1.8 The Reign of Terror
The French Revolution is my all time favorite time period in history. Most people don't really understand why I find it so appealing. But it's okay if I die being misunderstood. I don't care.
So, vive la France! Off with their heads! Down with tyranny and all that!
Can I just say that I am also in love with the Scarlet Pimpernel? Can I?
Anyway, I liked this one because their group gets broken up, almost immediately. The three companions get arrested, and the Doctor is presumed dead. Because they are caught with two men trying to escape France, they are considered traitors. Off with their 'eads!
While they are marched to the prison, the Doctor is left behind in the burning house to die. Turns out he doesn't die. [No surprise there.] He gets rescued by a little boy. [Yes Doctor, you are that grossly incompetent.] A small amount of humor is added to the Doctor's scenes, as he has to make it to Paris alone and on foot. It takes him a large amount of time to get there, and things happen to him on the way that are slightly amusing. I'm not really sure why he wouldn't have caught up with the others quickly enough, as they were presumably traveling by foot as well. Or maybe the Doctor lay in the burning house for a couple days waiting to be rescued. That actually isn't outside the realm of possibilities.
Meanwhile, in prison the girls and Ian are trying to get their way out. Once again, I will mock Susan's character up one wall and down the other. After approximately ten minutes behind bars, she becomes stricken with a debilitating illness that leaves her helpless and neurotic for the rest of the episode. Awesome!
Ian has a cellmate who leaves him a cryptic message before he dies. Through a series of strange events, Ian manages to escape from prison, while the girls are taken to the Guillotine. He's a happy camper.
Hellooooooooooooo Ian!!!
But the girls never make it to the guillotine, and are saved by English spies and Ian was also helped to escape by them. The idea of Susan dying at the guillotine was not a completely odious thought.
The three are much relieved to be reunited. Meanwhile, the doctor has reached Paris, and has bought clothes as a disguise to get into the prison, not realizing that they have escaped. I totally love his costume.
Is it not amusing? The Doctor has had to exchange his clothes and his beloved ring for the new clothes. Wow, the doctor sacrificing his ring for them? Amazing! The Doctor tries to pose as a high up official in the Republic to demand release of the three. The tailor however, smells suspicion and turns the doctor in as a traitor. The plot thickens as they all eventually meet up with English spies,who are trying to end the French Revolutionary War.
The plot also starts floundering here, as the next to last chapters are only in stills because they have lost some of the footage. That's right, deleting the boring chapters was a really terrific plan, but it has backfired on the poor idiots who are trying to get through the show without being beaten to death with bad plot lines.
But it's not just made of stills. Occasionally they will show five seconds of heads moving, or doors shutting in between the stills, making it even creepier to watch. I really have a special hatred for these stills. Can I just get that off my chest now? I think there were too many characters who looked and they spoke alike, so the plot got really confusing. And if you weren't paying 100% attention before, you're pretty much doomed throughout the stills.
I will mention that they made a cartoon out of the two missing chapters, so in case you don't want the stills, you can burn out your eye sockets with cartoons. My expert DW viewer companion prefers the stills over the cartoons so that's what we watched. I thought briefly of watching the cartoons, to compare the two, but I think that will happen when hell freezes over. Who would want to watch the same chapters twice? Then again, it's only an hour out of my sad little life.
Anyway, this is one of those episodes that remains historically accurate so we meet the rebels, the spies and there's a bit of intrigue. We get to meet Robespierre and see his fall, and we get to see Napoleon who effectively ended the Revolution. Is that not super amazing? The end chapter was strange, because they facilitate the meeting of Napoleon and some other guy [can't remember who he was] by hiding the tavern keeper guy, and pretending to work there. Of course Barbara is disguised as a bar maid and Ian is the bar keep. This was a little on the ridiculous side if you ask me.
But it all ends well. They help end the revolution and the doctor gets his ring back. Susan's health miraculously returns, and Barbara gets to fall in love with one of the British spies. It all ends happily ever after.
They cried. I cried. We all cried.
Guess what? This is the end of Season 1! I've made it all the way through the first season. I deserve a cookie for this.
Next up: Planet of Giants
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