006 - The Aztecs

Broadcast:

23^rd May - 13^th June 1964

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Ian, Barbara, Susan

Adversary:

Aztec Heigh Priest

Written by:

John Lucarotti

Director:

John Crockett

Music:

Richard Rodney Bennett

Script Editor:

David Whitaker

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

7.53m (7.4, 7.4, 7.9, 7.4)

Summary: Landing amongst an ancient civilisation that demands human sacrifice leads Barbara to try and change history - the very subject which she teaches!

Following the quality of his scripts for Marco Polo, John Lucarotti was asked to write another. He drew on his experience of living in Mexico and his fascination with Aztec culture to write what would be Doctor Who's third dip into history.

At the time of broadcast, viewers could also become familiar with the First World War as the BBC started to show their 26 part documentary series The Great War or watch such films as Night Must Fall and The Evil of Frankenstein (the former featured Sheila Hancock who would later appear in The Happiness Patrol as Helen A, and the latter starred Peter Cushing who would play the Doctor in the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966). In the charts, Four Pennies spent a week at number one with "Juliet" followed by four weeks of Cilla Black's "You're My World". Meanwhile the Rolling Stones crossed the Atlantic for their first American tour. In the news, South Korean President Park Chung Hee declared martial law in Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpowered police in anti-government protests, a referee's decision during the Tokyo Olympics football qualifiers in Peru lead to riots which killed 319 people and left 500 injured, the first Soviet communications satellite was launched, and Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment (though political changes would eventually result in his release in 1990 and pave the way for his presidency of South Africa 30 years and one month after his sentencing).

As for The Aztecs, Carole-Anne Ford would be taking her two week holiday so arrangements were made to give Susan a minor sub-plot that could be filmed in advance at Ealing and take her away from the main action, indeed all four regulars would be apart from each other for much of the story which gives it a sense of scale but also a slight emptiness...

Where The Keys Of Marinus had been produced as a completely isolated adventure with no lead in at the end of Marco Polo and no prelude to The Aztecs at the end, it was decided to reprise the TARDIS's dematerialisation at the begining of The Aztecs despite there being no TARDIS interior scene or materialisation. The first new shot we see is a close up of a jewel encrusted death mask and as the camera moves we get to see the TARDIS in the background before Barbara exits via the left door (I shouldn't make a big deal about this but it feels so wrong!) Straight away, Barbara is in her element talking about the Aztecs and effectively giving Susan a lesson - don't forget, not only is Barbara a history teacher, but part of Doctor Who's remit was too be educational. The tomb set and the adjoining temple look great, especially following the relative simplicity of sets in The Keys Of Marinus but it is such a shame that there is no sense of echo when anyone speaks. It's perhaps a minor point but one that becomes relevant in episodes 2 and 3 which were recorded at Television Centre and do have a certain amount of echo when relevant. This along with the improved lighting and picture quality in episodes 2 and 3 really highlight the limitations that producers and directors faced in the show's normal studios at Lime Grove - they were old and woefully ill-equipped for such a demanding modern series. Camera angles and movements were also compromised and the TVC episodes really do work so much better because director John Crockett clearly had strong visual ideas that simply couldn't be achieved in the cramped space at Lime Grove. There are several tracking shots where the original script suggested cutting to different cameras, unfortunately, at one point William Hartnell misses his mark (or perhaps the camera is in the wrong place) and he becomes obscured by Barbara's headdress and the camera has to move again to see him... then Barbara turns her head and he is obscured again!

In terms of plot, Barbara has been mistaken by the locals as the reincarnation of a god and she takes the role very well as we see her in a new light - strong and confident as well as intelligent and wily. She tries to use her new found authority to bring and end to the Aztec's human sacrifice and teach them that they are unnecessary rituals that will ultimately lead to their societies destruction. Whilst the High Priest of Knowledge sees that she makes good arguments, Tlotoxl the High Priest of Sacrifice (sardonically identified by the Doctor on first sighting as being the "Local butcher") is of course less than understanding and sets out to prove that she is not who they think she is. 18 minutes into the first episode, this leads to one of the most valuable quotes in Doctor Who's history as the Doctor explains in disgust "You can't rewrite history! Not one line!" Despite this, when the first sacrifice is due at the end of the first episode Susan screams (though she has been kept from witnessing it!) and Barbara intervenes and prevents the sacrifice from going ahead... though the victim was giving himself willingly and jumps to his death instead. The episode ends with the most scary and chilling shot so far as the grotesque Tlotoxl looks straight down the camera lens and says "This is a false goddess. I will destroy her!" I'm not sure if it adds to the fear factor or detracts from it, but as the camera moves in on the close up it bumps into the set... something that is repeated in the following week's re-enactment (though of course, neither are deliberate)

For interrupting the sacrifice, Susan is taken away to a seminary to learn the Aztec culture (thus removing her from the main plot as planned), she is a young school girl after all! She learns again of arranged marriages (possible a personal concern of Lucarotti's since he brought it up before in Marco Polo) and ultimately is chosen to marry the Perfect Victim, which prompts her to try and escape the seminary and return to the main plot. These few pre-filmed scenes spread across the TVC episodes are perhaps the whole stories weakness as they are neither interesting nor exciting and really do serve the single purpose of giving Carole-Anne Ford time off. Meanwhile, Ian has found himself caught up in a leadership battle and uses a nerve pinch to prove that he doesn't need a weapon (several years before Spock introduced us to the Vulcan Neck Pinch in Star Trek!) and the Doctor has inadvertently given his opponent assistance in the form of a poisonous thorn... an error which he then compounds by distracting Ian with a warning at precisely the wrong moment! It's also a messy production moment as it proved difficult to choreograph and even harder to capture on camera so William Russell had to sustain the cut to his wrist then stagger forward and hold it to the camera for viewers to see! It is also rather odd that the fight leading to this moment was very much going Ian's way despite his opponent Ixta being a great warrior.

The Doctor spends much of his time in the Garden Of Rest among the native elderly as he tries to learn of a way back into the tomb. He befriends a wise woman who asks if he is a healer (in a conversation about plants that ultimately leads to the afore mentioned poison) to which he replies with another key quote "No, no. The call me the Doctor. I am a scientist, an engineer. I'm a builder of things". Their time together progresses and later involves cocoa which ultimately leads to the Doctor inadvertently becoming engaged to her by the act of preparing the cocoa!

Everyone is very much on form throughout the story, although there is a dull wordy scene in episode two that feels very Shakespearian and almost riddle like. There are surprisingly few line fluffs given the difficult Aztec names, really just a couple of slight stumbles - one from Hartnell which would have been salvageable though grammatically incorrect, instead he chose to start again, and another from Ixta in the final episode. Praise must surely go to William Hartnell for getting through "ought to order Ortloc to" without any trouble, though it was followed by a slightly longer pause than one might expect. Similarly there is great bolder acting from both Ian and Ixta... in fact, it is a stone slab (made of polystyrene of course) which William Russell slides, moves and rolls very convincingly only to be betrayed by the prop wobbling as he let it go! There is another moment were he leans on a piece of set that moves, but you won't notice it unless you watch very closely at the right moment, and the sacrificial stone also succumbs to unexpected movement during a fight scene which includes some 'shooting off' (the edge of set and backdrop comes into view, but as I've said before would not have been obvious on a 1960's television)

Some of the fight scenes are obviously avoiding damage to props and working within tight working conditions, but these are balanced by some really very good camera shots and cuts and The Aztecs really does come out as one of the best historical productions. The music also has many good points to balance some limitations and the 'special sounds' in the garden really help create a sense of exterior. The camera angles and backcloth create a great sense of height and space in the temple scenes despite being very close to the main set and only a few wrinkles let it down due to limited lighting facilities. It's easy to say that I don't really like the historical adventures but this one scored 72%, let down by things like fear factor and script but helped by concepts, production values and humour that made it watchable.

The final scene was a real close cropped minimal TARDIS scene leading into The Sensorites as the TARDIS lands but reports that it is still moving! Barbara's intuition provides the answer but you'll have to wait until next week for it to be revealed... and it will be her turn to take time out as well!