hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4420.txt

Episode: 4420
Title: HPR4420: The First Doctor, Part 2
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4420/hpr4420.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-26 00:30:59

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This is Hacker Public Radio episode 4,420 for Friday the 11th of July 2025.
Today's show is entitled, The First Doctor Part 2.
It is part of the series' science fiction and fantasy.
It is hosted by Ahu Ka and is about 12 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is a continuing look at The First Doctor Who.
Hello, this is Ahu Ka, welcoming you to Hacker Public Radio and another exciting episode.
In our ongoing discussion of science fiction and fantasy and I want to come back to Doctor
Who a little bit because we only touched on the very beginning of it in our last episode
about Doctor Who and there's a lot more to talk about regarding The First Doctor.
In the second season there were some interesting developments and some very nice stories were
broadcast.
Unlike today when a season would last a couple of months and then no Doctor Who for most
of another year, in the 1960s it was close to a year-round broadcast schedule.
So in the first season ended with Rain of Terror, which finished up on September 12, 1964,
the first show of the second season, Planet of Giants, aired on October 31, 1964.
So there was a small break in the schedule, but only a few weeks.
Also I want to remind everyone that many episodes from those early stories are missing.
The BBC and a badly conceived cost-cutting move reused the videotape from many and discarded
all copies they had from other stories leaving gaps.
Collectors have produced a few, but some that were found in 2024 for instance are still
in private hands because the owner is reluctant to return them to the BBC.
I don't know the full story behind that, there may be concerns about copyright, I don't
know.
But at the time of writing there are 97 episodes still missing for The First Doctor, William
Hartnell and the second Doctor, Patrick Trouton, and that is out of a total of 253 episodes
produced.
For the missing episodes I have used the reconstructions from projects like Loose Cannon and we discussed
Loose Cannon previously.
So let's get to the stories, right?
Now the first one that was part of this season was Planet of Giants.
This story was actually filmed during the production block for the first season, but held over
to the second season.
It was originally four episodes, but after the shooting was done the producers decided
it was dragging.
So they edited the footage down to three episodes basically by taking episodes three and four
and cutting out a lot of stuff to make the finale move faster.
Now the main gimmick here is that somehow the Tartus, while moving from revolutionary
France to modern London, has malfunctioned in such a way that it and everyone inside has
shrunk to the size of insects, literally.
And somehow they materialize in the yard of an evil businessman who kills a government
scientist to protect his investment in an insecticide.
The attraction of the story lies in how these people come up with ways to cope while trying
to both stay alive and bring justice to the bad guy.
In the days before CGI this is probably pretty exciting since it was done with trick photography.
It's a fun story.
By the way, it was one of the influences here when we talk about evil insecticides.
Rachel Carson Silent Spring was very big in the news right around this time.
Writers are always looking for contemporary hooks that they can tie a story to.
Then next we've got Dollyk invasion of Earth.
Now the Dollyks were introduced in the first season, it was in fact the second story.
We might remember that Sydney Newman really didn't want it at all, but then when it turned
out to be extremely successful he decided, all right, maybe you guys do know what you're
doing.
Well, they become quite the sensation and they would go on to be probably the most successful
enduring of all the doctor's opponents.
Now in this story the Tartus materializes back on Earth and in London, but this time it
is the 22nd century and things are just wrong.
Turns out the Dollyks had found a way to invade the Earth and enslave or kill all of the
inhabitants, save a few resistance fighters.
Our four travelers soon joined up with the resistance and eventually dispatched all
of the Dollyks and leave the humans to rebuild their planet, only not all of them.
The doctor's granddaughter Susan has fallen for one of those resistance fighters and stays
behind to share the life of the man she has come to love.
Now behind the scenes, Carolyn Ford, who played Susan, felt that all she was doing was screaming
and getting rescued and wanted to do more challenging roles than Doctor Who could ever
provide her, so she elected to leave the show.
Somewhat to the consternation of William Hartnell, who could not imagine why anyone would
leave a successful production.
But Carolyn Ford, despite her appearance, was not a young teenager.
She was married and had a child at the time of the show.
She just looked like a teenager.
So this story marks the first of many times in the show's history that a principal character
would leave.
She's also marked one of the first times the show did extensive outdoor location shooting
rather than using studio trickery to imitate locations.
And that brings us to the rescue.
If Susan goes, gotta have someone to take her place and this two-part episode was primarily
written as a vehicle to introduce the new companion, the new young lady, whose name would
be Vicki, and she was played by Moreno Bryan.
Now apparently, Verity Lambert and the BBC thought it very important that there be a young
girl in the cast that the kids could identify with.
The story is set in the 26th century, so she observes that Ian and Barbara must be 550
years old, to which they smile and agree that in some sense, that is true.
The plot is not outstanding, but it has its moments of charm.
Put that in the credits for the first part of this two-parter, a certain Sydney Wilson
is credited for being the alien creature, Cochillion.
This is made up fiction using the names of Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson, two BBC department
heads associated with the show.
Why would they do that instead of using the real actor's name?
Well, part two would explain that.
The development of this story has Vicki become an orphan, which helps for getting her into
the Tartus.
And then when she's in the Tartus, they head for Rome, another historical story.
The Tartus lands near Rome, the group initially finds in abandoned villa and becomes squatters.
But soon the doctor takes Vicki and heads for Rome.
But along the way he finds a body in the bushes, and is then mistaken for the dead man and
taken to meet the emperor, who, of course, is Nero, though nothing like the actual historical
Nero.
Still, the violence and savagery of Rome is not sugarcoded at all, meanwhile Ian and
Barbara get captured by slave traders and are taken to Rome to be sold.
Of course Barbara becomes a slave to Nero's wife, and Ian is sold to be a gladiator.
They all wind up around Nero.
But somehow the doctor and Vicki never meet up with Ian and Barbara until after they
all escape and get back to that still abandoned villa.
This is the kind of story that you can nitpick some details, such as the portrayal of Nero.
But on the whole, it does an admirable job of displaying Rome's serious issues, such
as poisonings, slavery, and violence.
The other thing the story demonstrates is humor, it is just fun to watch.
Now one example is Hartnell's scenery does a variation on the Emperor's new clothes,
and plays, so to speak, a tune on the liar that is so refined that only the most discerning
listener can hear it.
Of course he's not playing anything at all, but no one will admit they can't hear anything.
And Nero chasing Barbara around the palace is pretty standard, but still fun.
This is a story where you can see Hartnell really digging into his role of the doctor.
Now, next one is the web planet, and having done a historical story with the Romans, it's
of course time for a science fiction story to balance it out.
In this case you can either decide to make fun of it for being cheesy or just go with it
and realize it is in fact a nice story.
This planet, Vortus, has several insectoid races.
One is the ant-like Xarbi, who are controlled by an evil-beeling being called the Animus,
which lives in a gradually spreading web city.
The other, the Menoptera, are supposed to be like butterflies, kind of look more like
bees with butterfly wings attached.
Then later they find an underground race, the Optura, who were descended from the Menoptera,
but are hostile to anyone from the surface.
What may be harder to appreciate today is that for its time, this was a very radical concept
to have a planet populated entirely by insectoid races.
Sure the special effects budget was so small that the costumes were cheesy, but I admire
the fact that they dared to think big.
This is a classic story from the early days.
Now as you have to keep in mind with these early stories, the budget was tiny.
When they started out, the budget per episode was 2,500 pounds.
And that was for everything, salaries, props, costumes, location, filming, the whole works.
And one of those expenses was for writers, and they had some good ones.
Now these days we can watch a TV episode that costs a million dollars and nothing twice
about it.
Dr. Who always prioritized getting good stories, and when you watch the old shows, you always
need to be looking at the story, not the special effects.
Well, we've had science fiction, so back to history, and this one is called the Crusade.
Now this takes place during the Third Crusade, pitting the Europeans led by Richard Lianhardt
against the Arabs, led by Saladin.
Julian Glover plays Richard, and is suitably kingly.
His sister, Princess Joanna, is played by Jean Marsh, who would appear again in the
Daleks Master Plan.
Barbara is captured by the Arabs and is destined for her own life.
Ian has to rescue her and is suitably heroic.
The Arabs are little hokey, some are evil, some are good.
The story was written by David Whitaker, who had been the show's story editor during
the first season and was directed by Douglas Camfield, who is highly regarded as one of
the best directors of the Doctor's early years.
So this is Ahuka for Hacker Public Radio, signing off and encouraging you as always to support
free software.
Bye bye.
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