1.29: The Smugglers
In which the show dumbs down and we learn that simplistic action adventure and soundtracks without visuals don’t mix.
Broadcast: September-October 1966
Watched: August 2019
The Smugglers, Episode 1
Unsettling after so long that the voiceover isn’t Purves [who plays Steven]. Anneke Wills [who plays Polly, and has taken over on narration voiceover duties] ais lso not as expressive.
I like the way that Polly’s new outfit is entirely so she can pass as a boy. Also the Doctor was very blase about buggering off into the universe alone wasn’t he?
Anyway. It’s fine. Quite fun, even. But there isn’t much here is there? No educational stuff by season 4 obviously, but no themes either, and no jokes to paper over it. There just isn’t much to say.
The Smugglers, Episode 2
The voodoo bit is quite fun. That’s it.
The Smugglers, Episode 3
Blake trusting the regulars over the squire is a bit convenient.
The fact that the character of Jamaica is such a caricature of a Caribbean pirate is a problem. I am finding the plot oddly hard to follow.
Ben and Polly amusing themselves by looking for the oldest grave is a sweet touch.
The Smugglers, Episode 4
Can’t shake the sense that this one would really benefit from the visuals – there just isn’t enough there to work as a radio play. It’s fun and all, but...
....they’re never gonna animate because of Jamaica, are they?
Real shame after such a strong run that the last couple of Hartnells are so weak.
A post-script. This one is set in Cornwall. Producer Innes Lloyd, who’d been with the show since The Celestial Toymaker, didn’t really want to make Doctor Who and would rather have been producing outside broadcasts somewhere. He seems to have been trying to find ways of turning the job into one closer to the job he wanted, by, for example, arranging a lot of filming in nice places like Cornwall.
The job he wanted also involved “not working with that pain in the arse Bill Hartnell” any more. That would soon have far reaching consequences.
I remember reading a "Fact of Fiction" in DWM that claimed that "The Space Pirates" was the most obscure "Who", which is clearly absurd. "The Space Pirates" has an extant episode, was by Bob Holmes and is the last story in a season in which else exists or has been (long ago) animated. Surely, "The Smugglers" is the most obscure story. It's a completely missing Hartnell historical that, unlike "Marco Polo" or "The Myth Makers" or "The Massacre" doesn't even have a good reputation or seem to trying to do anything interesting. (I suspect if "The Gunfighters" were missing, it might have a higher reputation than it does.)