Back when I was at school, I got my first access to a Doctor Who episode guide, in the form of Peter Haining's Doctor Who – A Celebration. According to this tome, 'The Gunfighters' is the worst Doctor Who story ever made, and was both "bad" and "ugly". Given this fact, and its negative opinion amongst many fans, I feel that I should discuss its bad points first.

Some of the accents are atrocious, mainly those of the Clantons and Charlie.

OK, that's the bad out of the way. 'The Gunfighters' is in my opinion the single funniest Hartnell story, and possibly the single funniest television Doctor Who story of all time. 'The Romans' and 'The Myth Makers' are quite funny, but this is very, very funny from start to finish. This is due almost entirely to Peter Purves, Anthony Jacobs (Doc Holliday), and, most of all, William Hartnell (and of course, the script). 'A Holiday for the Doctor' contains my favourite scene, in which the Doctor, still suffering from toothache after eating one of Cyril's sweets at the end of 'The Celestial Toymaker', goes to Doc Holliday's surgery to have a tooth pulled. Without anaesthetic! The look on Hartnell's face speaks volumes, especially when Holliday offers him whiskey as an anaesthetic, gets a refusal, and smoothly takes a long swig himself before commencing work. The next time we see the Doctor, he's looking very rueful and notes that it's a good job that he didn't have to have his tonsils out. From here on in, the one-liners flow thick and fast, mostly from Hartnell and Jacobs. The Doctor blusters constantly when threatened, keeps getting unwanted firearms ("all these people are giving me guns, I do wish they wouldn't!"), and postures magnificently when he's holding the Clantons at gunpoint in the bar even though he is clearly out of his depth and completely dependent on Kate for advice on what to do. Throughout all of this, Hartnell's timing is spot on, from his sudden "Oh dear" when introduced to the Clantons in episode one, to his exclamation of "disgusting habit" in episode three, when Johnny Ringo spits in Steven's face. And the Doctor constantly calling Wyatt "Mr Werp" somehow manages to be funny even after the third time he says it. Anthony Jacobs vies with him for the best lines and scenes, most notably when rather gentlemanly "surrendering" to the petrified gun-toting Dodo. Purves' contribution is more visual; note the filthy look he shoots at the Clantons when he is forced to sing The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon yet again, and his double takes on being surprised first by Charlie's presence and later by Charlie's corpse. His facial expressions speak volumes, from the opening scenes when the Doctor introduces him to Wyatt Earp as Steven Regret, tenor. His ridiculous costume and deliberately bad accent (which of course keeps slipping at inopportune moments) add to the general riotous air. Oh, and he sings quite well, too. 

Accents aside, the supporting cast is rather good, with Lawrence Payne as the deliberately clichйd Johnny Ringo of particular note. Jackie Lane however, is a revelation. Whilst nowhere near as good at comedy as Purves or Hartnell, after her fluctuating accent in 'The Ark', and her character's irritating portrayal in 'The Celestial Toymaker', here she is on fine form, and proves to be an excellent foil for the obstreperous Holliday. She's pretty plucky too, tackling the homicidal Ringo without hesitation in a bid to help Holliday. 

The production is admirable too, with a perfectly adequate representation of the Wild West in a studio-bound set. This is no mean feat, I suspect. The costumes look good too. And of course, I couldn't discuss 'The Gunfighters' without mentioning The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon, which narrates from the start and gets gradually funnier as the story progresses. I gather that it really annoys some fans, but I'm not sure why. It's an interesting addition from a series point of view actually, since it continues the experimental feel running through 'The Ark' and 'The Celestial Toymaker'. It has been noted that 'The Gunfighters' is proof that we Brits can't do Wild West stories, but I think this is missing the point. It isn't a serious attempt to recreate the OK Corral, it's a spoof, and as such it succeeds because ultimately, it is hilarious. I sincerely hope that the Hartnell VHS box set will expose 'The Gunfighters' to a wider audience, because it is deserving of reassessment. Have a beer, sit back, and enjoy.

Of all the First Doctor stories, 'The Savages' is perhaps the most overlooked, since no clips exist and the soundtrack has yet to be released commercially. It also lacks a monster, which can help to make lost stories such as 'Galaxy Four' better known to fans. It is notable primarily for the departure of Steven, who as my previous reviews have made clear, is one of my favourite companions. The question remains however, is 'The Savages' any good? 

The answer to the above question is yes, although I wouldn't describe 'The Savages' as a lost classic. At its basic level, it is a nature of evil parable, with a Beauty-and-the-Beast subplot similar to that of 'Galaxy 4', but whilst it has a simple premise, it executes its plot with some charm and is well directed and acted. Initially, it seems that the Elders are a highly advanced people who have created a utopian society, whilst the primitive Savages are an uncivilized threat to this. Indeed, the cliffhanger to episode one plays on this assumption, with Dodo screaming in terror at the sight of a Savage inside the city of the Elders. Additionally, the Elders are so technologically advanced that, uniquely in Doctor Who during this era, they are expecting the arrival of the Doctor, having tracked his travels through time and space, which immediately makes an impression on both Doctor and viewer simply because it is so unusual. As in 'Galaxy 4' however, our initial impressions soon prove false, as it turns out that the Savages are victims of the Elders' vampiric, life-draining technology, which creates their utopia at the cost of human suffering. However, whereas in 'Galaxy 4' the Drahvins ultimately proved to be unremittingly evil, 'The Savages' differs because the Elders are not beyond redemption. Whilst their actions are evil, they themselves are not evil per se, merely misguided. Crucially, when Jano absorbs the Doctor's life-energy and with it his morals, he realises what has happened to him, but rather than fighting against it, he accepts this new view point, seeing his people's actions as cruel and resolving to make changes. This is important, because it shows Jano deciding to embrace this new way of thinking, rather than simply being brainwashed, which would deny him the ability to chose to do good, but rather have it forced upon him. Exorse, who is captured by the Savages with Steven's help, also demonstrates the ability of the Elders to change. Early on during the story, he dismisses the Savages as, well, savages, but after he is captured, he is forced to change his views somewhat. Despite the desire for revenge by some of the Savages, Nanina, whom he captured early on in the story and took for processing, insists on sparing his life and cares for him. Whilst this does not prompt quite the reversal of attitudes that Jano undergoes, he nevertheless starts to appreciate that the Savages are people too, and accepts his planet's new leader at the story's end. This basically summarizes the strength of 'The Savages', which is the characterisation of the supporting characters. 

Of the regulars, neither Hartnell nor Purves disappoint, as usual. The Doctor's confrontation of Jano when he realises how the Elders' society is maintained is marvelous, and my favourite moment of the story. His impassioned announcement that "This, sir, is protracted murder!" seethes with suppressed rage, and forms part of an exchange that deserves fan recognition almost on a par with that accorded his moving speech during the final episode of 'The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve'. Later, after he is forcibly submitted to the Elders' technology and his life energy has been distilled into Jano, he spends most of the last two episodes weak and disorientated, and thus we are denied the clash of personalities that we might expect; instead, as the Doctor recovers, he quietly waits for Jano to turn to his way of thinking, clearly realizing what the transference would do the leader of the Elders. This is an effective story device, but results in the Doctor being sidelined for the latter half of the story. Instead, this again gives centre stage to Steven. Steven has come along way since 'The Chase', as I've noted when reviewing the previous few stories. His departure here is entirely in keeping with his development into a leader and someone who clearly wants to help people. The scene in which he lures Exorse into the caves is one of his finest moments, as he proves to the Savages that they are capable of fighting their oppressors and throwing off the shackles of slavery under which they effectively live. It has been suggested by some commentators that the Doctor abandons Steven without warning, but I feel that this is missing the point. During both 'The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve' and 'The Ark', we saw him railing against the injustices around him; now, finally, when the Doctor nominates him as a new leader to unite both Elders and Savages, he is surprised, but readily accepts, as the Doctor tells him how proud of him he is. I don't think this is said lightly; the Doctor seems to genuinely believe that Steven is equal to the task ahead of him. Steven's departure is actually one of my favourite companion leaving scenes, and hopefully one that will be more widely appreciated once 'The Savages' is released on CD. 

Dodo gets very little to do in 'The Savages', and despite tackling armed and dangerous gunfighters during the previous story, she is here reduced to a generic screamer, reacting rather hysterically to the sight of a Savage in the Elder's city. For the rest of the time, she plays sidekick to either the Doctor or Steven and is virtually superfluous to the plot, except when she discovers the Elders' processing centre and tells her companions about it. Even then though, the Doctor has already deduced what is going on. Of the guest cast, the most notable is Frederick Jaeger as Jano. His impersonation of the Doctor, for which Hartnell apparently coached him in rehearsals, is very impressive, and makes him a memorable character. The main problem with 'The Savages' is that, despite some decent scripted characterisation, his is the only memorable guest performance. The rest of the guest cast is adequate enough and there are no cringe-worthy performances, but nobody else particularly stands out. Having said that, they may have fared better on television, although I get the impression that 'The Savages' transfers quite well to audio. What does stand out is the incidental score, which creates a magnificent air of tension and is very sinister in places.

In summary then, 'The Savages' is not a classic, but is a decent enough story and provides a decent departure for the criminally underrated Steven Taylor. The release of the soundtrack will hopefully improve its reputation (and will be a welcome replacement for my rather poor quality bootleg recording!).

Following his interesting little story “The Savages,” Ian Stuart Black pulls a double-header with “The War Machines” - Doctor Who’s first real ‘contemporary invasion’ story. New producer Innes Lloyd had decided that he wanted to strive for greater realism within the series, and as such it was scientist Doctor Kit Pedler (who would go on to co-create the Cybermen) who pitched the idea for “The War Machines”, which for the first time sees the Doctor in the unfamiliar position (at least thus far) of liasing with the proper authorities to stop a self-aware computer, WOTAN, from taking over the world. 

Kit Pedler’s input to the storyline is evident throughout, the concept of ‘techno fear’ that runs throughout much of his work forming the backbone of this story. Whereas Pedler’s Cybermen would seek to replace their organs (and ultimately their very souls) with technology, WOTAN (pronounced VOTAN, apparently. Very German!) simply decides that mankind cannot progress any further and should be wiped out. The Post Office Tower makes a very good setting for this story, and is another example of how much more disturbing a story is when it is set somewhere familiar. In the previous season, the Daleks in the centre of London really helped raise the fear factor, and the production team had obviously taken that on board and even taken it a step further, setting the story in the present day – something that would be backbone of the series in years to come. The eponymous ‘War Machines’ themselves are the mechanical servants of WOTAN, which look like the sort of little tanks that you might come across in Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. They may look quite imposing on Blue Peter, but in the story come across as utterly feeble - defeated by everyday things like rope!

Also in line with Lloyd’s desire for realism, this serial introduces two new companions who are very much in tune with the ‘swinging sixties’ – seaman Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) and fun-loving secretary Polly Wright (Anneke Wills). Best of all, the second episode of this story sees Jackie Lane makes her final appearance as the dreadful Dodo. Appropriately, she isn’t given a decent send-off. In fact, she isn’t given a send of at all! After being brainwashed by WOTAN, she takes off somewhere to recuperate and then at the end of the story, when she’s no more than a bad memory in the minds of viewers, Polly passes a message to the Doctor that Dodo has decided to stay in 1966! In marked contrast to my feelings about Dodo, I am a huge fan of both Ben and Polly – two very underrated companions. Polly is introduced very early on and is cheeky, sexy and forward – a totally different breed of companion to the likes of Susan, Vicki and Dodo. In the Inferno Club that she takes Dodo to, we also meet Ben who at first seems to be the complete opposite of Polly – sullen, boring and withdrawn. Polly tries to cheer him up, and in the end he ends up rescuing her from a sleazy guy who won’t take no for an answer and hey presto, a very rocky friendship is born. He thinks she’s stuck up and christens her ‘Duchess,’ and she thinks that e has no sense of humour. How these two never got together on screen I have no idea… they’re the perfect match!

On the whole, I enjoyed “The War Machines” a great deal. Some of it has dated very badly, for example the Doctor ‘testing’ WOTAN by asking him to work out the square root of a massive number; a modern calculator could do it in seconds! There’s also some cringe worthy stuff, like WOTAN addressing the Doctor as ‘Doctor Who’ (perhaps he picked up some of those ‘Doctor Who Discovers…’ books а la “The Kingmaker”!) and the Doctor frequenting a nightclub, but on the whole “The War Machines” entertains throughout. After a very varied season in terms of quality, this story represents a definite step in the right direction for Doctor Who.

Moreover, from watching the VHS release of the story I couldn’t tell that there were still several minutes of footage missing; the Restoration Team did an absolutely first class job in restoring this one. The DVD-style bonus ‘Blue Peter’ clip was also a nice little touch, though it made ‘Totally Doctor Who’ seem positively grown-up!

“The Smugglers” is written very much in the same vein as stories like “Treasure Island”. We have many of the staple ingredients present and accounted for: pirates, buried treasure, tales of a curse, secret passages, the small provincial village and the lonely church on top of the cliff. These aspects of the story are all very conventional, even clichйd, which gives this story a comfortable feeling of familiarity. My observation isn’t meant to criticize however, because a story hadn’t been done like this in Doctor Who before, so placing the Doctor and companions in this situation gives us a fresh take on the genre. 

“The Smugglers” also feels like a fresh start in other ways. Every other travelling companion thus far has overlapped with part of the previous crew. Vicki travelled for some time with Ian and Barbara after Susan left. Steven came on board and briefly met Ian and Barbara before travelling with Vicki for a few stories. Dodo came on board and travelled with Steven. But even though Ben and Polly meet Dodo in the previous story, the fact that she only appears in the first two episodes before Ben and Polly take over makes the TARDIS crew of the Smugglers feel like a clean break from the past, especially considering that Steven leaves at the end of one story, and then Dodo is effectively gone two episodes later despite a mention of her in episode four. There is no one to show Ben and Polly the ropes, forcing them to depend on each other. The quick friendship that they formed in “The War Machines” stands them in good stead here.

This is also a break from convention in that we have a different type of historical on display. For the first time since “The Aztecs”, there are no famous historical figures on display in a historical story. There is no Marco Polo, no Robespierre or Nero, no King Richard, Odysseus or Marshal Tavannes. No Doc Holliday or Wyatt Earp. The historical setting of “The Smugglers” exists purely to provide a backdrop and allow a pirates and buried treasure story to be told. I never get the feeling that it’s meant to be educational in the way that earlier historicals were. And while the story never feels as weighty or consequential as “The Aztecs” or “The Crusade”, it isn’t nearly as lighthearted as “The Highlanders” will prove to be a few stories down the road. It’s a pretty serious story with some rather graphic torture threatened at times, a high body count and some grisly deaths, which ironically we can still see, thanks to the fact that the Australian censors excised them from the program. 

I really enjoy Hartnell’s performance as the Doctor, and the closer I get to the end of his run in my Doctor Who marathon, the more I know I’ll miss his interpretation of the character. Until I watched all his stories in order I never realized just how sidelined he had begun to be near the end of his time on the show. As far back as “The Massacre” the scripts had begun to be written in such a way as to give him less to do in any given story, leaving more of the action to be carried by the companions. “The Ark” is probably the exception to this rule, but he’s missing for two episodes in “The Celestial Toymaker”, has less to do as the story goes on in “The Gunfighters”, barely appears in episode three of “the Savages”, and leaves much of the middle story to be carried by Ben and Polly in “The War Machines”. All of these were written well so that the Doctor is still central to events, but he’s not always around very much, perhaps only in a few key scenes. This trend continues in “The Smugglers”, where he’s barely in episode two, and has only a bit more to do in episode three until the end. 

Despite this, Hartnell’s performance really is as good as it ever was. His initial burst of anger at Ben and Polly’s intrusion into the TARDIS gives way to a gentle amusement when they simply refuse to believe his claims about where and when they are. He handles the encounters with the Longfoot and Kewper with tact, and keeps his dignity after being tied up and hauled aboard the Black Albatross to face Pike. In a delightful scene he easily outwits Jamaica (and correctly predicts Kewper’s future as it happens!) showing once again that it’s easy for villains to underestimate this frail old man, but they do so to their own peril. Morally, this is another fine hour for the Doctor as he refuses to leave when he has the chance, insisting that he must stay and try to protect the people of the village since he feels somewhat responsible for the danger they are in. He shows the courage we've come to expect from him even though physically he’s no match for either Pike or Cherub, and keeps them at bay with words and little else.

Ben and Polly are excellent characters, and they quickly show their suitability as travelling companions for the Doctor. Despite both talking out of turn and being less than cautious, they know enough about history to use the superstition of the time against Tom and get out of the cell. And simply because I enjoy pointing out where the ‘screaming coffee-maker’ stereotype that so often besets Polly isn’t universally true, I feel compelled to mention that she comes up with the plan. She grasps the potential of time travel much more quickly than Ben, who is pretty keen on getting back to his ship. Between the two of them they fill Blake in on what they know, and stand up to pirates and smugglers alike. It’s a strong beginning to their travels.

No pirate story would be complete without some good villains, and we have four. Two pirates and two smugglers. Kewper and the Squire initially appear to be rather small fry, who smuggle goods up and down the coast to dodge the tax man, and neither seems all that dangerous. Kewper turns out to be a rather nasty piece of work later on when Avery’s treasure is at stake, threatening harm or death to Ben and Polly; while Edwards shows that he has his limits. Both men pale in comparison to Cherub and Pike, who both kill victims without any remorse. Cherub in particular seems to enjoy knifing people in the back, while Pike at least has the confidence to confront his victims face to face. 

All in all, this is an enjoyable adventure. As much as I liked Steven and even Dodo, their replacement with Ben and Polly adds some much needed fresh energy to the proceedings. Hartnell is still in fine form and the story moves along at a good pace with some strong villains. This is a story well worth seeing (or rather listening to) and a good season opener.

The Smugglers' is the final Hartnell historical Doctor Who story, and is noticeably different in style to any of its predecessors. It is not in the same vein as the more serious, dramatic historicals such as 'The Aztecs', 'The Crusade', or 'The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve', but nor is a fully-fledged comedy like 'The Romans', 'The Myth Makers' or 'The Gunfighters. Instead, it feels more like a Treasure Island, and has a decidedly whimsical streak, in spite of vicious pirates and several brutal deaths. This approach works surprisingly well, and 'The Smugglers' is an enjoyable opening to Season Four. 

William Hartnell is on fine form as the Doctor, dealing with the pirates with ease. His manipulation of Pike's ego is obvious, but amusing, as he neatly avoids being tortured by Cherub by appealing to the Captain's vanity: Pike, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, likes to think of himself as a gentleman. Later in the story, the Doctor shrugs off Cherub's threats and manages to keep him talking whilst he waits for help to arrive, showing none of the worried bluster that the First Doctor occasionally demonstrates when threatened. His escape from The Black Albatross with Kewper involves a fairly predictable ploy to overcome Jamaica, but is nevertheless carried out with aplomb, both by the Doctor and Hartnell himself. Whatever the situation in which he finds himself, the Doctor maintains an air of dignity, even when being threatened by sword or Pike's spike. Ben and Polly continue to live up to the promise that they showed in 'The War Machines'. After fairly rapidly accepting that they have traveled through time (they have little choice but to accept that they have traveled through space), they demonstrate their ability to cope remarkably well, and after being hypnotized for much of 'The War Machines' whilst Ben took centre stage, Polly here gets to show her resourcefulness by engineering their escape from prison, thanks to her tricking of the superstitious (and admittedly rather gullible) Tom. Ben however is not left out, and gets a significant role in the story by befriending (after initial mutual distrust) Revenue man Blake. Both Craze and Willis put in excellent performances throughout, reminding me why they, like Purves, are sorely underrated as companions. Oh and Polly being mistaken for a boy is an amusing nod to 'The Crusade'; it's a shame that we are denied the visuals when Kewper refers to the Doctor's “lads”, since I'd love to see the expression on Polly's face. 

The plot of 'The Smugglers' is simple, though effective, allowing full attention to be given to the supporting characters, and this is the great strength of the story. The guest cast are great, all of them tackling their lines with relish. John Ringham (previously Tlotoxl in 'The Aztecs') as Blake provides noble support, saving the day during the final episode, and Terence de Marney is also impressive as the ill-fated Joseph Longfoot, the former pirate who quickly befriends the Doctor, but it is Paul Whitsun-Jones as the Squire, George A. Cooper as Cherub, and Michael Godfrey as Pike, who really steal the show. The Squire is delightfully cast as a scoundrel, eager to make ill-gotten gain from smuggling, but later realizing the error of his way and actually saving the Doctor's life when he realises how truly villainous his pirate allies are. Pike and Cherub are the real villains of the peace; the former is cast firmly in the Long John Silver mold (although without the redeeming features), and makes a flamboyant if dangerous foil for the Doctor, seemingly unaware when his opponent is flattering him into submission (the Doctor's convincing him to spare the village in episode four by suggesting that he wouldn't be able to stop his men from ransacking it is and thus employing the most transparent reverse psychology is a case in point!). The cliffhanger to episode one, as he slams his spike into his desktop, is wonderfully melodramatic. Cherub lacks even Pike's veneer of civilized behaviour, as he slaughters Longfoot with obvious relish and makes clear his intention to do the same to the Doctor. Every line Cooper utters drips with glee, making Cherub seem utterly psychotic. His happy reminiscences about his dead shipmates on board Avery's ship, whose names now point the way to the treasure, are bizarre; he clearly remembers them fondly, but accepts their deaths as part of his way of life, painting him as every inch a true pirate and scoundrel. 

I can't really find fault with 'The Smugglers'. The story progresses at a merry pace, carried along by the cast to a dramatic final sword fight. The Doctor even gets to depart through a hidden passageway in true romantic swashbuckler style. I could criticize Hartnell's fluffing of Longfoot's rhyme, which changes slightly between episodes, but it would be unnecessarily churlish. Overall, 'The Smugglers' is a modest but highly entertaining season opener, and one that serves to establish the new TARDIS crew before the massive change that is to follow…

“The Tenth Planet.” One of the most famous Doctor Who stories of them all, and why? Not only do we have the introduction of the legendary Cybermen, but we also have the first regeneration – the importance of which can never be overstated. On top of all that, of all the four episodes, it just had to be the pivotal final episode that perished in the 1970’s archive clear out, leaving us with only three existing episodes of William Hartnell’s swansong, and, just to rub salt in the wound, Hartnell is in only two of those! Episode 4 was even reported to have been found back in 1992, but sadly that proved to be inaccurate. History certainly hasn’t been kind to “The Tenth Planet,” but fans, on the other hand…

Doctor Who fans tend to love “The Tenth Planet,” and with some justification. Dr. Kit Pedler’s story of the dangers of technology and dehumanised medicine really raises the fear factor to fever pitch; not only are viewers scared of Cybermen, they are also scared of becoming Cybermen. Their design in this story is certainly original; the cloth masks are particularly impressive as they remove any vestige of humanity from the face, yet it is still obvious that what lies beneath was once human. However, they certainly don’t look cybernetic by any stretch of the imagination, and they are far too front-heavy to be practical. The voices, on the other hand, are absolutely superb. They put the Darth Vader rip-off Cyber voices of the 1980’s to shame! Their high-pitched, disjointed, ‘Microsoft Sam’ voice suits them perfectly – I was absolutely thrilled when Big Finish used it in their ‘Genesis of the Cybermen’ story, “Spare Parts”, in 2002. It isn’t just how they say it either; it’s what they say. You don’t get any of that “Excellent” nonsense from these original Cybermen; they are completely and utterly devoid of emotion, and their application of cold logic is often frighteningly reasonable! One of my favourite scenes in Episode 2 sees Polly remonstrating with a Cyberman about how he doesn’t care that two astronauts are going to die. The Cyberman replies by simply saying that people are dying all over the world every day, so why doesn’t she care about them too? It’s wonderfully written, thought-provoking stuff. Strangely though, despite their complete divorce from emotion the Cybermen in this story are far less uniform and far more individual than the ones the Doctor would encounter later in his life. They even have names like ‘Gern’ and ‘Krang’ – something never repeated other than in the prequel, “Spare Parts.”

I should also say that I love the romantic notion of a dead planet – and not just any planet, Earth’s twin ‘Mondas’ – drifting off through space on its own. It might not be the most sound scientific premise from Doctor Who’s unofficial ‘scientific advisor’ Dr. Pedler, but it makes for one hell of a story and moreover, it makes things interesting by implying that if the inhabitants of Earth’s twin planet could do this to themselves, then so could the inhabitants of Earth…

The Polar setting of “The Tenth Planet” is recreated incredibly well in the studio; often these black and white stories look more realistic than some of the early colour stories – colour seems to be far less forgiving than good ol’ monochrome! The high quality of the stock footage and the unusual, unique titles and credits also make the story feel special and different – for once, it looks like the programme actually had some decent money spent on it (which I’m sure it didn’t!) One of the areas where the realisation of the story falls down though is in its depiction of the ‘future’ – 1986 to be precise – though the programme makers can hardly be blamed for failing to foresee the future with any sort of accuracy! I found it amusing that Ben and Polly thought they had arrived back home in the 1960’s, because that is exactly the decade I would guess that I was in were I to materialise in this story’s South Pole Base! 

The commander of the base, General Cutler (Robert Beatty) is a great character, and one that it is hard for the audience to get a handle on at first. The sub-plot involving his son and how far the General is willing to go to save him is brilliantly done, and actually manages to salvage the desperately poor third episode. Cutler is one these brilliant human antagonists that Doctor Who tends to do so well – although he’s a pain in the arse and a menace, he has his reasons for everything that he does… and that’s what makes him such a disturbing character. He’d sacrifice the world to save his son…

As I mentioned earlier, we only have about fifty (surviving) minutes of William Hartnell to enjoy in this story – seventy-five or so if your lucky enough to own the BBC Video featuring the spectacular full-length reconstruction of Episode 4! The Restoration Team have to be praised for creating such a brilliant approximation of the missing episode; much like ‘Loose Cannon’, they have used telesnaps, clips, 8mm off-screen footage, linking text and a recording of the soundtrack to create probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing Bill Hartnell’s final episode. My only possible gripe with it is that it isn’t full screen, but I’m sure they had their reasons for cropping it down slightly. Even though he’s definitely my least favourite of all the Doctors, I have to say Hartnell goes out guns blazing here! I didn’t notice one single fluff in any of his three episodes, and even more importantly he is as intense and has focused as he has ever been. I really liked how the writers make the Doctor the man with the knowledge in this episode – he’s not just a traveller, blundering into trouble. He knows of Mondas. He knows of the Cybermen before they even show up. He knows that they will come. Of course, this begs the obvious question – how? – but with hindsight there are any number of answers. He probably knew of the Cybermen from the legends of them being used in the Death Zone on Gallifrey in the Dark Times… though of course, that would lead one to question how he couldn’t have known of the Daleks before he first visited Skaro…

“This old body of mine is wearing a bit thin.”

Hartnell’s absence from Episode 3 really screws up the story. This isn’t a criticism, it’s a fact. The writers and producers do an admirable job of working around the illness-enforced absence of their lead man, and in a weird and wacky way it kind of links in well with the Doctor’s impending regeneration. In Episode 3, he’s totally spent; in Episode 4, he summons all his strength for a sort of “once more unto the breach” finale… then he collapses and regenerates. I’ve always wondered what actually killed the first Doctor, and I’m still unsure. Old age seems the most likely cause of death; after all, the Doctor’s first incarnation could be anything up to about 400 years old at the time of “The Tenth Planet.” For an incarnation of the Doctor, that’s damn good innings!

“It is far from being over. I must get back to the TARDIS, immediately! I must go…”

Thankfully, those folks at Blue Peter used a clip of the regeneration sequence in one of their programmes and so it survived the fires and hence rounds off the reconstruction of Episode 4. It’s not quite a morph, it’s more like one flash of light, a twitch and then…. Patrick Troughton! It all begins again, and in one brilliant master-stroke the producers give the best television programme ever virtual immortality…