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.

Before we know it, Barbara is mistaken for the reincarnated spirit of Yetaxa due to the serpentine bracelet she slipped on. The tomb door closes and separates the crew from the Ship, and there we have our reason to stay. It's elegantly done.

We meet a small cast of guest characters in the form of gentle Autloc and the less gentle Tlotoxl (the "local butcher"), who hopes that the current drought will be brought to an end if he presents Yetaxa to the people with a blood sacrifice. John Ringham is great as Tlotoxl, who is instantly a schemer, in his Richard III body language, his narrowed eyes and his weaselly voice. Ringham adds a Shakespearean flair to his performance, and Tlotoxl is highly reminiscent of Lucarotti's previous villain, Tegana. He is instantly suspicious of the reincarnated Yetaxa, and particularly her servants, their veracity and abilities.

Yetaxa was a man when he died around 1430, but the fact he seems to have been reincarnated in female form does not bother anybody. The form Yetaxa's spirit takes isn't important, Barbara explains. Fifty years later Doctor Who fandom will be agonising over the same gender fluidity in their favourite Time Lords, but it seems the people of 15th century Mexico were fine with all that. Maybe that's why they wore so much make-up and feathered hats? Men in drag were perfectly normal to them!

There's some gorgeous costume and set design on display once again, something we've come to expect from a Doctor Who historical thanks to the hard work put in by Daphne Dare and Barry Newbery. However, we're subjected to a terribly laborious, pedestrian fight scene between Ixta and the Aztec Captain courtesy of David Anderson. It's so carefully rehearsed and performed that at no point are we convinced it is a real fight. I have a real problem with fight scenes like this, and you see them not just in Doctor Who from the time, but also shows like The Avengers, which had more money and time. Slow-motion fight scenes are inexcusable, especially when you've got a professional fight arranger in specially for it.

The Doctor spends time in a peaceful garden, where everybody over the age of 52 goes to hang out apparently. "Poor souls, they must be bored to tears, doing nothing," says the Doctor. Well, that's retirement for you. His eyes then come to rest on the Lady Cameca, and suddenly we see a side to the Doctor we haven't witnessed before, and don't really see again until the 21st century - he fancies someone! There is an instant rapport between the Doctor and Cameca, who the Time Lord woos gently, charmingly, as any gentleman of the universe would. He lays his hand on her arm, unaware this is probably sending out strong signals he does not intend. "Charming person, so intelligent and gentle..."

Then Ian arrives dressed like a giant turkey, and the Doctor doesn't bat an eyelid. However, William Hartnell does, and he fumbles his way through the rest of the scene, interrupting William Russell in his eagerness. Ian begins to tell the Doctor what's going to happen at the rain ceremony. "And just what are you supposed to do?" blurts the Doctor. Well, he was just about to tell you if you hadn't talked all over him!

The celebrated scene between the Doctor and Barbara about rewriting history is a corker, and is performed beautifully by Hartnell and Hill. Barbara lets her heart lead her reason, but if she thought about it properly, surely she'd know she couldn't change the Aztecs' bloodthirsty rituals? She's a history teacher, after all. But the Doctor insists: "What you are trying to do is utterly impossible. I know. Believe me, I know!" The way Hartnell delivers these lines is spine-tingling, and the look on his face tells of unspoken secrets. It would appear the Doctor has tried to change history in the past, a past we haven't witnessed, and maybe lost someone important to him as a result?

Barbara ultimately prevents Tlotoxl's blood sacrifice, but this doesn't stop the First Victim feeling she has dishonoured him, and he promptly self-sacrifices himself by running into a pre-filmed insert at Ealing and jumping off the top of the temple to his doom. Stock footage clouds rumble and the rain begins. "With death comes rain!" spits a triumphant Tlotoxl. He is vindicated. "This is a false goddess! And I shall destroy her!"

Why he plots Barbara's demise, I'm not sure. Tlotoxl said that the rain would come if there was a sacrifice, and although there was no blood sacrifice, the First Victim's self-sacrifice still resulted in rainfall. And all this in the presence of the reincarnated Yetaxa. To be honest, Barbara has a point - it is possible for it to rain without murdering people. But someone as close-minded and pious as Tlotoxl is never going to change his mind...

First broadcast: May 23rd, 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: It's good to have the Marco Polo team back in place - Hartnell, Russell, Hill and Ford matched with Lucarotti, Newbery and Dare. And the rewriting history scene really does sing.
The Bad: It looks good, but John Crockett's pacing is a little lumbering, particularly evident in the fight scene. It's also quite murkily lit by Howard King, which may be realistic but makes for quite smudgy viewing.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: The Warriors of Death...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Warriors of Death (episode 2); The Bride of Sacrifice (episode 3); The Day of Darkness (episode 4)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-aztecs.html

The Aztecs is available on Special Edition DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Aztecs-Special-DVD/dp/B00AREPA1I