The Gunfighters
Well yeee-haw it's an adventure in the rootin' tootin' wild west!
The TARDIS arrives in Tombstone, right across the street from the infamous OK Corral. Decked out in the tackiest of cowboy fashions, Steven and Dodo (who even got hair extensions for this one) accompany the Doctor as he searches for a dentist to deal with his aching tooth. Luckily for him, there is a newly-opened dental surgery right on Main Street. Unluckily, it is run by outlaw, gambler and boozer Doc Holliday, and just down the street at the Last Chance Saloon the notorious Clanton brothers are a-waitin for a chance to get even with Holliday for shooting one of their kin. The Doctor is mistaken for Holliday while Steven and Dodo are forced to sing and play the piano at gunpoint, and then are separately abduced and held at gunpoint a few more times over the adventure's four episodes. Sensing that Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson will protect their friend Holliday, Pa Clanton hires himself the meanest gun in the west, Johnny Ringo, who has his own score to settle with Holliday, and all paths converge at the OK Corral at sunup... and we all know how that story goes.
A lot of fans hate The Gunfighters and it's not hard to see why. Bad cowboy accents, a thin plot, and dreary sets. But I actually liked it. It's a comedy. I laughed my ass off in places. The Doctor gets in some fun moments while everyone thinks he is Doc Holliday. Steven warbles his way through the lyrics of The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon. The song itself is featured throughout all four episodes, serving as not only incidental music but a chorus commenting on the action so far. (Doctor Who would not use vocal incidental music again until 1987's Delta and the Bannermen). But the irony of all the hatred people have towards the adventure is it actually exists intact, all four episodes VIDfired and restored for viewing pleasure and sold in a boxed set in 2003. Okay it's not great, but it's fun, it's something different. After all the heavy tones of the season so far (Vicki leaving, Katarina and Sara dying, a foiled Dalek invasion, a religious cleansing of Paris, Earth being destroyed by the sun, and the twisted world of the Toymaker) it is good to have something a bit lighter to enjoy to take the edge off.
With The Gunfighters comes a significant style change to Doctor Who; from the very beginning each episode was individually titled (and with the new series that has been brought back) but this would be the last story to receive that treatment. Every adventure after in the classic series will have a collective title and the episodes numbered.
Once the dust settles and the TARDIS leaves Tombstone, the Doctor declares that they will next step out into a world of the future, an age of peace and prosperity. But, if that's the case, who's that mean dude with the spear on the TARDIS scanner screen as the credits roll..?
NEXT EPISODE : THE SAVAGES
The TARDIS arrives in Tombstone, right across the street from the infamous OK Corral. Decked out in the tackiest of cowboy fashions, Steven and Dodo (who even got hair extensions for this one) accompany the Doctor as he searches for a dentist to deal with his aching tooth. Luckily for him, there is a newly-opened dental surgery right on Main Street. Unluckily, it is run by outlaw, gambler and boozer Doc Holliday, and just down the street at the Last Chance Saloon the notorious Clanton brothers are a-waitin for a chance to get even with Holliday for shooting one of their kin. The Doctor is mistaken for Holliday while Steven and Dodo are forced to sing and play the piano at gunpoint, and then are separately abduced and held at gunpoint a few more times over the adventure's four episodes. Sensing that Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson will protect their friend Holliday, Pa Clanton hires himself the meanest gun in the west, Johnny Ringo, who has his own score to settle with Holliday, and all paths converge at the OK Corral at sunup... and we all know how that story goes.
A lot of fans hate The Gunfighters and it's not hard to see why. Bad cowboy accents, a thin plot, and dreary sets. But I actually liked it. It's a comedy. I laughed my ass off in places. The Doctor gets in some fun moments while everyone thinks he is Doc Holliday. Steven warbles his way through the lyrics of The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon. The song itself is featured throughout all four episodes, serving as not only incidental music but a chorus commenting on the action so far. (Doctor Who would not use vocal incidental music again until 1987's Delta and the Bannermen). But the irony of all the hatred people have towards the adventure is it actually exists intact, all four episodes VIDfired and restored for viewing pleasure and sold in a boxed set in 2003. Okay it's not great, but it's fun, it's something different. After all the heavy tones of the season so far (Vicki leaving, Katarina and Sara dying, a foiled Dalek invasion, a religious cleansing of Paris, Earth being destroyed by the sun, and the twisted world of the Toymaker) it is good to have something a bit lighter to enjoy to take the edge off.
With The Gunfighters comes a significant style change to Doctor Who; from the very beginning each episode was individually titled (and with the new series that has been brought back) but this would be the last story to receive that treatment. Every adventure after in the classic series will have a collective title and the episodes numbered.
Once the dust settles and the TARDIS leaves Tombstone, the Doctor declares that they will next step out into a world of the future, an age of peace and prosperity. But, if that's the case, who's that mean dude with the spear on the TARDIS scanner screen as the credits roll..?
NEXT EPISODE : THE SAVAGES
Labels: Dodo Chaplet, Steven Taylor, The 1st Doctor
posted by Sean Hoover @ 11:23 AM
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