Well, we've certainly had our ups and downs with this story, haven't we? It started off well, went through a rough patch and then started picking up steam again. Here's hoping it keeps that upward trend as we move into the final episode, The Firemakers.
As before, the four regulars, along with Hur (who I'm going to continue calling Helen for the sake of clarity) and Za on a stretcher, are surrounded by the other cavemen as they approach the TARDIS. Kal emerges and accuses Za of killing the old woman and stealing the secret of fire from the 'strangers', and then the Doctor goes all CSI on us, showing that Za's totally-supposed-to-be-a-knife has no blood on it and tricking Kal into revealing his rock-that's-supposed-to-be-a-knife, which is practically dripping with the stuff. Aparently. It's hard to tell in black and white.
Whatever, I ADORE this. It's the Doctor we know and love, a quick-thinking smooth talker who doesn't resort to violence to solve the problem at hand (unlike last episode, hmm). It's a great bit of writing and a great bt of acting from Hartnell, who grabs the chance to be the hero with both hands and pushes it to the max. He really is fantastic in this.
With Kal revealed, the Doctor convinces the tribe to cast him out, establishing Za as the leader. He puts the regulars back into the cave of skulls while he decides what to do with them. Unfrotunately, the direction makes it look like they're standing about three feet away from the cave, which gives the impression that the TARDIS is only a couple of meters away and the whole forest section wasn't needed. Oops.
Not the greatest problem in the world, I admit, but you'd think they'd have caught that a fade implies a passage of time and a hard cut doesn't. Man, I am really starting to get the hang of this whole 'editing' thing, aren't I?
Stuck in the cave with the old woman's corpse - which is conviniently not shown, because according to Union rules at the time doing so would require the actress to be paid for an entire episode's work - and in the hopes of gaining food and water, Ian sets to making fire the proper way. Y'know, the campfire way. The spinning a stick on a piece of wood kind of way. Yeah, THAT one.
Za, unsure of the strangers, goes to talk to them and watches as they make fire via the medium of a stagehand sparking a lighter. Well OK, it's supposed to be the result of Ian rubbing the sticks, but the fire appears so suddenly it's clearly not. Either way, Za is amazed, and despite the four's assertations that everyone should know how to make fire, he insists only the leader can know.
Outside, Kal strangles the man guarding the cave - remarkably quickly, I might add - and enters, seeking revenge upon Za. The two engage in an extremely chaotic and somewhat hard to follow fight, which is full of close-ups of the regulars looking rather bored, punches that barely connect and lots of manly grappling.
Eventually Za emerges as the winner, bashing Kal's head in with a rock to finish him off. Lovely.
It may not have been particularly well shot, but that doesn't stop the scene from being quite entertaining. It's the first proper fight we've had, and even if the end is surprisngly dark, it's a fitting end for a character who'd turned into a fairly cliched villain by that point.
As Za recovers from the fight, the rest of the tribe - frustrated by Za's inability to provide fire - start arguing about his ability to rule. The Doctor gives Za a torch of fire and he re-establishes himself to the other cavemen before leaving to get more meat. He refuses to let the group leave, reasoning that this is the best place for them. Fair enough really, it's hard to make a caveman understand the logistics of a ship that can travel through time and space when he can barely understand how to make fire!
It's at this point Susan has an idea, placing a skull on top of a torch of fire to produced a rather guesome image. Ian catches on and the plan is formed. A plan that results in such a cool image of flaming skulls that it needs to be an album cover or something. Awesome.
The cavemen come in and are completely freaked out by this, and using the opportunity the four race outside. The plan's only rumbled when one of the skull torches falls over (Ok, it's clearly pushed by an off-camera stagehand, but whatever) and Za realizes they've been tricked, leading the cavemen in a chase after the regulars. They've gotten too much of a head start though, and after some hilarious close-up shots that are clearly just the actors jogging on the spot while more stagehands whip leaves at them, they make it back to the TARDIS, which vanishes just as the cavemen catch up to them.
On board, the Doctor claims he can't take the two teachers back to their own time. He offers some nonsense about needing to know where they're heading from before he can make a proper journey, but then he admits he actually can't work the TARDIS properly. Some things never change, I guess.
Wherever the Doctor's landed them though, it looks strangely alien, so they decide to clean themselves up before exploring. Unfortunately they don't notice the radiation counter on the console move into the danger zone...
And that was The Firemakers, and indeed An Unearthly Child. As an individual episode it actually works rather well. The techniques used at the time may have aged badly, but the actors have enough conviction to paper over those flaws and the story manages to hold together. The acting, as you probably gathered, is excellent, and the whole thing is a good ending to the story, with a good hook for the next one.
As for the story as a whole? Well, it's pretty good, all told. I myself wouldn't have picked a story about cavement trying to find fire as a good first adventure - and indeed, the producers apparently weren't entirely happy with the idea being the opening one - but in the end it worked fairly well. Sure it dragged in places *COUGH*CAVEOFSKULLS*COUGH* and the effects were a bit dodgy in places, but overall it was engaging, compelling and above all entertaining. The four regulars have proven themselves more than capable of carrying the show, the premise has shown that it's got legs and the promise of a new adventure awaits.
The series is off to a pretty good start and I can't wait for the next story.
And not just because it's got the Daleks in it.
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