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Monday, January 24, 2011

I Don't Know, I'm Not a Doctor: Serial 1 - An Unearthly Child; Part 3 - The Forest of Fear

First things first, if you want to watch along, the episode I'm reviewing is available from Amazon. Additionally, a lot of these old Doctor Who episodes are available on YouTube or on services such as Netflix. I encourage you to watch along with me and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Secondly, a big spoiler warning for anything I say after this sentence. I'm not sure if it's still common courtesy to put spoiler warnings on content that is almost 50 years old, but I'm going to air on the side of caution.

Disclaimers out of the way, lets watch some Who!


Serial 1: An Unearthly Child
Part 3: The Forest of Fear (1963)
Starring: Doctor 1 - William Hartnell

You may recall from last week, that our time travelers have been trapped in a cave by mean cavemen who want to crack their skulls open. If you don't recall that, they remind you at the top of the episode with repeated footage from last week.

The time travelers of course attempt feverishly to escape, except Dr. Who, who just sits there and whines about how they're all doomed. When they finally convince him to shut up and help he returns to his old douchey self, this time lecturing the adults on HOPE, something he had none of mere seconds before.

Za (the useless leader of the cavemen) wakes up and realizes the old crazy lady is off to kill the travelers. Even though killing them was his plan, he wants everyone else to be as useless as him so he decides to take action to stop this. He then hits his ladyfriend to prove his point. Multiple times.

It turns out though, that the old lady isn't trying to kill them after all. She sets the companions free on one condition: that they leave without giving the cavemen (who had just decided to murder them) fire. Since this was pretty much their plan all along, they agree and cheese it out the cave.

Za then busts in the cave, and is furious that the people he just decided not to murder weren't murdered. He takes out his aggression by beating up the old lady and then monologuing while she moans in pain on the floor. Apparently earlier when I called him useless, I was wrong. He's useless at everything BUT brutality toward women. At least he has his specialty!

As the gang flees the cave, the Doctor chastises the others, both for marching him too hard since he is a weak old man, and for treating him as though he is weaker than the others. Then there are "scary" animal sounds. Barbara (the lady teacher) sees a dead animal and screams in terror.

Za, hears the scream of a woman and chases after her, presumably because he wants to beat her up. Unfortunately, the animal noises attack him. At least, I'm assuming they attack him, since all the action happens offscreen. It may have been a mating ritual.

Now, if I were being chased by a caveman who may or may not want to murder me and beat up my women, and he was attacked by sound incarnate, I would count that as a good thing and keep going onward to my imminent escape. That would be the logical thing to do. So of course, instead, they do something inexplicable and batshit crazy. The go back to the caveman and attempt to nurse him back to health.

(fun side note: blogger is telling me I misspelled "batshit" because it's not in its internal dictionary. I left it in because "guano crazy" just didn't have the same ring to it.)

The doctor begins complaining, this time with good reason since there's no logical explanation as to why they should be doing what they are. He stubbornly refuses to help, even uttering the phrase "I'm not a doctor" at one point. CLASSIC.

Since they are ignoring the obvious threat right in front of them, they need something else to worry about, something insane. So they decide to worry about the crazy old lady, the one who helped them escape because she just wanted them to leave; the one unconscious on a cave floor. They worry that she will wake up and bring the tribe out to capture them all. When confronted about the logic of these fears Doctor Who explains that cavemen don't have logic or reason, which actually explains a lot of what has gone on so far.

Also, the doctor, in a tantrum that nobody is listening to him, decides that killing Za is the best way to prove his point, even though Za is friendly at this point. He picks up a sharp rock, makes a not at all subtle stabbing motion, and when he gets caught blatantly attempting to kill a dude, plays it off like nothing happend. This is generally accepted by the group and he goes back to sulking.

Sadly, their worst fears have come true. The old lady tells Kal (Za's rival) everything she knows so he can go capture them. Then, because he wants to prove he's better than Za at everything, decides to not just beat her, but kill her. He pins the whole thing on Za and elects himself leader of the tribe. Then, using a magic shortcut, Kal and the other cavemen arrive at the T.A.R.D.I.S. before the protagonists. Kal has them captured and then makes a mean face.

That's what is so compelling about this show so far. It keeps you guessing! Any thing that could happen, and logically would, doesn't and something you would have never thought of because it makes no sense at all happens instead! It's so exciting!

That's it for episode 3! Check back soon for more Who!


Miss one? Check out our previous episodes below:
Episode 2 - The Cave of Skulls
Episode 1 - An Unearthly Child
Introduction

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