Day 20 — January 20th 2021
A Change of Identity and The Tyrant of France
A Change of Identity (The Reign of Terror — Episode Three)
The film sequences of Ian continue to look like something out of a German expressionist film today, and the fact that we get two lengthy sequences featuring him that are scored only by music, lacking any dialogue, only helps to underline that fact! I watched Die Nibelungen a couple of weeks ago, and I can’t shake it from my head while watching these scenes.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the director — Henric Hirsch — hailing from Hungary? European cinema, especially in the early half of the century, has a very distinct flavour, and it’s certainly in evidence here. A dig around online has proved fruitless in working out when Hirsch was born, but I’d wager he’d have been versed in cinema all the same, being a director.
Actually, the internet seems to have very little information about him at all — most of what is written online comes from Doctor Who fans listing him as the director of this story, and a few credits for the likes of Crossroads and Emmerdale, with work drying up by the mid-1970s. There’s no date of death either, that I can see. I wonder if we can club together and arrange a brilliant Blu-Ray special feature in the vein of the one which illuminated the life of the previously little-known Peter R Newman, writer of The Sensorites?
The one other thing that comes up about Hirsch is that this episode is the one which pushed him over the edge — it’s well recorded that he suffered during the production, and collapsed following one of the camera rehearsals. There’s some debate about exactly who stepped in — paperwork and the memories of some members of the team suggest that John Gorrie, who previously directed The Keys of Marinus, was drafted in last minute. Gorrie says he has no memory of this.
My money is on Mervyn Pinfield stepping into the breach. I just don’t believe there would have been time to call in a replacement director in the hours before the episode was recorded, and it would make sense for an experienced senior member of the team to tackle the problem.
I don’t have an awful lot to say about the episode itself, hence my long digression on the subject of the director. It’s perfectly serviceable I’m sure, but I can’t say the story is really grabbing me. A 4/10.
It did give me a chuckle to hear Hartnell’s costume described as ‘a fancy dress outfit’, though, because I just began to imagine any of the 1980s Doctor Whos in the same situation. The poor shop-owner would have had a fit!
The Tyrant of France (The Reign of Terror — Episode Four)
I’ve listened to the narrated soundtrack for this episode and right at the beginning Carole Ann Ford, on narration duties, sets the scene;
‘Lemaitre has escorted the Doctor to the palace, where Citizen Maximilien Robespierre, First Deputy of Paris to the National Convention of the New Republic of France, sits at his desk.’
It’s made me realise where my problems with this story are coming from. I don’t know where we are, or what’s going on. That is to say that I know we’re in Paris, and I know the French Revolution is going on, but I know very little about the French Revolution. It’s not a subject I’ve ever studied, and while I’m sure it’s a fascinating period of history, it’s one which has largely passed me by.
I’m told who Robespierre is here, but I don’t think there’s any actual indication given in the episode itself. And that goes for the whole period. In Marco Polo and The Aztecs, they really use Barbara’s role as a history teacher to the full advantage, having her slip in little bits of history here and there to set the scene and teach the audience about the period they’re in that week. Oh, sure, it’s sometimes a little heavy handed, but it works! Here, though, the time period gets brushed away as being Doctor Who’s ‘favourite’ in Episode One, and that’s it! We’re into the adventure, keep up if you can!
I’m struggling, too, to keep track of all the characters. It’s a surprise when Léon reveals himself to be a traitor as the cliffhanger… but only after the fact when I noticed my notes for A Change of Identity made a point of mentioning Barbara getting cosy with him. I’m struggling to keep track of who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy.
Part of me suspects that’s the whole point — you’re not supposed to know who you can trust during the Revolution — but it means the story is a bit hard going for me, sadly.
3/10
Something that’s worth noting here is that The Tyrant of France was the last Hartnell story to be recorded at Lime Grove. The rest of his run takes place at either Television Centre or Riverside Studios. The series has slipped out to these locations for odd episodes before now, but this time the move is permanent, at least until Patrick Troughton takes over the role. We hear so much about the cramped conditions of Lime Grove Studio D that it feels like that was the home of the series for the entirety of the 1960s, so it’s a surprise to be leaving so soon!
