A Holiday for the Doctor (The Gunfighters Episode 1)

The one where the Doctor has a tooth extracted without anaesthetic...

Waitaminute-what-whut!? This episode of Doctor Who opens with a song! Is it a musical? What's going on? This is highly irregular. But hang on, what's this... It's set in the Wild West! There's cowboys and horses and guns, the works! Wow, what a stunning opening to the episode - completely different, utterly refreshing and totally putting the viewer on the back foot. How many viewers back in 1966 had to check their Radio Times to make sure they had the right programme?

And look at that set! An entire Western saloon town, complete with stoops and shops, a livery store and a dusty old track down the middle. It's no surprise to see the designer for this serial was Barry Newbery, one of Doctor Who's finest ever creatives. This might be squashed into Studio 4 at Television Centre, but to be honest it looks pretty expansive. You can tell that it isn't when you see actors taking their time to cross the street, because there's nowhere else to go, but Newbery has come up with a stunning set here, which has so much detail and depth that it looks real and lived in. And director Rex Tucker affords us some lovely high shots and low shots too.

Oh, those American accents though. Cor blimey, these actors are eye-wateringly poor at a convincing cowboy twang, particularly William Hurndell as Ike Clanton and David Cole as Billy Clanton. They're no better accents than the ones eight-year-old kids would try on in the playground. On the flipside, they all look the part, especially Shane Rimmer as Seth Harper and the rather rugged Maurice Good as Phineas Clanton. (See my pictorial guide to what the real historical figures of The Gunfighters looked like, just for fun, at the bottom of this review!) ↓

The ballad (sung by none other than Lynda Baron of Enlightenment and Closing Time fame) is a bit of an earworm, and nicely punctuates the beginnings and ends of scenes in place of an instrumental score. It is used a little too generously over the episode as a whole, but I really like the feel it adds to the piece. If this was made in the 21st century, the production team would be calling it the "most Westerny Western ever". Good on Doctor Who 1966 for trying to copy what countless American network TV stations were churning out ten to the dozen back then. It's another example of how the best people behind Doctor Who have never allowed its budget to diminish its ambition.

Almost from the start it's obvious The Gunfighters is written as a comedy, which we can expect from the man who also brought us the less-than-serious The Myth Makers earlier this season. Steven and Dodo are excited by the prospect of spending some time in the Wild West (Steven's always wanted to see what it's like to be a cowboy, while Dodo has always wanted to meet Wyatt Earp, for some reason). For the first time in a long time it feels like the TARDIS travellers are actually having fun and enjoying their adventures, and while Dodo is usually very bubbly and enthusiastic anyway, it's slightly out of character to see Steven so gleeful. I'd normally expect him to be moaning about how dangerous the Wild West was, and telling Dodo to calm down "before you get us all killed". Cotton writes Steven as he wants the male companion to be, rather than as Steven is, which for four weeks at least, I'll be more than happy to put up with. Steven can be such a drag sometimes. It amuses me to see him tripping over his spurs and fumbling his pistol (which reminds me, the Doctor has a personal gun collection?!).

With Steven dressed like Tom Mix and Dodo like a plucky cowgirl, our heroes seek out a dentist to see to the Doctor's ailing tooth, and it's such a divine coincidence that a new dental saloon has just opened in Tombstone, run by one Doc Holliday. As soon as the Doctor meets Bat Masterson he seems to have really entered into the spirit of Steven and Dodo's joie de vivre, and once again, when handed light-hearted comedy, William Hartnell knocks it out of the park. He's just so good at the witty banter, which he makes look effortless and throwaway, but delivers with great style and experience. It's in the way he introduces his companions as Dodo Dupont, "Wizard of the Ivory Keys", and Steven Regret, and claims his own name is Doctor Caligari ("Doctor who?" snaps Masterson; "Yes, quite right"). It's in the way he says they are "travelling players between engagements" and beckons to his friends: "Come, fellow thespians".

Look at Hartnell in the dentist scenes with Anthony Jacobs as Holliday. You can barely tear your eyes off him, even though for much of the time he's clutching his jaw with a hankie and groaning. It's all in the screen presence he exudes, and the confidence he has in making the scene work, given good material. And Cotton pulls some zingers out of the hat at times, including my favourite exchange:

DOCTOR: I never touch alcohol.

DOC HOLLIDAY: Well, I do... [swigs from whisky bottle]

Yes, William Hartnell is at the top of his game here, giving his Doctor a lovely, curmudgeonly warmth and charm that so often gets overshadowed by the common misconception that his incarnation was always grumpy and shouty. Much of that undeserved reputation must be down to Richard Hurndall's performance in The Five Doctors (and some fault must also lie with writer Terrance Dicks), which had none of the twinkle that Hartnell possessed. I mean, you could swap Hartnell out and put Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor in to this story, and there's little difference. As for the Doctor's amusing affectation of calling Wyatt Earp "Mr Werp" all the time... love it!

Plot-wise, it's a case of mistaken identity again (Cotton used a similar device in The Myth Makers when the Doctor was mistaken for Zeus). The rogue Clanton clan are after Doc Holliday, and quite soon the Doctor is mistaken for Holliday, complete with Doc's gun and holster. Meanwhile, in the Last Chance Saloon, Steven and Dodo are mocked for coming over as more "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass", and ordered to sing for their supper. The biggest revelation here is that Dodo is apparently a virtuoso pianist, knocking out a tune without even seeing the music before. She really is a Wizard of the Ivory Keys!

A Holiday for the Doctor is a rip-roaring tour de force of fun and energy. The American accents let it down badly, but there's so much to enjoy in these 25 minutes that they're easily overlooked. After several weeks of very earnest or very disappointing Doctor Who, I find this exhilarating and refreshing. Encore!

First broadcast: April 30th 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Word up for Barry Newbery's fabulous sets, along with William Hartnell's effortless lightness of touch.
The Bad: William Hurndell's American accent is abominable.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Don't Shoot the Pianist...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Don't Shoot the Pianist (episode 2); Johnny Ringo (episode 3); The O.K. Corral (episode 4)

How did the actual historical figures featured in The Gunfighters really look? Here's a fun guide:

Click to Enlarge
Main: Wyatt Earp
Left to right, from top: Pa Clanton, Ike Clanton, Phineas Clanton
Left to right, from centre: Billy Clanton, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday
Left to right, from bottom: Johnny Ringo, Warren Earp, Virgil Earp

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-gunfighters.html

The Gunfighters is available on DVD as part of the Earth Story box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Earth-Gunfighters-Awakening/dp/B004T9DSTI