Sunday 18th May 2014
A new week and this time we were to watch TWO stories! I was extra happy as well because I could join in with the rest of the gang in that I'd NEVER seen these episodes either! I'd only recently purchased the DVD set and had decided to hold off from watching them, so we could all watch them as Rescue-Roman Virgins!
So this week we were back at young Jim's house and, whilst the warm, lovely sun beat down outside, we sat back in the dark to watch the 2-part story "The Rescue".
Photo 1: Mark (holding "The Rescue" DVD cover), Leigh (with sign), Jim and Jason (holding the Outer box cover) around Jim's house.
The story continues from the loss of Susan and hints at the Doctor's sadness about this. Of course we don't linger on this for too long as they arrive on an alien planet and the Doctor wants to meet the aliens there, who he says he's met before and that they were very nice!
Photo 2: MJ, Leigh (holding "The Rescue" DVD cover), Jim (with sign) and Jason (holding the Outer box cover) around Jim's house.
Of course once they start exploring, they meet (what they think are) dangerous aliens, rock falls and Barbara falling over a fair bit. In fact she is rescued from one of these falls by Vicki Pallister (I had to look up the surname as I don't think her suranme was established on TV!) - a 25th Century girl whose space ship has crashed and is being threatened by one of the planet's inhabitants. Suffice to say it's not the aliens, it's Vicki's ship mate who's pretending to be the bad alien just to put them in a bad light, so that when they DO get rescued Earth will think these aliens are hostile and then wipe them out - or something like that!!
This two-parter is basically a way to introduce a new young companion to replace Susan and this is what we get at the end of the episode when Vicki joins the gang on their travels.
I really enjoyed the story - it was quick, zipped along nicely and I thought the sets and acting were good. Indeed William Hartnell seemed to be on very good form!
So after a quick break we went straight into the next story "The Romans" - a 4-part historical adventure which starts in the previous story with a real cliff-hanger i.e. the TARDIS teeters on the edge of a cliff and falls....though, as we find out in Episode 1, not very far!
Photo 3: Mark, Leigh (with sign), Jim (holding "The Romans" DVD cover) and Jason (holding the Outer box cover) around Jim's house.
The next episode starts off, quite confusingly, a few weeks later and sees the TARDIS crew living in a Roman villa on something of a holiday and having a lovely time! Even joking around!
Photo 4: MJ (holding the Outer box cover), Leigh (with sign), Jim (holding "The Romans" DVD cover) and Jason around Jim's house.
All goes great, until the Doctor and Vicki decide to go away for a couple of days leaving strangers to break into the mansion and kidnap Ian and Barbara as slaves!
The rest of the story continues as something of a comedy drama, lots of really funny moments and the Doctor (disguised as a musician) tricks Emperor Nero with a sort of "Emporer's New Clothes" way of playing his lyre - the music being so subtle that only those with a suitable ear for music can hear it!
The TARDIS crew also seem to be the ones to give Nero the idea to set fire to Rome (which is quite a famous historical event).
Jason has this to say about both stories:
JASON: "I very much enjoyed both 'The Rescue' and 'The Romans'. For me both stories moved along quickly with enough going on to entertain me. We experienced crashed spaceships, Scooby-Doo dress-up villains and Ian & Barbara finally getting some peaceful alone-time - well at least as far as The Doctor believes.
For now at least I like the new companion. Vicki doesn't shriek "Grandfather!" every 5 minutes and has so far managed to remain upright. She hasn't done much. However, like when she casually almost poisoned Nero, what she has done has entertained me. She appears to be bringing out a more fun and engaging version of the Doctor now that he isn't concerned with acting proper and protective in front of Susan.
The tone of these 2 episodes shifted greatly. The Romans was a complete farce (not a bad thing). There were moments with Nero and Barbara where the Benny Hill theme wouldn't have felt out of place.
The cliff hanger that bridged the 2 stories - the Tardis lands on the edge of a small cliff and falls off - seems unnecessary, though I suppose it's more thrilling than "Yay! We're in Roman-times! Let's have a rest for 6 weeks!"
The main lesson I learned is that you will always be easily forgiven for killing someone's pet - providing you didn't KNOW it was their pet."
So there we go, yes I know what he means about the Benny Hill theme, Nero did come across as some randy character from an old Carry On movie or some farce. I think that helped to make it memorable and fun - you wouldn't want this EVERY week, but it does make a nice break from the norm. Plus it's nice to have the gang playing for a change!
So a new TARDIS group of course means a new TARDIS group photo - so here it is!
I think "lovely" is the word you're after. The New TARDIS Gang. And Jim.
Well, we shall meet again in a few Sunday's time.
Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....
MJ 20-05-14
