025 - The Gunfighters

Broadcast:

30^th April - 21^st May 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Steven, Dodo

Adversary:

The Clanton Brothers

Written by:

Donald Cotton

Director:

Rex Tucker

Music:

Tristram Cary

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

6.25m (6.5, 6.6, 6.2, 5.7)

Summary: Arriving in the Wild West, the Doctor finds himself mistaken for Doc Holliday and becomes the target of the Clanton Brothers' revenge. It's time for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral...

The Gunfighters represents some interesting points in Doctor Who's history. It is the last commissioned by the team of Wiles and Tosh, and therefore the last that Lloyd and Davis had to wrangle to fit their own style. Related to this is the fact that it is the last story to feature individual episode titles. As an historical adventure focusing on specific events, it is the first to contain serious misrepresentation of the facts (aside from the travellers' presence of course) and the last to focus on real events. It infamously received the lowest Audience Appreciation Index (though later figures were calculated differently and may not be comparable), the final episode in particular which also had one of the lowest number of viewers. On a brighter note, Anthony Jabobs who plays Doc Holliday, is the father of Matthew Jacobs who visited him on set and went on to write the TV Movie (where the Doctor returns to America and dons a Wyatt Earp costume!)

Around the world at the time, various political and military struggles continued. US troops in America reached a quarter million, while tens of thousands picketed the White House in protest. Mao Zedong issued the 'May 16 Notice' beginning the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic Of China and intending to enforce communism by removing capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society. It would last ten years and cripple the country politically, economically and socially.

In the UK, the Moors Murders trial ended with Ian Brady being found guilty of three murders, each carrying a life sentence, while Myra Hindley was found guilty of two murders and an accessory to the third. It would be almost twenty years before they were officially connected with their other two victims. A two month strike began by seamen, Liverpool won the First Division title while Everton won the FA Cup by scoring three goals in the last 16 minutes to overcome Sheffield Wednesday's 2-0 lead.

Musically, The Beach Boys released their "Pet Sounds" album, Bob Dylan released "Blonde On Blonde" and the British charts were topped by Manfred Mann's "Pretty Flamingo" and the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black". Meanwhile cinemas were showing Elvis Presley's Frankie And Johnny, Othello which featuring future Master actor Derek Jacobi, and most fittingly Westerns Ride Beyond Vengeance and Gunpoint. But how would the Doctor, Seven and Dodo cope when faced by pistol swinging, Stetson wearing, liquor swigging cowboys on a tight TV budget...?

020 - The Myth Makers

Broadcast:

16^th October - 6^th November 1965

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Vicki, Steven

Adversary:

Greeks, Trojans

Written by:

Donald Cotton

Director:

Michael Leeston-Smith

Music:

Humphrey Searle

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh

Producer:

John Wiles

Average Viewers:

8.35m (8.3, 8.1, 8.7, 8.3)

Summary: The TARDIS lands outside Troy near the end of the Greek siege. The travellers become separated and captured by different sides of the war as spies. Their freedoms are only assured if they can bring down the opposition, effectively pitting them against each other!

If Mission To The Unknown had shocked viewers by not featuring the regular cast, then The Myth Makers would shock them by leaving that story unresolved. Instead of seeing Daleks turning their attention to 3000 AD Earth, the episode opens with a sword fight around 300 BC (both dates are approximations) until the TARDIS interior is finally seen after two and a half minutes. The Doctor and Vicki are still looking at the scanner screen as they had been two weeks earlier and we are reminded that Vicki has a sore ankle... exactly as if no time has past since we last saw them. So have the Daleks built a new time machine and we will see them bringing their allies to ancient times for an easy victory?

Also shocking audiences at the time was news that a girl's body had been found on Saddleworth Moor, identified as 10 year old Lesley Ann Downey who hadn't been seen for nearly ten months. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are suspected having already been charged with the murder of Edward Evans the previous week. Within another week they were remanded in custody and the body of 12 year old John Kilbride was also found, having gone missing the afternoon of Doctor Who's first episode nearly tree years earlier.

In international news, political unrest was rapidly growing in Rhodesia with both UN and African nations requesting British action to avoid rebellion and unilateral declaration of independence, followed by a Soviet offer of support for African countries should such an outcome occur. By the end of The Myth Makers, martial law had been declared but would prove ineffective within a further week. Meanwhile, Pope Paul VI made an announcement that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ, and Corgi released a James Bond model of the Aston Martin DB5 as featured in Goldfinger the year before (it would gone on to be their most successful model ever). "The Magic Roundabout" and "Call My Bluff" had their TV débuts to entertain kids and adults while Ken Dodd continued to dominate the music charts with "Tears" before finally giving way to The Rolling Stones as "Get Off of My Cloud" began its own domination before the final episode of The Myth Makers aired. Finally, cinemas were showing films such as The Great Race, Marriage on the Rocks and Crack in the World which featured a hint at a later Doctor Who classic theme - drilling too far into the Earth and threatening the whole of humanity!

So how would the Greeks and Trojans react to the arrival of the TARDIS...? And how would new producer John Wiles's first story fair?