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The Rescue

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1The Rescue Empty The Rescue 30th November 2017, 3:21 am

Plain Old Dave

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Just wrapped up Part One.

The Doctor: He's more or less what I've already said from the other reviews. The common perception that One was aloof and brittle is based on only watching An Unearthly Child and The Daleks. Even here, only a few episodes in, William Hartnell has really found his groove so to speak. He's treating Ian as an equal and not looking down his nose at Barbara. There's some time given to his just more or less having marooned Susan and you have a very mild version of the glumness Matt Smith brought to the role just after Amy and Rory left; however Capaldi more adequately captures the modestly distracted Doctor we have in the first few minutes of this program.

The Companions: Ian is still the Man of Action, though not quite so clearly the lead as in earlier shows. Here, he and the Doctor are almost equals. Barbara still is an empowered woman long before the phrase come into use and a good 20 years before it became shopworn. Vicki is still somewhat of an unknown. At this point, she's still a refugee but I'm looking forward to seeing the first integration of a new Companion into Team TARDIS in the show's run.

The Story: About all we have thus far is that Vicki and Bennett are the two survivors of a space exploration ship, and Vicki mistook the TARDIS for a rescue ship. It's pretty well paced, and the monsters are reasonably well done for 1965.

2The Rescue Empty Re: The Rescue 1st December 2017, 5:08 am

Plain Old Dave

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Part Two.

The Doctor:

Not quite entirely human, much more the nice old man down the street than the grumpy old man everybody assumes the First Doctor was. Given to eccentricities, fits of picque, and insatiable curiousity. I'm really beginning to put William Hartnell's First Doctor as a close tie with Peter Capaldi for second favorite Doctor.

The Companions:

Ian is really seeing the Doctor as an equal instead of almost an enemy as in An Unearthly Child, and Barbara has become more accustomed to NOT being in 1963. Vicki, on the other hand, is the main character development in the piece. Team Who really fleshes her out, and we have a very good first addition to Team TARDIS. "All of time, all of space...." is an echo back to this. Much more effective than Tegan and Leela's just coming onboard, or Harry and Sarah Jane's just being offered Jelly Babies. This is almost an adoption as much as it is an addition to Team TARDIS, and is very effective for what it is. Even the "bigger on the inside" is well played and relatively subtle. Maybe the most poignant plot device of the Hartnell era; you really have the idea that at some level the First Doctor regrets leaving his granddaughter behind.

The Plot:

We finally find out what happened to the rest of the crew we understood Bennett and Vicki to be the survivors of. Without spoiling the thing, we learn something very important about Bennett and Coquillion. We, however, see two human strangers whose origin isn't adequately explained (at least to me). Not much of a story, but then Doctor Who never was good at two-part stories; four is optimal and some stories worked well as longer, but most of the two-parters have the same lack of adequate plot development his one had. All said, though, I am finding more and more respect for the Original, and at some point will cosplay him at a con. Reserved, dignified, curious, and somewhat aloof. That describes me as well as the Original.

Conclusion:

Despite the weaknesses from a tow part story, this is an effective character development piece to introduce us to a new Companion and while Hartnell doesn't carry this one as heavily as he will The Gunfighters, he plays a much more significant role here than he did in the first three eps combined. This one should be part of a Hartnell bingewatch in preparation for Twice Upon A Time on Christmas Day.

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