Recently – thanks to Ava Alexis purchasing me the DVDs to replace the worn out VHS tapes - I have
been pondering the first Doctor Who stories and considering how much better it
was before the Doctor became superhero.
Every time I re-watch most things I discover something I didn’t notice
before. Most of the time. It’s certainly true here…
For instance I remember in the first story the Doctor being a
very irascible and cynical and selfish anti-hero but watching it again the
story is a bit more subtle than that.
A bit of plot: The Doctor having abducted Ian and Barbera
back to the stone age leaves the “ship” to collect soil samples and is abducted
by a caveman who sees him lighting his pipe and thinks he knows the “secret of
fire”. This secret had previously only
been known to the leader of the tribe but has died with him. The Doctor’s companions go to rescue him and
are imprisoned in the Cave of Skulls from where they escape. However, on their way back to the Tardis they discover one of the cavemen who aspires to be the leader of the tribe attacked
by a beast and badly injured.
Barbera wants to stop and take him back to the tribe but the
Doctor insists they should press on to safety and save their own skins
first. It’s a real moral dilemma. Ian and Barbera make out the doctor to be callous
and inhuman. To which the Doctor responds…
DOCTOR: You're trying to say that everything you do is
reasonable, and everything I do is inhuman. Well, I'm afraid your judgement's
at fault, Miss Wright, not mine. Haven't you realised if these two people can
follow us, any of these people can follow us? The whole tribe might descend
upon us at any moment.
HUR: The tribe is asleep.
There follows a discussion about how many people have
followed them and the risks of returning…
BARBARA: The old woman won't give us away. She helped.
DOCTOR: Do you think so? These people have logic and reason,
have they? Can't you see their minds change as rapidly as night and day? She's
probably telling the whole tribe at this very moment.
The Doctor correctly identifies that the problem with the cave people isn't just their lack of fire but their lack of civilisation. And as the companions view the cave people so the Doctor views his new companions. As unreasonable ... they can't be trusted to keep his secret because their minds change as rapidly as night and day....? Reasonable and unreasonable are words that appear in the
script again and again… first in the junkyard….
DOCTOR: Young man, is it reasonable to suppose that anybody
would be inside a cupboard like that, hmm?
IAN: Would it therefore be unreasonable to ask you to let us
have a look inside?
And later back inside the ship…
IAN: Have you taken us back to our own time?
DOCTOR: You know I can't do that. Please be reasonable.
Just as the fire is mysterious to the cavemen – sorry cavepeople
- the Tardis is mysterious to Ian and Barbera
DOCTOR: Not quite clear, is it. I can see by your face that
you're not certain. You don't understand. And I knew you wouldn't. Never mind.
I’m not saying that the first Doctor Who story is a
fantastic piece of literature but it explores ideas and the conceit of the Tardis
being uncontrollable allows it to be written out of the scripts so it just
serves as a framing device to get our protagonists from planet/timeA to
planet/timeB. Once there they are just
as vulnerable as anyone else. This has been lost.
When they escape the Dalek city they find they have left the
fluid link behind and must return for it but they need the aid of the Thals to
return there. The Thals however don’t
want to fight and although the Daleks are a threat they can’t yet leave their
city so they’re not an immediate threat.
This raises all kinds of moral issues as in fact the Thal attack on the
Dalek city is arguably unprovoked. Well,
it is provoked a bit as the Daleks shot some of the Thals that entered the city
but … as Ian points out the confiscation of a fluid link does not exactly pass
the Caroline test…
IAN: Now listen, you two. What victory are you going to show
these people when most of them have been killed? A fluid link? Is this what
you're going to hold up to them and say, 'Thank you very much. This is what you
fought and died for'?
…arguably the Doctor and his companions need is primarily
economic – they want the fluid link not just for survival but so they can return home - whereas the Thals’
need is … Well, survival? But it’s not an immediate need.
These days however the Doctor controls the Tardis, goes
wherever he/she wants, has a sonic screwdriver that’s turned into a magic wand,
always seems to have a plan …etc etc… where’s the vulnerability or the mystery
in that…?
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