The Smugglers

Story Title: The Smugglers
Series: 4 Story No: 1 Episode Count: 4
Doctor: 1st Companions: Ben & Polly
Date(s) Watched: Wednesday 1st July 2009 (Episode 1) & Thursday 2nd July 2009 (Episodes 2-4)

Season 4 kicks off with a straight forward historical, the penultimate on in the series to be precise. This story is rather pleasant although, for me, wasn’t anything too special. The story is well cast with Hartnell, Wills & Craze all on form as usual with George A. Cooper in particular fine form as the devious & treacherous Cherub, Michael Godfrey as the ruthless Captain Pike & Paul Whitsun-Jones as the corrupt Squire.

Jamaica’s death is somewhat callous & to me seems a bit prejudice, especially when Pike has a go at him for being tricked by The Doctor & Inn Keeper, however I suppose it would have been historically accurate in some respects, although stuck out to me when I watched it back.

The location work is great & it makes a nice change to get a story’s exterior shots being shot somewhere else other than the countryside that surrounds London. The existent clips taken on the 8mm film give a nice touch to the recon and give a feel as to how the story would have looked had it survived. The sets are again on form, especially the Crypt that looked rather realistic.

On disadvantage to this story’s absence in the archives is that the fight scene in episode 4 is missing & although LC did a great job in trying to recreate it, the fight would have been a lot better had it had survived, however you do get a sense that it was probably quite violent when aired.

Other than that though there’s not much else to report on this one, it’s a nice little story although nothing spectacular

Overall Rating: 3.75/5 – A nice little adventure which does feel like a bit of a filler at times, but is pleasant watch & is the final time Hartnell does a complete story.