We return
to the Doctor’s Time Stream with the next adventure up, “The Reign of Terror.”
I was so excited when this was released on DVD, having only ever seen a poor
multi-generation copy on VHS.
Additionally, episodes 4 & 5 on the DVD have been reconstructed
through animation, making this a fuller story than I had experienced before. My
memory of the story was a bit fuzzy as it had been several years, but having
had good luck with the historical stories so far, I was really anticipating
this trip to Revolutionary France, and the final story of Doctor Who’s first season.
All of the
above now serves to underline that I was not really sold on this story, and I can’t
quite seem to put my finger on the reason(s) why. There are bits and pieces
that stood out to me, both good and bad. Additionally, there were some things
that just struck me odd that perhaps wouldn’t have been when the story first
aired. For example, early in Episode 1, as the Doctor is trying to shuffle Ian
and Barbara off the TARDIS, Ian remarks that it would be better to part as
friends, perhaps over a drink. A suggestion that perks the Doctor right up out
of his tetchiness! Like the Doctor’s pipe on prehistoric earth, this is another
vice of the Doctor’s that never is really remarked on again, until maybe the
Pertwee era.
Barbara
once again gets a creepy come-on from an unsavory character, in this instance
the jailer of the Conciergerie Prison. Watching these stories in full and so
close to one another makes it seem like Barbara’s virtue is in peril at least
once a week. Jacqueline Hill time and time again plays Barbara with a full
strength of character, so that even in the direst of circumstances, one gets
the feeling that Ms. Wright can handle herself with aplomb. It just seems so
redundant seeing her character put in these situations when watching the
stories so close together.
Carole Ann Ford is wasted here as
Susan is given little, if anything to do, besides worry about her Grandfather
and come down with a fever. Ian only fares slightly better, which is a credit to
William Russell, as he was on holiday for part of this story, recording his
scenes in the cell ahead of time, to be inserted later. William Hartnell does a
little bit of stretching here in both his scenes with the foreman of the road
workers and when he disguises himself as a Provincial official. He gets to do some physical humor in the
former, and in the latter completely dispenses with all of the “Hmms” and
verbal tics that are a trademark of the First Doctor.
As I mentioned, episodes 4 & 5
are animated reconstructions, and as much as I appreciate this official
reconstruction, the animation style simply wasn’t my cup of tea. There was far
too much emphasis put on the shadows so that most faces looked like they had
gotten a poor night’s sleep. Sometimes the fine details became overwhelming. I
loved the look of the Doctor’s disguise, but seeing it rendered over and over
again became distracting, and even worse, boring.
That, I think, is my biggest
complaint about the story. I never engaged with it and found it on the dull
side. I know that writer Donald Cotton
will return to the series and not that far from now, but this first adventure
of his lacked wit, or indeed any sense of real peril. I’m all for a good runaround if it’s
entertaining, but this one fell flat for me. I’ve said before that I love Doctor Who’s ambition, even if it is
often OVER ambitious. The faults with “The
Reign of Terror” are ones made from a lack of ambition, and that makes them
harder to forgive.
NEXT EPISODE: Planet of Giants
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