Companion Stats: Dodo Chaplet

Names: Dodo Chaplet

Actress: Jackie Lane

Doctor/s: First

Year/s: 1966

Only properly in 4 serials, (with two the only remaining) Dodo is a highly overlooked companion, but for a good reason. Far too similar to Susan, Dodo didn't really bring anything new to the show (if accents that change half way through an episode don't count). In my opinion Dodo was fun and acted well along side Hartnell, and unfairly suffered the worst exit of any Doctor Who companion: no exit at all!

Episode Ranking

1. The War Machines (9/10)
2. The Gunfighters (7/10)
3. The Ark (6.5/10)

N.A. The Celestial Toymaker

N.A. The Savages

Note: I haven't included The Massacre as she was only in it for the last episode, for a few minutes at the end.

These add up to give Dodo an average episode rating of...                               7.5/10

And a range of...                                                                                                  2.5

This can be broken down into:

1 Amazing Episode (9+/10)

1 Good Episode (7+/10)

1 Okay Episode (6+/10)

In my opinion, of the surviving episodes, Dodo is best in The Gunfighters where she displays both her feisty and also her cute side.

Here is a rather pointless graph showing her run of episodes:

As usual the red line shows the average.

Comparison

We can see Dodo comes in last place in terms of quality of episodes:

1. Vicki Pallister - 8.08/10
2. Steven Taylor - 8/10
3. Susan Foreman - 7.7/10
4. Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright - 7.65/10
5. Dodo Chaplet - 7.5/10

But she has the best consistency of episodes (remember: the lower the range, the better the consistency of quality of episodes):

1. Dodo Chaplet - 2.5
2. Steven Taylor - 3
3. Susan Foreman - 5.5
4. Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright - 8
5. Vicki Pallister - 8

And thus concludes the final companion to leave during the Hartnell era! Join us tomorrow for a breakthrough blog announcement! (Don't get too excited)

The War Machines (TV Story) Review

Title: The War Machines
Writer: Ian Stuart Black (Idea by Kit Pedler)
Original Broadcast Date: 25 June 1966 - 16 July 1966

It might be just me but by the end of Season 3 I felt Doctor Who felt a bit distant. Steven, the companion left in the previous (missing) episode was a (needless to say a great companion but) a space traveler from the future, and Vicki the preceding companion (who was just as great) was a survivor of a spaceship crash, also from the future. Dodo, while from contemporary (or rather 1960s) London, didn't quite have to characteristics to suit the time period and felt a little out of date. Doctor Who felt a little too far from home, and The War Machines does a fantastic job of grounding the show, bringing in ties to contemporary times, something that had been missing for a large portion since Ian and Barbara's departure.

Arriving in the swinging '60s, Dodo and The Doctor go off to investigate a brand new supercomputer with the ability to think for itself. The supercomputer, WOTAN is a nicely-achieved villain, who genuinely feels quite threatening, with his hypnotic powers. The plot involved contemporary (at the time) London being invaded by WOTAN and his War Machines, the very first of Doctor Who's many earth invasion stories. Because of this, this story feels closer to New Who than any other First Doctor story.

Hartnell is great in this one, showing just how clever The Doctor can be (although watch out for him banging his head on a low ceiling in the fourth episode) and Jackie Lane finally feels at home in her role... That is until she has the worst companion departure in Doctor Who history, involving her going off because of a headache in episode two and then not appearing ever again. Instead a message passed on to The Doctor via Polly, one of the two new companions introduced in this story.

While this is a total bummer (and it didn't fit in with her character at all, previously stating she had nothing to go back to in her old life) her replacements, Ben Jackson, a cockney sailor, and Polly Wright, a spunky secretary, are introduced wonderfully and make a good team, working well with Hartnell's cheeky character.

All in all The War Machines is fantastic, but suffers from a poor exit for a hugely underrated and overlooked companion. Despite this, the introduction of Polly and Ben, two fun new companions, do somewhat make up for this massive disservice to not only the character but to Doctor Who as a whole.

9/10

The Gunfighters (TV Story) Review

Title: The Gunfighters
Writer: Donald Cotton
Original Broadcast Date: 30 April 1966 - 21 May 1966

Once again skipping over the missing episodes, we come to The Gunfighters, which to popular belief is the worst episode of Doctor Who ever. To my surprise, I enjoyed it!

Common complaints include the bad american accents, ridiculous plot and the musical aspects, which I completely disagree with... except the bad american accents. (Even I can do a better accent than some of the actors here). The plot's rather enjoyable, ridiculous, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. The musical aspects, with a tune linking and sometimes narrating most scenes is actually one aspect I really loved about it, and the tune is really catchy, so do expect it to be stuck in your head for quite some time.

The first two episodes are the best, with the last two bogged down with slightly complicated relationships between characters and ones introduced out of nowhere. Dodo is delightfully good in this one, making a great team with Steven, although not as good as her predecessor.

Well, is it the worst episode of Doctor Who ever? No. A long way off it infact. I rather enjoyed this adventure into the Wild West for what it was: experimental and unique in which one of the most overlooked companions was given some great moments to shine.

7/10

The Ark (TV Story) Review

Title: The Ark
Writer: Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott
Original Broadcast Date: 5 March 1966 - 26 March 1966

Taking a big jump thanks to the sheer amount of missing Season 3 episodes, The Ark, the first avaliable story after The Time Meddler is an interesting one, with great concepts but poor execution.

The worst part of this story is the Monoids, which honestly looks like a lump of rubber with a mop thrown on top for the hair. They're actually quite scary looking until they start waddling about. The aforementioned ideas are rather intriguing, with a cold almost wiping out future humans due to their lack of resistance against it, but it just seems like a sidetrack for the main story to take place, over 700 years after the disease outbreak, involving the Monoids having taken over human life on the Ark.

There is a lovely idea involving a statue, but the prop just looks rather silly so the effect is ruined. There are also a few fight scenes which, with the Monoid waddling, look even worse. Dodo, in her first full story, is an interesting addition, being relatively similar to Susan and changing her accent half way through the story.

Overall, this story could have been brilliant, but with poor execution on the writing and visual front there isn't a lot to like about The Ark.

6.5/10