Baaaaaaby Daleks!
Nov. 13th, 2009 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tardis_stowawayI've been on a short trip back to the beginnings of Doctor Who, watching the Hartnell-era serials "The Unearthly Child" and "The Daleks." This is my first time seeing the First Doctor. It's fascinating to see how much has changed and what has stayed the same. Only Doctor Who can make you look at a character played by an elderly actor like Hartnell and think "aww, he was so young back then!" He wanders around with even less ability to accurately pilot the TARDIS than he has now, claiming to be exiled from his homeland but looking more proud than sad about it. I suspect all that bluster and grumpiness is just an attempt to cover the fact that he isn't quite as confident of his ability to handle the world beyond Gallifrey. Here are some other random observations (spoilers, if you care about spoilers from something that aired decades ago):
-The first episode, "The Unearthly Child," was a mysterious and cool way to hook viewers. Why is this young girl so smart in some ways and so clueless in others? Why does she apparently live in a junkyard...in a police box? What's the deal with her crazy grandfather? It was a great setup. Too bad they had to immediately follow it up with a trip to visit History's Dumbest Cavepeople. The less said of that storyline the better.
-Geez, the Daleks started out much less formidable than they became later. Not only can they not climb stairs, apparently they run off electricity in the floor like bumper cars! All you have to do to incapacitate them is get them onto an insulating substance like a cloak. How to get them onto the insulator? Just wrestle the Dalek like it's a stubborn croc. Crikey! Once the power's off you can pop the top, remove the living Dalek creature, and climb inside to go for a joyride among unsuspecting Daleks. Whee! Alternately, you can disable or kill a Dalek by shutting off the building's flow of electricity, pushing the Dalek over on its side, shoving it into a circuit board, or putting it in an environment without radiation in the air. Don't worry too much about getting shot; you have a better than even shot of surviving.
-Early Hartnell lacks the moral authority (or self-righteousness) that the Doctor acquires later. He would rather get away from the cave people than help them. He encourages the Thal people to fight the Daleks. That promotion of violence wasn't even for their own survival but so he can get a part he needs to operate the TARDIS. Ian sometimes seems more Doctor-like in his insistence on doing what he believes right rather than what is easy.
-In his curiosity and wanderlust, however, the Doctor remains very much himself. He fakes a need to get some mercury for the TARDIS as an excuse to visit a seemingly ruined city when his companions want to leave without exploring. He's so proud of himself when he does something clever.
-The Thals, the people who resided on the same planet as the Daleks, have hilarious costumes. The women's outfits appear to have been designed by Lady Gaga, while the men look ready to work in a particularly cheesy gay bar. Photographic evidence:
-Yay, the Daleks have been defeated forever! They're all dead. Surely the show wouldn't bring back villainous cyborgs with plunger arms and really annoying voices, right? *long pause* Right?
-For all the griping about silly costumes, Skaro's least competent Daleks, and the Doctor's different character (and the additional mocking I could do of the spots where the plot slows to a snail's pace and the 60's special effects), "The Daleks" still delivers some quality television. The setting, a planet left mostly dead by a long-ago war with a mysterious labyrinthine city and a swamp full of monsters, is haunting. The show has some moments of good suspense and cliff-hangers (one with actual hanging from a cliff!) in between the places where it drags. The inadvertent TARDIS crew begins to bond just a little bit.
-I love that TARDIS sound, still recognizable across all these years.
-The first episode, "The Unearthly Child," was a mysterious and cool way to hook viewers. Why is this young girl so smart in some ways and so clueless in others? Why does she apparently live in a junkyard...in a police box? What's the deal with her crazy grandfather? It was a great setup. Too bad they had to immediately follow it up with a trip to visit History's Dumbest Cavepeople. The less said of that storyline the better.
-Geez, the Daleks started out much less formidable than they became later. Not only can they not climb stairs, apparently they run off electricity in the floor like bumper cars! All you have to do to incapacitate them is get them onto an insulating substance like a cloak. How to get them onto the insulator? Just wrestle the Dalek like it's a stubborn croc. Crikey! Once the power's off you can pop the top, remove the living Dalek creature, and climb inside to go for a joyride among unsuspecting Daleks. Whee! Alternately, you can disable or kill a Dalek by shutting off the building's flow of electricity, pushing the Dalek over on its side, shoving it into a circuit board, or putting it in an environment without radiation in the air. Don't worry too much about getting shot; you have a better than even shot of surviving.
-Early Hartnell lacks the moral authority (or self-righteousness) that the Doctor acquires later. He would rather get away from the cave people than help them. He encourages the Thal people to fight the Daleks. That promotion of violence wasn't even for their own survival but so he can get a part he needs to operate the TARDIS. Ian sometimes seems more Doctor-like in his insistence on doing what he believes right rather than what is easy.
-In his curiosity and wanderlust, however, the Doctor remains very much himself. He fakes a need to get some mercury for the TARDIS as an excuse to visit a seemingly ruined city when his companions want to leave without exploring. He's so proud of himself when he does something clever.
-The Thals, the people who resided on the same planet as the Daleks, have hilarious costumes. The women's outfits appear to have been designed by Lady Gaga, while the men look ready to work in a particularly cheesy gay bar. Photographic evidence:
-Yay, the Daleks have been defeated forever! They're all dead. Surely the show wouldn't bring back villainous cyborgs with plunger arms and really annoying voices, right? *long pause* Right?
-For all the griping about silly costumes, Skaro's least competent Daleks, and the Doctor's different character (and the additional mocking I could do of the spots where the plot slows to a snail's pace and the 60's special effects), "The Daleks" still delivers some quality television. The setting, a planet left mostly dead by a long-ago war with a mysterious labyrinthine city and a swamp full of monsters, is haunting. The show has some moments of good suspense and cliff-hangers (one with actual hanging from a cliff!) in between the places where it drags. The inadvertent TARDIS crew begins to bond just a little bit.
-I love that TARDIS sound, still recognizable across all these years.
