History Recap / DoctorWhoS2E3TheRescue

* PeopleInRubberSuits: Interestingly enough, this trope to conceal the twist. Fans were used to rubber suit aliens, so it actually came as a surprise that the villain really was a human wearing a costume, not a real alien. And it was more convincing than many of the "real" alien costumes of the era.

* ShoutOut: The "Sidney Wilson" credit was a joint shout out to the two BBC executives responsible for ''Series/DoctorWho'', Donald Wilson, the Head of Series and Serials, and Sydney Newman, the Head of Drama.
* TheSociopath: Bennett is one of the most disturbed examples in the shows whole history, content to commit mass murder to the scale of outright genocide to save himself. What's most scary is just how casual he is about what he's done.

'''Production code:''' L

Written by Creator/DavidWhitaker. This two-episode serial first aired from January 2-9, 1965.

Episodes: "The Powerful Enemy", "Desperate Measures".

!!Tropes

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* RecordedAudioAlibi: Forms part of [[TheSociopath Bennet's]] illusion. Pretending to be unable to walk, he spends most of his time "resting" in his chambers. When he sneaks out to done his [[ScoobyDooHoax Koquillion]] disguise he leaves behind a taped recording of his voice rigged to tell anyone who tries to enter to "go away."

-> ''You're sorry for me aren't you? I'm perfectly all right, you know. I don't care if nobody ever comes. I'm fine. I'm perfectly all right!''

* UnbuiltTrope: The story is a deconstruction of the show's whole modus operandi. The TARDIS team land on a planet where a young woman, Vicki, in a crashed spaceship is waiting to be saved by a rescue vessel, while also being kept prisoner by an alien named Koquillion who has killed the rest of the crew. Barbara murders the young woman's pet monster, assuming it was trying to eat her, and talks to the other survivor of the crash about dealing with Koquillion, only for him to point out that they have nothing to gain from doing that, as the rescue ship is already coming. This culminates in Vicki telling the three travellers that they have no right to go around landing on other people's planets assuming they know exactly what to do when they aren't living there and have no real idea what's going on or if their attempts to fix it are just making everything worse, that she hates them, and that they should all just leave. It is all fixed in the end, but only because the Doctor had already visited the planet previous to the story, and listens to Vicki's point of view while still questioning things she's too entrenched in her own ways to question herself, and because the natives of the planet eventually take matters into their own hands and deal with Koquillion. Furthermore, Koquillion isn't an alien at all; he ''is'' the other survivor who invented a phony alien plot to cover up his murder of the rest of the crew.

* DirtyCoward: Bennett, he's reluctant enough to get into a fight with an old man when he thinks he has the advantage, but when confronted by two young, fit and very very angry Didonian survivors he just backs away in terror.

The Doctor mediates between a very distraught Vicki and his humans, and decides to have a good long talk with Bennett. He finds out that Koquillion is in fact Bennett in disguise (he's not really paralysed, of course), and he has killed the other crew members in order to conceal a murder he committed earlier. He's also been killing the native Didonians, and believes he has in fact wiped them out -- but a confrontation with two Didonians causes him to fall to his death from a high cliff. The Didonians have had enough of outsiders for a very long time, so they make sure the rescue team never arrives. It doesn't need to, since the Doctor misses Susan so much that he agrees on taking Vicki along.

* DeathByIrony: Bennett tries to kill Barbara by pushing her off a high cliff while disguised as a Didonian in a ceremonial garb. When the real Didonians came out to confront Bennett, they indirectly cause him to fall off a high cliff and die.

* MetaTwist: By this point fans had gotten used to the show's not so realistic costumes for aliens, so the reveal that Koquillion is really just a human in a costume and the Didonians actually look like normal humans, is a pretty good surprise. The Koquillion costume is actually a bit better looking than some other alien costumes of the era that are meant to be real monsters, not least Vicki's pet "Sandy".
* NeverOneMurder: Bennett murdered a single crewman, to cover up his crime he killed the rest of the crew and then attempted genocide against the peaceful Didonians. He likewise tries to kill the Doctor, Ian and Barbara when they arrive.

* ScoobyDooHoax: In an instance that predates ''Scooby-Doo'' itself, Koquillion turns out to be Bennett wearing a disguise as part of an attempt to cover up the murder of his crewmates.

The one where the TARDIS Team plays ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo''.

* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: This marks the first story where the Doctor explicitly stays because he recognises that an injustice has been committed and he decides to resolve it because he wants to do so; on prior occasions the travellers were forced to remain because they were separated from each other or the TARDIS was inaccessible for some reason, but there is nothing stopping the Doctor, Ian and Barbara just taking off (on their own or with Vicki) once they learn about Koquillion.

* BottleEpisode: A rare example of a two-episode serial (the only one before now was "The Edge of Destruction", and the format would not be used again until "The Sontaran Experiment" a decade later) with only two credited guest actors. It was written by the departing script editor and all the incidental music was recycled from "The Daleks". This was because the serial's primary focus was as a vehicle to introduce Vicki.

* SpaceClothes

** The AudioPlayBigFinishDoctorWho audio "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS5E4TheCrashOfTheUK201 The Crash of the UK-201]]" justifies this with the reveal that Bennett was an escaped prisoner who hid on the ship as it departed; he had already killed far more than one person before he even got on the ship.

* ParkingProblems: The serial ends with the First Doctor parking the TARDIS on the edge of a cliff. Sure enough, it immediately tips over, kickstarting the plot of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans the next serial]].

* ScoobyDooHoax: The spiky alien look is just ceremonial garb.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Bennett is the true main antagonist of the serial. However he is clearly not any sort of [[TheSociopath standard]]

Written by Creator/DavidWhitaker. This serial first aired January 2-9, 1965.

* HeroicBSOD: At the start of the serial, the Doctor habitually asks Susan to help him with the TARDIS, only then realising that his beloved grand-daughter really has left. The awkward few seconds of the Doctor helplessly standing in silence [[TearJerker really sell it]].

Written by Creator/DavidWhitaker. This serial first aired January 2, 1965.