This story in a nutshell: Introducing Vicki, the orphan girl
who seems perfect to fit the Susan-shaped hole the series is now missing…
Hmm: The departure of Susan brings out a strong affection
amongst the remaining TARDIS crew and completely alters the central dynamic of
the show. Ian and Barbara are no long desperate to get away from him but
willing travellers happy to welcome Vicki on board into their little family.
This is the first instance in season two of the kinder portrayal that Hartnell
displays for the rest of the year and he’s just a delight to watch. The Doctor
is struggling to cope with the loss of his granddaughter and he doesn’t hide it
behind bluster but instead responds warmly towards his friends and the result
is a very welcoming atmosphere. In every respect (especially because we no
longer have to listen to her wailing), Susan’s departure from the show is the
best thing that could have possibly happened. ‘What is it? What is it?’
he twitters as he sleeps through a landing for the first time, yawning at the
console and barely interested in their destination. Instead of an exploration,
he’d rather have a nap! All the old associations with Susan are in the Ship as
Barbara explains; this is as heartbreaking as any parent who has to let their
child off into the world. His cheeky little monologue in the Ship when he
realises that they have landed on Dido and he has the opportunity to tell Ian
that he has deliberately managed to steer the TARDIS there never fails to make
me smile – he’s such a naughty old get. I could watch the Doctor and Ian poking
about in those caves for hours because they are just so much fun together (‘it’s
a pity I didn’t get that degree!’). There’s an unspoken affection between
the actors that is a joy to bask in. Especially funny is the moment when Sandy
lets rip an almighty roar and Ian shines the light in the Doctor’s face to
which responds angrily ‘Well it isn’t me, is it? Shine the light down
there!’ Priceless. His gentle handling of Vicki melts the heart, he takes
an immediate shine to her and their relationship proves to be one of the
highpoints of the era. It has precisely the sort of warmth that the
Doctor/Susan relationship should have had but there was always some distance
and disagreement between them whereas Hartnell and O’Brien are clearly in love
from the outset. He’s got a keen mind and only has to cast his eye over the
situation to realise the truth of Bennett’s involvement. Sometimes it just
takes a fresh pair of eyes.
Schoolteachers in Love: The moment where the Doctor calls
out for Susan and Barbara steps in and asks for him to explain the checks to
her is a very rewarding moment. This is just how I imagine Hill and Russell
looked after Hartnell when Ford decided to depart from the show. Ian wobbling
his hand to suggest the Doctor is past it always makes me chuckle. Vicki seems
to think Barbara is some kind of psychopath that roams the universe
slaughtering innocent creatures which prompts the Doctor’s glowing reference: ‘She’s
nice, you know. You’ll like her!’ Things have definitely moved on since the
pilot.
Alien Orphan: From the outset it is clear that Maureen
O’Brien is a superior actress to Carole Ann Ford, despite being handed a less
interesting character from the start. Vicki is much more your traditional
screaming little girl than Susan’s unearthly child and it is entirely down to
O’Brien’s believability and likeability that sets Vicki apart. The moment Vicki
quietly recalls her father and holds back the tears my heart went out to her.
It’s possibly the finest portrayal of grief that a companion would ever show
(its certainly more subtle than anything Janet Fielding gave us). Her reaction
to Sandy’s death might seem over the top but if the gentle creatures presence
was the only moment of each day where she felt something other than fear then
it begins to make a bit more sense. It’s the first time somebody new has
stepped into the TARDIS since the pilot and look at the difference in reaction.
Vicki’s momentary shock is replaced by excitement and a feeling of belonging.
Not perhaps as realistic as Ian and Barbara’s culture shock but Vicki’s need of
a new home has been set up well enough by this point.
Sparkling Dialogue: David Whitaker displays a gift for
memorable dialogue that would flourish in his later stories The Crusade, Power
and Evil of the Daleks.
‘Oh but Doctor the trembling’s stopped!’ ‘Oh my dear, I’m
glad you’re feeling better.’
‘My dear boy if I press myself any harder against this thing
I shall do myself an injury.’
‘You destroyed a whole planet to save your own skin. You’re insane.’
‘And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an
abundance of it!’
The Good: Talk about an immediately arresting opening scenario;
some lovely model work detailing a spaceship that has crashed into the
mountains of an alien world and a crew of two, desperately afraid for their
lives of the homicidal population. All this is set up in a couple of minutes
with absolutely no help from the regulars at all. It’s the first time a story
has opened and not been told from the regulars point of view, hinting at
Vicki’s continued presence. I wouldn’t call The Rescue a whodunnit with its
suspect list of one (or two if you include Vicki experiencing extreme
multi-personality syndrome) but once the twist has been revealed Bennett’s
actions can be considered some of the most chilling any Doctor Who villain has
performed. He willingly sabotages a ship and brings it down on an alien world
(its never stated that Bennett is responsible for the crash but I like to think
that he is) and then commits mass murder, wiping out both his own people and
the populace of the Dido and then terrorizes a young girl who has recently lost
her father into thinking that the people of this world are all monsters who are
only keeping them alive for kicks. It’s just sick, isn’t it? He must
have had a particularly disturbed childhood to consider this extreme reaction
the only way to escape a murder sentence. Logically, it makes perfect sense but
psychologically it is utterly destabilising to think that one human being could
willingly perform such devastating acts of murder to walk away a hero. The
difference between Christopher Barry’s direction and Richard Martin’s (from the
previous story) is acres apart – just watch as the camera swoops in as the
travellers depart the Ship which is all that is lighting up the cave they have
materialised in. It is effortlessly atmospheric. The Koquillion costume has
been expertly put together to repulse, there is something else quite like in
the next 49 years of Doctor Who. What I love is that like most Doctor Who
monsters it is quite clearly a costume (albeit an exotic and frightening one)
but the twist that this genuinely is a costume predates a similar touch of
smartness in Power of Kroll by a decade. Barry loves his shots of actors
overlaid on effects in the distance and Ian and Barbara discovering the rocket
ship is very ambitious for the time. The audience must have been amazed.
Bennett is such a bastard that as soon as Ian is out of sight he tosses Barbara
off a cliff without a second thought! Aside from the Earth, this is the first
instance of the Doctor landing back on a planet he has already visited. In a
fantastic moment Vicki reveals that Barbara has survived the culling of the
TARDIS crew to Bennett, not realising that he is the one responsible for their
predicament. Sandy isn’t the best piece of monster magic to step from the
Hartnell era, nor the worst (that honour belongs to the Slyther) but since she
is supposed to be a benevolent creature and not a monstrous one I can kind of
forgive her anything. Plus its hard not to moved when Barbara sets at her with
a flare gun. What a cow. The smoky, ornate, spacious Hall of Justice set is
marvellously designed and Christopher Barry shoots it with real care. The
TARDIS going over a cliff – bloody marvellous!
The Bad: Check out the far cave wall that is visible through
the TARDIS doors. Rather wonderfully the Doctor dashes out of the Ship to see
what all the commotion with the explosion is all about and but ducks in because
the cave is supposedly full of smoke to get a light. Unfortunately whoever was
responsible for filling the cave with dust is clearly on a coffee break and it
doesn’t actually appear until the Doctor returns with a lamp. There is a big
flaw in Bennett’s ‘you can’t come in’ trick with the door. He’s supposedly
disabled so how is he on the other side of the door preventing Koquillion’s
entrance? As nicely realised as the knifes springing from the wall to push Ian
towards the cliff face and into the clutches of Sandy are, you have to question
the logic of such a friendly people devising such a devious and murderous trap.
It’s Saturday morning cinema jeopardy and I couldn’t fail but see Batman and
Robin caught in a similar hazard. The term deus ex machina is bandied around an
awful lot but The Rescue features one of the most blatant examples as two
previously unseen Dido inhabitants (supposedly wiped out) turn up at the climax
to deal with Bennett. How precisely are this pair of fellas going to perpetuate
a new race?
1 comment:
I must admit to initially struggling with ep1 but ep2 was brilliant. The main cast were outstanding. Vicki a bit OTT to begin with but as you say, better than Ford. Great 2nd episode. Not better than DIOE though..
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