The Gunfighters

The Doctor has a toothache and, when the TARDIS lands, he sets off to find a dentist. Unfortunately, they have landed in Tombstone, and the Clantons and the Earps are moving in for their final confrontation at the OK Corral.

Donald Cotton’s first script for the programme was the comedic The Myth Makers which was practically a pastiche of the legend of Troy. The Gunfighters dials back the tomfoolery a notch, with no sitcom characters or excruciating puns, but, strangely enough, manages to be even funnier than Cotton’s last effort. The regulars relish the chance to play with the archetypes of the Western, and special mention must be made of Purves. With his double-taking, inability to swivel a gun and his swaggering along, he is utterly hilarious. Hartnell, of course, is no stranger to comedy and the Doctor’s sheer bewilderment at being handed guns left, right and centre is great. I particularly enjoyed the scene when Steven gives the Doctor a gun when he is incarcerated. Now that her accent has settled to one south of Watford, Jackie Lane is endearing, especially in the scene where she has to hold up Doc Holliday.

The music consists of a song called "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" sung by Lynda Baron, which is both appropriate to the setting and very funny in places- when Charlie the barman is killed, Baron starts singing ‘So it’s curtains for Charlie…’

This story was considered a disaster when broadcast and tends to be hated by fans of a certain age, and objectively, it’s hard to see why. It’s well acted, with John Alderson making a fine Wyatt Earp and Anthony Jacobs zestfully bringing Doc Holliday to life. Laurence Payne makes Johnny Ringo genuinely seem like the baddie in a Western and the introduction of the character in the episode named after him makes the shift in tone in the final episode seem natural. Whereas the Clantons seem brutish and callous, the first death in the story is Ringo shooting a man in the back. The sets by Barry Newbery are excellent as usual and there is some very effective direction from Rex Tucker- the climactic gunfight is shot and cut like one from an actual Western, with some quickfire editing and nice tracking shots. True, some of the American accents are a bit dodgy, but I, for one, can easily forgive this. There are a few production goofs, but no more than in any other historical- no-one mentions that some of the backdrops in The Aztecs look fake. The skill of everyone behind the scenes is evident in every department, even the caption writers- the cliffhanger for "A Holiday for the Doctor" has the very funny scene where Steven has to sing, with Dodo accompanying him. The caption appears: ‘NEXT EPISODE: DON’T SHOOT THE PIANIST!’

This story accomplishes everything it sets out to do and is thoroughly entertaining throughout.

Next: The Savages