LEGION OF IMPOSSIBILITIES

Saturday 13th June 1964 - Doctor Who - The Day of Darkness

"You failed to save a civilisation, but at least you helped one man."

Essentially

Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor escape in the TARDIS. The Aztec civilisation carries on.

Reactions and Thoughts

This historical adventure is concluded neatly and Barbara's efforts to save the Aztec civilisation from destruction by the colonising Spanish invaders fails.

We open with a montage of Ian climbing through dark, water-filled tunnels inside the temple before emerging in the chamber where the TARDIS had landed. He sets up the means the travellers have to re-open the temple and escape in the TARDIS. The tension of the episode largely resides in the efforts Ian and the Doctor go to to open the stone door again - which includes making a pulley wheel.

The Doctor is distraught at the thought of Ian drowning. Just think, it was only a matter of a couple of adventures ago that he considered tossing Ian and Barbara out into the vortex.

Barbara has learned the hard way that she doesn't have the ability to alter history. The Doctor, however, does assure her that her impact has been valuable on the level of a single person:

BARBARA: We failed.
DOCTOR: Yes, we did. We had to.
BARBARA: What's the point of travelling through time and space if we can't change anything? Nothing. Tlotoxl had to win.
DOCTOR: Yes.
BARBARA: And the one man I had respect for, I deceived. Poor Autloc. I gave him false hope and in the end he lost his faith.
DOCTOR: He found another faith, a better, and that's the good you've done. You failed to save a civilisation, but at least you helped one man.

Because of Barbara's influence, Autloc goes into "the wilderness" in order to separate himself from an Aztec society in whch he no longer believes. There, he believes, he will find truth.  At the very end, the "perfect sacrifice" that Tlotoxl conducts at the moment of the solar eclipse underlines that Aztec culture hasn't been altered - and there's a sense that the Aztecs have pretty much forgotten the TARDIS travellers.

Oh no! Ian finds a body (the unconscious Autloc) and is framed AGAIN. Let's hope this device doesn't get reused too often in the future.

The Doctor's relationship with Cameca ends. She realises he will leave and, despite her devotion to him, doesn't demand for him to stay or for him to take her with him. She helps Ian and Susan escape. Clearly, Cameca's devotion has an effect on the Doctor and, before he leaves, he goes back to retrieve the gem she had given him whch he'd left behind. It's quite touching.

Once more, the crude climactic fight scene fight between Ian and Ixta unfortunately exposes the theatricality of the wobbly scenery. There's an attempt to use the same sort of close-up shots and rapid editing to try and obscure this (as at the start of the episode with Ian in the tunnels) but it's not effective in distracting us from the painted backgrounds and scenery. At one point the actors accdently move the great stone where sacrifices are made.

Little time for goodbyes. The travellers escape n the TARDIS as soon as they can.

Our cliffhanger is another TARDIS conundrum: the ship is stationary but still moving!

After All is Said and Done

There's a real sense of challenge and adventure in all aspects of this four-part adventure which works hard despite the obvious confines and limitations of a BBC tv production of the time to evoke a sense of an unfamiliar historical culture and society. The (restricted) setting of the temple and the costumes look pretty good. The plotting is sharp with some great moments of tension and drama. Tlotoxl, despite his Richard III mannerisms, is a great villain. Ian and the Doctor perform their roles as hero and crafty-old schemer well. Barbara is magnificent throughout. (Susan is... on holiday in real life so not in the episodes much.)

Next episode: Strangers in Space.