The second story for
Doctor Who as we all know is The Daleks,
but that wasn’t always the case. In the
early days of production it was always going to start with the first episode of
An Unearthly Child in some form. Up until the production of An Unearthly Child the second story
would have been another script by Anthony Coburn, The Masters of Luxor or “The Robots” which would have dealt with a
deserted planet where there is a pyramid inhabited by the Perfect One. The Perfect One is a robot created from an
idea of the masters of Luxor who wants to be perfect. Its idea of perfection is sucking the life
out of people as a way to become a human being.
The original script was meant to be overtly religious in nature and a
story about the fear of atomic weapons.
Big Finish of course took the edited version of the scripts from the
official script book and had Nigel Robinson edit it further to allow it to work
with series continuity. The Christian
undertones are still there under heavy suppression, but the fear of atomic
weapons and a nuclear fallout stayed through the adaptation. The weird thing is that without that overt
Christian undertones there really isn’t anything in the story that we haven’t
seen before as the atomic fear is just what was done in The Daleks.
That said Coburn’s
writing style for the social commentary has this hypnotic quality for the audio
that evokes the very first episode where we feel something odd is going to
happen. It’s a weird feeling for the
story as it brings back the mystery.
This is seen in the story even if while in the story it is Barbara
bringing the mystery to the story in the early scenes, Carole Ann Ford is
voicing Barbara the obvious difference in the two characters that always seems
to come through in Ford, isn’t a problem.
I put it down to Lisa Bowerman’s excellent direction for the story, but
the way Ford performs in this one just captures the late great Jacqueline Hill
in a way that seems to work. You really
feel that sense of foreboding as the TARDIS is drained of energy and there is
this dead world, but something calling out to the crew to come closer. It really feels like something that could
have been broadcast on Doctor Who in 1963.
That really is something special as it’s a feeling that is difficult to
reproduce as hearing a story in black and white is nearly impossible, but this
one really nails it when it comes to turning off the color of the television
and hearing in monochromatic wonder.
William Russell really
shows his theater chops as he only has to play Ian and the Doctor. His First Doctor is of course impeccable,
especially in this one, giving even Peter Purves a run for his money when it
comes to impersonating William Hartnell.
This is down to the small cast size in this one so Russell has to keep
his Hartnell on point or the listener will notice it and they will come down on
it hard. Russell is a good actor so he
pulls it off wonderfully. He even has to
switch between voices in the same scene as there is a portion of the story
where it’s just Ian and the Doctor while Barbara and Susan are both captured by
the Perfect One. The plotline with the
Doctor and Ian is this piece about them finding Tabor, the man responsible for
creating the Derivitrans and killing the fourteen other masters of Luxor. While the diversion goes on for a bit too
long before bringing the focus back to the idea of the Perfect One, what is
done with it is still very interesting to hear as Tabor is the embodiment of
hubris in creation and science gone too far.
It is something that of course goes back to the Christian undertones and
the problems with taking them out of the story makes it lose this sort of
depth. Joseph Kloska is the one playing
every other character and I hope this guy gets into television or even film as
he plays five separate characters all based on the same person. His performance is very similar to Patrick
Troughton in The Enemy of the World
and is the highlight of the story as the different robots are all variations on
Tabor. His portrayal of the Perfect One
is of course perfect as it is the true mockery of a man.
To summarize, The Masters of Luxor is a true gem of a
Lost Story that comes right out of the 1960s.
Looking at it is interesting as the idea of it replacing the Daleks as
villains wouldn’t have kept the show going, but it should have been made in
place of say The Keys of Marinus as
it really goes for a lot of ideas that aren’t explored. It shares pacing problems and the adaptation
does lose a bit of its luster with the removal of what would be controversial
undertones in the story. 80/100
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