Production Code: L
First Transmitted
The Powerful Enemy - 02/01/1965 17:40
Desperate Measures - 09/01/1965 17:40
Plot
Arriving on the planet Dido in the late 25th Century, the time travellers come upon a crashed spaceship from Earth. Its two occupants - a paralysed man named Bennett and a young girl, Vicki - are living in fear of a creature called Koquillion, a native whose people have apparently killed the other members of the human expedition.
However, the Doctor quickly deduces that Koquillion is in fact Bennett in disguise; it was he who killed the others in order to conceal an earlier murder he had committed on the ship.
Confronted by two of the humanoid Dido natives - whom he thought he had completely wiped out - Bennett falls from a high rock ledge to his death. As Vicki's father was amongst the murdered crewmen and she is now an orphan, the Doctor offers her a place aboard the TARDIS.
Episode Endings
Making their way along a narrow ledge to escape from the cave in which Koquillion has trapped them, the Doctor and Ian find some metal wall rings, apparently intended as hand-holds. One of them comes loose as Ian pulls on it, activating a mechanism that traps him between two sets of sharp spears. More spears emerge from the wall behind him and start to push him toward the edge while, below, a horrific monster awaits.
The travellers leave the planet Dido taking Vicki with them. The Doctor hopes that they might get some rest at their next port of call. The TARDIS materialises on the edge of a cliff, however, and slowly topples off...
Roots
It!
The Terror from Beyond Space.
Dialogue Triumphs
Vicki : "What are you looking like that for?"
Barbara Wright : "Like what?"
Vicki : "You're sorry for me aren't you? I'm perfectly all right, you know. I don't care if nobody ever comes. I'm fine. I'm perfectly all right!"
The Doctor : "We can travel anywhere and everywhere in that old box as you call it. Regardless of space and time... and if you like adventure, my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it."
The Doctor : [Barbara, thinking the TARDIS has landed, tells the Doctor that the trembling has stopped.] "Oh my dear, I'm so glad you're feeling better."
Double Entendre
Ian : [Pronounces Koquillion as] "Cockylickin"
Continuity
The Doctor says of his medical qualifications that 'It's a pity I didn't get that degree, eh?'.
He dozes during materialisation, and for the first time the TARDIS lands itself.
Vicki left Earth for the planet Astra in 2493. Vicki's mother had recently died and her father was about to start a new job on Astra. He was among the people killed by Bennett. Vicki is not short for Victoria.
When the Doctor first visited Dido there were about 100 inhabitants. They appear human-like, and violence is unknown to them. (So why do they build a knife-wall trap and have a hall of justice?)
QV
Location
Dido [almost certainly 2493].
Future History
The crashed spaceship has a Union Jack flag. [Britain still exists in some form in 2493.]
Links
Reference is made to Susan and her leaving the TARDIS, to Ian and Barbara's departure from 1963 (An Unearthly Child), and to the crew's problems with caves (The Daleks, Marco Polo).
Untelevised
The Doctor has been to Dido before.
Trivia
The TARDIS makes the familiar 'wheezing and groaning' noise both inside and outside the ship as it materialises in this story.
Jacqueline Hill suffered shock and a sore face when the wooden effects gun used in the scene where she shot the Sand Monster detonated with greater ferocity than expected.
Tom Sheridan, who played the Space Captain heard but not seen in this story, was also inside the Sand Monster costume.
Myth
The inhabitants of Dido are called Didonians. (They are never referred to as such in the televised story).
Goofs
The TARDIS has no back to it, and you can see the cave wall beyond.
In episode two, a stagehand is visible behind Vicki's pet.
Barbara's shot at the sand creature is a firework which drops off the end of her gun.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - William Hartnell
Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
Ian Chesterton - William Russell
Vicki - Maureen O'Brien
Bennett - Ray Barrett
Koquillion - Sydney Wilson
Koquillion - Ray Barrett
Space Captain - Tom Sheridan
Crew
Director - Christopher Barry
The Rescue