The War Machines

"The War Machines" was a serial I particularly enjoyed. It's good after such a long time away, to finally spend an entire story on contemporary Earth, and it's brilliant. The characters of Polly and Ben make great additions to the cast, and really add a modern, forward-thinking feel to the programme.

The concept is a little dated now though, the computer is a little silly now, and the war machine itself is massive and clunky. Impressive, yes. Well-built, yes. But easy to make look threatening? Definitely not; especially as it bumps into something every time it attempts to move.

That said, I think this story is pretty good, with the characters of Sir Charles, the tramp, and the sergeant proving most interesting to watch and enjoy. But, on the other hand, Professor Brett and Wotan make terrible villains and I'm glad we don't see more of them than we do. Also, I'm glad that Dodo has finally 'gone' and I don't mind that she didn't get a great goodbye scene as Polly and Ben make up for that.

One more thing: even if William Hartnell was becoming unwell round about now, I didn't notice it on-screen. His character still commanded authority and I thought that in this serial in particular, I thought he was great.

The Savages

I must say, I really enjoyed this serial. It was something quite a bit different in comparison with the Celestial Toymaker and the Gunfighters. The Doctor and companions land on an unnamed planet in the future, where sophisticated humans living in the glorious city are using lesser humans from outside in the wild to fuel their existence. The Doctor vows to put a stop to this, and while Steven and Dodo make friends with the Savages, he is drained of his life energy which is given to the leader of the city: Jano. Jano inherits the Doctor's consciousness and smashes up the equipment used for suffering, and Steven departs the TARDIS to oversee the reconstruction of the civilization. 

You really feel sorry for the Savage humans in this story, they lead terrible lives of fear and repression, and this serial highlights the wonders the Doctor does for those who deserve them. Meanwhile, the city itself is rather impressive, and the first episode shows that the majority of it's people are simple; the two guides that show Steven and Dodo around appear to be very nice and pleasant people, whose only faults are that of their leaders who allow the cruelty to continue.

I think the plot is rather ingenious and well-thought-out in terms of how it is paced. Each character is given decent screen time and the departure of Steven is dealt with in such a way as to leave a huge smile on my face as the TARDIS dematerializes at the end of the serial. With this great story straight after another, and, in my opinion, William Hartnell doing so well as the Doctor, it's strange to think he only has a few more serials to go before his time is up.

The Gunfighters

It's time for another historical and this time, the Doctor, Dodo, and Steven visit the wild west. Soon after they arrive, they are caught up between a gang of cowboys and the local law-enforcers. As the plot unfolds, you begin to care for the good characters and mourn for the deaths of large amounts of them.

For the first episode or two, I thought that this was just another normal serial, with nothing special to it's name, but as the story drew close (no pun intended) to it's climax, I realised how much I enjoyed the characterizations of Wyatt, Kate, and Johnny Ringo in particular. Charlie the barman was the highlight of the serial for me, his humour and sad death shows the viewers how dangerous life really was back then.

Another interesting thing about this story to note is how Guns are forced upon the Doctor many times in the four episodes, and it's quite funny to notice the Doctor's reaction. Overall, this has been one of my favourite serials so far in my marathon, once you get into it. The opening episodes are a bit dull and clichéd but after they're over, it's a brilliant tale.

The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker is one of those extremely random serials which makes little sense. I have no idea who the Toymaker is supposed to be, how he accomplishes his evil deeds, what his motives are, or how he knows the Doctor. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this story immensely, despite it not making much sense. Basically, the Doctor is separated from Steven and Dodo, is made invisible and mute, and has to complete the Trilogic game (a board game) in exactly 1023 moves at a sufficient pace. Meanwhile, Steven and Dodo have to fight their way through a set of continuous games including Blind Man's Bluff, and Hunt the Thimble in order to win back the TARDIS.

These games don't sound so bad, but they're all scaled up to life-or-death experiences which makes it all the more interesting. The characters which Steven and Dodo play against are all pretty insane and interesting, especially Cyril the annoying and arrogant Schoolboy who makes up the rules as he goes along. You really share our heroes' annoyance for the character, and you want to push him on to the electrocuted floor (which he does himself in the end anyway, so it's not all bad).

The set design is unique, but suffers due to the show's budget. It could have been spectacular but turned out adequate only. The Doctor is again missed, but Steven and Dodo make up for that. The Toymaker is an interesting character although not much is revealed about him, and overall, this is one of my favourite Season Three serials so far.

The Ark

So after the historical adventures of "The Massacre" and the introduction of new companion Dodo, the TARDIS lands on a spaceship taking the last survivors of Earth to a new planet, along with the Monoids, a race of cyclops who are much more intelligent than they look.

The story is split into two sections which is pretty interesting: the first is about Dodo giving a cold to all the people onboard the Ark, which the Doctor then cures, and the second deals with the Ark at the end of it's voyage and the Monoids' enslavement of the remaining humans.

In the first half of the story, you feel sorry for the Monoids and the humans are the villains, and this concept is reversed for the second part of this serial, which shows the good and bad sides of all races. The climactic battle is interesting, and the final scene of the Doctor disappearing links in with the next serial: "The Celestial Toymaker".

The Massacre

So I finally got round to watching (or reading in this case) the next adventure for the Doctor and Steven. Once again, the TARDIS lands in historical France, and Steven gets involved in an intricate murder plot and religious war between the Catholics and the Protestants. Unfortunately, while I assume this serial is quite accurate historically, religion nor any of it's aspects interest me in the slightest, and so I did not find this story very engaging.

The Doctor himself is missed throughout most of the story, and the only thing I found interesting is the introduction of Dodo, a new TARDIS crew member. The girl the Doctor told to stay indoors survived the massacre and now her great granddaughter has joined the TARDIS crew. We are left feeling quite happy after an intense moment of Steven wanting to leave the TARDIS for good.

With two companions in the TARDIS once again, we move onwards to the next great adventure...