Series 1 Episode 27: The Temple of Evil

Serial: The Aztecs
Episode: 1 (The Temple of Evil)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: John Lucarotti
Director: John Crockett
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 23/05/1964

'HISTORY HAS TO BE MADE - BEFORE IT'S REMADE'* (and other stories)

*Brian Friel, Plays Two (London: Faber and Faber, 1999), p. 258

So my first ‘hmm’ moment of The Aztecs is the title of this episode. Evil is a strong word, after all. I mean, way to predispose your audience towards a certain moral standpoint. It’s odd for this writer, too, who had far less sensational, sci-fi titles for his previous serial. Plus it sounds way too much like Temple of Doom a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Racist Caricatures for my liking.

Anyway, here we are in an Aztec tomb with John Lucarotti of Marco Polo fame. This is the guy who gave us Ping-Cho, so I’m optimistic. Also, I enjoy the camera-work of this opening (well, if you don’t count the very cute model Tardis dematerialising from Marinus) shot: we begin right up in the grill of the dead Aztec priest in his death-mask and gradually zoom out to reveal the Tardis and Barbara and Susan coming out of it. It’s not done from the point of view of the adventurers, but from the point of view of the occupant of the tomb; it’s an intrusion – all this was already here before Team Tardis disturbed it. This may just be a budget consideration, as I don’t think the Tardis set actually appears at all in this serial as far as I can remember, but it would be a far more colonial gaze if we followed the adventurers into the tomb in a spirit of ‘discovery’ rather than witnessing them disturb something quiet and – as the initial focus on the death mask would indicate – private.

Which brings me to my second ‘hmm’ moment: Barbara Wright, history teacher and expert on Aztec civilisation, is casually desecrating the tomb of one of its priests. I love how much of a nerd Barbara is (dating the mask around 1430, for instance), but have some respect for the dead.

Gif by The Watch-A-Thon of Rassilon

Anyway, Babs has put on a coiled serpent bracelet, while Morbid!Susan is having fun playing with a dagger and miming cutting someone’s heart out. Then this happens:

BARBARA: [Cutting out people’s hearts was] only one side to their nature. The other side was highly civilised.
SUSAN: Well, the Spanish didn’t think so.
BARBARA: Oh, they only saw the acts of sacrifice. That was the tragedy of the Aztecs. Their whole civilisation was completely destroyed, the good as well as the evil.

Third ‘hmm’ moment alert. Again related to the use of the word ‘evil’ and indeed the word ‘civilised’. You’ll never catch me arguing that human sacrifice is A-OK, but it’s problematic at the very least to infer that the wiping out of an entire culture was in some way down to…I dunno, hubris? Or to imply that a practice that is admittedly pretty horrifying is inherently ‘uncivilised’ just because it doesn’t fit twentieth-/twenty-first-century Western ideas of acceptable state-sponsored, religiously-motivated bloodshed; the Aztecs were an advanced society whose religious practices may have been gory in the extreme but were not acts of random bloodthirstiness and primitive savagery. The whole thing smacks of victim-blaming.

Anyway, a gleeful Susan is pointing out the ‘cartoons’ (*facepalm*) on the wall of the tomb, which then opens out like a catflap. Intrepid Babs immediately goes through it, and Susan, after warning her not to ‘go too far’ (what a loaded warning!), goes back to get the others from the Tardis. Wide-eyed History nerd Barbara looks around the stone chamber muttering about how ‘perfect’ it is…and is instantly apprehended by one of the many actors in this serial to portray an ancient Mexican with the aid of a lot of fake tan. He tells Barbara the temple is sacred to the memory of the High Priest Yetaxa, and that she’s trespassing and must be punished. Yikes. When he calls the guards to restrain her, however, he catches sight of the bracelet she robbed from the dead priest…

Back in the main tomb, the Doctor is being beautifully cantankerous about Barbara’s disappearing act.

I can’t actually recall an instance so far where the Doctor has explicitly told Babs not to wander off alone, so perhaps John Lucarotti is just assuming that other writers have given the Doctor the same personality he gave Marco ‘women who wander off should expect to be held at knifepoint by bandits’ Polo a couple of serials back. Also the humans are now 100% part of the Crew.

The rest of Team Tardis (feat. a freshly-laundered Ian) goes through the catflap, and they all admire their surroundings a bit. The Doctor seems to be a fan of the Aztecs, ‘gruesome habits’ aside. But OH NO they seem to have forgotten the rule whereby every episode for one reason or another they end up separated from the Tardis, because their musings are cut short by the catflap door swinging shut again. It is at this point that the Doctor appears to be a little too familiar with the occupational hazards of grave-robbing:

IAN: There’s nothing to get a grip on.
SUSAN: There must be some way of opening it.
DOCTOR: Yes. You push it from the other side. These tombs were designed to prevent grave-robbers, not to aid and abet them.

Why not wedge it open before going exploring, then, if you’re so knowledgeable, Doctor?

When you lock yourself out of your car...

Anyway, the guy who apprehended Barbara comes in at this point, welcoming Team Catflap as the Servants of Yetaxa. His name is Autloc, and he is the High Priest of Knowledge; Team Catflap is nonplussed, and Ian (of course) wants to know where Barbara is, but Autloc speaks only of the woman who wears Yetaxa’s bracelet; Susan interprets this correctly as a reference to Babs. Oh and the catflap is definitely a one-way affair. Bummer.

At this point, Susan rather insultingly recoils from the appearance of a guy with bad hair and a painted stripe across his mouth. As the Episode Guide of old will confirm (oh how I miss the irreverence of the Classic Who site) he also seems to be doing a Richard III thing with his posture. Illuminatingly, according to the transcript, his robes are spattered with blood, though I must say I never noticed this – where’s colour tv when you need it? Anyway, if he is indeed rocking the blood-spattered look, Ian’s sneery comment makes a lot more sense than I had previously thought.

Though I will never not appreciate the Doctor’s sass at this point, it’s still pretty insulting as it turns out the scary-looking fella they've dismissed as 'the local butcher' is the High Priest of Sacrifice, whose name is Tlotoxl.

And this is where it gets really interesting, because the conversation Tlotoxl subsequently has with Autloc (who is a cutie and holds a bunch of flowers throughout this entire exchange for reasons best known to people whose knowledge of Aztec culture extends beyond the chocolatl exhibit at Cadbury World) is pretty-much a damning indictment of organised religion as an instrument of state control. Autloc has forecast rain later that afternoon, and Tlotoxl wants to a) present Yetaxa (Barbara) to the people and b) perform a sacrifice to the Rain God at that exact moment, essentially to re-establish the power of the priesthood over the populace. Autloc, however, insists that it will rain whether or not Tlotoxl sacrifices anybody to said Rain God.

(Fun fact: according to Wikipedia - which is my main source of information on Aztec culture because I’m a lazy bastard - the Aztec rain God was called Tlaloc, and every year there was a festival in which flower-adorned children had their hearts pulled out on mountaintop shrines by way of sacrifice; if they cried on the way to the shrine, it meant there would be abundant rain. No prizes for guessing which time-travelling dysfunctional space family would not have been ok with this.)

This is fascinating stuff, as Tlotoxl is explicitly in it for the power, and is quite calculatedly manipulating the populace with the help of a little meteorological foresight. It’s a deliberate abuse of his authority, and plays right into my pet theory that 1960s Classic Who is Marxist as all fuck.

En attendant Babs, Susan is optimistic about their good treatment so far; the Doctor is a party pooper and says the Aztecs were always super nice to people they later intended to cut open. They’re taken into a room where they find MAGNIFICENT BABS enthroned in splendour being imperious as fuck.

Babs explains how the Aztecs think she’s a reincarnation of the priest in the tomb on account of the bracelet she stole. I would facepalm at the White Person Is Mistaken For A God trope but for the fact that the Bling’s the Thing, as Babs explains to Susan in what I’m going to claim is a high point in the gender politics of the show just to cheer myself up:

SUSAN: But the priest in the tomb’s a man. How can you be a reincarnation of him?
BARBARA: The form the spirit takes isn’t important, Susan. This (indicates the bracelet) is what’s important.

Also, wonders will never cease, because for once it’s the Doctor correcting Ian about someone’s name. The fuzzy feeling doesn’t last, though, because Ian and the Doctor are rather unflatteringly amused at being mistaken for Barbara’s servants. Babs is ever practical: it’ll be dead useful keeping up the charade if only because they can all get back into the tomb any time they want, get into the Tardis, and leave. Once Barbara is stripped of this illusion, the Doctor goes on to Doctorsplain the situation to Aztec expert Barbara: she can’t ask anyone how to open the door because she’s supposed to know everything and if the priests figure out she’s a fake then they’ll all die. No pressure, Babs.

(Fun Fact No. 2…according to Wikipedia again, obv.: god-impersonators were real, and once someone had gone around pretending to be a god for a bit (my favourite example of god-impersonation involves a man spending a year wandering about smoking a pipe, playing the flute, and sniffing flowers), they’d be sacrificed. But maybe Babs has forgotten this.)

Enter Autloc and Tlotoxl, and ooh congrats on your Wikipedia-accurate research, Mr. Lucarotti, because they are indeed intending to honour Tlaloc in a time of drought…but without the child sacrifice, apparently. I’d like to think this was because the Beeb was responsible and didn’t want to do a total hatchet-job and make out that the Aztecs were all about murdering small children and conjuring rain from their tears in what was meant to be an educational show, but it was probably just because there are limits to what can be shown on the telly at tea-time. Anyway, the priests want Yetaxa’s servants to wander among the people, and the Doctor, ever quick on the uptake, is vocally enthusiastic about the idea; Barbara agrees as long as Susan can stay behind. Maybe Babs has remembered the bit about child sacrifice and wants Susan where she can see her.

Adorable Background Acting

Once Team Tardis is alone, the Doctor congratulates Jacqueline Hill Barbara on her performance and enthuses about how ‘they’ have all got what ‘they’ want: the women safe in the temple and the men free to roam outside finding about the tomb. FUCKSAKE DOCTOR.

Outside the temple, Tlotoxl, for reasons best known to himself, reckons they should send Ian off to lead the military. Presumably he wants Ixta, the current leader, to prove himself against the servant of Yetaxa. Or the production team needed an excuse to shoehorn Ian into a few action scenes so they could splash out on some warrior costumes. William Hartnell and William Russell appear to be rehearsing their lines in the background. The Doctor tries to bluff Ian out of being drafted into the military, but Ian, for reasons best known to himself, rolls with it.

Meanwhile, in the barracks, the aforementioned Ixta is swiping at the air with a club like he thinks the place is swarming with Nargles. Tlotoxl brings Ian in, and the homoerotic subtext is palpable. I’m not even kidding. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into Ixta’s unfortunate tendency towards double entendre: after having proven how great he is at fighting by swiping at a random opponent for a bit before smashing a perfectly good shield that’s lying on the table, Ixta tells Ian ‘there is no fear of you in me’. Oh line delivery. Oh Ixta. Just you wait until Ian starts talking about what he can do with his thumb next episode. At any rate, Ixta is definitely the new Marco. Also, Ian’s going to have to help him deliver the human sacrifice to the temple. How morally compromising.

Elsewhere, the Doctor is being put out to pasture. Or rather he’s being left to wander in a garden for the over fifties. He chats up a woman called Cameca who’s apparently the wisest of the OAPs by being snarky about the fact that they can still water the flowers in the middle of a drought; Cameca says ‘better go hungry than starve for beauty’; Cameca may need to rethink her priorities. She tells him about the guy who built the temple and its gardens; when the Doctor asks whether said guy comes to the garden often, Cameca says ‘he watches over it constantly’. Then this happens:

Less a gardener, it turns out, than...y'know...dead. Oh Doctor. Never change. Anyway, the architect may be dead, but his son is alive, and Cameca can arrange a meeting. Dead on.

Enter Ian, dressed as an Eagle Warrior, and in something of a tizzy. The Doctor is temporarily distracted by how intelligent and gentle Cameca is, but Ian brings him back to earth with a bump when he tells him about the human sacrifice that’s to happen later that day:

IAN: I must escort the victim to the altar, hold him down…Doctor, I c –
DOCTOR: Then do it man, do it! But don’t interfere! Otherwise we –
IAN: But –
DOCTOR: There’s no buts about it! If human sacrifice is essential here and it’s their tradition, then let them get on with it. But for our sakes, don’t interfere! Now promise me. Please promise!
(IAN doesn’t reply.)
DOCTOR: I’ll go and tell Barbara.

Well what a fascinating and heated little exchange. Also quite a moment for Ian, who gets to show a new emotion for a change. The closest we’ve seen him to this state was when he thought he’d become a full-time paraplegic in The Daleks – his voice is shaking, he’s panicky, and he’s clearly very upset about the prospect of being complicit in a human sacrifice. This might be the first time Ian’s (almost) said ‘I can’t do it’ rather than ‘I won’t do it’. Character development wins. Even more interesting is the Doctor’s attitude, which is essentially ‘live and let live’ (or should that be ‘live and let die’?), urging Ian not to interfere as much out of respect for Aztec culture as out of a desire for self-preservation. It’s a very different attitude to his later incarnations, who would absolutely have intervened; this Doctor has an almost ruthless respect for history that gradually wears off the longer he travels with humans, it would seem.

Back in the temple, Barbara and Susan are being adorkable, pretending to be at Ascot whilst wearing Babs’s magnificent headdress, and musing over ‘beauty and horror developing hand in hand’ like it’s something that doesn’t happen in Western civilisation.

Enter the Doctor for some iconic dialogue. He tells Barbara about the impending sacrifice and urges her not to interfere, even lying through his teeth and claiming that Ian agrees with him. He should know better than to try to play the Ian card with Barbara ‘I don’t always have to agree with Ian so up yours’ Wright. Ian may be a warrior, but Babs is a goddess, and she has the power to stop it, and says so:

BARBARA: Well, they’ve made me a goddess - and I forbid it.
DOCTOR: Barbara, No!
BARBARA: (picking up the headdress) There’ll be no sacrifice this afternoon, Doctor. Or ever again. The reincarnation of Yetaxa will prove to the people that you don’t need to sacrifice a human being in order to make it rain.
DOCTOR: Barbara, no…
BARBARA: It’s no good, Doctor. My mind’s made up. This is the beginning of the end of the sun god.
DOCTOR: What are you talking about?
BARBARA: Oh, don’t you see? If I could start the destruction of everything that’s evil here…then everything that is good would survive when Cortez lands.
DOCTOR: But you can’t rewrite history - not one line!

Wow, Barbara. Just wow. On so many levels. What kind of insane top-down model of history and/or government do you subscribe to that makes you think you can dismantle the core religious beliefs of an entire civilisation by making decrees from on high? What fascist nonsense is this? Also are you so naïve that you believe that Cortez only went on a colonial rampage because of deep moral outrage? Having said all this, I love that Barbara as a character is allowed to be this horrendously flawed, and that we see the idea that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ in action. Interestingly, as I found out today, this remark was made by one John Dalberg-Acton at a time when he was protesting against the formalisation of papal infallibility at the time of Vatican I. Which turns out to be very relevant to the context of religious authority having gone spectacularly to Barbara’s head. Also it’s amazing to think how far, say, Ten is from One: where the former has to be told by River Song that he can’t rewrite time – ‘not one line’ – the latter tells Barbara in a thoroughly iconic moment that she can’t rewrite ‘one line’ of history. It’s utterly fascinating stuff. Also also, I have come to the conclusion that this serial can be summarised in much the same way Harry Potter can be summarised:

Still more fascinating is the idea that the Doctor has had some previous experience with trying to rewrite history, which presumably went very badly wrong or which proved to be beyond the Doctor’s own powers. And I’d love to know more about that, especially as the Doctor speaks to Barbara not in a paternalistic manner at this point but as an equal – someone with whom he has shared a similar experience and in whom he recognises himself. Ultimately, despite the Doctor’s vehement exhortations, Barbara chooses to abandon her own identity and speak and act as Yetaxa. I wonder whether this reminds the Doctor of the time he chose to leave his name behind, too. I think Barbara would have been a lot like the Doctor had she been a Time Lady.

SACRIFICE TIME! And you have to admire the flexibility of the actor whose back is bent over the altar like that. Barbara catches Ian’s eye. A confused and upset Susan cuddles the Doctor back in the temple, and he tells her she has to stay here. Autloc presents Babrara to the people; she catches Ian’s eye again; the people give a brief cheer. Ian and Ixta hold down the sacrifice, and Tlotoxl (oh it really is quite off how the High Priest of Sacrifice is portrayed as a bloodthirsty schemer) starts doing his thing. Also the camera operator trips a bit whilst zooming in, which is hysterical. When he gets to the bit about honouring Tlaloc with blood, Susan yells ‘NO!’ and runs out of the temple, just as Babs cries ‘STOP!’ and proclaims that there shall be no more blood spilt. The sacrifice tells her he has denied her honour, and Tlotoxl tells him to honour them with his death; the sacrifice jumps off the pyramid. CUE RAIN!

Barbara…Barbara stop. You’ve been outplayed and now you’re splitting hairs. You simply cannot disprove the death/rain thing with one death-by-not-stabbing.

And UH-OH, now Tlotoxl is out for Susan’s hide. He asks Babs whether she speaks as the protector of a handmaiden or as a god; when Babs answers the latter (without hesitation – yikes), Tlotoxl insists that Susan be punished for desecrating holy ground and transgressing the law. Barbara insists that an offence committed in ignorance ought not to be punished, and suggests instead that Susan ‘be taught respect for your customs’. Admirable espousal of rehabilitation over retribution, Babs, but maybe you ought to practise what you preach. Susan is sent…to a seminary!? Yikes.

Autloc (who is a bit squeamish, I think) seems relieved and happily proclaims that the great spirit of Yetaxa has spoken. Tlotoxl, however, is now convinced that Babs is a FALSE GODDESS, and vows to DESTROY HER.

HOLY CULTURAL CLUSTERFUCK WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? WILL BARBARA MANAGE TO KEEP UP THIS CHARADE WITHOUT OFFENDING ANYBODY ELSE? WILL SUSAN BE OK NOW SHE’S ESSENTIALLY BEEN TOLD ‘GET THEE TO A NUNNERY’? WILL THE DOCTOR MANAGE TO TALK SOME SENSE INTO OUR NEWLY POWER-CRAZED HISTORY TEACHER? WILL IAN CRACK A SMILE?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Certainly does.

Is the gaze problematic? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads'? No.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? No.

Does a woman wander off alone for the sole dramatic purpose of getting into trouble so she can be rescued later? Not so she can be rescued, no, but the whole story does happen because Barbara wandered off against the Doctor's express wishes.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Captured. And then deified.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? No.

Is a woman placed under threat of actual bodily harm? Yes. Tlotoxl suggests respect be beaten into Susan.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? No.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? No.

Is a woman 'spared' the ordeal of having to do/witness something unpleasant by a man who makes a decision on her behalf/keeps her deliberately ignorant? Yes. And had the Doctor told Susan there was a human sacrifice going on and under no circumstances to interfere, she wouldn't have yelled out in horror and been sent to a nunnery.

Does a man automatically disbelieve or belittle something a woman (companion) says happened to her? No.

Does a man talk over a woman or talk about a woman as though she isn't there? Not that I can recall.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed/comforted by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? Susan has to cuddle Ian when she finds Tlotoxl scary.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? I'd say so, yes. Tlotoxl does say he's going to destroy False Goddess Babs.

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

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? Babs and the Doctor both.

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

Does a woman come up with a theory and is it ridiculed by the Doctor/a man? Absolutely. Though in this case, deservedly so, because trying to outlaw human sacrifice in one day is mental.

Does a woman call the Doctor out on his bullshit? Nope. But the Doctor calls Barbara out on hers.

Does a woman get to be a badass? A problematic badass.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Barbara is the one with the most actual power in this episode, but has to be lectured by the Doctor on how not to abuse it. I will say that this is more 'hey I'm a Time Lord I know how this goes and you're a human and this is your first temptation' than 'hey I'm a man and you're a woman who doesn't know what she's doing', but still.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Aztecs don't care about gender when it comes to reincarnations of dead priests. The bling's the thing.

Does a 'present'-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? Not really applicable.

Does an past/future/alien person have the hots for a woman companion and is it reciprocated? No, but I think Ixta may have a thing for Ian.

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

Verdict

Problematic. Fascinating. But problematic. Barbara has gone power mad in an effort to save the Aztecs, which would be less objectionable if it weren't for the fact that she seems to believe that the Aztecs were wiped out because of their own moral failings; the strong implication is that she's trying to 'save them from themselves'. Some iconic Doctor dialogue, and I'm genuinely enjoying the debate on history and non-interference so far. I'm also enjoying the vaguely Marxist angle on religion as a means of manipulating the proles, but I would enjoy it more were it not for the fact that it's Tlotoxl who is presented as a manipulative butcher who enjoys power and killing for it; it would be a far more interesting and far less uncomfortable situation if it were the High Priest of Knowledge who were a bloodthirsty fanatic and the High Priest of Sacrifice who were the gentle sceptic. In terms of the gender politics of the episode, I'm glad this is Barbara-centric and they didn't go with Ian because of the dead priest being a man; she is, after all, the perfect character to be having this fucked up storyline.