“The Keys of Marinus”

I’ve realized that I should probably be talking about my opinion on these serials more than just summarizing them. That would make this whole Journey a lot more interesting! So here we go.

I thought this serial had a good idea. It’s like a Zelda game, sort of–our heroes have to collect all the Keys of Marinus before the bad guys in order to keep them safe. Or else they could be used to power up a machine that could be used to mind control the entire planet. Cool. There is also a giant pyramid which houses the mysterious machine complete with guardian old guy. So after the first episode, where their quest is explained by the creepy old guy who I immediately didn’t trust (because he blocked the TARDIS with a force field), the TARDIS crew sets off using “travel dials” (vortex manipulators?) to their first destination. And then the creepy old guy is seen attacked by one of the bad guys. So he was good after all!

Barbara had left before everyone else, and when the Doctor, Ian, and Susan arrive, they can’t find her. They are invited into a paradise-city and find Barbara living like a queen. Eventually they realize that the entire paradise is an illusion and find one of the Keys. Whee.

Thus it continues through the Forest Temple–er, I mean “screaming jungle” (Susan was doing more screaming than the jungle in that one, ugh) and the Ice Cavern–um, mountain caves. Although in the mountain caves episode Barbara is almost raped by a mountaineer. That was scary. But Ian saves the day! I always wonder how Ian manages to fight so well. I mean, he’s just a chemistry teacher! Maybe the TARDIS has some training programs. Or maybe Ian is secretly a ninja spy.

Eventually everyone ends up in another city, a real one this time. Ian is framed for murder and for stealing the last Key. The Doctor, in a display of awesomeness, manages to find the real murderer and earn everyone’s gratitude. The crew heads off with the final Key in hand.

Eager to get off the planet and get the force field lifted, the Doctor and Co. head back to the old guy’s pyramid to return the Keys. But, the old guy’s dead! He’s being impersonated by an evil dude! Ian suspects this and hands over all the keys, but replaces one of them with a fake one (oh, yeah, there was a fake key in the Forest Temple that was intended as a trap but ended up saving their butts in the end). Yeah, ever since seeing Ian take that fake Key from the Forest Temple I KNEW it would be used! There you go! The whole plot twist actually came off as cool rather than clichèd, though.

The mysterious machine explodes from the fake key, thus shutting off the power to the force field and killing all the bad guys. The TARDIS crew is free to leave, and they do! Where they end up next, nobody knows!

…OK, I do know. It’s back on Earth. Next time, the Doctor meets The Aztecs!

“Marco Polo”

Picture not available, sorry!

“Marco Polo” includes the first of many episodes, 106 to be exact, that are missing. What does that mean? In the 1960s, before the advent of convenient home viewing of movies/old television shows, many television companies, both in Britain and America, re-used their tapes. That is, they taped over old shows, because they could see no advantage in keeping them because there was no way to make them accessible for on-demand home viewing. The physical tapes were more valuable than what was on them.

All of these missing episodes fortunately exist in audio form, enabling intrepid Doctor Who fans to piece together what are called “reconstructions.” The audio of the episode is played over a mishmash of pictures taken on the set and whatever clips of the episode survive.

I personally cannot stand reconstructions; it’s too much like a slideshow for me to be interested. Like I’ve said before, I will be reading scripts instead.

So. Marco Polo. The TARDIS lands in the Himalayas, and the crew are attacked by… someone. Anyway, Marco Polo comes and rescues them! Then he sees the TARDIS and gets a “brilliant” idea. The viewer (reader?) doesn’t know it, but Marco Polo wishes to give the TARDIS to Kublai Khan to impress him. Actually I think Marco Polo might be killed or something if he doesn’t impress Kublai Khan. So that’s good.

So the Doctor and pals are dragged along as virtual prisoners. Susan makes friends with a girl who’s going to get married to a creepy old dude once they arrive in the capitol. The caravan’s being attacked by a mysterious assassin, who wants to kill Marco Polo so HE can impress Kublai Khan with the TARDIS.

The Doctor has had an extra TARDIS key this entire time (he had to surrender one to Marco Polo before), and manages to sneak everyone aboard. Except Susan, who just HAS to say goodbye to her new friend. As a result, they get caught and the Doctor has to give Marco Polo his spare key. And actually, I think he has yet ANOTHER key. I don’t know.

Anyway, they arrive in the capitol and Marco Polo presents the TARDIS to Kublai Khan, who reacts to it somehow. Kublai Khan takes a liking to the Doctor because he’s clever. They play many games of backgammon and Kublai Khan ends up losing much of his riches to the Doctor. Ian gives the Doctor the idea to offer all the riches in exchange for the TARDIS if he wins another backgammon game. Guess what? …The Doctor loses that game. So they’re right back where they started. Which is hilarious.

The guy who wanted to kill Marco Polo ends up attempting to assassinate Kublai Khan, but someone saves him. Not sure if it was Marco Polo or someone else. The Doctor gets his TARDIS back, Susan’s friend doesn’t have to marry the creepy old guy, and everyone’s happy.

Next time: The Keys of Marinus.

On the topic of missing episodes, tapes are still being found squirreled away in warehouses or peoples’ attics. Two Second Doctor serials were found very recently, and will soon be screened in Cardiff. So who knows? Maybe all of the episodes are out there somewhere…

Series 1

I’m very sorry about my forgetfulness pertaining to the early serials! I watched them months ago, and since their plots weren’t very coherent to begin with, it’s difficult to remember even important details!

Even though these early posts aren’t up to par quality-wise, I feel like I need to write them in order to have a full list of Doctor Who serials on this site. I’ll probably even go back and rewrite them someday, after watching the first serial again! But that’s in the far future.

For now, stay with me, even though there’s nobody reading the blog as it’s being updated this early in its lifetime. I’m trying to churn out the posts on the episodes I don’t remember so that once I catch up to where I am in my own Doctor Who Journey, I might have an audience. Doubt it, though!

Also, once I catch up to myself, posts will be written about each individual episode, and not entire serials. Also, I will be taking my own screengrabs of the footage instead of borrowing from others like I am now. Hopefully nobody cares, and if they do, they are free to tell me and I will take the photos down.

Remember, Marco Polo’s next!

“The Edge of Destruction”

This post will be pretty short, because I had no idea what was going on.

Suddenly, everyone in the TARDIS seems to be acting strangely! Susan attacks Ian with a knife, Ian and Barbara are very irritable, and the Doctor thinks that his human companions have caused all the trouble. When, in all actuality, it was the TARDIS warning them that it was about to go to the beginning of time, or something. Yeah, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. But once the Doctor saves the day, he realizes that Ian and Barbara are actually decent people to have aboard his ship, and instead of trying to ditch them he genuinely attempts to make it back to 1960s Earth.

This serial is only two episodes long, making it the shortest yet. It also takes place entirely inside the TARDIS, giving it a confined feel. Which is pretty neat. But I still had no idea what was going on, and that pretty much spoiled it for me.

Next time, it’s the first of the lost episodes–an entire serial gone missing–Marco Polo.

“The Daleks”

When I first came to this serial, I was pleasantly surprised. I had no idea how old the Daleks were! They have truly been around since the very beginning, which is amazing.

The TARDIS lands on an unknown planet with high levels of radiation. Seeing as the Doctor was trying to get to 1960s Earth, it’s funny how after all these years he still hasn’t learned to pilot the TARDIS correctly. Susan implies that there has recently been problems with the TARDIS’s flight, and that the Doctor was actually quite good at flying it before. In any case, the Doctor is upset at even the indication that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The more things change, the more they stay the same!

The Doctor is still hoping to ditch Barbara and Ian, so makes up some story about how he needs mercury for the TARDIS in order to get them to travel to the city they can see in the distance. The First Doctor is very mean and grumpy! It was quite a shock.

As they journey into the city, Susan stops and makes a remark about how colorful everything is. This threw me for a loop. I had previously irrationally imagined that the First Doctor and his friends existed in a world of black-and-white, simply because the film was monochrome. It struck me strange that Susan would even know what colors were! I think that line was put in simply to get the viewers’ imaginations going. People in the sixties had much more active imaginations than I do.

Once they reach the city, they decide to split up in search of mercury. If there’s one thing that any adventurer should know, it’s DON’T SPLIT UP!!! Inevitably, Barbara is trapped in a small room and attacked. The first episode ends with no clue as to who her attacker is except for a view of a strange probe, which later viewers know to be the first ever footage of a Dalek plunger.

Again, after the first episode I lost track of what was going on, and thus don’t remember everything correctly, if at all. Barbara definitely ends up being captured, and Susan eventually joins her, I think. The Doctor and Ian meet the Thals, who have been struggling to survive on Skaro’s irradiated surface and provide anti-radiation drugs to help the TARDIS crew. We learn that the Daleks and the Thals were once a single race, but they mutated because of the radiation. I guess.

Even though the Thals are extremely peaceful and initially refuse to resort to violence to rescue the captives, the Doctor eventually persuades them to mount a two-pronged attack. I need not point out how hilarious it is that the Doctor is encouraging violence. Actually, I did just point it out. It’s hilarious.

So the city full of Daleks is attacked, and we see the first uses of Dalek weaponry. The laser-thing makes an odd static-y noise, which frankly is the exact opposite of what I or anyone else would expect a futuristic gun to make. The actual projectile is never seen, so I assume it is invisible. The negative effect is very nice, though, so you know what’s happening. I’m glad so much stuff has been kept the same over the years.

Eventually someone figures out that the Daleks can only move via static electricity with the floor, so all they need to do to destroy the Daleks is to power down the floor. Awesome! To get to the main room, Ian decides to disguise himself inside a Dalek armor shell. Hilarity ensues. But not before we get a tantalizing glimpse of what a “real” Dalek looks like: a small black crab-like thing. It quickly scurries out of view, but I wonder if it’ll ever be featured again, or if the Dalek model will simply change to the one-eyed tentacled thing we all know and love.

Now, back to Ian in a Dalek shell. Picture it…

Bam. Now that’s awesome.

Eventually everyone ends up in the control room, having taken advantage of the Daleks lack of peripheral vision and in some cases dementia, as a couple of times a Dalek stares straight at our heroes and then obliviously slides past. The Doctor shuts off the power, the Daleks stop moving and presumably die, everyone’s happy, Susan (or Barbara? I honestly can’t remember) says goodby to a Thal love interest she acquired along the way, and the TARDIS departs, hopefully back to Earth.

It was strangely exhilarating to see the first Daleks. How could anyone have ever guessed that these huge, bulky, slow-moving salt-and-pepper shakers would turn into such an integral part of the show?

The thing that is strangest about these early episodes is that there is no music in the background, not even to transition to different scenes. “The Daleks” had this extremely creepy background noise thing that was probably the only thing that made the Daleks scary. It’s like a note being played backwards, followed by a bass note. Seriously, go and listen to it. A quick youtube search fails to find a video, but it’s playing in the background of this site: http://www.thisplanetearth.co.uk/main/index.html (full link provided so you will trust me. Or something. I dunno, it seemed like the right thing to do). Imagine THAT playing while you are surrounded by ridiculous-looking pepper shakers who are hell-bent on killing you. If that doens’t scare you, I doubt anything in Doctor Who ever will.

The website I linked to, incidentally, sells life-sized Daleks, TARDISs, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and more! Huzzah!

As I was saying before, the TARDIS departs, ready to set sail back to Earth when–whaaaat? The ship is lurching back and forth? What could this possibly mean? Stay tuned until next time, when the TARDIS teeters on The Edge of Destruction!

“An Unearthly Child”

Welcome to the beginning of the Doctor Who Journey! The show began in 1963 and was in black-and-white until it made the leap to color with the Third Doctor in 1970. When it first began, it must have been hard to imagine how popular and beloved the show would become. Almost fifty years later, the TARDIS and the Daleks are national icons. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The basic premise of the show: The Doctor, an alien from the planet Gallifrey, travels through time and space in his ship, the TARDIS, which is permanently stuck in the shape of a 1960s police telephone box because of a faulty chameleon circuit. The Doctor usually travels with companions, most of which are human, although there are a few exceptions.

Now, on with the show!

“An Unearthly Child” is the very first serial of Doctor Who. We’re introduced to Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, two schoolteachers, who are worrying about one of their students, Susan Foreman. She is usually extremely bright, but has recently been distracted and edgy. After school one day they decide to follow her (extremely creepy; imagine two of your teachers driving together in a car just to stalk you!), and discover that Susan has disappeared into a scrapyard. They search for her, but she is nowhere to be found!

But what’s this?

A police box? What would a police box be doing in the middle of a scrapyard?

From this point on, you’ll have to pardon me; I did watch this a pretty long time ago, so I don’t have a great memory of what happened.

I believe they hear noises coming from inside the police box, possibly Susan having an argument with someone? They decide to investigate and eventually meet Susan’s grandfather, who doesn’t go by the name Mr. Foreman, but rather, Doctor. Just Doctor. Ian and Barbara are rightly confused about what exactly this “Doctor” is doing inside a police telephone box with Susan, and force themselves in.

Only to discover that this police box is no police box at all! Instead, it’s bigger on the inside! The Doctor and Susan confess that they’re alien time travelers, and the Doctor, after some persuading from Susan, takes Barbara and Ian to who knows where.

After the first episode, things get really weird, and thusly I don’t really remember what happened. I wasn’t even sure what was happening while I was watching it. The TARDIS lands in prehistoric times, and the Doctor is perplexed that his ship has remained as a police telephone box. I thought that was hilarious. That was SERIOUSLY the first time the chameleon circuit malfunctioned? Awesome!

Anyway, the TARDIS crew is soon attacked and taken prisoner by cavemen. There’s apparently a power vacuum because nobody knows how to use fire. Cavemen: Why trust your secret of fire to only one person? This is obviously going to be problematic for you. Stupid cavemen.

Well there’s a lot of sitting around and talking, and then there’s a jailbreak. One of the cavemen escorting the Doctor and co. gets injured, and the Doctor initially wants to leave him behind and escape to the TARDIS. That was a big shock for me! Wow, the Doctor actually doesn’t want to help anyone? He’s really selfish? I’ve noticed that this first series puts a large emphasis on simply observing and not helping. Coming from a New Who perspective, it’s really outlandish! So, the First Doctor makes himself out to be a selfish, reclusive, grumpy old man.

Fortunately that changes dramatically in the coming episodes!

The TARDIS crew eventually make it back to their ship and dematerialize, having saved the tribe of cavemen from the wrong guy taking charge, whoever he was. The Doctor attempts to take Barbara and Ian back to Earth, in order to save himself from having other people on board to mess with him. He sure is grumpy! But what’s this? The TARDIS isn’t on Earth, it’s somewhere else! Stay tuned, for next time we have a dance with The Daleks!

About this Blog/Opening Post

Hello, Doctor Who fans and others!

This blog is basically a review blog, where I catalog my Doctor Who Journey. For those of you who are wondering what exactly a Doctor Who Journey is, it is my quest to watch every single Doctor Who episode ever.

You can have your own Doctor Who Journeys while following along with mine! But keep in mind, I’ve made a few rules for myself. Actually, wait, it’s only one rule: No reconstructions. That’s right. I’m not going to be watching any reconstructed episodes. I’ll be reading the scripts instead! So any lost episodes will be bundled together in the review of the next episode in order.

I’ve made this blog black and white because of the monochrome nature of the first few seasons. Black-and-white pictures just don’t fit in with a colorful blog! I might change the blog format once I get to the Third Doctor. But that probably won’t be for a while.

Also, I have already watched all of series one and half of series two. I do not have to watch them all again (especially “The Web Planet”), so I will be posting reviews of entire serials instead of individual episodes.

And that’s it! Thank you for coming to my humble blog. If there’s anyone out there.