28: The Smugglers

Before Watching

I could say much the same as I said before The Savages. Except then, at least , I did know that Steven was leaving. Now, well, no. It’s the last Hartnell Historical, in fact the penultimate Hartnell of all. There will be one more pure historical in the Troughton era – The Highlanders which will be notable for the introduction of Jamie if for nothing else, and then the rather strange Black Orchid when we get to Peter Davison.  It’s got Ben and Polly, who impressed me in The War Games. The wind of change is blowing across the face of Doctor Who . . .

After Watching

The first thing I noticed was that this one was scripted by Brian ‘Ice Warriors/ Celestial Toymaker’ Hayles. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t have been scripting a historical, I suppose, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I suppose that I was influenced by my disappointment over The Celestial Toymaker, which is silly really considering that what was seen on the screen was at least a couple of drafts removed from Hayles’ vision of the story.

Speaking of the story, Ben and Polly weren’t actually invited on board the TARDIS, but the Doctor dropped his key and they nipped in to give it back to him just as he was setting off. I loved the way that he admitted openly that he couldn’t control the TARDIS and had no idea where it was going to land. How often have we seen other Doctors in a state of denial over this?

I noticed that they didn’t go overboard on the disbelief from the companions angle, which was probably wise – it had already been done in The Time Meddler, and they weren’t going to top that. There’s some nice location shots in Cornwall in this story. It was mildly amusing to see the church warden Longfoot deciding that Polly was a boy. Was he blind? He gets his anyway. There’s not a lot of film of this one left, but one of the sequences clearly shows Cherub, played by George A Cooper – Billy Fisher’s Dad in Billy Liar – throwing a knife into his back, surprisingly graphic, that. Actually reading about this story after watching it, I think that the film that survives are all bits cut out by the censors in Australia, which kind of makes sense with the knife throwing bit anyway. Cherub is great. I always think that with a pirate, you have to lay it on with a trowel, and Cooper gives Cherub full throttle. All in all it becomes quite an eventful first episode. Cherub has been watching the Doctor talking to Longfoot, and is convinced he tells the Doctor a secret he wants. He accosts the Doctor in the inn, kidnapping him and taking him aboard the pirate ship of Captain Pike, and wounds Ben in the process. To add insult to injury the Squire turns up and imprisons Ben and Polly under suspicion of murdering Longfoot.

Pike seems to have a very nifty swiss army hook on the end of his arm. Alright, it’s not a hook, in fact, it’s like the end of a pikestaff, no doubt hence his name. He also does a nice line in pirate dialogue, saying to Cherub as he does, - one more word from you and I’ll slit yer gizzard, right? – Is David Blake Kelly, who plays Kuper the innkeeper the same David Kelly who played O’Reilly the Builder in Fawlty Towers? Absolutely not – hence the helpful middle name. Having convinced dim witted yokel Tom to let them out of their cell by pretending they are going to do some voodoo on him (honest to gosh)  Ben and Polly return to the church to investigate, knocking out Blake the Revenue man whom they mistake for the real murdered. And who is Blake? Why, it’s our old mate, Tlotoxl from the Aztecs – or John Ringham as he was otherwise known. Fine actor, and he gives just as convincing a turn as in his earlier appearance, albeit in a totally different, and at the end of the day, rather heroic role.

In the third episode the whole thing became for me just a little tedious. The pirates and the Squire make an alliance. At least we could see how the Doctor’s moral compass has developed. Ben and Polly work out at one point that it looks like an ideal time to return to the TARDIS, and the Doctor tells them that he can’t, that he feels moral responsibility for the fact that the whole village may be destroyed if he doesn’t act. That’s the Doctor! Basically the whole denouement of this shaggy dog story revolves around looking for the gold of the pirate Captain Avery. The Doctor was passed the secret by Longfoot. Which brings me to another observation. Looking at it I can’t help feeling that we’ve seen in “The Smugglers” is a real departure from everything we’ve seen in the Historicals so far. Up to now, ever when the Historicals haven’t featured real historical figures – like The Aztecs – or have only featured them briefly in the background, like “The Reign of Terror” – they have been based on real historical events, even when they’ve taken a few liberties with them. “The Smugglers” is different. It isn’t pegged to a specific and documented historical event, rather it has its roots in literature. The smuggler linked with a church is taken directly from Thorndyke’s Doctor Syn books. OK – they’re set in Kent, and Syn is a vicar rather than a church warden, but it’s a clear parallel. It also has echoes of Treasure Island as well. The more I think about it the more this seems to be a conscious choice on the part of Innes Lloyd and script editor Gerry Davis. Perhaps this sounded the death knell for the Historicals, since it’s a clear abandonment of the educational intention that the series set out with.

Coming back to “The Smugglers” it all ends up with a bit of a free for all up in the crypt of the church, and I couldn’t help thinking that I didn’t really care what happened, and who ended up with the treasure, if anyone. Nice to see John Ringham getting the chance to do a stint as a goody, mind, and it’s he who saves the day in the end.

Overall I enjoyed the first couple of episodes, but it lost my interest after that. 

What Have We Learned?

It looks as if the production team have run out of steam with the Historicals