Doctor Who continued …

This episode starts the caveman adventure and, as such, it’s the “first” episode of three.  At first, we don’t get to see what’s going on inside the TARDIS since the dramatic “take off” prior to the cliffhanger.  Instead, some time is spent setting up the heirarchy and problems of the “tribe”.  It feels a bit of a narrative-killer, but I guess it was necessary to set the groundwork for later.

When we do get to join the TARDIS crew, it becomes a bit of a jolt from the unbroadcast pilot version I’d just watched – notable in Susan’s change of attire, and in Hartnell’s Doctor being much less brusque with Ian and Barbara.  By the end of the episode, the Doctor is positively crying his apologies to them, and I can’t help but feel that I’m going to miss that sharp, quick-thinking, intelligent Doctor that was in the original pilot.  I can’t imagine the “pilot” Doctor being quite so panicky when the tribe accost him.  He would have given them the sharp edge of his tongue and would quickly have got around them.

Hartnell doesn’t get a huge amount to do in this episode.  He gets bopped on the head, carried to the tribe and, once he’s woken up, he spends his time pretty much waiting to be rescued.  Good job he kidnapped Ian & Barbara when he did.  His wistful thinking about the TARDIS not having changed is matched by Susan explaining the concept of the TARDIS blending in to an enquiring Barbara.  Rather a pity that Susan rapidly devolves into hysterical panic just because her grandfather has disappeared.  At this point he might just have wandered off, but she’s having palpitations at the very idea.  I can’t imagine many of their previous journeys would have gone well if she’d really been like that all the time.  A worse case of separation anxiety I’ve never seen.  The screaming and panicking undermines everything her character has achieved up to now.

The “cave of skulls” of the title is only introduced for the cliffhanger.  The machinations of the tribe, particularly between Kal and Za is very well done.  Each of them trying to play the tribe off the other one, only for the other to turn it around just as easily.  That’s the trouble with a gullible audience, I guess.

Next time … The Forest of Fear