The Ice Warriors

Well, it's been a long time since I continued my marathon, but I'm back now, and kick off my continuation with The Ice Warriors. This is quite a good serial, in my opinion, although it is a bit too similar to other Troughton serials, as it takes places mostly in a single area with no venturing outside.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrive at the Brittanicus Base, the base of a large weather-controlling system which is holding back a large Glacier which is almost on top of the base. However, the scientist Arden uncovers a strange warrior in the ice and brings it back to the base, where it wakes up and kidnaps Victoria. Back outside in the ice, the Ice Warrior starts to dig out the rest of it's spaceship crew, and the rest of the story is a struggle between the Ice Warriors and the base staff.

There's another plot going on at the same time, which makes things far more interesting. Leader Clent has dismissed chief scientist Penley who is needed on-site to deal with all the problems, and the Doctor facilitates their reunion and it's a great moment when they put aside each others' differences and agree to work as a team.

This is a rare moment of character over plot in early Doctor Who, and it is most welcome. Otherwise, the Ice Warriors themselves are quite impressive, and it's slightly unfortunate that they spend most of the serial out in the ice, isolated from much contact with the other characters.

However, overall, it's a good story, lots of running around, an awful computer voice, some interesting characters, and the Doctor on top form as usual.

The Abominable Snowmen

Another great story introducing a new foe: the Yeti. Despite being quite slow paced and a bit too long in my opinion, The Abominable Snowmen ranks highly in relation to many stories of a similar era in Doctor Who.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrive in Tibet to return an item the Doctor took from a monastery 300 years previously. However, since they've been away, an alien force known as the Great intelligence has taken control of the mind of the monks' leader and has created robotic Yeti to carry out the grand plan whilst scaring the monks into submission.

There are some creepy moments, from the monks' deadpan attitudes, although the Yeti themselves are a bit of a joke. It's a testament to the direction though, that you can forgive the bad monster costumes. They are, in my opinion, quite lovable.

Praise has to be given to the plot. It's cleverly written, makes good use of all of the characters, and where it needs to be is exciting and imaginative.

Overall, it's a huge thumbs up from me, and I can't wait to continue.

The Tomb of the Cybermen

The Cybermen are back, and this time in a completely original, never-before-seen story idea. The Doctor, along with Victoria and Jamie, lands on the planet Telos, where an archeological expedition from Earth is in full swing to find the remains of the Cybermen and their civilization. This story succeeds, I feel, because it's absolutely nothing like each of the previous cybermen tales. In both "The Tenth Planet" and "The Moonbase", the base in under siege, and the plot progression is pretty similar. Here, they uncover the tombs, and it is revealed that two of the expedition members: Klieg and Kaftan are looking to ally with the cybermen.

It's an interesting setting for a serial, tombs, in a dead city, but it's extremely well put together, with great sets, an amazing cast, and a superb plot. Every cast member has a story to tell, and in the four episodes, there is a perfect balance between action and exposition. I only wish we could have seen more of the cybermen city, instead of being limited to an entrance hall, the tomb, and one or two other unimportant rooms.

The cybermen themselves have once again been redesigned: with futuristic voice effects and now being led by a cyber controller.

Eventually, Klieg and Kaftan get what they deserve, although too many lives are lost in the process. The Doctor reseals the tomb, and locks the doors to the city, but not before a mouse-like cybermat escapes to the open.

The Evil of the Daleks

Patrick Troughton's final adventure in his first season is, in my opinion, the wildest and most extravagant yet. Not only is it set in three completely different areas, it's also filled with some massive sets, location shooting, and lots of explosions.

Basically, when the Doctor and Jamie return to the TARDIS in the airport, they find that someone's stolen it, and a trail has been left for the Doctor to an antique shop, where the owner:  Mr. Waterfield, has been traveling in time back to the victorian era. Taking the Doctor and Jamie back with him, he and his friend Maxtible explain that they were forced to by the Daleks. The Daleks want the Doctor to figure out what makes the humans defeat the daleks all the time, and to do so, he must use Jamie in an experiment. The Doctor willingly proceeds but is deceived as the Daleks take his calculations and formula and reverse them. They then follow the Daleks back to Skaro in order to stop them from using 'the Dalek factor' on all of humankind.

It's complicated, yes, and it is quite a large expansive plot, but it is executed perfectly. Fast paced and filled with suspense, danger, and character, there is pretty much nothing to fault at all. From the start, you can see the story looks great and is acted brilliantly. The modern day guest stars are brilliant, and the victorian actors are as well. Waterfield expertly conveys a man under pressure, and Maxtible's got the mad scientist look and voice perfectly. Victoria Waterfield is great too, and there's a lovely subplot involving Kemel, a jamaican slave, having feelings for her. It's believable, as is the bond between Jamie and Kemel.

The Doctor however, shows a different kind of acting towards his companion. Here, he plays the audience into questioning his allegiances and friends, all while having great fun doing so. It's a testimonial to Troughton's skill that he can go from being delighted and enthralled by a tune on his recorder to being dark, serious, and scarily morbid about a situation or subject.

I could go on for hours, days even, on "The Evil of the Daleks"; there's simply so much to write about and discuss, and there are so many interesting themes, from slavery and the class system, to friendship, obedience, and despair. It doesn't get much better than this.

As an afterthought, I'd like to add that the human Daleks are hilarious and a delight to watch.

The Faceless Ones

And now on to one of my favourite Troughton adventures: "The Faceless Ones". The TARDIS materializes in the middle of Gatwick airport where Polly witnesses a murder. It transpires that Chameleon Tours, a seemingly normal company, is kidnapping their passengers and transferring their body shapes to their own bodies.

The Doctor and Jamie are the real stars here, and they bond over this story, solving the mystery and convincing the airport staff that they are telling the truth. The serial turns out to be fast paced, quite dark, with some great plot twists, and the story moving on at the perfect speed. Never a boring moment, and with some great location work. The shots of Gatwick really give this story scope and a sense of importance.

The sets and costumes are good too. Captain Blade and the other Chameleon crew are all dressed immaculately, and the commandant's costume helps show his character. Samantha also is interesting, with her 'regional' accent and modern dress sense. The sets themselves look the part, from the airport hangars to the immigration desks. Even the Chameleon Tours aeroplane interior looks authentic for the small amount of screen-time it receives. 

After a gripping adventure and an exciting end, the commandant gives the Doctor back his TARDIS, before Ben and Polly decide to leave the Doctor and get on with their lives. Sadly, Jamie accompanies the Doctor over to the TARDIS, where upon close inspection, it isn't the TARDIS at all, but just a plain old Police Box. The TARDIS has been stolen!

The Macra Terror

The Macra Terror sees the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie arrive on an unnamed planet where an insane man claims to have seen the Macra, crab-like creatures everyone else says don't exist. The Doctor believes the man, and soon sees a Macra for himself. It becomes apparent that the Controller of the planet has hypnotised everyone else in the Colony to obey commands and believe that the Macra don't exist. Ben succombs to the hypnotism and lands his companions in trouble for their meddling. Sent to work in the mines, mining for poisonous gas, they discover that the Macra are in control of the leaders of the Colony and need the gas to survive. The unearth the Macra, free the population, and leave before they can be congratulated.

The officials: Ola, and the Pilot, are great characters with some great lines, and with them, the plot moves quickly along, with never a boring moment. It's important that it does this, or you might notice that the Macra don't have that much to do with the serial at all, the plot instead revolving around overthrowing the hypnotism and freeing everything.

Therefore, it isn't as you'd expect, and could have been a lot scarier and interesting.

The Moonbase

The Moonbase is one of my favourite early Doctor Who serials. In my opinion, it's the best 1960's Cybermen story, and it's a great pity two of the four episodes are missing.

The TARDIS crew land on the moon, where a team of scientists operate the Gravitron, a giant machine that can control the Earth's weather. But, soon, people start falling ill and it's revealed that the cybermen are to blame. They want to use the Gravitron to wipe out humanity and things are looking bleak.

This is certainly an action-oriented serial: perhaps the first of it's kind, and it's brilliant. The sets are limited but the cast is great, and it's got the right amount of plot, action, and scary moments to make a great story.

The characters of Hobson and Polly shine in this story, and it's just a pity that Jamie spends the first three episodes lying in bed moaning about an old Scottish legend. Once he gets involved in the story though, he does it with gusto and The Moonbase is better for it.

Finally, the cybermen are the scary monsters they're supposed to be, with a much improved look and better voices. Luckily, this style of cyberman continues to be used for quite a while to come.