Ten Statements About.... THE DEVIL INSIDE (2012)

Ladies and Gentlemen--the most persuasive argument for
buying a Posturpedic bed....

"Do you know how to connect the cuts?"

1) Ahhhh, found footage, we meet again....and once more I find you wanting as an effective way to tell a story. The artifice of the found footage conceit keeps getting in the way of any sort of narrative flow this story has.

2) But here is something very positive about this film--it takes pains to set up its world, present its rules and, most importantly, sticks to them. The only moment where the continuity of this story doesn't quite make sense is with a factor that occurs before the story itself takes place, so the film's logic is not disrupted much. And to be fair, I may be the only person who caught this contradiction.

3) ...but then, I'm the only person in this very empty theater who I suspect was listening closely enough to figure out what was happening; the dopey young man who started shouting at the screen 'This is whack' when the film was over didn't. The script by director William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterson has a very clear idea of where they're going and takes the time to lay the groundworks for the trip they want to take us on meticulously. However, these pieces of information that leads us through the narrative are frequently badly submerged by the soundmix, vital clues said in such a whisper as to be unintelligible.

4) And I have great respect for the fact that even though the film wants to be subtle, it doesn't shirk on Showing Us The Monkey. There are three key scenes that are pure special effects laden monster-show-ness, and there are some beats in those scenes which manages to wonderfully blend subtle with brash at the same time. However....

Sometimes, you have bad hair days, but...YE GODS!

5) ...that damn CGI fly. In the middle of what is arguably the film's highpoint, we get a fake green fly escaping from Suzan Crowley's Maria's mouth and making a b-line for Evan Helmuth's David. What's insane is that the script makes the big turning point in the film clear through dialogue and narrative cues both before and after that scene, making the freaking fly pointless.

6) Wow, Mr. Bell....there's that key scene where you make it clear that David is going to drown that baby during a baptism, and you work it out so that you're going 'no, you won't....no, you won't...no you--MY GOD YOU DID'....except you wimp out and give us that dialogue that tells us the baby's okay. It cheats the audience, makes them feel stupid for thinking you were actually going to do, and ultimately makes them uninterested in investing in all the scares that follows thereafter.

7) Here's another fundamental problem with the film--of the four main characters, one (Fernanda Andrade's Isabella) is played by a woman who has appeared on a number of high profile TV shows, one in a recurring role. Another (Simon Quarterman's Ben) has an equally large career, albeit more in the indie film realm. Throughout the film, I had a nagging feeling I had seen Isabella before, and that continued to put me at arm's length. One of the basic rules of found footage is that you need actors we don't recognize, and having one of the central actors being so easily recognizable defeats the purpose of making it a found footage film in the first place.

"What do I wanna do?  I don't know...bum around, drown an
infant, become possessed by an honking big demon and then
committing suicide...how about you?"

8) Another thing about this film--everyone has a certain Caucasian Wankery Network feel to them, especially Ben and Isabella. Of all the found footage films I have watched, the characters within them that feel the most real to me--Lizzy Kaplan's Marlene in Cloverfield, Katy Featherstone's Katy in Paranormal Activity, even Heather O'Donoghue's Heather in The Blair Witch Project--worked because they didn't look like actors, but like real, recognizable people. I'm not saying these men and women are too pretty--both Kaplan and Featherstone were very attractive and sexy in their way--but they don't have the feeling of being the kind of people you could see on the street. It's another small strike against the film that makes it fall short of success.

9) Not surprisingly, the most effective person at selling the film's found footage pedigree is Suzan Crowley, who plays Isabella's mother and the source of two of the three big shock scenes. It's not for nothing that her face is the central image of the film's poster. She is very effective in playing a woman who could be insane, could be possessed, and more importantly, she not only looks like she could have given birth to Isabella, she looks like a normal human being.

10) You know....I really have to wonder if the film's biggest sin is its stubborn insistence in sticking to the found footage meme. So many of the film's flaws that I cite above could easily have been solved by abandoning that already dubious genre and embracing the script's obvious desire to be a full on, conventional narrative horror film.

Overall...not the worst found footage film I've seen, and not a good film overall, but one I can at least put in the 'Ambitious Failure' bin. The simple fact is its pedigree drags it down, and I almost wish it could have been done as a full on narrative film.

I saw this at the AMC Village Seven with three other people, one of which laughed at strange times, and the other two chose to carry on a running conversation--one of which was the abovemention man who went off on a rant about how awful he felt the film was. Most of the trailers were ones I already saw before, save for G.I. Joes: Retribution (which, as much as I liked the dumb fun of the first film, may actually surpass it--even if just because we see The Rock firing a big gun and Bruce Willis mowing down people from a pick-up truck) and Gone (which I may end up seeing, because the idea of Amanda Seyfried running around Seattle in pursuit of her sister's kidnapper, yelling and shooting all the way, appeals to me).

Ten Statements About....THE FUGITIVE (1993)

"For the last time, I am NOT The Unabomber!"

"Listen up, ladies and gentlemen. Our fugitive has been on the run for 90 minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground barring injuries is four miles an hour. That gives up a radius of six miles. What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, townhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up to 15 miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble. Go get him."

1) You want to know how to write an effective suspense thriller? You set up a smart, resourceful character. You put him in an untenable situation. You sic an equally smart resourceful character on his tail....and you don't let up.

2) The reason why Harrison Ford worked so well as an actor at this period is the tension between his worn, sad face and his physicality. And I'm not talking about big fighty-fighty stuff; I'm talking about simple things like the way he runs, or the way he knocks someone's arm off his shoulder with such conviction. The combination of these two qualities give him an everyman vibe that allows so many people to identify with him.

On his off days, Tommy Lee Jones liked to dress up as a
homeless man and harass redheads for being the spawn
of the devil....

3) But don't get me wrong--this film is owned by Tommy Lee Jones. From the moment he steps into the frame, he makes us watch him no matter where we go. And most importantly...

4) The script by Jeb Stuart and David Twohy (soon to carve out a filmmaking career of his own after this) is hyper-efficient in defining his characters. Sure, we know very little about Ford's Kimble, and even less about Jones' Gerard, but we know what these characters are about, what their motivations are, and what their desires are. We find these character relatable without forcing far too much backstory on their, well, back.

5) Ahhhh, Jeron Krabbe...how I wish you had more of an American career like your friend Rutger Hauer. Sure, your role is relatively small in this film, but you are the best when it comes to being oily and smug...and when Ford beats you up, it's just sooooo satisfying....

6) On a related note....wow, it's so weird seeing Jane Lynch playing someone who's not evil and wants to make teens unhappy.

If you don't acknowledge his smugness, Jeron Crabbe
will hit you with his girder...

7) You know, at first I was wondering why Sela Ward was so prominent in the cast list, as she spends literally the entire film as a corpse, whereas Julianne Moore's name is way down...but in retrospect, the script gives Ward an integral position as a sort of ghost that drives Dr. Kimble forward on his quest, and Moore's role is just to scowl, yell at Ford and snap at Jones. So, you know, their position is valid after all.

8) The script is so good that even Gerard's support staff--and there are a lot of staff he has in support--has little grace notes that give us very clear idea of where they're coming from.

9) However...if there's one weakness, it's in the portrayal of the Chicago cops. I understand that this is for expediency's sake--after all, the script gets the story into high gear very, very quickly--but the sharpness of the other characterization makes the one-sidedness of the cops seem like plastic caricatures.

10) Yes, the solution starts coming out of left field--an argument can be made that on some level this has the whiff of 'Just Go With It'....but the pacing is such I have to wonder if this was brought up to create a MacGuffin-esque Hitchcock angle to the film.

Overall...an excellent suspenser that works due to a great script, some exceptional casting, and even more exceptional characterization.

Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO STORY THREE: THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION (1963)

Susan was unsucessful in teaching her companions
the new dance craze called 'The Norman Bates'....

"You have no means of telling what's out there! There may be no air, it may be freezing, it may be too hot to exist!"

"Yes, or it might be Earth in the 20th Century. Hasn't it occurred to you? My ship is very valuable, remember."

1) This is the kind of episode that could never have been done with many of the Doctor/companion combos that follow--it certainly couldn't have been done with the revived show. The plot relies totally on the tension that has developed between this iteration of the crew, and capitalizes on it in an incredibly effective way.

2) You know what's creepier than Susan? Susan in a snuggie stalking around with a pair of scissors.

(Although to be fair, not even that is as creepy as modern-day Carole Anne Ford, who looks like a demon trying to pretend to be human).

3) This is the first time where we see overt evidence of Hartnell's increasingly faulty memory, as he stumbles over a number of lines, but it works to shore up the strange behavior of the TARDIS crew.

Wow...William Hartnell lying on the ground...he's going
to be doing that a lot....

4) But even with Hartnell stumbling over those lines...that monologue. Good Lord, is that a great performance. Hartnell just plays out the story of what happened magnificently, and we are totally carried away with the increasing excitement and enjoyment of his voice. It's the highlight of this episode and sort of helps give us new insight into the Doctor while giving us a transition into the softer, more genteel Doctor of later stories.

5) Am I the only one who was amused by the fact that William Russell spends the bulk of the show lying on the ground, only pulling himself into a sitting position to utter a half-assed 'No, Doctor, don't' and the like such?

6) I really enjoy how we're still at a point where the production crew is feeling around trying to define the show. On one hand, that creates the moment where Susan alludes to a previous adventure on an alien planet; on the other, we have all this trouble caused by...a faulty spring?

7) And as long as I kept in mind that this two-parter was done on literally no budget, I have no problem with the goofy clock, which I assume had been corroded and not melted.

"I have this persistant urge to sing 'Yankee Doodle
Dandy'..."

8) I'm not as accepting of the 'costumes' for this episode--those weird snuggies that seem to be made of foam plastic for Barbara and Susan and that goofy bandage for The Doctor that makes him look like he stepped off that painting of the pipers and drummers leading the troops during the American Revolution.

9) I think that the 'well, now we're all cool with each other' coda that eases us into the next story would not have worked if it wasn't for the way the Doctor and Barbara had seemed to gain respect for each other in the previous two stories. It makes what should be a dubious about face on the Doctor's part plausible--and it helps that Jacqueline Wright is able to signify her emotional sea changes subtlety but effectively.

10) Good Lord, that cloak is ginormous on Ian in that last scene. I understand that they were probably cobbling stuff together from pieces still lying around in BBC's Wardrobe Department, but he could hide a couple of midgets inside it and not break the lines.

Overall...all told, a pretty remarkable piece of work given the lack of budget and the last minute nature of David Whitiker's script--a place setter of a story that manages to advance the character arcs and gives Hartnell one truly amazing moment in that monologue.

Ten Statements About....ASYLUM (1972)

"I want you to make the grandest dress for the ball
ever--I will be a pretty lady, I will!"

"Now I'm not so sure these poor devils up there can't be cured. They can only be confined and kept from being dangerous."

"Is that Dr. Starr's outlook, too?"

"Dr. Starr is upstairs now."

"What, with a patient?"

"Dr. Starr is a patient."

1) This, the final of the three Robert Bloch-penned Amicus anthologies, features what is hands down the best of the company's framing sequences--probably because it's not 'a mysterious tarot card reader/carnival worker/real estate agent tells various souls their doomed future,' and because it seamlessly folds into the final story. This is prime anthology film storytelling.

And if you don't believe me, keep in mind this framing sequence was ripped off whole--with less budget and cinematic style--in World Film Services' lackluster Tales That Witness Madness the following year.

2) I am positive that Amicus always worked on a low budget (and the bulk of said budget was always thrown at the bigger-than-you'd-expect name cast), but it's to the company's credit how they made their lack of budget work for them. Just look at their solution to 'Frozen Terror's' ultimate monstrosity. By wrapping the body parts in butcher paper, the film effectively conceals that these are mainly artificial limbs and manniquin parts...but also drives home how premeditated Richard Todd's Walter's act was, which makes that portion of the story extra creepy.

3) Supposedly, Todd regretted doing this picture, which is a pity, as his understated performance gives the film one of its best shock cuts.

4) Even though it's not so much a story as a kind of loosely connected notions forced into story-like form, I found 'The Weird Tailor' somewhat compelling thanks to the performances of Barry Morse and Peter Cushing. The two of them create a sort of forlorn chemistry, and I almost wish I could watch more of these desperate characters interacting with each other. I think it also helps that the theme of the story has a strange sort of resonance with what was going on in Cushing's life at the time.

5) That being said...nothing says 'Are You Kidding Me?' quite like two elderly men rolling around in a dark, empty room in what I think is supposed to be interpreted as 'fighting.'

Sadly, this does not lead into some 70's actress girl-on-girl
action...

6) Of course, every one of these portmanteau films has to have a turkey--and boy, is 'Lucy Comes To Stay' gobbling away in this film's center. You would think twenty minutes or so of Britt Eklund trying to tempt Charlotte Rampling into badness--both in the prime of their hotness--fun, but the pacing is way off, there are long stretches of talking heads, and the ending is pretty obvious from the moment Eklund's Lucy first appears. It could easily have been cut, or pared down to a more manageable, shorter length.

7) I don't care what you say, there is something so freaky creepy about the little Herbert Lom-headed doll doing the toy-robot shuffle and stabbing Patrick MacGee in the back of the neck with a scalpel...and if that doesn't freak you out, seeing what Lom's Dr. Byron told you was inside that doll spilling out of it will....

8) And you know...give Bloch credit for leading us to assume one conclusion to this framing sequence, only to switch us to another. Granted, it really helps that Geoffrey Blaydon not only is able to keep in character until the big twist is sprung, but also has the single craziest laugh I've ever heard.

"From the toy shop's heart, I stab at thee!"

9) Seeing how clever this production is in utilizing its low-budget special effects (there's really only one absolutely terrible effect, in 'The Weird Tailor') makes me sad that we won't see their likes again. It takes real creativity to utilize colored gels to make a roll of fabric seem strangely alive, or give us these strange ass robots, and their creakiness gives them a solidity and charm an overpolished CGI monster will never have.

10) And perhaps the most puzzling aspect of this film is how Bloch consciously leaves many things unexplained clearly. Why does Dr. Byron have a whole cabinet full of his creepy robots with the heads of his colleagues? Provided the suit Bruno the Tailor made for Mr. Smith worked, how did Mr. Smith intend to make the money he was promising was forthcoming? It's as if Bloch understood that there are some things the audience likes to make up their own mind about--things that they could come up with scarier solutions for--and you know a modern remake would never allow these areas of mystery to be unexplained.

Overall...it's a real toss-up between this and The House That Dripped Blood as to which one is my all-time favorite of the Amicus portmanteaus. This one may actually have a higher percentage of quality stories (although House doesn't have a story anywhere near as stinky as 'Luck Comes To Stay') and definitely has the best framing sequence. Highly recommended.

And incidentally, if you watch this on the Blue Underground DVD, check out the weird twenty-minutes featurette on the history of Amicus. Max Rosenberg's account of the company's history seems violently opposed to the account presented by Freddie Francis and Roy Ward Baker, and you have to wonder what really happened.

Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO STORY TWO: THE DALEKS (1963)

Barbara is a little upset at the prospect of her pipes
being plunged....

"He appealed very sensibly to them. Any responsible human beings would have responded. The Daleks didn't. They obviously think and act and feel in an entirely different way. They just aren't human."

1) It's nice to see that this second story carries forward the tension between Ian and The Doctor, as William Russell and William Hartnell effectively play a game of one-upsmanship with each other that actually interferes with their stated intention of leaving Skaro.

2) And it's also nice to see that Verity Lambert and story writer Terry Nation seem to be gleefully not backing away from the idea that The Doctor is Something Of A Sinister Sort. The fact that he consciously lies about the Tardis being broken just so he could get the opportunity to explore the city is kinda creepy. And he doesn't stop trying to manipulate everyone, even down to the last scene! That kind of uneasy feeling he's always playing his own game gives Hartnell at this point a refreshing edginess we won't see again until McCoy's later stories.

3) Especially given that each episode of the series was budgeted at an ungodly low amount of money, you have to give them a hand at how thoughtfully the sets are designed. Little things like the lower ceilings in the Dalek chambers and the strange ovoid shape to the doors gives the setting an alien air to it.

4) Boy--watching this now (I don't think I've seen this story since it ran once on WLIW in the early 90's), with my knowledge of what the Daleks become in the era of Pertwee and beyond, I'm somewhat taken aback by how....laid back these Daleks are. They only utter their signature phrase once, shoot Ian only to paralyze his legs, and discuss their plans like borough representatives. The moments where they're the paranoid, single-minded Space Nazis are still there, but much a little on the few and far between side. It's not until we see them again (which we will on DYE! DYE! in a short while) in 'The Dalek Invasion Of Earth' that the psychotic Dalek mentality surfaces.

"All due respects, young lady...I live on a planet
with the Daleks, and you creep me out more..."

5) And similarly....it's rather a shock to see this first portrayal of the Thals as these white-haired hippie types in soundproof quilting vests. It takes a long time to get used to them talking about growing food and the like when you want to see them be ass-kickers. Of course, it doesn't help that the outfits of the female Thals are, ummmmm, silly as all hell....

6) It's obvious to me that the production team is feeling around in the dark at this point trying to find their ideal groove, because this story might be a touch long at seven episodes. To be fair, it keeps it pace pretty well for the first four episodes...and then everyone plans an assault on the Daleks that involves an episode and a half tromp through a swamp with a killer whirlpool and a whole lot of nuttin' that slows the story to a crawl. When it's time for the climax, everything shoots back in double time in an effort to wrap everything up.

7) There's something really weird about Philip Bond's Ganatus pursuing Barbara. I know it's not the first time a character wants Barbara to be his wubbie (I'm looking at you, 'The Romans'), but given the continuing evidence that Ian and Barbara are involved (when she pulls him up from the elevator, she embraces him; they're seen sleeping next to each other when they rest in The Mutant Swamp) it makes her prissy self come off a bit like a player.

Yeah, the Daleks are forcing our heroes to have tea against
their wills...but it's really bad tea...

8) You gotta give directors Richard Martin and Christopher Barry for trying some unique and unusual shots, particularly those that are from the Daleks' point of view. They're obviously done with filters and cut-outs, but given the rather staid three-camera set up it's refreshing to see them trying new solutions for the problems of their budgets.

9) I am becoming more and more creeped out by Susan. Not only is she still disquietingly odd looking, she now chooses to break out this strange, braying laugh at the most inopportune times. There's one moment when the others stare at her after she does this donkey-like whinny, and you get the impression they're just as shocked as we are.

10) I'm also still not used to the way each episode only shows the last few minutes of the episode previous, then there's a fade out, and then the story starts. It's a slight disruption in the show's flow that distracted me every time.

Overall...as interesting as this episode is, it's still something of a shock to see a different interpretation of the Doctor's greatest foe. Still, another essential episode for aspiring Whovians.

Ten Statements About.... TORTURE GARDEN (1967)

"I's DA DEBBIL--SQWAK!!!!"

"What you have seen are imaginary horrors. But now I can let you experience real ones. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I do have a private exhibit."

1) The thing that's distinctive about this film is it's arguably the most American of the Amicus Anthologies. It's got several American actors in it, it's the first of three anthology films written by grandmaster Robert Bloch, and the framing sequence is based wholely on a classic American carney trick....and yet it still is very, very English...

2) And the lion's share of why the portions of the film that works works is due to Bloch's script. I was particularly struck by how he took his story 'Enoch,' a Southern Gothic psychological horror story about a man who is convinced a demon lives inside his head that compels him to kill, and seamlessly reset it in a typical English setting....

3) ...which would have worked even more if it wasn't for the fact that Michael Bryant's Colin, who is obviously written as a young man who's been drifting around after leaving University, is middle aged and, ummmm, noticeably balding. Bryant does play the character very effectively, but it's hard to get away from how out of place he seems in the scenario as presented.

4) Perhaps the biggest flaw in the film is in its placing the two weakest stories, 'Terror Over Hollywood' and 'Mr. Steinway' back to back right in the middle. Since the former is kinda out of place in a horror film and the later is just too. damn. ludicrous. to be scary (we'll get to that later), it throws off the film's pacing to the point where the viewer can become distracted...or worse, thoroughly disengaged from the film proper.

"So everytime Samuel L. Jackson curses, we take a shot,
agreed?"

5) Thankfully, Burgess Meredith and the framing sequence's bizarre device for introducing the stories (there's this statue of Atropos, one of Fates, and Meredith hypnotizes each victim into hallucinating their futures) manages to snatch us out of the bad stories. Meredith seems to be having a lot of fun teasing and jeering at his guests while ruminating on what they're actually seeing in the reflection of the shears. Sure, the ultimate payoff of who Dr. Diablo is is botched, but the journey getting there is wicked cool.

6) Not surprisingly, Beverly Adams--the risible 'Lovey Kravitz' of the even more risible Dean Martin Matt Helm movies--is incapable of carrying off the rather tired premise of 'Terror Over Hollywood.' She's a pretty enough girl but very wooden (which is ironic, considering her fate in the story)....

7) ...but then, at least she's not Barbara Ewing, who may be not a very good actress, but at least has her lack of talent obscured by being tormented and murdered by a piano in 'Mr. Steinway.' This story is easily the stupidest of all the Amicus anthology stories--and may even be in the running for worst horror anthology segment ever.

"I's da demon cat--not Get Me My Tenda Vittles!"

8) If you've ever wondered why Jack Palance always got cast as the heavy, wonder no more. The co-star of the last segment, 'The Man Who Collected Poe,' Palance tries to pass himself off as English and fails miserably. Hell, I didn't realize his fey, affected voice was supposed to be a British accent until Peter Cushing's Lacelot Canning points it out in the dialogue. It's one of those moments of miscasting that's almost divine in its wrong-headedness. A pity, as the story is one of the most unique of all the Amicus features.

9) As successful as Bloch is at adapting 'Enoch,' he fails with 'Terror Over Hollywood.' As it is, it's not one of his better horror stories about the entertainment industry....and the story isn't even altered enough to make it plausible in the English setting. It doesn't even scan with Adams' backstory as presented in the framing sequence itself....

10) and the rather sad make-up effects in both 'Terror Over Hollywood' and the framing sequence doesn't work to sell us on the horror of the film. The robotic effects in 'Terror' are particularly clumsy, and--given how 'Enoch' was effective solely through the acting of Bryant--I wonder if they really needed the 'I's da Debbil' make-up on Meredith for the film's last shot.

Overall...this might be the weakest of the six (seven if you count producer Milton Subotsky's anthology film he made after Amicus went under, The Monster Club) Amicus anthologies. The good-to-bad ratio is higher, with one of the stories being the absolute worst the studio ever produced. One for the completists.

Which, sadly, I am.

Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO STORY ONE: AN UNEARTHLY CHILD (1963)

"You say you can't fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms. But you've discovered television, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn't you?"

1) You know what really impressed me about this viewing? How truly scary and vicious the Doctor comes off as in the first half. I could easily see, with some tweaking, director Waris Hussien approaching the first episode of this story as a horror film. William Hartnell clicks on all cylinders in this portion, being absolutely dismissive of Barbara and Ian and being borderline gleeful when telling Susan he can't let them leave.

2) I know Barbara and Ian are just supposed to be friends, but the combination of the script and the chemistry between William Russell and Jacqueline Wright makes it seem like they're at the very least dating.

3) I know Verity Lambert has said she would never have commissioned this story, but I think the general simplistic storyline of the cave people portion of the serial works. Its simple narrative allows Anthony Cobrurn's script to better establish the dynamic between the four leads. The tension between Ian and the Doctor, in particular, comes off excellently...which furthermore makes the moment where The Doctor cedes control to Ian briefly all the more impactful.

"We can use this flaming skull to scare the cavemen....or my
disquieting face!"

4) Of course, you can tell how the producers don't quite know what to do with the female half of the team. You've got Barbara being the social skills with Ian being the science skills, and there are moments where she does convey this (like when she negotiates with Hurr to let Ian tend to Za)...but she also starts fretting and panicking like the Girl School Screamer so many of the New Who fans mock. And Susan is just...there until she comes up with a way for the group to escape.

5) Up to a point, I rather like the fact that there are no villains in the cave tribe storyline. We never get the sense that there is malice in either Za or Kal, the conflict between them being more a case of 'two men, one woman...trouble'). Hell, even the Old Mother's solution to these strangers she fears is in aiding them to escape. When Kal suddenly becomes a murdering schemer in Episode Three, the story loses a little something.

6) And speaking of the murder of Old Mother...that whole subplot is sort of confusingly handled. I didn't even realize that Kal stabbed her until the Doctor brings it up in Episode Three. Up until this point, it looks as if she accidentally falls and dies during her struggle with Za.

7) It makes me smile to realize that Za's decision to not let the group go can be interpreted as altruistic as well as selfish, that he may think he's protecting these newcomers from the terrible dangers outside by insisting they join his tribe.

"I'm better than you because I have a hat.  Hats are cool."

8) Given that the original remit of the show was to be education, I found it somewhat amusing that this story taught those young British children that cavemen had apparently perfected fabric making, judging by the rather obvious underpants Za and Kal wear when they're fighting each other to the death.

9) It needs to be said--Carol Anne Ford certainly does look like a space alien. It's her strange, not quite right features that sells the idea that she and The Doctor are Not From Around Here.

10) I like the fact that, at least at this point, the series is serialized across the season--we literally see the next story set up right after this story wraps up.

Overall...an intriguing beginning that holds up for most of the story's four chapters. And needless to say that it's essential viewing for any Whovian.