Doctor Who continued …

Some of the early episodes of Doctor Who are missing from the BBC archives.  For this serial, The Reign of Terror, the BBC had the missing episodes animated.  This is the first of those animated episodes.

The plot again doesn’t go anywhere.  Ian (back from William Russell’s holiday) finally meets up with Barbara & Susan, after which they all seem to bumble around waiting to get recaptured.  Barbara & Susan are back in jail, as if nothing had happened in the meantime.  And Ian is captured by Leon.

Again, the best scenes in the episode involve the Doctor with Hartnell continuing on top form.  It’s such a pity that these scenes are animated.

Speaking of which, the animation is very distracting.  For the longest time, I didn’t know that was supposed to be Ian.  Even when I knew it was him, I barely recognised him.  What was going on with his hair?  And what’s going on with Barbara’s dark eyes?

Worse, though, were the occasions of the rapid cuts and close-ups to face parts – very unlikely the previous episodes.  We’re used to long cuts in this era, not rapid-fire cuts.

This episode would have been much more tolerable if the Doctor scenes were live-action rather than animation.  As it is, it’s clear that Hartnell is on top form, but the animation distracts far too much to appreciate it.

Next time … A Bargain of Necessity