2 out of 5

Director: Christopher Barry

Essentially a vehicle for replacing Susan with new companion Vicki (because I guess we were settled on a three companion format…?), ‘The Rescue’ reads really well on paper but the execution feels a bit too ‘summary’ to be effective and thus, for only two parts, it seems to drag on.  Ian and Barbara explore their newest location (with, admittedly, some nice episode-to-episode scripting regarding The Doctor dealing with Susan’s leaving) and come to a cliff’s edge to spot a broken-down spaceship below.  While discussing whether or not to tell the doc about the ship, a creature comes out, brandishing a threatening, er, stick thing, and forcibly separates the two, then knock Babs off the cliff and collapses some rocks preventing Ian from getting back to her..  The creature – called Koquillion – is an impressively complex looking mask with insectoid like features, lots of prominent teeth and eye stalky things but without looking too foam-y.

Meanwhile, DW, still doing some research on the TARDIS, figures out that they’re on the planet Dido, the inhabitants of which he knows to be peaceful as he’s been here before.  When Ian finds him and explains about the creature, the Doc recognizes it to be a ceremonial mask of the Didionians, further calling into question why one would act against the calm nature he’s known them to have.

Susan, at cliff’s bottom and unconscious, is found by one of the survivors of the crash – Vicki – who tells her that she and the only other survivor, Bennett, are kept captive by the Koquillion.  Scenes of Babs trying to puzzle out why that makes sense (supposedly Koquillion killed the rest of their crew – why not kill them?) are cut in the Doc and Ian making their way to the ship, crossing through a puzzling trap with moving spikes and a growling beast snapping at their toes – a neat set, but again a slightly incongruous detail that’s hard to fit into the 2-episode structure.

When all are reunited, The Doctor solves the mystery of Koquillion and the missing Didionians.  Vicki decides to join them.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this, and the plot is actually smarter than some of what’s come before, it just seems to happen on the screen so ploddingly that, even while paying attention, I didn’t feel like I was absorbing much of it.  Thus it literally wasn’t very involving.  Vicki, at this point, comes across as another doofy replacement for Susan, but without the latter’s history with time traveling, there was no reason to care about Vick’s babbling.  And Bennett’s character is a little too obviously off to not be up to something.  Not that the show hasn’t had its share of cheeky villains, but we really haven’t gone for a fake out yet, and the Scooby Doo reveal felt a bit humdrum due to Bennett’s portrayal, though we all like when The Doctor is totally right.  (p.s. spoiler alert)

Once I’m used to Vicki, I might rewatch The Rescue to see if it stands on its own.  But it feels like a story that deserved its own focus, or at least one more episode to give it some room to breathe.  And that poor Sand Beast…