The Smugglers Episode 4

The one where we find out who Ringwood, Smallbeer and Gurney were...

I'd only ever really known George A Cooper as the interfering caretaker Mr Griffiths in BBC school drama Grange Hill before I found him in Doctor Who, so it's quite a surprise to find that he gives very good, convincing villain. He makes Cherub a thoroughly unpleasant character, and although he does sometimes stray a little too far over the top in his performance, he's certainly one of the best baddies of the Hartnell era. If he'd introduced a little more balance to his performance, toning it down at times to make him more quietly threatening, it would have been spot on.

If Cherub is a shouty, snarling bully, then Captain Pike is merely all these things in a frilly shirt. Michael Godfrey pleasingly does manage to bring light and shade to Pike, coming over as broodingly nasty one moment, and outrageously demented the other. It seems as soon as Pike uncovers Avery's hidden gold, he turns into a swivel-eyed monster, possessed by greed and obsessed with betrayal in the ranks. He seems hellbent on murdering the Doctor (aka Sawbones), and the energy Godfrey puts in to his final scenes is unsettling to hear!

The serial gets an appropriately action-packed finale, directed with pace and gloss by Julia Smith. The telesnaps which show the location filming on the beach look gorgeous, and Smith seems to have captured some lovely, sweeping vistas of Nanjizal Bay reminiscent of those at Lulworth Cove for The Curse of Fenric 23 years later. It's lovely to glimpse the TARDIS on the beach, approached by pirates, and is yet another reason why I'd dearly love The Smugglers to be found again.

There's a lot of violence and fighting in this episode, between Josiah Blake's militia men and Pike's pirates, as well as on a more personal level, between Ben and the Spaniard, Pike and Cherub (why does the Captain call the then 41-year-old George A Cooper "boy"?) and Pike and the Squire. It's great to have the injured Squire make good in the end, Paul Whitsun-Jones finally being able to give the character some truth when he admits that while he's been a rogue in the past, he's never spilt blood in his machinations, and wishes to protect the village from being plundered by Pike's men. Ultimately, he saves the Doctor's life, and is redeemed.

It's good to finally meet Pike's pirate crew properly, having glimpsed them aboard the Black Albatross earlier, and crossed paths with the ill-fated Jamaica. Gaptooth is an amusing new addition to the mix, played by Jack Bligh, thought to be the earliest-born actor to appear in Doctor Who (he was born on New Year's Eve, 1889). Although Bligh is not the first Doctor Who actor to die - that unfortunate "honour" goes to The Dalek Invasion of Earth's Jean Conroy, who died just four weeks after recording her scenes as a Woman in the Woods for The Waking Ally (she actually died five weeks before it was broadcast) - he did die within 12 months of The Smugglers airing, in September 1967, aged 77. Gaptooth is a small part, but a great one for character actors like Bligh, although I have to wonder what he was called before he lost his teeth! Why not One-Eye?

I was a bit confused by the naming of one character in this episode, the uncredited pirate who accompanies Derek Ware's Spaniard to the beach, and then attacks Ben and Polly. Gaptooth audibly refers to him as David in the episode, but on the BBC soundtrack CD, narrator Anneke Wills refers to him as Daniel, as do the captions in Doctor Who Magazine's telesnap special edition for the story (I suspect they were just paraphrased from the soundtrack narration). Further research shows that the character was meant to be called Daniel, so Jack Bligh must have said the name wrong on screen (Daniel was played by stuntman Les Clark, who had a number of uncredited appearances in Doctor Who's seventh and eighth seasons).

For the second story in a row, the Doctor disappears from the scene without saying farewell, and before other characters have a chance to notice (he does a disappearing act at the top of the Post Office Tower in The War Machines). This behaviour would become more common during the Second Doctor's era, as our hero grows to dislike goodbyes and prefers to be on his way as soon as events are concluded. He's essentially running away from responsibility, even if it's as mundane as clearing up after a massacre, but it's more of a psychological issue the Doctor has with "staying on". He doesn't want to be caught, doesn't want to get bogged down too much, and just wants to move on to the next thrilling adventure. He seems to get attached to dilemmas rather than people!

The episode ends with the TARDIS materialising at the coldest place in the world, but why does Polly feel the chill inside the Ship, and so immediately? Are the TARDIS's radiators on the blink? Who knows what the Doctor will encounter out in the snowy vistas of Antarctica...

Overall, The Smugglers is an enjoyable romp with some stereotypical settings, characters and dialogue, but to me, it's all the better for that familiarity. Julia Smith's location filming is sumptuous and adds much gloss and space to the serial. Richard Hunt's sets look great too (especially the churchyard and the Black Albatross), and the new TARDIS team really seem to have a good rapport going. The Smugglers is high on my list of stories I'd love to see recovered.

First broadcast: October 1st, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Julia Smith's sweeping location filming looks great in the telesnaps, while Michael Godfrey gives a spirited, mildly unsettling final performance as Pike.
The Bad: David? Or Daniel?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 8 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: The Tenth Planet...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3

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/2013/12/the-smugglers.html

The Smugglers soundtrack is available on BBC CD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Smugglers-Radio-Collection/dp/0563535040