Through the Vortex: Classic Doctor Who

Commentary and analysis on one of the most overlooked serials of the era.... "The Sensorites."

The TARDIS arrives on a ship whose crew is trapped aboard by a telepathic race known as the Sensorites. Soon, however, Susan discovers that the Sensorites are not aggressors but terrified of the humans who might want to exploit their resources. Taken to the Sense-Sphere, the Doctor and company must save the Sensorites from a deadly disease in exchange for the release of the TARDIS and returning the human crew to perfect sanity. But a traitor lurks among the Elders of the Sense-Sphere, and he wants power at all costs--and has no qualms about using the strange visitors to gain it.

BARBARA: Sorry, I was thinking. You know, I've never seen the Doctor so angry.
IAN: Oh, yes. Susan set him off, didn't she. The Sensorites must have hypnotized her in some way.
BARBARA: No, I don't think so. She's just growing up, Ian.
______

SUSAN: Trust can't be taken for granted. It must be earned. I trust you, but only because I know you.
1ST ELDER: But Susan, our whole life is based on trust.
SUSAN: Yes, and that might be your downfall. Look you don't trust the ground you walk on until you know it's firm, do you. So why trust your people blindly?
1ST ELDER: When I listen to you, you who are so young among your own kind, I realize that we Sensorites have a lot to learn from the people of Earth.
SUSAN: Grandfather and I don't come from Earth. Oh, it's ages since we've seen our planet. It's quite like Earth, but at night the sky is a burned orange, and the leaves on the trees are bright silver...
________

I discuss this episode's parallels to "The Zygon Invasion"/ "The Zyon Inversion," the way in which people perceived powerless are silenced, the ways in which this serial questions power structures, how people exploit others to gain power, the inherent messiness of conflict-resolution, and how trust operates in the serial. 

NOTE: The Sensorite's planet is called the Sense-Sphere. Not the Senser-Sphere:-)

NEXT TIME: Serial #8 The Reign of Terror (Episodes: "The Land of Fear," "The Guests of Madame Guillotine," "A Change of Identity," "The Tyrant of France**," "The Bargain of Necessity**," "Prisoners of Conciergerie")
**These two episodes are missing but have been animated.


Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Commentary and analysis of one of the most celebrated serials of the First Doctor's era  "The Aztecs."

The TARDIS arrives in an Aztec tomb which seals when the Team exits. Now Barbara is mistaken for a goddess, Ian is training to be the leader of armies, Susan is off at Aztec finishing school, and the Doctor is in the Aztec's version of a retirement home. All must find a way back to the TARDIS before they are forced to help in one of the Aztec's more notorious traditions: human sacrifices....

BARBARA: Don't you see? If I could start the destruction of everything that's evil here, then everything that is good would survive when Cortes lands.
DOCTOR: But you can't rewrite history! Not one line!

I discuss the central question of the serial: Are the Aztecs wrong to commit human sacrifices? We'll look at how this serial examines objective morality vs moral relativity, how ethics vs morality allow us to approach this problem, the legacy of colonialism and Barbara as a representative of the British Empire, how this serial fits into New Who theories about "fixed time,"  how Autloc and Barbara walk from faith to uncertainty, and ultimately how we (can/should?) "judge" the morality of people in the past. I don't have many answers for you in this one--but neither does the serial....we'll just all have to wander together into the wilderness trying to find the truth. 

DISCLAIMER and CLARIFICATION: If my voice sounds stuffy it is because I am ill! I also edited out a lot more of this podcast than usual (illness must cause me to ramble). One thing lost was nuance around whether or not we can "judge" people with wrong belief systems. In the final cut it seems as if I say we can't judge people who are unknowingly participating in a wrong belief system;  in my more extended ramble I was trying to express the difficulty of drawing absolutely moral lines when people genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. Obviously, how we judge people morally for holding wrong beliefs is more complicated than "we can't":-)

NEXT TIME: Serial #7 The Sensorites (Episodes: "Strangers in Space," "Unwilling Warriors," "Hidden Danger," "A Race Against Death," "Kidnap," "A Desperate Venture")


Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Commentary and analysis of Doctor Who's first attempt at an epic quest.... "The Keys of Marinus!"

The planet Marinus was once ruled over by a machine which prevented its people from perpetrating any act of evil, but the machine was disassembled centuries ago to prevent the evil Voord from using the machine to enslave the planet. Now, Arbitan, the keeper of the machine, needs Team TARDIS to find the keys scattered across the planet so that he can operate the machine once again...

ARBITAN: If you help me find the keys of Marinus, I will let you have access to your machine when you have delivered all the keys to me. If not, you will stay on the island without food or water. The choice is yours.
IAN: Choice? What choice?
.............
DOCTOR: But I don't believe that man was made to be controlled by machines. Machines can make laws, but they cannot preserve justice. Only human beings can do that.

This podcast is on the longer side as each episode in The Keys of Marinus has its own story. Hence, I do the commentary for each episode followed by my analysis rather than going through the whole serial and then giving my analysis.

NEXT TIME: Serial #6 The Aztecs (Episodes: "The Temple of Evil," "The Warriors of Death," "The Bride of Sacrifice," and "The Day of Darkness")


Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Commentary and analysis of Doctor Who's first lost serial "Marco Polo!"

Stranded with a malfunctioning TARDIS on the "Roof of the World" in Cathay (China), Team TARDIS is taken in by Marco Polo on his vast caravan travelling to Kublai Khan. Marco takes possession of the TARDIS in order to gift it to Kublai Khan and the team must try to convince him to give it back. Meanwhile, the Mongol Warlord Tegana plots to take the TARDIS for himself....

KUBLAI KHAN: Oh, we want to tell you something, Marco. We owe half of Asia to our friend [The Doctor] at backgammon.
MARCO POLO: It is unusual for you to lose, my Lord.
KUBLAI KHAN: Oh, he is a fortunate one.

I discuss some of the historical content of the episode and how well the serial works to be accurate and to humanize its characters, the great relationships the serial portrays (particularly between Ping-Cho and Susan and between the Doctor and Kublai Khan), the FANTASTIC villain Tegana, and how this serial allows for the team to have fun and become the family they will be going forward.


NEXT TIME: Serial #5 The Keys of Marinus (Episodes: "The Sea of Death," "The Velvet Web," "The Screaming Jungle," "The Snows of Terror," "Sentence of Death," "The Keys of Marinus")


Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Commentary and analysis of Doctor Who's shortest serial "The Edge of Destruction!"

The TARDIS crashes and the Team is trapped inside--and no one is quite themselves! Tensions run high as each member of the crew has to confront whatever force has come aboard the TARDIS....or is the real problem inside them all along?

BARBARA: Yes. Or we're imagining things. We must be. I mean, how would anything get into the ship, anyway?
SUSAN: The doors were open.
BARBARA: Yes, but, but where would it hide?
SUSAN: In one of us.

I also use this episode to talk more generally about this specific Team TARDIS and why I think this Fearsome Foursome works so well in comparison to some of the other larger TARDIS crews, the significance of Susan and the Doctor's unique familial relationship, and the charge of "sexism" often labeled at Classic Who (my thoughts in short: "it's complicated.")


NEXT TIME: Serial #4 Marco Polo (Episodes: "The Roof of the World," "The Singing Sands," "Five Hundred Eyes," "The Wall of Lies," "Rider from Shang-Tu," "Mighty Kublai Klan," "Assassin at Peking") ALL EPISODES ARE MISSING:-(
To Watch:  Loose Canon's Reconstruction
BBC's 30 Minute Condensed Reconstruction


Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Commentary, context, and analysis for Doctor Who's second serial "The Daleks"! The Tardis crew arrives on a seemingly dead planet only to discover the primary inhabitants are the terrifying and iconic Daleks! And they want to destroy not only Team TARDIS but the other inhabitants of the planet: the peaceful Thals.

The Doctor: Nothing can live outside if you do that, nothing!
Dalek: Except the Daleks!
The Doctor: This senseless, evil killing...

First we'll do some commentary on the episode. Then, we'll discuss:  1. Some thoughts on how to improve this particular serial. 2. The historical context of this episode (WWII!). and 3. H.G. Wells's The Time Machine and the thematic ideas this serial takes from it!

NEXT TIME: Serial #3 The Edge of Destruction (Episodes: "The Edge of Destruction", "The Brink of Disaster")

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Context, commentary and analysis on Doctor Who's first serial "An Unearthly Child" (1963)!  I go through the first episode in detail and then compare it to the unaired pilot, then discuss Shakespearean Cavemen!

"If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds... and watch them wheel in another sky - would that satisfy you?" (The Doctor to Ian)

NEXT TIME: Serial #2: The Daleks (Episodes:  The Dead Planet, The Survivors, The Escape, The Ambush, The Expedition, The Ordeal, The Rescue)
Yeah, it's a long one:-)


Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Why on Earth do I want to do a whole podcast going serial by serial through Classic Doctor Who? Well, it's a journey--through time and space! Here's my ten-year adventure from Whovian newbie to super fan. I also go over the basics: What is Classic Doctor Who? How do you watch it? What's with the missing episodes? Is it worth it? (Spoilers: Oh, so, so much.) Find yourself a companion and head back to 1963!

"Let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?" (An Unearthly Child)

Easiest way to watch Classic Doctor Who: Britbox on AmazonPrime gives you access to all but the lost episodes!

NEXT TIME: Serial #1: An Unearthly Child (Episodes: An Unearthly Child, Cave of Skulls, Forest of Fear, The Fire-Maker)
(NOTE: I will discuss the unaired Pilot as well. If you are interested in seeing the minor changes from the Pilot to the canonical first episode of Unearthly Child, I would suggest watching AFTER you see the serial as aired:-)

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]