Just like with a new actor playing The Doctor being brought in every single few years or so we also get alot of new companions coming in and out of the show as well. With it being very hard to get a debut episode for the new companion just right as you have to set up that character and still tell a good story at the exact same time and well the episode that i'm about to review for you all today is really one just such an episode and so then join me as I review the episode that sees a new companion join the TARDIS team for the first time ever with the episode in question being called simply just "The Rescue" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is The Doctor , Barbera and Ian land on the planet Dido and have to help the survivors of a previous crashed landed spaceship survive against the evil Dido native Koquillion. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty a bit on the simple side which I guess does make sense as these two episodes were only made just so that they could introduce Vicki into the show but at the same time tho it's a plot that could have been much better and just because it was only made to introduce a new character isn't an excuse for having a plot that is at best just OK but I will admit that this episodes plot is at times really rather entertaining as well as also being really engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , William Russell as Ian Chesterton and Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright. Also starring in this episode is Maureen O'Brien as Vicki , Ray Barrett as Bennett / Koquillion and Tom Sheridan as Space Captain / Sand Beast. This episode does actually have somewhat of a record as it's one of the few Doctor Who episodes to have a very small amount of cast members while this episode doesn't top The Edge Of Destruction which only had the four main cast members it does beat out quite alot of Doctor Who episodes by only have cast members that are relevant to the plot of the episode which is something of a very rare thing for Classic Doctor Who to do and heck they even had two actors in this episodes basically playing to different roles in the exact same episode.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With this episode rather rightfully getting alot of praise for the acting in this episode and it's not hard to see why as all of the actors in this episode really do turn in some really good performance which for for the guest cast must have been a hard thing to do as there joining in a very hit show and yet they more then keep up with the series regular cast with Maureen O'Brien and Jacqueline Hill both being the true standouts for this episode as they both manage to turn in some really good performances in this episode with the acting in this episode really being helped by the fact that the script for the episode is just so good that all the episodes cast really have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performances will come out of them naturally.
As stated at the very start of the review this episode does introduce a new companion to the show that being Vicki who as mentioned was played by Maureen O'Brien. This character at least in this episode does seem like a pretty fun addition to the TARDIS team with her having a sense of humor about her and her having quite the caring side to her but at the same time outside of her not really having a family left on Dido anymore we don't really get to see why The Doctor , Ian and Barbera should want Vicki to join the TARDIS as she doesn't really do anything in this episode to show us why she should be able to join the TARDIS with the character mostly just sitting around inside the crashed spaceship for both of the two episodes and her making a joke about Ian and Barbera's age and that's really it and it's not enough as even tho this is only her first episode we should be able to see why she should be able to join the TARDIS even more so when you take into account that this episode was solely made to introduce her as a character and yet the episode doesn't really do that at all for some rather unknown and really rather strange reason.
For sixties Doctor Who this episode had production design that was alot better then what it really had any right to be with Raymond Cusick giving us sets that are worthy to be in a feature length film. This is an episode really did need good production design in order to do it justice as it's a story that doesn't really require good or even great looking sets in order to do it justice and yet that's exactly what we get in this episode as not only do we get some truly good looking sets in it but it also had some really good looking model shots in it which for classic Doctor Who was never a new thing as even when the sets for any given episodes weren't looking that good the show nearly always had some good looking model shots in it with this episode being the except as we have both good looking and good looking model shots in it.
Sadly what lets the episode down quite alot is the episodes villain as Bennett / Koquillion isn't really around all that much on screen to make that much of an impact. With this not really being helped by the fact that not only is the villain not really that scary but he doesn't really have a plan with Bennett killing of all of the inhabitants of the planet Dido and planning to return to Earth for no reason which just makes him seem like a pointless villain as that could have been the plan for a much better villain and yet it was given to a character that people barely get to see to make a connection with him as a character as we don;t get alot of time with his character infact wen in total spend around five to ten minuets with his character and even then we get to find out nothing about his character and alot of the time it's just him being abusive to Vicki and that's really it and that's not really enough to make him a good and scary and creepy villain.
It was meant to be a twist that both Bennett and Koquillion are the same person and yet the twist is so predictable that you can see it coming a mile away. As Bennett is the only other human character apart from Vicki that we meet in this episode and we know that Vicki is a good guy in the show which means that the big reveal that Bennett is the main villain of the episode is a twist that doesn't work as there's no other people that it could be and even taking that out of the equation the episode really doesn't give us any kind of clue as to who the villain of the episode could actually be which makes this a pointless twist as you could have made the two characters separate from one another and the results would have been the exact same as nothing about the plot of the episode changes with Bennett being the main villain infact having them both be separate characters would only serve to help the episode out as you could the villain a more interesting plan and you could give Bennett some personality instead of him not really having one in the first place.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember what ever this episodes running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly forty five minuets. With this story being spread out over two episodes which is the biggest issue to be found with this episode as while the episode does have some really good ideas it's a story that really did need to be at the very least three or four episodes long in order to truly do it justice and with those added episodes the story could be fleshed out even more and we the audience could be given a reason as to why want to see Bennett loose and why we want to see Vicki join the TARDIS team and yet because of the fact that this story is just two episodes long both of those can't happen as the story has to rush along to it's next plot beat with this not really being helped by the fact that this episode really does have some truly awful pacing with the episode being far to fast then what it really should have been.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As this era of Doctor Who really wasn't known for having great action in it in the first place and yet we still manage to get a fairly decent looking fight scene between The Doctor and Bennett which while it does really look a little sluggish it's also the best that they could have really done given the time and budget that they most likely would have had for this episode with that action scene being the only one that we really get in the episode and the team making this episode do the best that they really could have done with little that they most likely had to make it all come together in the first place in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a decent debut episode for the character of Vicki as she is decent and fun character to join the crew but at the same time the makers of this show could have and should have given her a much more stronger debuting episode to start her out with as this episode just really doesn't do her any kind of justice whatsoever in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked all of the good and as well all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being Google Images really simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on Google Images are really all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.