Missing episodes and Doctor Who are things that go arm in arm with each other and while thankfully there are alot less missing episodes of the show then there was even ten years ago the fact does still remain that there are alot of episodes still missing. However thankfully the BBC have taken steps to rectify this by animating the episodes that are missing such is the case with the episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the episode that sees a companion leave the show with the episode in question being called simply just "The Savages" enjoy.
The plot of this episode when The Doctor , Steven and Dodo arrive on a random planet in the far future they have to help some cavepeople who are having there lifeforce drained from them by people who live in the city. 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 OK at best. One of the things that the episode does get alot of hate for is it's plot and it is super easy to see why as this episodes plot is thin at best as while there is good idea for a plot there the final execution of that plot does leave alot to be desired. However to be fair tho you can see the potential in this episodes plot as the idea of having the typical heroes of the city people now be the bad guys of the story is one that does make for a good but the episode doesn't really do anything with that idea rather due to the fact that the episode doesn't focus on that idea all that much it instead does feel like an afterthought and sadly the same is true for alot of the plot elements that the episode either sets up at the start but drops for no reason or introduces in the final five minuets of the final episode, this episodes plot is one that could have been so much more better as it did have the right ingredients for a good story it just needed to be executed and pulled off alot more better with the plot of this episode not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet. Also starring in this episode is Ewen Solon as Chal , Patrick Godfrey as Tor , Peter Thomas as Captain Edal , Geoffrey Frederick as Exorse , Frederick Jaeger as Jano , Robert Sidaway as Avon , Kay Patrick as Flower , Clare Jenkins as Nanina , Norman Henry as Senta and Edward Caddick as Wylda.
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 I 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 not that bad. The episodes acting is alot more better then the plot of the episode due to the fact that it does feel like that the actors in this episode are trying there best to turn in a good performance something which is helped by the fact that this episode was directed by Christopher Barry with it being made clear as day that he does know how to get a good performance out of his actors a skill which does come in handy interms of this episode. With the best actor in the whole entire episode being Peter Purves as Steven Taylor due to the fact that he does get to show us just what it is that he can do as an actor in this episode we get to see him being dramatic and we get to see him being funny and we get to see him playing the action man role and he pulls it all off with you being able to believe that Steven could do all of these things and that en some and it's something that makes you wonder why even the last episode "The Gunfighters" didn't take advantage of this a s they had the right set up for him to be the action man type character. With the acting that's in this very episode not really being helped but the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Try as I might but there is no animation company listed for this episode either in the credits of the episode or anywhere online. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation 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 animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that good. To be frank here this episodes animation wasn't that good as everything just had this weird striped back look to it with there being no details in either the characters faces on in the backgrounds with this on whole making the animation look cheap even when compared to other Doctor Who animations. Heck alot of the time when the characters are walking they are shown only from the waist up as that way the animators don't have to animate the characters legs but when they do show them walking in a full body shot it does look really good with there being a clear amount of passion put into those shots but it's the overall cheap looking animation that really does bring this episode down as while these animations have always been made cheaply and quickly here it felt like they were pushing that one step to far as there was a severe lack of detail to make things stand out alot of the time and while the characters do have some fluid movements to them in full body shots when where moving from the waist up they look like poorly down South Park characters, to be fair the characters mouth movements do look really good which is something that was quite shocking as that has always been really hard to for these Doctor Who animations to get right and while they don't get it right all of the time in this episode when compared to how bad the overall animation is the mouth movements do come as looking really good by comparison.
Sadly like alot of classic Doctor Who for it's first six years this episode is entirely missing from the BBC. With the only way that this episode was animated due to the fact that the sound for the episode does still exist and out of all of the episodes that should be found and hopefully quickly this one isn't really one that people need to go out of their way to find as yes it is a companion departure episode and those are always must watch episodes but outside of that there really isn't much of a need to this episode as it was originally intended this isn't to say that it wouldn't be nice to view the episode as it was meant to be seen as of course of it would but it's just that there are other more better and important stories out there that not only have no animated reconstruction but are also missing. Granted there is no way that the BBC is going to animated the whopping twelve part "The Daleks Master Plan" just due to how much time that they need to spend just on that serial but they could do something like "The Highlanders" or even "The Massacre Of St Bartholomew's Eve" as both of those episodes are only four episodes long and therefor could theoretically be done in the same time frame that it took for them to do this episode or even "Marco Polo" which does have the audio from the episode still there and yet time and time again the BBC are instead choosing to do the episodes that no one is really asking for which is still good as it does mean that we are still getting close to having all of Classic Doctor Who to watch in someway shape or form it's just that it would be nice if they did take the time to give the fans some of the episodes that they've been asking for to throw us a curve ball and give us an episode that we didn't think that they'd do for whatever reason.
Perhaps one of the only genuine good things that the episode does is flip the whole cavepeople vs city people trope on it's head. As usually its the cavepeople that are the bad guys and the city people the good guys but there they do somewhat flip that on it's head but by having he city people really be the villains of the episode and yet while they really are indeed meant to be the villains of the episode what they do isn't necessarily done out of malice rather really it's done due to the fact that they don't have the basic understanding of right and wrong due to the fact that they've really been sucking the lifeforce out of the cavepeople for generations now and therefor they really do believe themselves to be the good guys. Yet in saying this tho members of both groups have people who are good and who are at best questionable with this being something that makes neither side but also neither side is wrong as both groups do find it hard to trust the other due to what they've each put each other through this makes the scene where Nanina shows compassion to the guard Exorse all the more impactful as she is able to get to him to do the right thing not be giving him a long and boring speech but by showing basic compassion and showing him kindness when she stops Tor from killing him this one act of basic human kindness does go along way into showing that both sides can stop there fighting and can trust each other if they are willing to stop and listen to what the other is trying to tell them. the fact that this episode in it's own way doesn't have a central villain as there's no evil alien trying to take over a world in this episode it is something that does make this episode stand out from all of the other episodes of this show as nine times out of ten they do have an evil Alien and yet here there's none of that rather there's just two tribes learning to communicate and to trust each other.
As was mentioned earlier on in this review this is the episode where Steven does leave the show and to be frank his departure does come out of nowhere. As they only set up the idea of him leaving the show to be the bridge between the cave and city people within the last five minuets of the show and that's it when a companion leaving the show should always have there departure set up at best at the start of the episode as then when it does happen at the end of the episode it doesn't come out of nowhere this is not to say tat those kinds of departures can't work as if it's a character death it is something that does work but here it was just him leaving the TARDIS alive and well therefor his departure is something that could have been built into the episodes plot alot more better then what it was outside of having it be set up and payed of in the final five minuets of the episode. With the character only leaving due to the fact that the BBC chose not to renew Peter Purves's contract and with them having a new producer in Innes Lloyd and the fact that both William Hartnell and Jackie Lane where leaving the show any way it made no sense for them to keep him on the thing was the actor wasn't given much in the way of notice before hand and clearly neither way this episodes writer Ian Stuart Black as the characters departure is handled very quickly when it's something that should been worked up to like for example what they did with Victoria in "Fury From The Deep" where they spend alot of the episode telling us that she wants to leave the TARDIS and find somewhere to call home therefor when she does decide to leave at the end of that episode it doesn't come out of nowhere and feels more baked into the episodes plot where as here it felt like something that was made up five minuets before filming with the departure feeling more like an afterthought in the episode.
Now then whilst I cannot for the absolute life of me remember what this episodes grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode roughly has a grand total running time of roughly one hour and thirty minuets. With the episode itself being four episodes long which for this kind of story is the right amount of episodes for this story to last as there is no way that you could get this episode up to even just one more episode without stretching an already thin story even thinner as this is something that would result in there being alot of filler scenes and while yes granted we could also get some character scenes if this episode did have more episodes it would end up adding nothing to the episodes plot with this episode having the right amount of plot to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet even so this episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely due to the fact that this episode doesn't fully develop its plot which is something that it would gave been able to do if there was just one more episode to story but again in saying this there would be no way to do that with out there being alot of filler and with the episode being light on story this might be a case where having fewer episodes might help the episode out with the makers of this episode putting more thought and effort into making Steven look like an action hero then they did in giving the plot some actual plot development. The same thing is also true for the episodes character development as while it could be argued that The Doctor , Dodo and Steven don't really need character development in this episode due the fact that they might have gotten it in previous episodes the episodes guest characters n the other hand most certainly did need that development as we know just as much abut them all coming out of the episode then we did coming into the episode with the makers of this episodes putting more thought and effort into getting rid of The Doctor in the shows third episode then they did into giving the episodes characters some much needed character development but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean 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 really good. The episodes action was alt more better then what it really should have been as classic Doctor Who especially in the sixties wasn't really known for having good action in it as the show was made cheaply and quickly but even so you can tell that there was some amount of effort put into making this episodes action be as good as it possibly could have been and whilst yes it could have been better in some places for sixties Doctor Who this episodes action was about as good as it was ever going to get. With the best action scene in the whole entire episode being when The Doctor , Steven , Dodo and a good bunch of the cave people and some of the city people destroy all of the machines that the city people used to drain the lifeforce out of the cavepeople as even tho all it is is people hitting machines it is something that does look really good and it is something that is as well animated as it was very going to be heck given that the episode did some filming at Ealing Film Studios it wouldn't be all surprising if this scene was filmed there as it does seem like the kind of scene that they would film at Ealing rather then at Riverside Studio 1 which would have been where alot of the episode would have been filmed as there's just to many things to take into account for it to filmed at anywhere other then Ealing with the rest of the episodes action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall yeah this episode isn't that good but you can see the potential in thee for a decent story in there as all it needed was either more time spent on the script or a better writer to bring that decent story out of it and that's it as it sis all there for a good Doctor Who episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the 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 a grand old score of exactly a 6 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 ell then boys and girls and as well as ladies an gentlemen I personally got all of the images hat I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , Wikipedia , Tardis . Wiki and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.