Running up that hill

"These people have logic and reason, have they? Can’t you see their minds change as rapidly as night and day?” – The Doctor

Ep. 003: The Forest of Fear
(Production A/Story #001: "An Unearthly Child" - Part 3 of 4)
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Boy, they weren’t kidding when they called it the Cave of Skulls. The Doctor takes some responsibility (finally) for getting his companions into their current predicament. Ian pauses as he notices all the skulls from previous prisoners were “split wide open.”

We’re already familiar with her stance on violence and gruesome death, but I can’t help but wonder if Mary Whitehouse would approve of the entire Tribe of Gum sleeping together like that? Presumably, they’re all piled on top of each other for warmth. It would probably help if they would just invent pants. Pants are probably just as, if not more, important than fire…

The Doctor sits back and criticizes Ian’s efforts to escape, until he realizes it’s in his best interest to escape too. Suddenly, he switches off the grumpy old man mode, and makes helpful suggestions. The gang even has a heartwarming discussion about hope vs. fear.

Hur seems to have all the brain cells of the tribe. What little analytical reasoning present seems to be produced by her. She convinces Kal that they should stop the Old Woman from killing their prisoners. A moment later, we find out that the Old Woman was not interested in killing them, but rather letting them go so she and the tribe can avoid the advent of fire.

As the TARDIS crew escapes, Barbara shows the fear one might expect from being in a real life or death situation. A lot of us complain about later companions being screamers, but it is still refreshing to see at this early stage, that being part of the TARDIS crew has yet to become passé. They run through the “Forest of Fear,” which appears to be quite lush for what was such a cold region in the last episode. Maybe this is where the polar bears from Lost are born… As the time-travellers are chased through the woods by Za and Hur, Za is attacked by… something… that appears to be the camera operator.

Beyond all reason, (at least to the Doctor and much of the audience) Barbara chooses this moment to show compassion and see if there’s anything they can do to help Za. They stop running, and Ian and Barbara offer up their assistance as "friends." Hur doesn’t understand, but Za encourages her to trust them as, “they do not kill.” While Ian and Barbara are distracted, The Doctor tries to force Susan back to the TARDIS, presumably stranding the teachers forever. This is another example of an uncharacteristically dark Doctor. Luckily, Susan will have none of it, and helps Ian and Barbara. Barbara tries to give Hur a lesson in quid pro quo and just general kindness, but it doesn’t seem to take. The suggestion that everyone go back to the ship, Za and Hur included, for antiseptic is made. The Doctor refuses to help, until Ian embarrasses him into carrying the makeshift stretcher so the women don’t have to.

While all this was happening, Kal has found what the Old Woman has done. He seizes the opportunity to kill her and suggests Za and Hur have done it. Since the tribe have nothing to fall back on in the way of logic, they quickly fall victim to Kal’s version of events. Kal convinces the tribe to wait for them by the TARDIS, and as the stretcher party arrives …

Next episode: The Firemaker

(not to be confused with Mentos, the Freshmaker)

Stump speeches

“If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds, and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?” - The Doctor

Ep. 002: The Cave of Skulls

(Production A/Story #001: "An Unearthly Child" - Part 2 of 4)
Purchase this DVD at Amazon.com (US)

In the opening shot, Kal sure casts a big shadow.

Actually, Za and Kal look a lot alike to me, though I guess Kal looks a little more like Ringo Starr. (Especially when you think of Ringo's Caveman experience with Barbara Bach.) When trying to make fire, I love the way Za gets frustrated with the twigs and yells at them.

Back in the TARDIS, Ian and Babara wake up after being knocked out for no real reason. The Year-O-Meter (perhaps made by Hasbro) apparently doesn’t work in negative numbers, reminding me of the Y2K problem. Susan checks the Radiation counter, foreshadowing what’s to come. The Doctor seems much happier (and far less malevolent) now that Ian and Barbara are a captive audience, and forced to accept their situation. I liked the way Barbara believes immediately that they’ve gone back in time, but Ian still can’t grasp it. Maybe it shows us the difference between the History teacher who grew up imagining herself in the past, versus the skeptical Science teacher who refuses to accept results until they’ve been tested, and the results reproduced.

Even outside the ship, Ian refuses to believe.

The producers’ choice to the make the TARDIS a police box was truly inspired. I love how even though I personally didn’t grow up with them, the police box for me is immediately an image that is safe and iconic. Sadly, for the Metropolitan Police, the police box is now synonymous with a TARDIS, whether they like it or not.

Once outside, The Doctor is disturbed that the TARDIS hasn’t changed its outward appearance. Minutes later, Susan explains that it blends into its surroundings, and on other occasions, looked like a column or a chair. I have to wonder how one enters a chair-shaped TARDIS. Do you sit in it and end up falling backward through the interior door?

The Doctor smokes a pipe (as far as I can remember, the only time he does so) and is quickly knocked out and abducted by Kal. Susan discovers him missing and starts freaking out like that girl everyone was queuing up to slap in Airplane!

We return to the tribe, to find the prehistoric children beating another child dressed up as a cheetah. They yell, “Kill! Kill!” all without the help of violent television to place the images in their heads.

Later, the Doctor takes no pause in offering superior technology (fire) to an inferior culture (the Tribe of Gum). While he might do later, at this time he takes no moment deciding whether this might pollute the timeline. Of course, Za’s late father apparently already made fire a few times, so the argument is academic. But, supposing he hadn’t, and the Doctor had been successful in teaching the tribe to make fire, would the Doctor then be responsible for just about all technology on Earth, ever?

Though his life is threatened, the Doctor quickly backpedals as he realizes his matches were left behind somewhere. It’s now obvious that the real drama is between Kal and Za’s credibility, and the Doctor is vulnerable to the outcome of their prehistoric pissing contest. I enjoyed this scene. Here, Kal and Za have possibly history’s first Presidential debate. I almost expect them to move on from fire to something more important, like health or education.

The rest TARDIS crew breaks onto the scene, nearly saving the day, but only succeeding in getting captured. It is here that the Doctor does something heroic for the first time in the series, explaining that if Ian dies, “there will be no fire!”

By the end of the episode, an elder of the tribe trades his own daughter in for meat. Luckily, the daughter is willing. She echoes Lady Macbeth, as she clearly favors Ka and pushes him in his ambition. Another character, an old woman (possibly Ka’s mother) seems to have no ambition whatsoever, and never misses an opportunity to resist progress and naysay Ka’s skills as leader. She exhibits a healthy blood lust to replace her apathy, and is very vocal in her opinion that they should have killed the strangers. She adds, “There were leaders before there was fire. Fire will kill us all in end.” She (like many Old Mothers after her) fails to see the spark of progress, maybe preferring instead to see this new fire thing as some kind of dangerous fad.

***

Encore

Derek Newark (Ka) appears later in Inferno, and Althea Charleton (Hur) appears later in The Time Meddler.

Future Echoes
Is the column the default setting for the TARDIS, and did Master forget to change it in Logopolis?

Next episode: The Forest of Fear