for colonization, but an interplanetary war put an end to that, since then they have been roaming the planet, doing maintenance on one another, and taking prisoner whatever life form stumbled in their direction.

Steven takes the Doctor and friends to the roof, the only place that is Mechonoid free. It just so happens that on the roof is a drum that is filled with cabling. The Doctor devises a plan of escape; they will lower the cabling over the side and climb down it. In fact, they really have no choice, for at that very moment the Daleks come crashing into the Mechonoid city. The Daleks and the Mechonoids start to battle one another, amidst the chaos, the Doctor sneaks into the room and plants his bomb. A Dalek runs into it, sets it off, and a fire erupts. The TARDIS crew is ready to go, when Vicki has a panic attack. The Doctor blind folds Vicki, while Ian ties cable around her waist. The slowly lower her down to safety. Steven notices the building is on fire, let's go of the cable, and runs to save his mascot, Hi Fi. The Doctor and companions manage to recover just in the nick of time, sparing Vicki the fate of becoming a human pancake. 

The rest of the crew climb down to safety, while the Daleks and the Mechonoids destroy one another. The Mechonoid  city goes up in a blaze; the fate of Steven is unknown to the Doctor and crew. Later, he is seen stumbling through the jungle, some how surviving the inferno. The TARDIS crew stumble upon the Dalek time machine, Ian has a little fun by impersonating a Dalek. The Doctor has won the day! The Doctor comments on what a remarkable piece of technology the Dalek time machine is and how it managed to stay on their heels throughout time and space. Ian and Barbara realize that they can use the time machine to get back home and plead their case to the Doctor. He is reluctant at first, but eventually gives into their wishes and shows them how to work the machine. They materialize in an abandoned garage in 1965. Ian activates the self destruct mechanism on the time machine, and he and Barbara run for cover. The two go sight seeing throughout London. This is a rather effective moment, achieved through the use of still photos. At one point they stumble upon a police box and are relieved to find out that it is a real one. They get on a city bus and try to come up with a story that will explain their two year absence. The Doctor and Vicki watch them on the Time Space Visualiser; Vicki is overjoyed that they landed safely, while the Doctor is saddened to see them gone. END OF THE CHASE.  What about Steven, you ask? Well, it is revealed in next week's episode that he stowed aboard the TARDIS.

The Chase is too muddled to be classified as a good Doctor Who serial, but it's never boring, either. Just when you think have you seen everything, it throws another surprise your way. It may not be good surprise, but it sure as hell won't put you to sleep. It's an extremely fun story if you catch it in the right frame of mind. It's certainly no worse than the atrocity that is The Last of the Time Lords. 

It also needs to be said that William Hartnell is vastly underrated as the Doctor. Hell, many fans of the new Doctor Who have probably never heard of William Hartnell. This is a great shame!  Tom Baker and David Tennant are the names that usually spring to mind when people talk about their favorite Doctor. I wouldn't say Hartnell is my favorite Doctor, but the more I see him the more I like him. Indeed, there is no Doctor Who without William Hartnell. Many of the eccentricities that fans associate with the Doctor originate in Hartnell's performance. His Doctor possessed great intelligence, but could be incredibly absented minded at time. He had a great whimsy about him, but also an extremely volatile temper. There was a great air of mystery surrounding the First Doctor, that seemed to lessen with each incarnation. You never knew what Hartnell's Doctor was capable of; each week he surprised you with something new. In An Unearthly Child, he is a sinister figure and, for the most part, the villain of the piece. At one point in the serial, he contemplates smashing in the head of a wounded caveman with a rock, because the man is a hindrance to the group; Ian intervenes before the Doctor can enact his plan. Yet, despite his seemingly sinister exterior, there was a glint of benevolence waiting to be stirred up. The audience sensed he was a good guy at heart, largely due to the strong bond he had with his granddaughter Susan. She was his soft spot that offered a glimpse into his "humanity." As the series progressed, the Doctor grew as a character, the good side emerged and he formed a tight bond with Ian and Barbara as well. Hartnell brought a lot of conviction to the role; there was never any hint that he was sending up the material.
There was also an air of vulnerability about Hartnell's Doctor (and Troughton's for the matter), he was a frail old man who could drop dead any minute. Every time he went up against a villain, it often felt like a mismatch in their favor, but some how the Doctor would persevere. Flash forward to Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, and the audience was 100% each time that the Doctor would win out, because Pertwee cut such an imposing figure. No monster stood a chance against him. It's this vulnerability that makes the Doctor such a unique hero, especially in the same decade that brought James Bond to the silver screen. He was not a dashing lady killer who beat his rivals senseless, but rather a cantankerous old man who used every ounce of his brain to outwit his opponents. William Hartnell was a wonderful Doctor and the fan base owes his a great deal of thanks for his memorable characterization.

Credits:

Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright), Maureen O' Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven Taylor/Morton Dill).

Director: Richard Martin
Writer: Terry Nation

Blood On Satan's Claw (1971)

Blood On Satan's Claw is an extremely flawed, but fascinating horror movie. Initially, it was supposed to be anthology of three stories all linked together with "the Devil's skin" infecting individuals and turning them into evil, Satan worshiping thugs, but the filmmakers decided to condense the three story lines into one narrative, turning it into a disjointed, often plodding horror film. It's fairly common for characters to disappear from the narrative and never to be heard from again..... WITH NO EXPLANATION.

The story is about a farming community that is effected by demonic possession after a plow boy, Ralph (Barry Andrews), accidentally unearths the remains of a demonic creature with strange fur on it. Shortly afterwards, the children (more accurately young adults) of the community start getting infected with a strange patch of fur on their bodies and join a satanic cult. The leader of the cult is Angel Blake, who is determined to bring the Devil back in the flesh. Apparently, these strange patches of fur are the "Devil's skin" and she needs all of them to resurrect him from the netherworld. The cult aspect of the film is poorly handled, because it's never established when it actually begins. Angel Blake, for instance, goes from being a normal teenage girl to evil temptress in a blink of an eye, there's no transitional period. A half hour into the film, the cult is well underway, and more than half the children in the area have already joined, much to the chagrin of the local Reverend (Anthony Ainley). The first half hour of the film centers around the character of Peter and his fiancee Rosalind. Peter lives with his upper class, well to do aunt, who naturally disapproves of him marrying a peasant girl like Rosalind. Peter's aunt forces Rosalind to sleep in the attic of the house, after Peter has successfully campaigned to let her stay the night, and it's there that Rosalind is possessed by some demonic force. Screams ring through the household and Peter's aunt goes upstairs to check what all the commotion is about, only to have her face scratched to hell by the possessed Rosalind, who's right hand has been replaced by claws....Satan's claws.

The film is lacking in the protagonist department as well, there really is no strong central figure for the audience to get involved with. The Judge (Patrick Wymark) is, by default, the hero of the film as he vanquishes Satan at the film's climax, but he's not a particularly sympathetic character and is off screen for a good chunk of the narrative. He does have a character arc as he goes from being completely skeptical (and ignorant) of the supernatural to eventually accepting it and using his knowledge of it to stop the spread of evil.
The closest the film comes to having a protagonist we care about is Ralph. He is a sympathetic character, but is often on the periphery of events, rather than the center; he is a beat too late from saving his beloved Cathy from the satanic cult. At the film's climax, he contemplates giving into his more primal urges, until the Judge arrives just in the nick of time to save him. He does manage to save Margaret, member of the cult, from certain death by pulling her from the river, after an angry mob has attempted to drown her by tossing her in. Ralph is an idealist and hopes that he can save Margaret from the clutches of the satanic cult. He naturally gets frustrated when the only thing Margaret prattles on and on about is her devotion to the Dark Lord.

The ending of the film is fairly anti-climatic: The Judge and a mob of villagers descends upon the coven, while Ralph is being seduced by the "charms" of a curvaceous cult member. Angel sees the mob coming, panics, and promptly runs into a pitchfork that one of the villagers is wielding. The Judge impales Satan (who is not fully completed, still needing "Devil's skin" from Ralph's leg) with a sword and then throws Beelzebub into a fire. Freeze frame. Credits roll.  The Judge has little difficulty in disposing of the Prince of Darkness and everything is right with the world.

As sloppy and uninvolving as the film is at time, it's also hard to completely dismiss. There are some genuinely chilling moments throughout the film that remain ingrained in your memory.

1) The opening sequence in which Ralph unearths the one eyed skull of Satan. This starts out as a rather tranquil moment with Ralph waving to Cathy and then proceeding to go on with his plowing. Then, quite abruptly, the peace is shattered with the discovering of the deformed skull.

2) The murder of Mark Vespers. It is established early on the Mark has a crush on Angel Blake, so when two girls come to his doorway asking him if he wants to play and that ANGEL with be there, he naturally accepts the invitation. The scene starts out in a seemingly innocent manner as the kids frolic around the wood, but out of nowhere  hand emerges from the bushes and strangles Mark. The strangulation is implied, rather than actually shown, but once again it's rather jarring moment.

3) Angel's seduction of Reverend Fallowfield. Reverend Fallowfield is a stern taskmaster, who gets increasingly frustrated by the lack of focus his pupils have during his lessons. Naturally, when half of his class stops showing up this seriously pisses him off and he puts the blame on Angel Blake, as she is the ringleader of the group. Fallowfield is about ready to close up the church one night, when Angel comes in to have (what he assumes) a conversation him. However, Angel removes all her clothes and tries to seduce the Reverend into sleeping with her, he is tempted at first, but eventually rebukes her advances. The next day, Angel tells her father that the Reverend molested her and he takes this up with the town's squire. The squire has the Reverend arrested and this seemingly puts him out of the way. However, the Reverend is acquitted of all charges, when Ralph comes back carrying Cathy's corpse and telling the authorities that Angel is responsible for the murder. The Reverend, despite his acquittal, disappears from the proceeding altogether.

4) The rape and murder of Cathy Vespers. This is probably the most shocking scene in the picture, because it shows a rather sweet girl getting murdered in a rather brutal fashion. It's definitely hard to watch. Cathy is picking flowers in the woods, when two mischievous boys approach and ask her to play with them. They then tie a rope around her, in a seeming playful manner, and lead her to the middle of the woods where the rest of the coven is waiting. Angel emerges into the frame and starts to recite incantations, while Satan looks on in the background. Then the coven descends upon Cathy and tears off her clothes. One of the male members then step forward, slowly pulls down his pants, and rapes Cathy. After the rape is finished, Angel stabs Cathy in the back with a pair of sheers. Again, this is an extremely hard and painful scene to watch, but's effective in conveying the sheer terror of the moment. Our sympathies lie completely with Cathy and we are sickened by the abuse she is forced to endure. And, we can sympathizes with Ralph's pain when he finds the mangled body of his beloved lying in the woods. It's quite possibly one of the darkest scenes in cinema history. The rape itself is not graphic and rather short lived, but the build up to the moment makes it even more horrific. It's a rather long scene and disorienting one at that, the film cuts between shots of the coven, including a perverted old couple, and close ups of the frightened Cathy. Like her, we have no idea what is going to happen, so when the male starts to undress, our stomachs start to turn.

The 17th century witch movie ( or "folk horror" as Mark Gatiss termed it) was almost a subgenre in itself in the late 60s/early 70s with the release of films like The Witchfinder General, Cry of the Banshee, and Blood On Satan's Claw. In these films, violence is an epidemic that sweeps through the country side, only to come to abrupt end, but at an exceedingly high price. The Witchfinder General is the only one that doesn't have a supernatural element to the story line, but rather it's about a corrupt individual, Matthew Hopkins(Vincent Price), who sweeps through the countryside ridding the world of suspected witches, and people who are antagonistic towards him. It's a film that showcases humanity at it's worst and even the ending is a downer, despite the slewing of Hopkins, because it's implied that the protagonist of the piece, Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) has been driven mad in his quest for revenge. Cry of the Banshee shades the same flaws as Blood On Satan's Claw, but in this case the coven is the wronged party, while their persecutors are part of the decadent upper class.

Another interesting aspect of Blood On Satan's Claw is that it features not one, but two Doctor Who regulars, Wendy Padbury (Cathy Vespers) and Anthony Ainley. Padbury was just coming off her stint as Zoe Heriot, companion to the Second Doctor portrayed by Patrick Troughton, when she made this movie.  Ainley would go onto play the recurring role of The Master throughout the 80s. They share a few scenes together as Cathy is a member of Reverend Fallowfield's parish. Hell, even Barry Andrews would later go on to do a guest starring role in one of Tom Baker's later serials, Nightmare of Eden. 

The film is well acted for the most part, and director Piers Haggard does have a great eye for detail and establishing menace, it's just too bad the script is so incoherent, because the film had potential to be a classic.

Cast: Patrick Wymark (The Judge), Barry Andrews (Ralph Gower), Linda Hayden (Angel Blake), Michele Dotrice (Margaret), Wendy Padbury (Cathy Vespers), Anthony Ainley (Reverend Fallowfield), Charlotte Mitchell (Ellen Vespers), Tamara Ustinov (Rosalind Burton), Simon Williams (Peter Edmonton).
Director: Piers Haggard.
Screenplay: Robert Wynne-Simmons, Piers Haggard
Running Time: 93 min.