Grab Bag Reviews: "The Romans"

Ah, it really seems as though I keep doing a lot of First Doctor stories -- which is odd because the Grab Bag is totally random and I don't have all *that* many First Doctor stories.

At any rate... here we go again, into the William Hartnell era with "The Romans".

There isn't a lot of background to this story. The show was well into it's second series by this point, Maureen O'Brien's new character of Vicki had just been introduced in the previous story, "The Rescue" and so O'Brien was still new to the show. The rest of the cast and crew were somewhat stable. Verity Lambert was still producing and the only other change was that Dennis Spooner, the writer of this story, had been named as the new Script Editor but he would not take over the duties there for another few months.

Lambert had long been wanting to expand the range of the show and so she collaborated with Spooner to have "The Romans" written as an action/adventure-comedy or, some would argue, a dramedy. Either way, "The Romans" would be Doctor Who's first foray into a more comedic style. It wouldn't be the last.

Just for some context as well -- this story follows directly on from "The Rescue" and the story that would follow this one was "The Web Planet" (previously reviewed HERE).

The Plot: The Doctor along with companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki make a rather bumpy landing in ancient Rome. 64 A.D. to be exact. We are immediately whisked away to nearly one month later where we find that the TARDIS team has found an empty villa in a little town not far from Rome and moved in. The rest and relaxation, however, comes to an abrupt end as the Doctor gets a case of wanderlust and decides to go visit Rome with Vicki tagging along. Shortly after the Doctor leaves Ian and Barbara take a more frightening and unexpected trip as the duo are kidnapped by slavers and taken away. Ian is sold on the road to Rome but Barbara travels on to the capital city where she is bought as an attendant for Empress Poppaea, wife of Cesar Nero!

Meanwhile, on the road to Rome the Doctor finds the body of a famous musician, Maximus Pettulian, murdered! The Doctor is mistaken for Maximus and decides to play along out of curiosity as to who might have killed Maximus. Their path takes them not only to Rome but to Nero's palace where the Doctor learns that Maximus himself was supposed to assassinate Nero and Nero, jealous of Maximus's fame with the lyre, had ordered Maximus's death! Now the Doctor must dodge more murderous attempts on his life and extricate himself from the plot to kill Nero as well.

In another part of the palace, Barbara has caught Nero's eye and tries to escape his amorous advances. All of this has not escaped Poppaea's notice and she tries to have Barbara killed to eliminate her as a rival. All this time, Ian has been having adventures of his own, escaping the life of a galley slave he makes his way to Rome to try to rescue Barbara.

With plots and counterplots, with jealous rivalries, with murder and executions hanging over all their heads can the various time travelers escape from their situations and make it back to the TARDIS?

My Take: "The Romans" is a bit of an odd-duck story but somehow it all manages to work. There is no denying the comedy and yet there is a dark streak running through the story and even a dark streak to the comedy. For example, we meet the "official poisoner" of the court and her matter-of-fact description of her job and the way she goes about it is deadpan funny but, at the same time, the fact that, in that time and that place, political killings were rather common is sobering. There is another moment when Nero gives one of his slaves a cup he believes is poisoned and orders the slave to drink from it. The slave does so and drops down dead. The scene is exaggerated and played for laughs but on the heels of that laughter you realize that Nero quite casually killed another human being and showed no remorse at the act.

There is also the situations of Ian and Barbara. Barbara, the former history teacher, flat-out states that the role of a slave in ancient Rome is a frightening prospect. We see Ian treated like dirt as a galley slave and, for all the humor in Nero chasing Barbara around like a farce one is uncomfortably reminded that female slaves could also be subject to rape. And for Barbara, Nero's advances place her between a rock and a hard place.

The more lighthearted part of the story is with the Doctor and Vicki. They face no hardships and we get to see the Doctor as a sly and crafty old bird as he avoids revealing that he is not Maximus and confounds Nero's schemes at every turn.

It is Spooner's script that manages to make everything gel so surprisingly well. Nearly every line of dialogue is a treat and he wrote genuine warmth and admiration into all the character relationships. In point of fact, his scenes between Ian and Barbara are downright flirtatious! It is also a really different story in that Spooner takes his time with the plot -- although not in a boring way -- it is one of the only Classic series stories where viewers get to see the characters truly relaxed and taking time to enjoy themselves. The usual Doctor Who method was to throw the characters into danger right away and the difference works well here.

Spooner also manages that deft balance that is required in black humor. If you push the darkness a little too hard you end up with a story that is disturbing instead of funny but if you don't push the darkness hard enough the story stays a little too light. Here the lines are perfectly drawn. As a four part story things really do not drag either. The action and interactions keep things moving and happening and at no point does the viewer get bored.

All of the actors involved also turn in lovely performances. Both William Russell and Jacqueline Hill prove to have a talent for comedy and William Hartnell, with a background in comedy, is obviously getting a huge kick out of going back to his roots and his enjoyment adds an extra spark to his performance. Character actor Derek Francis is also quite obviously going for the comedy jugular with his turn as Nero. He manages to balance a bit of menace with a kind of bumbling ineffectualness that is absolutely hilarious.

The story is also studio-bound but the BBC manage an excellent job with costumes and set dressing so that the viewer neither notices that much nor cares. Although it must be said that the minuscule budget means that some things have to be left out to the detriment of the story. For example, the audience is told about Ian's escape from the galley rather than being able to see it for ourselves.

Even if you're not a fan of the First Doctor take "The Romans" out for a spin. Hartnell's Doctor is light, happy, cunning, and having a grand old time instead of being slightly cantankerous. There is action, adventure, intrigue, lots of humor (even if the history is really lacking, but what the heck, if you can't laugh at history what can you laugh at?) and quite a bit of fun.

The Return of the Doctor Who Grab Bag Reviews! "The Crusade"

I'm playing hooky from homework. Ergo, I decided to kick back with an episode of Doctor Who and get back to my grab bag reviews a bit. Also, makes a little cleanse of the palate from the Nero Wolfe stuff... although there will be more Wolfe to come as I'm behind on my reviews there.

Anyway... "The Crusade"!

We're back in the First Doctor's tenure for this one -- well into the second series. Already by this time the production team had abandoned the habit of doing a historical story every other serial but the show had not abandoned the pure historical yet either; that would not happen until 1966 (with a blip in 1983 for the story "Black Orchid").

Although there were some changes occurring to the production team at this time the biggest one -- the departure of the show's first producer, Verity Lambert, would not occur until the end of the series. By this time most of the cast had been on the job close to two years and even the newest member, Maureen O'Brien, had been on for several months and had settled into her role. As such the filming went along without a hitch and with no real controversy.

It should be noted that "The Crusade" was one of the stories which suffered from the BBC's tape wiping program in the 1960's and 1970's. Out of the four episodes two still remain but audio exists for the two missing stories. "The Crusade" can be found on the Doctor Who: Lost in Time, the William Hartnell Years DVD. The two extant stories and the audio for the two missing stories are provided. If one ventures over to the BBC's Classic Doctor Who website one can find that the whole story has been reconstructed using still images HERE. Using the audio and the still images it is possible to put together an at least rough reconstruction of the missing parts.

The Plot: The TARDIS lands in a wood... and lands right in the middle of trouble. The time travelers have managed to put themselves down right in the middle of an ambush toward the end of the Third Crusade. Barbara is kidnapped, Ian sets off on a perilous journey to find and rescue her and the Doctor and Vicki become embroiled in court intrigue at the stronghold of King Richard I. Will the court politics force the Doctor and Vicki to leave without Ian and Barbara? And can Ian find Barbara before she suffers a fate worse than death?

My Take: Many have often noted the Shakespearean tone of many of the old historical stories for Doctor Who and "The Crusade" is perhaps the most Shakespearean of all of them. Seriously, at many points while watching this you would swear that you were watching some long forgotten play by the Bard of Avon. Oddly enough it is the time travelers here who seem the most out of place and it is their dialogue which is the least Shakespearean... of course that is probably to be expected.

Let's get the good out of the way first, shall we? Julian Glover and Jean Marsh as Richard I and Richard's sister Joanna respectively turn in first class performances. Both actors were Shakespearean trained and it really shows. Glover showcases all of Richard's sides in this story. He is arrogant, temperamental, and almost childish at times but then turns around and shows nobility and a canny knowledge of politics and political expediency. Marsh counterpoints with her portrayal of Joanna as an intelligent woman who also knows well how court politics are played. She shows a strong will and self-assurance.

The other excellent performance here comes from Jacqueline Hill as Barbara. While, in some ways, Barbara is the typical female companion of the time period -- being captured and put in jeopardy -- in other ways she is a forerunner of the modern female companion. Here, while she is captured, she engineers her own escape at least once and is plotting her second escape when it becomes a moot point. She also is tough, clever, quick witted, noble, and not some little mouse easily frightened.

It also should be mentioned that, as usual, the BBC's costume department knocks it out of the park with clothes for the period pieces. The costumes for Richard, Joanna, and the rest of the knights (and later Ian, the Doctor and Vicki) are lovely and lush and emphasize the Shakespearean feel of the story. The set designers also do a pretty good job here. The forest scenes are dressed pretty well -- or at least well enough that viewers are automatically distracted by thinking it looks like a soundstage. The streets of the city of Lydda are also well done -- cramped, narrow, and dirty-looking -- just as you would expect from streets of that place and time.

That, however, is pretty much where the good ends.

One thing that becomes really obvious is just how much of a rut the show had fallen into by this time. In the two stories proceeding this one -- "The Romans" and "The Web Planet" the Doctor and Vicki have one part of the story while Ian and Barbara have the other part of the story. And the Ian/Barbara story in both of those cases as well as here with "The Crusade" consists of Barbara getting captured and taken off somewhere and Ian having to go find her to try to rescue her. It all gets so very tedious and one would think that the writers would have tried changing things up a little bit. With four main characters there are plenty of chances for mixing and matching the characters which would, in turn, showcase different aspects of the characters' personalities but instead we get the usual -- Ian goes off being heroic, the Doctor goes around being grandfatherly, and Barbara... well, I've already discussed what Barbara gets to do.

Adding to the tedium here is the fact that the the story falls into three main areas. You have the comedy element -- that is provided by the Doctor and Vicki and their ongoing wardrobe problems. The drama element is provided by the court intrigue -- of which the Doctor and Vicki are really merely bystanders, observers, and commentators rather than being in on the action. And speaking of action -- the action/adventure element is provided by Barbara's attempts to escape captivity and make her way back to her friends and Ian's attempts to overcome roadblocks to find Barbara and rescue her. And you can literally go through this entire four-part serial and anticipate when each of the different elements will be coming in. There is little to nothing here to surprise the audience or catch them off their guard. The whole thing is like a 'paint-by-numbers' picture.

And, surprisingly, even at only four episodes the story just goes on too long. The constant back-and-fourth between Barbara escaping and being captured and escaping again, etc. is interminable and while the sequences between Richard and Joanna can make for compelling viewing most of the rest of the court intrigue stuff is plain boring.

Also, there is Saladin and his brother and the nature of the crusades. Because, at this time, Doctor Who was considered a children's show, the story of the crusades has largely been condensed and cleaned up here. Added to that is the problem that this story was written in the 1960's, before many historians had fully embraced the complexities involved with the crusades and before Richard I stopped being quite so lionized. Because of that there is still a lot of mythology surrounding both Richard and Saladin and it doesn't do the story any favors. Like with many of Shakespeare's plays, there is a dash of real history to ground the story and then much of the characters and details are strictly fiction... grand, noble fiction as opposed to the dirty, bloody, slog most of the world was in that time period.

There is also the problem of the Saracens. While Saladin is shown as being intelligent, noble and honorable and a few other characters are shown the same it doesn't change the fact that all of the speaking parts are being played by Caucasian British actors in dark make-up. It gives the story a somewhat offensive tone. It also doesn't help that many of the other Saracen characters are vicious, greedy, conniving, or all three. You end up with two extremes -- the noble men (note: NOT noblemen) and the wicked.

And then there is the bit of script stupidity in trying to pass Vicki off as a 13 year-old boy at least until the third episode when she is "found out". The costumer does nothing to try to hide Maureen O'Brien's breasts and it is roundly quite obvious she's a girl and expecting the viewer to suspend disbelief that no one else notices is just ridiculous.

In the end, while there are some really nice aspects to the story which make it worth at least a cursory viewing it doesn't have a lot to recommend it for repeat viewing. The writers probably could have cut this down to a two or three part story and turned in something that would have really stood out among the historical stories but as it stands it bogs down in the middle and plods it's way to the end.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Time Meddler"

"The Time Meddler" was something of a watershed story for Doctor Who and it came at a time when there were many changes and upheavals.

Earlier in the season Carole Ann Ford had departed the show. Now, at the end, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill had opted not to renew their contracts and their last story was "The Chase". The production team decided not to replace Hill so Maureen O'Brien became the sole female character on the show and relative newcomer Peter Purves was hired to replace Russell in the male action lead position. Purves' character of Steven Taylor had been introduced at the end of "The Chase" but "The Time Meddler" marked his first full story. Now only William Hartnell was left of the original cast, it was, more or less, a changing of the guard.

In addition to the cast leaving, Verity Lambert, who had produced the show since it's beginning, had decided to move on as well. "The Time Meddler" would be the last story she produced.

The story was not only about farewells, however, it also marked several firsts. Up to this point Doctor Who had largely been broken into two types of stories -- science fiction and historicals. "The Time Meddler", however, would mark the first of a new genre for the show -- a blending of both the sci-fi and the historical into something which was termed "pseudohistorical". These stories would have most of the trappings of a traditional historical but throw in an element or two of sci-fi. In time this style would prove more popular than the traditional historical and would supplant the historical.

The other first "The Time Meddler" can boast is that it was the first story to introduce another of the Doctor's people. The name "Time Lord" would not be added until much later, but this is the first instance of the audience seeing another time traveler.

And so the second season ended with a new cast member, a new style of story, and new possibilities....

The Plot: After the whirlwind of their last adventure, the Doctor and Vicki take stock of their new situation. Ian and Barbara have returned home safely but they will be missed. Before they can be missed too much, however, the Doctor and Vicki discover a stowaway -- Steven Taylor, the fighter pilot they found stranded on the planet Mechanus! Steven is skeptical of the claims that the TARDIS can travel in time and space but when they land in England in 1066 he slowly becomes convinced.

Of course the TARDIS crew cannot stay out of trouble -- even here in the past -- There is a Viking scouting party in the woods, preparing for Harold Hardrada's invasion,and there is a mysterious monk who has the ability to alter the course of history... an ability he intends to use! 1066 was a turning point in England's history but it may all turn about wrong unless the Doctor and his young friends can stop the meddling monk!

My Take: I love this story, I really do. In addition to being the first pseudohistorical it is also one of those rare things in the early days of the show -- a comedy episode. Although I suppose it's more fair to call it an action-comedy; either way Doctor Who had only recently being playing around with doing stories which were more comedic in nature and this one is one of the best as Hartnell is at the top of his game here. Of course, it helps that he is given a brilliant foil -- comedy actor Peter Butterworth. Not well known here in the United States in the modern era, Butterworth was actually quite well known back in the day and in his native England. Audiences most certainly would have recognized him. Even without the recognition factor, Butterworth has timing, excellent physical comedy touches, and the ability to play off of Hartnell wonderfully in the scenes they have together.

Butterworth's meddling monk also makes for an interesting departure for a villain in the series. The monk isn't really that bad of a bad guy. He may threaten the path of history but he does it in order to make what he sees as 'improvements'... as well as to get money for himself. He's greedy and opportunistic but he isn't out to enslave the world or destroy a planet or an entire population unlike many the Doctor has crossed swords with.

There is a nice little mystery here as well. Viewers see early on that there is something not normal about the monk. He has a gramophone, a toaster, an electric skillet, and knowledge of the future. It is obvious that he is someone who is out of step with this time period but the writers spin out the mystery, keeping the truth a secret until the final episode when Vicki says the five words which would change the show's history: "The monk has a TARDIS!"

The third episode in this story is titled 'A Battle of Wits' and that's another thing you get here that you don't always get in Doctor Who -- a sense that this is a true battle of wits. Unlike with many other villains, the monk is largely alone here. There is no army backing him, no henchmen, lackeys, or toadies -- there is only the monk and the Doctor going mano-a-mano and that makes the story refreshing. The Doctor is pitting his own knowledge and low cunning against the monk's -- each one trying to get the upper hand, even if that means pulling dirty tricks. It really makes the viewer notice just how seldom the Doctor gets a true foil.

The real villainy here is provided by the Viking scouts. Their callous attitude towards taking what they need from the first village they find is chilling enough but the indications that they rape the Saxon villager, Edith, is simply chilling. These are cruel and violent men so their rather violent fate at the hands of the Saxon villagers is fitting. These darker turns, however, feel somewhat strange when compared to the lighter moments with the monk it has to be admitted.

As for the performances, well, I've already talked about Butterworth's fun turn as the monk. Hartnell is very obviously having a ball here and, despite blowing a couple of lines, he delivers some of the First Doctor's most memorably whimsical lines in this story. Such as holding up a Viking helmet to a skeptical Steven and pronouncing: "What do you think this is? A space helmet for a cow?" Or in managing to capture the monk warning him "And no more monkery!" There is also a well scripted sequence in which the Doctor manages to figure out the date by asking Edith a few simple, subtle questions and Hartnell plays the scene perfectly.

Maureen O'Brien takes on the new female lead position with aplomb. She convincingly portrays Vicki as smart, practical, logical, and quite the leader. There are also some nice scenes which help advance Vicki's character as she begins to assert that she has found a home in the TARDIS. O'Brien gives a pitch perfect reading of a line in which Vicki, believing the TARDIS is lost, tells Steven that he doesn't know what the TARDIS meant to her. O'Brien allows the simple line of dialogue to speak volumes about how Vicki feels.

On the opposite side of the scale is Peter Purves' Steven. I have to admit that, when I saw my first stories with Steven I chalked the character up as "Nearly Useless Pretty Boy". You know, one of those good-looking-but-usually-stupid male characters who sometimes show up in TV shows -- usually to make the main male lead look good. The only thing which saves the character from being completely useless is the fact that sometimes they actually do something right and/or are helpful. So yeah, that was my initial impression of Steven. Time, however, has caused me to change my mind and to recognize that Purves did something very interesting with the character of Steven. As many of the early episodes he was in had been written with Ian and Barbara as characters Purves found that his lines of dialogue were often a hastily re-written mish-mash of both characters. What this resulted in was Steven sometimes displaying what was, for the time period, female characteristics -- a heavy dose of compassion and intuition. While these could have emasculated the character, instead they actually lead to a more surprising and nuanced one. When the show began and for several years afterwards there was always one character who represented what I came to think of as "The Heart of the TARDIS" -- the character who embodied the empathy, sympathy, and more tender emotions of the show. Formerly this character had been Barbara; with Hill's departure though, the "Heart of the TARDIS designation did not fall to Vicki as may have been expected but instead fell to Steven. Peter Purves, although he has gone on record as being irritated at the time for getting stuck with Barbara's dialogue, actually decided to play it straight and with honesty instead of irony or sarcasm and it makes the character work and work well!

I will say this, though, Steven's long run of skepticism gets really annoying after the first episode. I understand the writers wanting to play things out but instead it makes the character seem a bit of a dim bulb. It also just feels a bit weird having a new character introduced at the end of a season. This is something that American TV just tends not to do -- if a new character is going to be introduced then it is usually done at the start of the season, not the end as was done here.

The guest cast aside from Butterworth are all solid although their characters are a bit more two-dimensional. They fill plot points in the story rather than being fully realized characters but at the very least they are likable plot points.

In the end viewers were treated to comedy, action, adventure, mystery, drama, and surprises all wrapped up with some cracking good dialogue. There are new characters to know and love, a new villain (who would show up again in "The Daleks Master Plan"), and a new style of story to add to Doctor Who's palette. In short, there's a little something here for everyone all done on some pretty darn good looking sets and with some pretty darn good costumes as well. Overall, this was a top notch story and a fitting close out to the season.

I don't always make mention of the DVD extras but in an odd bit of coincidence "The Time Meddler" was the last story Verity Lambert produced before moving on with her long and celebrated career and the cast and crew commentary track she recorded along with Peter Purves, story editor Donald Tosh and designer Barry Newberry for this DVD would be the last bit of work she did for Doctor Who before she passed away unexpectedly. There are some short but sweet tributes to this trailblazing woman on the DVD as well.

"The Time Meddler" is well worth 'meddling' with -- even for those who may not be fond of William Hartnell's version of the Doctor. There is a healthy dose of humor and a sense of childlike glee which pervades the entire story.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Rescue"

Back to the First Doctor for this one and also the very first introduction of a new companion.

"The Rescue" in many ways almost didn't come about. When Carole Ann Ford, who played the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, announced that she would not be renewing her contract producer Verity Lambert put plans in motion to replace her with the character of Jenny -- one of the freedom fighters the TARDIS crew would meet during the adventure "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".

Unfortunately issues arose with Hartnell, Russell, and Hill's contracts as well and new questions arose out of the BBC head office as to whether Doctor Who should be renewed after all. With these questions looming, Lambert held off on signing the actress who played Jenny to a contract. Once all the other cast contracts were settled and the show was assured another season it was time to start script writing for the upcoming season. Two previously filmed stories -- "Planet of the Giants" and "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" had been shot at the end of season one but held back to open season two. Lambert decided to use the third story of the season to introduce a new companion.

To echo Susan, Lambert decided to go with another character who was a teenager -- which was a bit of a switch since Jenny had been a little bit older. The two-part "The Rescue" was scripted to introduce the new character. While two-parters were not unheard of for the series they were fairly rare even in the early days and they would go on to become even more rare. The last two-parter of the 'classic' era was the Fifth Doctor story "Black Orchid."

Maureen O'Brien, a young actress, tried out for the role of Vicki mostly on a whim but landed the part. O'Brien was then about 22 years-old playing the teenage Vicki. She would stay on the show for a year or so but then leave, like many actresses before her she became dissatisfied with the part as well as with the fame it generated.

In the meantime, shall we go and meet Vicki?

The Plot: The TARDIS lands on the planet Dido sometime in the late 23rd century. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara are soon confronted by a horrible being named Koquillion and learn that he is also terrorizing the only two survivors of a space ship crash years ago. Teenage Vicki has been spending most of her time taking care of the infirm Bennett but with a rescue ship on its way Vicki fears that the arrival of these strangers will enrage Koquillion and end her hopes of getting off this planet. The Doctor, however, is suspicious. He's been to Dido before and there is something about Vicki and Bennett's story that is not adding up. The deeper he probes for the truth the closer he comes to death!

My Take: Eeeehhhh. The story is alright. At only two episodes it is a fairly tight thing by necessity. There isn't a lot of the usual padding, which is good, but on the flip side some things seem to take place off camera and the audience has to play catch-up between the breaks. There also just plain and simple doesn't feel like there's quite enough meat here; just as one starts to really warm up to the mystery it's solved!

There are several nice bits here though. There is a moment where the Doctor forgets, just for a split second, that Susan is gone, and it brings the grief back to him fresh. Hartnell does a lovely take on this, letting the Doctor seem adrift just for a moment. Later, there is a nice acknowledgement from Ian that he knows why the Doctor has asked Vicki to come along with them.

In the meantime, though, it must be said that the entire cast seem to be having a ball here. Hartnell's Doctor is chipper, humorous, and even a man of action (something he really rarely did) -- seeming to relish this little adventure. He even seems to take facing 'Koquillion' as a kind of lark until it all goes south. Jacqueline Hill and William Russell likewise appear to be enjoying themselves. Their characters are confident and even a bit cocky in attitude and there is some gentle teasing between themselves and Vicki.

Maureen O'Brien seems to be the one who is stuck with some uneven characterization and one 'grade A' hissy fit. In episode one when Barbara proposes setting a trap for Koquillion Vicki is all for it but later she pitches a right temper tantrum refusing to even listen to any of the ideas of the Doctor, Ian or Barbara -- insisting that they are going to ruin everything. I will say, though, that Vicki's reaction to Barbara inadvertently killing her pet is believable for a girl who has been stuck on a planet with almost no other company. The fact that Barbara has killed an innocent creature is disturbing enough but the strain this places on the new relationship is interesting. Unfortunately, like all inter-companion conflict in the early days of the show it is quickly nipped and all is put right.

The villain of the piece is... well... just a villain. Again, the short script and necessity of putting a lot of emphasis on Vicki to introduce her to audiences leaves 'Koquillion' as little more than just a baddie. By the time we learn all of what it going on it is too late and we get no real depth. I will give the writer credit, though, for keeping the mystery a pretty good secret up to the end. Kids watching the program at the time were likely surprised.

In the end it isn't a terrific story but it isn't a bad story either. There are some really enjoyable parts and it is obvious that the cast was having a good time filming this -- the high spirits leak out in the performances. We also get the story aftermath of the first big change in casting and a model is set for companions coming and going -- something that continues to this very day.