Doctor Who - The Rescue

Discreetly
Packaged Dido

Doctor Who - The Rescue
Airdate: 2nd - 9th January 1965
BBC 1 - Region B Blu Ray Two Episodes

Warning: Full spoilers.

This story follows on from Caroline Ann Ford’s departure as original companion, The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, in the previous story The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (reviewed by me here), alluded to fleetingly when William Hartnell’s Doctor briefly forgets she’s no longer on the TARDIS. The Rescue served as a very short, two part introduction to the newest companion joining the TARDIS crew, Vicki, played by Maureen O’Brien. And it’s a quite nice introduction, at that. Apart from the last story, I’d not seen any of the other shows in the new Second Series Blu Ray set from the BBC and the ride so far is of varying quality but, never less than interesting, it has to be said.

So The Doctor, Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jaqueline Hill) land in a cave on the planet Dido and are menaced by a threatening alien called Koquillion. They are split up and Barbara survives a cliff top plunge by being rescued by one of two survivors of a crashed spaceship, Vicki and the disabled Mr. Bennet, played by Ray Barrett. The Doctor and Ian, left in the cave with a ferocious looking monster (guy shambling around on all fours in a rubber suit) and a series of traps, seek to get out to find out what’s happened to Barbara while she, rescued by Vicki, bickers with her and Mr. Bennett about their safety and how they might throw off the threat posed by Koquillion. The Doctor and Ian eventually arrive (after Barbara has accidentally shot Vicki’s pet monster to death) and The Doctor solves the riddle of what’s really going on.

Now, I have to be candid here... around about 15 minutes into the first episode, I realised there was going to be a twist and guessed exactly what the twist would be. But, I have to say... it’s a smashing twist and normally, even though I can usually see the twists coming a mile off most of the time... I really shouldn’t have seen this one coming and I think a lot of people, including many of the various guest companions watching this as part of the much loved Behind The Sofa watch-along extras in this set, were taken by surprise by it. I only guessed it because the monster costume on the Koquillion looked so much like a standard man in a suit that I figured it was actually supposed to be representational of a man wearing a suit... and not just some ‘golly weren’t the monster suits so bad in those days’ manifestation. So, yeah, I was way ahead when it turns out the person responsible for the deaths of the rest of the crew members and the majority of the Dido race was actually the disabled Mr. Bennet himself, putting on the personae of Koquillion and heading for a pure Scooby Doo ending when The Doctor works this out and he unmasks himself. It didn’t take me long to figure out both Koquillion and Mr. Bennett were never seen together at the same time.

At the end, a really bizarre and, possibly slightly disappointing bit of deus ex machina resolution sees Mr. Bennet fall to his death and The Doctor waking up in the TARDIS, to offer Vicki the chance to ride along from adventure to adventure with them. As was standard for the show at the time, the story finishes and automatically starts off the next adventure, with the TARDIS landing somewhere and falling off a precipice.

Okay, it’s actually, despite how some people feel about this one, a really nice introduction to the character of Vicki... who’s not such a cardboard cutout of a character, it seems to me, as you might think and definitely modelled from the same mould as Susan, in terms of arguing about things and being quite child-like in places. I’ve never seen this companion before but I’ve warmed up to her right away, even though the person she was replacing was absolutely phenomenal in her role. It’s a hard gap to plug but I think the writing and performance fills it pretty well here.

The actors are all great although, since they were only allowed two edits or retakes an episode, you can once again see how Hartnell’s memory started flagging and how he pauses and talks around things to give the right cue to the other actors after remembering what his real lines were... with William Russell occasionally looking bemused or off set to see if he should try to continue or not, it seemed to me. Hartnell, though, is absolutely electric in the role here and he really does save the story in some ways. His pep talk to Vicki and his later confrontation with Mr. Bennet/ Koquillion is pretty strong and helps things along greatly.

The one thing which I only just realised is that they were also writing in scenes where he’s almost the butt of the joke in terms of humour. For instance, with Ian suggesting or observing something and the elder Hartnell ignoring it and eventually flagging it up himself. I reckon this was to get the teenagers into the show more, to identify with the younger members of the cast looking up at the old fuddy-duddy and it probably would work to retain these audiences on this show, for sure. Make no mistake though, Hartnell’s Doctor is ingenious and with a lot more going on that you at first see... Hartnell plays it to perfection as somebody who really has some teeth which, when they come out, certainly demonstrate his bite is louder than his bark, so to speak.

So, yeah, The Rescue is another excellent, if short, story and I really enjoyed this one. I’m not looking forward to the next one so much as it’s one of the period/eductional stories but, well, let’s wait and see. I’ll report back here soonest.