The Rescue (part 1)
The Powerful Enemy
In which Doctor Who meets an enemy, who is powerful.
The TARDIS lands in a gloomy and sandy place.
We see a smashed up space rocket, with its radar system going nuts. An excited young woman rushes in to tell a man lying in a bed that a rescue ship has arrived.
Hey, everyone, its Vicki!
BENNETT: The rescue ship's not due for another three days. It can't even find Dido unless we guide it down. You know that.
VICKI: But it's showing on the screen. Come and look. I'll help you.
BENNETT: Did you hear it land?
VICKI: No. No, I didn't, but it
BENNETT: The rescue ship can't land silently.
VICKI: It must have done. It's just got here early that's all. It is here. It's as plain as anything on the screen.
And from the first seconds, the entire focus is on Vicki here. Look how enthusiastic and smart and how much like a member of the TARDIS crew she is. Look how orphaned she is, and in danger from a hidden threat. I think she needs a Doctor.
Even if you didn't know this is the new Doctor Who companion, Maureen O'Brien just takes over the entire screen with Vicki's bubbling enthusiasm. The look of disappointment as she contacts the rescue ship only to find its still days away is palpable.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor is taking a nap in a chair, while Barbara explains how the ship has landed as "the faint trembling" it emits when moving has stopped.
This leads to the laugh out loud line:
BARBARA: Oh, but Doctor, the trembling's stopped.
DOCTOR: Oh, my dear, I'm so glad you're feeling better.
The Doctor is quite obviously legit depressed about Susan leaving though, and the two school teachers are worried about him.
BARBARA: Then we have landed.
DOCTOR: Yes, er, excuse me, materialised, I think, is a better word.
I agree.
The Doctor starts to get excited until he asks Susan absentmindedly to open the TARDIS doors, at which Hartnell gives the most pained looking expression. Poor Doctor. Barbara is taught how to do it instead.
They are in a cave. The Doctor tells Ian and Barbara to "look around" but to "be careful as we don't have much luck with caves". Self-aware Doctor is self-aware.
The Doctor goes to look for a map (or have a wee cry to himself by the sounds of it) in the TARDIS and Ian and Barbara leave the cave, completely missing the guy with the rubber face looking at the TARDIS.
They see the broken spaceship, which is a fair bit away in the distance.
Ian thinks they should immediately go and check for survivors.
They turn round right into the rubber face guy.
IAN: Well, obviously you've had a good look around. Did you see any sign of another ship having landed?
KOQUILLION: Are there any other crewmembers?
IAN: Yes, there is. There's one more and he's back in the ship.
KOQUILLION: I would like to meet him. Go and fetch him. I will take you all to the city.
It's Cocky Lickin' (William Russell's deliberate pronunciation). Koquillon says Barbara can trust him, and then immediately throws Barbara off a ledge. That was a faster backstabbing than Mars Attacks!
DOCTOR: Oh, my writing gets worse and worse. Dear, dear, dear, dear, dear. Well, undoubtedly we've landed on the planet Dido. How remarkable. Well, I must say. it'll be rather nice to meet these friendly people again after all these years. Fancy landing back here again. I wonder if I were to tell Ian that it was deliberate, whether he'd believe me or not? Oh no, of course, I was asleep. Oh, pity, pity, pity.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor realises he's been on the planet before and is friends with the inhabitants.
But Koquillon blows up the entrance to the cave!
Barbara is out cold at the bottom of the ledge.
Ian tells the Doctor about the creature which did it, which confuses the Doctor as it doesn't sound anything like the people he knew. And even though we've never heard of the planet Dido (thank you?) 5 minutes ago, the look of incredulity on Bill Hartnell's face sells that the inhabitants of this planet are far too nice to be threatening school teachers.
DOCTOR: Now look here, what about Barbara, are you all right? Are you capable?
IAN: Yes, I'm not too bad.
DOCTOR: Come along. Don't just sit there, my dear boy, stand up, stand up. Come along, that's it, mind your head. It's only dust. No bones broken.
IAN: Thank you. Doctor. The most thorough-going medical I've ever had.
DOCTOR: Yes, it's a pity I didn't get that degree, isn't it?
LOL. (The Doctor hasn't given him more than a 3 second glance and declared Ian fit to work.)
Koquillon threatens Vicki by telling she has broken her lockdown rules and is not meant to go within 50 feet of the spaceship.
He claims "his people" destroyed the new ship, but he protects Vicki, as he hits some things out of her hands in a genuinely threatening manner.
KOQUILLION: Remember, I am the only one who can save you from my people. You should be grateful. I am your only protection!
We all know gits like that. With ray gun claws and all.
Koquillion goes to threaten Bennett (the man in the bed).
Vicki goes to check on Barbara whom she saved from her fall.
BARBARA: But why does he keep you here?
VICKI: They, they killed all the crew. We, when we landed, we made contact here. Everyone on board was invited to a grand sort of meeting. I couldn't go, I was ill, a fever or something. I stayed here that night. I remember waking up. A thunderstorm, I thought, but it was an explosion. Bennett. Bennett dragged himself back. I was ill for days, I didn't know about it till later. I came around and found Bennett. He can't walk. We just wait, and then Koquillion.
BARBARA: Well, if his people killed all your crew, why did, doesn't he kill you.
VICKI: We don't know. My father was taking me. My father. Your ship. Is your ship still here?
BARBARA: Yes.
Exposition, yes. But its made by the already growing relationship between Barbara and Vicki. And when Vicki cries about her dad but then tries to be brave, your heart breaks for her. Susan Who? Ahem.
Ian and the Doctor get lost in the caves. Doctor can't understand why the pacifist population would be violent. You can see the mystery which needs solved jumping in front of the Doctors eyes as he finds his old vigour back.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, my dear Chesterton, no. All the more reason for people on this planet to hate death and destruction. My dear boy, when I was here before, the, what, the total population amounted to, a handle of people. Merely a hundred.
IAN: Is that all?
DOCTOR: Yes, exactly. All the more reason for holding onto life. Peace, friendship, happiness. This means everything to the people here.
And there's an ominous lack of those people here, isn't there? I wonder if they were at that meeting/explosion.
Bennett enters the room to check on Vicki. He tells her that Koquillon killed the people on the mountain so Vicki triumphantly reveals Barbara, and Bennett looks, well, worried.
You'd probably have twigged by now the "twist" here, such as it is. Ray Bennett does his best with relatively weak material thus far.
The Doctor and Ian walk along a ledge.
Suddenly... some small spikes come out of the wall to apparently trap Ian. Andre the Giant could get beyond them, but for the purposes of cliffhanger, Ian is trapped. A small roaring monster is at the bottom of the slope.
Then some more spikes come out of the wall, threatening to send Ian down a small decline...
Fun episode, slightly naff finish!
The Rescue (part 2)
Desperate Measures
Well, they'll need some to get out of that cliffhanger!
Ian swings round the blades to safety. Yeah, that makes sense.
Bennett has fainted on seeing Barbara, who thinks he has a weak heart. The two women talk about trapping Koquillon, but Bennett goes on and on about how its doomed. And you know, out of context, its a bit "well which side is he on?" But in context, we've had 3 Captain Pessimists so far, so if you didn't know any better, Bennett is just another in a long line of needlessly pessimistic guest stars.
Ray Barrett the actor, Bennett the character. I keep mixing them up.
BENNETT: Course I'm right. Just because I lie on that bed all day doesn't mean I've lost the use of my brain. Help me to my room, please.
Deliberate echoes of Dortmun from the last story too here, I think.
Doctor and Ian continue to examine the caves.
The creature from the cave at the cliffhanger walks out into the sun, and goes over to Vicki. Barbara sees this and rushes out with a flare gun and kills it. And Vicki... starts screaming at her for killing her pet!
Talk about mood whiplash!
In a moment, we flip the entire conventions of the show so far, as well as paint Vicki in a multi-faceted light as a survivor.
The first story in Who history to need to replace one of the main cast, The Rescue draws a remarkably short stick. After all, fail to replace Carole Ann Ford adequately would spell trouble in the long and even short term as the audience identification character. Nowadays, the revolving door of the TARDIS is part of the inbuilt charm of the show, but back in 1964, Maureen O’Brien had the task of doing the unprecedented in show’s history. She has noted that the press interest in her all of a sudden was something she was utterly unprepared for…
“There were journalists knocking on the door at seven in the morning and I had to climb out of the back window, as there wasn’t a back door! It was absolutely terrifying, and I just didn’t know what I’d let myself in for. I had no idea it was so enormous and such a great cult. It was a terrible shock to me and I couldn’t really cope with it at all." recalled Maureen O'Brien years later in DWM, but in the role of Vicki, she is superb. Like a breath of fresh air into the show, amiable but with a hard edge to her, brought on by self-preservation on a hostile planet. She appears to be looking after the crippled Bennett, but she seems smart enough to know to be wary around him, and she has enough wits about her to befriend or tame the local sand monster. Vicki nearly manages to steal the spotlight from all, proving how wise the choice in replacement of companion was. She’ll provide the quintessential joie de vivre for most of her run on the show.
Poor Sandy though. He just wanted to say hi, and dies screaming in agony.
RIP Sandy The Sand Beast 1965-1965
Barbara is quite apologetic about the whole pet murdering business, and Vicki is irate.
And into the spaceship walks the Doctor and Ian.
The Doctor takes one look at the crying Vicki and immediately gives a Doctor look.
Vicki no longer wants to talk to any of the crew because of the dead pet incident, and the Doctor tells Ian and Barbara to sod off so he can put on his grandfather act.
DOCTOR: Vicki, my dear. Sit down. You don't mean that, do you? Well, do you? Mmm? Good, good. Now, I've listened to all you've said and I've thoroughly understood. We're here to help you. This is all we're going to try to do. You know, we're not going to ruin things for you.
VICKI: Bennett says that when we get back we've got to tell them on Earth what they did to us here. He thinks this planet should be wiped out.
DOCTOR: Yes.
VICKI: He says Koquillion shouldn't be made to get away with what he's done to us.
DOCTOR: I think I agree with Bennett, at least about Koquillion. But don't you think there's just a chance, just a little chance that my ideas might prove the better ones? Hmm? Good, good. Now, I'll go and have a talk with Mister Bennett and I promise you, I'll listen to everything he says. Hmm?
VICKI: I'll take you to him.
DOCTOR: Splendid.
The Doctor doctors his way into Vickis trust, but he also starts to unravel the plot in his own mind. At least that's what Hartnells face leads us to believe.
The Doctor tries to calm Vicki against Barbara by saying he might even have killed Sandy in a panic, and Vicki says he never could as he hasn't the face for it, and as we watch, the shows DNA is being rewritten. This is no longer the scared "bash 'em in the face with a rock" guy from the first story. Do no evil, fight all evil champion of the persecuted Doctor Who is here in full glory and despite certain showrunners attempts, he never leaves.
The Doctor forces his way into Bennett's room, while Vicki and Barbara make peace.
IAN: Well, you see Vicki, our space ship, well, isn't like this one. It travels through time.
BARBARA: We left in 1963.
VICKI: 1963! But that means you're about five hundred and fifty years old.
BARBARA: Why, yes, I suppose I am. Yes, it's a way of looking at it, but I'll try not to look at it too often.
And as I laugh, Ian laughs also and gets elbowed in the side by Barbara!
The Doctor finds the sleeping quarter empty, and chuckles to himself. He finds tape recordings too. Next time he meets Bennett he's going to say "just one more thing..."
See, Who fans tend to go "this is the weakest twist ever". That's not the point. It isn't a twist. Its clear from about 2 lines in that Bennett is dodgy at the very least. This is not a Whodunnit.
It's a villains plan coming undone by a TARDIS arriving on the scene.
It's the Doctor...as nemesis.
The Doctor follows a trapdoor down a cave to find Koquilllon's secret hiding base inside an old Didoian temple of worship. Will someone have a White Flag?
And into the spaceship walks the Doctor and Ian.
The Doctor takes one look at the crying Vicki and immediately gives a Doctor look.
Vicki no longer wants to talk to any of the crew because of the dead pet incident, and the Doctor tells Ian and Barbara to sod off so he can put on his grandfather act.
DOCTOR: Vicki, my dear. Sit down. You don't mean that, do you? Well, do you? Mmm? Good, good. Now, I've listened to all you've said and I've thoroughly understood. We're here to help you. This is all we're going to try to do. You know, we're not going to ruin things for you.
VICKI: Bennett says that when we get back we've got to tell them on Earth what they did to us here. He thinks this planet should be wiped out.
DOCTOR: Yes.
VICKI: He says Koquillion shouldn't be made to get away with what he's done to us.
DOCTOR: I think I agree with Bennett, at least about Koquillion. But don't you think there's just a chance, just a little chance that my ideas might prove the better ones? Hmm? Good, good. Now, I'll go and have a talk with Mister Bennett and I promise you, I'll listen to everything he says. Hmm?
VICKI: I'll take you to him.
DOCTOR: Splendid.
The Doctor doctors his way into Vickis trust, but he also starts to unravel the plot in his own mind. At least that's what Hartnells face leads us to believe.
The Doctor tries to calm Vicki against Barbara by saying he might even have killed Sandy in a panic, and Vicki says he never could as he hasn't the face for it, and as we watch, the shows DNA is being rewritten. This is no longer the scared "bash 'em in the face with a rock" guy from the first story. Do no evil, fight all evil champion of the persecuted Doctor Who is here in full glory and despite certain showrunners attempts, he never leaves.
The Doctor forces his way into Bennett's room, while Vicki and Barbara make peace.
IAN: Well, you see Vicki, our space ship, well, isn't like this one. It travels through time.
BARBARA: We left in 1963.
VICKI: 1963! But that means you're about five hundred and fifty years old.
BARBARA: Why, yes, I suppose I am. Yes, it's a way of looking at it, but I'll try not to look at it too often.
And as I laugh, Ian laughs also and gets elbowed in the side by Barbara!
The Doctor finds the sleeping quarter empty, and chuckles to himself. He finds tape recordings too. Next time he meets Bennett he's going to say "just one more thing..."
See, Who fans tend to go "this is the weakest twist ever". That's not the point. It isn't a twist. Its clear from about 2 lines in that Bennett is dodgy at the very least. This is not a Whodunnit.
It's a villains plan coming undone by a TARDIS arriving on the scene.
It's the Doctor...as nemesis.
The Doctor follows a trapdoor down a cave to find Koquilllon's secret hiding base inside an old Didoian temple of worship. Will someone have a White Flag?
The others discover Doctor and Bennett are gone. They rush to find the TARDIS.
The Doctor, staring at the camera, hears Koquillon enter the room behind him and with a knowing look at the TV audience, tells him to come in as "he's been meaning to talk to you".
He knows. You know he knows. The guy in the mask knows he knows.
My tea's gone cold
I'm wondering why Koquillon killed us all
The morning rain clouds up my spaceship
And I can't see at all
DOCTOR: This used to be the Peoples' Hall of Judgement. Fitting, in the present circumstances don't you think, hmm? Mister Bennett, may I remind you that masks and robes such as you are wearing are only used on absolutely ceremonial occasions, hmm?
Told you he knew. The Doctor is properly irate here.
BENNETT: To save my life. I killed a crewmember on the spaceship to Astra. I was arrested. The ship crashed. My crime hadn't been radioed to Earth. I knew if I could get rid of the other crewmembers.
DOCTOR: Get rid of the other crewmembers and blame their deaths on the Dido people, hmm?
BENNETT: When we crash landed, the inhabitants invited us all to a grand meeting. It was simple. I just arranged an explosive, using the ships armaments. The whole thing went up. All the inhabitants, the crew, the whole race.
DOCTOR: You destroyed a whole planet to save your own skin. You're insane.
BENNETT: The girl didn't know I'd been arrested. When we get back to Earth, she'd support my story. I dressed up as Koquillion to show her how terrible the people here were.
DOCTOR: If that happened, your guilt would have been hidden forever, hmm?
BENNETT: If it happened? Nothing's changed. There's only three more people for Koquillion to kill, that's all.
And with the crippled ploy being over, Bennett is instantly more threatening and dangerous, and damn near nearly murders the Doctor on the spot. The Doctor is fury and righteous but he's still an old man against a murderous psycho.
Still, he has some luck Peter Falk never had.
Because, you see, Bennett isn't starring in a police procedural.
Or indeed, any normal episode of Dr Who.
It's the Doctor who barely sees the two unmoving figure first.
Bennett then sees them and freaks the ¤¤¤¤ out.
"I thought I'd killed all of you" he cries, as he looks in horror at the two ghost like figures who walk dispassionately towards him. He backs away in terror, before falling to his doom.
Even the Doctor is a bit worried at the out of focus figures...
You see, even fandom gets The Rescue wrong...
“Inconsequential” claimed The Discontinuity Guide. “Relatively unambitious” and “lightweight” said David J Howe, in an otherwise mostly positive piece in the Television Companion.
It’s not really a story that is considered, sandwiched as it is between a story about Nero and a story about the Daleks invading Earth. A Whodunnit in which there is no question about Who Done It, and a story with a prime example of deus ex machina in its climax. Even Patrick Mulkern, in calling the show the neglected gem that it is, pointed to both of these as flaws in the narrative.
But... ask yourself this. Is a story in which there are seemingly only three guest characters, and one is bedridden, and the second the new Doctor Who companion, intended to be a whodunit? I referenced Colombo above, which rarely hid its murderers’ identities from the audience, and is more about how Peter Falk managed to catch them. Ditto here, it’s fairly obvious to all early on that Bennett had to be Koquellion. That’s not the story. The story is in how the TARDIS crew save Vicki, and themselves, from him.
So when those two figures show up, the question we need to ask is...
Where the hell did those two guys come from? Ian Marter’s book, and most fan descriptions, has them as surviving locals that Bennett failed to kill off. Which is a mediocre possibility, admittedly. However, this story so well fits the tropes of a certain other genre, that I can’t help but wonder if Doctor Who fans have actually got the wrong end of the stick for over 50 years.
I suggest that “The Rescue” is actually a ghost story, and that the two who appear are the ghosts.
Let's hear from the master himself:
“Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage. It is not amiss sometimes to leave a loophole for a natural explanation; but I would say, let the loophole be so narrow as not to be quite practicable.”
M.R. James, Introduction to Ghosts and Marvels (1929)
Ray Barrett, who never gets the praise deserved for a fine performance, plays Bennett the entire time as a man constantly just looking out of the corner of his eye. What can he see that we can't?
Look at a traditional M.R. James ghost story. Lost Hearts for example, in which the ghost children appear to see off their murderer and protect a third victim from the same fate. The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, in which a reverend with a murderous past finds the ghosts catching up with him. The Tractate Middoth, The Mezzotint and many others all focus on vengeful ghosts who get their own back on the person who wronged them in life. Remind you of anything?
The Rescue is not your average bog-standard Doctor Who story. It is the story of Bennett, a man who tried to kill a planet, but the planet’s ghosts saw to him, and protected someone else – the Doctor – from following their same fate. It is Doctor Who’s very own ghost story for Christmas.
If you look at it as a typical Doctor Who story, then its full of holes. If you look at “The Rescue” as a ghost story in the English tradition, then the whole thing falls into place. The plot is like Lost Hearts, in fact, completely with creepy childr... ok, two extras in white clothes..
Anyhow, the ghosts saved Doctor Who if you were worried. And then faded out of shot in an eerie bit of camera work which only backs up the theory.
Doctor wakes up in the TARDIS with no memory of how he got there.
Having been saved by ghosts, the Doctor speaks to Vicki and invites her to join the TARDIS crew.
DOCTOR: That's about what happened, and that's all.
VICKI: Then Bennett murdered my father. Then I've got nobody.
DOCTOR: My dear. My dear, why don't you come with us, hmm?
VICKI: In that old box?
DOCTOR: We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that old box as you call it. Regardless of space and time.
VICKI: Then it is a time machine?
DOCTOR: And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it. Apart from all that, well you'll be amongst friends. Hmm? Well? Now, suppose I leave you here for a moment to think about it, hmm?
She joins the TARDIS crew.
As the ghosts smash the communication beacon the rescue ship (still days away) is homing in on, the Doctor says the two male figures have their planet back. But he doesn't seem convinced. In fact, he looks like he saw a ghost...
In trying something out with the Doctor Who norm, and in introducing a new companion you want to root for, The Rescue is a smash hit. It's not got Daleks, or Romans, or Zarbi in it, but it's a short enjoyable tale which doesn't let up. I'd even go as far to call it a neglected gem of the Hartnell era, if not of the entire show.
I'm wondering why Koquillon killed us all
The morning rain clouds up my spaceship
And I can't see at all
DOCTOR: This used to be the Peoples' Hall of Judgement. Fitting, in the present circumstances don't you think, hmm? Mister Bennett, may I remind you that masks and robes such as you are wearing are only used on absolutely ceremonial occasions, hmm?
Told you he knew. The Doctor is properly irate here.
BENNETT: To save my life. I killed a crewmember on the spaceship to Astra. I was arrested. The ship crashed. My crime hadn't been radioed to Earth. I knew if I could get rid of the other crewmembers.
DOCTOR: Get rid of the other crewmembers and blame their deaths on the Dido people, hmm?
BENNETT: When we crash landed, the inhabitants invited us all to a grand meeting. It was simple. I just arranged an explosive, using the ships armaments. The whole thing went up. All the inhabitants, the crew, the whole race.
DOCTOR: You destroyed a whole planet to save your own skin. You're insane.
BENNETT: The girl didn't know I'd been arrested. When we get back to Earth, she'd support my story. I dressed up as Koquillion to show her how terrible the people here were.
DOCTOR: If that happened, your guilt would have been hidden forever, hmm?
BENNETT: If it happened? Nothing's changed. There's only three more people for Koquillion to kill, that's all.
And with the crippled ploy being over, Bennett is instantly more threatening and dangerous, and damn near nearly murders the Doctor on the spot. The Doctor is fury and righteous but he's still an old man against a murderous psycho.
Still, he has some luck Peter Falk never had.
Because, you see, Bennett isn't starring in a police procedural.
Or indeed, any normal episode of Dr Who.
It's the Doctor who barely sees the two unmoving figure first.
Bennett then sees them and freaks the ¤¤¤¤ out.
"I thought I'd killed all of you" he cries, as he looks in horror at the two ghost like figures who walk dispassionately towards him. He backs away in terror, before falling to his doom.
Even the Doctor is a bit worried at the out of focus figures...
You see, even fandom gets The Rescue wrong...
“Inconsequential” claimed The Discontinuity Guide. “Relatively unambitious” and “lightweight” said David J Howe, in an otherwise mostly positive piece in the Television Companion.
It’s not really a story that is considered, sandwiched as it is between a story about Nero and a story about the Daleks invading Earth. A Whodunnit in which there is no question about Who Done It, and a story with a prime example of deus ex machina in its climax. Even Patrick Mulkern, in calling the show the neglected gem that it is, pointed to both of these as flaws in the narrative.
But... ask yourself this. Is a story in which there are seemingly only three guest characters, and one is bedridden, and the second the new Doctor Who companion, intended to be a whodunit? I referenced Colombo above, which rarely hid its murderers’ identities from the audience, and is more about how Peter Falk managed to catch them. Ditto here, it’s fairly obvious to all early on that Bennett had to be Koquellion. That’s not the story. The story is in how the TARDIS crew save Vicki, and themselves, from him.
So when those two figures show up, the question we need to ask is...
Where the hell did those two guys come from? Ian Marter’s book, and most fan descriptions, has them as surviving locals that Bennett failed to kill off. Which is a mediocre possibility, admittedly. However, this story so well fits the tropes of a certain other genre, that I can’t help but wonder if Doctor Who fans have actually got the wrong end of the stick for over 50 years.
I suggest that “The Rescue” is actually a ghost story, and that the two who appear are the ghosts.
Let's hear from the master himself:
“Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage. It is not amiss sometimes to leave a loophole for a natural explanation; but I would say, let the loophole be so narrow as not to be quite practicable.”
M.R. James, Introduction to Ghosts and Marvels (1929)
Ray Barrett, who never gets the praise deserved for a fine performance, plays Bennett the entire time as a man constantly just looking out of the corner of his eye. What can he see that we can't?
Look at a traditional M.R. James ghost story. Lost Hearts for example, in which the ghost children appear to see off their murderer and protect a third victim from the same fate. The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, in which a reverend with a murderous past finds the ghosts catching up with him. The Tractate Middoth, The Mezzotint and many others all focus on vengeful ghosts who get their own back on the person who wronged them in life. Remind you of anything?
The Rescue is not your average bog-standard Doctor Who story. It is the story of Bennett, a man who tried to kill a planet, but the planet’s ghosts saw to him, and protected someone else – the Doctor – from following their same fate. It is Doctor Who’s very own ghost story for Christmas.
If you look at it as a typical Doctor Who story, then its full of holes. If you look at “The Rescue” as a ghost story in the English tradition, then the whole thing falls into place. The plot is like Lost Hearts, in fact, completely with creepy childr... ok, two extras in white clothes..
Anyhow, the ghosts saved Doctor Who if you were worried. And then faded out of shot in an eerie bit of camera work which only backs up the theory.
Doctor wakes up in the TARDIS with no memory of how he got there.
Having been saved by ghosts, the Doctor speaks to Vicki and invites her to join the TARDIS crew.
DOCTOR: That's about what happened, and that's all.
VICKI: Then Bennett murdered my father. Then I've got nobody.
DOCTOR: My dear. My dear, why don't you come with us, hmm?
VICKI: In that old box?
DOCTOR: We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that old box as you call it. Regardless of space and time.
VICKI: Then it is a time machine?
DOCTOR: And if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it. Apart from all that, well you'll be amongst friends. Hmm? Well? Now, suppose I leave you here for a moment to think about it, hmm?
She joins the TARDIS crew.
As the ghosts smash the communication beacon the rescue ship (still days away) is homing in on, the Doctor says the two male figures have their planet back. But he doesn't seem convinced. In fact, he looks like he saw a ghost...
In trying something out with the Doctor Who norm, and in introducing a new companion you want to root for, The Rescue is a smash hit. It's not got Daleks, or Romans, or Zarbi in it, but it's a short enjoyable tale which doesn't let up. I'd even go as far to call it a neglected gem of the Hartnell era, if not of the entire show.
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