The Reign of Terror by Dennis Spooner
8 August - 12 September 1964
You know, I was given to understand that Dennis Spooner was the “comedy historical” writer. It kind of caught me off-guard when his first outing on the program was more of the Lucarotti historical vein. I mean, it has to be said that it hardly holds a candle to the first two historicals of this season, but it’s by no means bad. The Reign of Terror does suffer from something of a reverse-Sensorites problem where it takes a long time to get its good bits rolling, with parts of the second, third, and fourth episodes containing some of the most pointless twists and turns I’ve seen so far. After a while, incident for incident’s sake does clear out a little, and some good drama finally seeps its way in. The moral of “revolution is bad, perhaps” comes across a little lukewarm to me, but at the end of the day it’s more or less secondary to what is chiefly a historical romp where William Hartnell gets to have a lot of fun wearing silly outfits.
This time the Doctor, out of all the cast, gets to be the star of the show for six weeks. While his companions bumble around in Paris, he seems to delight in talking circles around everyone he meets. And to be fair, he does look spiffy in that regional governor outfit. I was sort of dreading another romantic interest subplot for Barbara, but mercifully, it’s cut off when Leon reveals his true colors and tries to have Ian killed. His subsequent death at the hands of Jules sets up an interesting bit of conflict between Barbara and Ian, albeit one that expires a little too quickly for my liking. I’ll never complain about having my expectations subverted, at the very least. Susan, sadly, fares quite poorly in this serial, especially when held in contrast with The Sensorites. Her complete loss of hope in the face of her would-be prison escape with Barbara because there are rats in their escape route is a much bemoaned moment, and… yeah, I’m not a fan either. I’m sure I’m missing context for some production detail or another that made it difficult or impossible, but couldn’t David Whitaker have kept her writing more even across the season? It’s a little disheartening watching her get jerked around like this.
The guest cast acquits itself quite well. Keith Anderson sounded electric as Robespierre, befitting of the intense and charismatic figure he was. I’m sad that most of his performance is in the two episodes which haven’t been preserved, but at least we get to see him work for a minute or two in the final one. James Cairncross is also very good as Lemaitre. He plays him with such a keen menace through the first episodes that his reveal as James Sterling close to the end comes as a genuine surprise.
To leave the characters aside, there are a few really good bits of production work that deserve highlighting, most especially the beginning of Guests of Madame Guillotine. The silent overview of Paris and the still shot of the eponymous instrument of death before its blade falls to the roars of a crowd sets the atmosphere for this story very well. It’s also worth noting that Doctor Who’s first location shooting takes place during this serial, which certainly lends the setting a more “real” dimension, even if it is just a body double of Bill Hartnell walking along in silence. I couldn’t help but to notice that fire was placed prominently in-shot throughout much of this serial, mostly because the odd, black halo it creates on the black-and-white video. I wonder if its use was intentional, a metaphor for the “flames of discontent”, or violence and fervor, or something like that. The incidental music unfortunately grated on me more than once. The mix was awfully high, which sometimes made it blare over scenes and make them difficult to listen to. And besides, there’s only so many variations on La Marseillaise a gal can hear before getting a little tired of it.
So although it lent a few very good moments, The Reign of Terror didn’t really stand out. Perhaps it would have fared a little better if two of its episodes weren’t missing, but the other four honestly didn’t stick out all that much more. It’s a fairly inoffensive note to leave the season on, but not a whole lot else.
Before we reach the Planet of Giants, I need to wrap up my thoughts on Season One. I’m sure you’ll all relish the chance to discover how I rated each story. See you soon!
Memorable Dialogue
"I suppose you think you're very clever." "Well, without any undue modesty, yes!"
“What a memory I shall leave behind if this thing lasts…”
Miserable Dialogue
None again!
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 23 January 2018.)
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