Galaxy 4 The Savages Venusian Lullaby |
BBC The Rescue |
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| Episodes | 2 |  |
| Story No# | 11 | |
| Production Code | L | |
| Season | 2 | |
| Dates | Jan. 2, 1965 - Jan. 9, 1965 |
|
With William Hartnell, William Russell,
Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O'Brien. Written by David Whitaker. Script-edited by Dennis Spooner. Directed by Christopher Barry. Produced by Verity Lambert. |
| Synopsis: A young girl and crippled man are being held captive by the ruthless Koquillion. But it's not long before the Doctor begins to doubt Koquillion's motivations. |
The Inconsequential Rescue by Matthew Kresal 8/3/21
How do you follow up The Dalek Invasion of Earth? The biggest story in Doctor Who's history up to that point, not to mention one that saw its first companion exit. For the production team in late 1964, there was only one answer to that question: by introducing a new companion in the very next story. That story, lasting a mere two episodes, was to be The Rescue.
On the surface, it was a story that had a lot going for it. It came from the pen of outgoing script editor David Whitaker, who had previously penned the two-part Edge of Destruction. Such a contained and character-driven piece as that story offered a route for this story to take. Raymond Cusick returns to do the sets, not to mention Christopher Barry as director, all of which likewise boded well for it. Add on the trio of William Hartnell, Jacqueline Hill, and William Russell and the introduction of Maureen O'Brien as Vicki, and one should have a classic.
Right?
Well, to be sure, this isn't a bad story by any means. First and foremost, it's a vehicle for introducing Vicki, and, in that regard, it succeeds beautifully. She's a young lady, practically alone on a planet with the invalid Bennett and terrorized by an alien monster. Meeting up with the TARDIS crew post Susan's departure, they're a perfect fit for each other. It helps that O'Brien has instant chemistry with the main cast, particularly with Hartnell's Doctor, which is definitely in her favor. True, there's a moment of overacting by her in the second episode but, all things considered, it's a solid first go at introducing a new character into an established series.
It's also got some wonderful stuff for Hartnell. It's here, after ten stories, that the First Doctor as we've come to know him is, finally, apparent. He's in high spirits, perhaps surprisingly given the previous story (leaving a gap nicely mined in the spin-off fiction) with all traces of the slightly more sinister early days of the character behind him. It's a chance for Hartnell to show a lighter, even more playful, side to the character he'd been playing for a year at that point, as well as showing a paternal side when it comes to Vicki. What's more, there are shades of the Doctor we've come to know later on, as he takes on the role of investigator into events, even if it means leaving Ian and Barbara behind.
On the other hand, The Rescue isn't without problems. At two episodes, it feels oddly inconsequential. What does happen feels oddly contrived involving the invalid Bennet, the ruthless Koquillion and a seemingly deserted alien world. Whitaker goes for a hail-mary pass of a twist late in episode two, one which just about saves the story but, ultimately, still leaves some glaring plot holes behind. It also effectively sidelines Ian and Barbara as characters, leaving little for them to do except have their chemistry with each other, Vicki and the Doctor. Given how well Whitaker handled the two-parter, character-driven format in The Edge of Destruction, it feels like something of a letdown.
At the end of the day, perhaps, there are worse stories than The Rescue. There are also far better ones. Yet, perhaps more than anything else, it stands out as much for introducing the first new companion as it does for being utterly inconsequential. Indeed, one would have to wait until the Davison era (and the return of two-episode serials) to see such inconsequential tales in televised Who again.
So, could be better, could be worse.
A One-Suspect Murder Mystery by Jason A. Miller 2/3/24
55 years after its broadcast, one doesn't watch The Rescue to be dazzled by the intricacies of the plot. One watches it merely because, if you're going to watch Doctor Who in order, it's what comes in between The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Romans, and in terms of series-mythology episodes, it's the first introduction of a new regular character since An Unearthly Child. If you're watching Doctor Who, you have to watch The Rescue, no choice, without any regard to the story's relative merits.
And, from a strict plot standpoint, there is little merit here. David Whitaker was a lyrical and imaginative writer; Elizabeth Sandifer, Whitaker's biggest champion in the 21st century Doctor Who non-fiction market, compares his work to that of an alchemist, and points out several interesting and recurring buried themes and motifs. However, The Rescue doesn't have any of those themes. It's a filler two-part story primarily meant to introduce a new companion to replace Susan. It takes place in the future - sometime after the year, randomly, 2493. Vicki is one of two survivors of a shipwreck on the planet Dido, where the Doctor has been before. There's a murder mystery, with exactly one suspect, who is revealed Scooby-Doo-style at the end via unmasking (never mind that Scooby-Doo wasn't created until four years later). The Doctor knows every custom and tradition on Dido, but doesn't explain them until the climax, and only then explains them to the villain, so there is no grand planetary tapestry being weaved, no indispensable part of Doctor Who continuity (apart from Adrian Rigelsford's epic misspelling in one of his off-license non-fiction books). It's a short script with minimal impact, other than introducing Vicki.
But, if you're still watching Doctor Who 55 years later, it's fair to say that you're no longer watching to be surprised or awed or mystified. So the plot, strictly speaking, doesn't matter. What matters is the dialogue and the acting -- and this is where The Rescue just about works. It's the first episode of the second production season; William Hartnell has been on a six-week vacation and has had a chance to rethink the Doctor while away. So he does some of his best work here. He is mysterious, funny, charming and violent. Mysterious: he knows all there is to know about Dido, but doesn't share his knowledge with anyone. Funny: he gets off a number of memorable zingers (Barbara, referring to the TARDIS engine: "Oh, but Doctor, the trembling's stopped; The Doctor, at his most avuncular: "Oh, my dear, I'm so glad you're feeling better!"). Charming: Hartnell's body language when he first meets Vicki, and then in his two big solo scenes with her in Episode 2, are terrific, like nothing we've ever seen before out of the character - not even with Susan, who was meant to be his granddaughter.
And, as for the violence, this is Hartnell at his most physical. It's the first time the Doctor is ever seen to fire a gun, and he does so in an attempt to kill the bad guy -- in self-defense, and it's a Didonian prop that the audience wouldn't have recognized as a gun, but the Doctor knows what it is, and fires, and misses. But, even after missing his shot (and dropping the gun, which breaks), he's still able to strike out at the villain with his cane, in a remarkably physical bit of work that, as far as I can tell, was done by Hartnell himself and not a stunt double.
William Russell and Jacqueline Hill get several solo scenes together, and they're as good as we've ever seen them, too. Look carefully at the moment where Ian and Barbara tell Vicki that they're time travelers from the year 1963. Vicki earnestly puzzles it out, and says "But that means you're about... five hundred and fifty years old!". Russell and Hill laugh, genuinely laugh, so convincingly that you could believe Maureen O'Brien's age estimate was an ad lib rather than a scripted line. There's then a bit of physical comedy where Russell tries to grab Hill's shoulder, and she elbows him, and they both dissolve into giggles. That's terrific stuff, and almost certainly worked out by Russell and Hill in rehearsal rather than scripted by Whitaker.
Yeah. Ian and Barbara were definitely doing it. And The Rescue is sold on DVD in a double-bill with The Romans, Episode 1 of which only adds further proof that they were, definitely, definitely, doing it.
Maureen O'Brien joins the TARDIS crew here, and stays on for another year. She's playing a largely naive 14-year-old orphan, with all that entails, and the script requires her to show fear, anger, frustration and teenage mood swings. O'Brien handles all those emotions with charisma. The accidental death of the Sand Beast takes up way too much real estate in the script -- I suppose it was there to give Vicki a chance to cry -- but she does the best she can with the material. After a year of Carole Ann Ford's unearthly, pixie-haired, wide-eyed Susan, the blonde Vicki in a strange dress with a Kermit-the-Frog patterned neckline will take some getting used to, but her work is definitely unsung in the pantheon of great Doctor Who companions.
There is a road I wish the producers had gone down, which could never have been conceived in 1965. But The Rescue is, as I said above, a one-suspect murder mystery, and Ray Barrett (who delivers some wonderful line readings, mind you, especially at the climax) telegraphs his character's intentions with comical double-takes, which leaves very little mystery left in the, uh, mystery. But, and I say this having only recently discovered Battle Royale (book, movie, and manga), writing Vicki as a closet-psychopath 14-year-old serial-killer, like Mitsuko, would have added a wonderful enigma to this otherwise pat and trite little filler story. Vicki would have genuinely admired the Doctor and never revealed her villainy to him, but it might have been an interesting twist for her to have been the killer all along. And imagine Vicki's fomenting-rebellion role in The Space Museum, with that bit of backstory. Now that, I imagine, would require some acting that Maureen O'Brien would genuinely love to have played ...