Who Is The Doctor?
Written by David Whitaker
Doctor Who Series four serial three
Episode 1 transmitted BBC1 5 November 1966
Episode 2 transmitted BBC1 12 November 1966
Episode 3 transmitted BBC1 19 November 1966
Episode 4 transmitted BBC1 26 November 1966
Episode 5 transmitted BBC1 3 December 1966
Episode 6 transmitted BBC1 10 December 1966
The Doctor changes his body and clothes, and Ben and Polly are not sure he is the Doctor, especially as he refers to The Doctor in the third person. Landing on the planet Vulcan, they find the murdered body of The Examiner. Picking up his badge, the Doctor passes himself off as him, and they are taken to the Colony. There, they discover that chief scientist Lesteron has found an ancient spacecraft that was buried in the mercury swamps but is uncorroded. Believing the metal could revolutionise the Colony's fortunes, he plans to open the craft. Inside are Daleks. Against the Doctor's advice he reanimates them with power, and chillingly they proclaim themselves as "we are your servants". Meanwhile all is not well in the colony, there are rebels who want to overthrow the Governor, Hensell.
Sadly no episodes remain, though we do have telesnaps (photographs taken during the taping of the episode). So the BBC have animated all six episodes, and not for the first time. The BBC have already released these as animated episodes on a previous DVD release. However, there were complaints (from myself included) that the animation was quite poor, the characters didn't quite match the actual actors, and as for the animation, well sometimes it wasn't that, just static pictures when there were long patches of dialogue. Fortunately, given the importance of the serial (the first for the Second Doctor), they reanimated, and the Special DVD Edition is much better, and is the one I used for my review.
Though no significant changes were made to the narrative for the animated reconstruction, several minor elements were added to the story. Episode one begins with a recap of the final moments of The Tenth Planet, which also serves as the pre-credits to the entire serial. In episodes five and six, the original cardboard cut-out Daleks are changed to 3D models. The major and most alarming difference is that the animation is in an incorrect aspect ratio, 16:9 rather than 4:3. This is odd as they're in B&W, so if they expect a younger generation to watch B&W I don't see why the same assumption couldn't be made about use of widescreen. I suspect the aspect ratio was chosen fro the colourised animation released for the Americans. If you prefer to watch the telesnaps rather than the animations (and some do, believe me), then be aware the telensaps are also in the wrong aspect ration, not 4:3.
I dislike telesnaps as, like here, they didn't photo all the camera set ups, so you have to put up with the same snaps being recycled throughout the episode. Also, as with episode 3, if there's a stretch of background noise with no dialogue (as in some action being performed) you don't get a relevant telesnap, they just hold on the last one, so one has no idea at all what's going on. Animation may not be a perfect replacement, but it's better than telesnaps. Don't take my word for it, try watching The Underwater Menace DVD, which was meant to be animated until the company went bust, and is just telesnaps. Dreadful, and a rip-off for those who already had half the serial on the Lost In Time DVD, and were expecting animation. The new animation is much better, we get nice touches, like the reflection in the glass when Lesterson watches the Daleks reproducing. It's just a shame that Troughton's jig proved far too difficult to reproduce.
So we have a new doctor. Not just a change of actor, there's no attempt to do that, no, this is a new Doctor. So new his clothes have also changed (this would be the only time that happened)! Troughton is an excellent actor, and he plays the Second Doctor here nicely, in the first two episodes he's slightly out of focus, remembering bits and pieces (like Marco Polo and Saladin's knife) but as if they might have occurred for somebody else. It's when he first sees the Daleks that he suddenly comes to. He's very good at showing just how afraid the Doctor is of them, and rightly so. As the serial progresses he slowly fits into the role. Polly seems to accept him quicker, though Ben is far more sceptical, and for much longer, wondering why the Doctor doesn't act more decisively, and quicker. Only with the end episode and the Doctor's plan to foil the Daleks succeeds, does he finally accept he is the Doctor. The only odd thing about Ben and Polly is that they believe the Doctor's fear about the Daleks very quickly, and sometimes act as if they knew the Daleks themselves, which they couldn't have as neither of them have ever met a Dalek! Still, it's a minor point.
Although with animation it's difficult to judge acting, direction, and production design aspects , one can judge theplot andscript with some accuracy. The plot clearly borrows from the earlier BBC serial of Quatermass & The Pit (1958) with it's unearthed spaceship with a hidden chamber, the Doctor's (and our) memory of The Daleks replacing the race memory of the Martians. Otherwise, it's the "base under siege" template Lloyd & Davis would use throughout the Second Doctor's reign, though cleverly it's besieged from within. And another clever plot device from ex-script editor David Whitaker is that the Daleks are initially submissive to the humans, as they need the Colony's power supply and material resources to reanimate, replicate and rebuild. Their utterance "we are your .. servants" is chilling, especially as Hawkins voices that last word with two distinct syllables, as if the word is unfamiliar, which of course it is. Unfortunately, the story is padded out with the murder of the Examiner, and a plot by rebels, though it's unsure what exactly they're rebelling against? Hensell the governor is slightly officious but hardly a dictator, we can accept Bragen's desire to replace him, but how does he persuade others to unwittingly support him? It's a major plot point, and it's not properly or explicitly explained. The bulletin about the Milk ration being cut might be a clue, but milk, really?! Maybe it's the milk of human kindness? Much better is Whitaker's accurate reflection of how scientists can be seduced by the technically sweet problem, here the reviving of The Daleks, even when, just by stepping back to see the eventual outcome, they could see that the solution would be monstrous and deadly. Like Oppenheimer and the A Bomb.
As for the acting, as best as one can judge, everyone speaks their dialogue adequately, though standout praise must go to Robert James's scientist Lesterson, the discoverer of the Daleks. At first excited by the discovery, letting scientific curiosity get the better of him, even after the initial wounding of one of his assistants by a Dalek. His gradual breakdown, especially in episode five, is compellingly painful to watch and listen to, and coupled with his fatalistic resignation in episode 6, is a masterclass in creating empathy with an audience. Bernard Archard is always good, but it's a shame we only get some poor telesnaps of the gorgeous Pamela Ann Davy (catch her in The Avengers episode "The Living Dead"!).
At least for the ending, Whitaker tries to find a scientific way for The Second Doctor to best the Daleks. The massacre of the human colonists by The Daleks is chillingly cold-hearted, and the clear sound of a baby cry on the audio shows that the animation is accurate. The pan over the dead bodies of rebels and guards, who too late unite against their common enemy, without music or dialogue, is quite moving, for animation. Certainly, there's no sense of a happy ending at the end.
Lastly, a word must be said about the reuse of Tristram Cary's music from the earlier serials The Daleks and Master Plan. I'm not a great fan of Mr Cary's music for Who, but here it seems much more fitting, with its abstract mix of brooding timpani, bass growl, and electronically created whistles and shrieks, adding a spooky atmosphere to the whole proceedings.
The serial reached a high of 8million viewers for episode 5, never dipping below 7.5million, slightly higher than the preceding The Tenth Planet, probably accounted for by viewers wanting to see what the new Doctor would be like. Certainly the producer played safe by teaming him up with viewer favourites The Daleks as a nemesis. Radio Times letters page featured comments such as praising "the superb character he has created" and complained that "a wonderful series" had been turned into "what looked like Coco the Clown". Surprisingly, relatively few column inches were dedicated to the changeover between Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. The Daily Sketch did remark on the "explosive event" and the transition from Hartnell to "spooky character actor" Troughton, and the "mental somersaults" apparently being performed by the writers to explain away the change in leading man.
In fact, Troughton's debut provided no solid explanation. The concept of "regeneration" wouldn't be introduced into the series until much later. The real challenge, to see if the general public would accept Troughton, would be with the following serial. This debut story is a solid beginning, not quite a classic due to the unexplained motives for the rebels, and a certain cold-heartedness in the final episode.
TARDIS rating: 4/5.
Doctor Who ........................................................... PATRICK TROUGHTON
Polly ....................................................................... ANNEKE WILLS
Ben Jackson .......................................................... MICHAEL CRAZE
Bragen ................................................................... BERNARD ARCHARD
Hensell ................................................................... PETER BATHURST
Lesterson ............................................................... ROBERT JAMES
Quinn ..................................................................... NICHOLAS HAWTREY
Janley .................................................................... PAMELA ANN DAVY
Resno .................................................................... EDWARD KELSEY
Valmar ................................................................... RICHARD KANE
Kebble ................................................................... STEVEN SCOTT
Dalek voices .......................................................... PETER HAWKINS
Title Music By ......... RON GRAINER and realised by DELIA DERBYSHIRE
Incidental Music .................................................... TRISTRAM CARY
Special Sound ........ BRIAN HODGSON and the BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP
Sound Supervisor .................................................. BUSTER COLE
Grams Operator .................................................... LANCE ANDREWS
Production Assistant .............................................. MICHAEL E. BRIANT
Assistant Floor Manager ........................................ MARJORIE YORKE
Floor Assistants ..................................................... EDDIE SHAH
GRAEME HARPER
Costume Designer ................................................. SANDRA REID
Designer ................................................................ DEREK DODD
Daleks Created by ................................................. TERRY NATION
Daleks Designed by .............................................. RAYMOND CUSICK
Story Editor ........................................................... GERRY DAVIS
Producer ............................................................... INNES LLOYD
Directed by ............................................................ CHRISTOPHER BARRY
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