History Recap / DoctorWhoS2E3TheRescue

Written by David Whitaker. This serial first aired January 2, 1965.

* 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 the Doctor talks to the other survivor of the crash about dealing with Koquillion, after which he points out that they have nothing to gain from doing that, as the rescue ship is already coming. This culminates in Vicki telling them all 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, 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.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Vicki checks the load on her flare pistol, and readies it while pointing it directly at Barbara's face.

* AdoptTheDog: The Doctor was already NeutralNoLonger during "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E7TheSensorites The Sensorites]]", but this episode sees him ''inviting'' someone into his TARDIS.

* RecycledSoundtrack: To save money, the score is reused from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]", which Christopher Barry had partially directed. He selected pieces from episodes one, and four to seven of that serial.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Some of Ian's mocking mispronunciations of "Koquillion" verge on this.

* 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. [[spoiler:Barbara murders the young woman's pet monster, assuming it was trying to eat her, and the Doctor talks to the other survivor of the crash about dealing with Koquillion, after which he points out that they have nothing to gain from doing that, as the rescue ship is already coming]]. This culminates in Vicki telling them all 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, listens to Vicki's point of view while still questioning things she's too entrenched in her own ways to question herself, and [[spoiler:because the natives of the planet eventually take matters into their own hands and deal with Koquillion]]. Furthermore, Koquillion [[spoiler: 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]].

* SpoiledByTheCastList: To avoid tipping off fans to the fact that Bennett and Koquillion were the same person, Koquillion was credited in the first episode end credits and the ''Radio Times'' cast lists as being played by fictitious actor "Sidney Wilson".

* ShoutOut: To avoid revealing that Koquillion was another character in disguise, the first episode credits showed him as being played by "Sydney Wilson". This 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.

* CallBack: The crew discuss their problems with caves ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E4MarcoPolo Marco Polo]]".

The one where the TARDIS Team plays ''Scooby-Doo''.

* AdoptTheDog: The Doctor was already NeutralNoLonger during "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E78TheSensorites The Sensorites]]", but this episode sees him ''inviting'' someone into his TARDIS.

* AdoptTheDog: The Doctor was already NeutralNoLonger during "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E8TheSensorites The Sensorites]]", but this episode sees him ''inviting'' someone into his TARDIS.

* AdoptTheDog: The Doctor was already NeutralNoLonger during "The Sensorites", but this episode sees him ''inviting'' someone into his TARDIS.

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 Koquilion 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.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Some of Ian's mocking mispronunciations of "Koquilion" verge on this.

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

* RecycledSoundtrack: To save money, the score is reused from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]"., which Christopher Barry had partially directed. He selected pieces from episodes one and four through seven of that serial.

* ShoutOut: To avoid revealing that Koquilion was another character in disguise, the first episode credits showed him as being played by "Sydney Wilson". This 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.

[[http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x1k630_matrixarchive_the-rescue Watch it here.]]

* 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 akward few seconds of the Doctor helplessly standing in silence [[TearJerker really sell it]].

* MetaTwist: By this point fans had gotten used to the shows not so realistic costumes for aliens, so the reveal that Koquilion is really just costume and the Didonians actually look like normal humans, is actually a pretty good surprise.

* NeverOneMurder: Benet murdered a single crewman, to cover up his crime he killed the rest of the crew and then committed genocide against the peaceful Didonians's. He likewise tries to kill The Doctor, Ian and Barbara when they arrive.