The Reign of Terror [4.1]

The Doctor tries to return to London 1963 and get his companions home again. He’s almost there – he gets to rural France in 1794. The country is in the middle of the Revolution. Soldiers are combing the countryside for terrified aristocrats; Robespierre’s titular ‘Reign of Terror’ is generating plots and counter plots in Paris, and Madame Guillotine is chopping heads off left, right and centre. It’s the Doctor’s favourite time period!

The crew are swiftly swept up into the action. Barbara and Susan are led off to the guillotine; the Doctor is trapped in a burning chateaux, and Ian receives a dying message from an English spy. It the beginning of a dastardly adventure of treachery, rebellion and conspiracy.

The Majesty

This is a story that is both arrestingly brutal and entertainingly comedic. The violence is set up very early on. In episode one, we meet two aristocrats who we expect are going to be major characters. We get names, motivation, backstory, relationship, etc. And then suddenly they are both shot dead. No last words, no great huzzah – just a bang and a bullet. It sets up instantly the fragility of life in the revolution, and the implied danger to our heroes is multiplied immensely. Against this we have the humour – the slaves on the road, the jailer, the tailor – little lighter moments which don’t detract from the drama but which provide a perfect balance of tragedy and comedy.

Another element that makes this series stand out is its refusal to completely back one side or the other. Perhaps more could have been done here, by showing a truly sympathetic republican or a vile aristocrat, but Barbara rips into Ian at one point for blithely assuming all the aristocrats are innocent victims and all the revolutionaries are brutish thugs. “Check your history books”, she yells. There is good and evil on both sides. The fight is not for one political system over another, but for ‘order, honour and justice’ against ‘fear and treachery’.

The Misery

There is quite a bit of exposition in the dialogue – people flatly telling each other things that we, the audience, need to know. It’s not up to modern standards of scriptwriting, but it’s quite unfair to judge this serial by modern standards, 55 years later.

There is a disappointing amount of time spent locked up in the Conciergerie. (Or escaping, or being arrested.) Definitely points are coming off for this!

Susan is underused as a character – again. Barbara, at least, comes across as a capable character, but apart from falling ill, all Susan does is wait around to be rescued. Her attempt to dig her way out of the cell is literally a single tap of the wall, followed by an extended shrieking collapse of “Oh it’s no use... I can’t go on... etc.”

Magical Moments

• The scene where Ian and Barbara convince the Doctor to see them off with a final drink, rather than abandoning them to sink or swim, is really nice. There is clear chemistry between the three, and the closeness of the bonds they have developed is obvious. It makes me wonder what sort of drink they were imagining. Triple vodkas? Or raspberry milkshakes?
• The moment that the Doctor realises he has accidentally piloted the TARDIS to France is delightful – after all his previous boasting, his expression says it all.
• The cliffhanger of Episode 1 is majestic. The crew are arrested and the Doctor has collapsed, trapped in a burning house. The model-work and editing really sell the moment well.
• We see, for the first time ever in Dr Who, some location filming. It’s just a double for William Hartnell, walking through a field with his back to us. But it spreads the horizon of our canvas hugely from the cramped sets we are used to.
• The road builder, having forced the Doctor to work in his chain gang: “Put your back into it, skinny!” And despite his age, the Doctor is in pretty good shape when it comes to manual labour!
• The Doctor’s complicated escape plan, involving an eclipse, pickpocketing, buried treasure and a well aimed blow from a spade. Even living through the terrors of the revolution, the other slaves are aghast at the Doctor’s no-nonsense approach to bludgeoning. (And there's plenty more to come!)
• I have appreciated the Doctor’s wardrobe before, but nothing – Nothing! – compares to the majestic hat he gets from the Parisian tailor. It’s incredible.
• The 4^th and 5^th episodes are missing, but are done very nicely with BBC animation. It gives these episodes a very fitting look which blends film noir with anime. Some of the light effects in these episodes are probably far superior to anything that would have been done in the originals.
• As the crew flee from France, Lemaître remarks “Funny... I get the impression they don’t know where they are heading for. Come to that... do any of us?” It ties into the beginning of the story, with the Doctor’s certainty that this was 60s England, and provides a very poignant comment on the uncertainty of all our lives. The future is hidden, and always remains so.
• The very end of the final episode bring the first season to a close with a shot of stars and a voiceover from the Doctor: “Our lives are important, at least to us. But as we see, so we learn. … Our destiny lies in the stars. So let’s go search for it!” The show has navigated it’s first season. How many more are to come? Only time will tell!

Notes

This is the first time that we really are confronted with the issue of the language barrier in Dr Who. It could have been glazed over in previous episodes, but here we are in a place where clearly everybody should be speaking French and they aren’t (except occasionally). Amazingly, it will be 1976 and the “Masque of Mandragora” before the explanation is given (the TARDIS Translation Circuit) and only in the reboot, with episodes such as “The Christmas Invasion”, that this features as a proper story point. Presumably, it didn’t bother anybody at the time.

In the very opening episode of An Unearthly Child, Susan was seen reading a book called “The French Revolution”. It’s a great link from the beginning to the end of the season.

In Summary

The first season ends on a high. While the sci-fi elements are perhaps still finding their feet in Dr Who, the BBC of the 60s was well equipped for doing fascinating historical dramas. The script is perhaps a little more loosely crafted than “The Aztecs”, but it’s packed with high drama and brilliant characters. There’s a bit too much talking about the revolution, rather than actually witnessing it, but there are no gaping plot holes and the whole thing holds together beautifully.

Overall: 4.1