Rate and Discuss: The Smugglers

[SiHart]

It's the first trip in the TARDIS for Ben and Polly, who disbelievingly find themselves caught up in smuggling, revenge and the search for Avery's treasure in Seventeenth century Cornwall.

What do you think of this story?

[SiHart]

You can see the telesnaps from this story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/class...els/smugglers/

[J.R. Southall]

This is going to get a bit tricky now, isn't it?

My two experiences of The Smugglers are firstly from the Target novel, which (and in spite of Terrance Dicks' rather bland prose) I absolutely loved. Got totally swept up in the story, and relished every page. Secondly, a recon made by a friend combining very simply the telesnaps and the BBC audio release. Sadly, this didn't live up to my experience with the book - but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. This is one of the stories I'd most like to see returned, so I'm giving it an 8; I realise it's not perfect, but it is a story I've got very fond feelings about.

[Rob McCow]

As with a lot of these Season 4 stories, there's not much to go on! However, I suspect that The Smugglers was pretty good. There seems to have been lots of location filming, a very lively guest cast and Ben&Polly to spice things up.

One of the great short-lived TARDIS crew combinations, it's hard to imagine how Ben, Polly and the Doctor would have interacted in this story. In The Tenth Planet and The War Machines there's always something bigger going on, but this story plays on a smaller scale so there would have been more time with just the three of them. It's their first time-travel story too, so there would have been more focus on Ben and Polly.

The Smugglers, like The Highlanders, seems to have been very different from the previous historical stories. It ditches the high comedy of The Myth-Makers and The Gunfighters, but not entirely. At the same time, it isn't much like the earlier, more serious historicals either. The flavour of the story seems half-way between Troughton and Hartnell, making it even harder to imagine.

In short, I'd love to have a couple of episodes of this back!

[J.R. Southall]

Incidentally, can you not put Season 4 back to before Season 8...?

[Andrew Curnow]

I dug out the old DWM with the complete set of telesnaps for this one, and am working through it an episode at a time - I remember really enjoying it first time round (though was rather taken aback when I dug it out, to realise that it was DWM from 1994 - that's 18 years ago now!!).

It looks rather fun, something of a romp - and based on the style of The War Machines just before and The Tenth Planet just after, I would imagine it's done with at least an attempt at (for the time) a bit of a fast-paced story. Without having heard it, it's hard to give an opinion on how Hartnell does in this one - but by the plot summary, and the telesnaps, it looks like he's on his own (ie, without Ben & Polly) for quite a bit of the story and I'd like to think he more than holds his own, facing up to Pike, Cherub, et al.

More news as we get it!!!

[SiHart]

I like the idea of Ben and Polly not believeing they've gone back in time and looking for a train station as they arrive... and only gradually realising that what the Doctor has told them was true. That's good stuff and gived Anneke and Mike something to work with.

I'm not so convinced by Pol dressing up as a boy- Dodo might have got away with it, but Anneke is too gorgeous for that to work so well. Massive suspension of belief required for that!

[Stephen Morgan]

Given that the stories either side of The Smugglers were a sort of "re-boot" of the series, an attempt to bring it into the swinging sixties if you like, this story seems something of a quaint, old fashioned oddity, and an odd choice for the start of a new series in that it's a bit low key.
Saying that, I've just listened to the first two episodes and the story sweeps along at a cracking pace, it's full of intrigue and menace. The Tardis crew have been seperated, Ben and Polly still don't fully believe that they have travelled in time but are caught up in events nevertheless. The Doctor meanwhile thinks he's gained the confidence of Pike, a pirate, but is in for a nasty surprise, especially as the pirates are all in in collusion with the local Squire.
As historicals go, this is not too bad, the best have long gone, but, as in most of the historical stories, Hartnell shows he really can keep the pace when necessary.

[Jason Thompson]

The problem I have with this story is that it is just so unmemorable. It failed to grip me on first viewing the recon, and failed on each subsequent viewing. And this is not just a side effect of it being missing: Marco Polo had me riveted throughout on first viewing of the recon.

It has points in its favour. Ben and Polly's reaction to being shoved suddenly into the past in some ways recalls Ian and Barbara's incredulity, and pretty much comes the closest to it in terms of being a believable reaction (contrast with Dodo, who completely failed to be impressed by the interior of the TARDIS when she first boarded it!). Hartnell is on good form, and generally the performances are all pretty good. Somehow there is just something lacking, though, and this is one of the few stories in the whole run where I struggle to recall the sequence of events.

[Anthony Williams]

Dull, dull, dull!

[Stuart Wallis]

It's an incredible strain to remember anything about this story...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

It's an enjoyable enough romp, but the story does seem to hinge on two completely unbelievable events. Firstly, the church warden inexplicably deciding to tell the Doctor the key to finding the treasure, having only just met him. And then secondly, Cherub deciding to kill the warden even though he's the only person he can realistically expect to get the information he needs from.

So then the rest of the story revolves around someone trying to get some information out of someone who shouldn't really have it, and who he shouldn't really expect to have it (even though he does), having made life much more difficult for himself by killing the person he should have interrogated in the first place.

Still, lots of lovely violence though, and tonnes better than that recent black spot rubbish.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Finally watched the recon of eps 1 & 2 with Dad last night. Quite enjoyable although it does feel a bit slow. My Dad seems to think it's a tragedy that this particular story hasn't survived intact but then he really liked The Gunfighters too, strange man!

[J.R. Southall]

I'm with your dad on this...