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Halfway through The Gunfighters, gonna finish the rest off today. How did this one get a reputation for being the worst Doctor Who episode ever? The song is so good that it’s almost retroactively made me like The Devil’s Chord and Church on Ruby Road more; awkward songs have been a part of the fabric of the show since 1966! Far from an aberration, this is a triumph.
Couldn’t be further from Resurrection, although the firearm count is high. We’re back in the lo-fi Sixties, so it’s not so much Supreme Daleks melting the flesh from faces and plotting superfluous assassinations. No, the catalyst of this particular masterpiece is The Doctor cracking his tooth on a Fisherman’s Friend or something. Elegant and straightforward. Donald Cotton is fast becoming one of my favorite writers of the Hartnell years.
I mean, let’s be real. The performances are all over. SO all over. The flubbing that comes out of some of the Clanton Brothers. I sympathize. Often, it’s twice as hard to remember your lines properly when you’re also wrestling with an unfamiliar accent, as the Old West would have been to all these RADA graduates. But then Wyatt Earp is all gravel and moustache and Doc Holliday plays his scenes with Hartnell magnificently. For his own part, Fightin’ Bill is on fine fettle here; his facial acting and physical comedy in the tooth extraction are clear highlights.
“I certainly disapprove of violence!” Flash forward to Peter Davison gunning down a Dalek mutant.
There’s so much to love here that I will probably go and review this when I’m done. Obviously all the Saward boffs want Doctor Who to be the exact opposite of this, but for me it feels like a bit of distilled mad joy that just erupts. It has the sense of a stag-do gone wrong. I love it to pieces.
SECOND HALF EDIT:
Turns out there was something for the Saward buffs after all. That big climactic gunfight sure is something, eh? You really do have to inoculate yourself against dodgy accents to fully buy into this one, but I think modern readings have managed that and general consensus is kinder to this episode than the past has been, and with bloody good reason. It is hilarious; multiple times I laughed out loud, and I think it really flies in the face of the idea that William Hartnell was visibly ailing onscreen towards the latter years of his tenure; he’s alight with mischief here, perhaps the first of many actors to enjoy the thrill of letting the character of The Doctor take them so far beyond their comfort zone. Could William Hartnell, player of gruff military men and criminal types, ever have dreamed of playing a tricksy space grandfather, cowboy hat poised loftily as Wyatt Earp hands him a gun he’ll never use? It’s gone on record from many of the actors of this era that the historicals were often the most fun to do, and that shows on screen I think. Everyone is giving it their all - it’s not necessarily always stellar, but the heart is in exactly the right place.
I will say, the song does get a bit labored once they have to come up with an eighth or ninth narratively relevant verse, and one or two of the lines just don’t scan at all - “Gotten a shroud” springs to mind, when “wearing” is right there and just sounds so much cleaner. Regardless, everything else that’s going on in this serial is, I think, enhanced by the song. We’re almost back in the same playing field as The Chase, meeting the monsters in the haunted house. This is Doctor Who doing a heightened world for the first time, in the guise of a historical. It’s playing in a space that The Mind Robber will pick up, and Modern Who will run with conceptually for many years, the idea that you can braid bits of genre and history together because the presence of a TARDIS, something incongruous and anachronistic by its very nature, allows you to do that. It’s really beautiful.
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That’s a good question! I know there are a few here who enjoy it, myself included. The song is a banger, and it’s very underrated! Bad American accents! A funny Hartnell! Peter Purves singing! Gunfire left and right! It’s the best Western Doctor Who has done 
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Watching The Eleventh Hour
I love it to bits 
Series 5 for the win 
Matt Smith just owns this role from the word go!
Fish Fingers and Custard
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Yesterday I watched Robot, which was a lot of fun and I enjoyed a lot. And the Ark in Space, which was fun as well.
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This is a really lovely moment. It’s interesting how few times we actually see the Daleks as a convincing military force in classic DW. From 2005 onwards, this is more common. However, the attack on the prison station in ‘Ressurection’ is so sudden, so violent and visceral that it’s a real statement of intent. The Daleks are back and, this time, they’re every bit as dangerous as we’ve always been led to believe. It’s a real (and justifiable) highlight.
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Ah, but that’s less of a problem than you think. We are told that Junior Technician Roman Groom:
“…adapted Gadget out of the worker drones… They built this place when the shell was lowered down from orbit.”
So Gadget was clearly adapted from what were initially useful (possibly even essential) robots that ceased to have much use once the base was constructed and operational. Gadget could easily be explained as a useful tool for surface exploration and sampling that meant they didn’t need to take an additional rover drone with them because they could simply repurpose the original worker drones.
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I know, I know. I’m not watching it just yet (so ‘currently watching’ is a stretch) but I’m rewatching ‘Terror of the Autons’ across Friday and Saturday evening this week. So looking forward to this! This story (and the rest of season 8) always put a big smile on my face! 
Cosy DW at its finest, yet also an inventive season with some cracking stories and performances. Oh, and the debuts of both Jo Grant AND Delgado’s Master!
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Being a bit British today wot wot.
Watching Winston Churchill on the Tele while sipping Earl Grey, and eating toast with Marmite innit?
Spiffing day Gov’nar 
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Watched Prisoner of the Judoon last night with the eldest.
Hmm… this is what I mean when I say I’m not convinced Sladen is as great an actress as all that… Her choices when possessed by Androvax are interesting… 
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All I’ll say here is that the child actor who played Chloe Webber did a much better “possessed voice” 
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Quick! Go build something out of LEGO, eat a smørrebrød and hug a Moomin so you don’t lose your Scandinavian and Danish soul!
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That reminds me we are out of ryebread for our lunch… Can’t make a decent smørrebrød without ryebread
Now I kind of want to go fishing so we can get a proper fish filet on buttered ryebread with homemade Danish remoulade, a slice of lemon with some watercress sprinkled on top and an ice cold glass of Tuborg Classic 
I’m hungry all of a sudden 
You know what? That double O in Moomin just continues to look wrong… I’ll call it Mumintrollen or Mumi Troldene from now on. 
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Rybread is life!
This sounds very delicious! I’m also hungry kow, and I just had lunch!
I know, it looks very wrong to me as well. It’s Mumin for me!
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Literally counting down the hours now, to settling down and enjoying episodes 1 and 2 of ‘Terror of the Autons’ tonight. For a story I know so very well and have seen so many times, I’m stupidly excited to rewatch this! It’s been a while since I last watched a Pertwee episode (specifically, Season 9 last year with the release of the Collection boxed set).
Bring it on!
Oh, and Jo! One of my favourite classic companions. Just LOVE her chemistry with the Doctor, the gentle warmth between them and the genuine character arc that Jo goes on across her three seasons.
She’s lovely. Oh, be still, my beating heart!
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Saw the Almost people two parter, and there’s enough neat ideas and conceptually it probably sounded like a great story, but goddamn Matthew how long can you stretch that script. Not often that i say it, but cram it all in one episode. I don’t like an hour of running around, oh now they’re good, now they’re evil, now they’re good, now we’re running through corridors again, and have only the remaining be actual story beats.
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Saw the Mark of the Rani today and I feel like I get it now. That is my type of villain. The relationship between her, the master and the doctor is immaculate.
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Just watched The Curse of Peladon 1 and loved it. Jo pretending to be a princess and throwing shade at the Doctor is hilarious and I love the claustrophobic medieval torchy atmosphere. The mountain side stuff was extremely well shot too.
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Watched an (admittedly shoddy) recon of The Highlanders. It was perfectly decent, although I’d deffo like it more if it was animated or not missing, frankly.
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