By Jessica Holmes

Hello again! I hope everyone had a good time over the holidays. We’ve got a nice short serial to ease us into the new year, and thank goodness for that. I think another behemoth like The Dalek Invasion Of Earth would have killed me.

THE POWERFUL ENEMY

The Rescue is a story from David Whitaker. For some, that name may ring a bell. For me, that ringing is ominous and filled with doom. Why? Because the last time he wrote for Doctor Who, he gave us this little gem: The Edge Of Destruction.

So, that’s… encouraging.

We begin with a crashed spaceship. Admittedly I didn’t immediately realise that it was a spaceship, as the model looks far smaller. The ship’s split in two, and inside, there are two humans awaiting rescue: Vicki and Bennett.

Vicki’s just picked up a signal, and rushes to tell Bennett that their rescue ship has arrived. But how can that be? The rescue isn’t due for a few days yet. Bennett tells Vicki to double check with the rescuers, and warns her to watch out for someone called Koquillion, who will kill them if he finds out about the rescue.

Vicki is dismayed to find out that the rescue hasn’t actually arrived. But whose signal did she pick up?

Why, the TARDIS' of course. The Doctor’s having a nice little kip, much to the bemusement of Ian and Barbara, who’ve never seen him sleep through a landing. He’s acting quite oddly indeed, being terribly confused when they wake him up and inform him that they’ve landed. He decides to go out to have a look, and begins asking Susan to open the doors, before remembering that she’s gone.

There’s a moment where Susan’s absence is palpable, but it quickly passes and the group leave the TARDIS, emerging into a dark cave. His curiosity satisfied, the Doctor goes back inside for a nap.

No, you’re not alone in thinking this is weird. Ian and Barbara think so too. Ian suggests the Doctor’s age might be catching up with him, but Barbara counters that it’s more likely to do with Susan’s absence. Poor bloke’s going to need some time to deal with this big change. Amusingly, he hears the pair of them talking about him, and yells at them from the other side of the door. He might be getting older, but there's certainly nothing wrong with his hearing.

Ian and Barbara head off to explore, and it’s revealed that they weren’t alone in the cave. No, they were being watched, by a rather frightening-looking chap with claws absolutely everywhere. Even coming out of his face.

This is Koquillion, and he will be making a guest appearance in my nightmares tonight.

Ian and Barbara emerge from the cave onto a cliff, and spot the downed ship in the distance. They’re just about to go and fetch the Doctor when Koquillion shows up and asks them who they are, how they got here, and if they’re alone. Not suspicious at all. Not having much of a choice, however, Ian and Barbara give him an honest answer. Koquillion asks Ian to go and fetch the Doctor, after which he will escort them to the city. Not trusting him as far as they could throw him, Ian and Barbara try to both go back to the TARDIS, but Koquillion blocks Barbara’s way.

Brandishing a staff which seems to be some sort of weapon, he asks the obviously scared Barbara if she’s frightened of him, and assures her that he’s her friend…

…Right as he pushes her off the cliff.

Getting some mixed signals from you, Koquillion.

Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor is awake and having a little chat with himself. He’s been to this planet, Dido, before, and remembers it fondly for the very friendly people. Well, it looks like he might be in for a nasty surprise.

Outside, Koquillion blasts the cave with his staff weapon, causing a cave-in and trapping Ian and the Doctor inside. The Doctor comes running out at the noise, finding an unconscious Ian.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the cliff, Barbara’s not so well herself. She seems to have broken her fall with a branch, but she’s out cold, and somebody’s just found her. But is it friend or foe?

As he comes round and catches his breath, Ian tells the Doctor about his encounter with Koquillion. Thankfully it hasn’t left him too badly hurt, though I’m not really sure how the Doctor worked that out, as he admits that he didn’t get that degree. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't have x-ray vision. Well, let’s just hope Ian doesn’t drop dead of a bleed on the brain or a collapsed lung.

Back in the downed spaceship, Koquillion comes to interrogate Vicki about what she was doing outside the ship, having spotted her dragging something around outside. He seems to be holding her and her companion captive, while acting as if he’s protecting them from his people. He departs to speak with Bennett, and Vicki pulls back a pile of blankets to reveal Barbara, looking safe and sound and pretty good considering she just fell off a cliff.

Vicki explains her situation to Barbara. There used to be many more passengers aboard this ship. When they first crash-landed, the local people invited everyone aboard to a meeting. However, Vicki wasn’t well, so didn’t go. It turned out a lucky thing, because later that evening she heard an explosion, and Bennett was the only one who made it back. Not long after, Koquillion showed up, and has been keeping a tight hold on them ever since. They're just trying to survive long enough for the rescue to arrive.

In the cave, Ian and the Doctor are trying to find a way out. I have a question: why? The TARDIS can move through space, last time I checked. Why don’t they just move the ship?

Then again, with the Doctor’s piloting skills, they might just end up on Venus.

The Doctor is beside himself worrying about what happened to the people of this planet. Violence was utterly alien to them. They couldn’t afford to hurt each other; their population only numbered in the hundreds when he last visited.

At the crashed ship, Vicki mentions that Koquillion is the only one of his people she’s seen. She thinks the others are in a village not far away. Well, that sounds a bit fishy, doesn’t it?

Vicki hears someone coming, and rushes to hide Barbara, but it turns out it’s just Bennett, so she reveals Barbara to him. However, he doesn’t look too pleased to see her.

Back in the cave, Ian and the Doctor are edging along a chasm when they hear a deep roar, and shining their torch down, reveal a creature lurking below that looks sort of like a lobster and a scorpion had a baby. An ugly baby.

Where was this neat creature design back when we needed it with the Slyther (the Dalek pet from last serial)? It's cool, it's a bit scary, and most importantly it doesn't look like a sleeping bag. The noises it makes are also unearthly, ferocious, and quite unnerving. The sound department did a good job on this one.

They carry on, and find some handholds that were clearly man-made. That’s handy. However, Ian accidentally pulls one off the wall, revealing it to be a trap. Spikes emerge from the wall, penning him in. Then more start to emerge, pushing him towards the edge.

So, this is…fine. I don’t think there’s anything else to describe The Rescue. It’s just fine. It’s not stupid like The Edge Of Destruction but it’s not particularly clever or exciting so far either, so I don’t have an awful lot to dig in to or poke fun at. Let's press on, shall we?

DESPERATE MEASURES

So, what's a man to do when blades emerge from the wall, pushing him towards certain doom? Start stripping, of course.

Thinking quickly, the Doctor tells Ian to remove his jacket. By using the jacket to cushion the edges of the spikes, Ian is now able to climb around the spikes trapping him and rescue himself. Bit of a rubbish death trap, isn't it? And Ian's jacket doesn't even seem to have split a seam.

Back at the ship, Bennett informs Barbara that according to Koquillion, her friends are dead, but she doesn’t believe him. It takes more than a mountain falling on him to kill Ian Chesterton.

Barbara has an idea to set a trap to surprise Koquillion, but Bennett thinks it’s a bad idea. They just need to sit tight until the rescue arrives, because if they fail to subdue Koquillion he’ll kill them.

He then returns to his bed, refusing Barbara’s aid.

Back in the cave, the Doctor resets the trap, clearing the way. What’s it even there for? Is it for feeding the beast below? I thought these people were peaceful? Why in the world do these lovely kind pacifistic people have a death trap that belongs in some haunted tomb straight out of an old adventure serial?

Then they find a door, but can’t find a way to open it, so carry on along the edge. The Doctor hopes nobody comes through and starts creeping up behind them.

It’d be pretty dramatic and cool if someone did but… they don’t.

Why even bring it up, then?

Meanwhile, Vicki is lugging things around outside, but the scary lobster-scorpion thing is watching her. Barbara spots it, and rushes out with the flare gun to save her. Vicki screams at her to stop, but too late: Barbara shoots the creature. The poor thing makes a pathetic sound as it dies, apparently in great pain.

Vicki is furious. Why? Because that big ugly lobster-scorpion was her pet. It was called Sandy.

She’d trained Sandy to come to her for food. It was a herbivore, and perfectly harmless, if a bit scary looking, and it was her only companion besides Bennett, who spends all his time in his own quarters.

And Barbara killed it.

Barbara, you monster.

Ian and the Doctor arrive to a very tense situation.

Back in the cave, the mystery door opens and Koquillion emerges. I can’t help but think it would have been more efficient and also a bit sinister and interesting to have him emerge just after Ian and the Doctor passed the door. See, I really am starved for things to talk about beyond summarising, so my internal editor is emerging.

Back at the ship, the Doctor and Ian are telling Vicki that she looks a bit of a mess and to cheer up.

Wow.

For one thing, that's uncharacteristically insensitive.

And for another… well, to express the other, I'd have to use some rather family-unfriendly language.

Nobody looks good when they’re crying for heaven’s sake, and what does that even matter?

Look, you insensitive jerks, that thing was clearly her only source of comfort for however long she’s been here. I’d be really, really upset too if someone shot my pet. Good grief.

And everyone’s just so patronising towards her, ignoring all her requests not to do anything to jeopardise her rescue as if she’s just being a silly little girl.

She’s understandably very upset about all this, coming to the point of outright rejecting all their help. I just want to give her a hug, and stick up for her.

Ian and Barbara leave, but the Doctor beckons Vicki over, turning on full kindly grandfather mode. Looks like we’ve found a replacement Susan. That was fast.

He basically just tells her everything they’ve been telling her for the last few minutes, only now he’s doing it with every ounce of grandfatherly twinkle he can muster. And this time it works. For some reason.

She tells him that once the rescue comes, Bennett’s going to tell everyone on Earth that Dido should be wiped out, so Koquillion doesn’t get away with what he’s done.

We have a word for that, Bennett.

The Doctor says he’ll have a talk with Bennett (and hopefully knock some sense into him), so Vicki leads him through the wreckage of the ship. He tells her to go back and wait with Ian and Barbara while he talks. Vicki is not too eager to spend time with Barbara, but the Doctor tells her to give Barbara a chance. She’s nice.

Yes, Doctor, she is nice. I like Barbara. And I know she really didn’t mean any harm. I know that she genuinely thought she was rescuing Vicki. However, that doesn’t actually change the fact that she killed Vicki’s pet lobster-scorpion very painfully while Vicki screamed for her to stop.

The Doctor does explain all this to her, but really I do think Vicki is fully entitled to be upset with Barbara, and it doesn’t feel fair to be treating her as the unreasonable one.

Bennett responds to the Doctor’s knocking with a refusal to let him in, so being a reasonable person, the Doctor starts trying to break the door down.

Vicki returns to the other room, and Ian and Barbara come back in a little sheepishly.

Vicki apologises to Barbara for being upset with her, and Barbara apologises too, for shooting her pet in the face.

Can you tell that I’m ever so slightly taking Vicki’s side here?

Ian reassures her that he and Barbara do understand her loneliness. When they ask her when she left Earth, she tells them she left with her father after the death of her mother in 2493. Then they tell her that they’re from 1963. She’s astonished, as that makes them about 550 years old.

I’m sure they’re very flattered that she thinks the two of them are around 20.

But they explain that the Doctor is a time-traveller. She doesn’t know whether to believe it. Well, Vicki, it depends on what sounds more likely: that they have a fantastic skincare regimen and a penchant for vintage fashion, or got into a magic blue box.

The Doctor manages to break into Bennett’s quarters, finding them empty. Then who said he couldn’t come in? A tape recording.

Oh , and what’s more, there’s an intercom system allowing him to hear what’s going on in the other room. Vicki is criticising his fashion sense. To be fair, Doctor, you do dress as if Edward’s on the throne. One of them, anyway.

Then he finds a trap door…

Ian wonders where the Doctor’s got to, and goes to investigate. Hearing no response, he enters the cabin. However, the Doctor shut the trap door behind him, leaving the others none the wiser. Seriously Doc, why? Couldn’t you have left a note, in case you got hurt and were in need of rescue?

The Doctor explores the hidden passage, arriving at something resembling a temple. He hears Koquillion coming, and cool as a cucumber, invites him in for a chat.

The set for this room is impressively big and well-dressed, and there's lots of atmospheric mist around. The curious thing is that it doesn't actually seem abandoned, with everything well-kept and lit. The music also pulls its weight in creating a solemn, somewhat ominous atmosphere.

The Doctor comments that this used to be the people’s hall of judgement, which is fitting considering the circumstances, and asks Bennett if he’s aware that the robes and mask he’s wearing are only used on ceremonial occasions.

I admit I was genuinely surprised. I had assumed that the scary mess of claws was simply what the people of this world looked like. After all, the costume is about the same quality as the other alien costumes we've seen on this series. Perhaps even a little better.

I have to hand it to Whitaker: that was a genuinely clever move, counting on the audience's suspension of disbelief with the alien costume, then pulling the rug out from under us.

So, Bennett’s got quite a lot of explaining to do. Which he does, with a great deal of self-satisfaction. He explains that this whole ruse was to save his life. He killed a crew member on the spaceship, and was arrested, but the ship crashed before the crime could be reported back to Earth. He realised if he dealt with the other crew, he could avoid the consequences of his actions.

When the people invited the shipwrecked crew to a meeting, he arranged the explosion, killing both the inhabitants and crew. Remember how the Doctor said there were only a few hundred native inhabitants? Bennett wiped them out. A whole people.

The claws and the lobster-scorpion distracted us all from the only real monster in this episode.

He concocted the ruse so that Vicki would support his story when he got back to Earth. Now it's time to clean up the mess. The Doctor and Bennett fight, with Bennett getting the upper hand. Just when all hope seems lost for the Doctor, a pair of strange men turn up, and they don't look at all pleased with Bennett.

Cornered, Bennett releases the Doctor and cowers away, shuffling all the way to a familiar door as the men advance. He's so busy trying to avoid them that he doesn't pay attention to where he's going… and falls right into the chasm. Bye, Bennett. You will not be missed.

The Doctor wakes up back in the TARDIS, his friends having found him outside the cave. Who were the mysterious men who came to his rescue? Nobody seems to know.

The Doctor speaks with Vicki, who is despondent, now having absolutely nobody in the world. No friends, and no family. No ties to home. The Doctor, realising this, and considering his own loneliness, offers to take her with him in the TARDIS. They can go anywhere at all, and if she likes adventure, she’ll be sure to find it.

Well, you’ve sold me.

Vicki agrees, and gets her own ‘it’s bigger on the inside!’ moment.

Back at the downed ship, the rescue craft is attempting to get in contact, when the mysterious men from earlier turn up and destroy the communications equipment. It seems that a few of the native people survived Bennett’s butchery, and that they’d rather not have any more visitors for the time being.

Can you blame them?

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor has just made a safe landing… at the very edge of a cliff.

The others protest and tell him to move the wobbling ship, but before he can do so, it topples right over the edge.

Honestly. Parking is really not that difficult. Does this man even have a licence?

Final Thoughts

Well, here we are. How did I find The Rescue? Fairly unremarkable.

If I must, I will scrounge up a handful more words: it was mildly engaging, though it doesn't help that the most engaging part was the one I got most frustrated at. However, it is much, much better than The Edge Of Destruction.

We're welcoming a new companion aboard the TARDIS, in the form of Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. I quite like Vicki. She seems nice, and has a sweet and gentle nature. I do hope, however, that she does develop more defining characteristics than ‘sweet, kind and gentle’, because we don’t just want a replacement Susan, we want a fresh new character. Is she fresh? I really can’t tell yet.

I would certainly be grateful for less screaming at anything that looks scary.

In a way, I am glad for the general ‘okay’ness of The Rescue, and the brevity– I think we all needed a bit of a breather after the last. Still, I think we’re ready for something a bit meatier. Until next time!

3 out of 5 stars

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