Doctor Who: The Smugglers Episode Two
I'm afraid this post will be rather derivative, since I looked online and found that everyone else has already thought and published the thoughts I had myself!
What is all my own thought, though, is a growing distaste at the idea of time travel. I'm actually no great traveller at, although it's the actual travelling I dislike rather than the being in different places. This episode makes very clear how dangerous time travel is and how much you could feel trapped. Nobody will believe the truth about your situation and you will be permanently an alien in the place and time you travel to. A humorous point is perhaps rather overdone about this in the way the other characters consistently mistake Polly for a boy, because of her sixties-era trousers and cap:
In fact I'm just going to abandon even trying to write something myself and just finish by quoting a Radio Times interview with Anneke Wills, because it is so redolent of the age of television I like so much:
What is all my own thought, though, is a growing distaste at the idea of time travel. I'm actually no great traveller at, although it's the actual travelling I dislike rather than the being in different places. This episode makes very clear how dangerous time travel is and how much you could feel trapped. Nobody will believe the truth about your situation and you will be permanently an alien in the place and time you travel to. A humorous point is perhaps rather overdone about this in the way the other characters consistently mistake Polly for a boy, because of her sixties-era trousers and cap:
In a further touch of panto, Polly is mistaken for a lad throughout. The joke’s on her for wearing 1960s slacks and a Bob Dylan cap, but the notion that any lusty seadog wouldn’t immediately clock luscious Anneke Wills in her long eyelashes is hard to swallow. SourceThere is also the fear in this episode of getting involved in the arguments of another age. The Radio Times article linked above expresses the point (better than I did in my last post) that this adventure is different from other Who historical adventures because it is concerned with relatively pedestrian events rather than 'great' historical events. Rather, it references a whole swashbuckling genre of literature:
It’s a departure from foregoing history stories. The Doctor isn’t delving into ancient civilisations or witnessing turbulent events. There’s no attempt to educate or struggle to lampoon. The Smugglers (which could just as easily be called The Pirates) is happy to be a rollicking yarn, only the second set in Britain’s past and one borrowing shamelessly from literary sources. A swig of Treasure Island, a tot of Jamaica Inn and lashings of Peter Pan. For Captain Samuel Pike, read Captain James Hook. It’s a wonder JM Barrie’s estate didn’t complain. (Same source ut supra)I even find that the Radio Times article has commented on how effective Ben and Polly are as a partnership. Meanwhile the doctor is off on his own pretending to be a government official investigating the smuggling.
In fact I'm just going to abandon even trying to write something myself and just finish by quoting a Radio Times interview with Anneke Wills, because it is so redolent of the age of television I like so much:
In 1966 she joined Doctor Who as posh totty Polly. Though she loved the job, “working with Bill Hartnell wasn’t easy. He got bad-tempered and kept losing the plot. If he couldn’t remember a line, he’d blame you for it. He was into all sorts of trickery by then.”The old guard soon moved on: “I remember the meeting in rehearsals between Patrick [Troughton] and Bill, and Patrick being suitably humble and Bill being rather chuffed that someone like Patrick was taking over.” Happy days: “Our table at the BBC bar was where everyone wanted to be. Patrick would be discussing politics and people were drawn around him like a magnet. We’d be giggling all afternoon. At the same time we were focused and got a lot of work done.” Source, and the rest of the interview is also fascinating.