Prisoners of Conciergerie (The Reign of Terror Episode 6)

The one where the true identity of James Stirling is revealed...

After a really awkward staring contest in which the actors have to look at one another silently as the title and writer captions fade in and out, we finally get to know who James Stirling - the English spy - is... it's Lemaitre! After all that, Lemaitre's scheming and eavesdropping was in order to make friendly contact with Ian, in order to learn Webster's dying message!

We then gets lots and lots of explanatory dialogue and info-dumping, setting the scene for what is an episode packed full of incident but also quite heavy on talking politics. If you didn't know anything about the political history of France before watching The Reign of Terror, you'll be an expert now! I do love the Doctor's focused insistence on getting his granddaughter out of Conciergerie however, and his frustration at having to delay Susan's release. As he says to Lemaitre: "Very well, if you must tell your story then get on with it."

A Bargain of Necessity (The Reign of Terror Episode 5)

The one where Ian and Barbara have a falling out over Leon's death...

Barbara and the Doctor are happily reunited, but when the Doctor asks after the welfare of his granddaughter, Barbara replies: "She had a slight fever but she's recovered now." Slight fever?! And how can it have gone so quickly? Susan and Barbara went to the physician to seek a remedy for her worsening condition, and it was from there they were brought to the prison, so there's been little time for the illness to pass naturally. Perhaps it's just writer Dennis Spooner being lazy again...

The scheming Lemaitre is listening in to their conversation and learns about the existence of Jules Renan and his network. The Doctor has his own scheme to set Barbara free, but instills about as much faith in the viewer as he does Barbara when he says: "You know my plans always work perfectly!" Hmmm, we'll see about that.

The Tyrant of France (The Reign of Terror Episode 4)

The one where Susan is threatened with blood-letting...

The Tyrant of France is the earliest episode of Doctor Who that has been reconstructed as a cartoon, as the BBC does not have a copy of the lost episode in its archives. While I did watch the cartoon version on the DVD to review the episode, I'll restrict myself to commenting on the original material available, which is the (sometimes quite poor) off-air soundtrack.

The scene where Lemaitre takes the Doctor to see Robespierre in his office is a cracking way to kick off the episode, as there's some juicy discussion between the tyrant and the imposter about the state France finds itself in. The Doctor is a formidable opponent for Robespierre, who is unfortunately played by a rather shouty, stagy Keith Anderson who perhaps thinks he's projecting for the theatre rather than television. Dennis Spooner writes Robespierre really well, but Anderson does not make the best of the lines. However, it's great to have the Doctor challenging Robespierre on his reign of terror and asking whether the executions are actually feeding the rebellion.

A Change of Identity (The Reign of Terror Episode 3)

The one where the Doctor delves into the dressing-up box...

Wow, just look at that opening street scene! Okay, that first extra is blatantly waiting for a cue before he makes his way across the set, but the attempt to depict a bustling, city centre street is admirable, and by and large achieved. We have several passers-by, and even a coughing old hag (our friend Eleanor Darling from last week?), into which wanders the magnificent William Hartnell, who seems to blend in so well in his Edwardian attire.

And Roderick Laing's sets are gorgeously detailed and seem to go on and on. He's created a lot of depth to these streets, with alcoves and walkways and stairways, and you can tell that even more in the set photos that exist.

Guests of Madame Guillotine (The Reign of Terror Episode 2)

The one where the Doctor's homicidal side rears its ugly head again...

One of the beauties of Doctor Who is how it can lurch energetically from being appalling to being fabulous in the space of one week, and such is the case with Guests of Madame Guillotine, which is streets ahead of A Land of Fear in every way. Where episode 1 was almost devoid of humour and any meaningful characterisation and plot development, episode 2 turns everything on its head, as if script editor David Whitaker had had a quiet word in writer Dennis Spooner's ear to pick up the pace a bit.

I instantly want to know more and spend more time with the two cackling hags sitting outside the Conciergerie prison, for instance. We only get a tiny glimpse of them, but they seem interesting, and it's so rare to get more mature female characters in 1960s Doctor Who. In fact, I'm trying to think if there have been any so far, and I can only think of Cameca from The Aztecs. Though uncredited on screen, these two characters are called "knitting ladies" in production paperwork, played by Eleanor Darling (erroneously listed in paperwork as Dalling) and Leila Forde.

A Land of Fear (The Reign of Terror Episode 1)

The one where Ian is overpowered by a small boy...

The first few moments of A Land of Fear are highly representative of the episode as a whole - ponderous, pedestrian and hesitant. Director Henric Hirsch is in no rush to show anything happening, and when he does he's in no hurry to move on. It feels like an age between the episode beginning and anything actually happening on screen. There's plenty of plinky-plonky music, then a couple of random men cross the screen at a distance (almost as if by mistake!), then we're shown various bushes before the TARDIS fades silently into view at last.

And sadly, Hirsch never really gets out of first gear. There's a nice little scene in the TARDIS where Ian cleverly persuades the Doctor to join he and Barbara for a farewell drink, as the Doctor believes he's got them back to 20th century Earth. Quite why he thinks this is possible is a little vague, but on first appearances, the view outside does indeed look very English. In fact, as Barbara says, it looks like Somerset.

A Desperate Venture (The Sensorites Episode 6)

The one where Barbara returns and damn well sorts things out...

First things first: I'm loving the tribal beats on Norman Kay's score at the start of the episode. They might have been there all along, but I only really noticed them here. Good stuff, Norm. Sadly, he wouldn't write music for Doctor Who ever again...

Anyway, the plot... That duplicitous little toad the City Administrator (or should I say, Sir) is bullying kidnapped Carol into writing a note to John pretending she has gone back up to the spaceship. He's really not a nice Sensorite, telling her: "Your life means nothing to me!" The amusing thing about all this, of course, is that the note Carol writes is not the same note we see Barbara reading in the very next scene. You'd have thought the props department could've got them identical, especially as they're so sparsely written. Compare the notes below and play your own spot the difference game!

Kidnap (The Sensorites Episode 5)

The one where the Doctor loses a jacket but gains a cloak...

If you want to see an old pro showing how it should really be done, watch the opening moments of Kidnap. You'll get to see William Hartnell acting his socks off while the episode and writer's captions fade in and out (I mentioned how awkward this could be in my review of Hidden Danger). Hartnell was always fantastic at acting with his face - he had very expressive features and knew it - but just watch him milk this close-up for all its worth, and wring as much creeping horror out of the moment as possible!

The Doctor literally has the coat torn from his back (but his shirt, waistcoat and skin are unharmed, oddly) by an unseen monster, and is rescued by a groggy Ian and a slightly unconcerned Susan. They soon establish the fact that one of the Sensorites must be working against them, but little do they know there's just such a whiskery fellow spying on them from behind the pipes!

A Race Against Death (The Sensorites Episode 4)

The one where the City Administrator steals a sash and gets a promotion...

The problem with these later episodes set on the Sense-Sphere is that they're so boring to look at. Daphne Dare's bland costumes coupled with Raymond Cusick's bland sets (a few drapes and a fountain does not a world build) combine with Peter R Newman's pedestrian plotting and Mervyn Pinfield's workmanlike direction to make watching The Sensorites something of an ordeal. Even the acting is all very regulated due to the supremely sensible dialogue, and only Peter Glaze's City Administrator manages to make any impact.

Not a lot happens in A Race Against Death. Or should I say, things do happen, but not very excitingly. Ian is three days from death, the Doctor manufactures a cure, the Administrator tries and fails to sabotage it, and then the Doctor sets off to try and find the source of the poisoned water. It reads as quite eventful for your average 1960s episode, but it's all executed so blandly.

Hidden Danger (The Sensorites Episode 3)

The one where the Doctor and Susan have their first argument...

So, Doctor Who is back after its enforced two-week break to accommodate Wimbledon, and we can finally catch up with what the Sensorites plan to do with Susan. But first... some awkward captioning! It's always amused me that the actors had to work pauses into the action to allow the captions to be displayed on screen, usually between the reprise and the resolution. Here we get the Sensorites pulling down the bulkhead door, as they did at the end of The Unwilling Warriors, and a long pause of nothing while "HIDDEN DANGER WRITTEN BY PETER R. NEWMAN" is displayed, before Barbara rushes in. It's all rather silly!

The Doctor is not happy with Susan going off alone with the Sensorites, and so uses their newly-discovered defense of darkness against the creatures. When Ian turns the lights off, the Sensorites tumble into a pit of despair and unconquerable fear which reduces them to gibbering children. They drop their hand rays and in that second, the Sensorites lose all credibility. "They do not carry any weapons yet I am frightened of them..."

The Unwilling Warriors (The Sensorites Episode 2)

The one where Susan discovers she can communicate with the Sensorites telepathically...

The Unwilling Warriors was scheduled to go out at the regular Doctor Who time of 5.15pm, but this was Wimbledon fortnight, and in Britain, everything stops for tennis! Saturday, June 27th, 1964 was the middle weekend, the halfway point, of the annual Grand Slam, and action on court had overrun, so Doctor Who was delayed by around 25 minutes that evening, being broadcast at approximately 5.40pm so that Summer Grandstand could follow the action. Even in the 21st century, sporting occasions can be Doctor Who's worst enemy, and so it was the same back in 1964, as we'll see at the end of this review...

Where were we? Ah yes, the spooky whiskered creature peering in through the window, which to be honest isn't reprised quite as well because the Sensorite isn't raising his arms to the glass, as if trying to get in. He just stands there like a goon (or a Telegoon, perhaps?). You have to smile though, when Ian says: "Doctor, that thing's still out there", and the Doctor dismisses it with: "Oh, ignore it!"

Strangers in Space (The Sensorites Episode 1)

The one with Doctor Who's first properly scary cliffhanger...

The first couple of minutes of Strangers in Space are lovely. They act as a kind of summary of the state of the programme and its characters so far, after its first seven months, six stories and 30 episodes. The TARDIS crew regroup and think back over their previous adventures, reminding the viewer and each other how much they have changed since it began back in that cold, wet November of 1963.

"It all started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard," says the Doctor. "Now it's turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure!" A perfect summation of the programme so far, I reckon! They then cheerily run through all of their televised adventures so far (they seem to have blocked out Inside the Spaceship!), and the Doctor throws one in pre-dating An Unearthly Child, about the time he and Susan met Henry VIII and the TARDIS was trapped in the Tower of London. Delightful stuff - has that story ever been told since, in books etc?

The Day of Darkness (The Aztecs Episode 4)

The one where the Doctor leaves behind the wife he never married...

One of the many relationships threaded through these four episodes is the rivalry between Ian and Ixta, played with great relish by Ian Cullen. The episode opens with William Russell crawling terribly slowly along the tunnel he's been trapped in by Ixta, eventually to escape the other end, but the two are not done yet. When Tlotoxl leaves Ixta to guard Susan, Ian takes great pleasure in walloping his adversary from behind. However, later on, Ian still falls for the age-old trick of picking up the murder weapon and then getting found with it in his hand (exactly what happened to him in The Keys of Marinus too!).

The Doctor is reunited with Susan for the first time since The Temple of Evil, but amusingly the Doctor hasn't got time to be grateful: "My dear Susan! How glad... I'll tell you how glad I am to see you later on." Hartnell's probably ad-libbed it, but it's just so funny!

The Bride of Sacrifice (The Aztecs Episode 3)

The one where the Doctor makes a hot drink and gets engaged...

It's very clever of Barbara to think on her feet and use Tlotoxl's own bloodthirsty methods against him. When the High Priest of Sacrifice challenges her to save Ian from Ixta's killer blow, she swipes a knife and holds it to his throat, endangering the thing Tlotoxl values the most - his own life. We know that Barbara would never cut a man's throat, of course, but Tlotoxl doesn't know that.

Tlotoxl gets about quite a bit in this episode, as he next pops up in the garden of peace to harass the Doctor. "Oh go away, Tlotoxl!" berates the Doctor, who refuses to let Tlotoxl intimidate him. The Doctor gives this irksome villain very short shrift, which is a joy to see after all the trouble he's caused Ian and Barbara.

The Warriors of Death (The Aztecs Episode 2)

The one where the Doctor inadvertently helps to defeat Ian...

The Doctor is not happy. "Well, young woman, I hope you're satisfied!" he thunders at Barbara. "A happy day for you, hey?" William Hartnell is on fire from the get-go in this opening scene, laying into Barbara with a damning tongue-lashing. The schoolteacher is well and truly told off!

"I didn't think about it," whimpers Barbara, to which the Doctor blasts: "No, that's just it - you didn't think!" This argument is up there with the other great Doctor/ companion fall-outs of The Curse of Fenric and Kill the Moon, except here the Doctor is quicker to apologise. So soon after throwing thunderbolts at his friend, the Doctor suddenly becomes quite tender, holding her close and building up her confidence again by advising her to develop Autloc's belief in her.

The Temple of Evil (The Aztecs Episode 1)

The one where Barbara is mistaken for a reincarnated Aztec god...

Hooray, another script by John Lucarotti! He worked such wonders with Marco Polo, so this script - also an historical adventure - promises to be just as delicately and intricately woven. This is in evidence straight away as Barbara and Susan chat about Aztec civilisation, both its good and bad aspects. These are two characters who know one another well, are comfortable with each other. They are human beings in all three dimensions, and the dialogue the actors is given is light years ahead of what Terry Nation has been churning out these past six weeks.

Barbara's true character is catered for - she is a history teacher, and the Aztecs is one of her favourite periods - while Susan is back to being an intelligent teenager, who has obviously read up on the Aztecs and Cortez in the past. Evidently, so has John Lucarotti.

The Keys of Marinus (Episode 6)

The one where we discover a secret romance...

Ooh, it's one of those rare occasions where an episode has the same title as the overall serial. I think it only happens three other times (five times if you include An Unearthly Child and The Edge of Destruction - some people do, including the BBC!) - for Planet of Giants, The Web Planet and The Space Museum.

Anyway, we rejoin Barbara, Altos and Sabetha, who must try to rescue the kidnapped Susan while the Doctor focuses on releasing Ian. There's a wonderful moment where the trio announce they're going to go to Kala's house to question her, and in the very next shot, Fiona Walker is opening the door to Jacqueline Hill, who looks a little flustered to be in the next scene so quickly! Walker (who gives good value for money as the unhinged Lady Peinforte in Silver Nemesis) is fabulous as Kala, bringing all her Shakespearean experience to the fore. She feigns mourning at the loss of Aydan, but as soon as her visitors are gone, reveals her true duplicitous self, and goads the gagged Susan in the next room.

Sentence of Death (The Keys of Marinus Episode 5)

The one featuring assault, domestic violence, murder, robbery, kidnap, perjury and bribery...

This episode is one of those with a distinctly educational vibe to it, laden as it is with courtroom intrigue and lashings of law and order. The establishing scene sees Ian wrongly accused of murder and robbery, but in Millennius it seems the tables are turned in favour of the prosecution, because Ian now has to prove he didn't commit the crimes, rather than the other way around.

The children watching get a good grounding in how justice works as we're introduced to a tribunal of judges, cases for and against the accused, case history and some prime Holmesian deduction on behalf of the Doctor.

The Snows of Terror (The Keys of Marinus Episode 4)

The one where Vasor gets close to Barbara, and Ian gets close to Altos...

Gorgeous, operatic music accompanies the opening of The Snows of Terror, foreshadowing similar icy arias used in The Ice Warriors three years later. Ian and Barbara collapse through cold and tiredness, although Babs gets one last look at a big hairy man looming over her before she passes out completely. Is she too tired, or is the vision of masculinity before her just too much to cope with? Vasor isn't her usual type...

This is the episode of The Keys of Marinus which has always fascinated me most. It's the character of Vasor that gives me food for thought because he's a curious chap. While on the surface he might seem a very simple character to define, when you actually look at his behaviour across the 25 minutes, he becomes one of the more nuanced characters in Terry Nation's early work.

The Screaming Jungle (The Keys of Marinus Episode 3)

The one with the screaming jungle that whispers...

Susan was the most unlikely adventurer, wasn't she? I know she was only a teenager, but she was a teenager with quite a lot of intergalactic adventure under her belt, but still she goes to pieces at the slightest hint of danger. Experience has not jaded her, or even toughened her up. She's the biggest wimp the Doctor ever travelled with.

She can't even calm down enough from her hysterical fit to explain to Ian and Barbara what's bugging her. "It was... it was... it was horrible!" is the best she can muster. She needs one of those slaps that burly heroes give to hysterical maidens in all those old films when they can't calm them down, except slapping people across the face isn't really what Doctor Who does. Not until Russell T Davies gets hold of it anyway...