A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 28. The Warriors of Death (The Aztecs, Episode Two)

After ‘The Keys of Marinus,’ with its episodic and sketchy nature, this serial is proving to be a breath of fresh air...even with the regrettable fact that this is a story being told by British people in brown face.

After receiving a bit of a tongue lashing from the Doctor (a tongue lashing he immediately regrets) that reinforces the ‘you can’t change time’ rule, Barbara dodges the suspicions of Tlotoxtl.  And Tlotoxl isn’t letting up; even as he is shut down in his interrogation, he manipulates things so that Ian has to fight Ixta, a fight that he tells Ixta is to the death even though Barbara forbids it.  Since Ixta is the son of the architect who designed the temple where the Tardis is kept, he is able to cut a deal with the Doctor so he can get an unfair edge against Ian.  And when Ixta does try to kill Ian, Tlotoxl doesn’t stop him--and challenges Barbara to save her servant.

The thing that makes this episode work is how so much of it is character motivated.  I am particularly pleased with how Lucarotti has managed to make the softer version of the Doctor work with the more unpredictable, selfish character we met in the first three serials.  While he is motivated to give Ixta the natural poison that will sap Ian’s strength purely for mercenary reasons,  we also see how delighted he is to discover the solution to the problem.  And while he tears into Barbara at the top of the show--and with cause, given that she will reveal information about the Aztec’s future to Autloc to push her own agenda--he immediately shows regret, making it seem that respect he has gained for her is still in place.  Ian uses fighting methods, like a knowledge of pressure points and judo, to fight Ixta.  And Susan, in her one scene, gets to be a willful teenager when confronted with the possibility of arranged marriage instead of crying and wailing.  In truth, the only character who seems to act kinda one dimensional is Tlotoxl; he just comes off as a scheming bad guy with nothing but malice in his heart.

Of course, for me, the highlight in this half hour is the Doctor’s continued flirtation with Cameca.  I know I am very down of the NuWho emphasis on romance, especially during the Russell T. Davies era...but this charms me.  Partially it’s because we don’t know the Doctor is a space alien yet (which opens up an icky can of worms), partially it’s because Cameca is an older woman who seems age appropriate for Hartnell, and partially it’s because the two of them are so great together that I see a new side of this version of the Doctor I never thought I’d see...and that I really, really like.  There’s also the recurring motif of bystanders staring at the two of them, only to be driven away by Hartnell’s withering glare....comedy. Gold.

This is shaping up to be a great serial which does what the show set out to do.  I am enjoying my time with it.