| THE GUNFIGHTERS by Donald Cotton |
| Story 25 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in a stable in Tombstone. Steven and Dodo get dressed up for the period, and they find a dentist for the Doctor, and go to book rooms at the Last Chance Saloon. There, the Clanton brothers are plotting revenge on Doc Holliday for killing their brother. They mistake Steven & Dodo for friends of Holliday's, and force them to entertain whilst they wait for his arrival. Holliday is tipped off about them waiting, and he sends the Doctor along with his gun. The Clantons are bamboozled from shooting him, and Sheriff Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson arrive to arrest the Doctor. The Clantons decide to use Steven as a hostage, threatening a lynching. Earp foils them again, but the arrival of gunslinger Johnny Ringo puts an ace in the Clantons' hand. Holliday leaves town with Dodo, but she persuades him to take her back. Earp calls in his brothers, but his little brother Warren is shot by the Clantons, leading him to suggest a final stand-off. Earp, with his brother Virgil, and the returned Holliday, take on the Clantons and Ringo. Holliday shoots Ringo, and the other Clantons all die. The Doctor, Steven and Dodo return to the TARDIS, headed for the future. |
| Review:- This story has long had a very bad reputation. Even back in 1966, the thumbs were pointing down. But time has taken its toll, and nowadays it gets a more even reception. Many complaints are about Doctor Who even trying to present a Western. Many styles were tried before this, but only this really got slated. Somehow even John Wayne himself couldn't have averted the crits. But the story really isn't that bad. As a broad comedy, it works, and it knows to save the serious business for the final gunfight. The Doctor gets plenty to do, and William Hartnell seems to be having an unusually good time. Steven and Dodo have decent subplots, and comic moments. So what could be wrong? Well, there is that song - the Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon, which somehow is old enough for Steven and Kate to sing it, yet modern enough to recount the grim fate of Charlie, not to mention other exploits. Indeed, the song sums up the real bugbear with this story - it tends to get 'ornery', for want of a better word. The cliffhanger from pt 1 has the Doctor walking from Doc Holliday's surgery to the Saloon. At the start of pt 2, Kate has left after him (seemingly), and arrived before him, with no idea how he didn't see her. He could perhaps have popped in somewhere else along the way, which would explain what takes him so long to arrive at the Saloon. But Holliday also arrives upstairs at the Saloon just as swift! It don't make sense... But perhaps this is par for the course. Some of the accents are curious, and some of the acting is curiouser, but really, this isn't the disaster it has been held up to be for so long. I would recommend it to anyone. But perhaps to more older patrons who don't mind guns... |
| Disclaimer: I think I own a copy of the novelisation, and I've seen the video. |