Saturday 7th December 1963 - The Forest of Fear

 

So. This is it. This is the infamous episode in which the First Doctor tries to kill someone with a rock.

We're still in the palaeolithic period, attempting to escape from a tribe of desperate cave-dwelling primitives and get back to the TARDIS. It's the first episode where the pattern of the show - capture, escape, recapture - which subsequently acts as a narrative template for 60 years is introduced. Here we have the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara escape from imprisonment in the Cave of Skulls and travel through the dangerous Forest of Fear only to face ambush by cavemen. Ian shows off his heroism, Barbara her kindness and the Doctor how stubborn and self-serving he can be. (Susan is, of course, Susan.)

I'm regarding these early episodes as showing the Doctor as a work-in-progress: learning compassion, hope and a sense of moral duty from his first human companions. So far, the Doctor isn’t the heroic, generous “I’m the Doctor; I’m here to help!” or the “Aren’t humans brilliant!” incarnation. He’s an alien who - as we know from An Unearthly Child - has little regard for what he considers lesser intelligent beings and treats Earth as a curiosity). He's also presented as old, quickly tired and conscious of wanting to be viewed as authoritative and in control. Last episode we saw how the Doctor responded to imprisonment and threat of death. He was terrified.

This week, The Forest of Fear opens with the Doctor expressing his fear of death and mortality. He sees the skulls of murdered cave people and this distresses him. He becomes despondent and despairing, initially expressing his fears about failing to escape: "Oh, it's hopeless, hopeless. Even if we do get free, we shall never move that stone." It's Ian's stoicism, however, insisting that "Any hope is better than none. Don't just lie there criticising us. Do something. Help us all to get out of here." that revivifies the Doctor for a short time.

After that, the Doctor directs the activities of the group in breaking free of their bonds: pointing out that sharper bones make better tools to cut bonds. He also - importantly - assigns Ian a role in the group: "You're the strongest, and you may have to defend us." Later in the episode he feels intimidated by Ian's youth and strength and challenges Ian's leadership ("You seem to have elected yourself leader of this little party.") before telling Ian that he doesn't follow orders blindly. Moreso, the Doctor behaves quite childishly, as if he is emotionally undeveloped. Later in the episode, Susan tells the humans that "He [the Doctor]'s always like this if he doesn't get his own way."

This lack of emotional maturity is also shown in one exchange with Barbara where it's almost as if the Doctor is experiencing emotions (what he refers to as "sensations") for the first time:

BARBARA: You're trying to help me.  
DOCTOR: Fear makes companions of all of us. That's right.  
BARBARA: I never thought once you were afraid.  
DOCTOR: Fear is with all of us, and always will be. Just like that other sensation that lives with it.  
BARBARA: What's that?  
DOCTOR: Your companion referred to it. Hope. Hope, that's right.

(It makes me wonder if the reason that Susan was attending Coal Hill School was in order to acquire human "sensations". Perhaps juvenile time lords are parasitical empaths, developing through experience.) It's the way that the Doctor seems to remember the "sensation" he's now feeling ("Hope, that's right") that creates the impression that this is something he intellectually knows but doesn't understand.

This is evident during the scene where the travellers help the wounded caveman leader, Za, and we see the alien, quite distant and logical Doctor who doesn't understand Ian and Barbara's benevolent actions:

BARBARA: You treat everybody and everything as something less important than yourself.
DOCTOR: You're trying to say that everything you do is reasonable, and everything I do is inhuman. Well, I'm afraid your judgement's at fault, Miss Wright, not mine.

What motivates the Doctor's attitude is fear of capture and death. He'd prefer to leave Za behind - or even kill him like an injured animal - rather than risk his own life. Much is made in Doctor Who fandom about the scene where Ian prevents the Doctor from using a rock to kill Za. Things happen quickly and Ian doesn't think much of the Doctor's claim that "I was going to get him to draw our way back to the Tardis." Personally, I think the jury's still out about this but it's at best this early First incarnation of the Doctor is pretty selfish and at worst, a psychopath.

Barbara's character in this episode is interesting. The assured investagative teacher of An Unearthly Child has become a quivering wreck who is terrified of the forest into which they escape:

BARBARA: The bushes moved. I saw them. I saw them! Oh, we're never going to get out of this awful place! Never! Never! Never!

Shortly after, she discovers the body of a boar-like creature and screams. She does, however, insist that the injured Za isn't left to die. Even Ian is surprised by how vehemently Barbara demands they help the caveman, making the point that "Your flat must be littered with stray cats and dogs." Barbara's innate sense of moral duty stands so clearly in contrast to the Doctor's selfishness. She's afraid but willing to risk her life for the caveman who imprisoned and chased her. I'm looking forward to seeing how Barbara affects the Doctor from this point on.

The other striking character in this episode is the Old Mother. She's the elderly caveperson driven by fear who wants the status quo, regardless of how awful life is for the tribe, to remain. She doesn't want to see the return of fire and is willing to free the Doctor and his companions in order to prevent Za or Kal from acquiring the knowledge of how to make fire. She tells them: "I will set you free if you will go away and not make fire. Fire will bring trouble and death to the tribe." Her actions lead to her death and next episode the Doctor should learn about this sacrifice.

Plus, we learn that the Doctor isn't a medical doctor at all.

Next week: The Firemaker.