The Gunfighters

I have no intention of trying anything. Only people keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn’t.

The First Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo arrive in Tombstone in America’s Wild West. Mistaken for the infamous Doc Holliday, the Doctor unwittingly walks into a trap.

Review

If I was more creative, I’d definitely try and write this in the style of The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon, but sadly, that’s not possible. The Gunfighters is a story that has a poor reputation amongst Doctor Who fandom, and I really wish I could stick up for it more. Without further ado, here’s my review.

Let’s hope the piano knows it.

Steven Taylor

What I cannot fault Season 3 is that it is ambitious and genuinely experiments with what kind of stories Doctor Who can get away with telling and ultimately ensure that the show could survive for over 60 years. This is a series where we go from reality bending entities to galaxy-spanning epics. The Gunfighters is ambitious in trying to tell a Western story within the confines of a studio setting, which is probably where a lot of its troubles lie. The Gunfighters cannot help but feel constrained and the setting of Tombstone never really convinces as anything other than a set in Britain. That suspension of disbelief is crucial to allowing your mind to escape, especially in a pure historical, which The Gunfighters undeniably is.

The Gunfighters continues the more humorous bent given to these pure historicals, and I found that this worked in places but not so well in others. Some of this may be down to how comedy ages, and my own personal feelings towards comedies around mistaken identities which really do wear on me for too long. This story is more about the farce than the history, but I personally would have liked to have more emphasis on history. Whilst there’s no problem with Doctor Who being funny, I feel as though there are some severe tonal shifts; this is a story in which Steven neatly gets lynched and several characters are killed in gun fights.

I would be remiss to review this story without mentioning the Ballad, which I found to be really grating following the end of the first part. Whilst exploring how to deliver exposition is admirable, I feel that the song is not a strong enough way of doing so. The lack of any other music makes the Ballad feel very wearing. It is repetitive and ultimately led me to just count how many times it was used in each part.

This is a story where the guest performances vary hugely,  as do the American accents. The best performance is certainly that of Anthony Jacobs as Doc Holliday, who is charismatic and engaging, and his absence is certainly felt   when he is not on screen. On the other hand is David Graham, who is over the top and feels as though he is in a different production to the rest of the cast.

In these latter days of the Hartnell era, it is nice to see him looking like he is enjoying himself. The Western setting was apparently a request of the lead actor and he certainly seems to be having fun. I’m not sure whether his constant mistakes relating to Wyatt Earp’s name were deliberate or infamous ‘Billy fluffs’, but Hartnell is a solid leading man here. The Doctor wants to leave the setting almost as soon as he learns where they are, trying to keep both of his companions safe, but somehow the Doctor never quite gets his way due to the machinations of Doc Holliday. I thought that this was a rather frustrating story for the companions, as they spend a lot of time being captured by the Clantons or Holliday, and not really getting much to do. The most infuriating part of this is the continuing poor characterisation of Dodo, who feels as though she changes as frequently as her accent. Here, she can play the piano and doesn’t blink at threatening Doc Holliday with a gun.

Verdict: I wish I could like The Gunfighters more but it feels tonally all over the place. 5/10

Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Peter Purves (Steven Taylor), Jackie Lane (Dodo Chaplet), William Hurndell (Ike Clanton), Maurice Good (Phineas Clanton), Sheena Marshe (Kate Fisher), Shane Rimmer (Seth Harper), David Graham (Charlie), John Alderson (Wyatt Earp), Anthony Jacobs (Doc Holliday), Richard Beale (Bat Masterson), Reed De Rouen (Pa Clanton), Laurence Payne (Johnny Ringo), Martyn Huntley (Warren Earp), Victor Carin (Virgil Earp) & Lynda Barron (Singer).

Writer: Donald Cotton

Director: Rex Tucker

Producer: Innes Lloyd

Music: Tristram Cary

Parts: 4 (A Holiday for the Doctor, Don’t Shoot the Pianist, Johnny Ringo, The O.K. Corral).

Original UK Broadcast Dates: 30 April – 21 May 1966

Behind the Scenes

• This was the last serialised story to have individual story titles, with the final occurrence being The O.K. Corral.
• The story is the first in the show’s history to be principally set in the United States of America, although the First Doctor had previously visited New York City in The Chase and Hollywood in The Daleks’ Master Plan. It would be the last story set in the USA until The TV Movie.
• Director Rex Tucker was involved in the inception of Doctor Who and was supposed to produce and direct the pilot episode. Both William Hartnell and Peter Purves did not get on with him during production of this story, and Tucker was believed to feel that the programme was beneath him, having become juvenile science fiction.
• This story had the working titles of The Wild West, The Gun-Fighters and The Gunslingers. The individual episodes had the following working titles:
  • Episode 1: Ticket to Tombstone, Holliday for the Doctor;
  • Episode 2: Lynching Parties Catered For;
  • Episode 3: All Roads Lead to Tombstone; and
  • Episode 4: Guns in the Morning.

Cast Notes

• The part of Johnny Ringo was offered to one Mr. Patrick Troughton.
• David Graham was one of the voices of the Daleks in the 1960s.
• Anthony Jacobs was the father of Matthew Jacobs, who would go on to write the TV Movie.
• Richard Beale had previously provided Refusian voices in The Ark, and would go on to provide the Broadcast Voice in The Macra Terror and the Minister of Ecology in The Green Death.
• Laurence Payne would go on to appear in The Leisure Hive and The Two Doctors.
• Martyn Huntley appeared in The Sensorites.
• Lynda Baron would go on to play Captain Wrack in Enlightenment and Val in Closing Time.

Best Moment

I really liked the ending of the first cliffhanger, as the Doctor seemingly walks towards his doom, as his companions are forced to sing the Ballad.

Best Quote

Previous First Doctor review: The Celestial Toymaker

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