Series 1 Episode 10: The Ordeal

Serial: The Daleks
Episode: 6 (The Ordeal)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions, Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Richard Martin
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 25/01/1964

EMOTIONAL SPELUNKING (and other stories)

Get your caving junk and/or electro-funk on, because this week Team Trousers (ok I know Ian hasn't bought into the Thals' hexagonal fashions, but I'm still calling it that) is going to stretch metaphors like they've never been stretched before. Or something.

We open with Elyon the Doomed Thal being hoovered into oblivion by Space Charybdis. By the time the rest of Team Trousers comes running, the Lake of Mutations looks like a blocked toilet down which someone has attempted to flush a few Capri Sun packets. Ian decrees there's nothing they can do here. Babs, perhaps out of tact, calls Ian back over to the campsite, leaving brothers Ganatus and Antodus to deal with the fact that their friend has, y'know, died. Antodus is spooked; Ganatus tries to comfort his brother in a distinctly Chestertonian way, by which I mean he grips his arms a lot and says it must at least have been quick. And besides, they must reach the cliffs by tonight. The Thals are going to have a lot of backed-up emotional shit to deal with at the end of this serial.

Do they even have plumbers on Skaro?

Meanwhile, the D(octor)A(lydon)D(yoni)S(usan) are checking out the Dalek city. Susan is doing some recon with a pair of genuinely gorgeous binoculars, while Dyoni is filling in the map using Susan's information. When the Doctor tries to get up to have a look-see, Susan rather shrilly tells him to get back down. And yes I know shrillness is generally a complaint levelled against women as a means of undermining them and invalidating what they actually have to say, but I swear Susan only has two volume settings: tremulous and ear-splitting. And it doesn't help that she's not generally given much in terms of actually having something to say by the scriptwriters at this stage. I'm going to have to give this some serious thought at some point: do I find Susan annoying because she's given genuinely shoddy character treatment, or do I find Susan annoying because I've unconsciously internalised a lot of sexist crap about the worth of a woman's words being determined by the agreeableness of her tone? Anyway, the Doctor reckons they need to put the Daleks' TV and Radio coverage out of action so they'll be able to sneak up on the city. Alydon just wishes the DADS knew what the Daleks were planning for them.

As though in response to Alydon's musings, we are transported to the Dalek city. It turns out it will take 23 days to make another neutron bomb. To which the Daleks' attitude is essentially 'well fuck that'. Daleks have better shit to do. They must find another way.

But enough of that! Because now we're into spelunking territory, and - joy of joys! - Barbara and Ganatus have been paired up. I'll accept that it's dark and they only have one torch and Ganatus is more used to those really flimsy and impractical-looking Thal sandals than Barbara is, but I'll bet Ian isn't holding hands like that with Antodus and/or Kristas (the Other Thal who Doesn't Talk Much) in whatever part of the cave he's exploring. Then again, perhaps he is.

Anyway, these two make me happy inside, if only because when Babs says something like 'Oh, it's like all the other caves - just tails off into a dead end', Ganatus doesn't mollycoddle her or patronise her or grab her arms and enunciate platitudes into her face, but rather turns to look at her, laughs, and says, 'Well, there's a gloomy thought for you', which actually makes Barbara do a laugh-smile. Is this the first time we've seen her grin? I'm going to say yes and prepare to be contradicted by anyone who cares enough to contradict me.

Stop Press: Barbara Wright is GRINNING

I'm just going to take a moment here to appreciate how much Barbara's character is developing already: having spent most of 'An Unearthly Child'/'100,000 BC' not really coping with stuff, and having spent the first couple of episodes of 'The Daleks' being terrorised by sink plungers and dying of radiation sickness, she then seemed to decide to get proactive and deal with stuff on her own terms, whether puzzling out the Daleks' mobility issues by thinking of them as overgrown dodgems or taking out a deadly alien war machine using mud from Susan's shoes; now she's in for a penny in for a pound, trekking through narrow caves in a mostly-Thal outfit, no longer glued to Ian's side, and finding time to enjoy the company of the only Thal on Skaro who takes things with as big-a pinch of salt as she does and can make her laugh at herself in a way that doesn't do any damage to her self-esteem. You go, Babs.

Barbara wonders aloud how Ian and the others are getting on. Ganatus, whose gently mocking inflections please me greatly in a show full of Very Earnest People, says they ought to 'make sure this [relationship cave passage] is impossible first' before going back to meet the others. And OH how crushing, it's another dead end. 

AAAAAAAAND we're back with Babs's default facial expression.

But WAIT! Barbara can hear something, and it's the sound of dripping water. After some investigation, it turns out there is a way through after all, and it's a passageway of some sort. 'Well, that wont be easy,' says Babs bluntly. Never, never change. Ganatus says it's a good job they haven't been over-eating recently, which is pretty bleak given that the Thals are pretty much about to be wiped out from famine, but if anyone appreciates dark humour it's probably Barbara. Then this happens:

GANATUS: Well, we won't use one of the customs of your planet.
BARBARA: And what's that?
GANATUS: "Ladies first".
BARBARA: Well, I should hope not!

YAAAAAAAAASSSS! Alien highlights human gender construct! I mean don't get me wrong, the Thals' gender politics are all over the place, mainly because they're in a sixties sci-fi show, but this pleases me greatly (despite the irony of someone taking the piss out of misplaced chivalry in order to justify their misplaced chivalry). Also, this means that Ganatus has been talking to the humans about Earth gender politics. And has found them worthy of his mockery. Having said that, I have a feeling that just about everything that happens to Ganatus is probably something he deems worthy of his mockery.

#tapsaff

Now brace yourselves, because the gold keeps coming (which I shall try to convey through added didascalia):

GANATUS: (moving towards the entrance of the passageway) Pay the rope out as I move in, will you?
BARBARA: (busying herself with the rope) Yes, all right. But be careful. Remember what Ian said - we're not to take any chances.
Ganatus pauses at the entrance of the passageway.
GANATUS: (mockingly) Do you always do what Ian says?
Barbara looks up from the rope, hesitates for a split second, and rolls her eyes almost imperceptibly before looking determinedly at the rope in her hands again.
BARBARA: (matter-of-factly) No, I don't.

A THOUSAND TIMES YES! Barbara finally has her 'fuck the patriarchy' moment, and it's gorgeously understated. Also, despite the subtext of 'and fuck you very much for asking, Ganatus', there is palpable chemistry between these two...which I'm surprised to say doesn't really bug me. I'm generally the first one to complain when the woman companion rocks up on a planet only to find herself embroiled in some sort of romantic subplot, but I'm willing to go with this particular scenario for the following reasons:

1. It doesn't get in the way of the rest of the plot, and it doesn't cut Barbara off from the rest of the action.
2. It's not just tacked onto the action either, it's part of Barbara's ongoing character development. She's finally out from under Ian's wing, and yes she's still very much attached to her one constant from Earth, but she's starting to form other relationships of her own, and it's lovely to see. 
3. It's not just that they both look great in Hexagon Trousers: they clearly get on well, and his default gentle mockery complements her default blunt pragmatism beautifully. In other words, whether or not they have the hots for one another, there are the beginnings of a healthy platonic relationship here, too.
4. Why not? When you've been uprooted from your daily life by Oscar the Grouch, survived your own planet's prehistoric era, been stranded in an post-nuclear alien wasteland, been menaced by robotic mutants, and then been faced with an Ordeal by Spelunking, why not flirt with a dashing blonde who's clearly into you, too? Why not live a little?
5. It lowers a much-needed anchor over the side of the Barbarian ship and puts them firmly in BrOTP mode for the time being, which I think can only be a good thing this early on in the show. Don't get me wrong - though I'm almost constantly exasperated by Ian's well-meaning sexism, even I can't find it in my cold, dead heart not to ship them by the end of their time on the show. However, we still need to get to know them as individuals and not just as a portmanteau.

Ganatus follows her conversation-stopper by saying 'Well, let me have the torch, then, unless you think...?' because it's a hilarious metaphor because Ian is carrying a torch for Barbara and now Barbara and Ganatus are carrying a torch for one another I am so great at analysing things apparently he's not sure about Babs's policy about being left in the dark. She tells him his need is greater than hers and away he crawls. This shit writes itself.

It turns out that at the end of the tunnel is a drop of about thirty feet. Gulp. Down you go, Ganatus. Babs ties the rope around a rock and feeds it through using her foot as a brake. Those Thal sandals are really, really unsuitable for this job...and, sure enough, the rope slips and she's sent flying backwards with a scream that summons Ian Chesterton from wherever he happens to be in Time and Space to her exact location.

When you're Ian Chesterton and Barbara is shouting someone else's name.
Also, we need to find a less phallocentric word for cockblocking.

Ian immediately takes charge, by which I mean he starts yelling down the thirty-foot hole instead of Barbara. Ganatus, meanwhile, keeps yelling for Babs as an oblivious and Potteresque Ian ignores the mercifully uninjured Thal's concern for her wellbeing. Even more obnoxiously, he doesn't give Barbara the chance to tell Ganatus she's fine, thanks, but yells down on her behalf. Could he even be more clueless? Anyway, Ganatus has discovered several passages leading off from the thirty-foot hole, so it looks like The Ordeal isn't over yet.

Meanwhile, the Daleks are bitching about their shitty TV reception. which it turns out is because the Thals are disrupting their signals WITH THE POWER OF OCTAGONS. Because fuck hexagons. Also, fuck the patriarchy, because two of the three Thals in the octagonal mirror rave party are women. One of them is quite possibly Dyoni, because the DADS are now SAD.

Hexagons are so last episode.

Back in the caves, Ian is in the lead and Ganatus and Barbara are still holding hands along the rockface, which is widening out a bit. Barbarianatus have an important conversation about their relationship ordeal, in which Barbara wins at snark:

IAN: So far, so good. It seems to be broadening out a bit.
GANATUS: Who knows? It...may stop being impossible.
BARBARA: Just become unbearable.

Slide your feet up the street, bend your back, shift your arm, then you pull it back.

Ganatus and his brother Antodus have a conversation in which Antodus really, really doesn't want to go on. Ganatus is having none of it. Antodus suggests going back and telling the other Thals the others were killed by the Daleks, seeing as how they're all going to die anyway. On a serious note, why did these guys make Antodus come along if they knew he was afraid? Toxic Thal Masculinity at its worst. They have a brief scuffle, during which Ganatus knocks Antodus down and is instantly mortified; this is followed by a rockfall. Ganatus takes a leaf out of Barbara's book and yells for Ian. Problematically, Ganatus lies about the injury he inflicted upon Antodus, telling the others that Antodus was hit by a rock whilst pushing him out of the way, and that Antodus was very brave. So very, very toxic. At any rate, there's no turning back now.

Meanwhile, the Daleks are having an emergency. Plus ça change. They've detected something on their vibrascopes, which I'll bet is where the SAD ones are. And they are indeed by a big static electricity power terminal, which Susan opens successfully. The Doctor smashes it up a bit, then sends Alydon over to tell Team Octagon to change their position every now and then so as not to get caught. The Doctor uses the Tardis key to short-circuit the power terminal.

Spending quality grandfather-granddaughter time together being vandals.

Then this happens:

DOCTOR: Now, we've short…we've shorted it, you see? So something must have gone somewhere else! The extent of the damage, of course, we don’t know yet.
SUSAN: Look, Grandfather, this is marvellous, but...but they must have a fault locator somewhere. We must get away from here!
DOCTOR: (Boasting.) But, my dear child, don’t you realise what I've done? A few simple tools...
SUSAN: Yes, but we mustn't...
DOCTOR: ...a superior brain?
SUSAN: ...waste time, we must go now!

This is great character stuff: the Doctor is so pleased with himself and so insistent that Susan acknowledge his genius that he is oblivious to her entirely sensible concerns. And she's proven right, because who should turn up at that very moment but...The Daleks! Ruh-roh.

Back in the caves, Ian nearly falls down a ravine. He and Ganatus seem to have struck up a rapport, and they send the others back to have a rest while they both squat on the edge of the sheer drop like rival models for The Thinker, trying to puzzle it out. Antodus and Kristas I can see complying without protest, seeing as Antodus has no desire to be there and Kristas is the Other Thal who Doesn't Talk Much, but it's annoying that Babs has effectively been silenced by Ian's having rejoined the group. There's a small ledge on the other side and a cleft in the rock face. It's too deep-a drop to climb down and up again by rope, so they're going to have to jump...GULP.

What you looking for in there?

There's a hilarious romcom moment where both Ian and Ganatus say they'll jump first at the same time and then giggle at their crises of masculinity, then tell the others what's afoot. Barbara and Ian share another romcom moment in which she wishes him good luck and there's a Touch Full of Unspoken Stuff. Ian leaps...

...and makes it! And breaks a little bit of the set in the process because the rockface is made of polystyrene and he gripped it a bit too hard. Ian tells Ganatus to come over next so they can 'explore that cleft in the rock' because there's 'just about enough room for two' on the ledge. Share and share alike, says I. It's Barbara and Ganatus's turn for a romcom moment now, as Barbara wishes him 'good luck', too, and they have a Touch Full of Unspoken Stuff. Ganatus leaps...

...and makes it! Ian seems momentarily shaken by the eroticism of having been pinned back against the rockface by several feet of Flying Blonde Adonis, but he recovers well. He's rather sweet actually, telling Ganatus he should've come first because his jumping is really great. To be honest, all this cave stuff is just one massive excuse for Team Trousers to get all up-close and personal in the adrenaline-fuelled dark, and I am ok with that. Anyway, Ganatus is away for a little cleft-exploration; there's a handhold and a tunnel behind it. Ganatus tells Ian to bring the others over; Ian braces himself for impact.

Meanwhile Susan and the Doctor have been captured and are sitting on the floor surrounded by Daleks. The Daleks accuse them of vandalism, and the Doctor is all 'well yeah we broke one of your lifts but you killed the Thal leader so we're quits'. What. The Doctor tells the Daleks they'll be responsible for more deaths unless they help the Thals. Then this happens:

Chills on multiple levels, not least because this is one of the few instances in which the Daleks use the word EXTERMINATE or a variant thereof in this first serial. It's easy to see how this became their catchphrase: it cuts right to the core of their characterisation, and is symptomatic of a defining Doctor/Daleks moment in which he calls them murderers and they define themselves as exterminators. It's essentially the moment they become Space Nazis.

Meanwhile, in the caves, it's Babs's turn to jump, and, predictably, she's allowed a far more lingering moment all pressed up against Ian because sexism and heteronormativity. It's quite funny, actually: she makes the jump, then sort of comes round in a daze, murmuring 'oh...I thought I wouldn't make it', as though she expected to be at the bottom of a ravine rather than all up in Ian's grill and finds it all dreamily anticlimactic. Perhaps she thought that, because of the Rules of Telly, she as the woman of the group would be the obligatory One Member Of The Group Who Doesn't Make It To Safety And Must Endure Further Peril Before Being Delivered Entirely From Harm. Which leaves only Kristas the Potential Redshirt and Antodus who is Afraid. I wonder which of the two will fall short?

Anyway, there's more set-related hilarity as, having had Ian fall worshipfully at her feet and remove the rope from around her waist, Barbara proceeds to try to get into the clefty bit where Ganatus is waiting with her back facing the rock instead of the front and has to be helped by Ian to swing herself back round (sigh). She grips the rock a little too fervently and this happens:

Polystyrene rockface is polystyrene.

Having seen Babs safely into a darkened room with Ganatus, Ian is again very sweet to his Thal companions, telling Kristas he made his jump 'look easy'. I bet Mr. Chesterton is very encouraging in the classroom. And now it's Antodus. Who is clearly Very, Very Doomed, because everyone has made it across the ravine and he's the last to jump and he doesn't want to be there and is scared and numb-looking and OH this cannot end well.

Something something something masculinity.

Ian throws the rope; Antodus doesn't even bother trying to catch it but merely stares into the abyss. Ian once again betrays his cinnamon roll tendencies and ridiculous levels of Englishness by apologising to Antodus, claiming it was his fault and a bad throw, trying to spare Antodus's feelings. The second time around, Antodus catches it, and there's some laborious, tension-building attention paid to the tying of the rope tight around his waist. Antodus jumps...

...AND MISSES! He barrels into Ian, who is knocked off his feet, then plunges backwards into the chasm, dangling on the end of the rope tying him to the now Very Imperilled Ian, whose grip on the rock is slipping, slipping...

The stuff of actual nightmares.

I will admit that when I first saw this episode I wasn't even in double figures yet and I was absolutely horrified at this very part, where a panicking and dangling Antodus screams that he can't hold on as Ian grips the rock desperately with only his fingers, clearly about to be pulled into the chasm, too, so I can't even be particularly sarcastic when I say OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS TENSE EVEN THOUGH WE ALL SAW IT COMING.

WILL THE OTHERS GET OUT OF THE CLEFT IN TIME TO RESCUE IAN AND ANTODUS OR ARE THEY TOO BUSY MAKING OUT IN THE DARK? WILL TEAM TROUSERS EVER GET OUT OF THESE CAVES OR ARE THEY DOOMED TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES IN POLYAMOROUS FLIRTATION BEFORE STARVING TO DEATH? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ALYDON? WILL THE DOCTOR AND SUSAN ESCAPE FROM THE DALEKS? WILL OUR HEROES MANAGE TO STOP THE DALEKS IRRADIATING THE PLANET AGAIN? WHERE EVEN IS THE FLUID LINK? WHY DO THE THALS HAVE SUCH IMPRACTICAL SANDALS?


Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? OH GOD IT'S HAPPENED. DOCTOR WHO HAS 100% FAILED THE BECHDEL TEST THIS WEEK. I refuse to count the fact that Susan told Dyoni her drawing was shit. This is a fail. Fail, fail, fail.

Is the gaze problematic? Not particularly.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads’? Babs is wearing the same leather trousers as the Thal men, only it seems her hexagons are made of actual fabric, so no.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Babs falls over when the rope goes haywire, but otherwise it's mostly tripping on rocks.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Yes, but so is the Doctor.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Kind of, if you count Ian having to coax Babs back from her misjudged approach to the cleft.

Is/are the woman companion’s/s’ first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Babs does scream when the rope goes out from under her feet, but it's not gratuitous.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? Nope.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? It's mostly Antodus who needs calming this week.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode’s antagonist(s)? Nope.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No.

Is a man shamed/manipulated/compelled into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman being harmed? Hmm. Not as such, but the whole absolutely-not-ladies-first might be similar.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No, but Babs is the one whose actions lead to the discovery of the tunnel/thirty-foot drop. Otherwise it's all Ian and Ganatus. By which I mean mostly Ian.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? No.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Yup. Ian again.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? 1963 sexism? And Ganatus points out how stupid it is.

Does an past/future/alien person have the hots for a woman companion and is it reciprocated? Yes and ho.

Did a woman write/direct/produce this episode? No/No/Yes.

Verdict

I'm glad Babs got to have a good flirt this episode, but oh my goodness Ian can be stifling. Susan doesn't do much either, in fact. However, the weak link of Team Trousers is Antodus rather than Barbara, which means she's not placed in any needless peril for dramatic effect. Some nice character development, too, and a defining moment in the Doctor's relationship with the Daleks. I hope some women actually talk to each other next week.