2.9: The Time Meddler

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Vicki, Steven Taylor
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), Dennis Spooner (Writer), Douglas Camfield (Director)
• Season 2

What's the rating?

Must See.

What's interesting about it?

The first few minutes are spent wrapping up the last story, with discussion of the departure of Ian and Barbara and the surprise addition of a new companion.

We then get hints of when and where the TARDIS has landed, with little oddities mixed in that make it clear something weird is going on. There's a strange monk spying on the travelers who doesn't react to a police box appearing on a pre-industrial beach the way we might expect. It becomes apparent that this is England around 1066, yet things don't quite add up. Details are weaved together masterfully, adding new information while not coming out and explaining anything directly.

The cliffhanger of the first episode is the best so far, and perhaps one of the best in the history of the show.

It's a show of delightful surprises, so I won't spoil them here. Suffice it to say that unlike The Space Museum, this story lives up to its brilliant start in the subsequent episodes. And with a tidy four episodes it's the perfect length with no padding. 

A satisfying end to the second season, which I summarize here.

What are others saying?

Universally considered one of the best of the classic series, and one of the most important for taking the show in new directions that persist to this day.

• Wife in Space (score: 9/10)
• The Memory Cheats podcast #87
• The Writer's Room podcast #4 (Dennis Spooner)
• Tin Dog Podcast #40
• TARDIS Tavern podcast #49

How can I see it?

Oddly just recently this seems to have dropped from being purchasable.

• Netflix
• Amazon (but too expensive by far!)

2.8: The Chase

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Vicki, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), Glyn Jones (Writer), Mervyn Pinfield (Director)
• Season 2

What's the rating?

Must See.

What's interesting about it?

Buckle in, as you are in for a ride.

For the first time the show breaks the alternating pattern of historical then science fiction. We go from The Space Museum to a Dalek story. So long to the venerable historical, at least for a few decades.

The Doctor has fixed the Time Visualizer he acquired from The Space Museum. Amusingly, when Ian is given a chance to view any point in history, he chooses an American moment: The Gettysburg address. As if to make up for this, the next moment chosen includes Shakespeare, approvably British... A remarkable amount of time is spent on this lark of viewing history, providing some levity to the often all-too-serious show.

The time travelers then spend time rollicking in the strange desert-like landscape. The outdoor filming is quite impressive, with a truly odd and intriguing view, including dual suns. This is the first time we've been presented with a believable and truly alien landscape.

We're fully half-way through the episode before anything specific to the plot begins to happen. It turns out the Daleks are rather annoyed at their last couple of encounters with The Doctor, and have hatched a multi-faceted plan to get pro-active about the problem. This results in a chase through space and time, with our time travelers barely staying ahead of the Daleks as they materialize in a variety of locations. The first time they jump into the TARDIS and actually take off it's a bit of a shock -- that's not supposed to happen until the end of a story, after all!

Terry Nation, the writer, is not known for creativity outside a narrow band. As one creative twist piles upon another, you have to wonder if he really wrote this. This story is intent on surprising the Doctor Who viewer who by now knows exactly how things are supposed to play out, while Terry Nation is famous for turning in the same Dalek story over and over again each year. One of the DVD extras implies that Nation only did an outline, and Dennis Spooner did the actual writing.

To be fair, Nation also wrote The Keys of Marinus, which also jumped around to numerous locations and mini-plots the way this story does, but while Marinus was unfocused and ludicrous, almost everything here flows in a satisfying manner.

Not everything works (especially the aliens in the first episode), but there's enough variety, surprise, and humor to the story to make it worthwhile and things generally get more interesting as the episodes proceed, climaxing in a rather well-done epic battle between Daleks and...well, you should find that out on your own. 

All of the above make this Worth Watching, but the story moves to Must See because it's the last story for Ian and Barbara, who finally make their way home at the end. The anger displayed by The Doctor at their decision to leave was apparently an accurate reflection of William Hartnell's own feelings.

And so all the original companions are gone from the show, which means where we go from here is new territory...

What are others saying about it?

This one seems to split fans down the middle. Some hate it, some think it's pretty good. By classifying it as a Must See, I'm definitely on the fringe this time around.

• Wife in Space (score: 5/10)
• Tin Dog podcast #115

How can I see it?

• Netflix
• Amazon

2.7: The Space Museum

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Vicki, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), Glyn Jones (Writer), Mervyn Pinfield (Director)
• Season 2

What's the rating?

1/4 Worth Watching.

What's interesting about it?

The time travelers begin their dematerialization in the time of The Crusades, wearing period-appropriate clothing. Yet when they materialize they are wearing their normal clothes. Over the next few minutes several other strange and inexplicable events occur, culminating in coming across themselves displayed as museum exhibits -- not wax copies but their actual bodies.

The first episode is a perfect science fiction mystery, presenting an intriguing puzzle and exploring the ramifications while only slowly letting us in on what is happening. The cliffhanger is quite good, and my rating is pretty much based on the strength of this episode alone.

The remaining episodes fail to live up to the initial promise (an understatement) and are mostly composed of running through corridors avoiding guards and getting hooked up with the obligatory rebels. The most interesting item here is Vicki's youthful excitement at making a plan for the rebels to arm themselves and fight back. When she gets resistance to the idea of stealing weapons she says, "But you're supposed to be planning a revolution...That is a revolution!"

How many children's shows feature a teenager advocating violent overthrow of the government? And in this case it results in quite a lot of death.

To the credit of the writer, Vicki gets a chance to shine here...if Carole Ann Ford had ever gotten half as much to do, she'd have been the teenager in this story.

In addition to the extra mentioned below, it's worth watching My Grandfather, The Doctor, a mini-documentary of Hartnell's grand-daughter's recollections of the first Doctor.

What are others saying about it?

Everyone, including the BBC, understands that this was a brilliant episode followed by three duds. So much so that they include a special feature, Defending the Museum, in which writer Rob Shearer makes the case for why those episodes are actually smart comedy rather than badly-executed serious stories. You should definitely watch it and make up your own mind...

• Wife in Space (score: 6/10; it was 3/10 before she watched the defense)
• Tin Dog podcast #114

How can I see it?

• Netflix
• Amazon

2.6: The Crusade

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Vicki, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer)
• Season 2

What's the rating?

Wiped.

What's interesting about it?

Two out of four of the episodes no longer exist. Hopefully someday they'll do an animated reconstruction of the remaining episodes...

How can I see it?

You can't see it in full. You can see bits of the story in the Lost in Time collection:

• Amazon

2.5: The Web Planet

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Vicki, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), Bill Strutton (Writer), Richard Martin (Director)
• Season 2

What's the rating?

Bad.

Dangerously Bad.

Star Wars Holiday Special bad.

What's interesting about it?

Nothing.

Here is where we discover my limits. For the purposes of this blog I rewatched The Keys of Marinus for you, dear reader. However, I will never ever rewatch The Web Planet, even on pain of internet death. A fan's life is too short, there are the not insignificant odds of clawing my eyes out, and there are decades of better shows yet to watch.

Horrific things happen here, and I don't mean as part of the story. A crime is perpetrated upon the innocent viewer. 

It's a story about large sentient insects. They hiss a lot. They bump into the camera. There is an allegedly profound moral buried in this dung heap. You are welcome to try and dig it out if you wish, but I'll go nowhere near it again.

What are others saying?

Nothing good. This story brings fandom together like few others. 

• Wife in Space (score: 1/10)

How can I see it?

If you insist... 

• Netflix
• Amazon