Doctor Who continued …

I watched The Forest of Fear and The Firemaker whilst I was working on something else at the same time but, even so, it’s pretty clear that there is a deeper story hidden beneath the surface.  The political wranglings between Za and Kal seeking power over the tribe, the motives of the Old Woman, the tribe themselves seeing little beyond having warm clothes and a full belly, etc.

More could have been made of this story, but I guess the runaround, escape-capture-escape, were enough for a Saturday evening show that wouldn’t be seen again, with just the struggle for leadership between Za and Kal being based solely on who has the secret of fire (which would presumably indicate a favourable aspect from their sun god ‘Orb’).

In many ways, this three-part adventure is the kind of thing to be expected for a children’s show.  I don’t believe it would have looked too out-of-place in something like Timeslip, with the TARDIS crew just replaced by Liz and Simon.  Afterall, the TARDIS crew do precious little in these episodes.  They don’t actually achieve anything here.  The Doctor suggesting the use of a bone instead of a rock to break their bindings was about as far as it went.  He pretty much guessed who really killed the Old Woman (if Kal had washed his knife, or if someone raised the idea that Kal had used it on the previous day’s hunt, then the Doctor’s case would have fallen apart).

Bizarrely, though, it could actually be construed that they’ve interfered with the timeline.  In the first episode, Ian gathered up the Doctor’s equipment into his satchel – a satchel we never saw again.  Somewhere, I picture Za and Hur pondering over the purpose of broken technical equipment, matches, a pipe, and whatever else the Doctor had in that bag.

However, it does further an almost inconsequential piece of continuity.  The item that was damaged in the first episode would probably have been the Doctor’s portable Geiger counter he mentioned (as he wasn’t too trusting of the TARDIS console’s readings).  In the very next story, he has to trust those readings because he doesn’t have that portable Geiger counter any more.

Putting the story itself aside for a moment, one thing that did impress me was the sets.  Even though we know the budget was low, we get the prehistoric wasteland where the TARDIS landed, we have a forest that appears convincing and dense, the tribe’s encampment, and the terrific “cave of skulls”.  Only on a couple of occasions did I notice the lack of budget – including the backdrop cloth of one of the TARDIS inner walls, and the rather embarrassing model construction of the petrified forest in the final cliffhanger.  With those two exceptions, I didn’t feel like I was watching a particularly under-budget show.

In conclusion, the three episodes of the actual adventure are not exceptional but they are more than adequate.  The unbroadcast pilot offers an insight into what the series might have been but, in any case, the first episode (whether broadcast or not) is the jewel in the crown here.