Desperate Measures (The Rescue Episode 2)

The one where the Doctor gains a new travelling companion...

If my memory serves me right, this is the third time that Barbara has been asked to lay a table in Doctor Who. The first two times she was asked to lay the table by people who ultimately wanted to harm her (Vasor in The Snows of Terror and the woman in the woods in The Waking Ally), but here she's recruited by sweet little Vicki. But as we soon see, Vicki is about to turn against Barbara too...

Poor Sandy the sand beast. He looks ferocious enough - he's got plenty of sharp teeth and roars like a monster - but he's actually Vicki's pet, and a herbivore at that. When Barbara sees the scaly monster edging towards Vicki, she uses a flare gun to kill it - much to Vicki's horror. You can see Barbara's point of view, but to be honest she was being a little uncharacteristically trigger-happy. Shoot first, ask questions later...

This spot of safari hunting on Barbara's part does give the episode some character conflict, however, which plays out beautifully thanks to David Whitaker's delicate writing and some rewarding performances. The Rescue is all very small-scale, but it's such a lovely character piece, rather like Whitaker's other two-parter, Inside the Spaceship. Vicki finds it hard to forgive Barbara for what she's done, and when the Doctor and Ian turn up, she sees them as just two more interfering strangers who could ruin everything. The good stuff starts the very moment the Doctor sets eyes on Vicki, the sight of which stops him in his tracks. He "sees" his granddaughter Susan, and from hereon in, a lovely new relationship begins to form.

It's obvious the Doctor sees Susan in Vicki. Same age, same build, same vulnerability. But he has learnt from his latter day troubles with the increasingly independent Susan, and knows how to deal with Vicki's tantrum. He's gentle and nurturing in his conversation with Vicki, and it's easy to see that this could well have been how William Hartnell was in real life when dealing with youngsters. There was a six-week break in production between Flashpoint and The Powerful Enemy, and it's as if Hartnell has had time to assess his performance and decided to soften the character a little, and lighten him up. He is pointedly grandfatherly toward Vicki and I think Desperate Measures marks a departure in Hartnell's performance, reimagining the Doctor as the kindly old wizard the actor liked to think he was, rather than the crotchety old grump of his first series. It's all very Capaldi.

I also like that little moment between Vicki, Ian and Barbara when Vicki is astounded to learn that Barbara, because she's from 1963, is 550 years old. Ian finds this terribly amusing, and Jacqueline Hill elbows William Russell in the ribs teasingly. Sometimes the chemistry between these actors just pours out of the screen.

The Doctor is given the lead of the plot for a change, investigating Bennett's empty bedroom and finding a tape recorder and trap door. This leads him to the Didonian Hall of Judgement, which again is lit beautifully by Howard King and shot creatively by Christopher Barry. We get high shots and dolly shots and a delightful use of perspective. The Doctor sits waiting in the foreground as Koquillion enters at the rear, like a cat awaiting its prey.

For the Doctor has worked out what's going on, that Koquillion is actually Bennett dressed up in Didonian ceremonial robes (he knows about them because he's visited before, remember!). The face-off between Bennett and the Doctor is electric, as Ray Barrett makes the murderer suddenly very dangerous and threatening as he stalks the time traveller around the hall. It transpires Bennett killed just one man aboard the spaceship bound for Astra, but after the crash, decided to kill the entire crew to bury his guilt. He also believes he killed all 100 of the Didonians. "You destroyed a whole planet to save your own skin?" sneers the Doctor. "You're insane!"

And then they fight. Actually, the Doctor starts it through his intention to whack Bennett over the head with Koquillion's sparkly spanner, but when Bennett fends him off, the Doctor goes hell for leather in defence, hacking at him with a blade and throwing furniture across the hall. Luckily, and rather too conveniently, two mysterious Didonian survivors appear in the nick of time and scare Bennett off, and ultimately over a cliff to his death. These Didonians don't come across as the friendliest people, to be honest, but then maybe Bennett's murderous presence has changed them since the Doctor was last here.

Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor decides to invite Vicki to join them on their travels. Vicki is alone on Dido - she has no parents, no friends, no means of transport, not even Sandy the sand beast any more. There is a rescue ship coming, but as the Doctor says, the Didonians will probably not allow that ship to land. And for the first time ever in Doctor Who, the Doctor woos a new friend aboard his Ship with the promise of endless tomorrows: "We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that old box as you call it, regardless of space and time. If you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it."

Vicki's wide-eyed reaction to the TARDIS's true dimensions is another joy, before she's thrown headlong into her first adventure when the TARDIS lands on a cliff edge and topples off it! Now that's what you call a cliffhanger!

The Rescue is a slight little story, and the mystery isn't a very difficult one to solve. But it's a beautiful character piece for all involved and helps to re-establish the relationship between them all, and the new one forged with orphan Vicki. The Doctor's ongoing need to plug that Susan-shaped hole in his life never really leaves him, leading to years of adventuring with the likes of Dodo, Victoria, Zoe, Jo, Sarah, Nyssa, Peri, Mel, Ace etc etc...

First broadcast: January 9th, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Doctor's confrontation with Bennett is written, acted and directed so well.
The Bad: So Koquillion was Bennett all along! Like we didn't guess...
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (story average: 9 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: The Slave Traders...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Powerful Enemy (episode 1)

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/2013/07/the-rescue.html

The Rescue is available in a DVD box set with The Romans. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/99t/Doctor-Who-Rescue-Romans-DVD-William-Hartnell/B001MYKYOU