Another first time watch for this story and I all my previous knowledge was that it seems to be pretty popular, Barbara is mistaken for a God or something and there's stuff to do with not being able to change history. Oh and I knew there was some sort of love interest for the Doctor!
I look forward to stories that I've seen and like, a chance to re-watch them in the right chronological order, and I look forward to those stories that everyone raves about so that I can enjoy them like everyone else, but what I really look forward towards is the stories I know nothing about. Or at least as little as possible. Going into this story, as I said, I knew it was seen as Hartnell's best story by some and praised by many. Which means of course I found it a bit overrated and over-hyped unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the Aztecs a lot and thought it was rather clever at parts, but I think it felt like I had to enjoy it, or that at the end of some of the episodes I was wondering why I wasn't enjoying it as much as I thought I would. Still that's no fault of mine or of the stories.
As I said before the story is really rather clever at parts, Itxa's manipulation of the Doctor to help him against Ian and Tlotxl's schemes were especially clever. Making the Aztecs believe Barbara is Yetaxa reincarnated is really quite a clever twist in the story. For once the travelers seem to be in control of the situation they find themselves in, but they soon realise they are still slaves to the circumstances and the people around them. In fact Barbara's position and that of the rest of the travelers, who she claims are her servants, arguably constricts them more than when they are just travelers stumbling upon the situation.
Another clever twist in this story is the Doctor's subplot involving a love interest. The Doctor's transformation from grumpy old man who could be quite nasty to funny lovable rogue is now almost complete (we get to see the last step in the next story-which I'm part way through at the time of writing this). The scenes where the Doctor finds out about his accidental proposal, and then when he tells Ian, are hilarious. And that is a genius move by writer John Lucarotti; getting the audience to laugh at the Doctor, and with him, overcomes any remaining misgivings the audience might have had about the Doctor as this point. If the Doctor had accidentally got engaged in the first story, An Unearthly Child, I doubt it would have been anywhere near as funny but because we've seen the Doctor slowly softening and being more humorous, along with his advancements in the relationships with Ian and Barbara, we fully appreciate the humour and can revel in it. Well done John sir, you've just earned a bumped up score from me as I write this.
Other notes:
- Susan gets sidelined in this story which is almost a blessing, though we do get the start of some development in her character as she refuses to marry "the perfect victim", stating how her life is her own and who she chooses to share it with is her choice
- The sets and especially the costumes are very good in this story. Some of the headgear worn my Ian and the Aztecs are very impressive stuff, you can tell they did their research on this. The sets aren't grand but they don't need to be, they look like what they are supposed to be depicting.
- I couldn't help getting a Road to El Dorado vibe off of this story, I wonder if the writers for that watched this?
- Once again Barbara gets to show off her history knowledge and it never feels forced. I can see why some people may find historicals boring but I've always been a fan of history and have been enjoying these trips back in time. It certainly makes me review my thoughts on the New series attempts at historicals.
Individual episode scores:
1.The Temple of Evil: 7/10
2.The Warriors of Death: 8/10
3.The Bride of Sacrifice: 8/10
4.The Day of Darkness: 7/10
The average score is 7.5, but I'm rounding it up to 8/10
Next up The Sensorites, which I've been watching and enjoying a lot more than I thought I would considering the negative opinions I've been hearing.
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