Marco Polo

Ok, so with the Christmas period all my good intentions went somewhat to pot and, in the midst of all the 50th anniversary celebrations, I got a bit caught up in watching (and re-watching) new Who, as well as Mark Gatiss' wonderful and moving Adventures in Space and Time. Even so, I did find time to dip into classic who, starting with the first of the missing episodes - the entirety of Marco Polo.

I've never been a fan of Doctor Who historicals, and so had been approaching the Hartnell and early Troughton eras with some trepidation because of this. When I was re-watching classic who on UK Gold some years back, I tended to let the historicals pass me by. Despite the fact that it only exists in audio form (or as a telesnap reconstruction), Marco Polo has made me reconsider my position on this as I was swept up in an exotic tale of a strange land in a far-off time, in which the Doctor, Susan, Barbara and Ian end up as part of Marco Polo's caravan as he wends his way through various perils and treacheries to the court of Kublai Khan. This is definitely one best 'watched' via the Loose Canon reconstruction, which gives a sense of the lush production values of the piece, and all off the key actors seem to be having a great deal of fun with this one.

Ian divests himself of manly British reserve by putting on a silk dressing gown.

There is some nice comedy with the Doctor; Ian - who one podcaster has described as 'a sex-machine in a cardigan' - even gets to divest himself of said cardigan and strut around in a very louche looking silk dressing gown - a kind of Bristish, action version of Hugh Hefner; Barbara displays her independence by getting involved in some significant plot points; Susan even gets to do more than play the role of someone who gets in trouble just to drive the action.

Overall, this is highly recommended - although to get a better sense of the visual richness of the story, I'd definitely recommend trying to view the Loose Canon telesnap reconstruction. Of all of the missing Who episodes/stories, this is the one which I would love to see rediscovered.

Inside The Spaceship

Since the last post I've worked my way through Inside the Spaceship as well as the next couple of stories. Inside the Spaceship is a bit of a weak set piece, taking place entirely onboard the Tardis as strange things appear to be afoot and our travellers have to work out what's going on before they descend into murderous paranoia. There's some pretty poor acting here, and some awful dialogue on the Doctor's part, but the second episode usefully begins to resolve the tension between the Doctor, Ian and Barbara, and sets the stage for the Doctor's emergence as the character we have come to know and love. In addition to which, a few key aspects of what will later be developed as part of the mythology of the Tardis' (hinted at in An Unearthly Child: 'it's alive!') are revealed.

Sadly, though, not much is happening with Susan. Despite the intriguing premise of her alien nature also introduced in An Unearthly Child, at this point Susan is well on her way to being reduced to a cipher: the terrified and threatened waif whose imperilment becomes the excuse for the Doctor 's escapades. Whilst I understand that these two episodes are highly regarded as character pieces by some fans, for me they stand out more as filler material before we get to what is perhaps one of the greatest of lost Who stories: Marco Polo.

The First Doctor: 'The Daleks'

In my previous post, I mentioned that the original pilot of An Unearthly Child had been scrapped. Fortunately, this is not the case, as a closer inspection of the BBC DVD reveals that the pilot is included a special feature, so I may revisit this at a later point.

But now on to the next story entitled The Mutants - or The Daleks if you like - introducing the eponymous and most iconic of the Doctor's foes. Frankly, for something which has such profound resonance throughout Who history, I didn't think a great deal of this seven-part story. I suspect that my viewing was somewhat jaded by the fact that my first encounter with this story was via Peter Cushing's Doctor Who and the Daleks. Whilst I generally do prefer the slower pacing of classic Who stories, this one does feel rather stretched out. The Cushing film does a much better job retelling of this classic tale in just over an hour and twenty minutes, and in glorious technicolour.

The narrative seems all a bit stitched together and hack-handed. The Daleks and Thals were once at war with one another, before effectively wiping out the ecosystem of their planet, Skaro. There is a lot of travelling back and forth between the Dalek city and the Thal camp as the Doctor and companions get entangled in the local politics. Then some more travelling. Then some more. Some people get sick, and someone does some more travelling to get radiation drugs. Ian acts in a manly manner by threatening a Thal woman and forcing a hitherto peaceable species to re-discover violence (the very thing that got them into their current predicament). Whilst he seems to be taking the moral high ground in this, Ian's actual intention is to force the Thals to help him and Barbara break into the Dalek city to recover the McGuffin which will allow them to get the fuck off of Skaro. In this respect Ian comes off as the typical embodiment of British colonial rule: a bunch of haughty and self-satisfied school teachers smugly intent on undermining indigenous cultural values and exploiting indigenous labour under the guise of moral progess and advancement. Mind you, the Thals are so lacking in character that you're not really that bothered. Similarly, the Daleks don't feel very scary or threatening - about as much so as a tea cosy.

Their true terror is yet to be revealed in their later, second appearance in Who. Sometimes you just wish they'd get on with the job of exterminating the insipid Thals so we can all move on to the next story.The final confrontation against the Daleks, who are about to flood the planet of Skaro with radiation in order to kill the Thals is both a mess and lacks believability: somehow, someone does  something to switch off the power in the Dalek city. The Daleks - all three of them  - are defeated by being pushing over by some Thals. End of.

 

Now that's what I call a Dalek...

Still, there are some interesting visuals (especially the first view of the Dalek city) and the set design is rather good. The right note of horror is sounded at various points (some memorable moments during the trek by Ian, Barbara and the Thals past the lake of mutations to the Dalek city). The Doctor's character is still on something of a developmental trajectory. He continues to display the same unpleasant and unlikeable characteristics first encountered in 100,000 BC: on this occasion stubbornly risking the lives of his fellow travellers (including that of his own granddaughter) by sabotaging the Tardis. However, towards the end of the story we begin to see a glimmer of what he will later become - still stubborn, pompous and irascible, but of with a keen strand of nobility cutting through this. Unfortunately, quite a few stories to go before we get to the next Dalek story and - in my mind  -  a true classic: The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The First Doctor: 'An Unearthly Child' and 'Tribe of Gum'

Back in the 1990s I my love of Doctor Who was reawakened with the (albeit) brief return of the franchise with the TV movie starring Paul McGann. Soon after I discovered that the majority of extant Who series were being repeated every Sunday morning on UK Gold. Supplemented by releases of the soundtracks of missing Who episodes on audiotape and CD by the BBC, I used this opportunity to work my way through as much classic Who material as I was able.

With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who - alongside discoveries of previous lost episodes (most recently those from the Web of Fear and Enemy of the World) - it seems an apposite way to celebrate Who's longevity and enduring cultural and by documenting my own temporal travels through the entirety of the classic Who televisual canon. Accompanying me on my journey will be my own very special companion: a well thumbed copy of The Doctor Who Televisual Companion:

Without anymore ado, onto the first story: An Unearthly Child, and The Tribe of Gum (collectively known as 100,000 BC).When I saw these (for the very first time) back in the 1990s, I recall being rather bored  -  I was of the Pertwee era, transitioning into that of Tom Baker, so black-and-white Who seemed rather dreary and passe. On a second viewing, I find there is a great deal to appreciate here. An Unearthly Child is an apt title: Carol Ann Ford's portrayal of Susan is convincingly fey-like and alien  -  by all accounts, even more so in the scrapped first recording of the pilot. Indeed, this episode is marked by many tropes of the weird - verging on the horrific  -  which, as a child, I came to associate strongly with Who (especially during Tom Baker's tenure): mist-shrouded streets and other desolate landscapes, an air of unearthly menace, and a powerful sense of the horrific lurking at the edges of the screen. This is why I have often considered Doctor Who to be as much horror as science fiction. Indeed, as I have documented on another of my blogs, my early experiences of watching Doctor Who played a significant role in shaping my incipient love of the weird and horror genres. Far from seeming quaint, the fact that these early episodes are in black-and-white now only enhances the sense of strangeness which permeates the first of Who's outings.

Of the remaining three episodes, whilst not offering much by way of a story (the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara coming into conflict with a group of cavemen over the ability to make fire), they  are redolent with a wonderful creepiness, accented by the grainy black and white and by the incidental music's eerie soundscapes. There is also some real tension in the story (especially in 'The Forest of Fear') bordering on actual horror as our protagonists come to realise how desperate and life-threatening their predicament has become. Jacqueline Hill's acting here, whilst somewhat melodramatic, does on occasion convey quite powerfully a sense of utter panic at being thrust into a wholly alien - even virtually incomprehensible - set of circumstances. Notably, the character of the Doctor is in its very early stages of development, such that he comes across as morally ambivalent if not callous: effectively abducting Ian and Barbara against their will, and at one point apparently on the verge of killing a wounded caveman.

Overall a great piece of classic televisual sci-fi which, if lacking in plot, makes up for in atmosphere. In this respect, I consider these initial episodes to be superior to more recent iterations of Who. Don't get me wrong - I have the utmost respect for what new Who has done to revitalise and re-popularise the brand. Indeed, I've watched every episode of the new series. But still it leaves me a little cold, fails to engage me in a way that An Unearthly Child and The Tribe of Gum do not. New Who is a little too slick, a little too reliant on cgi, and too dependent on appealing to modern viewing sensibilities for my tastes. Certainly more than a few of the 6 or 8 part stories from classic Who eras contain padding, but I much prefer the pacing of these which often allowed for a more nuanced expression of things lurking in the shadows which recent Who is missing.