The Rescue

Still down to three crew members, the TARDIS lands on the planet Dido. The previous visitors to Dido were not so lucky as to land and actually crashed, and only two of the original crew have survived and are awaiting a rescue ship from Earth. Barbara and Ian meet the murderous Koquillion, apparantly a native of the planet, who tries to blow Ian and the Doctor up in a cave and throws Barbara off a cliff. Koquillion is also terrorizing the crash survivors, Bennet and a young orphan girl named Vicki, but they are riding out his wrath as they wait for rescue. And Koquillion ain't pretty - he's the epitome of nasty with his tusks, spines and claws.

With Susan so recently departed, the Doctor bonds almost instantly with Vicki, although his cajoling old man ways charm her where they would frustrate Susan as she was a lot smarter than Vicki appears to be. Vicki is from the far future of Earth, around the 25th century, and is immediately skeptical of Ian and Barbara's claims to be from 1963, but once she is inside the TARDIS she understands they are telling the truth and accepts the Doctor's offer to travel with them.

There's not much to really say about this one. It's the second two-part adventure in the history of the series, and there would not be another one until The Sontaran Experiment in 1975. It's short, but it moves along; the combined length of the episodes is roughly the same as the standalone episodes of the new series, so it can serve as an indicator of how Doctor Who can tell a short story just as easily as it can a longer one (stay tuned, there is a 12 episode adventure coming up in season 3).

The VHS copy I have is edited so the final moments of The Rescue are missing. The TARDIS lands on a hillside, but after a few moments it wobbles and falls down into a ravine. Poor Vicki should have stayed on Dido...

NEXT EPISODE : BYZANTIUM!