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.