16: The Chase - A Truly Epic Adventure And A Fond Farewell To Our Favourite School Teachers.

Written by: Terry Nation.

Companions: The Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki.

Monsters/Villains: The Daleks, Mire beasts, Mechanoids.

Brief Synopsis: The Daleks chase the TARDIS through space and time.

Rating: 7/10.

Ding ding. All aboard. Welcome to "The Chase." The British Broadcasting Company would like to thank you for choosing us for your space and time travel needs. Please keep all limbs inside the Time And Relative Dimensions In Space capsule for the duration of the journey until you are informed by your tour guide that you may disembark. Your tour guide today will be, the Doctor. Now please gather round the time and space visualiser and we'll get started...

The Time and Space Visualiser.

The clue's really in the title here, it's a chase. The story kicks off with everyone lounging around the TARDIS while the Doctor finishes installing the Time and Space Visualiser. Once the Doctor get's it working each of the crew choose a period of history to view. Ian chooses the Gettysberg Address. Barbara chooses Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare discussing Falstaff's similarity to Sir John Oldcastle. We see the Queen suggesting Shakespeare write Merry Wives of Windsor. Then Francis Bacon gives him the idea to write Hamlet. Vicki then chooses The Beatles singing Ticket To Ride.

The Beatles appear in Doctor Who.

This is all good and well, but why are the crew all getting excited about this time and space TV when they're currently located in a time machine. Sod watching it. Go there instead!

Shakespeare makes his first appearance in Doctor Who.

Hello passengers, our first calling point today will be the once beautiful, ocean covered planet Aridius. Unfortunately the oceans have all dried up leaving only two sentient species the peaceful Aridians and the flesh-hungry Mire Beasts. Watch out for those little octopus-like critters. 

The Aridians.

There is a very strong parody feel to this whole story. Vicki and Ian discover an odd substance on the desert floor and Ian actually says, "at least it's not a pool of acid." To which Vicki responds "that makes a change." At the end of the first episode we see, guess what? A Dalek rising from the sand. Terry Nation loves having a Dalek rising out of something. Wether it be the Thames or the desert of Aridius. Meanwhile Ian and Vicki continue their self-referencial parody. As they encounter their first Mire Beast Ian says: "Don't just stand there screaming. Run." a few seconds later Vicki retorts "Don't just stand there gaping. Run."

A Mire Beast.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain calm but after having escaped the Mire Beasts we have come across some of the residents of Skaro, the Daleks. There is no need for alarm but if you would please return to the T.A.R.D.I.S immediately. We at the B.B.C apologise for the... umm... turbulence at our last destination. We have managed to fully evade the Daleks and should have no further problems or delays to our service. We will now be continuing on to our next scheduled stop, to the city of New York on the planet Earth.

A Dalek and Morton Dill at the top of
The Empire State Building.

The TARDIS crew manage to escape Aridius and arrive at their next location the observation gallery at the Empire State Building circa 1966. Where we meet actor, Peter Purves for the first time in this story playing the rather simple Alabamian, Morton Dill. It's wonderful watching Morton Dill mock the Dalek. He even does a Dalek impression in to the Dalek's sucker arm. 

Due to another liaison with the Daleks we have been forced to make a quick jump to another location, please stay calm while we try to return to our scheduled course. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a real treat for you, we will shortly be making an unscheduled stop, once again on the planet earth, on board the legendary ship, the Mary Celeste.

A Dalek aboard the Mary Celeste.

The next stop where our TARDIS team end is the the Mary Celeste in the 19th century. When the Daleks show up the whole crew jump overboard. Thanks Terry for explaining that one away. One of the Daleks that follows the TARDIS to the Mary Celeste falls into the water and it's head falls off.

You know what Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm starting to think that these Dalek creatures might be following us, like some kind of Chase. I would say don't panic, but I don't think that would help. Has anyone got a copy of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, cause I'm stuck for what to do. 

We've had to make another emergency stop but our guidance systems aren't working and we don't know where we are. We appear to be in some sort of old house.

Count Dracula?

The next stop is a haunted house, where the Doctor and his friends come face to face with Count Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster themselves. Ian once again mocks, saying this is a good place to fight the Daleks noting "it's got stairs and Daleks don't like stairs." The Daleks then show up once more. This time a Dalek gets destroyed by Frankenstein. This story has been going on for some time now and has really started to drag, Ian seems to agree as he states "This game of hide and seek through time is wearing a little thin." It certainly is Ian, it certainly is. The Doctor's incorrect explanation is somewhat more brilliant than the actual vindication. The Doctor explains, "that house was neither time nor space. We were lodged for a period in an area of human thought." Ian is right to challenge this although the crew never discover the truth that they were actually at a horror themed amusement park.

Edmund Warwick, an identical copy of the Doctor.

The most ridiculous part of this story is when the Daleks make a robot copy of the Doctor in order to infiltrate the TARDIS gang. At times the robot is played by a different actor Edmund Warwick, and you can quite easily see that he looks nothing like the Doctor. They sometime use Hartnell to play the robot version and at other times use Warwick from further away miming very badly to Hartnell's voice. I have no idea why they didn't just use Warwick in the two-shots.

Dueling Doctors. 

There's also a rather magnificent scene where the Hartnell Doctor and Warwick Robo-Doc has a tussle and both the audience and the TARDIS crew are meant to struggle to decipher which is the real Doctor. Hmmmm, I wonder?

The Mechanoid city on Mechanus.

Next stop for our intrepid chasees is the jungle planet of Mechanus, where the crew encounter the Mechanoids and Peter Purves again, this time playing an entirely different character, astronaut Steven Taylor; along with his cuddly panda mascot Hi-Fi. 

Steven Taylor and his mascot Hi-fi.

We learn that Steven has been on Mechanus for 2 years, after he crash landed, and that the Mechanoids have been here for fifty years waiting for the colonist immigrants to arrive, but the Earth got involved in interplanetary wars and forgot about Mechanus. At this point things really heat up and the story becomes consistently marvelous. The Daleks show up yet again and the ensuing battle between the Daleks and the Mechanoids is excellent. Both are destroyed. 

An epic pitch battle.

And then, totally out of left field, Ian and Barbara realise that they could use the Dalek time ship to return home. Hartnell was genuinely annoyed that William Russell and Jacqueline Hill wanted to leave the show. He couldn't understand why they didn't want to stay. The anger witnessed in Hartnell in the scene where the two school teachers ask the Doctor to help them get home is very real indeed. The Doctor begrudgingly agrees to help them. The duo arrive back in London 1965 two years after they left, just outside White City tube station. After they arrive I instantly thought what happens to the Dalek time ship? After confirming where they are, they destroy it. I feel they really miss the chance for another cliffhanger here, where the two realise they aren't in fact home at all. But Ian and Barbara wanted to go home, and boy do they deserve it. 

Farewell Ian and Barbara.

The school teaching duo were initially intended to be the moral compass to the Doctors more caviler attitude, but now the Doctor has become the kind, good, old grandfather, we no longer require them. However they have defined the show up to now and it will never be quite the same again without them. They have been the constant since the series began and just as the Doctor says "I will miss them. Yes, I will miss them." It is wonderful to see them get the happy ending they deserve. They get a great send off as we see them in a series of snap shots around famous London spots and riding a double-decker bus. There is a wonderful denouement where we see Vicki and the Doctor watching them rejoice on the time and space visualiser. The odd time TV's introduction is explained as the story comes full circle.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have safely reached our final destination: White City, London, 1965. We apologise for the length of "The Chase," we hope you didn't get too bored. We thank you ever so much for choosing B.B.C, T.A.R.D.I.S for your Time and Space needs, we value your custom and hope you will think of us for all future ventures. We hope you both: Ian and Barbara, have enjoyed your time with us and we want you to know that we will miss you. Yes, we will miss you...

Join me next time for the last of the complete stories for a while The Time Meddler.

15: The Space Museum - A Parody Of Itself.

Written by: Glyn Jones.

Companions: The Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki.

Monsters/Villains: The Moroks.

Brief Synopsis: The TARDIS jumps a time track and arrives on Xeros before it's supposed to.

Rating: 6/10.

Welcome back faithful reader, things are going to be a little different this time around. I have (somehow) persuaded three of my good friends to take up my invitation to watch a totally random episode of Doctor Who. Not the best episode, not the most iconic, just a bog-standard one. The Space Museum seemed like a perfect choice for the Hartnell era. 


So let me start by introducing my three hapless buddies. This is Laura, Robin & Holly. They've all watched some modern Who and Robin might have been in the room while I've watched an episode or two, but aside from that they are all Classic Who virgins. I love how random an introduction this will be for them. What will they make of it? 

Laura.

Robin

Holly

As we kick off, Robin sings along to the theme tune. Some things never change. I'm a little nervous that my three friends might find this a tad dull. We sit in silence for a while and then to my surprise all three start to laugh and I realise that this a comedy again. Laura's the first to speak: "I feel like I'm watching a play."

The others agree. Then Robin points out the story trope; the Doctor doesn't know how to fly the TARDIS so they never know where they will arrive next in order to precipitate the adventure style. We all have a little laugh at Vicki noticing the erosion. Robin points out how very slow it is in comparison to modern television and how everything could happen much more quickly. Laura says it has an improvised feel to it. Perhaps due to the fact Bill Hartnell is probably ad libbing a little because he can't remember his lines. Robin's response to this is to suggest that they could have found people who can ad lib through the fluffed lines. Robin says that he likes the Doctors costume.

Then everyone begins to question the point of the story and the show. I explain at this point it was a children's adventure serial that went out at 5.15. Holly pipes up, saying that back in the 60's maybe just going to an alien planet or time traveling was enough without a more all encompassing aspect.

Robin says he thinks the Doctor is believably his age and that's why he feels like he should be telling people what to do. Holly says he isn't super smart like the Doctor is now in the new series. I point out that even though his physical appearance is older than that of Matt Smith the character is actually a lot younger at this point.

As we reach the first cliffhanger where the crew come across themselves as exhibits in the museum we all discuss what would happen if we met ourselves. We also debate for sometime what exactly has happened with the TARDIS jumping the time track. Laura questions that this is meant for children and says that she's an adult and she's confused. However, everyone agrees they like the cliffhanger and that it comes at the right place.

On to episode two. Then to my shock Laura says "She is awful," about Barbara. I don't say anything. Robin replies "they're all awful," and Holly adds "except the Doctor," to which the first two agree. I am shocked. It seems so odd to hear people put down the supporting cast who so often carry Hartnell. Perhaps the status of being 'The Doctor' gives him a free pass and he is allowed to be the 'good' one for that reason.

Both the girls point out the fact that the Xerons have two sets of eyebrows; their real ones and the character ones. As the Xerons discuss their predicament Robin says "this scene is better than the last episode, it actually has a point to it, they're not just talking for the sake of it." After a while Robin changes his mind and decides that in the role of the 'action hero' he likes Ian.

We learn the Xerons are trying to win back their planet for the Morok agressors, who have turned it in to a massive museum of the history of their wars. The Xerons kidnap the Doctor in order to ask his help. They leave one Xeron on guard and when they return the Doctor has escaped and tied up his captor. Robin says, "this is the first time I've seen the Doctor do something awesome. In the new series he just brags about stuff like this that he's done." I find that interesting as this ruse takes place off screen so we don't actually see it happen anyway.

Holly who's been quite quiet comes out with a corker. "Clothes are a really big issue in this!" She points out that the stuff with their clothes changing at the beginning, Ian's lost button, and the labyrinth idea to use Barbara's cardigan as a ball of wool to stop the gang from unwillingly having to retrace their steps.

At this point I realise that this episode is a parody of the series thus far. There's a dalek in the museum. The Doctor hides inside it, almost mocking it. Just as Ian did with the Thals, Vicki persuades the Xerons to revolt. The Xerons are the planets locals who are being oppressed by the Morons, sorry Moroks. Who are rubbish at oppressing. The Xerons leader Tor is also rubbish and seems to always have his hand on his hips. The story may not be the strongest but it is certainly challenging all three of my friends. They're asking questions at least.

Tor is ready for anything, he's got his hands on his hips.

As we reach the end of episode two I give them the option to stop but they are happy to carry on. Robin points out a hilarious moment where a Morok guard discovers Ian, Barbara and Vicki and the three speak secretly for ages, even thought the guard albeit off screen is only a few feet away. It's truly brilliant.

In the scene where Vicki persuades the Xerons to revolt, we are all distracted by the odd food and drink they're eating. It looks like chocolate and fake Guinness. The Xerons leader, Tor is played by none other that Jeremy Bullock a.k.a Boba Fett. Robin finds it really funny when the Xerons claim that they are really great planners. Laura says "yeah, they throw great parties." Holly is the only one who notices that the Doctor is entirely absent from episode three.

Look Tor's got his hands on his hips again. It's so you can
tell him apart from the other Xerons.

As we push on into episode four we all question why Barbara and the Xeron guy wake up when they're still in the gas even thought they've passed out. In the end the Xerons win out and destroy the Moroks and quickly go about dismantling the space museum. The Doctor comes out of the TARDIS and explains that there is a small part of the ship that hadn't clicked into place, and that is why they hadn't really arrived and were able to walk through things, not be seen, and leave no foot prints, because it hadn't properly clicked into place. The Doctor then uses the simile of a lamp that doesn't turn on straight away, and Ian says "thanks for explaining it Doctor." We all just look at each other and laugh. Unbeknownst to my colleagues this is perhaps a little reminiscent of the unpressed button incident in The Edge of Destruction.

Tor is ready to make a plan. They're really good at making plans are the Xerons.

As Vicki and Tor say their goodbyes before the TARDIS departs Laura entreats: "kiss, kiss, kiss!" I really like that she has picked up on this very subtle romantic plot and even though there is no way she can know, this is surely another parody of all the times this has happened in the series previously. We all agree that the final cliffhanger with the Daleks is superbly to the point and therefore effective.

My only real criticism of this story is that it is clearly intended as comedy or parody but it hasn't been directed in this way. As the credits roll I ask each of my friends for their opinion and marks out of ten.

Laura says as a girl who doesn't like Doctor Who, I quite enjoyed it, but it was quite slow and gives The Space Museum:

5/10

Holly says the effects are simple and dated, but they must have been amazing back in the sixties and gives it: 

3/10

Robin says he thinks the story telling was unnecessarily sacrificed for effects, but that he is looking forward to seeing what the next guy does with the role and gives it: 

4/10

A big thank you to my three blog-a-teers for their time and thoughts. Join me next time for The Chase.

14: The Crusade - One Of The More Literate Of The Doctor Who Stories.

Julian Glover is excellent as King Richard.

Written by: David Whitaker.

Companions: The Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki.

Monsters/Villains: El Akir.
Brief Synopsis: The TARDIS arrives during the Holy War between Richard the Lion-heart and the Saracen ruler Saladin.

Rating: 5/10.

In one glaringly obviously way this is just as outmoded as The Web Planet. For those of you who haven't seen this or who don't have eyes, this is because several of the people playing Saracens are white actors blacked up!

Bernard Kay blacked-up as Saladin.

Trying to look beyond this obvious racism the Saracen people are treated respectfully. Whereas they're skin colour stamps them as foreign and exotic their accents don't. Bernard Kay as Saladin matches the same shakespearian quality that Julian Glover brings as King Richard. Mr. Glover will famously return to play Scaroth opposite Tom Baker in The City of Death.

This is however one of the more literate of Doctor Who's stories, Ian quotes Shakespeare twice: 'A most poor man made tame to fortune's blows' (King Lear) and 'What judgement shall I fear, doing no wrong?' (The Merchant of Venice). Barbara quotes Shelley's Epipsychidion ('One heaven, one hell, one immortality'). When she is held at Saladin's court and asked to provide amusement (an allusion to The Arabian Nights), she plans to use Romeo and Juliet, Gulliver's Travels and Anderson's fairy tales. Henry IV Part I is echoed at the opening of the story when Sir William des Preaux substitutes himself for the King. Jean Marsh makes the first of her three appearances in Doctor Who this time as Princess Joanne. A year later she will return as Sara Kingdom in The Dalek's Master Plan and in 1989 opposite Sylvester McCoy as Morgaine in Battlefield.

Jean Marsh a wonderfully powerful woman. 

My favourite moment is when Ian gets knighted Sir Ian Knight of Jaffa. I also love the way Princess Joanne describes the Doctor "There's something new in you, yet something older than the sky itself. I sense I can trust you." What a perfect description of the Doctor.

This was my first dip into the delectable DVD box set Lost In Time, a compilation of all the remaining orphaned episodes. A vital addition to any Who fan's collection. Only the first and third episodes of this story fully exist so to fill in the blanks I visited You Tube. Here are links to the reconstructions of episodes two and four:

Episode 2

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Episode 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Thanks to chadmoore36 for these. By and large I wasn't overly impressed with this story, there isn't anything wrong with it aside from the dated racist casting; it might be because two of the four episodes are missing, but it failed to capture my attention. I really enjoyed all of the cameo performances but the story was somewhat non-exsistant.


Join me next time along with three Classic Who virgins for The Space Museum.

13: The Web Planet - An Overly Ambitious, Poorly Executed Mess.

Written by: Bill Strutton.

Companions: The Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki.

Monsters/Villains: The Animus, The Zarbi.

Brief Synopsis: The TARDIS arrives on the Planet Vortis, where the Butterfly-like Menoptra are trying to regain there world from the ant-like Zarbi, slaves of the Animus...

Rating: 1/10.

I'm genuinely sorry to do this. I love Doctor Who and I would defend it fervently to anyone who dare say even the smallest bad thing about it. So, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but this is just awful. 

I know, I did it, I actually said a Doctor Who story is 'bad.' This is the first I've watched in the run so far that I really struggle to find positives. I won't find myself doing this often but this is a couple of fruits short of loopy.

Ian and The Doctor in their ADJ's
through an odd camera filter.

The Tardis arrives on this very odd, very alien planet Vortis in the Isop (as in 's fables) galaxy, and in order to help us, the audience, understand just how odd this alien planet is they've used a strange camera filter to make everything look a bit wobbly. Yes that's the technical term, 'wobbly.' There is a long tendered myth that the camera man smeared vaseline over the lens to create this effect. This isn't true but it might as well be. 

The crew meet the butterfly-like Menoptra who are attempting to reclaim their planet from the brainwashed Zarbi controlled by the Animus, an alien intelligence which landed on Vortis. The Animus manifested itself within an organic, self-healing palace called the Carcinome. Along with the TARDIS crew, the Menoptra join forces with the Optra; who are basically woodlice, to defeat the Animus.

The Optra, possibly the worst Doctor Who monster ever?!

The Doctor and Ian don these odd coats, called ADJ's, (Atmospheric Density Jacket) as Vortis has different gravity to that of earth or any other planet the TARDIS crew have been to before or will ever go to again. This along with the scripts references to the human's struggling to breath on Vortis, attempt to make the world seem more alien, but they seem to forget about them when it's inconvenient. When Barbara and Vicki venture out of the TARDIS they aren't wearing ADJ's and they seem fine. 

There's an interesting expositional scene in the TARDIS between Barbara and Vicki, where we learn some more of Vicki's background. She finds the idea of taking an aspirin to alleviate her headache as medieval as we would find applying leeches. She admits to having studied medicine, physics and chemistry at the age of 10, an hour per week, using a machine.

The first cliffhanger is actually quite good. Left alone in the TARDIS, Vicki panics as the ship lurches violently. She operates the controls and the dematerialisation sequence starts. Returning to the ship to fetch help for the web-ensnared Ian, the Doctor is horrified to find that it is no longer there. It turns out that it was actually carried away by Zarbi.

The Animus.

My main criticism of this piece is that a lot of the ways they try to make Vortis unearthly just come across as unnecessary and inexplicable. Why do the beings of this planet move their arms around in an interpretive dance style? Why do all the creatures on this planet have such incredibly odd voices almost singing their words? Why do we see the planet through an odd misty lens? Why do the Doctor and Ian wear Atmospheric Density Jackets at the opening of the story but then later no longer require them? Why do Vicki and Barbara not need them at all? Why do they sporadically find it difficult to breath on Vortis and the rest of the time appear to be totally fine? All of these things could be fine and well but some explanation wouldn't go amiss.

The Doctor conferring with the Animus or doing his har? 

The best I can really say about this is that in 1965 this might have been an..... attempt at visualising an alien world, but today it just honestly looks like a bunch of people in silly costumes, singing, doing interpretive dane or stomping around. This was a hard one to get through, but my resolve is still strong.

Join me next time for another historical, The Crusade.

12: The Romans - A Comedy Masterpiece?

The newly formed TARDIS crew.

Written by: Dennis Spooner.

Companions: The Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki.

Mosters/Villains: Nero.
Brief synopsis: The Tardis materialises in first century Italy. Ian and Barbara are captured by slave traders and the Emperor Nero mistakes the Doctor for a well known lyre player.

Rating: 8/10.

Is The Romans a comedy masterpiece? Well... Lets look at the evidence. After the most literal 'cliffhanger' in the history of the programme, the story uncharacteristically kicks off a month after the TARDIS' arrival. Dispensing with the usual "set-up" first episode we discover the Doctor, Vicki, Ian and Barbara lounging in a villa, dressed in full Roman attire.

The action quickly picks up when Ian and Barbara are captured by slave traders. The Doctor and Vicki unbeknownst to this head off to Rome, where the Doctor is mistaken for a well known lyre musician by none other than Emperor Claudius Nero. Hartnell gets an hilarious fight scene with a mute which he seems to throughly enjoy. Afterwards boasting to an awestruck Vicki that he is "one of the best" when it comes to fighting and that he was the one who taught 'The Mountain Mauler of Montana' everything he knows. This scene is truly comical especially seeing a young, healthy man getting bested by a wily old one. Albeit uncharacteristically violent of the Doctor.

Jaqueline Hill looks beautiful in her Roman finery.

Ian and Barbara get some silly gags, where they trick each other to go look in the fridge, which won't be invented for thousands of years to come. There is an almost Benny Hill like scene where Nero is running around chasing Barbara through some corridors which in the run of the series so far seems so un-Doctor Who, but it's hilarious all the same. There's an amusing scene where Vicki meets the the palace poisoner and poisons Nero's goblet. The Doctor stops this and Nero forces his servant to drink from the goblet, hazarding out first comedy death. 

Derek Francis as an OTT Nero.

The Doctor manages to impress Nero on the lyre without ever playing a note, claiming that only the noble of heart will hear this music. The Doctor employs the Emperor's new clothes trick and claims credit for giving Hans Christian Anderson the idea. And of course there's the moment where the Doctor accidentally burns Nero's detailed map of Rome, thus giving him the inspiration to burn it down. The whole story is chock full of slapstick and jokes, but moreover as a whole is clearly written with comedy in mind. I love the conceit that the Doctor and Vicki never see Ian and Barbara all the way through the whole story, and at the end think they've just been lounging around the whole time.

There are some great cameo performances in this one. Michael Peake stands out as Tavius, who has an interesting moment where he is revealed as an early christian. Of course Derek Francis, who gives a wonderfully ridiculous OTT performance as Nero. Hartnell is clearly having a wonderful time getting to stretch his comedy muscles. and Jacqueline Hill puts in a great performance and looks just beautiful.

Michael Peake is great as Tavius.

So, is The Romans a comedy masterpiece? Probably not, however it did do a great deal for Doctor Who as a whole. Whereas before the series had moments of humour, The Romans made it feel legitimate. It made it allright in all the stories that would follow. The Romans isn't the best story ever but it is for the first time: funny throughout, and for that reason it has certainly earned its place in the history of Doctor Who.

Join me next time for The Web Planet. Will I survive it, tune in next time to find out...

11: The Rescue - Short And Not Sweet!

Written by: David Whitaker.

Companions: The Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright.

Monsters/Villains: Koquillion.

Brief Synopsis: The TARDIS crew lands on the planet Dido, to discover two human survivors from a crashed spaceship from earth living in fear of a hideous alien.

Rating: 5/10.

When the rescue kicks off I find myself still sad due to Susan's untimely departure. But at first there is oddly no mention of her at all. Ian, Barbara and the Doctor are mearly discussing where the TARDIS will land next and that materialised is a better word than landed. Then as the TARDIS 'materialises' the Doctor goes to ask Susan to open the doors and then realises she's not there. It's a beautiful moment and you can really tell that Hartnell is genuinely sad to have lost, not just his granddaughter, but Carol Anne Ford herself. Barbara then kindly offers herself to learn how to open the doors. Ian and Barbara then ponder 'I wonder what Susan's doing now? If I know David, learning to milk cows...' What an odd idea.

This story is an odd one. The TARDIS arrives on the planet Dido and discovers a crashed spaceship with just two survivors. A girl, Vicki, and an injured man, Bennet. They are awaiting a rescue ship from Earth and are being oppressed by a terrifying native alien, Koquillion.

The terrifying alien Koquillion.

When Barbara and Ian venture out of the TARDIS alone, Koquillion spies them, causes some rocks to fall on Ian and pushes Barbara off a cliff! It's so shocking. I was thinking how on earth are they going to explain that one away. Barbara later says she broke her fall by grabbing a tree branch. Oh of course, that makes sense.

We soon learn that the rest of the crew of the spaceship are dead including Vicki's father, and with her mother being dead she is an orphan. Hmm... no ties, similar character to Susan, futuristic Orphan-type. I wonder if she's going to be the new companion?

Towards the end of this short, two part story the Doctor and Ian are inexplicably edging along a chasm, and we are issued a rather random unrelated cliffhanger involving sharp knives coming out of the wall to spike Ian and push him into a pit containing a sand beast.

Fortunately the Doctor is able to withdraw the spikes before they can impale Ian. Barbara then sees the same beasty making for Vicki and fires a flare gun at it, killing it. However, it turns out that the terrifying sand monster was actually Vicki's pet and an omnivore, called Sandy. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara are all reunited and Ian mockingly refers to Koquillion as cockaleekie. The Doctor is so kind to Vicki and you can tell he is already grooming her to take Susans place.

Poor Sandy.

The Doctor admits that he has been to Dido before and when he confronts Koquillion he recognises that what he is wearing is actually cerimonial garb and unveils Koquillion to be Bennet. It turns out that Bennet killed a member of the crew, for some reason, and caused the ship to crash, then killed the rest of the crew and the people of Dido as well to avoid being sentenced. He planned to blame the people of Dido for the massacre and dressed up as Koquillion to scare the unbeknownst Vicki into disliking the locals and to testify in his favour. Fortunately there are two survivors of the people of Dido who neatly take care of Bennet for us, without actually saying a word on screen.

It's not a bad little mystery and certainly has cross-overs with The Tempest, and acts as a good character introduction for, yep, you guessed it, the new companion, Vicki. At the end of the adventure the TARDIS 'materialises' as it shall henceforward be known, on the edge of a cliff. Being the first quite literal 'cliffhanger' of the series.

Join me next time for The Romans.

10: Dalek Invasion of Earth - The Return Of The Daleks!

Iconic images of the Daleks on Westminster Bridge.

Written by: Terry Nation.

Companions: The Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright.

Monsters/Villains: The Daleks, Robomen, Slither.

Brief Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in Twentieth Century Earth only to find that the Daleks have invaded and subjugated the population with mind-controlled Robomen.

Rating: 5/10.

Hello blogland. Sorry I've been away for a while, but I'm back with a brief blog on The Dalek Invasion of Earth. There are a lot of big firsts in this story: first futuristic Earth story; in this case set in 2164. First return of the Daleks. First return of any villain, giving the Daleks a status they won't ever really shake. And first departure of a companion.

This is the first big event in Doctor Who, not just with the return of the Daleks, but with the story being well advertised, for the first time, the audience knows what's to come more than the characters. It's a subtle difference in the way the story is told, but a great one. The episode starts with a man committing suicide, framed by a huge poster that reads 'It is forbidden to dump bodies in the river.' I don't know how they got away with it. It's such a bold, violent opening. However the first episode here echoes the first of The Daleks perhaps a little too much. The Tardis lands, and the crew explore and discover things about their surroundings, then their escape route in the TARDIS gets blocked off, and at the cliffhanger we discover the threat, in this case a rather impressive Dalek, rising from the Thames. The structure is identical with that of the opening of The Daleks.

Iconic, Dalek rising from the Thames.

Terry Nation holds the prestige of being the creator of the Daleks; who are now easily as iconic as the TARDIS or the Doctor himself... selves. However the stories that he penned are not of the best calibre. With all too similar structures (as mentioned above) and incomprehensible plots. And the Dalek Invasion of Earth is no exception. In this story the Tardis arrives on earth in the year 2164 (alright so far), and then the crew discover that that the Daleks have invaded (amazing the Daleks are back. Cool!) and have created a huge mine in Bedfordshire, in order to detonate a bomb in the Earth's core so they can replace it with a powerful drive system and pilot the planet around the galaxy. Uh, I'm sorry. Why?

Susan gets a worthy sendoff.

Another first I stumbled upon in this episode is: the very first use of a quarry. However in this story it is actually representing... a quarry; not an alien planet as various quarries will do in many Doctor Who stories to come. Episode five of this story is called: The Waking Ally. I have literally no idea why, or what this is referring to.

The one part of this story that really strikes a chord is the final scene where we say goodbye to Susan. It's fascinating that she doesn't even get a choice in the matter as the Doctor locks her out of the TARDIS. Doctor Who started out with Susan as a strong central character, an alien, but gradually as it's gone on she has become weaker and less individual. It's a shame she didn't have a greater chance to shine, but she gets a worthy send-off here. Hartnell seems to be so awkward and is genuinely finding it difficult to say goodbye as though he doesn't want Carol Anne Ford to leave not Susan. This whole closing section is performed beautifully. My favourite moment is after the TARDIS dematerialises, when Susan walks forward, hands outstretched, almost feeling where it was and then off she sets for her settled life on Earth with ex-revolutionary-come-farmer, David Campbell.

The Daleks invade earth, again...

My watching of this story was timed perfectly with the release of the first part of the Big Finish series finale of the Eighth Doctor Audio Adventures: Lucie Miller. In which, guess what happens? The Daleks invade Earth again, and Carol Anne Ford as a now widowed Susan Campbell is in tow once more, this time along with her half-Timelord son, Alex.

It may be a rather unfavourable opinion, but I'm not mad about the Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's a great idea, but the actual plot is terrible. However there are some real highlights. It is wonderful to see the return of the Daleks, and Susan's surprising departure is handled very well.

Join me next time for The Rescue and our first new companion.