Running Through Corridors: Rob and Toby's Marathon Watch of Doctor Who (Volume 1: The 60s) Read Online Free Page B

risking the lives of her fellows by doing so? Isn’t that act of charity the exact thing that forces the Doctor to contemplate murder? We’re clearly invited to side with Ian as the Voice of Reason – but because Ian’s stance itself is ambiguous (allow a wounded man to die, maybe, but don’t actually have the honesty to kill him yourself), the episode rather brilliantly stops short of trite moralising .
    Happy birthday, by the way, Toby. Did you get a Dalek cigarette lighter? Do they even exist? Bloody hell, they’ll be selling Judoon flickknives next.
    T: I didn’t get a Dalek lighter, alas. Actually, I’m not even sure they’re allowed to make them any more. The one I had in mind was a big, chunky table lighter that was displayed in a Manchester shop of ephemera and gadgets years ago. I got a fob watch though, suggesting that K wants me to wipe my memory and become somebody else.
    Anyway, she joined me again for The Forest of Fear. I was slightly worried that all the goodwill generated from that venerable opening instalment would soon evaporate at the sight of some mucky character actors arguing with each other about fire, but as it turned out...
    The first thing that strikes me about these first two episodes (gloriously restored on DVD) is the sharp contrast between the black and the white – I remember most of this era as being resolutely greyscale. Here (and I don’t know whether it’s the quality of the print or a conscious lighting design) the blacks provide a spooky, inky darkness, with the light flashing brightly in the gloomy recesses of the Cave of Skulls. Waris Hussein also specialises in close-ups, wisely telling the story by concentrating on the characters – he looms up on Derek Newark as his face twitches, intimating that his caveman character is assessing a complex situation, with realisation slowly dawning. Or look at how Hussein holds on Hartnell as Za lies injured, the Doctor’s eyes darting about as he formulates the dastardly plan you mentioned.
    For all that fandom has questioned the Doctor’s morality in this episode, he’s a great character – one who begins the episode by telling his companions that he’s “desperately sorry” for getting them into this predicament. (K liked that vulnerability, delivered as the travellers are trussed up in the corner of a cave looking a bit useless.) But before long, there’s the oft-quoted moment where he tries to take Za’s life. We tend to create Doctor Who in our own image, and so I’ve often just tried to pretend this moment didn’t happen, that it was an aberration on the part of a production team who weren’t quite sure what the show was about. Now, thanks to the new series, I can assess it differently – perhaps it’s the Doctor’s proximity to humans that makes him a better person. He needs Ian to be a moral arbiter, and fortunately Ian himself isn’t a dull do-gooder – his anger at the Doctor’s actions makes for a great, sparky dynamic at the centre of the show. Indeed, the shifting allegiances and lack of cosiness makes this far more interesting than the story’s simple premise might suggest.
    It’s often great to act in Doctor Who – to relish the fruity dialogue of a powerful alien warlord, or to play an overblown, pompous grotesque. But getting trussed up in flea-ridden animal skins and grunting? By all rights, that should be embarrassing, so let’s give the cast credit for pulling it off. Hur’s keening as Za lies injured is brilliant – it’s recognisable as grief and fear, but it’s not expressed in modern terms, and so comes off almost animalistic. Alethea Charlton isn’t playing a sophisticated character, but she’s made a very sophisticated acting choice. Then when Barbara offers to take Hur to water, to help, she accepts but brushes her off physically. These creatures operate with a completely different moral code – and their unpredictability is what creates the tension in this story. This is a far