Doctor Who, season 3 continues …

The Gunfighters is often seen as a comedy/joke story and, whilst its true that the contrast between it and the previous couple of stories is quite staggering, The Gunfighters does come across well compared to the relatively poor stories that we’ve had in season 3 so far.

Doctor Who has dipped its toes into doing something different before and, here, they go all the way.  The scenery/sets (even in my poor quality version, which came from an old off-air VHS recording from a UK Gold cable broadcast) look great.  The accents, while exaggerated, aren’t anywhere near as bad as some people make out (nice to see Peter Purves revisiting Morton Dill here), and the whole thing feels like a lot of fun.

It’s much livelier than some of the recent stories we’ve had, and it benefits from actually having Hartnell in the story.  Having been missing from the bulk of The Massacre and The Celestial Toymaker, it’s clear to see even in The Gunfighters how much the show has missed him.  I’m enjoying this one far more than some of the other ones I’ve watched recently.  My only sadness here is that they couldn’t do some kind of deal with the US and actually have James Arness wander onto the set.  I’m sure that’s something they’d do today with the budget they have these days, but it would have been great if it had happened back in the 60s.

One thought I did have whilst watching The Gunfighters (and also while pitying Peter Purves in The Celestial Toymaker) was that it’s a shame how they’ve so totally forgotten that Steve Taylor is a pilot of a spaceship.  He, like many companions later, would have his origin forgotten quickly in order for the writers to treat him like a pawn.  It’s a shame.

Next time … Johnny Ringo