Following a five-week holiday after “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” wrapped, Doctor Who’s second production block made an unpromising start with this strange little story, “The Rescue.” Normally I have a strong opinion either way about a Doctor Who story, but this two-parter really has me stumped. I’ve seen it two or three times now and I’ve gone from absolutely hating it, to finding it quite charming… and then all the way back again!

“The Rescue” has quite a bit going for it. To begin with, it has the brand new gimmick of introducing a new companion. The trouble is, she isn’t new. When Carole Ann Ford left at the end of the first recording block, Maureen O’Brien was contracted to play ‘Susan.’ Although her name may have changed, her character is so similar to her predecessor’s that it’s hard to get excited about her arrival. To be fair, in “The Rescue” Vicki is portrayed as quite a damaged young woman beset with grief, but she recovers from her ordeal surprisingly quickly and soon becomes the ‘teenage girl from the future’ that Susan was. However, I feel that David Whitaker should have explored the effects of Susan’s departure on the TARDIS crew more fully rather than focus so much on the new girl. Obviously a TV show has to look forwards, but even so Susan’s departure is barely mentioned let alone dealt with. Thankfully, Paul Leonard would later write the Missing Adventure “Venusian Lullaby” which would explore Susan’s sudden departure in a much more satisfying manner.

I liked a lot of the lighter moments in “The Rescue”; there is one scene I found particularly amusing where Barbara kills a horrific creature that turns out to be Vicki’s pet! Best of all though, I found it hilarious that the villain of the piece - Koquillion - is revealed to be Bennett, a human criminal in disguise. The production team actually have an excuse for providing a fake-looking monster as it’s supposed to be fake! 

At the end of the day, “The Rescue” does its job well in introducing Vicki to the series, but under modern scrutiny, the way Susan’s departure is (not) dealt with is unforgivable. My advice would be either to enjoy this serial for what it is, a quaint little two-parter, or if you’re after the heavy stuff check out “Venusian Lullaby” instead.

“The Romans” is Doctor Who’s first real stab at historical humour. There were hints of it evident in “The Reign of Terror”, but nothing as full-blown as we see in this story. At times it works and at times it doesn’t, but on the whole “The Romans” entertains more than it annoys. The TARDIS crash landing at the start of the serial is superb; even the visual effects don’t look all that bad. After such a promising beginning though, the story slows down enormously as the TARDIS crew rest up in a villa outside Rome.

There is a lot in this story that made me laugh out loud, most memorably the Doctor’s wonderful ‘fisticuffs’ sequence and the trick he plays in front of Nero with the lyre – this story really is the William Hartnell show! Derek Francis’ Nero is also hilarious, although at times things almost descend into a ‘Carry On’ style farce as he chases Barbara around! In terms of the more serious side of the story, Vicki is handled well by Spooner who gives her the old ‘you can’t meddle with history’ treatment. Tavius (Michael Peake) is an interesting character and his affection for Barbara is touching, as is the camaraderie between Ian and the slave he escapes from the shipwreck with, whom he is later forced to fight. The story’s final scenes are particularly memorable, even if they are at odds with the general tone of the story; Rome burns around Nero as she stands alone, playing his lyre.

All things considered, I can’t help but feel that “The Romans” was a something of a wasted opportunity. So many things are lightly skipped over in this story that would have made for a brilliant, serious Doctor Who adventure а la “The Aztecs.” Nevertheless, on Hartnell’s exceptional performance alone Spooner’s story holds up reasonably well even today, forty years on, so I suppose it can’t have been that much of a waste. The verdict? Good, but could have been so much better!

This is madness! “We’ve wandered off our astral plane,” says the Doctor at one point, and he’s not wrong. This is Doctor Who - Timothy Leary style!

The Web Planet is often accused of being boring, but apart from episodes four and five dragging a bit, this is highly entertaining stuff. Of course you do need a similar sense of humour to me, and find amusement in things that make absolutely no sense, and on that score The Web Planet is a laugh riot.

It’s one big acid trip two years before such things were popular: giant talking insects, a story so garbled you wonder if they’re still speaking English, weird sets and lots of (presumably) coloured flashing lights.

William Hartnell is at his most incomprehensible – not just the famous line-forgetting scene in the TARDIS that leaves poor William Russell with a baffled look on his face, but throughout the first few episodes he rambles constantly, often laughing in the middle of sentences for no apparent reason and running around like a monkey, or a toddler with attention deficit order. He only shuts up when he’s been hypnotized by a big gold wishbone.

I found Vicki a pleasantly bland presence after having to sit through seven episodes of Carol Ann Ford’s hyperactivity last week during a viewing of The Daleks. She doesn’t scream at all really, which is great, and she gurgles quite horribly when covered in sticky web stuff. Ian and Barbera have pretty much the same roles as in The Daleks, though, clambering through caves and whipping the locals up into the obligatory suicide mission.

The worst bit is where the Menoptra and Barbara annoy a Zarbi by shouting “Zarbiiii!!” at it, which is all very Tellytubby in execution, as are the Optra who cheapen the whole experience when on screen. By hopping.

The best bit is the Menoptra attack – the sight of the Menoptra in flight is graceful, very very psychedelic and oddly moving. No, the best bit is where the Zarbi runs head first into one of the studio cameras – not so much because it happens, but because it’s so obviously going to happen.

When I first started my journey of Doctor Who, I tried to keep open minded about certain things, and I still do. I tend not to let the opinions and views of other fans cloud my judgement of any particular adventure. However, I must be in agreement with fandom regarding 'The Web Planet'; it is simply, without a doubt, the worst adventure ever created. 

I first viewed this 6-parter on Christmas Day with my girlfriend three years ago, and we nearly didn't survive the experience because we nearly died of absolute boredom. 

However, I must say that recently I have watched 'The Web Planet' with a mission in mind; to write responsorial dialogue in the fashion of Mystery Science Theater. Most of the crappy films that exist are usually made enjoyable thanks to MST3K. And so I painstakingly wrote some rather funny lines to say at certain junctions of all 6 episodes, and it does make the experience a bit more enjoyable, simply because you can delight in taking a piss out of what is undoubtably a bunch of great ideas poorly executed. This is my suggestion to everyone, if you wish to enjoy 'The Web Planet', view it and attempt to develop your own witty responses, it's fun. 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that many of the ideas were good when they were written on paper, and a great deal must be commended to going above and beyond the call of duty to attempt a truly alien landscape and environment. However, what ruins it is the pacing, because it literally takes forever for anything exciting to happen. By the time you get to episode four, you really don't care if the Menoptra overthrow the Zarbi and the Animus, you just want it all to be over and done with. What also ruins it are those annoying sound effects used for the Zarbi, they sound like video game sound effects from Atari or even KalicoVision. Not only that, but there are so many fluffed lines, I totally lost count. In addition, what was the deal with the weird hand movements by the Menoptra, it looked like they were conducting an orchaestra or something. 

I feel sorry for Martin Jarvis, a highly respected and talented actor, for having to play one of the Menoptra. Then again, this could have been one of his first acting jobs, who knows? Luckily he makes up for it with a marvelous performance years later in 'Jubilee'. I also felt sorry for the regulars for having to trudge through such a horrendously plodded adventure. I feel bad for Bill Sutton, who recently passed away, he had a lot of great ideas. They just weren't translated well to television. I think his ideas were overly ambitious and were a bit too big for the timeframe in which they were used. If his script were proposed a little later on in the years, the result probably would've been slightly better than what we ended up with at the time. Then again, who knows for certain. But take my advice, if you intend on watching this, you may like it, you may not. But first watch it, come up with some cool lines to shout at the screen at appropriate times, then sit back and enjoy your very own MSTied version of 'The Web Planet'.

For a television show with the concept of time travel at its core, Doctor Who took its time in giving viewers a story about time paradoxes. Towards the end of the second season, Glyn Jones’ four-parter “The Space Museum” saw the TARDIS “jump a time track” and give the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki a glimpse of their future – as exhibits in a Morok Space Museum on the planet Xeros. The premise works well in the context of the story as the TARDIS crew struggle to avoid their destiny – Vicki stirs up the Xeron rebels, Ian tempts fate trying to talk down an armed man safe in the knowledge that he can’t be shot… but no matter what the travellers do, their destiny seems to be those glass museum cases…

Reviewing this story almost forty years on, I have been completely and utterly spoiled by the sheer brilliance of writers like Steve Lyons, whose skill when it comes to writing these time paradox stories is beyond compare. I have become used to stories so complex that is only quite a while afterwards that things start to make sense, and herein lies the rub. Glyn Jones’ resolution to “The Space Museum” is absolutely awful. There is no clever manipulation of time, no reset button, no grandfather paradox, no Blenovitch limitation effect… not even an excuse from the Doctor about mysterious “…power that Time Lords have.” Instead, the TARDIS crew are rescued by the Xerons, and don’t end up as exhibits in the Museum. They did change their fate after all. And that’s it.

The slow and contemplative bulk of “The Space Museum” is completely overshadowed by the ending – DALEKS! The Dalek casing in the Museum earlier in the story reminded us all that the destroyers from Skaro were never far away, and the cliff-hanger ending sees them actually begin pursuit of the TARDIS in the own time travel machine…

The Time Meddler is a story that seems to have increased in popularity over the last couple of years, and I would say it deserves this increased attention. It is an inventive and at times funny outing for the First Doctor. 

The clever script allows us our first glimpse of another member of the Doctor's race. The Meddling Monk is an excellent creation and the anachronisms he introduces to Saxon era England really enliven the piece. As the Monk, Peter Butterworth is enjoyable, particularly when verbally jousting with William Hartnell, who is on fine line-fluffing form. Episode 2 is probably the worst of the four due to his absence. I did have a slight problem with the actors playing the Saxon characters- they're perhaps a little too civil and nice to look comfortable in the harsh surrounds of early Britain...

While technically I think this is quite good for the time (dodgy Viking sword fights aside), the designer missed an opportunity with The Monk's TARDIS, which is mostly just the same as The Doctor's. Still, it's a great idea so I won't class it as a major problem. The musical score creates an unsettling atmosphere which the acting and direction do not necessarily offer up; an implied rape scene does go far to equal it, but in a less pleasing way.

Anyway, The Time Meddler is a fun little story, which is sadly, and obviously, dated. View it in the spirit intended, though, and you will find much to enjoy.