The Rescue (TV story)

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For the short story featuring the Rani, see Rescue.



The Rescue was the third story of Season 2 of Doctor Who. Maureen O'Brien joined the cast as companion Vicki in this story, making it the first story to have a new companion join since the start of the programme.

Summary

The Doctor, Ian and Barbara arrive on the planet Dido where a crashed ship is terrorised by the monster Koquillion, but things are not what they seem...

Plot

The crew of the TARDIS are still missing Susan Foreman when they land on an unnamed planet, which the Doctor later recognises as Dido, a world he has visited before. The trio soon encounter two survivors of a space crash, Vicki and Bennett, who are awaiting a rescue ship in three days time. Vicki is also in fear of Koquillion, a bipedal inhabitant of Dido who is stalking the area and encounters the time travellers, attacking Barbara. Vicki finds her injured and rescues her from Koquillion, and they share reminiscences. Vicki’s father was amongst those who died when the most of the survivors of the crash were lured to their deaths by the natives of Dido. She is evidently very lonely, having befriended "Sandy", an indigenous Sand Beast for company. However, while Ian and the Doctor reach the ship tempers become fraught when Barbara mistakes the Sand Beast for a threat and kills it.

The Doctor begins to suspect things are not as they seem – especially when he finds things in Bennett’s room. He follows Bennett through a trap door in the floor of his cabin and reaches a temple carved from rock where he unmasks Koquillion as Bennett. He reveals he killed a crew member on board the ship and was arrested, but the ship crashed before the crime could be radioed back to Earth. By killing the other crew in an explosion – and with Vicki asleep and unaware of the situation – he covered his original crime. The Koquillion alias has been used to keep Vicki in check until the rescue ship was due. At this point two silent Didonians arrive and force Bennett to his death over a ledge. With nothing left for her on Dido, Vicki is welcomed aboard the TARDIS.

Cast & Characters

Crew

References

Planets

  • The Doctor tells Ian and Barbara about a previous visit to the planet Dido.
  • Vicki left Earth for the planet Astra in 2493.
  • Vicki's mother had recently died and her father was about to start a new job on Astra.

Races and species

  • Ian mentions he would rather face the Daleks than Koquillion any day.

Story notes

  • This is the first episode featuring Vicki. She was the first regular character to be added since the original cast (Barbara, Ian, Susan, and the Doctor).
  • The Doctor, perhaps because he missed his recently-departed grand-daughter, asked Vicki to come with him and the others, thus making her the first companion that the Doctor was seen to willingly invite to travel in the TARDIS. Being invited to travel with him would late become an important hallmark of the Doctor's companions.
  • All episodes exist in 16mm telerecordings.
  • Negative film prints of both episodes exist and were recovered by the BBC in 1978.
  • Telesnaps of this story are held by private collectors.
  • The story was originally known as Doctor Who and Tanni. It was originally intended that the new companion would be named Tanni. Other names previously thought up for Vicki were: Valerie, Millie and Lukki. The name Tanni was still in use when the following story, The Romans was written.
  • Vicki's last name is not revealed in this story, nor is it ever mentioned on screen in any future stories. This places Vicki in the select company of Polly, Mel and Ace as Earth companions whose last names are never revealed on screen. Spin-off media have given Vicki the last name Pallister.
  • Koquillion was originally credited as Sydney Wilson (a combination of Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson) to hide his true identity.
  • This story leads directly into The Romans.
  • Desperate Measures was the first episode of Doctor Who to make the UK's top 10 most watched programs list.
  • The 1973 Radio Times 10th anniversary special called the story The Powerful Enemy as it titled all the early stories by the title of the first episode. Some subsequent listings repeated this , as did the story's broadcast on some American PBS stations.
  • During the scene in which Jacqueline Hill fired a gun at Vicki's pet she was injured suffering shock and a sore face. This was caused when the explosion connected to the wooden gun went off with more force than expected.
  • "The Rescue" is also the original broadcast title of episode 7 of The Daleks.
  • Tom Sheridan, who played the Space Captain heard but not seen in this story, was also inside the Sand Monster costume.
  • "The Powerful Enemy" boasts the first occasion on which a sound effect is laid over footage of the TARDIS re-materializing. Prior to this, exterior shots of the TARDIS landing had implied that the ship appeared soundlessly in a new environment. Although the precise sound of "re-materialization" — with its distinctive, final "thud" — would not be finalized until The Three Doctors, this was the start of a sometimes important convention about the TARDIS. People on the outside can hear it coming and going. Without this innovation, the teaser from DW: The Christmas Invasion, for example — in which Jackie and Mickey respond solely to the sound of the TARDIS — wouldn't have been possible. (In terms of continuity, it's possible that the TARDIS can be programmed to materialize silently if desired, something suggested as recently as DW: The Time of Angels.)

Ratings

  • The Powerful Enemy - 12.0 million viewers
  • Desperate Measures - 13.0 million viewers

Myths

  • The inhabitants of Dido are known as Didonians. (There is no evidence provided in the episode to support this.)
  • Vicki is from the planet Dido. This error has been mentioned in numerous places, but the story establishes that she is from Earth.

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • There is no back in the TARDIS prop used and consequently the cave wall is visible behind. It is not cave wall but some silvery reflective crumpled material which is also visible inside the police box prop in episode 4 of 'The Space Museum'.
  • In episode 2 a stage hand can be seen behind Vicki's pet.
  • When Barbara fires at Vicki's pet, the firework can be seen to fall off the gun.

Continuity

  • Reference is made to Susan's departure DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and at one point the Doctor calls for Susan, momentarily forgetting that she has gone. (This is the first time, but far from the last, that the Doctor will summon the names of past companions in error.)
  • The Doctor, Ian and Barbara talk about how they met in An Unearthly Child.
  • The crew discuss their previous problems with caves which occured during The Daleks and Marco Polo.

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

Video releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Rescue/The Romans

The next episode caption has been removed from episode 2
Released as a double tape with The Romans
UK Release: September 1994 / US Release: March 1996
PAL - BBC Video BBCV5378 (2 tapes)
NTSC - Warner Video E1313 (2 tapes)
NTSC - CBS/FOX Video 8338 (2 tapes)

DVD releases

This story was released on DVD alongside The Romans in February 2009 (UK) and July 2009 (North America). For the release, the episodes have been reprocessed via computer to restore the original videotaped look of the production. The next episode caption has been restored to episode 2.

Contents:

  • Mounting the Rescue - production featurette.
  • Photo Gallery
  • Production Notes
  • PDF content: Raymond Cusick's original design drawings, Radio Times listings.
  • Audio Commentary by actor William Russell (Ian Chesterton), director Christopher Barry, and designer Raymond Cusick, moderated by Toby Hadoke.
For additional extras on this DVD set, see The Romans.

Rear Credits:

Notes:

Novelisation and its audiobook

Rescue novel.jpg
Main article: The Rescue (novelisation)

External links

Template:Season 2 Template:Wikipedia

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