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.

Saturday 6th June 1964 - Doctor Who - The Bride of Sacrifice

"I made some cocoa and got engaged. Don't giggle, my boy, It's neither here nor there."

Essentially

Barbara saves Ian. The Doctor gets engaged. Susan breaks the law. Aztecs prepare for an eclipse.

Reactions and Thoughts

One of the strongest episodes of the series so far. Much more happens in this episode. 

We resolve last episode's cliffhanger - poisoned Ian about to be killed by Ixta - by Barbara holding a knife to Tlotoxl's throat and demanding that Ian is saved. Ixta isn't allowed to claim victory and is humilated. Rather than anger, Ixta demonstrates his fixation with knives then desires to be Ian's friend until he kills Ian.

Barbara is winning over Autloc to the idea of ending human sacrfices and, by the end of the episode, he has committed himself to her.

The Doctor continues to have some comic scenes. It's great to see the way that the Doctor deals with Tlotoxl ("Oh go away!") and shoos him away like a fly. Although the scenes with Cameca reveal a gentler side of the Doctor, his misunderstanding of her affections are played for laughs. Cameca is in love with him and when he makes her hot chocolate (signifiying a marriage proposal apparently) she accepts. The Doctor's look of horror when he realises what he has naively done is hilarious.

Tlotoxl recruits Tonila in a plan to try and poison Barbara as proof she's not divine. Tonila is less certain ("Destroy the gods and we destroy ourselves!") but goes along with it until Barbara smashes the poison cup and then chases him off. In a moment of strength, she admits that she is simply mortal but can deal with Tlotoxl's accusations - casusing him to scuttle away:

BARBARA: I am not Yetaxa.
TLOTOXL: False. False! I knew.
BARBARA: And who will believe you? I warn you, Tlotoxl, you say one word against me to the people and I'll have them destroy you. Destroy you!

There's a great scene just before that between Ian and Barbara where Ian tries to get Barbara to get some perspective about her attempts to alter Aztec society. In his argument, Ian is far more successful than the Doctor was at the start of last episode:

BARBARA: I'm sick and tired of all this arguing and quarrelling. First the Doctor and now you. Why can't you see what I'm trying to do?
IAN: I can.
BARBARA: Well you're not helping. Tlotoxl's evil and he'll make everyone else the same.
IAN: They are the same, Barbara. That's the whole point. You keep on insisting that Tlotoxl's the odd man out, but he isn't.
BARBARA: I don't believe it.
IAN: Well, you must. If only you could stand away from this thing, you'd see it clearly. Autloc's the extraordinary man here. He's the reasonable one, the civilised one, the one that's prepared to listen to advice. But he's one man, Barbara. One man.
BARBARA: Then everything I've tried to do. Oh, I thought I could alter them.
IAN: You can't fight a whole way of life, Barbara.
BARBARA: I suppose not. I've just been fooling myself. Ian, what can we do?
IAN: We can get into that tomb and leave them alone.

Ah, I see why the Perfect Victim was introduced last lesson. He's used in a scheme concocted by Tlotoxl to expose Barbara by forcing Susan to marry him and then being sacrificed with him at the eclipse. In her tearful refusal, Susan breaks Aztec law and must be punished.

The weak part of this episode is at the very end when Ian is trapped in the tomb. Presumably, he's frightened by the tunnel he's in filling up with water. We don't see that, just a foot and what looks like some water falling. There's no sense - other than Ian's terrified face - that he's in danger of drowning.

After All is Said and Done

Barbara's experience as a school teacher comes in very handy as she increasingly has to command and control the Aztecs. She's stood out this episode as a resilent, dogged character in ways we've not seen before. The Doctor gets himself in a romantic pickle. Susan breaks the law. Ian gets over beng poisoned, saves Barbara from being killed and ends up trapped inside the temple. Really engaging episode.

Next episode: The Day of Darkness

Saturday 30th May 1964 - Doctor Who - The Warriors of Death

"Your heart is young too, Doctor."

Essentially

The Doctor warns Barbara she can't alter time. Susan learns how to be a good Aztec housewife. Ian fights Ixta.

Thoughts and Reactions

We're straight into the Doctor berating Barbara for her "meddling". For the Doctor, it is more than changing history on a grand scale; the Doctor wants Barbara to see the person effect of her attempts to alter the Aztec culture ("Don't you realise he wanted to be offered to the gods? It made him feel one.").

Most of the episode continues with the situations established last time. Tlotoxl doesn't believe that Barbara is a god and directly challenges her authority. Ian challenges the warrior, Ixta. The Doctor schemes in order to work out a way of re-entering the temple - mainly by flirtng with Cameca, the Aztec widow. Susan is in a seminary learning the Code of the Good Housewife which gives her the opportunity of resisting the idea of an arranged marriage (we've been here before).

The drama of the episode comes from the Doctor being fooled into making a poison by Ixta which is then used to drug Ian. Presumably this is supposed to be a comedy of misunderstanding - especially when, close to the end, Doctor interrupts Ian and Ixta's fight saying "Don't let him scratch you!" which gives Ixta the opportunty to scratch Ian. 

Ian has been pretty stoic in this adventure and has little dialogue. He humiliates Ixta by rendering him unconscious with his thumb before having to fight for his life in a weakened state at the end.

Despite the Doctor's warnings to Barbara about meddling, she continues to try and influence Autloc (the Doctor actually told her to set Autloc against Tlotoxl):

BARBARA: Famine, drought and disaster will come, and more and more sacrifices will be made. I see a time when ten thousand will die in one day.
AUTLOC: Where will it end, Yetaxa?
BARBARA: In total destruction. Your civilisation will pass forever from the land.
AUTLOC: You prophesy our doom.
BARBARA: Yes.
AUTLOC: Let me think upon these words, Great Spirit.

My only gripe about this episode is the rather strange scene where a character called the Perfect Victim and a Captain are introduced for no apparent reason than to have an exchange with Tlotoxl and Ixta and then they leave.

Again we end with Tlotoxl meanacing. He taunts Barbara to save Ian if she is really a god.

After All Is Said and Done

It's an episode for watching out for the detail of sets and costumes and soaking up the Aztec culture on screen. Knowing how limited the funds for making the show in 1964 were, it's remarkable how quickly I forgot this was all being filmed in a tv studio. It's also delightful to see how the Doctor delights in his scheming and the look of horror on his face when things don't go how he planned. Enjoyable episode.

Next episode: The Bride of Sacrifice.

 

Saturday 23rd May 1964 - Doctor Who - The Temple of Evil

 

"But you can't rewrite history. Not one line."

 

Essentially

The TARDIS lands inside an Aztec tomb. Barbara is mistaken as the reincarnation of a god. Ian joins the Aztec army. Susan joins a seminary. The Doctor spends time in a garden for old people.

Thoughts and Reactions 

Thankfully, we're straight into the action. While we have a (model) longshot of the TARDIS dematerialise from Marinus, we don't see the arrival or the exterior of the Aztec temple or city. Barbara and Susan leave the TARDIS alone - presumably because Barbara is so excited about being in an era she has knowledge and interest about - and they find themselves inside an Aztec tomb. Barbara gives a brief account of Aztec history and helps herself to a bracelet. Susan goes back and Barbara is captured. The priest who finds her, Autloc, notices that Barbara wears the bracelet and decides she's the reincarnation of their god, Yetaxa.

The Doctor comes out angrily insisting he told them not to go off on their own. Ian and the Doctor view the Aztec city which we vaguely see in the distance (unlike on Skaro we don't get a model shot) and find them locked out of the tomb and separated from the TARDIS. I'm beginning to suspect that returning to the TARDIS is going to be a recurring plot point in the show.

 

Autloc, high priest, arrives again - ths time much friendlier, welcoming the Doctor, Ian and Susan. At the same time we meet the "butcher" priest, Tlotoxl, who does his best Olivier playing Richard III: "He demands blood. And he shall have it."

 

The Doctor seems to have a grim enjoyment about what's happening, almost delighting in pointing out to Ian macabre aspects of the Aztec culture. Is it me, or is the Doctor far more energised than he's been so far. He stands proudly without any sense of the feeble old man we've seen so far.

 

When they meet Barbara again she is the reincarnation of Yetaxa and behaves regally, clearly enjoying her role as a goddess. The Doctor advises that they all play along with the Aztecs in order to find a way of gaining entry to the tomb and the TARDIS.

 

Tlotoxl takes Ian off to make him some sort of warrior. There's a hilariously awful fight scene which ends with the violent warror, Ixta, telling Ian he will slay him. Ian seems paralysed with culture shock.

 

The Doctor spends time in the Garden of Peace and meets Cameca, an older Aztec woman who offers to introduce the Doctor to the son of the builder of the temple. He seems quite taken with the woman. Chesterton, in full warrior outfit arrives and tells the Doctor that he has to participate in human sacrifice.

 

At this point the Doctor insists on non-interference in the Aztec culture (" If human sacrifice is essential here and it's their tradition, then let them get on with it. But for our sakes, don't interfere."). Ian appears to comply - maybe he learned his lessons during their escapades in Marco Polo. 

 

Barbara is not so willing. She tells him: "It's no good, Doctor, my mind's made up. This is the beginning of the end of the Sun God...  Don't you see? If I could start the destruction of everything that's evil here, then everything that is good would survive when Cortes lands.") Barbara seems to think that she can mitigate the impact of Spanish colonialism (there's obvious some pro-colonialism going on here - as if the impact of the Spanish on the Aztecs would have been reduced simply by stopping human sacrifice!).

 

It's actually Susan who calls for the sacrifice to stop and encourages Barbara prevents the sacrifice at the last possible moment. There's a bit of a Monty Python moment when the Aztec to be sacrificed complains about not being killed and then leaps off the temple to his death. Cue awful film footage of clouds and lightning. It rains.

 

The end of the episode is great: Tlotoxl looks straight at the camera and tells us that Barbara is a false god and he will destroy her.

After All Is Said and Done

This is more like it! After the protracted weirdness of the Planet Marinus we're back to a historical adventure on Earth. It's an enjoyable, compelling episode enhanced by great sets and costumes. (The actors playing Aztecs seem to be performing their best RSC roles, though - but it does add some stage drama to what we see.) It's hard to avoid the pro-colonialism extolled by Barbara and the Doctor's macabre focus on the unpleasant aspects of the Aztec culture though.

 

Next episode: The Warriors of Death