The Savages Episode 4

The one where Steven becomes the new leader of an alien civilisation...

You don't get strong female characters very often in classic Doctor Who. You often get a tokenistic number of female characters, and more so in the Hartnell era than most of his successors' when you break down the statistics - no Troughton, Pertwee or Colin Baker story ever has more than 30% of the credited cast as women, for instance. So it's important to note the stronger female characters when they come along, and none more so than The Savages' Nanina.

Nanina is a character who seems to have been created in reverse. Usually in Doctor Who, the writer introduces a strong female character but then allows them to weaken or fade into the background over the course of the episodes, but Ian Stuart Black does the opposite. Nanina starts off as a stereotypical "maiden in distress", being chased through the scrubland by the guards, and then subjected to the transference procedure in the opening episodes, all with as few lines to say as possible.

The Savages Episode 3

The one where the Doctor is reduced to a comatose zombie...

I've forgotten to mention how cool I think the light guns are in this story. I'm not altogether sure just how they work, but it's clear that the light ray the guns emit is some form of tractor beam (a phrase first coined by SF novelist E E Smith in the 1930 novel Spacehounds of IPC), but the beam also has the effect of rendering the target immobile. And if the beam gets in the target's eyes, they are left unconscious for some time, as if mesmerised. The light guns are ingenious little inventions by Ian Stuart Black, and the sound effect accompanying them is good too.

It's actually the light guns which provide the catalyst for the narrative in this episode. In many ways it's a typical episode 3 in that there's a good bit of padding, notably with Exorse pursuing Steven, Dodo and Chal through the darkened tunnels, but at least it's directed atmospherically. But it's when Steven establishes how to turn the tables on Exorse and his weapon that things start to speed up again.

The Savages Episode 2

The one where the Doctor stands up against the Elders' experiments...

I've got to get straight back on to a subject that's preoccupied me ever since The Chase: that of how damn bloody annoying Steven Taylor is. Before I embarked on this epic episodic expedition through the history of Doctor Who, I didn't really have a strong opinion of Steven either way. I had a view of him as being a forthright young man, but that's about it. So few of his stories actually exist in full that it can be hard to get a hold on the true character.

But watching and listening to everything through has given me a much clearer idea as to what Steven is like, and I really don't like him! I've mentioned before how self-centred he can be, how he likes to be the one in the right and rarely accepts other people's opinions on face value. But it's the way he treats his fellow female companions which annoys me the most, and Dodo most of all.

The Savages Episode 1

The one where the Doctor is honoured as "the greatest specialist in time-space exploration"...

As soon as the Doctor insists that the TARDIS has landed in "an age of peace and prosperity", alarm bells surely chime! While he wanders off to take some readings with his questionably-named Reacting Vibrator, Steven and Dodo wait for him outside the TARDIS. These initial scenes were filmed on location at Callow Hill sandpit in Surrey and give the episode a bracingly open and atmospheric feel. Quarries and sandpits would become the laughable norm for Doctor Who in years to come, but here in The Savages, it feels spookily appropriate.

Judging by John Cura's telesnaps (hooray, they're back!) and the filming report in Richard Bignell's fantastic 2001 book Doctor Who On Location, it seems that William Hartnell himself didn't make it to Surrey, but we do get lots of lovely footage of Peter Purves (now dressed in what I like to call "puppeteer black") and Jackie Lane (dressed in what appears to be a dinner lady's tabard) with the police box prop.