This is definitely the worst recon I have seen so far. Even my expert D.W. viewer had difficulty sitting through this one, and he will watch anything. I'm always ready for a good pirate-y story. There is something fun about the thought of finding treasure at the bottom of the ocean. But this story did not have that excitement factor.
I'm not really sure what made it so awful, but there was a lot of scuffling and fighting that simply gets lost in a recon, and I also had great difficulty in following the plot. It wasn't a particularly complicated plot either, so I don't know what my problem was about this one.
This episode had a lot of violence. The small amount of gratuitous violence that had been cut from the show has been preserved. So although we could not witness the companions engaging in witty dialogue, we got to see knives being thrown into people's backs. That makes it all so worth it, doesn't it?
The Doctor has sworn that he doesn't imbibe in alcohol since we've known him, but when Polly and Ben aren't around he chugs his brandy like there's no tomorrow. Secrets, secrets Doctor. The Doctor doesn't seem to have many vices. He smoked at one time, but that was only in the very first episode, and we've never seen his pipe again. He's also into young girls, but we won't go into that. Actually he's improving, because his girl companion is a tad older this time around.
Polly has to act like she's a boy in this story. I think her character was written for Dodo, because in no way does Polly look like a boy. She is too mature. Everyone seemed to accept that she was a boy, confusingly. I guess when you've been at sea too long, you forget what a woman looks like.
Polly and Ben begin their new roles as the Doctor's companions with gusto. Polly gets bound and gagged and Ben gets beat up a bit, too. Now that's what we were waiting for!
Captain Avery did exist! He was an infamous, crafty pirate in his day, and there were many stories made of his countless adventures, some exaggerated I'm sure. He made normal people want to become pirates because he was that fun.
The D.W. writers accidentally made a sequel to this episode when they made "The Curse of the Black Spot" with Matt Smith in Series Six. The writers had no idea that someone had already written an episode about Captain Avery. It just goes to show that 1. The Smugglers was so deadly boring that people blocked it from their memories and 2. It is important to read all your Doctor Who history before writing more episodes. "The Curse of the Black Spot" was not really an improvement from "The Smugglers" but at least I got the plot in the sequel.
William Hartnell's health has been in a steady decline, which explains why he wasn't in the episode much except in the beginning and the end. He also had some crazy hair going on.
Next up: The Tenth Planet
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