Doctor Who Marathon - The Reign of Terror

This posts story is The Reign of Terror. I have little to no knowledge of this period of history, so Doctor Who's original remit of placing our team into historical periods and educating the viewer about the time will hopefully be met by this story.

Before I look at the story a quick aside. I've been looking at the figures with regards episodes watched and days to go. A quick Google search tells me that 23/11/13 is the 327th day of the year, so from the beginning of the year I would have needed to watch 2.44 episodes a day (798/327). As I have clearly been slacking, the episodes to days ratio is now 2.71 (798-42 episodes / 327-48 days) So just over two and a half episodes a day, that's easy right? We shall see.

A Land of Fear - We begin with a rather cock-sure Doctor adamant that, following Ian's apparent insolence at the end of the previous episode, he has landed on Earth in 1963 to return Ian and Barbara home. The TARDIS scanner shows trees and fields which Barbara suggests could be Somerset as she once holidayed there. Ian asks the Doctor to join them for a drink so that they part on happier terms and the Doctor duly accepts. Upon leaving the TARDIS our team hear a noise which Ian goes to investigate; returning with a young boy. This boy confirms that they are in France, 12 kilometres from Paris. The Doctor seems happy with this as '100 miles' either way is quite accurate, bearing in mind the travel capabilities of his ship. Ian and Barbara are quite sarcastic in their dismissal of the Doctors statement, saying that maybe there is a 100 year buffer as well.

A seemingly empty farmhouse offers refuge although, as ever, we find it is not deserted and our team is quickly apprehended by two French men. The Doctor is bashed about the head and is left upstairs, while Barbara, Ian and Susan are caught downstairs, shortly after they have changed into clothes that they have found. The farmhouse is suddenly surrounded by soldiers and our team are accused of leading them there. The two men inside the house are on the opposite side of the revolution than the soldiers outside. It seems that the way to tell the two side apart is that the surrounding soldiers are all wearing hats, compared to our rather dishevelled men inside. The soldiers outside intend to wait until the insiders give in and surrender themselves, this tactic proves to be very effective as one of our insiders cracks immediately. The second Frenchman follows his outside and is promptly shot, the first Frenchman is also killed and Barbara, Ian and Susan are captured. The outsiders briefly consider killing them there and then, but decide that 'Madame Guillotine' would be a much better option, this does involve marching to Paris I assume is where the next episode will pick up. The episode ends with the outsiders setting fire to the farmhouse, unaware that the Doctor is still inside. He wakes up and attempts to escape the burning building but is overcome by the smoke. We see the young boy from the beginning of the episode hiding in the trees just outside, and a slow pan up from the burning building ends the episode...

Guests of Madame Guillotine - This episode continues the bad guys wearing hats theme, our jailer and his men have a variety of head gear between them. Very much a filler episode, we spend most of our time with Barbara and Susan in a jail cell, attempting to dig their way out. The Doctor is saved from the burning building and takes a fanciful and elongated stroll to Paris, shown in a lengthy walking montage. On the way he is forced to assist in digging up a road, and gets out of it in a genius move of deception. Tricking the labour master into thinking they had found treasure, when really it was money the Doctor had pick pocketed from him moments before. The main crux of the story continuation lies with Ian who is in a separate cell from the Ladies. His cell mate passes away but not before he has told him to seek out James Stirling, and to tell him that he must make it back to England. The episode ends with Ian, who has been pardoned from the guillotine as the master jailer believes he is withholding information received from the dying man, watching Barbara and Susan being led to the guillotine...

A Change of Identity - As Susan and Barbara are being transported to the guillotine, their cart is ambushed and they are rescued by two men who take the two ladies back to their safehouse. Ian escapes from his cell, after the jailer conveniently leaves his keys in the lock, and disguises himself in some clothes he finds in the jail. The Doctor arrives in Paris and enters a shop looking to swap his clothes for that of a regional officer. The shop keeper agrees, but only if he can have the Doctors ring. It is this ring that forms the episodes cliffhanger, when the shopkeeper tells the guards that the owner of the ring is a traitor...

The Tyrant of France - After escaping in the previous episode, this one sees Ian, Barbara and Susan recaptured. Susan falls ill and, despite protestations from the two men who took them to the safehouse, Barbara takes her to a physician, who promptly rats them out as escaped prisoners. They are taken back to the prison and are to be interrogated by none other than the Doctor in his regional officer disguise. Ian is initially rescued and taken to the safehouse. He then arranges to meet with Leon, who is trying to find out the message that Ian was given by the dying man in the prison, and is captured by Leon's armed guards...

A Bargain of Necessity - Ian is chained up and told he will not be released until he tells Leon the information that he wants, Ian pleads ignorance and says he has no information. Jules enters and says Ian, killing Leon in the process, they both return to Jules' safe house. Meanwhile in the prison, the Doctor has come up with an ingenious plan to break out Barbara and Susan. The Doctor convinces the Jailer that if he releases Barbara they can follow her back to the secret safehouse, the Jailer takes the credit for the idea and releases Barbara, who returns to the safe house. The Doctor tries the same trick for Susan but the Jailer is wise this time. The Doctor instead tells Susan to hide behind her cell door so it looks like she has escaped. The Jailer opens her door and the Doctor bashes him on the head. The Doctor and Susan attempt to escape but he is caught by LeMaitre, the head Jailer, who tells the Doctor that he was wise to his dress up deception from the off. The Doctor and LeMaitre turn up at the secret safehouse to provide a cliff hanger for the episode...

Prisoners of Conciergerie - LeMaitre is Stirling, the man who Ian has a message for. This message reveals that a secret meeting is to take place at The Sinking Ship Inn, between conspirators looking to overthrow Robespierre. The conspirator leader is Barras who is Robespierre's second in command, the man he is meeting in no other than Napoleon Bonaparte! Following this meeting, Robespierre is overthrown in Paris and shot in the jaw, which paves the way for the revolution to start. Our TARDIS team are reunited, after the Doctor sneaks Susan out of the jail, while the jailers are distracted by their latest prisoner, Robespierre. Our team are dropped off at the TARDIS by LeMaitre/Stirling on his way to Calais as he returns to England. We end with a shot of the stars and a voiceover from the Doctor...

'Our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it.'

This story is a fitting end to the first series of Doctor Who. There seems to have been no expense spared as we follow the TARDIS crew through France/Paris. This is mainly true throughout the series, the wobbly walls in The Sensorites are an exception, and with the many different places and time zones encountered this is testament to the whole crews dedication to producing the best show that they could.

 

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Doctor Who Marathon - The Sensorites

This time it's the Sensorites...

Strangers in Space - We start in the TARDIS with the team reminiscing about the previous adventures we've seen. This is a nice touch which shows how far we've come on this journey. The Doctors reference to an adventure with Henry VIII tells us that there were adventures before we joined the team and doubtless many more aside. Leaving the TARDIS, the team come across two seemingly dead bodies. These are quickly revived with a strange gadget, and it is revealed that the two humans have been trapped there by the Sensorites. While this is happening, the TARDIS lock is stolen, trapping everyone one the spaceship. Barbara and Susan get trapped with a third human, who has been driven mad by the Sensorites mind control, and it is while a rescue attempt occurs that two Sensorite ships are seen through the spaceships window The episode end with the reveal of a Sensorite climbing up the outside of the spaceships window... 

The Unwilling Warriors - The Sensorites board the ship and attempt to control Barbara's and Susan's minds. The mind control is reversed by Barbara and Susan thinking of the same thing the same time. Once Ian has used his magic super strength to open the massive metal doors, Barbara and Susan are safe. The majority of the rest of the episode is Ian and Barbara creeping through a particularly flimsy set until they come across the recently boarded Sensorites. They are then slowly lured back to the control room and the rest of our gang by Ian, waving around a wrench. The episode concludes with Susan telepathically conversing with the Sensorites and agreeing to go down to their planet,the Sense Sphere, with them as a bargain against the lives of the others... 

Hidden Danger - The team, minus Barbara, accompany the Sensorites to the Sense Sphere, where they hope to retrieve the TARDIS lock. The Sensorites are wary of the humans due to a previous group, who tried to exploit them over the precious minerals inside the planet. The Doctor and Ian don't really help their cause by utilising a suspected aversion to the dark to great effect. The Sensorites are cautious, but seem to be won around by the Doctor, claiming that they are trustworthy as they did not attack when the Sensorites were blinded. It is also revealed that the Sensorites are suffering from a disease, and I suspect that part of the trust they put in our group is that they hope the humans can assist with finding a cure. Two of the Sensorites are not convinced and unhappy at the human presence, plan to kill them with a laser to the heart, but this is thwarted. The episode ends however, with Ian choking after he has taken a drink from the water offered to him by the Sensorites...

A Race against Death / Kidnap - I watched these two episode together so am lumping the writing bits together. The Doctor deduces that it is the water that has poisoned Ian, as Susan and himself had only eaten the fruit. We are treated to a water testing montage, many test tubes of water and a piece of card that is moved across as each vial is tested. The Doctor finds out which aqueduct is tainted and sets out to investigate. He is warned off as there are 'creatures' out there, but he is undeterred. This ultimately leads to him being attacked and his jacket is shredded, he is given a rather fetching cape to replace it. It is this cape that leads to the reveal, to our team and the Sensorites, that some of their number are scheming. The Doctor is accused of attacking someone, by taking a weapon out of his coat pocket, which is not possible after it was shredded earlier. The viewer is quite aware that two of the Sensorites are scheming, having seen them discussing it quite loudly. My favourite moment of scheming comes from the Sensorites realising that the only thing differentiating them, in the humans eyes, is their sashes and collars. There is a speech, almost directly to camera, where two of the characters discuss that if the Sensorites where to switch there clothes they wouldn't be able to tell them apart. To link it to 'new Who', it is similar to the Sontaran Stratagem, where one of the characters says that the Sontarans, being a clone race, all look the same. It is quickly countered with the Sontaran saying that to them, all humans look the same. The episode ends with one of the humans being kidnapped by the two scheming Sensorites...

A Desperate Venture - She is forced to write a note saying she has gone back to the spaceship, so that the rest of out team do not suspect she has been kidnapped. Our team know this to be a lie as they have just retrieved Barbara from the ship (and I assume Jacqueline Hill was on her annual leave for the two weeks/episodes Barbara was absent). The Doctor and Ian head back into the sewers to find out who is poisoning the water supply. It turns out that the poisoners are the survivors from the previous human mission to the planet. They have been driven mad by the Sensorites mind reading and believe that they are at war. The Doctor and Ian lure them out of the sewers by claiming to be a further human mission and that they have defeated the Sensorites and won the 'war'. Upon leaving the sewers, a group of Sensorites meet our group. The Doctor pleads leniency on the survivors, which is granted and they are free to leave with the rest of the human contingent. The story is wrapped up very quickly and we find our TARDIS team in the control room, watching the humans leaving the Sense Sphere. Ian makes a comment about the humans knowing where they are heading, and the Doctor erupts with rage, accusing Ian of calling him a fool and deliberately not taking them home...

I've made a change to the story pictures at the bottom of each post. My plan going forward is to do one post per story, and add an appropriate image at the bottom. The original plan was to use the title card from each story, but as I've watched further stories, the single episode names do not really reflect the overall story name. Anywho, onto the The Reign of Terror...

36 of 798 episodes watched