Series 1 Episode 11: The Rescue

Serial: The Daleks
Episode: 7 (The Rescue)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Richard Martin
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 01/02/1964

BABY'S FIRST GENOCIDE (and other stories)

We return to our very literal cliffhanger, with Antodus dangling over a ravine on the end of a rope tied like an umbilical cord to the waist of Ian Chesterton, whose fingers are slipping on the polystyrene rock. But wait! Whose sandals are these to the rescue?

The Thals: setting a precedent for inappropriate Whovian footwear

It’s Ganatus! Who is only just keeping Ian from falling into the abyss on account of Ian’s sweaty palms and Antodus’s inability to get a grip in just about every sense of the phrase. Ganatus is losing them, so he calls for the others, by which I mean he calls for Kristas rather than Babs, neither of whom respond to the call.

And OH DRAMA! Antodus is brandishing a knife and has begun cutting through the rope! Don’t do it, Antodus! And of course he can’t hear me, because the next second, the rope that ties him to Ian is cut and Antodus is plunging to his death. As Ian pulls up the severed rope with shaking hands, Ganatus looks on, distraught and suddenly brother less.

Rope? Nope.

Meanwhile, in the Dalek city, the Doctor and Susan have been captured and are being held against the wall with handcuffs, which is pretty amazing for a city with no humanoid furniture in it. Clearly the Daleks were super optimistic about getting some Thal prisoners someday. Anyway, the Daleks are now determined that only one race can survive on Skaro, and that the key to their being able to escape the city and move about is to carry out their nuclear bombardment NOW. The Doctor condemns ‘this senseless, evil killing’ and is generally very impressive, while Susan…is mostly redundant in this scene. C’mon, scriptwriters, give a girl a break.

Back in the caves, Kristas the Other Thal who Doesn’t Talk Much returns to the Grievesome Threesome to inform them of yet more bad news: there’s no way through and they have to go back. Everyone’s pretty crushed, and Ganatus is having some kind of existential crisis: they did their best and more, but Elyon was still sucked into the maw of Space Charybdis/Cthulu and Antodus was still sent howling into the abyss and nothing makes sense anymore. Poor Ganatus. Barbara insists that they can’t give up now; Ganatus gives her a look that essentially says WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME BABS. Ian, rather shamelessly, plays the ‘your brother has literally just died’ card to persuade Ganatus to go on, presumably so his death wouldn’t have been in vain.

Oh and misery upon misery, the torch is dying, leaving them all with the alarming prospect of being stuck dying in the dark like Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient. Defeated, they determine to go back, and switch of the torch to conserve it…BUT WAIT! Where’s that light coming from? Ian furtles about at the rockface for a moment, and JOY OF JOYS, they’re through! It turns out they were underneath the pipes the whole time and have come out right in the middle of the Dalek city. Rejoice!

Back in the jungle, Alydon and Dyoni notice the Dalek antennae have stopped moving and must’ve been taken out. They realise the Doctor and Susan must have been captured, and Alydon gives Dyoni the most awkward pat on the head I’ve ever seen in my life by way of comforting her. In fact it’s rare to see such a blatant lack of chemistry between two characters who are meant to be sort of betrothed unless it’s in the Arranged Marriage Bit of a fairytale. Congratulations on your passionlessness, you crazy kids. Anyway, Alydon is trying to persuade the Thals to fight for Gondor or Rohan or Frodo or something and it’s awkward as fuck, but at least one of the extras responds to his ‘we may be farmers but have we forgotten how to fight?’ speech by brandishing some manner of knuckle duster, so maybe it doesn’t matter that he’s not exactly Churchillian in his oratory.

#stillabetterlovestorythantwilight

Meanwhile, the Doctor is trying to stall the Daleks by telling them he has a really neat time machine and that he’ll tell them its philosophy of movement if they let him go. The Daleks think he’s bluffing, and he tells them to have a look at the fluid link if they don’t believe him, and it just so happens that they have it to hand (well, plunger). Well, that’s one mystery solved. In a rather chilling moment, the Daleks refuse the Doctor’s bargain and wave aside his protests that only he can tell them how the Tardis works, telling him that ‘every problem has a solution’. Shudder. But what’s this? A disturbance in the Force(field) tells the Daleks that the Thals have entered the city; Susan looks delighted; but will they be in time?

Cut to Team Trousers (or what’s left of it), being stealthy as balls as they creep along the excellent corridors of the Dalek city, with Ian (or course) in the lead. Nobody really knows where they’re going, and Babs has a fantastically dry meta moment when she says that she has ‘some experience of these corridors’ and that ‘they all look alike’. This serial is all about the budget jokes. A Dalek pedals by (with audible foot-pedalling) sounding the alert about the Thals in the city, and manages not to notice Team Trousers a-lurking. They realise Alydon et al must be in the city, and resolve to get to the control room asap.

And the control room is exactly where we go next, where the Daleks are watching the footage from the interior videoscopes on level eight, where Ian is smashing shit up like Beyoncé.

The Doctor is out of bargaining chips and has resorted to begging the Daleks to ‘stop it, please’. It’s an important moment for his character, actually: he’s usually so confident that his superior smarts can get him out of anything, but now he’s up against an adversary immune to reason and reasoning, and he’s suddenly very powerless. It’s fascinating to think that it’s this sort of thing that lays the foundations for the Doctor’s ongoing enmity with the Daleks. Anyway, the Daleks have begun the countdown…eep! But at least it’s a countdown from 100, which buys Team Trousers time enough to save the day (we hope).

Back in the corridors, who should Team Trousers run into but Alydon! Bless his heart, it seems that he and his merry men have been wandering around without really knowing what they’re doing because without the Doctor they didn’t know what they were looking for in the Dalek city. Upon hearing that the Doctor and Susan have been captured, Babs insists that their rescue ought to be the first priority; Ian, however, maintains that they need to find the control room. In the background, rather poignantly, the Thals tell Alydon that Antodus died bravely.

Barbara, who, for all her making light of it, does seem to have a better knack for navigating Dalek corridors than the rest of her companions, suggests they make their way to the lift, and they’re about to do just that when the Daleks start sealing off the corridor intersections. Drama! Which, if I could find the relevant gif, I would illustrate using boiler-room scenes from 1997 blockbuster Titanic. Who’d have thought that film would hold so many analogies for Hartnell-era Who?

She's made of iron, sir - I assure you, she can.

As doors begin closing in their faces, they rush forwards to hold another closing door open just wide enough for Barbara to squeeze through it. As Alydon follows her under the door, Barbara yells that there’s another one right ahead and darts forward with reckless bravery while Alydon yells for her to get to it quickly. Ganatus, who is right behind them, yells her name in response to something that’s happening just offscreen, which we must assume is Babs being crushed to death by a door as a result of her fearless badassery.

Cut back to the Daleks, who have noticed that Team Doorstop is preventing the blocking-off of certain intersections on level nine! Crumbs almighty, they're increasing the power! And the countdown is halfway to complete! Such tension!

Meanwhile, Babs has indeed wedged herself under the next door, which comes down hard across her middle as the boys rush forwards to try to lift said door.

Barbara Wright, the Amazing Human Doorstop

Ganatus has wedged himself into the larger gap and helps wiggle Barbara through as Ian tells her useful things she hadn’t thought of before like ‘you must try and roll out, try and free yourself’.

Team Doorstop Relay

As the pressure increases and the countdown progresses, the other Thals and Ian make it under the door one by one; against all the Laws of Telly, nobody is left behind – score!

Babs works the Thal Assembly Line

Meanwhile, a random Thal has been exterminated in the control room as the Daleks continue the countdown. There’s a neat 360-ish shot of the control room that comes to rest on none other than our two humans leading the Thal Sneaking Party along another excellent corridor. Barbara has a rope; Alydon has a stick. There’s some nice camera-work around the control room as Ian and Alydon manage to get to the alcove where the Doctor and Susan are all chained up and free them. Then this happens:

Ladies and gentlemen, Barbara Wright just ran out from a corridor and threw a large rock at a Dalek. And was shot at. And survived by running behind a bit of corridor. Because being menaced by plungers is so six episodes ago and now she’s owning everything.

The Dalek gives chase to Bamfbara and is promptly lassoed by said Bamf and restrained by assorted Thals. Because who needs guns and gadgets and gizmos and a functioning Tardis and timey-wimey and technobabble when you’ve got Barbara Wright with a rope in the conservatory and Alydon with the lead piping in the ballroom? All hell breaks loose: Ian throws a stone at a Dalek and it recoils in disbelief; Kristas DROPS IN ON A ROPE only to be lasered right in the bread basket but stays on his feet long enough to steer a Dalek into a piece of equipment that promptly explodes; Thals are jumping on Daleks left, right, and centre. It’s glorious.

And what’s even better, it seems that Our Heroes have managed to knock out the power source! I’m not sure if this is to do with the antennae and the decreasing power levels the Daleks have been reporting sporadically all episode or whether this is to do with Kristas (who’s alive but wounded) smashing a Dalek into the camera, but either way, the Daleks are mostly powerless to move. Ian gleefully kicks one of the Daleks across the floor to prove this.

One of the Daleks is an enormous drama queen and responds to the Doctor’s shockingly cold refusal to help restore the power by flinging its eyestalk skywards and turning away in a final spasm of death. So…the Daleks are all dead now. Yay genocide.

At least Alydon seems to appreciate how shitty their victory really is: five hundred years of destruction ends in the wiping out of an entire race by a people who thought they’d sworn off violence for good. The Doctor, ominously, supposes they’ll have other wars to fight. Ian has rather gleefully procured the fluid link, which means Team Tardis can now go home, but it all seems pretty trivial (just as he predicted, in fact). As he helps Kristas to walk back out of the city, Alydon wonders aloud what the Thals are going to do with all this useless machinery they don’t know how to use; Barbara, who has Kristas’s other arm, says they’ll just have to experiment.

Then it’s just Susan and Ganatus left; Susan says that with the Daleks’ artificial sunlight food production methods they Thals will have all they need, now. Ganatus, who let’s not forget has very recently lost a brother, seems less than enthused: ‘If only there’d been…some other way’, he muses; the camera lingers on the silent control room full of upended, dead Daleks as the hollow victors leave the scene.

Back in the jungle, Dyoni is going around feeding people what appear to be raisins. Ian is surrounded by Thal women, and the Doctor is talking to Alydon about rebuilding Skaro. Alydon asks the Doctor where he comes from, and whether he’ll stay and help. Then this happens:

Iconic dialogue is iconic. Though I’d love to know more about the Doctor as a Gallifreyan pioneer. Sounds interesting. And problematic. Two of my favourite things. The Doctor suggests he might come back and see how their grandchildren are getting on.

Susan, meanwhile, has acquired a Thal cape from Dyoni, and falls over whilst spinning around in it. It’s stripey and contains no hexagons - shocker! Barbara and Ganatus are nowhere to be seen so I’m going to assume they’re making out in the bushes somewhere. There are hugs for Alydon, and oh, THERE are Barbara and Ganatus, trying to say goodbye without Ian being an oblivious third wheel. Then this happens:

BARBARA: Well, Ganatus?
GANATUS: Well, Barbara?
(He hands her a length of Thal cloth.)
GANATUS: The dress you make from this won’t be suitable for swamps and caverns but…
BARBARA: Well, that's a good thing.
GANATUS: Yes.
BARBARA: It’s beautiful. Thank you very much. Thank you for everything.
GANATUS: (Hesitates.) I wish we…
(SUSAN pops her head out of the TARDIS.)
SUSAN: Barbara! We’re waiting!

ARGH ON SO MANY LEVELS! They’re having this beautifully awkward and weirdly intense farewell and he gives her material for a dress to remember him by!? Are you kidding me!? Ok so this might actually be one of her skills and/or hobbies, and I personally enjoy knitting a LOT, so I’m not going to judge a woman for being into her arts and crafts, but it’s literally never been mentioned before onscreen so I’m going to say this is sexist bullshit right now. Yes they might’ve had a conversation offscreen in which Barbara happened to mention that she was shit hot at dressmaking, in which case this would be a lovely and thoughtful gift, but without any setting up this is essentially ‘I’m going to give this woman some material for a dress because women love making and wearing dresses’. BAH. And the second level of ARGH is not so much a quibble over sexist gift-giving as a testament to the simplicity and effectiveness of having Susan interrupt before Ganatus can say just what he wishes they could [verb]. It’s probably been said before, but given the Very Problematic Fate of Susan Foreman a few serials down the line, Babs needs to be careful about lingering goodbyes within Tardis scanner range, because the Doctor is the psychotic matchmaker from hell and has no scruples whatsoever about abandoning women on strange planets to marry hot aliens they’ve only just met.

Then shalalalalala-my-oh-my this happens:

YES BABS! YOU KISS THAT THAL! FIRST HUMAN ON DOCTOR WHO TO SWAP SALIVA WITH ANOTHER CHARACTER AND INDEED FIRST INTERSPECIES SMOOCH ON THE SHOW. I also love that Ganatus is being all lingering with his Very Intense hand-kissing and Babs just throws caution to the wind and goes in for a swift snog (oh god I’ve turned into J.K. Rowling) that essentially doubles as a mic-drop before running back to the Tardis like a human honey badger.

Babs channels her inner Loretta

As the Tardis dematerialises, Ganatus looks pretty crestfallen. Dyoni tells him not to be sad; Ganatus says ‘I don’t think I’ll ever forget her’. Which is the correct response to the situation. Because who cares that his brother is dead and his friends are dead and his old leader is dead and he’s gone from being a pacifist to being complicit in a genocide in the space of a few days, he’s never going to see Bamfbara again…and I’m not entirely sure I’m being sarcastic. As the Thals lapse into a thoughtful silence, during which I’m assuming the full fucked-upness of what they’ve been through settles on them like the psychological equivalent of nuclear fallout, Dyoni walks around the empty space left by the vanished Tardis.

And now it’s comfortably quiet on the Tardis front: the Doctor is at the controls; Susan has changed her outfit and is having a snack; Barbara is still holding her Thal fabric and smiles at Ian as he passes before drifting out of the room; Ian is...stealing Susan’s food? Then – BANG! The Doctor, Susan, and Ian are flung to the ground as the lights go out in the control room.

OH MY GOODNESS IS NOWHERE SAFE? HAS THE TARDIS BLOWN A FUSE? WILL OUR HEROES SUSTAIN BRUISES TO THEIR UPPER ARMS? WILL THEY EVER GET TO HAVE A WELL-EARNED NAP? WILL BARBARA ACTUALLY MAKE HERSELF A DRESS OUT OF THAT FABRIC OR JUST CUDDLE IT FROM TIME TO TIME WHEN NOBODY ELSE IS LOOKING? HOW WILL THE THALS REBUILD THEIR SOCIETY? HOW DOES THIS FIT INTO THE DALEKS' GENERAL TIMELINE? WILL SUSAN GET SOMETHING INTERESTING TO DO NEXT EPISODE?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? OH THE SHAME, I'm pretty sure this week is another fail.

Is the gaze problematic? Not particularly.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads’? Nope.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Babs throws herself under a door but that's very much a planned fall.

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? The Thals and Ian have to move pretty sharpish to save Babs from being crushed under a door, but I'm pretty sure this doesn't really count as she's only under the door in the first place to save the others from being trapped in a corridor.

Is/are the woman companion’s/s’ first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Nope.

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? Nope. Though Alydon does have an awkward moment with Dyoni in which she looks in need of comfort and he is utterly wooden about it.

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? Nope.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? Ian is again reasonably bossy, and the Doctor is the one doing all the talking in captivity (poor Susan), but Team Doorstop seems to be working together pretty well.

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? Ian again, though as I say there's a lot of everyone (except Susan) being a badass (poor Susan).

Does a woman companion get to be a badass? YES BARBARA. Human doorstop, stone-thrower, Dalek-catcher.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? The Thal women don't do much.

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

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

Verdict

Mostly action this week, which is fine, because we've had a good few Moral Dilemma episodes this serial and it's always fun to have a running-around-fighting-stuff episode in the mix to balance it out. It also meant that Babs got a chance to showcase some of her badassery, which was fantastic, but Susan had another mostly-redundant week in which she was generally chained to a wall not doing much. Babs also chalked up another first for the show when she decided life was too short not to get some of whatever action was on offer before skipping off back to the Tardis. Chillingly, this week was the first genocide on the show, which was at least acknowledged in part by the silent lingering of the camera on a room of upended Daleks and little dialogue moments from an evidently unsettled Ganatus. I actually thought the somewhat anticlimactic ending was really appropriate, whether or not it was intentional. Disturbingly, the Doctor doesn't seem too phased by their having wiped out the Daleks, which is interesting given the moral dilemmas looming in his future. It's clear just how much hanging around with humans has changed him as a character when you compare One to his subsequent incarnations. Next week, for the love of all that's holy, let's have some character development for Susan. And women talking to each other. Come on, Doctor Who, if you can't pass the Bechdel test in a serial set entirely aboard the Tardis with only Team One aboard, there really is no hope for you.

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.

Series 1 Episode 9: The Expedition

Serial: The Daleks
Episode: 5 (The Expedition)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions, Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Christopher Barry
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 18/01/1964

IAN CHESTERTON WANTS YOU (and other stories)

After a brief recap in which everyone is remarkably non-sweary about Ian having had the fluid link confiscated, we check in with the Daleks, who are administering anti-radiation drugs amongst themselves without previous testing. The Daleks are rubbish scientists.

The Daleks are also creepy voyeurs, and are taking stalkerish pictures of Team Tardis getting pally with the Thals. The Daleks think it’s logical that those pesky bipeds will now join forces and attack. I suppose when a dislike for the unlike is your defining character trait, it makes sense that two like-ish species getting chummy in the jungle is a cause for some serious paranoia.

The Daleks never miss an episode of Doctor Who.

Meanwhile, in the jungle, Alydon is putting his foot down. Ian channels his frustration over his inability to persuade the Pacifist Adonis to help Team Tardis get their ball back attack the city into chiding Susan for climbing trees. Meanwhile Babs, whose subtle supervision of Susan’s Tarzan antics is ridiculously endearing, has changed into a far more practical shirt that does up at the front, is generally less prone to being mussed up by Ian, and is essentially the mirror image of Ian’s shirt insofar as it is identical but buttons up right over left rather than left over right, which I’m going to say is a metaphor for her character development/relationship with Ian this episode.

Because oh dear, Mummy and Daddy are fighting again, and it’s Very Interesting:

IAN: Well, why should they help us? Some of them are bound to get killed. What argument can you use to make a man sacrifice himself for you?
BARBARA: Ian, you don’t seem to understand - we’ll be prisoners here unless we can think of some way of getting that fluid link back from the Daleks.
IAN: I am quite well aware of that, Barbara...
BARBARA: You know very well they’ll find a way out of their city.
IAN: I know -
BARBARA: (Interrupting.) You know they will.

As I say, Very Interesting, especially given that both World Wars were within living memory in 1964. What argument indeed can you use to make a man sacrifice himself for you? What’s particularly interesting is that, while we’re clearly meant to agree with Ian in theory, it’s Barbara with whom we’re meant to agree in practice, seeing as we’ve just been shown that scene in which the Daleks become convinced that the Thals are going to join forces with This Plucky Four and attack. Hence Babs’s justification for using the Thals as laser-egg-whisk fodder is portrayed as common sense rather than an irrational fear of the Other: even when Susan points out that the Daleks ‘need metal to travel on’, Barbara insists that ‘they’ll find a way’: ‘They’re clever enough. They’ll find us and kill us, you know that as well as I do.’ So, rather tragically, the paranoia on both sides becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: the Thals eventually attack (spoiler alert) because they’re convinced the Daleks are planning to wipe them out, and the Daleks eventually try to wipe out the Thals (again, spoiler alert) because they’re convinced the Thals are planning to attack. As I said last week, somebody please write a book on Cold War-era Doctor Who and do so immediately.

Anyway, now the Doctor is sticking his oar in. There’s a lighter moment where Ian tells the Doctor to get his damn name right (he’s just called him Chesserman), which is seized upon by an increasingly frustrated Barbara, who can’t understand why they’re wasting time with small talk. The Doctor refers to Babs as ‘young lady’ a lot, which is rather grating, while Susan blithely assures her grandfather that he’ll think of something, seeing as how he always does. There’s a rather nice moment where the Doctor tells Susan that her faith in him is something that he prizes very highly. Hold onto that moment. Because the Doctor is about to be the actual worst.

OH NO HE DIDN’T. Seriously, how did we get from the Doctor as a selfish manipulator willing to exploit a local population that he sees only as a military asset in order to clear up his own mess to the Doctor as…actually, now I come to think of it, he’s not really changed all that much. Rather he’s learned from the Ian Chesterton School of Exploiting People Whilst Convincing Them That It’s In Their Own Interests, as shall become clear momentarily.

Anyway, there’s quite the power struggle going on within Team Tardis:

IAN: I will not allow you to use the Thals to fight for us.
DOCTOR: Are you challenging me?
IAN: Yes, I am!
BARBARA: (Angrily.) Do I have any say in this?
IAN: Of course you do!
BARBARA: Well, I think the Doctor’s right and I want to get out of here!
IAN: I am sorry, I'm not having anyone’s death on my conscience.
BARBARA: Except mine? And Susan’s, and the Doctor’s?
DOCTOR: Quite so.

Kudos to Babs for cutting in on the Doctor and Ian’s chest-beating, but woe alas for the oldschool rhetoric that’s straight out of a WWI recruitment poster. Her argument is basically this:

Barbara’s slight pause before bringing Susan and the Doctor into the potential death toll speaks volumes about Ian’s subsequent willingness to compromise his morals. He goes full-on fluffy imperialist on the situation:

IAN: The only way the Thals can fight is if they themselves want to. It must have nothing whatsoever to do with us.
SUSAN: I know what you mean. We must help the Thals to save themselves and not just them help us.
IAN: Exactly.
BARBARA: All you’re doing is playing with words.

I think this is even more problematic than Barbara's right-wing approach to their predicament insofar as her assessment of Ian's u-turn is entirely correct: he's just playing with words and as such is an enormous hypocrite, trying to find a means of justifying to himself a course of action entirely at odds with his convictions. Now he's trying to find a way of convincing the Thals that military action on their part would have more of a point to it than the recovery of the fluid link.

Romantic Skaro's dead and gone...

And oh it gets worse. Ian decides to test the Thals' pacifism by calling their bluff, threatening to take their precious archives and trade them with the Daleks for the fluid link. Alydon is clearly fuming, but checks himself and doesn't rise to the bait. Then Ian GRABS DYONI, at which point Babs (UNDERSTANDABLY) looks like she's about to intervene but is restrained by the Doctor. Ian speculates that the Daleks are probably more interested in people and threatens to trade her for the fluid link so the Daleks can conduct experiments on her, because damsels in distress are a universal call to arms. IAN WHAT THE FUCK.

Alydon responds by punching Ian in the face. Ian is smug in his triumph, having intuited, correctly, that just as he was swayed by the 'can you live with your conscience if your significant woman other is killed/maimed?' recruitment tactic, so Alydon would be susceptible to this sort of thing:

UGH. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Meanwhile, the Daleks are tripping balls.

Lucy in the Sky with Daleks

It turns out they're actually now conditioned to radiation, so the anti-radiation drugs are worse than useless. So they've just been sitting around for years not wondering why they're not dying of radiation sickness. Are these the reject Daleks who were left on Skaro because they were too stupid to go out invading other planets or something? Anyway, it turns out they actually need to increase the radiation levels on Skaro in order to survive, so they've decided to explode another neutron bomb to adapt the environment to their needs. Perhaps the declining radiation levels were responsible for their being really, really thick?

Back in the jungle, Dyoni is telling Alydon it's ok that he's abandoned his entire philosophy of non-aggression because she would have thought less of him if he hadn't smacked Ian in the mouth. In fact, she goes as far as to say that '[i]f you hadn't fought him, I think I would have hated you'. Seriously, what is with the gender politics of this pacifism subplot?

Meanwhile, Barbara is getting pally with Filthy Jokey Ganatus, presumably because she's still pissed off with Ian about the stunt he pulled with Dyoni. After some brief exposition in which it is revealed that Alydon will consult all the Thals on the decision of whether or not to help Team Tardis and only proceed with unanimous agreement, Babs and FJG share a moment. It's oddly romantic in its own way:

BARBARA: What’s that light in the sky? It’s a reflection from the city, I suppose?
GANATUS: No, the lake. Some sort of chemical in the water that makes it glow in the moonlight.

Nothing sets the mood quite like a radioactive lake lighting up the night sky. Ganatus tells her the swamp is full of mutants that like to snack on unwary Thals, then apologises for being morbid. Clearly he doesn't know our Babs, who is totally fine with morbid talk. Ganatus observes that only a fool would attack the city from the lake; I wonder which route Team Tardis will have to take...?

Morning breaks, and Alydon asks Ian what Team Tardis will do if the Thals don't help. Ian tells him they'll try to get the fluid link back anyway. Alydon tells the assembled Thals that 'there is no indignity in being afraid to die, but there is a terrible shame in being afraid to live'. Rhetoric for the win. The Thals agree to help; hilariously, Ganatus was so convinced that Alydon would decide to attack the city that he prepared a map for the occasion. Team Tardis sits down with the Thal men to plan their expedition, though Susan and Babs say literally nothing during the whole thing, and - surprise, surprise - the subject of the lake comes up. Then this happens:

You threaten to sell a woman to the Daleks as a science experiment snooze, you lose, Chesterton. Anyway, the Doctor suggests that they split into two parties: one to attack from the mountains via the Lake of Thal-Eating Mutants; the other to distract the Daleks on the city wall side. Game on.

Later, in the swamp, Antodus (Ganatus's brother) is scared of being eaten and isn't being quiet about it. Ganatus tells him to keep his entirely reasonable fears to himself. Then Ian catches up, and this happens:

IAN: I’ll go and give Barbara a hand.
GANATUS: I’m surprised you let her come.
IAN: I'd been more surprised if I could have stopped her!

Ugh. This round goes to Ian, for rubbishing Ganatus's assumption that he is in any way the boss of Bae. WHO IS NOW WEARING A PAIR OF THAL LEATHER TROUSERS (but with slightly fewer revealing hexagon cutouts). ALL HAIL. Ian capitalises on his having won a round of 'who gets to spend more time with Barbara' with Ganatus by clubbing to death the first mutant they come across, which is some manner of giant grub that lies in Babs's path. So masculinity. Much assert. At any rate, our BFFs appear to be back on track.

Ba(b)es in the Woods Swamp

Everyone sets up camp. Ian is washing his face in the swamp, which is a terrible idea even in stagnant water that doesn't contain some manner of Lovecraftian Mutant Terror that rises from R'lyeh the water to menace him.

On Skaro, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

He then goes scampering back to Barbara, which is utterly precious and another good example of it not just being frightened women who are comforted by unflappable men in this serial.

Ganatus has a wistful moment in which he dreams of the day when he can once again stay in one place and enjoy it, before going to sleep on Barbara's thigh. Because...in Thal society women are used as pillows on camping trips? Because Thals are more relaxed about invading one another's personal space than humans? Because Ganatus really digs Barbara's trousers? Because the actor playing Ganatus had really poor spatial awareness? Because...I don't know. Reasons. In any case, Babs doesn't protest. Just don't get too comfy, Ganatus: Barbara's hexagons probably aren't going to be around long enough for them to be a place you can stay in and/or enjoy.

Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human Thal on my faithless arm thigh...

The next morning, Ian rises to find Ganatus has let him sleep rather than wake him for a watch, and continues to be precious. Babs is stiff from her night on the floor and is probably regretting not having found a hexagon cutout thigh cushion of her own on which to slumber. Ganatus clearly had the right idea. Daylight reveals a series of pipes leading to the Dalek city, which means they're all on the right track.

Everything the light touches...is horribly irradiated and full of mutants.

But OH NO! Elyon the Thal has been grabbed by one of the Great Old Ones in the lake! Everyone runs for the lake as his screams pierce the swampy air...

HAS THE RANDOM THAL THAT NOBODY REALLY CARES ABOUT BEEN EATEN BY CTHULHU? WILL THE OTHERS BE EATEN, TOO? WILL BARBARA AND GANATUS GET A CHANCE TO FLIRT PROPERLY NEXT EPISODE? HOW MANY MORE THALS WILL DIE SO THAT TEAM TARDIS CAN GET THE HELL OUT OF DODGE?


Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Oh wow. By the skin of its teeth. Susan chips into a Barbarian argument and Babs snaps back at her, but apart from that, they're only ever *in* the same conversation without actually speaking to one another beyond seriously minor exchanges. So technically, but not really.

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 with fewer and less-revealing hexagonal cutouts, so no.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Babs slips a bit in the swamp, but otherwise no.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Nope.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Alydon punches Ian to 'rescue' Dyoni from supposedly being sold to the Daleks as a science experiment, and Ian has to beat up a giant caterpillar in Babs's path, but otherwise it's much more insidious this week, with the underlying motivation behind the proposed military action of the episode being the protection of one's womenfolk from aggression.

Is/are the woman companion’s/s’ first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? Nope. Mostly men screaming this week.

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

Does the woman companion have to be calmed down by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? Nope. In fact it's Ian who has to be soothed by Barbara in the aftermath of his encounter with Swamp Cthulhu.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode’s antagonist(s)? Nope. It's the men who are menaced by the swamp mutants. However, as I said, the whole stunt Ian pulls with Dyoni and the WWI-style rhetoric in embodies implies much the same thing.

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? AND HOW.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No. And Susan and Barbara are notably silent during the Thals' planning session.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? No, but the plan to go via the Lake of Mutations is one Ganatus claims was inspired by his late-night chats with Barbara.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Yup. Ian is calling the shots all over this episode.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? DYONI.

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

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

Verdict

Problematic. But really, really interesting. This episode was mostly Barbara and Ian arguing about the morality of an army recruitment drive, and ended up with a For The Greater Good sort of compromise that was essentially self-deluding spin. The gender politics of the recruitment tactics on display in this episode were also suspect: most of it seemed to boil down to 'can you live with the murder of your womenfolk?', with poor old Dyoni being reduced to a hypothetical damsel in distress in Ian's quest to prove that the Thals' pacifism is nurture rather than nature. I'm enjoying Barbara's burgeoning friendship/fledgling flirtation with Ganatus, though, which apart from anything else gives her someone other than Ian with whom to interact. Susan, on the other hand, doesn't have much to do this episode. The Doctor, meanwhile, is the worst. Bring on The Ordeal!