Doctor Who and the Silurians

Like a holographic image, perspective is crucial with Doctor Who. From a certain angle, it appears to be a single, coherent structure: a series of adventures about a hero with a changing face, stretching continuously across five decades and more. This illusion is preserved because of certain choices by production teams - unlike John Steed of The Avengers, the Doctor never actually experiences the same adventure twice (despite his earliest stories being unavailable to audiences immediately they were broadcast) and changes in cast and location are woven into the series with various attempts at dramatic seriousness (the sadness of a companion leaving, the upheaval of a Doctor's regeneration).

It's all a complete illusion, of course. Successive writers brought their interpretation of the character to the script, the script editor ensured nothing jarred too badly, the actor incorporated it into his performance, and the fans did the rest.

I thought about this illusion again this week, when some friends were discussing how best to watch Doctor Who if you were entirely new to it. I, typically, found myself on the fence. (Ouch.) I couldn't help agreeing that the chronological viewing experience is not really 'orthodox' or even very representative. There have never been more than a small handful of viewers who have seen the show in that way, and it was never made for them. Every audience of the show has had a successive, idiosyncratic, partial, selective and slightly mistaken idea of what the Doctor was doing before the current adventure.

That's how I saw the show. I was six when the series ended, and ten when I became a fan. I watched stories based on their availability at my local library, or based on relatives' decisions at Christmas, completely out of order till 2005.

But there is something alluring about that idea of an ongoing narrative. Like the idea that Ian and Barbara introduce an element of humanity into the Doctor's life which make him the man he is today, or that the Second Doctor and Jamie travlled as agents of the Time Lords between stories. The illusion is particularly strong during Season 7, when some attention has been given to the Doctor's relationship with his new surroundings.

This wonderfully dark (in all senses) story, and particularly its ending, are a moment of lost innocence for the Doctor. For a hundred years or so, it seems, he's been the one in charge - the hero of the hour, with young humans aboard his Tardis, who generally do what he says. Now he's like a companion to the Brigadier, somewhat subservient to his priorities and his morality. In this story, his trust is abused and the slightly starchy young human - with whom he was so matey when they encountered the Yeti and Cybermen - turns out to be disobedient, somewhat powerful, and rather dangerous.

The Brigadier becomes an interesting figure, partly because the writers are not very interested in his psychology, and therefore he comes off as slightly unreal - perhaps even unwell. In The Web of Fear, he's impressively open-minded. In The Invasion, we see that he has established this military 'unit' to deal with the unexplained. By Spearhead from Space, despite his charm, he is something of a loner. He replies to Liz Shaw's scepticism with the practiced calm of someone who has trod a solitary path for quite a while. He is waiting for his one true ally, the Doctor, to come back.

But he treats the Doctor - whose change of appearance he finds impossible and then credible within a short space of time - with suspicion, even as a child. The pair behave as if it was the same early days of their friendship, but in fact they are increasingly uncertain of one another. In this story he trusts the Doctor throughout, in spite of all hell breaking loose. He is patient to the end. But the Doctor learns not to mistake that for friendship.

This is the story of the Doctor being taken to the Wenley Moor research station by the Brigadier, much as the Doctor once took his companions to new and mysterious places. The Brigadier has an impressive eye for weird shit waiting to go off - the eye of a fanatic, almost. And not only are the Silurians an unknown 'weird shit' quantity for all concerned, but the Doctor himself proves to be a dangerous quantity. The Brigadier saves his life and provides the resolution to the story. The Doctor, by contrast, nearly gets the Brigadier killed.

It's a fascinating new development in the life of a man who used to be carefree and now finds himself involved in other people's lives: Liz, the Brigadier, the planet Earth, the Silurians. The Doctor is involved in a bigger adventure now - the ongoing history of the human race. At one point, he recklessly gambles humankind's safety, hoping to set history on a new course, a 1970s or 1980s Earth shared by humans and intelligent reptiles. The denouement is not merely a revelation about the Brigadier's powers, but also the Doctor;s disempowerment.

Of course, it's all in my mind. Jon Pertwee doesn't know how matey he used to be with the Brigadier. He doesn't realise how much things have changed for them - and Malcolm Hulke doesn't know that the Doctor will end the season by meeting a dark mirror of his friend (or begin the next season with his own dodgy doppelganger turning up). It's all a product of watching the series in sequence, a series made by people deeply engaged with its possibilities, its ideas of morality and terror. The effect is perverse and illusory - but also fascinating.

Spearhead from Space

Before I begin: look at this extraordinarily gorgeous piece of artwork for Spearhead from Space. It's one of the most attractive pieces of Doctor Who artwork I've seen since the days of illustrated video covers. It was made by an artist called Geoffrey Cole whose website is here: http://www.haberdashershaul.co.uk/ 

I found it on his blog, here.

So - what a huge treat this story is.

The Troughton years have their high points, visually. There's a dynamism to The Seeds of Death, brilliant direction in The Web of Fear, and eye-popping design in The War Games. Whenever the show gets on film, as in the closing scenes Enemy of the World, it looks terrifically atmospheric. This is a story that goes just that bit further, and the contrast made me swoon. It has the tangy natural light and the swishy visual style of a Hammer movie.

It has real menace too. It's the return of that idea in Doctor Who - begun with Lesterson in Power of the Daleks, I think - that some monsters are so scary they can send you slightly round the bend with fear. It really feels justified with these monsters, too. The Autons are deeply uncanny objects, their vaguely human body language only exaggerating their powerfully inhuman appearance. It might have been better to have our first glimpse of one be that glancing shot as the UNIT driver crashes his car. But there are multiple other horror moments, perfectly orchestrated. That poor dog. Those poor commuters!

The Ealing Broadway scene is really frightening. If I'd been a child in 1970 it might have been touch and go whether I watched the show again! It's not telegraphed beforehand - there is no plotline about the factory supplying mannequins to anybody - and it happens, innocuously, not only a high street, but in broad daylight.

What is all this fear in aid of? I suppose it's a sort of ghost story about how little we can judge from a person's physical appearance. The Brigadier doesn't recognise the Doctor - and monsters masquerade as men. It's also about the human ability to make the world itself more monstrous, by creating uncanny, lifeless simulacra of the things that used to matter to us. The Nestene's toehold on Earth is our cultural taste for the inhuman.

The pacing is unusual, the last episode full of action, the rest a slow build, with the Doctor unconscious for much of episode one. It's a brave choice, signalling that the production team want a whole new audience. Fortunately, it restores a little of his mystery, after so much of it was taken away. We may know his life story, but do we know this new incarnation?

It really is very odd to watch Jon Pertwee play the Doctor, after a year and a half (for me) of someone scruffy, schoolboyish, very rarely sober and composed, even more rarely bolshy ('I suppose you want to see my pass - well, I haven't got one...' is a fun scene you just can't imagine happening before this story). This is a camper Doctor, a more grown-up Doctor, perhaps more serious - certainly keener to be taken seriously.

But the fun of the show is that this man is a scientific genius, and he really doesn't behave like one. He's James Bond but he understands astrophysics. He's John Steed but he's been a time traveller. I always thought him so much more conventional than his other incarnations, but I'm beginning to realise that's the trick. And he does have a wonderfully schoolboy streak.

He's particularly naughty - and more like his First Incarnation - when he tricks his new friend Liz into betraying their boss, the Doctor's old pal, the Brigadier, and helping him (almost) escape from his commitments, potentially leaving the Earth to the grasping tentacles of the Nestene. Slightly shocking, isn't it? The fact that the Brigadier predicts such behaviour - perhaps even incites it, by keeping the key - makes it all the more interesting.

Room for some interesting stories there, I think.

And I don't want to go on too long and bore you, but Liz Shaw is an a brilliant addition to the team. I mean, I love Zoe Heriot, but with Liz comes the realisation that the Doctor hasn't travelled with a grown-up woman since, perhaps Sara, but probably Barbara. She's modern, she's wry, she's curious, she's clever, and Caroline John performs her perfectly.

The Brigadier without her put-downs is almost unthinkable.

This is the only story in Season 7 with which I'm really familiar. I know - oh boy, do I know - that it won't look and feel quite like this, and that some of the potential of the set-up remains unexplored. But I'm very excited for the rest of the run. And one last thing: I'd forgotten how much I love the Third Doctor's title sequence. I really think it might be my favourite, I would watch it for days.

And I suppose I will!

Next time: Doctor Who and 

the Cave Monsters