120 The Savages: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Savages: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 120
STORY NUMBER: 026
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 04 June 1966
WRITER: Ian Stuart Black
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 5.6 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2
TELESNAPS: The Savages: Episode Two

"It's quite all right, Doctor. You will not be asked to witness this experiment. Instead you will have the pleasure of participating in it!"

The Savage doesn't want to hurt Dodo but moves on outside where he's found by other Savages. Dodo is seized by the scientist who believe she's here for the transference process that Nanina has undergone, but before she can be subjected to it she's rescued by Captain Edal. Nanina has been overexposed to the process and the scientists make a note on her files. Going to the Tardis on the pretext of fetching his notes on Time Travel the Doctor finds the injured Savage Dodo saw earlier: He has worked out the Elders are draining the life energy from the Savages. He's taken back to the city by Edal while Steven & Dodo fall into the hands of the Savages who tell them what is happening. They are afraid to oppose the Elders due to their light guns. Jano and the Doctor argue about what the Elders are doing. The Doctor vows to oppose the elders so Jano sends him to the scientists who subject him to the transference process to drain his life force.

This episode is all about revealing the dark secret at the heart of the Elders' civilisation

DODO: Doctor, why wouldn't you let me tell you what happened?
DOCTOR: Because I didn't want those gentlemen to overhear what you were saying, child.
STEVEN: Who? Jano and the Elders?
DOCTOR: Precisely.
STEVEN: Why, don't you trust them?
DOCTOR: Not altogether.
STEVEN: What have you discovered?
DOCTOR: Nothing really, but I sense that things aren't all together right here. Now I think we go this way, isn't it? Come along.
STEVEN: Hey, wait a minute.
DOCTOR: What?
STEVEN: What's that?
DODO: It's one of the savages.

DOCTOR: Really? But he's not moving. Yes, yes, let's take a look. Hold that. Here.
DODO: Why, that's him, the man in the corridor. The one I helped. But there were two others.
DOCTOR: Was he in this condition when you met him before?
DODO: Yes.
DOCTOR: Did he come out of that laboratory?
DODO: Yes, I think so. What's that matter with him, Doctor? Do you know?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes, I think I do, yes. It's just as I feared.
DODO: Feared?
DOCTOR: Yes, their wonderful civilisation is based on this. They've discovered a way of extracting life's force from human beings, and absorbing it into themselves, leaving the victim, as you see, almost dead.

The Elders are effectively Vampires feasting on the Savages to sustain them.

The Doctor, having dispatched Steven & Dodo for medical supplies is then found by Edal:

EDAL: Do you require assistance, Doctor?
DOCTOR: What do you know of this?
EDAL: He's one of the savages. I shouldn't let him worry you. He's probably shamming. He should be back on the reserve. Come on, you lazy animal, get up, move! Get back to your sector.
DOCTOR: What are you doing, fellow? Leave the man alone. He'll probably die.
EDAL: I don't think there's much chance of that, Doctor. Come on, you, move.
DOCTOR: I insist that you leave him alone!
EDAL: I don't think you understand, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I think I understand only too well.
EDAL: You do? And you still waste time on this creature?
DOCTOR: This human being!
EDAL: Why the concern, Doctor? They are only savages.
DOCTOR: They are men. Human beings, like you and me. Although it appears at the moment that you're behaving in a rather sub-human fashion.
EDAL: They have not developed like we have. They are savages! Come on.
DOCTOR: I forbid you to touch him!
EDAL: You are obstructing me, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I am looking after this wretched fellow.
EDAL: You will come with me.
DOCTOR: I have already told you I'm busy. I'm going to take care of this poor man.
EDAL: I have warned you! You will do as I order you!
DOCTOR: Hmm?
EDAL: Or you'll know the alternative. You will come with me back to the city.

Various interpretations are available from the story being a parable on white ruled South Africa but it's interesting comparing the situation seen here to the recent treatment of the poor and disabled here. There's a distinct anti oppression message coming through to me here, beyond Doctor Who's usual scenario of Evil trying to dominate Good.

It's not just The Doctor's compassion that gets him into trouble: Avon & Flower, the tour guides who Dodo gave the slip too, are also punished:

EDAL: Stay here. A guard will collect you.
AVON: Must Flower be taken before the Elders? It was my fault. I should have kept a better watch on Dodo.
EDAL: You should be thinking of your own defence.
FLOWER: Oh, Avon, what will happen to us? Will they take?
AVON: Do not worry, Flower. That is only for the savages.
FLOWER: Are you sure?
AVON: I'm sure you will be all right.
FLOWER: But the guard's coming for us.
AVON: Do not be afraid. After all, this is a free state, isn't it, and we are all equal here.
FLOWER: But
AVON: They cannot harm us.

Frighteningly neither is seen again.

The Doctor's fate is more certain after he is taken to Jano:

JANO: We do not understand you, Doctor. You who have accepted our honours gladly, how can you condemn this great artistic and scientific civilisation because of a few wretched barbarians?
DOCTOR: So your rewards are only for the people that agree with you?
JANO: No. No, of course not. But if you are going to oppose us.
DOCTOR: Oppose you? Indeed I am going to oppose you, just in the same way that I oppose the Daleks or any other menace to common humanity.
JANO: I am sorry you take this attitude, Doctor. It is most unscientific. You are standing in the way of human progress.
DOCTOR: Human progress, sir? How dare you call your treatment of these people progress!
JANO: They are hardly people, Doctor. They are not like us.
DOCTOR: I fail to see the difference.
JANO: Do you not realise that all progress is based on exploitation?
DOCTOR: Exploitation indeed! This, sir, is protracted murder!
JANO: We have achieved a very great deal merely by the sacrifice of a few savages.
DOCTOR: The sacrifice of even one soul is far too great! You must put an end to this inhuman practice.
JANO: You leave me no choice. Take him away, Captain. And tell Senta that we have an emergency. I shall be sending him special instructions.

Meanwhile Steven and Dodo's action assisting the processed Wylda enable them to befriend Tor & Chal who explain what will happen:

TOR: They will use the Doctor like the rest of us.
DODO: What do you mean?
CHAL: They will take him to the room where the great vats are.
STEVEN: What will happen to him there?
CHAL: He will become like us.
STEVE: We'll see about that.
CHAL: They'll do the same to you.

The Doctor though remains innocent to his fate till quite late in proceedings and believe he's going to be forced to watch the transference process:

EDAL: Senta, this is the Doctor, the traveller from beyond time.
DOCTOR: So this is the place where you carry out your foul experiments.
SENTA: This is my laboratory. I'm honoured to meet you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Thank you. What's this?
SENTA: Why have you brought the Doctor down here today? I've no time for visitors. We have a very full schedule, as you're well aware, Captain Edal.
EDAL: You will suspend all other work and prepare for an emergency transference.
SENTA: But that's out of the question.
EDAL: The order comes directly from Jano.
SENTA: You are interested in our work?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes, yes, interested, yes. Although I disapprove of your activities.
SENTA: I shall be honoured to show you my laboratory when I have the time. Well, where is the savage for transference?
DOCTOR: No, gentlemen, no, gentlemen. I don't wish to bear witness.
EDAL: It's quite all right, Doctor. You will not be asked to witness this experiment.
DOCTOR: I should hope not, my boy.
EDAL: Instead you will have the pleasure of participating in it.
DOCTOR: What did you say?

SENTA: Do you realise what you're saying? We cannot transfer such a high form of life. It's never been done.
JANO: This time it will be done. It will be an interesting experiment for you.
SENTA: But, he's a fellow scientist, he's one of us.
JANO: You have your orders. See that they are carried out.
DOCTOR: I think you have forgotten one thing, gentlemen.
JANO: I don't think so, Doctor.
DOCTOR: My feelings in this matter! I will not submit to your nauseating experiments! I am going out of that door, so don't try to stop me.
EDAL: Go back, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Let me pass.
SENTA: You two, strap him to the trolley!
JANO: Report to me as soon as the transference is completed.

Seeing the process used on the Doctor is one of the more horrifying things the program has done so far, the Doctor bound and trapped in a glass chamber filling with gas.

The effects will be seen next episode....

Ian Stuart Black was an experienced television script writer who went and volunteered to write for Doctor Who. Apparently his children refused to believe he was a proper television writer until he had written for the program! He approached the then Producer & Script Editor John Wiles and Donald Tosh who asked him for a storyline. In the meantime Wiles & Tosh resigned but the incoming team of Innes Lloyd & Gerry Davis were impressed enough with what Black delivered to consider scrapping the Gunfighters to get the Savages, then known as The White Savages, produced sooner. He was obviously a success because he becomes the first person in Doctor Who's history to write two consecutive stories: he'll be back for the very next tale, The War Machines, where he turns some ideas by scientist Kit Pedler into a workable television script.

Returning to direct this story is Christopher Barry. Barry was Doctor Who's second ever director, occupying the chair for a good proportion of it's second story, The Daleks, including the first on-screen appearance of the creatures. Yet somehow he always seems to be overlooked for that with his fellow director on the story Richard Martin getting much of the credit and the first few return appearances for the Doctor's nemesis. Christopher Barry returned to the show in it's second year directing The Rescue and the Romans and this is his first Doctor Who directing job since then. He will go on to be the show's longest serving director with his last engagement being in 1979 for Creature from the Pit.

Christopher Barry reuses one of the cast of his previous story, The Romans, in this tale. Kay Patrick played Poppaea in The Romans 3 & 4, Conspiracy & Inferno. Here she plays Flower, one of the guides for the Tardis crew. After her acting career came to an end she became director on Coronation Street and other soap operas.

Her fellow guide Avon (no not that Avon!) is played by Robert Sidaway. He'll be back as Captain Jimmy Turner in The Invasion. He has an Out of the Unknown to his name appearing as George in The Midas Plague which also features Michael Earl, an extra on this story, as a Police Robot.

Somewhat down the batting order cast wise we find Tony Holland as the Third Assistant. In later life he'd go on to be a writer on and creator of several soap operas including EastEnders. Oddly enough his EastEnders co-creator Julia Smith shows up in two stories time!