Series 1 Episode 6: The Survivors

Serial: The Daleks
Episode: 2 (The Survivors)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Christopher Barry
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 28/12/1963

CLIFFORD CHATTERLEY'S DRUGS MULE (and other stories)

And we’re back with a recap of Babs being menaced by what we can only assume at this stage is some poor, unenlightened fool attempting to unblock a sink without the aid of Mr. Muscle. No screaming this time, though.

However, if any of us thought the opening of this episode would provide a satisfactory conclusion to last week’s cliffhanger, boy were we wrong. We’re left dangling as Ian, Susan, and the Doctor decide to go back into the city in search of the missing Barbara. Once inside, the intrepid trio is intrigued by a Mysterious Ticking Noise.

Singing a song, all day long, on SKAAAAAAAARO...

They follow the sound until they find a lab, in which is all sorts of equipment and, so Ian hopes, some mercury for the fluid link that will allow them to fly the Tardis the hell out of Dodge. The Doctor observes that the people who live in the city, whoever (or whatever) they are, must be very intelligent. Ian, however, seems more concerned as to how they use that intelligence, which, given that we know what we know about the Daleks, is actually a very good question. Well done, Ian. The Doctor, however, couldn't give a stuff. Meanwhile, Susan has made an important discovery...

It's a pipe bomb Geiger counter!

Oh dear. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate that someone at the Beeb was clearly on a budget, slapped a sticky label with the word 'DANGER' on it onto a random bit of technical equipment, and passed it off as an alien Geiger counter. TV on a shoestring is the best kind of TV.

I am willing to bet real money that this is a piece of BBC sound equipment.

Anyway, the Doctor seems to think that the radiation makes sense of the stone jungle, the barren soil, and the fact that they're all feeling unwell. (To which my response is, how does radiation explain a stone jungle? But never mind.) Ian is, understandably, rather horrified at the prospect of their all having radiation sickness. Which, now, I come to think of it, was probably a real concern in 1963 coming off the back of the Cuban Missile Crisis and all. However, he recovers quickly enough to fulfil the 'Doctor, please explain the alien stuff' role of the human companion, asking him to account for the buildings remaining in tact. The Doctor says it must have been the neutron bomb, which must be one of the earliest instances of the enduring (and not entirely accurate) tv trope of a nuclear bomb that causes relatively high levels of damage to people and relatively low levels of damage to property, seeing as how they only started working on it in 1958 (thank you, Wikipedia). Anyway, they're all going to need to locate some anti-radiation meds, sharpish. I, on the other hand, am going to need to locate some subtitles.

I swear to God this is what the Doctor actually says at this point.

Susan, to her credit, seems to be taking all this in her stride, which makes a nice change from her usual hysterical tendencies. To her, it's a no-brainer: simply take the Tardis to another time/place where they can get themselves some treatment. Ian, however shoots her down, saying they can't leave without the mercury for the fluid link. 

Ruh-roh, Doctor, you've been rumbled. Forced to come clean about the fact that there is nothing wrong whatsoever with the fluid link, the Doctor gets deservedly chastised by Susan and Ian. Susan's criticism of his behaviour is considerably more to the point (and considerably less ageist) than Ian's: 

SUSAN: Grandfather, do you mean to say you risked leaving the ship just to see this place?

IAN: You fool! You old fool!

The Doctor, however, doesn't seem particularly contrite, and, in a move that reveals just how early on this is in his character development, actually seems totally fine with the idea of going back to the ship without Barbara if it means getting out of immediate danger. I repeat, he wants them to leave without Barbara.

GPOI (Gratuitous Portrait Of Ian)

Ian, as one might expect, is very much Not Okay with this, and, in a classic teacher move, confiscates the fluid link, telling the Doctor it's about time he faced up to his responsibilities: 'You got us here', he growls, 'now I'm going to make sure that you get us back.' Susan, who has stood by like a lemon up to this point, seems to agree with Ian to the extent that she tells her grandfather that they are in fact wasting time standing about when they ought to be looking for Babs. In a continuation of his general infantilization of his granddaughter, the Doctor snaps at Susan, telling the 'child' that he wishes she would 'think as an adult sometimes'. Though presumably by 'adult' he means 'selfish git'. Wearily, he backs down, and the three of them exit the lab—only to find themselves confronted with...

Beyoncé!Dalek (right) says IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT A RING ON IT

It's the first full-length shot of a Dalek in the history of the show, and job's a goodun. Susan is squeaky rather than shrieky, and the Doctor seems unable to decide whether he's being protective or using her as some manner of shield as he steers her obediently in the direction indicated by one of the Daleks. Ian, however, is having none of it, and—unwisely, it turns out—decides to make a break for it.

Ian sees the negative side of messing with a Dalek.

I'll admit that my heart was in my mouth a little, here, because after all these years I'd forgotten that the first time the Daleks use their weapons on the show, they're not necessarily fatal. The negative effect is still ridiculously simple-yet-effective, and poor old Ian finds himself essentially paralysed from the waist down. In other news, I live for the day when New Who has a reprogrammed Dalek working as an anaesthetist on a maternity ward.

It's a really interesting change to the power dynamics of the group: Ian is usually the Action Man, throwing his weight around on the basis of his physical prowess (see his confiscation of the fluid link, where he literally holds the Tardis component out of the Doctor's reach and uses the unspoken threat of his ability to overpower the Doctor to force the older man to comply with his wish to go and look for Barbara). Now suddenly he can't feel his legs and has to rely on the Doctor and Susan to drag him about. How will his role within the group change now that he is no longer the muscle? 

The effect of the Dalek gun, it turns out, is temporary; the Daleks, however, leave him in no doubt that the condition could become a permanent one if he doesn't play his cards right. In the mean time, Ian faces a couple of hours as Clifford from Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Babs, on the other hand, has fully-functioning legs, though they don't seem to be helping her much. Don't let that crumpled-up, despairing-looking figure huddled against the wall fool you, though, because the moment the door opens she's up and flat against the wall in what looks like a prelude to an escape attempt.

Barbara Wright: a coiled spring

Enter the Doctor and Susan, holding Ian up between them. It's rather lovely to see them all reunited, though I doubt Barbara would be quite so pleased to see the Doctor if she knew he'd been willing to let her die alone in a Dalek cell only a few moments earlier.

Squad.

Ian is quick to point out to Bae that 'the feeling's coming back' to his legs, and that she's not to worry; incredibly, he manages to reach past the Doctor's shoulder on which he's leaning to give her the old Chesterton neck-pinch. He's incorrigible. But sweet...I guess.

Incredibly, at this point, Babs reverts instantly to her old habit of asking Ian questions he is in no position to answer:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

It's interesting to note that newly-legless Ian is far less willing to humour his Bezzie Mate Babs now he's incapacitated, and when he asks her if she noticed anything that might help them while she was being moved about by the Daleks, her admittedly not-very-useful answer meets with a particularly honest reply:

Because clearly women are incapable of registering anything more significant than interior design when being shoved into lifts by hostile forces on an alien world. Christ.

Babs redeems herself, though, by being the first one to wonder whether there's actually anything inside a Dalek. Susan laughs at her, but Ian at least seems to take the idea seriously. Anyway, once Barbara has told him about how she thinks the Daleks must have drugged her because she feels like utter shit, it's Ian's job to break it to her that they've all got radiation sickness (the Doctor being particularly badly hit) and are probably going to die. Oh bloody nora.

The Daleks, it transpires, have been monitoring all this on their pie-chart machine. We learn that radiation levels on the planet are reduced since the last count but still fatally high; if the Thals (of which more anon) can live on the surface without succumbing to radiation, and if they are able to do so because of drugs, why are the prisoners showing signs of radiation sickness? The Doctor is interrogated to shed some light on the situation.

Dalexposition

Apparently the Daleks think the Doctor is one of the Thals, and that he and the others have come to the city in search of anti-radiation meds because their own drugs have failed them. The Doctor realises with a clang that the tin they found outside the Tardis earlier must have been full of lovely, lovely drugs. He persuades the Daleks to let one of them go and fetch them while the others remain as hostages. 

The Daleks tell the Doctor that they retreated into the city after a neutronic war with the Thals—the second race with whom they inhabited the planet 500 years ago, and who must be (or so the Daleks reckon) hideously mutated with all the radiation by now. Suddenly the idea of sending one of them outside amongst the Thals to go and get the drugs sounds less appealing to the Doctor.

Back in captivity, Barbara and Susan are walking Ian around the cell. Ian tries to stand, ignores Barbara's suggestion that he go and sit down, tries to walk, and promptly falls over. Barbara tells him it's going to take time as she and Susan walk him back over to his seat.

Still, Ian finds it in his heart to ask after the welfare of his companions. Babs still feels like shit; Susan seems not to be affected as badly as the rest of them. Enter the Doctor; Susan and Barbara catch him, too, and steer him over to the Seat of Incapacitated Men. The Doctor tells them that the tin left outside the Tardis contains 'anti-radiation gloves...drugs'. Oh Billy. Ian and Babs have a brief spat over who's going to get the drugs, fuelled by Ian's ongoing Chatterley angst:

IAN: Well, none of us are in very good shape to go and get them.

BARBARA: Oh, I could do it...

IAN: No, it must be me.

BARBARA: But you can't walk!

IAN: (Snaps) Oh, I'll be all right in a couple of hours!

Ian, you are fucking ridiculous. Seriously.

Restraining Cat is Ian's actual spirit animal

The Doctor is considerably worse for wear, and Babs isn't looking much better. Ian and Susan argue about her accompanying him back to the Tardis for the drugs. He's quite as irritable as the Doctor now that he's suffering from a a temporary disability, but Susan is insistent, telling him that unless he opens the Tardis door correctly, the whole lock mechanism will melt on the inside, locking them out for good. Reluctantly, he agrees, and decides to test his legs again. Barbara revives herself from her state of living death to try to help support him on the other side, but Ian, admittedly more out of consideration than out of pride, tells her to take a breather...and promptly falls back down again.

Enter a Dalek, telling Ian to get his skates on. Ian protests that he's not well enough, but the Dalek is insistent. Because of reasons. Ian tries to walk again and fails again, coming to rest once more next to Bae, who holds his hand; it's a sign of his acceptance of the situation that he doesn't snap at her like an injured pet but sits there and takes comfort from it. The Dalek points out, not unreasonably, that there are other people in the room. Babs tries to get up; it's impossible to tell whether Restraining Cat, who still hasn't let go of her hand, is trying to help her up or pull her back down, because she falls back almost instantly having got the mad spins. It's obvious where this is going, but still Ian looks towards the Doctor, who is out for the count, before turning to the only member of the group who can still stand on their own two feet.

Doctor 'Who, Me?'

It was always going to be Susan. The camera lingers on her face in a close-up, as she realises that she must be the one to make the perilous journey through potentially mutant-infested lands back to the Tardis. 'Must I?' she asks quietly, clearly petrified. 'Alone?' 

Babs revives long enough to protest (to Ian, rather than the Daleks) that Susan is just a child, asking him to 'plead with them...anything'. I know she was all for volunteering before the room started rotating around her head, but it's still disappointing to see her in a basic damsel-in-distress role after all the different shades of strength and vulnerability she's shown so far. Ian, however, continues to hold Susan's gaze (and Bae's hand), and it's nicely done: the expression on his face is impassive, but you sense that he's torn between compassion and ruthlessness as he sits there, knowing he can't do anything to help, with a half-delirious Barbara still pleading in his ear. It's only when he finally looks at Babs, who's really at the end of her tether at this point, that he comes to a decision; it seems that, far from swaying him in the direction of persuading the Daleks not to let Susan go, Barbara's pleas and the attendant realisation of just how ill she and the Doctor are has convinced him to persuade Susan to take his place as default knight-in-shining-armour and go it alone. An hour, he argues, might make all the difference: they just can't afford to wait until he can walk again. Susan, to her eternal credit, plucks up her courage and goes out into the unknown. 

A sucker for character development

It is at this point that Babs, rather unhelpfully, reminds Ian that there are mutants out there. Ian's frustration is palpable. He vents his feelings on his legs, which he begins to punch. Which I'm sure will help tremendously. All in all, he's not dealing at all well with being benched.

BUT WHAT'S THIS? Those dastardly Daleks plan to track Susan and to take the anti-radiation drugs for themselves once she returns to the city! THE ROGUES!

Meanwhile, Barbara is worried about the Doctor, who really looks rough. She herself can barely keep her eyes open, and Ian feels pretty-much the same. He channels his feelings of impotence into blaming the Doctor for their plight, and while he's not wrong, Barbara is also right when she says that this doesn't help. Nor is Ian wrong when he says they're now so utterly banxajed with the radiation sickness that they wouldn't be able to crawl through the doors if the Daleks left them wide open. 

Susan, your hour has come. Go and be brave. Save the day. Your friends really need you.

Or you could just blunder through the trees like a discount Snow White, shrieking at leaves. You could also do that.

Fucksake.

Back in captivity, Barbara tries to cure the Doctor's radiation sickness by placing his coat under his head. This is considerably better nursing than Ian is able to provide: having caught a swooning Babs, he then manages to get her into the Netflix Position and tells her to get some shut-eye. 

This is not how the human neck is meant to rest, Ian.

Ian's legs are back to normal. How about that. 'Hurry, Susan,' he whispers through the door. Hurry, Susan, indeed.

Finally, and after much tortured jogging, Susan is back in the Tardis. Relief. Blessed relief as she stands in the familiar surroundings of control room with the doors closing behind her, shutting out the terrors of the unfamiliar. She hugs the tin of drugs like it's a tin of drugs. And this is arguably the part where Susan has to be even braver than before: having made it through the jungle to the safety of the Tardis, she now has to leave that safety without delay and go and face her fears all over again. Pausing only to flinch slightly as a flash of lightning illuminates the great unknown, Susan steps outside the wobbly Tardis doors and into the storm once more. Go on, our kid.

WILL SUSAN MAKE IT BACK TO THE OTHERS IN TIME BEFORE THEY ALL DIE OF RADIATION SICKNESS? WILL BARBARA'S NECK BE OK AFTER A FEW HOURS OF SLEEPING IN SUCH AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION? WILL IAN LEARN FROM HIS EXPERIENCE OF PROLONGED HELPLESSNESS OR WILL HE SLIP UNTHINKINGLY BACK INTO HIS OLD MACHO ROLE? WILL THE DOCTOR WAKE UP WITH A PERSONALITY TRANSPLANT? ONLY TIME AND NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE WILL TELL.

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? By the skin of its teeth. The only real exchange between the two named women is when Barbara asks how they know it’s radiation and Susan says they found a Geiger counter. And that’s pretty-much it.

[BUZZWORD DOUBLE-WHAMMY ALERT!!] Is the gaze problematic? It’s not fantastic in Susan’s sobbing-and-jogging-through-the-jungle scene, but it’s better than last week.

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

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Yup. Susan. Though in fairness, Ian does a *lot* of falling over this episode.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Yup. Barbara is joined by the others before too long, though.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Yes. Though they’re not very successful at rescuing Babs (at Ian’s insistence). Later, however, it’s brave Susan who must rescue the others from a slow and certain death by radiation sickness.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Actually, Susan is really good about not screaming for most of the episode, but she does get a bit gratuitously screechy once she’s stumbling through the jungle.

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

Does the woman companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? Yup.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? I’d say they’re all equally menaced by the Daleks in this episode, but it’s Susan who has to endure the most peril in the jungle.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No, but there’s a similar dynamic behind Ian’s temporary paralysis and the fact that Susan has to step into the breach.

Does a man come a cropper because of his 'manipulative' girlfriend/mother/significant woman other? No.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No.

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? Ish. Ian may be out of action, but he’s still calling the shots most of the time.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Weirdly, sexism doesn’t seem to be among the Daleks’ manifold evils.

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

Verdict

It's great to see Susan step up to the plate and get a crack at some decent character development, having spent the first part of the episode being snapped at and domineered by the Doctor. She's frightened, yes, but what's important is that she faces her fears and overcomes them in order to help her companions, even if she's pretty-much bullied into it by Ian. Her greatest moment to date is stepping from the Tardis, having just reached the all-too-brief safety of the console room, back out into a possibly mutant-filled jungle in the middle of a thunderstorm. You go, girl. Barbara has a weaker episode this week, but she still shows a lot of guts, and she's trying to help the Doctor right up until she passes out from radiation sickness. Ian is placed in an interesting situation, insofar as he suddenly and quite literally has his legs taken out from under him, and is unable to take a more physically active role in the episode. He's vulnerable for the first time, and although he doesn't deal with it terribly well, it's still interesting to see how this changes the dynamic of the group. It's also interesting to see how it affects his relationship with Barbara, towards whom he continues to be overly-protective to the extent that he's willing to send Susan out into the wilderness so that Babs and the Doctor will get treatment in time. Even though it's Susan's moment, it's still framed in terms of Ian's priorities. The Doctor, meanwhile, has a mixed episode, oscillating between selfishness and selflessness as he goes from devious to cantankerous to diplomatic to supportive to...er...unconscious. Generally speaking, I'm enjoying the fact that each episode has these moments of character development built into it, and look forward to more of it.

Series 1 Episode 5: The Dead Planet

Serial: The Daleks
Episode: 1 (The Dead Planet)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Christopher Barry
Original Air Date: 21/12/1963

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM...IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE (and other stories)

Ahhhh, it’s good to be back. Though I feel I should warn you right off the bat that since last I blogged in this manner I have (re-)watched all Hartnell-era serials up to and including The Chase, which has led me to the realisation that my love for Barbara Wright is officially both real and enduring. 

Barbara Wright: God

All hail Babs and her impossibly voluminous barnet. I’m also considerably less anti-Ian than I was circa An Unearthly Child, but I’m going to put that down to good old-fashioned character development, and doubt that my newfound appreciation for the often-adorkable relationship between him and Bae-bara will prevent my pointing out examples of facepalm-inducing chauvinism. I will, however, make a conscious effort not to get too far ahead of myself as I work through each episode, and endeavour to comment only on the Babs I see before me. And probably the madcap antics of those other guys she hangs out with onscreen too a bit also as well.

So, to recap, the Tardis has landed safely in an unspecified and highly-irradiated location, and everyone has gone to freshen up a bit. The Tardis is saying Danger! Danger! High Voltage! and nobody has noticed, even on the way out when presumably the flashing light would’ve caught someone’s eye.

Outside the Tardis is a petrified jungle, which they work out by being all Team Science: Babs’s hypothesis about a forest fire is disproved when Ian notices the twigs aren’t moving despite there being an obvious breeze mussing up his hair. (Babs's hair, on the other hand, continues to defy the laws of physics.)

Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?

The Doctor wanders off, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, and Susan gamely joins him. Meanwhile, there are some lovely character-building moments between Babs and Ian, which unfortunately suffer from that Really Annoying Scriptwriting Trope whereby woman, on behalf of the audience, looks to man for the answers to questions he couldn’t answer any more than she could, usually because she’s Frightened. He’s a Science teacher, Babs, not a seasoned interstellar time-traveller; why don't you ask one of the two seasoned interstellar time-travellers in your party?

*Not Actual Dialogue

Anyway, having established that the Doctor probably has no way of taking them back to 1963 even if he wanted to—and let’s all take a moment to appreciate how much more gloriously unpredictable stuff was when the Doctor was genuinely rubbish at piloting the Tardis and you actually had to get everyone back to the ship before leaving or you’d never see them again—the following exchange takes place:

IAN: I hate it as much as you. I’m just as afraid. But what can we do?

BARBARA: Well, we could at least stay near the ship.

I’m very glad Ian has decided against shaking Barbara and talking into her face whenever he thinks she’s afraid. This expression of solidarity in response to her unspoken unease is much, much nicer. And it’s great to see Babs’s humour and pragmatism coming through.

Anyway, they decide to channel their fear into making jokes about the Doctor falling down and breaking a leg, because in case it hasn’t been mentioned in previous episodes, he’s Really Really Old. Heartened by their mutual ageism, Babs has a wicked moment:

BARBARA: Don’t you ever think he deserves something to happen to him?

IAN: (laughing) Yes.

I think I’m going to give her this one, seeing as the Doctor is a bit of a dick in the first couple of serials, but still, let’s not be vindictive, Babs. That’s some dark shit.

Your face, my Ian, is as a book where men/May read strange matters.

Meanwhile, Susan has found ‘a perfect flower’ made of stone, because girls dig flowers. The Doctor pays lip-service to her find, telling her it’s ‘very pretty, very pretty’; Ian crouches down beside her and humours her; and Babs steps over both of them because she gives zero fucks about Susan’s flower, only to be confronted with some unseen horror, gasping audibly. Cut back to Ian, having picked Susan’s flower; her excitable chatter about what she’s going to do with it once she gets back to the ship is cut tragically short as a distressed-sounding Barbara calls for Ian. Then this happens:

I can’t even decide how to deal with this Freudian mess, so I’m just going to leave it there and move the fuck on.

Anyway, the nameless horror is a dead metal lizard. The Doctor refers to Ian Chesterton as some manner of sofa (‘Chesterfield’—Billy Hartnell, never change), and Barbara has decided they’re definitely not in Kansas any more. Which leads to more slightly gorgeous character development between the two humans on the show:

IAN: Try not to be too upset.

BARBARA: I’d counted so much on just going back—to things I recognise and trust. But here, there’s nothing to rely on, nothing.

IAN: Well, there’s me…

Barbara half-laughs.

IAN: Barbara…all I ask you to do is believe—really believe—we’ll go back. We will, you know.

BARBARA: I wish I was more like you. I’m afraid I’m a very unwilling adventurer.

IAN: Well I’m not exactly revelling in it myself.

It’s difficult to comment on this without making reference to future episodes, so I’m not gonna. This is what I adore about Barbara: that she is, by her own admission, ‘a very unwilling adventurer’, but she seems to take all those feelings of fear and helplessness she experiences in the first two serials and then build on them, to the extent that she really begins to come into her own by the time they leave Skaro (oh yeah, spoiler alert, this is Skaro), and the transformation by the time they all meet the Daleks again is remarkable. This is also an important Friendship moment: Babs doesn’t look up at Ian in doe-eyed appreciation when he rather lamely tells her, ‘there’s [still] me’, but rather looks down, smiling to herself; it’s a bit pathetic, and they both know it, and it’s still annoying that it’s not more explicitly a mutual ‘I’ve got your back’ moment, but I’m reluctant to dismiss this exchange out of hand. I am, of course, hugely irritated that it’s the human woman who is verbalising her emotional state, and that it’s the human man who is projecting this façade of strength in lieu of talking about his own fears, but thanks to the way this is acted, it comes across less as an exercise in toxic masculinity than a moment in which the two humans establish the extent to which they rely on one another in an unfamiliar and frightening environment. Enormous kudos to Jacqueline Hill for turning something potentially vom-inducing into something really rather beautiful. 

I got you, Bab(e).

Enter Susan; exit Ian. Barbara and Susan have a brief, Bechdel-test-passing chat about why nobody seems to be able to exercise any control over the Tardis and its navigational systems. The upshot of which is that the Doctor is enormously forgetful and likes to work alone, so the chances of the Tardis’s computer banks being fed the right sort of information that will enable it to work out where it is are very slim indeed.

Anyway, the Doctor has no clue as to what’s going on, but the planet is dead, totally dead. And OH fascinating, Ian (who alerts first Barbara, and then the Doctor) has spotted a huge city, which means that Babs has to grasp Ian’s hand.

The Doctor is determined to go down to the city and find out what has happened to the planet. Barbara, on the other hand, wants to go back to the ship, and as such is the voice of anyone who has ever shouted at the television when someone wants to do something utterly stupid—the kind of warning that, if heeded, would mean that everyone successfully avoids danger but in doing so also avoids anything that makes for interesting television. Anyway, the point is moot, because darkness is falling.

*Not Actual Dialogue

En route back to the Tardis, Susan finds another stone flower, and in doing so gets all lost in her own psycho-sexual landscape the petrified jungle. Someone is there. Reasonably gratuitous screaming ensues. A hand touches her shoulder, and then it’s Ian to the rescue. Because apparently he’s programmed to respond at lightning speed to any kind of vocalisation above a certain frequency. Susan has hysterics into Ian’s cardigan.

Back aboard the Tardis, the Doctor asks Barbara if she’ll have a word with Susan, because apparently the age gap between them makes it impossible for him to talk to her about her being convinced that someone touched her in the jungle. And I’m trying hard not to be horrified by an example of ‘young women are all hysterical fantasists and not to be believed’ in a children’s show. At least Barbara believes her story.

Meanwhile, an argument between the Doctor and Ian (‘you’ve uprooted us violently from our own lives’/’you pushed your way aboard’) leads to the introduction of the food machine aboard the Tardis. Barbara has a headache (probably THE RADIATION THAT NOBODY HAS NOTICED YET, Babs); Barbara requests bacon and eggs. Ian hopes his doesn’t taste of engine grease; Barbara wonders will she get the plates. Ian winds the Doctor up about the bacon being too salty; Barbara thinks it’s delicious. Barbara says she doesn't usually get headaches at all, just so we're certain that this is a harbinger of radiation-poisoning-related doom and not just one of those infuriating moments where a woman is rendered useless because she has a headache (and is therefore unwilling to try to escape from a situation in which, say, she is about to be led to the guillotine, presumably because beheading is the best cure for a headache...which actually happens on this show). Susan is going to bed. Someone knocks on the door; Susan is vindicated.

And now the Doctor is a shady, shady bastard because he sabotages his own Tardis, going against the express wishes of everyone else aboard so that he can go and look at the city. It transpires he's removed something called the fluid link, claiming that it needs more mercury…which, conveniently enough, can only be found in the city. 

Doctor Caligari Who

So he's quite literally manufacturing his own deus ex machina...er...ex machina. Devious old blighter.

In the morning, there’s a mysterious tin outside the Tardis. Ian, helpfully, decides to open it with a stick and gets the others to stand back, oh, a good two feet or so. Which would be enormously helpful if it were actually a bomb. Science teacher my foot. Inside are glass vials, which are probably definitely anti-radiation meds, only nobody has spotted the big flashing danger lights on the Tardis console yet. Anyway, nobody feels great. Which is unsurprising, given that they’ve been walking around an irradiated planet for the past however-many hours.

And now we’ve arrived at the city. And it’s 1960s Sci-Fi gold. Ian makes a suggestion that has anyone who knows the Laws of Telly (i.e. me) screaming NO, THAT IS A FUCKING TERRIBLE IDEA: ‘Why don’t we separate and go different ways and meet back here in, say, ten minutes?’ 

IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN.

And so we follow Barbara into some of the most fantastic corridors Doctor Who has ever made. 

The Cabinet of Doctor Who

And this is where I become enormously conflicted, because of course we’re watching a lone, frightened woman caught up in the nightmare of some kind of German Expressionist/Space Gothic architecture of the unconscious, which is obviously problematic—why is it always one of the women who is first/most gratuitously menaced by the episode's antagonists, and why is there always a latent eroticism to it?—but I can’t not appreciate how brilliantly this is shot. And I can't not appreciate how actually quite underplayed Barbara is here: she's not flailing around in indiscriminate, screaming terror, but becoming increasingly panicked as she moves through an ever-more enclosed and disorientating environment. In other words, it's believable.

Barbara through the looking-glass.

The creepy CCTV-camera IN SPAAAAACE follows Barbara’s progress; the camera tilts as door after door slides shut behind her; claustrophobia sets in even as the doors and walls begin to reflect her own image back at her; the camera actually becomes part of the wall as Barbara’s hand covers the lens in her search for an exit; we see her silhouette hammering against the other side of a closed door. 

Silhou(g)ette out of there, Barbara!

It’s really, really creative direction that makes use of some seriously limited resources and is unsettling even today for an adult viewer desensitised to any kind of televised peril in what is so obviously the same corridor set shot from different angles.

Meanwhile, the others have reconvened, oblivious to the terrified Barbara’s ordeal as she now runs through those same corridors as before, panting against her own reflection in the walls, now aware that she is being shut into every space into which she runs. 

Barbara meets her shadow self Arabrab, or some Gothic shit like that.

The gaze here is unmistakeably voyeuristic, implicating the viewer in the increasingly eroticised portrayal of fear. She gets caught in a lift, and again we see her silhouette as she lets out a rare vocalisation in what has so far been an aural nightmare of increasingly frequent footfalls against a sparing electronic score (Babs isn’t generally a screamer). And then, of course (iconic moment alert), this happens:

ERMAHGERD BARBARA IS BEING MENACED BY A PHALLIC SINK PLUNGER ATTACHED TO AN UNSEEN MENACE FROM WHOSE POINT OF VIEW I AM OBSERVING AND THEREBY IMPLICATED IN THE SCENE. WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE HOW WILL SHE EVER SURVIVE WHEN DO WE GET TO SEE IAN SPLAYED AND SCREAMING AGAINST A WALL LIKE THIS WHY IS IT STILL SO EFFECTIVE.

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yes.

[BUZZWORD DOUBLE-WHAMMY ALERT!!] Is the gaze problematic? YES.

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

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

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Not as such, but Babs is in some serious peril.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Not unless you count Ian poking a dead metal lizard on Barbara's behalf and/or running to Susan's aid when someone taps her on the shoulder, but as things stand Ian is about two minutes away from storming the city in search of his Bae.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Yes. Even though I'm giving Babs a reprieve for screaming at the first ever recorded encounter with a Dalek, Susan still goes into full shriek mode in the jungle.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? Yes. See above. This does not, however, justify everyone deciding that Susan must be imagining things.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? Yup. Susan again.

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

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

Does a man come a cropper because of his 'manipulative' girlfriend/mother/significant woman other? No.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No.

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? I think this time probably no, insofar as the Doctor is in control most of the time, but in a seriously;underhand way.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? They don't really encounter any of the other cultures on Skaro in this episode, so no.

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

Verdict

Problematic but also a bit brilliant. Susan's usefulness/character development could probably be likened to (brace-brace) the stone flowers in the jungle, in that it is either crushed during moments in which Ian comes storming to the rescue in a whirlwind of heroic masculinity, or forgotten during moments in which she responds with gratuitous screaming to the mildest of perils. Poor Carole Ann Ford. Ian continues to be the Action Man, but his relationship with Babs is developing nicely. The Doctor is a sly, manipulative devil. Barbara gets some nice character development but is then forced to undergo a psychic nightmare in the Cabinet of Doctor Caligari IN SPAAAAAAACE for our viewing pleasure. Let's hope this experience becomes essential to her character development (and I know this is cheating but, with hindsight, I'm going to say it is) so that she has not been voyeuristically menaced in vain.

Series 1 Episode 4: The Firemaker

Serial: An Unearthly Child

Episode: 4 ("The Firemaker")
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Anthony Coburn
Director: Waris Hussein
Original Air Date: 14/12/1963

WOMEN DON'T GET MARXISM (and other stories)

Well it's been too long and I can no longer tell the difference between Kal and Za, but fortunately they use their names a lot so it all works out eventually.

We begin with a close-up of Ian's sweaty face, which is fitting, as this episode is all about Ian trying to sell socialism to the cave-people.

Meanwhile, some elderly caveman is deriding the recently-mauled Za, saying 'Za is so weak a woman speaks for him'. Hur sticks to her guns and indeed to her story: that it was the Old Woman who let them out of the cave and not Za.

And to answer a question from the last episode, yes, it would appear that the Old Woman is indeed dead. And that dastardly Kal is pinning the murder on Za.

The Doctor fools Kal into revealing that it was in fact he who killed the Old Woman. Kal says the reason Za's knife has no blood on it is because it's a bad knife and does not show what it has done, then falls for the old 'I bet your knife is, like the bee's knees' trick. The Doctor follows this up by telling the tribe that a leader who kills old women is a bad leader and causes Kal to be driven from the tribe.

See you later, agitator.

It is at this point that Ian tells Za that 'Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe'. YES SOCIALISM. Though isn't Ian meant to be the science teacher? Surely this is more Babs's bag: she is meant to be the historian, after all.

Oh but look, now the gang is being herded back into the cave, and Ian has his hand on Babs's shoulder again.

The Ian Chesterton Guide to Comforting a Woman in Distress

Hur thinks Ian's name is 'Friend'. That's cute.

Za has apparently had some sort of Marxist awakening, and explains to a confused Hur that the whole tribe can collect more fruit than one man. Hur is all 'does not compute'. Because even though she has a firmer grasp on cavedweller politics than he does, socialism is too much for her woman's brain.In fact, being mauled by a beast has apparently made Za much cannier: he is now determined to learn how to make fire.

Back in the cave, Susan, the space child from a technologically-advanced civilisation, is finding appropriate fire-making materials for Ian. The Doctor is hanging back, and Babs is doing...not much.

When Za comes in and assumes Ian is the leader, Ian corrects him and says the Doctor is the leader. I'm certainly not a fan of Ian at the moment, but so far, with the exception of the Doctor'a knife trick, he's the only one who's done anything useful this entire episode. So I'd argue he's probably the closest thing they have to a leader, even if it rankles. Having said that, the fact that he's not insisting on being the leader is to his credit.

It's all getting a bit Lord of the Flies.

Babs has a super-useful contribution to make when Za says the tribe believes that when the gang is sacrificed on a big stone, the tribe will have fire: 'THAT'S NOT TRUE!'

Ian is redeeming himself somewhat here. He says everyone should know how to make fire; that the fire-maker is the least important man in the tribe, because they can all make fire. I still wish it weren't Ian with all these lines, though.

Hurrah! Fire! Susan and Babs are told to blow on it because they have no initiative and Ian is above such matters.

And now Kal is back and there's a big caveman fight. It all gets a bit D.H. Lawrence, but with more clothing.

NOW SWEAR BLOOD BROTHERHOOD.

Someone actually shouts 'HAI-YA!'. It is impossible to tell who's winning because they're both beardy and in furs and it's in black-and-white. When Za cuts Kal's throat, Susan screams. When Za smashes Kal's head in with a rock, Babs looks away. The Doctor is inscrutable and apparently more than willing to let this all play out.

Susan hopes the fight will go the way of Women In Love.

Ian gives Za fire. A happy old dude remembers that cooking is a thing.

Za hasn't set them free. Ian is beating himself up about having given up the secret of fire. Babs is pragmatic: 'At least we're still alive.'

Susan is clearly morbid and bored: she sticks a skull on a burning torch and calls gleefully to the Doctor to look.

One can only imagine the dark shit Gallifreyan children call
entertainment. Or else she's really into Lord of the Flies, too.

Ian immediately turns this into His Plan, and when Hur comes in with food, she is horrified by the sight of four flaming skulls. It's all working like a charm until one of them falls over, but by then the gang has escaped.

MORE TRIPPAGE. Babs falls over for no apparent reason and lies there passively until helped up by Ian. The Doctor is bringing up the rear, because the elderly must fend for themselves.

PHEW! Back in the T.A.R.D.I.S.! And Susan is helping to fly it, which is cool. Babs looks like she has had quite enough, thank you very much. The Doctor continues to be shifty as balls when it transpires that the only place he managed to take them was Away.

The Doctor suggests they all change their clothes before they go exploring. Which is sensible.

Susan reports that the radiation levels on the planet are normal, but OH NO, the minute she looks away, the dial goes up to DANGER levels!

Device also doubles as a 'how much of this week's episode was
dominated by Ian?' levels detector.

Next week: SKARO! Now we're talking!

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yes. Barely.

Is/are the female companion(s) dressed “for the Dads”? No.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (while running from peril)? Yes.

Is/are the female companion(s) captured? No. Well, yes, but they're all captured.

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

Is/are the female companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Yes.

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

Does the female companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a male companion/a man? No.

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

Does a man come a cropper because of his "manipulative" girlfriend/mother/significant female other? No.

Does the female companion come up with a plan? No.

Does the female companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? Yes.

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

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Yes.

Does a "present"-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? No.

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

Verdict

Babs and Susan did virtually nothing this episode. It was mostly all about Ian. Whose protectiveness towards Babs is starting to get on my nerves.

Series 1 Episode 3: The Forest of Fear

Serial: An Unearthly Child
Episode: 3 ("The Forest of Fear") 
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Anthony Coburn
Director: Waris Hussein
Original Air Date: 7/12/1963 

AGEISM V SEXISM

Oh look out, the Old Woman is on the prowl and she's got a sharp stone that she's trying to hold still in shot while the titles go up over it.

Susan's been crawling about for sharp rocks, making herself useful. That's what we like to see.

The Doctor seems to be giving up easily. Ian is proactive, then chides him for sitting there just criticising everyone. Goaded, the Doctor suggest they use fragments of bone, which are sharper, and is pragmatic about the situation, saying they have to untie Ian first, as he's the strongest and may have to defend them. I hate to say it, but, seeing as Ian's reasonably beefy, he's probably right, despite my feelings on the unspoken assumptions as to the relative strengths of men and women. Though at least the Doctor doesn't try to imply that he is in any way stronger than Barbara or Susan because of his also being male, and indeed the latter has to take over from the Doctor on rope-hacking duty because his arms are tired.

Babs's job is to try and remember the way they came. She's surprised that the Doctor wants to help her. Then there's some wonderfully non-gendered discourse on the nature of fear;

DOCTOR: Fear makes companions of us all.
BARBARA: I never once thought you were afraid.
DOCTOR: Fear is with all of us and always will be. Just like that other sensation that lives with it.
BARBARA: What's that?
DOCTOR: Your companion referred to it. Hope. (<---Lovely stuff.)

But oh dear, here's Susan's first big scream of the episode. It's a crone with a stone, Susan, calm the fuck down.

Old Woman seems pretty determined that they not make fire. Reactionary fuddy-duddy is reactionary. More ageist than sexist, tbh.

Hur has apparently seen the crone with the stone sneaking off. Za wonders why Hur didn't stop her, seeing as how she's, like, well old. Hur seems more bothered about why she took his knife, and has figured out that she's going to kill the strangers (and has not gone into the forest as Za seems to think) because she is afraid of fire. Za, your girlfriend is way out of your league in the brain department. Seriously, she has to explain it to you that "the strange tribe" won't be able to show you how to make fire if the crone with the stone bumps them off. You suck at caveman politics, Za. For real.

Aww, isn't that nice. The crone with the stone says she'll set them free if they'll go away. The Doctor seems totally fine with that, and isn't even bothering to try to talk her into accepting progress/new technology. Just happy to get away.

Za shoves his girlfriend aside so he can try to move the great stone to the cave, because it's totally logical that he'll be more successful moving it aside without her help than with it. Dickhead.

Hur tells Za that leaders are strong, so if he's a real leader he's stronger than the beasties out there that snack on cavemen. Definite shades of Lady Macbeth.

Did the Old Woman die, or did she just pass out?

The Doctor needs a breather. Ian offers to carry him. The Doctor tells him he's not senile, he just needs to catch his breath for a moment. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Ian. Also, interesting that at this stage it's old people who are seen to be a hindrance rather than women, and indeed that the script is quicker to call people out on ageism than on sexism.

Babs can't remember the way back and has to cry on Ian for a bit. Ian tells her to remember they're free and shakes her a bit for good measure. Yeah, they're really going to move faster with her clinging to Ian like that.

Susan remembers where they are and is all but dragging the Doctor across the landscape. The Doctor gets shirty with Ian;

IAN: How are you feeling?
DOCTOR: I'm all right. Don't keep looking upon me as the weakest link of the party. (<--- Quite right, too, Doctor. )

Babs is getting hysterical because she saw something moving in the bushes. The Doctor thinks it's nonsense. Ian has to calm her down by grabbing her face and talking at it.

The women go to sit down, and the men decide on a plan of action. But wait, the Doctor seems to be saying what we're all thinking;

IAN: Susan seems to remember the way better than any of us.
DOCTOR: You seem to have elected yourself leader of this little party.
IAN: There isn't time to vote on it.
DOCTOR: Just as long as you understand I won't follow your orders blindly. (<--- I hope you remember how this feels, Doctor, in situations to come.)

Oh but there're more!

IAN: If there were only two of us, you could find your own way back the ship.
DOCTOR: Aren't you a tiresome young man?
IAN: And you're a stubborn old man. But you will lead. The girls in between and I'll bring up the rear. Because that's the safest way.  (<--- Ian, you are a sexist, ageist prick. Love, TheOtherScarman.)

BARBARA TRIPPED OVER. WE HAVE TRIPPAGE. AND IT'S A DOUBLE WHAMMY BECAUSE SHE'S SCREAMING GRATUITOUSLY AT SOME SORT OF DEAD ANIMAL. Stop sobbing, Babs, it's just a wild boar or summat that's been killed by a larger and potentially more terrifying animal, which is a cause for concern, but really nothing to be howling about.

Susan at least is showing the appropriate level of controlled concern/alarm as she and the Doctor examine the evidence and Ian presumably goes to talk into Babs's face again.

Za stops Hur from going to investigate because there is danger and gets mauled for his trouble. Hur's reaction is to scream and moan, but in fairness I'd probably do that if I were unarmed and someone I cared about were being mangled by a prehistoric beast before my eyes.

Barbara wants to help. Ian is trying to manhandle her out of it, but Barbara breaks away. Susan is unnecessarily hysterical in her determination to help as well. The Doctor is all for leaving everyone in the lurch, and even tries yelling "SILENCE!" into Susan's face, but is deservedly shouted down and abandoned in the bushes.

Hur is very protective of Za, but seems unable to do anything except keen.

Even though it's the women who want to help, it's Ian who wades in to play doctor, and immediately starts ordering the women around and taking the piss out of our Babs on account of her compassion;

IAN: Your flat must be littered with stray cats and dogs.
BARBARA: These are human beings, Ian. (<--- Well, quite.)

Interesting debate between the [not a] Doctor [of medicine] and Ian/Barbara. Barbara tells him that he treats everybody and everything as something less important than himself (go Babs). The Doctor tries to tell her that her judgement is off, and tries to counter her accusation that he's being inhuman with practical observations as to their being too exposed etc.

Kal is a dick to old women. And has almost definitely killed her. For...political reasons? To be honest, the whole caveman politics thing is passing me by on account of its being boring as hell.

Hur is apparently jealous of Susan and thinks of Za as "hers", which makes it a weirdly level playing field. She also says they are like a mother with a child, and doesn't understand their desire to help and heal.

Susan says that the Doctor is "always like this if he doesn't get his own way". I hope she means "sulky", not potentially homicidal. That's a serious-looking stone in your hand, Doctor, and Ian has totally rumbled you.

The Doctor's misplaced chivalry is as un-endearing as Ian's sexism;

DOCTOR: You don't expect me to carry him, do you?
IAN? Do you want the women to do the job for you?
DOCTOR: Oh, very well.

Aaaaaaaaaaand we have a good old scream (though not a gratuitous one) for the appearance of Kal's cavemen who have cut off their route to the Tardis AND BIG CAVEMAN FACE IN THE CREDITS.

OMG THEY'LL BE SLAUGHTERED FOR SURE.

*Eeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaooowwww ooo-EEE-oooooooooo-WOOOOOOOO-oooooooo*

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yes.

Is/are the female companion(s) dressed “for the Dads”? No.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (while running from peril)? Yes.

Is/are the female companion(s) captured? No.

Does the Doctor/a male companion/any other man have to rescue the female companion(s) from peril? Not unless you count Ian saving Babs from having to endure the trauma of tripping over a dead pig.

Is/are the female companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Yes.

Does a female companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? Yes.

Does the female companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a male companion/a man? Yes.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? Yes.

Does a man come a cropper because of his "manipulative" girlfriend/mother/significant female other? Yes.

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

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Yes.

Does a "present"-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? No.

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

Verdict

In some ways better, in many ways worse. Ian as the strong, straight, white, male lead is called out on his assumption that he is the natural leader of the group, but only by the Doctor, and on grounds of ageism rather than sexism. Which is still cool, but not as cool as it could be. The screaming/hysteria/pointless falling over has also been taken up a notch.