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The Rescue Format Reviewed: DVD Review The Rescue comes immediately after the departure of Susan at the end of the previous story, The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It was also unusual in that it was a brief two part story with a very small cast. In this era of the show, there were very often longer six or eight part stories, so a quick two part story with a very small cast would have been a surprise. Having had to deal with the departure of one of the main cast, there would have been many discussions as to how to continue forward, so it was perhaps not as much of a surprise that a brief story was introduced to deal with this as it was the first departure of the show. On the planet Dido, a crashed spaceship has two survivors, Bennett and Vicki. Bennett is partially paralysed and is looked after by Vicki, a young girl. Meanwhile, the TARDIS lands on Dido in a cave with The Doctor still asleep, and Ian and Barbara are concerned he is changing. Vicki notices the arrival of the TARDIS on her scanner, and rushes to tell Bennett that the rescue ship has arrived early. He disagrees and Vicki contacts the ship only to find that it is still 69 hours away. Barbara then goes outside the cave and is pushed over a ledge by a strange creature, who then seals the mouth of the cave trapping The Doctor and Ian. They manage to find a way out, after negotiating a booby trapped path, and Barbara is rescued by Vicki and concealed in the ship. Bennett then discovers Barbara, and he says that their tormentor, Koquillian has killed Barbara’s friends. Vicki then goes out to get water, and Barbara fears she is about to be attacked by a creature. She grabs a weapon and kills the creature, much to the despair of Vicki who liked the creature and was feeding it. The Doctor and Ian then join the group, and everything is smothed over. The Doctor then goes to talk to Bennett, but finds he is not there. He discovers a trapdoor and follows Bennett to a cave, discovering that Bennett is also Koquillian, having fabricated the story as Vicki was the only one not to know that Bennett had already been arrested for murder before the ship crashed, so he killed the remaining crew and the natives, so that he would get away with it when the rescue ship arrived. Bennett and The Doctor struggle before two natives arrive and have their revenge on Bennett. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara then adopt Vicki to the TARDIS crew and they leave the Didonians to rebuild what Bennett had destroyed. For a story that only really got commissioned to soften the blow of replacing a main cast member, the concept behind the tale was simple and good. It certainly didn’t have to happen in space, but the concept of the show allows this to be taken away from an Earthly context so marooning away from Earth is a good move. Really for the first time we see a shift in the outlook of the show, a change in the character of the lead role of The Doctor now he has lost his Granddaughter, and a replacement of one of the lead characters, Vicki for Susan. This undoubtedly creates a shift in the dynamic of the whole sooting match, and one that would likely take some time to get used to. We are now very used to changes in actors and characters, but at this time there was no previous experience to draw on. It is therefore more impressive of this story that it does a good job of being a story, whist also introducing the audience to the new show dynamic. William Hartnell gives a very good performance as The Doctor, adapting well to life without always referring to Susan. William Russell is not onscreen a lot as Ian Chesterton, but what he does do is with his usual assuredness. Jaqueline Hill has more to do as Barbara, and again does a typically good job. The rest of the cast is really only Maureen O’Brien as Vicki, and Ray Barrett as Bennett and Koquillian. Both play their parts well, rounding out a complete good set of performances. in such stories where the screen time is limited and there are a lot of recurring characters, it is difficult to get them all on screen with enough to do. There are therefore some elements of characters being passengers in stories, and to a certain degree this is true here of Ian and Barbara. This is really The Doctor’s journey to find in life happiness having departed from his much loved Granddaughter, and find his new way in life. He starts as you might imagine by trying to be very carefree, but returns more to his old self and seems to rediscover his caring by the end of the story. Overall, The Rescue does a very good job of managing the change in the main cast, with Carole Ann Ford having departed at the end of the previous story and introducing a new young female companion, Maureen O’Brien’s Vicki. The fact that the story also stands up in its own right is a real complement to the people involved, helped by having a very limited guest cast, and a small scenario and simple tale. This, combined with some good acting creates a small gem in the early series of Doctor Who. Rating:  |