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The opening story of season 4, The Smugglers was also the penultimate story of the First Doctor era. It's also the first full story for new companions Ben and Polly after they inadvertently entered the TARDIS at the end of The War Machines. I've always had a lot of time for the pair, and not just because Anneke Wills was easy on the eye, and it's a shame that so few of their episodes have survived. The Smugglers reflects new story editor Gerry Davis' dislike of the historical format (it was the penultimate purely historical story until 1982's Black Orchid). While previous historicals had been rooted in actual events, The Smugglers simply takes the setting of 17th century Cornwall and uses it to tell a old-fashioned tale of pirates, smugglers and hidden treasure. Produced as the final story of the series' third production block, The Smugglers was allowed a greater than usual amount of location filming (particularly for 1966), although the local colour that would have added to the story is largely lost thanks to the BBC's junking policy of the 1970s. What is left is a reasonably entertaining story with the Doctor, Ben and Polly becoming involved with a host of colourful characters, including the menacing Captain Pike and Revenue man Blake. There's plenty of mistaken identities, and most of the characters seem to get captured, escape, and then recaptured. The larger than life characters come across reasonably well on audio, but it's still a shame that apart from some behind-the-scenes material, no footage of the episode survives at all (although the telesnaps do and were reprinted in DWM several years ago). Anneke Wills - the only surviving regular - handles the narration and for the most part she's fine, although things certainly don't get off to a particular good start. Voicing the story, episode and writer credits in the middle of recaping The War Machines and describing the opening scenes result in a bit of a mess, but fortunately things pick up after that. One more quibble with the script - why is Pike described as having a "hook" when he's clearly got a spike in place of his hand? Sloppiness or just a easy way of describing it? Overall though, The Smugglers is an entertaining story, although with a fair amount of running about it's not the best story to have in an audio-only format. We also don't get any of the local colour that the location filming would have added. However, it's still an enjoyble story, even in this format. back to the top |
THE SMUGGLERS |
