"When you come up in the elevator, it took you seven minutes. Well this way down, you wanna get down in a hurry, it would take you thirty seconds."
TECHNICAL SPECS: Part 3 of The Chase. First aired Jun.5 1965.
IN THIS ONE... Peter Purves first appears as hayseed Morton Dill, and the Daleks are the answer to the mystery of the Mary Celeste.
REVIEW: Again with the not so good. If stories have not time to develop when they're limited to 25 minutes, it's really not a good idea to try and tell two of them in that span of time, is it? The plot, if indeed there is one, has the TARDIS land on what amounts to two separate "islands" where the only way to run from the Daleks on their trail is to take off again after a single, meaningless encounter with the natives. Both times, the Daleks arrive too late and then THEY interact with the natives. And in both cases, we spend a lot more time with those natives than we do with either the TARDIS crew or the Daleks. The TARDIS scenes approach acceptability, with Ian referring to Barbara's new sweater as her battle armor, and a casual snack from the food machine. The Dalek time machine scenes include the "Special Needs" Dalek having trouble with math and the lot of them screeching at other. We do have the psychedelic time vortex effect to keep us warm at night, I suppose. Now let's take each trip separately...
The Chase first takes us to the top of the Empire State Building where we get a tour from a guide with a dark sense of humor and an over-the-top Brooklyn accent. Shot of a funny hat. And finally we meet the real hero of this episode, Alabama hayseed Morton Dill, played with a much more credible accent by Peter Purves. The actor, if not the character, will become part of the regular crew only three episodes from now, and you can see what the production team saw in him. He really goes for it, he's fairly funny, and very expressive. Even the Daleks won't know what to do with him (though they do plunger his crotch, I'm guessing accidentally - EMASCULATE!!!) and his boisterousness. As for Ian and Barbara, they don't even make a peep about this being "close enough" to their departure date (1966 is only three years out) to jump ship, presumably because they can't leave the Doctor and Vicki to face the Daleks alone. So yeah, clueless Morton Dill is the star of the show, but he really shouldn't be. If only the cast would have something to do except run commentary.
The next stop is a sailing ship in the middle of the sea, and it looks like something WILL happen when Barbara runs off excitedly. Historicals have always been generous with screen time for her, so why shouldn't she be? She gets grabbed by a seaman, and it leads to some slapstick involving both the man and Ian getting cudgeled by Vicki. That's the second time Ian's been the victim of "friendly fire". And off they go before anything else becomes a problem. The Daleks swoosh in and the ship's crew start jumping off, into real water no less, including a woman with a baby, so that's a little grim in the middle of all this comedy. A Dalek also goes over the edge (casing looks empty, shhhh, don't tell anyone), and I suppose it's still down there. The Daleks don't even mention it afterward. What's supposed to be cute here is the reveal that the ship is the Mary Celeste and that these events led to it being found mysteriously deserted. The camera moves around the empty ship, desperately wanting to be poignant, but it takes FOREVER. And once the reveal is over, we're back in the TARDIS where they reveal it AGAIN, this time with dialog, in case you didn't get it. The Chase is going nowhere and not fast enough!
THEORIES: Two bits of dialog of interest in Flight Through Eternity. The first is this line from the Doctor, "That’s my Time Path Detector. It’s been in the ship ever since I constructed it." The idea that the Doctor built the TARDIS clashes with what we learn later. Is he lying to his companions? Or do we explain it away by citing confused syntax (he really means since he constructed the Time Path Detector)? You decide. The other bit is that Vicki reveals New York was destroyed in the Dalek Invasion. Fair enough. Might the fall of the United States in the mid-22nd century help explain why everyone is British in the future? Not alone because Brit-led space missions seem to be the norm in the 21st, but it's certainly a factor. Without Torchwood or frequent visits from the Doctor, the USA probably had more trouble dealing with alien threats and at some point, would have lost its technological lead.
REWATCHABILITY: Low - There's really very little to this. Watch it for Peter Purves' first appearance in Doctor Who, if you must watch it at all.
TECHNICAL SPECS: Part 3 of The Chase. First aired Jun.5 1965.IN THIS ONE... Peter Purves first appears as hayseed Morton Dill, and the Daleks are the answer to the mystery of the Mary Celeste.
REVIEW: Again with the not so good. If stories have not time to develop when they're limited to 25 minutes, it's really not a good idea to try and tell two of them in that span of time, is it? The plot, if indeed there is one, has the TARDIS land on what amounts to two separate "islands" where the only way to run from the Daleks on their trail is to take off again after a single, meaningless encounter with the natives. Both times, the Daleks arrive too late and then THEY interact with the natives. And in both cases, we spend a lot more time with those natives than we do with either the TARDIS crew or the Daleks. The TARDIS scenes approach acceptability, with Ian referring to Barbara's new sweater as her battle armor, and a casual snack from the food machine. The Dalek time machine scenes include the "Special Needs" Dalek having trouble with math and the lot of them screeching at other. We do have the psychedelic time vortex effect to keep us warm at night, I suppose. Now let's take each trip separately...
The Chase first takes us to the top of the Empire State Building where we get a tour from a guide with a dark sense of humor and an over-the-top Brooklyn accent. Shot of a funny hat. And finally we meet the real hero of this episode, Alabama hayseed Morton Dill, played with a much more credible accent by Peter Purves. The actor, if not the character, will become part of the regular crew only three episodes from now, and you can see what the production team saw in him. He really goes for it, he's fairly funny, and very expressive. Even the Daleks won't know what to do with him (though they do plunger his crotch, I'm guessing accidentally - EMASCULATE!!!) and his boisterousness. As for Ian and Barbara, they don't even make a peep about this being "close enough" to their departure date (1966 is only three years out) to jump ship, presumably because they can't leave the Doctor and Vicki to face the Daleks alone. So yeah, clueless Morton Dill is the star of the show, but he really shouldn't be. If only the cast would have something to do except run commentary.
The next stop is a sailing ship in the middle of the sea, and it looks like something WILL happen when Barbara runs off excitedly. Historicals have always been generous with screen time for her, so why shouldn't she be? She gets grabbed by a seaman, and it leads to some slapstick involving both the man and Ian getting cudgeled by Vicki. That's the second time Ian's been the victim of "friendly fire". And off they go before anything else becomes a problem. The Daleks swoosh in and the ship's crew start jumping off, into real water no less, including a woman with a baby, so that's a little grim in the middle of all this comedy. A Dalek also goes over the edge (casing looks empty, shhhh, don't tell anyone), and I suppose it's still down there. The Daleks don't even mention it afterward. What's supposed to be cute here is the reveal that the ship is the Mary Celeste and that these events led to it being found mysteriously deserted. The camera moves around the empty ship, desperately wanting to be poignant, but it takes FOREVER. And once the reveal is over, we're back in the TARDIS where they reveal it AGAIN, this time with dialog, in case you didn't get it. The Chase is going nowhere and not fast enough!
THEORIES: Two bits of dialog of interest in Flight Through Eternity. The first is this line from the Doctor, "That’s my Time Path Detector. It’s been in the ship ever since I constructed it." The idea that the Doctor built the TARDIS clashes with what we learn later. Is he lying to his companions? Or do we explain it away by citing confused syntax (he really means since he constructed the Time Path Detector)? You decide. The other bit is that Vicki reveals New York was destroyed in the Dalek Invasion. Fair enough. Might the fall of the United States in the mid-22nd century help explain why everyone is British in the future? Not alone because Brit-led space missions seem to be the norm in the 21st, but it's certainly a factor. Without Torchwood or frequent visits from the Doctor, the USA probably had more trouble dealing with alien threats and at some point, would have lost its technological lead.
REWATCHABILITY: Low - There's really very little to this. Watch it for Peter Purves' first appearance in Doctor Who, if you must watch it at all.
Comments
Someone could write a book on American accents in Doctor Who.
Just not a very good one.