The Chase

We're sometimes very unfair with Doctor Who episodes made in the sixties. Aside from the fact that many of them shouldn't even exist any more at all, they were made at a time when shooting was done practically as live, re-taking was a luxury and an actor frequently had to race around the back of the set when he'd finished his scene to be ready for his cue on the next one.

Patrick Troughton tells a rather scary story from the days when TV WAS actually recorded live. Apparently on an ancient episode of a Robin Hood TV series, a backdrop was unveiled upside down to the eyes of a watching nation! Thankfully Doctor Who could always stop the cameras and start again if something went badly wrong, although it was originally expensive to do so. But on many occasions, you encounter a moment (Hartnell's "cinders in Spain" line for example) where ideally they must have wanted to give it another bash, but had to simply carry on regardless.

The experience of watching Doctor Who today is more than ever grounded in a deep knowledge of how it was made. Even the best episodes are scrutinised for why they could only afford so much location footage, which shots have been taken from stock footage and when CSO, Front-Axial projection and stunt doubles are used. In fact, these days watching Who is more akin to taking part in a technical commentary on the story in question.

"The Chase" is perhaps the most typical example, hailing from an era when Doctor Who could barely budget for second takes. On top of that factor, it's also one of the shoddiest, blunder-populated stories they made. Our recent viewing of the "Death of Doctor Who" episode for example, was no less than a scene-by-scene calculation of just why William Hartnell couldn't have run round the back of the jungle set to take part in certain of his robot double scenes which are mystifyingly completed by Edmund Warwick in his place. We watched the Aridius episodes in equally bemused fashion, as day turned to night in literally seconds during the scene where Ian and Vicki (behaving, disturbingly, like flirting lovers) discover a trap door in the ground. Then we tried to reason why the studio footage of the pair kept changing to location footage of another two actors with different hairstyles.

It must be concluded that watching Doctor Who in this era is no longer the experience of journeying through space with the TARDIS crew, but of watching the actors make an enjoyably incompetent TV programme. Happily, not all Doctor Who is like this. I can still feel sad or excited during some episodes, even when I know what's going to happen (the end of "Earthshock" was oddly gripping on last viewing), and I don't feel bad by admitting it's usually the later stories that retain the magic. But the fun to be had with stories like "The Chase" is now in wondering why the TARDIS has no back to it on Aridius, trying to spot the Dalek that's hidden in the haunted house before it's arrived and watching the shadow of a TV camera play over Ian's face at strategic moments. Early Doctor Who was not only made as live, as if performed at the theatre, but it's now watched like a stage performance too, with as much attention given to the plight of the characters as in unpicking the threads of the production they are holding together.