The Rescue DVD NTSC Region 1 DVD PAL Region 2 VHS Video NTSC A NTSC B PAL

(Doctor Who Story No. 11, starring William Hartnell) written by David Whitaker directed by Christopher Barry produced by Verity Lambert music by Tristram Cary 2 episodes @ 25 minutes each: The Powerful Enemy Desperate Measures Story: The TARDIS crew discover Vicki and Bennett, two survivors of a space rocket that has crashed on the planet Dido, who are now being harrassed by an alien named Koquillion. But the Doctor is deeply disturbed by the disappearance of Dido's peaceful natural inhabitants, and suspects there is more going on than meets the eye....

DVD Extras include:

• Audio commentary by actor William Russell (Ian Chesterton), director Christopher Barry, designer Raymond Cusick, and moderator Toby Hadoke.
• "Mounting The Rescue" making-of documentary including actors William Russell, Maureen O'Brien (Vicki) and Ray Barrett (Bennett).
• Pop-up Production Note Subtitles
• Photo Gallery
• bundled with the next story: "The Romans" and all its extras....

Quality in the television series picks up quite strongly with both a strong script and Christopher Barry back in the director's chair. This short little two-parter is definitely the best of televised season two so far.

From here on, every season two story seems to do the TARDIS justice, with satisfactory visual materializations synchronized with the good old sound effect. The only thing not figured out at this point was the improvement of reversing the sound for landings and ending it with an extra characteristic "thud", but the standards of the day are quite satisfying anyway. Thankfully, for this story, the titles superimposed over the TARDIS do not take away from the visual effect of its appearance. The time travellers and the interior/exterior relationship of the ship are also well introduced (although the three people exit the police box in a different order to the one in which they exit the interior set). The Doctor's character goes through some interesting new twists and developments as he deals with his granddaughter's absense, making a moving and very watchable drama.

Maureen O'Brien makes her debut as Vicki, and seems capable of expressing a greater range of believable emotions than Carole Ann Ford as Susan. She can appear vulnerable without appearing desperate - an important quality considering life aboard the TARDIS for the typical Doctor Who companion. She is much more watchable and a stronger character. Susan had her moments, but Vicki is on the mark much more consistently.

Bennett is a strange character, and writer David Whitaker has to perform some elaborate manouvres to make sense of Bennett's motivations, but he manages to do the character fair justice in the end. Once again, the concept of friendly, but misunderstood, alien characters comes up, and the ensuing conflict is much better done here than it was in "The Sensorites" (story no. 7). Another good plus is the Doctor's clinging loyalty and belief in the aliens' benevolence, bringing up a question to be answered in the story: "What happened to change them?" Our characters become quite interested in this time/space location early on, even with the Doctor spending so much time in the TARDIS in the beginning. Very important, and rightly done!

Tristram Cary's music from "The Daleks" (story no. 2) returns, and once again lends much to the creation of a creepy alien atmosphere for Dido. It's re-use in this adventure was a good call, as it deserved a second outing and this story was an excellent opportunity. The acting and directing is back up to standard for a good Doctor Who story, which can be a bit hard to come by at times in these early years. Chris Barry appears to be a man who knows what he's doing.

Audio CD - Devils' Planets - The Music of Tristram Cary Find out more here.

The only thing that really doesn't work for me is the cliffhanger. The set/prop is fine to look at, with its fascinating carved face hiding the Indiana Jones style trap really well, but the trap itself is ludicrous. Ian isn't being believably forced over the edge, as he could easily stand still and wait in the huge gap between swords, or step up on top of them, after which the flimsy things will probably break off. Not inspiring.

The second episode is really good for the Doctor. William Hartnell turns in one of his best performances as he wins Vicki's confidence, trust and admiration with compassion and understanding. The script is particularly good at this point, and both William Hartnell and Maureen O'Brien make the most of it. Next the Doctor investigates and solves a mystery single-handedly. As Vicki gets to know and like his other two companions as well, the Doctor alone confronts the villain of the piece, and the climax of the story is tense and dramatic with a few surprise twists thrown in for good measure. Conclusions like this are not only riveting in their own right, but are also excellent for establishing the Doctor's heroic nature, something that is sadly lacking in much of the first Doctor's era. David Whitaker has proved to be the best writer for William Hartnell Heroism so far.

The story ends with a few heart-warming scenes of Vicki joining the crew, which also manage to demonstrate the TARDIS extremely well for anyone who might have seen nothing but this one half-hour episode. There's also a moral to the story emphasized by the final scene - a warning about where the lack of respect for other cultures can lead. Very excellent!

DVD NTSC Region 1 for the North American market: in the U.S. in Canada	DVD PAL Region 2 for the U.K.	VHS Video NTSC A for North America NTSC B for North America PAL for the U.K.

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