DOCTOR WHO-THE REIGN OF TERROR 1-6

 DOCTOR WHO-A Land of Fear and Guests of Madam Guillotine aka THE REIGN OF TERROR parts one and two

Everyone mentions how this is the first “comedy” historical but these two episodes are far from funny. Two men are shot early on in the story and late in the first episode, a boy in episode two mentions his father was taken. Now, the boy and his mother are from a farm so presumably they are either hiding or are farmers. The boy’s rags are sort of the remains of nicer clothes so maybe they were the upper class?

Incidentally, in episode two, the Doc is grateful because the boy, who’s name is only stated in the dialog, Jean Pierre, saves the Doctor from a raging and terrible house fire. Again, not funny but tense. And I could never imagine the modern series having a small boy save the Doctor and having the Doc grateful for it. Today’s show seems to make him out to be some kind of superhero or a god or God. A bad mistake IMO.

One feels as if Barbara, Susan and Ian could actually be shot by the revolutionaries that capture them and push them around, bully them, and scare them. Honestly, these men were scarier than almost all the monsters in the series. If anyone watches THE TIME TUNNEL, it’s a historical on that type only grittier and dirtier. 

Barbara and Ian share some nice scenes as they finagle the Doctor into escorting them “home” out the doors of the TARDIS with a nicer goodbye drink than just tossing them out the doors. It makes for some nice interaction. I love Ian and Barbara’s reactions when they notice that the Doctor has put them are smack in the middle of the French Revolution and when Susan tells them that this period is the Doctor’s favorite.

Okay so in episode two, I suppose Barbara’s reactions to the smelly breath of the jailer can be taken as humorous and the Doctor’s encounter with the tax jailer might be considered that…but the cell Barbara and Susan find themselves in with rank smell and rats is not funny at all but grim and sinister…so much that the normally optimistic Susan is reduced to helplessness and the Doctor has to hit the tax jailer with a shovel over the head in what looks like murder! Of course, the man is unconscious and there are pains made to depict him snoring and the Doc mentions that he should sleep well but it does make one recall how the Doc was going to use a rock on a caveman in the first story…

Efforts are made, it seems to keep Ian separated visually from most of the rest of the cast in episode two and I’m sure a few shots of him are inserts. Info from behind the scenes states that the actor was on holiday.

This story has some nice location work of the Doctor walking toward Paris but in fields and between rows of trees. It is the first story to have any location work.

So was the boy working with the two men in the house? No mention is made of that. He runs to it and knocks on the door. The door opens and he is pulled in by a hand. We do not see him with the two men. Was he hiding them there? Was he with them? 

The shadow of a camera is seen on the wall as Ian and the Doctor walk into the farmhouse.

Was it really smart of the travelers to put on period clothing that they find in the barn? Also of note: The Doctor no longer wears his cloak in the first scene in the first episode he is in and has on his usual jacket (one was ripped in the last story, THE SENSORITES and he was given a cloak). So some short time has gone by as he’s still angry about something Ian said at the end of the last story (or some other argument happened but the intent of the production was to make the stories continuous…sort of).

We hear a sort of low hum on the exterior of the woods. Then, the TARDIS appears without any sound and then we hear the hum a few seconds before we see the interior. Sometimes the hum is heard outside the ship but the wheezing, groaning doesn’t seem to happen in this story or in THE SENSORITES and in THE KEYS OF MARINUS, it didn’t happen at the end or the start, I believe. 

All in all, a good two episodes, a dark historical, at least thus far. 

DOCTOR WHO-A Change of Identity aka the Reign of Terror part 3-

Hartnell is credited, not for the first time as Dr. Who.

 

Thus far there is not much comedy so I am not sure why anyone believes this was a comedy. The Doctor’s meeting with the tailor, while nice, was far from funny. Maybe it could be considered by some to be amusing (?) but Hartnell, as ever, is very watch-able. He gives his ring to the tailor so this ring must not have the properties his later ring does.

 

A major thing to notice about this story and this episode in particular is the sets. They appear to be quite adequate but more than that, almost lavish and evocative of France, in general.

 

Aside from that, it’s a strange episode. Ian finds keys left in the lock and makes good his escape later on. He doesn’t have to hit the jailer as it seems LeMaitre already did and this will be explained later.

 

More odd is that there is a handsome man in the cart with Barbara and Susan as they are being taken to the guillotine. During the attack on the guards taking them, this man seems to…disappear. Perhaps he ran off the cart while Jules and young Jean (what is their relationship?) shoot and kill all four guards, with plenty of violence on display, even if there is no blood.

 

The Doctor dresses up as a regent to try to free his friends but finds all of them have gone and he had to go with LeMaitre to some conference to speak about his area.

It is interesting to note Susan’s tiredness and that all seems quite real. Barbara is also taken by a new man, Leon and he is taken with her. Someone among the people trying to save innocents is informing on them.

 

In fact, there is so much grim going on here. Everyone except our four travelers in time and space seems to be angling for something and with selfish motives or fear as a driving force. It is a terrible time in history and quite disturbing so that I don’t really find much of it to be funny but terribly scary. Humans in this story seems more dangerous than any hostile aliens or monsters. Sort of.

 

Not much else as the episode is packed with events, all of them watch-able and interesting and a few exciting. A lot of forward motion. The cliffhanger is not very cliffhangery but the tailor presenting the Doc’s ring as proof of a traitor. Oh and one more odd thing about this episode: the tailer provided the Doctor with the outfit of a regency officer? WT? And then the Doc asks for writing parchment and a pen of some kind. Although he doesn’t reveal why, he’s going to draw up fake papers! Didn’t he think the tailor would find that strange and suspicious?

 

 

DOCTOR WHO-The Tyrant of France, A Bargain of Necessity, Prisoners of the Concierge aka The Reign of Terror parts 4 to 6.

 

Again one notices the bloodshed on display from the shooting of guards in A Bargain of Necessity to the shooting of Leon to the jaw shooting of Robespierre in the last episode and I might be mistaken but it looks like there is blood on his hand as he holds his jaw. Grim.

 

Lots a few “they’re not who they say they are” and a friend turns out to be an almost deadly enemy (Leon) and a seeming enemy has been helping them all along (Lemaitre who turns out to be James Sterling). While this may be a historical and those will vanish after the Second Doctor story THE HIGHLANDERS, there are a lot of things here that almost never go away from Doctor Who in the modern day, across the comics, novels and audios: there are various factions working for either side and there may be more than one or two sides which involve our travelers.

 

One thing that does not change from THE AZTECS and it’s even mentioned in the last episode as the Doctor and Barbara talk and again, later, when the travelers discuss if they should have warned Napoleon or tried to shoot him (?!), that time will not be changed. It will correct itself. This seems to change in the Tom Baker era (specifically PYRAMIDS OF MARS).   

 

TARDIS wikia claims a lot of firsts for this story: the first time a pre-pubescent is in the cast; the first time the full scale TARDIS appears; etc.

 

That said, it is a dangerous story and with both sides’ POV discussed. Jules admits he’s middle class and just does not want chaos. He claims he will Jean in the last episode but where did he go? The whole bar sequence is a nice left turn with Ian and Barbara as bar attendants.

 

There’s quite a lot Doctor-ish scenes here from Hartnell claiming his plans work best and never fail. Later, Ian and Barbara feel that when the Doc arrives, they will hear what happened …several times. And more. Hartnell, again, is quite amazing as is the regular cast and they are supported by a top notch cast this time out, too. As a historical the story works well and as an adventure. There IS a lot of back and forth between the same sets for six episodes and it drags very little but at times it does drag. It is highly entertaining though as I wish the historicals were still a part of Doctor Who today. Sadly, they are not.

 

One last note: having such long stories and having the gang away from each other, when they do reunite, it sends warm waves of joy through a viewer. Susan’s reactions to re-meeting her grandfather and that he survived the fire in the farmhouse makes this story worth it alone. Then all the uniting between Ian and the girls a few times is also warm. As is Barbara being sent to be interrogated…only to find the Doctor is the one doing the interrogation. He tells her to just walk out of the prison as he’s in control. And she does! Amazing stuff. The love between the regulars is evident in real life as on screen.