Bye for now

So... I haven't published anything in exactly five months.

But then, it's been a busy year. Over the last twelve months, I've been married, promoted, and even downsized. I need to find a new job, and even if I didn't, I just don't seem to have the type of time I need to devote to this project.

I'm not saying I'm going away forever, but at the same time - I really don't feel like I'd be contributing anything new to the Who-fan community by continuing on this quest in an online and public journal. I want to write, but at least for now I feel my writing should focus on something other than my Who fandom.

To all two of you reading this - thanks for being so patient.

Wampa revealed

“Now we’re too late. Even if they left the doors wide open, we wouldn’t have enough strength to crawl through them.” – Ian Chesterton

Ep. 006: The Survivors
(Production B/Story #002: "The Daleks" - Part 2 of 7)
Purchase this DVD at Amazon.com (US)

And now for this almost quarterly installment of TARDIS Guy. (sheesh!)

The episode reprise doesn’t give us any new visual information regarding the attack on Barbara, so we still know nothing about these new aliens. Thus, the mystery is prolonged for another few minutes. See, George, sometimes we don’t need to see the Wampa creature to create suspense. Barbara’s scream is noticeably missing from this scene.

Ian, the Doctor and Susan stumble around, trying to find Barbara. As the boom shadow falls over Ian’s face, they detect a strange noise. They find its source behind the door of a well equipped laboratory. Ian questions what kind of minds (his sense of wonder again) are behind this technology. The Doctor shrugs it off, somewhat amorally. Susan finds a Geiger counter with the needle well past DANGER, (surprisingly) written in plain English. [1] They’ve been walking around in the fallout completely unprotected. The Doctor suggests they go back to the ship and leave immediately, confessing that there was nothing wrong with the fluid link – it was all a ruse to get the group to explore the city. Ian rightly berates him for his irresponsible action and refuses to return the undamaged fluid link until they locate Barbara.

They step out of the room to find themselves surrounded by strange alien machines!

This is the first full look we get of this planet’s inhabitants. We observe them contained in strange metal containers with eerie metallic voices to match. They seem all at once threatening and absurd. These aliens attempt to herd the time-travelers, but Ian tries to go the other way. One of the aliens paralyzes his legs with an energy weapon.

The Doctor and Susan are forced to carry him to the cell Barbara's already in. Ian’s surprised he’s paralyzed. [2] They swap stories about what happened. Barbara hypothetically suggests there are people inside the cylinders. Susan giggles at this idea, even though it must have been obvious to the audience in 1963. Barbara is informed that she and everyone else have radiation sickness. The Doctor has been “badly hit.”

Meanwhile, the alien machines monitor their new prisoners - oddly without listening to the conversation in progress. The machines hypothesize that their “Thal” prisoners have a new radiation drug that is currently failing them. To test this, the Doctor is brought into the harsh light of interrogation. The machines keep insisting that he is lying when he tells them the true story about how they came to be into custody (an oft-repeated plot device in the series). The machines know the Thals have been living unaided outside their city. [3] The Doctor denies he is a Thal, and suggests that drugs may have been left in that strange box outside the ship in the last episode.

The machines agree to let one of the prisoners retrieve it, using the remaining crew as hostages. Oddly, the Doctor manages to get them to open up about themselves and the Thals. The machines, now called Daleks for the first time, reveal that they can’t live outside the city. The Thals, who must be “disgustingly mutated,” apparently have some drug that allowed them to survive the neutronic war; so, enough talk - go get the drugs.

The Doctor wearily explains what happens next to the others, but soon passes out. When Ian’s legs still prove to be lame, the Daleks prove to be less chivalrous than he. They point out that one of the women could go. [4] It’s just as well. Susan reveals some elaborate reason Ian can’t use the TARDIS key that we never hear again. She leaves for the forest, despite her fear.

The Daleks discuss their devious plan, and how they’re monitoring Susan. They don’t intend to let the prisoners use these drugs once she returns with them. (Surprise! The first instance in a long history of Dalek treachery…) They only want enough of a sample to make their own version to ship from Canada.

Ian and Barbara discuss wearily how it was unfortunate to let Susan go out amongst the scary mutations. Ian says if he could walk, he would have gone – but now it’s too late to do anything but wait and hope the scary mutations have her back by midnight. Paralysis or not, they’re all too weak to escape.

Susan stumbles through the scary forest – aware that she’s being followed. The close-ups mixed amongst beauty passes of the (miniature?) trees do nothing to create the illusion of a dense jungle amidst a fierce lightning storm. She stops and screams, presumably at the shape following her. We don’t quite see who (or what) is following her, again – creating tension, George.

The Doctor seems worse. Even if Susan gets back – it might not be in time for him. Ian, at least, is beginning to walk.

The Daleks discuss that the Doctor will die soon. [5] Compassionless, they decide they can do nothing. They turn their eyestalks back to the “rangerscope,” which (conveniently for Susan) doesn’t extend past the jungle.

Susan continues running. She reaches the TARDIS interior and retrieves the drug canister. This is a great moment here. She opens the door again and reveals the foreboding jungle outside. We don’t see this often enough in later years. Being able to see the outside world from the inside of the TARDIS really makes the illusion of travel through time and space more real to me. Lightning strikes that dark exterior, and glows through the interior roundels. An eerie effect, never meant to be explained. [6] As an audience member I hesitate to go outside back into danger, just as Susan does. Of course, it’s the only way to save her grandfather and friends, but the moment’s indecision (at least for me) is captivating.

Next episode: The Escape

__________
1- Unlike The Impossible Planet, where the writing on the wall is too old for the TARDIS to translate in your head.

2- And so am I. I know I’m not looking at this from the perspective of a first time 60s viewer, but don’t the Daleks usually just kill people who disobey them? Their gunsticks must be getting rusty from so many years without people to subjugate...

3- The Dalek City. Or the house that Davros built? Maybe on the ruins of the Kaled bunker - seen much later in Genesis of the Daleks?

4- I guess if there’s one thing the Daleks aren’t, they’re not sexist. They’re firmly committed to betraying and exterminating every non-Dalek equally.

5- And at this early stage, how many civilizations, including Earth, would perish with him at the hands of – er, plungers of the Daleks? Oooh. Plungers of the Daleks. That’s not half bad title. Granted, not as good as Tea-Time of the Daleks. Which leads me to another point. If the Daleks are supposed to be the number one menace throughout universal history, shouldn’t the Doctor at least be familiar with them already? I mean, I know they haven’t developed stair drive yet… but….

6- After all, isn’t that wall supposed to shield the TARDIS crew from the dangers of space/time travel? You’d think it would be solid enough to be opaque. Who cares? Chalk it up to Time Lord technology, it’s still a cool image.

Without Ridley

“We'd better keep an eye on him. He seems to have a knack of getting himself into trouble.” – Ian Chesterton

Ep. 005: The Dead Planet

(Production B/Story #002: "The Daleks" - Part 1 of 7)
Purchase this DVD at Amazon.com (US)

As the time travellers step into frame, the picture looks almost embossed. I assume it’s not bad archiving, but rather an attempt to make the show's first alien landscape look odder. Mercifully, the effect ceases, and the picture snaps back to normal as Ian looks around curiously. It's clear that he’s not yet taking travel across dimensions for granted. I love these first stories, where travel through time and space is still treated as a fresh (albeit scary) idea. As they wander through the petrified forest, Barbara and Ian discuss how unlikely it is they will ever get back home. Ian admits he’s just as afraid as Barbara, but accepts the situation as nothing can be done about it.

Susan has interesting moment with a delicate petrified flower, which... doesn't last long. Barbara screams as she finds a creature entirely made of metal, luckily dormant. The Doctor theorizes that it was held together by inner magnetic fields, and able to “attract” similar animals as prey. Cool. It becomes clear to the characters (and audience) they are definitely not on Earth.

The Doctor concludes that all life on this planet has been extinguished. Ian discovers a marvelous city in the distance. The Doctor becomes excited about exploring it; on his own, if necessary. Ian puts his foot down, and won’t allow the old man’s solo reconnaissance. The Doctor is the only one who has any hope of operating the TARDIS, and Ian almost threatens him: “I can’t let you do that, Doctor.” They table the argument for later, as it is almost nightfall. On the way back, Susan gets separated. When she rejoins the others, she has a hard time convincing anyone that someone grabbed her in the darkness on what is otherwise a dead planet. Susan whines about being treated as a child, just as children often do.

Ian and the Doctor look over instruments in the TARDIS, with Ian not having any idea about any of them. He has a question about what they’re supposed to eat, now that he and Barbara are “unwilling travelers.” The Doctor produces food out of a machine you might see on the Jetsons...

***

As a twenty-first century viewer, the food seems at the same time both magical and unappetizing. For the first time (and I guess I’m a bit slow, as I’ve been watching the show for over twenty years now), I really think about how the Doctor’s costume is incongruent with the technology surrounding him. Until now, I just always took it for granted that of course the gentleman scientist with the Edwardian frock coat would have in his possession a machine that can break all temporal and spatial barriers. Doesn’t everyone with a frock coat have one? After all, that’s why I want a frock coat.

If I use the mindset of someone watching Doctor Who for the first time in the 60s, I have to remember that I know nothing yet about the Doctor’s people, or even the name of his planet. Taking this information away, I can’t help but visualize the members of his civilization all in shiny Space Jumpsuits, sitting in the Space Chairs of tiny apartments, eating their Space Jam* on Space Toast, drinking Space Coffee, and reading their Space Newspapers, all before heading off in their flying cars to go work in outer space. I guess my uneducated vision of proto-Gallifrey are a bit Space: 1999, actually. H.G. Wells and the 1960 film version of The Time Machine aside, the frock coat look must not have been the obvious choice in 1963…

Our heroes hear someone knocking at the front door. Susan has her “I told you so” moment, and everyone's jolly conversation about breakfast is cut short.

The group is spooked by someone outside. Suddenly, they realize not only are they not on Earth, but they are not alone. They pressure the Doctor into taking them somewhere else, and he seems to comply. As their heads are turned watching the monitor, the Doctor removes something from the TARDIS control console and the ship begins to malfunction. They are pulled back to the dead planet.

The Doctor reveals a fluid link that needs to be filled with mercury - in order for the ship to work again. After finding that the Doctor carries no spare mercury, Ian suggests they should be able to find some in the city. The Doctor quickly agrees in such a way that it’s clear to Ian he’s been manipulated into making the suggestion. Trapped on the planet by the Doctor, the crew is committed to staying. Remaining angrily polite, Ian and Barbara see it’s no use challenging the Doctor on the ship’s sudden convenient unwillingness to leave. They can’t operate the ship on their own, so they’ll just have to let the situation play out the Doctor’s way.

The next morning, they apologize to Susan, as they find a small metal box outside the TARDIS. Clearly, this was left by the stranger knocking on the door earlier. They set out for the city, with Susan carrying more provisions than Ian thinks necessary for a surgical strike. Once there, each of them seem more tired than normal. Ian and the Doctor aren’t feeling well, and come to think of it - Susan and Barbara were not quite right the day before. Wanting to finish quickly, they split up to look for the mercury. When Barbara doesn’t return, Ian and the others decide to look for her. The BBC desginers must have had a precognitive dream about Pac-Man, because we see his image on a few of the doors...

Barbara has lost herself in a maze of corridors. Director Christopher Barry turns up the creepiness a notch, as Barbara wanders around testing the strength of translucent walls. She needs to get out, even if she has to beat through. Many times we only see her silouette, which really works well with the black and white image. Barbara's fear increases when a few doors close unexpectedly. Suddenly, she is cornered by a strange shape moving toward her. We have no idea what it might be. She screams!

Cut.

Future Echoes
In Utopia, we see a distinct contrast to the look of the successful Edwardian gentleman scientist (described above). According to Russell T Davies in a Doctor Who Magazine interview, the producer intentionally wanted to "Hartnell up" the look of Professor Yana, played by Sir Derek Jacobi. Until the moment Yana is revealed to be someone else, he is portrayed as a scientist who means well and is desperately trying to fulfill his promises, but is clearly out of the league of technology surrounding him. The Doctor (during the Hartnell years) sets a precedent for Yana's image later, but (though bumbling) can handle technology well beyond that which appears to be contemporary.

***

Now... imagine being a Doctor Who fan, but not knowing what a Dalek is. Try as I might, I know what's coming at Barbara; but hats off to Terry Nation for not actually debuting these strange alien creatures until the next episode. Nation also really cranked up the creepiness for this episode. I love the dead landscape and the fact that we know throughout the episode that the characters are not alone, but we don't actually see them. The device of not seeing anyone other than the series regulars evokes the flavor of a bottle show, but without the claustrophobia later felt in The Edge of Destruction.

***

As to the design, though we barely see anything in this episode - we know something truly unique is coming. The oft-ridiculed Dalek plunger is a stroke of genius, at least in this first episode - simply because the original audience had no idea what they were looking at as it menaced Barbara. The design is brilliant, especially when you consider the only real help from Terry Nation was that the Daleks had no legs, could not look like a man in a suit, and glided across the stage like the Georgian State Dancers. Go Raymond Cusick!

***

Still, I sometimes wonder what (unavailable) Ridley Scott's Daleks would have looked like...)

Next episode: The Survivors

(* not to be confused with Space Jam)