Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
Forgot to fix the intro after the previous book. This book has good chapters so it should just be a chapter an installment. This one even has 9 1/3 pages.
Last time we saw the current TARDIS crew–The Doctor, Ian, and Barbara–deal with their first travel without Susan. They got out of the ship and into the cave they materialized in. Excitement?
This isn’t the first time I’ve read this book but it is the first time reading it just after the episode it’s adapting. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve done this with any Doctor Who episode and I still haven’t watched the full version of Masque Of Mandragora though I have read that novel. It’s the only American novelization I have among my handful of British novelisations. (The spelling of novelization/novelisation depends on the country.) I know that this is the old days. Not a lot of the action even in later classic Who, nevermind what we usually get in the modern incarnations. Blame the time period, blame the budget, blame the presentation (still working like a recorded stage performance), or blame any combination of the three. It’s still an interesting story and one we’re going to get back to as we continue the adaptation of “The Powerful Enemy”, the first story in the arc.
Ian and Barbara leave the cave and see the crashed ship, although they aren’t sure yet it isn’t part of the remains of the buildings around it. Interestingly, it’s Ian who wants to investigate in case they need help and Barbara who first questioned telling the Doctor. The idea that it might be Earth is also entertained because the writing is in English. Remember, the idea that the TARDIS translates things for its crew…actually, was it ever explained back in those days? I would think some of the period pieces would be the first time to wonder how they’re hearing in Roman or ancient Aztec languages. I admittedly haven’t seen all of the surviving episodes, so maybe I’m wrong. I just don’t remember it until maybe the Third or Fourth Doctors. New audiences learned it quickly with the Ninth, but that’s not where it’s first mentioned. I’m curious if the novel is going to address it.
Anyway, that’s when they meet the guy from the cover. Ian makes the mistake of mentioning the Doctor is still in the TARDIS and the bug guy asks Ian to fetch him. From the description, and the book has a nice description of walking into and out of the cave, I’m not sure if he attacks Barbara or is trying to stop her from going over. Maybe he’s hedging his bets if she dies before they come out. He doesn’t know if they’re armed, and the Doctor doesn’t even have the infamous Sonic Screwdriver™ yet. That wouldn’t be until the second Doctor, a throwaway gadget scene that somehow turned into the Doctor’s magic wand. At any rate, she falls down the hill and the bug guy shoots the wall. So much for being their friend.
Jumping back a few seconds, we check in with the Doctor. He secretly came to Didoi on purpose. I don’t know why he’s keeping it a secret or why he can get back here so easily but not Earth. There are some extra moments, like the Doctor having trouble reading his own handwriting or later when they’re discussing and disagreeing about the peaceful Didoian people. Ian’s just met the one and he’s framing the whole race as hostile. Ian is outside the ship when the weapon goes off, but he’s okay besides the dust being inhaled and the end of the tunnel being closed off. So they opt to check the other end to see if the caves have another exit. Then they hear a “cry of some mechanical animal”. We only see one other living creature and it didn’t look mechanical to me. It did look like a biped dragging his lower legs because it’s a man in best costume a couch cushion budget show like 1960s Doctor Who could produce, which isn’t saying much, but not really mechanical.
Meanwhile, I want to jump back to our “guest”. Yes, if you saw the show you know who he is and who he really is, and since I have I’m not sure how Barbara can feel hot breath coming from him. I guess that’s Marter trying to keep the secret going for anyone who hadn’t seen the rerun of this episode or remembered it when it originally aired. At this point in the episode the audience was as in the dark as the reader.
Next time we’re still in “The Powerful Enemy” as we get back to Vicki and the official introduction of Koquillion.
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