4 out of 5

Directed by: Christopher Barry

‘The Savages’ is an interesting evolvement of the sci-fi concepts in Who, as it shifts the usual bad-robot / find-the-item / get-back-to-the-TARDIS storyline to something a tad more ponderous, while also – though it ends up being a lark – opening up the DW universe a bit more.  While I am in favor of shorter storylines versus over-bloated multi-parters, this is an example where some patience could have brought about a more sensible approach to the conclusion and helped to fill in some unfortunate plot gaps…  BUT the conclusion is pretty strong, and allows Steven to leave with dignity instead of the “welp, I’ve fallen in love with some random local see ya’ later time travel” variations for the previous companions’ departures, and the flip-side of the condensed approach is that it speeds past those gaps well enough.

The crew lands in what we’re first led to believe are caveman times thanks to the serial title and the appearance of a loin-clothed, bearded local.  But the Doctor maintains that this is an advanced era.  And whadya know, he’s right – the troupe is escorted into a walled, utopic city, and told that all is perfect inside due to the inhabitants learning the secrets of mining energies from a prized source.  Outside the city live those unadvanced violent types, The Savages.  The Doctor is told that he’s been expected as a fellow great mind; Hartnell decides to learn more about the city while Steven and Dodo are given the grand tour.  This is where the serial drops some interesting nuggets: while we’ve gotten the gist that there are other time travelers / other-natural beings (the Meddler, the Toymaker) as well as alien races with which the Doctor has had contact at various points, the notion that the inhabitants of this planet were waiting for the Doctor – tracking his appearance via some type of star chart – is a potentially interesting thread to unravel, adding more importance to Doc’s role than just a bumbler.  Meanwhile, ‘Savages’ explores the utopia / dystopia divide with the companions’ explorations, seeing the juxtaposition of all sorts of provided needs with vague social limitations of what people can and should do.  It’s pretty heady stuff for what has otherwise been a set of very insularly logical episodes.

Of course, all is not what it seems.  The discovery of this is where we start jumping right into the fray: the locals turn on the Doctor ASAP; Steve and Dodo take up with The Savages.  And as things go on, it’s pretty clear that we’re not going to find out any more about this “you were expected” concept, and that it was probably just a shorthand method for identifying those in the city as trustworthy and those outside as dangerous.  But the script moves forward at a brisk pace, bringing us to a final confrontation without any further forced machinations, and successfully seeds in the emotional strands that make the conclusion believable.  ‘The Savages’ doesn’t really capitalize on its initial promise, but it’s a successful balance of many of the good aspects of Who while also offering up hints as to how it can expand its scope.