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happymeishappylife · 3 years ago

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Prep for the 60th: 1st Season of Doctor Who

“It all started out as a mild curiosity in the junkyard, and now it's turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure.”

As someone who discovered Doctor Who through the reboot, I often try to picture how I would feel watching these episodes for the first time with no prior knowledge of what Doctor Who is or what it becomes and if I would be hooked on it or not. But then I remind myself, this is the third time I’ve rewatched the First Doctor era, so obviously I do enjoy it and I probably would have back in the 60s if that’s when I was born (at least I hope so). Part of the reason I think it did do well is its clear in the first season that there is something in it for everyone. Having four different main characters to follows help, but so does the variety of stories and rewatching it, I found that there elements of Doctor Who that have been there from the beginning and things I’ve missed or realized, Chris Chibnall is somewhat trying to bring back. So first, let’s talk with our first TARDIS Team:

From left: Ian Chesterton, Doctor, Barbara Wright, and Susan Foreman

We don’t know much about the Doctor when we meet him and its intentional. In fact, he’s irate that Barbara and Ian have the gall to check in on Susan and run into his ship which is why he kidnap them because he doesn’t want them to reveal who he and Susan are or report them. Too bad he can’t properly control where the TARDIS goes though so as he begrudgingly tries to get rid of them time and time again, he ends up in the wrong time, wrong planet, or wrong country and thus the four continue to travel. Of course this causes friction, but you can tell how much these people start changing him, making him more open to other people’s opinions and gaining a sense of protection for them. Sure they may drive him crazy, but they end up bonding and learning a little about this mysterious traveler by his small quips and schemes.

Susan Foreman is the doctor’s granddaughter. She’s 16, which at this point in the series is truly meant to have her be a teenager though in Gallifreyan years, she must be an infant. But she has a curiosity to explore new places and though often it gets her into trouble, she also proves to be quite capable of taking care of herself and the others even when she is fearful. This grows more through the first season too as she continues to bond with Ian and Barabara who protect her, continue to teach her, and provide her other perspectives than her grandfather. Its why when she learns she has a high capacity for telepathy she’s frustrated that her grandfather is too overprotective of her. She also is very friendly which is why most people she interacts with, she genuinely makes friends with them.

Ian Chesterton is a high school chemistry teacher, though while he is good at spotting chemicals, learns he is much more of a fighter the more he travels with the Doctor. He also often feels like he must fight to protect everyone on the TARDIS, though his closeness with Barbara is unmistakable. In the stories, this could be a potential romantic interest, but mainly as two colleagues taken away from home, I think they bond more because of their shared interaction. Still while Ian can be hotheaded at times, he is loyal to the Doctor and helps him scheme when its needed to save everyone.

Barbara Wright is a fantastic companion to the Doctor. While sad and troubled by their circumstances of having been taken from 1963 England, she also loves exploring new places and meeting new people and because she is a history teacher, she loves getting to meet historical figures or being in timelines she knows to see history in action. Also, she’s smart and courageous. Often speaking up for the truth and justice of situations and wanting to find peaceful solutions, even when it seems there isn’t one. Truly her tenacity for the adventures that they are on, I believe shape the Doctor the most into opening up and taking care of them and that’s because while she relies on him, she calls him on his bullshit.

The Serials:

1. An Unearthly Child (4 Parts with the Cave of Skulls, The Forest of Fear, and the Firemaker)

Concerned with the wellbeing of one of their students and mystified by her high intelligence and gaps of common knowledge, Ian Chesterton and Barabara Wright follow her home only to wind up in a junkyard with an old police telephone box. While wondering where Susan goes, they meet a grumpy old man who turns out to be her grandfather and the owner of a mysterious space ship. Angry with them for discovering the TARDIS, the Doctor takes them on a trip and winds up in the times of early man in the prehistoric era. A tribe takes them prisoner on the promise they can help their leader make fire, but because they are also dealing with an outsider, there is a surge of control for power and several escapes and recapture moments. Finally they escape and make their way back to the TARDIS to go back to modern times. Overall Rating: 6/10

2. Daleks (7 parts with the Dead Planet, The Survivors, The Escape, The Ambush, The Expedition, The Ordeal, and the Rescue)

Instead of winding up on Earth, the four end up on Skaro; a world devastated and dead from radiation and the remnants of a long ago battle between the two original races: The Thals and the Daleks. Intrigued by exploring the metal city, the Doctor lies about a broken TARDIS component to explore it, but the four end up captured by the Daleks and sick from radiation poisoning. Because the Daleks are interested in these new people, they use them to see if they can solve the issue of the radiation which is what keeps them in there metal suits, while also taking down the Thals. While finding friends in the Thals, the team also gets frustrated with them for not wanting to fight back against their oppressors, even when they ambush the Thal leader and kills him. But soon they agree when it means helping the TARDIS team get their part back so they can leave. Overall Rating: 8/10

3. The Edge of Destruction (2 parts with The Brink of Disaster)

Mid-Flight something strange happens to the TARDIS and it feels like some mysterious entity enters the ship, taking over control of Susan at times to try and murder Ian and Barbara, but also making the Doctor suspicious that these strangers have sabotages his ship. While time seems to stop and the instruments don’t make sense, tensions run high to their breaking point. But Barbara not only calls out the Doctor for being overtly cruel by suggesting she and Ian are to blame, she also is the first to notice that the ship seems to be giving them hints that something is wrong. Confused by the idea that the ship could be sentient, the Doctor at first doesn’t believe her, but then realizes she is right and fixes the problem to get them on their way. Overall Rating: 10/10

4. Marco Polo ( 7 parts with The Roof of the World, The Singing Sands, Five Hundred Eyes, The Walls of Lies, Rider from Shang-Tu, Mighty Kublai Khan, Assassin at Peking)

It’s a shame the video of this episode is lost. I’m sure eventually we’ll get an animation, but this is one of the best serials in the entire first season and it does something I kind of wish the show would bring back, but I think Chibnall is doing his best with, which is that this is purely a historical serial. No alien badguys or sci-fi plots, just the TARDIS crew stuck in the wrong timeline and caught up in the politics of the time. Thinking he’s gotten them back to Earth, The Doctor is surprised when they quickly get captured by Marco Polo and his travelling caravan on the way to meet Kublai Khan. Thinking the TARDIS will be the perfect gift to gain back his independence and travel back to Venice, Polo steals the key and takes these mysterious strangers with him to the Summer Palace. Travelling with him is Ping-Cho, a young 16 year old who bond with Susan but is pledged to marry an old man at the Khan’s palace, and Tegana, a warlord whose suspicions of these strangers he uses to scapegoat for his own traitorous actions. Throughout their journey Tegana causes problems and delays them which helps his lord’s armies get closer to the Khan’s forces for what will be a war if Tegana can successfully assassinate the Khan, but these strangers are more than just spirits and find ways to thwart him or survive around his strategies in ways he can’t predict. While there is camaraderie and a bond between the TARDIS team and Polo, when given the opportunity they do take their leave quickly so as not to be stuck any longer within the Khan’s court. Overal Rating: 10/10

5. The Keys of Marinus (6 parts with The Sea of Death, The Velvet Web, The Screaming Jungle, The Snows of Terror, and Sentence of Death)

Finding themselves on a another strange planet, the team soon gets pulled into a scheme to bring together the Keys of Marinus in a fight against the Vord. This involves wristwatches that can teleport them to different parts of the world and in each is a brand new adventure to find the keys. In one, the Brains of Morbius try to take over their minds and imprison them in delusions, but Barbara evades the trick and ends up destroying the Brains, freeing Altos and Sabeetha who then go on to help them. They find another key in the jungle though it has its tricks and then end up on a frozen mountain with a cruel man who intends to steal their wristwatches and kill everyone but Barabara. But escaping this threat, they end up in a nation where Ian is accused of murder in a plot by the locals to steal the final key. Thankfully the Doctor has been there long before them and helps reveal the true murderer and gains Ian freedoms. With the final key, the six make their way back to the original landing spot only to find Sabeetha’s father has been killed and the Vord have taken over. But with a trick of a fake key, they not only sabotage Yardek, but get back to the Tardis for their next attempt at Earth. Overall Rating: 7/10

6. The Aztecs ( 4 parts with The Temple of Evil, The Warriors of Death, The Bride of Sacrifice, and the Day of Darkness)

Even though this is her favorite part of history and something she focused on, Barbara is heartbroken that despite her attempts she can’t save this civilization and get them to stop with their human sacrifices. Disguised a goddess incarnated in human body, she assumes she has the authority to disrupt their traditions and bring about change. But while she and the Doctor have a blow out about it, it turns out that she can’t change their ways, but at least she saves her friends from punishments and death and as the Doctor does remind her, she does change at least one mind which might be what starts the change for the Aztec civilization. Meanwhile. The Doctor accidentally gets engaged over cocoa while trying to find a way to access the tomb and get back to the TARDIS Overall Rating: 8/10

7. The Sensorites (6 parts with Strangers in Space, The Unwilling Warriors, Hidden Dangers, A Race Against Death, Kidnap, and A Desperate Venture)

When the TARDIS lands on a spaceship in the future full of what appears to be dead people, the team is on edge, but then confused when the people begin waking up. That’s when they learn this small crew has been stuck orbiting a planet called the Sensephere whose inhabitants have been burned once by human contact and wary of any more. But because Susan can telepathically communicate with them and the Doctor has intelligence that could save their people, they travel to the Sensephere to create a cure for the disease killing the Sensorites. But one Sensorite doesn’t trust them and plots to hurt their cause so they get left alone. Meanwhile the original humans who crash landed on the planet are the ones behind the poison and the Doctor finds them in the aqueduct to solve all the problems. Overall Rating: 7/10

8. The Reign of Terror (6 parts with A Land of Fear, Guests of Madame Guillotine, A Change of Identity, The Tyrant of France, A Bargain of Necessity, and Prisoners of Conciergerie)

After an angry outburst, the Doctor threatens Ian to get off at the next stop and while at first it looks promising they are back in England, turns out they are in France and right in the heart of the French Revolution. Separated and captured by the police, Ian, Barbara, and Susan, are sent to the Conciergerie prison and told they are headed towards the Guillotine. Ian gets released because an undercover English spy knows he receives information from his prison mate and Barbara and Susan get rescued by a couple Frenchmen, displeased with the way things have gone in France. Meanwhile the Doctor assumes the identity of a southern province authority while trying to rescue them and meets Robespierre, who is concerned of plots to overthrow his rule. In return for helping James Stirling learn these plots, he helps the four get back to the TARDIS and onto more adventures as a conclusion to Season 1. Overall Rating: 6/10

Historical Figures we meet in Season 1:

Marco Polo

Kublai Khan

Maximillen Robespierre

Napoleon Bonaparte

Things we learn about the Doctor:

Pioneer among gallifreyans

When the Doctor is lying in the TARDIS during the Edge of Destruction, Ian checks over and states ‘his heart is okay’

Things we learn about the TARDIS:

It has a computer that reads and feeds data to compute information about where to go next (but doesn’t seem to work well)

It has a food fgenerator where pick flavors to be added to a nutrient bar

The lock comes away from the door and has 27 different mechanisms that if you get one wrong, melts the entire lock