25: The Gunfighters

Before Watching

Before it became possible to watch old episodes of “Doctor Who” the wisdom we received from our olders and betters was that “The Gunfighters” was one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever made, and a good reason why nobody should mourn the passing of the historicals as a genre. As good as the reputation of The Celestial Toymaker used to be – the reputation of the Gunfighters has been the complete opposite. I have a clear memory of reading that this story, together with (surprisingly) Planet of Giants, was one of the worst that classic Doctor Who has to offer. It’s a funny thing – while “The Romans” has been approvingly compared with “Carry on Cleo”, “The Gunfighters” has been unfavourably compared with “Carry on Cowboy”.

Television didn’t become a popular mass medium in the UK until the 1950s, when the Coronation was the real catalyst for many households buying or renting their first television. In those first couple of decades of popular television, the 50s and 60s, imported American western ‘cowboy’ shows were a staple of both channels, as they were in the cinema throughout the 50s. When “The Gunfighters” was first broadcast, shows like “The Virginian” and “Gunsmoke” for example were still going strong. If I’m honest, the western genre never really appealed to me in the slightest. To me all that stuff was my Dad’s generation’s thing – he did actually love Westerns, especially those starring John Wayne – and they were not for me. Also, the fact is that Brits just don’t do Westerns very well. Which means I don’t look forward to this show with a great deal of anticipation.

On the other hand, and this may just be perversity on my part, but of the stories with a very poor reputation that I’ve already watched – I found that only “The Web Planet” and “Galaxy 4” really deserved a lot of what was said about it, and even with the Web Planet so much can be forgiven because they were trying something so different to everything that had been done before. “The Keys of Marinus”, and even “The Sensorites” had something to offer. Also, this is scripted by Donald Cotton, who gave us the consistently enjoyable “The Myth Makers” So what the hell. Bring it on.

After Watching

No, this isn’t bad Doctor Who. By whichever standards you might want to judge it, you cannot claim that this is bad Doctor Who. Let’s examine some of the criteria: -

The story and the script: - Like other historicals, this story is based on a real event. The Gunfight at the OK Corral saw a 30 second or so shoot out between Marshal Wyatt Earp, Earp’s brothers and his friend ‘Doc’ Holliday, and the Clantons and Claibornes, in which three of the Clanton side were killed, and men on both sides were injured. It actually only became the most famous shoot out of the Wild West about 50 years later in the 1930s, when a highly romanticised biography of Wyatt Earp was published. It has been the subject of several Hollywood movies.

Donald Cotton, the writer of this story, also wrote “The Myth Makers” and as you would expect, this is not short on comedy. Much of it revolves around a combination of coincidences that see the Doctor being mistaken by the Clantons for Doc Holliday. I wouldn’t claim that it’s laugh a minute, but there are certainly a few laughs, and more importantly the story never really flags. I mean, I don’t even particularly like Westerns, but I found myself hoping that the Doctor, Steven and Dodo would disappear for a while so we could get on with the story. That’s a common failing of Historicals – the fact is that the Travellers can never be that much more than observers to the main story, and as such can come to seem surplus to requirements.

One odd thing about the script was the decision, presumably the director’s, to continually punctuate the action with Lynda Baron’s rendition of The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon. Lynda Baron is best known as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the joyous “Open All Hours”, but she began as a singer as well as an actress, and it has to be said that she does have a terrific singing voice. As an idea it’s neat and original, but the effect is lost because my God, that song is repetitive. We get the same lines over and over again to punctuate the action, and so even when it is actually commenting on what we’ve just seen it’s just annoying.

Sets and Locations: - I have seen it said that this is the first ever television Western filmed in Britain, and this may well be the case, but all of the sets are recognisably ‘wild west’. After all, what do you need? A main street exterior, a saloon bar interior, and a jail lockup. I don’t say for one minute that the sets in “The Gunfighters” looked any cheaper than those in the US made western series which were being aired at the same time.

Performances: It’s easy to be distracted by some of the accents, because the Clantons, for example, are spectacularly bad. God alone knows where Billy’s accent came from, but it certainly wasn’t much further west than Weston Super Mare. In fact everything on the baddies’ side for the first two episodes is purest cardboard, until the arrival of the eponymous Johnny Ringo after whom episode 3 is named. The offhand way in which he shoots the barman at least underlines that there is some threat and menace there.

On the positive side though, Wyatt Earp is acted by John Alderson, who did spend part of his career acting in the USA, and he brings a world weary credibility to the show, especially after his youngest brother Warren is killed by the Clantons. Above all else, though, there is Anthony Jacobs’ Doc Holliday. Jacobs even looks a little like Kirk Douglas’ Doc Holliday from the 1957 film “Gunfight at the OK Corral”, and he’s probably the main character in the story. It’s important that he comes across as a rogue and a cheat, but still one with a little charm and humour, and Anthony Jacobs for me plays this to perfection. As compared to the Clantons, his attitude towards an American accent is to throw the kitchen sink at it, ah doo dee-clare, but it kind of works, and just emphasises his credentials as a genuinely larger than life character.

Given at least a respectable amount of air time in this story, William Hartnell seems to be having great fun. He was an actor who could handle comedy with ease. In the previous story poor, game Peter Purves was expected to dance, and in this one the cringe factor was ramped up to a whole new level by having him sing a different arrangement of the ubiquitous Ballad of the Last chance Saloon. Being Peter Purves he gives it his all. Fair play to him, others might have just gone through the motions.

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Wobbly accents aren’t a good enough reason for panning a story. Neither is the use of a little comedy either. In fact this story does turn from broad farce to the darkest of black humour about halfway through when Ringo enters, and there’s real pathos in Wyatt Earp’s reaction to the murder of his brother Warren. There is also an understated examination of the concept of vigilantism, and whether a lawman such as Wyatt Earp is ever justified in taking the law into his own hands. So “The Gunfighters” may not be to everybody’s taste, but it’s just not fair to call it a bad story, because whichever way you look at it, it isn’t.

What Have We Learned?

Both Steven and Dodo are professional-level piano players

Steven is not a professional level singer

For all that the Doctor says that you can’t change History he still can’t resist trying to now and again