Doctor Who, season 2 continued …

Except for the rather iffy cliffhanger – that wasn’t at all convincing, really – the rest of the story is fine.  There isn’t enough there to fill any more episodes, and the whole convincing of Vicki to join the crew feels a little bit rushed as a consequence.  Would have been a little better if Vicki was more of a reluctant joiner (she has no family, and she could discover that the rescue ship isn’t allowed to land, and so she has no choice other than to be stranded), but the series wasn’t really into doing “Turlough” back in the 60s.

Having the Doctor solve what was going on, in almost record time, was a good move.  I don’t buy Barbara’s killing of “Sandy”.  Not only did she not look desperate enough to grab for the flare gun, but it hadn’t been established if the flare gun could be fired more than once.  I don’t think of Barbara as being so irrational that she’d risk Vicki’s only hope of salvation without first exploring every other possibility (such as throwing rocks at Sandy).

Nevertheless, there’s much that’s good about the episode that raises it above these relatively minor things.

Next time … The Slave Traders