{"id":251,"date":"2017-11-16T22:34:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T03:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/?p=251"},"modified":"2023-07-15T22:14:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T02:14:57","slug":"the-gunfighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/first-doctor\/the-gunfighters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gunfighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You know you’re fast becoming a prey to every cliche-ridden convention in the American West!\u201d \u2013 The Doctor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I immediately disliked this one as a child because it seemed silly: the Doctor in the Wild West for a toothache? Companions hootin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019? A running theme song? But later I came to see that looking past those initially off-putting elements, it\u2019s actually a very well-paced, at-times comic and at-times tense story that deserves credit for remarkably good writing and direction. As usual for this historical stories, the TARDIS crew arrive in the midst of a power struggle between other people (in this case a four way feud between the Clantons, Earps, Johnny Ringo, and Doc Holliday) and get swept up in events.<\/p>\n

Like Donald Cotton\u2019s previous script, the initial episodes are full of funny off-the-cuff remarks, humorous reactions, as well as some great physical comic timing like the scene between the Doctor and the Doc Holiday with his gun or Steven\u2019s double-take at Clanton\u2019s revolver. Most of the best lines are simply funny for their irony and deadpan delivery. (Like Kate to Dodo as Holliday leaves her for a nightcap: \u201cAin’t it wonderful honey? What a man’ll do for what he truly<\/em> believes in?\u201d). But while the overall idea of the first half\u2014that the historical Doc Holliday manipulates a misunderstanding about the Doctor\u2019s identity to put the outlaws pursuing him off his trail\u2014is used for laughs, but there is enough of an undercurrent of the reality of old West violence to keep it grounded.<\/p>\n

Things take a much darker turn in the third and fourth episode with the arrival of Johnny Ringo. The killing takes on a harsher, no longer comical edge and sets up the inevitable showdown at the OK Corral. Whereas the role of the Doctor and his companions was larger before, they kind of fade into the background as the story moves along to the historic shootout. Despite some dodgy American accents, the guest cast stand up reasonably well and are given some good lines and personalities, especially the self-assured characters of Doc Holiday and Kate.<\/p>\n

The Doctor\u2019s personality is a bit off-putting at the start of the story as he comes across as a fussbudget and rather obtuse about the reality of events around him. Yet there are some nice moments of the Doctor still being the one in charge like when he astutely realizes his companions are too innocent for the cut-throat wild West and introduces them as a traveling troupe to give a plausible excuse and divert suspicion from their naivete. He also picks up that being absolutely forthright, adamantly stating his intentions without pretense, turns out to be the best tactic for him and his companions to be trusted by each side. Interestingly, it\u2019s only Dodo who plays a pivotal role in the final shootout—one wonders if her influence changed the course of history from what it \u2018would have been\u2019.<\/p>\n

Some hate the constant singing of \u201cThe Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon\u201d at start and end of each act. (Surely Steven\u2019s complaint \u201cI’ve sung this song four times\u2026couldn’t we try a different song?\u201d is an inside joke?). However, the song is actually an interesting device of voice of narration that is both unique and fitting to this episode. (In fact, I\u2019ve read it referred to as a kind of \u2018Greek chorus\u2019, emphasizing events and their implications, and this made me appreciate it even more.) Overall, I\u2019ve come to like this story more and more each time I\u2019ve watched it.<\/p>\n

Best (or worst) unsettling moment:<\/h4>\n

In a story that has so many people shot down left and right, Charlie the barkeep\u2019s death is incredibly disturbing. It\u2019s intentionally so (to emphasize how dangerously callous Johnny Ringo really is) but you still hate seeing it and feel so bad for simple and innocent Charlie who was just trying his best not to offend anyone.<\/p>\n

Firsts:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • \u201cTheme song\u201d for an episode<\/li>\n
  • Companions singing\/playing piano<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Regrets:<\/h4>\n

    I wish they could have worked out a less silly story line than the Doctor having a bad tooth right at the beginning since it starts of the story on a bad foot. It also would have helped if they had toned down Steven and Dodo\u2019s outfits (which are obviously meant to make kids associate them with Roy Rodgers and the like). A different song for Dodo and Steven to sing would have made the \u2018theme song\u2019 a little less obtrusive as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “You know you’re fast becoming a prey to every cliche-ridden convention in the American West!\u201d \u2013 The Doctor I immediately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}