Saturday 7th March 1964 - Five Hundred Eyes
It's an episode that starts in a bright, waterless desert and ends in a dark, wet cave system. William Hartnell is back and brings a little relief to the episode which is more or less the same as the last one: the caravan moves from one place to another. It's the Doctor that saves Marco Polo's caravan from dehydration: condensation forms overnight inside the TARDIS. (I'm at a loss to see how this happens to the TARDIS. Maybe they left the door open?). We find a rejuvenated Doctor who is up to his scheming ways once more. He's passed off another key to Marco Polo and intends to use the real one to gain access to the TARDIS so he can covertly repair the broken circuit.
We have more voice-overs by Marco Polo to accompany the caravan's progress. I guess we have to assume that this journey takes days and possibly weeks.
The episode seems to want to draw a comparison between the Hashasins of the Cave of 500 Eyes and the actions of Tegana and the conspirators he meets. It's the only reason I can think of for including such a long scene in which Ping-Chu tells the story of Ala-eddin, the Old Man of the Mountains.
It's only in the third act of the episode that things get more interesting. Barbara, already suspicious of Tehana, follows him out of the city and into the Cave of 500 Eyes. Barbara on her own is something we've seen before and, doubtlessly, will see again. We learn that Tegana is working for someone called Noghai (I must have forgotten this as I though Tegana was after the TARDIS for his own). I expected the cliff-hanger to be when Barbara is grabbed from behind but - no - we have another sequence in which the Doctor, Susan and Peng-Chu enter the caves and, after finding Barbara's handkerchief, Susan screams when she sees moving eyes in a carved face.
Next episode: The Wall of Lies.
No comments:
Post a Comment