I watched The Reign of Terror either at the very end of last year or very early this year (I hadn't planned on doing this at that point and it was at my friend's, he had bought it recently) and I thought it was ok. I got a little confused by the French Revolution stuff (my friend had studied it in history so tried to fill me in, but it wasn't that helpful) and slightly bored but on whole it was alright. I loved Hartnell in his outfit, and I quite like the animations.
The truth is that I was right when I found The Reign of Terror a bit boring on my first viewing. My second viewing was no different. My main setback is that I no little about the French Revolution and to really follow the story you need to have at least a little knowledge. It's an unfortunate circumstance really. I imagine when this was broadcast in 1964 that children were being taught about the French Revolution so it would have been a great choice to do Doctor Who in this era. And when it was made the creators had no idea that it would ever be shown again, illustrated by the fact that two episodes of the story are missing. So as I said it's just an unfortunate circumstance, with no one really to blame.
A big problem is that there are a bit too many characters to keep track of, and this is made worse by the fact that half of them seem to be spies and turn out to be on different side to what you thought they were. Having someone the characters learn to trust only for them to be spies is fair enough, but this story has a bit too many. As well as that you don't really get a chance to see the character and see which side he is on before they turn out to be on the other side. As is the case with Léon, all we know of him is that he helped rescue Susan and Barbara and that he seems to like Barbara. That's pretty much it.
I think the best bits of the story are the Doctor and the costumes, which comes together when the Doctor dresses up as a ruler of a province (never named). The costume really is brilliant and Hartnell clearly has a lot of fun in it, and with ordering people about. His interactions with the jailer are a particular highlight and source of some good humour.
Susan goes back to being pretty rubbish in the story unfortunately, becoming ill and being even more useless, which is a shame after her biggest role yet in the Sensorites the story before.
There really isn't much more to say about this story unfortunately, especially considering it's the season finale.
Episode scores:
1. A Land of Fear: 7/10
2. Guests of Madame Guillotine: 7/10
3. A Change of Identity: 7/10
4. The Tyrant of France: 4/10
5. A Bargain of Necessity: 4.5/10
6. Prisoners of the Concierge: 5/10
Overall average score: 6/10
I kick season two off with a look at Planet of Giants next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment