Day 60 — March 1st 2021
Johnny Ringo and The OK Corral
Johnny Ringo (The Gunfighters — Episode Three)
How good is Anthony Jacobs in this, playing Doc Holliday? He’s one of those rare guest actors who comes into the series and really stands out from the crowd, as with Stephanie Bidmead earlier in the series. It’s particularly impressive that he manages to walk the line between being one of the bad guys in this serial, taking Dodo hostage and setting Doctor Who up to take a fall in his place, while also being one of the characters I’m most enjoying.
During production of this story Jacobs brought his son Matthew to visit the studio. I only mention that because this particular episode was broadcast on May 14th 1966, and thirty years later to the day the Doctor Who TV Movie was broadcast in the UK for the first time… written by Matthew Jacobs! I love a fun coincidence like that.
Jacobs shines even higher compared to the rest of the cast, who… well, they’re trying. One of the things The Gunfighters gets a lot of stick about is the quality of the American accents on display, but I can’t honestly say that they bother me much. There’s fairly frequent lapses into what sounds fairly like RP, but I’m caught up in the story enough not to mind. It does remind me of one of the reviews for this story — printed in one of the trade papers at the time — describing this story as being ‘no further west than W12’, which makes me laugh whenever I think of it. What a brilliant criticism!
One of the complaints that’s been levelled at this story by the regular cast is that director Rex Tucker was more interested in the guest cast than the usual team. I think there may well be some truth in that, if only because this story features a surprisingly large guest cast of named characters, who all have a decent share of the action. I’d be lying if I said I could remember everyone’s names, but I’ve got a handle on roughly who’s who and which side they’re on.
It feels strange to have so many ‘real’ people showing up in the story, and this is the first time the series has ever dealt with historical characters who lived so close to the broadcast. The likes of Marco Polo and Richard the Lionheart are centuries back, while the events of this story took place only 85 years earlier, and some of the people we see dramatised actually lived until only around 50 years before production began. To put that in context, this story was made 65 years ago from now.
Another thing I’m finding pretty impressive in this story is the sets. They come in for a bit of stick now and then, and it’s true that they’re cramped into Riverside Studios. I was going to say that it’s a shame they couldn’t have used TV Centre and given this story the same kind of scale afforded to The Ark… and then I double checked my facts and discovered that The Ark was recorded at Riverside too. It’s not a complaint, really; I genuinely think the set for Tombstone looks brilliant, it’s jus ta shame it comes across a little cramped at times. It’s ironic perhaps that it works best in scenes like the early ones of this episode, where they’ve packed it with as many extras as they can get their hands on.
Which reminds me; one more fun fact. One of the extras here is Jane of Rod, Jane and Freddy. I have nothing to add to that, it just makes me smile!
7/10
The OK Corral (The Gunfighters — Episode Four)
Everything has sort of come together for this final episode. I finally feel as though I’ve got a proper handle on who everyone is, what their various beefs with each other are, and who’s gunning (literally) for who. There’s almost a sense of inevitability about this episode. Steven and Dodo have at various points been familiar with the Gunfight at the OK Corral (although I’m not sure Doctor Who has been…), so we’ve been building to this for some time. It’s a bit of a theme with the historicals this season; they all build up to a massacre in Episode Four. The Myth Makers, The Massacre (of course), and now this. If nothing else, it puts a slightly bleak edge on history.
It’s a shame, then, that our regulars have so little to do with the final battle. Dodo is kidnapped for all of thirty seconds, and her being there leads to the death of Johnny Ringo, but we don’t see Doctor Who or Steven at all during the shootout as far as I can recall. You could argue that they have to stay away to avoid changing history, but Doctor Who himself has had absolutely no compunction about that in the rest of this episode — going round warning both sides of the various pitfalls! It feels strange, especially as there’s not any mention of the idea of changing history. It feels a bit like the new team are in place now and they’re not aware of what a big topic it’s been in the earlier historical adventures.
I’ve really little else to add for this episode, or for The Gunfighters as a whole. I think I pretty thoroughly rebutted yesterday the idea that this is the single worst Doctor Who story of all time, and I’ve praised just about all the bits I want to praise. I’ll leave The OK Corral with a 7/10 and mosey on outta town.
This is the last episode of Doctor Who to bear its own individual episode title until the series comes back in 2005 (we’ll leave the debate about what the TV Movie is called for another day). The episode ends with a ‘next episode’ caption for the first story to have a definitive overall title — Dr. Who and the Savages. I’ll miss the individual titles — there’s something oddly magical about them, and they’re so much more fun than ‘Episode One’ etc…!
It’s interesting to note that this is another instance, I think, of Innes Lloyd taking the character’s name as read, although the ‘Dr. Who and the’ part of the title will vanish before the next episode. I think I’m right in saying that most Doctor Who stories for the next few years start off with that prefix, but they don’t often make it to screen.
