Galaxy 4

"Not all the dominant species in the universe look like humans. Our appearance might shock you as it shocked the Drahvins."

Writer: William Emms
Format: TV
Broadcast: 11th September - 2nd October 1965
Season: 3.01

Featuring: First Doctor, Vicki, Steven

Synopsis

The Doctor, Vicki and Steven arrive on an arid planet where they meet the beautiful Drahvins and the hideous Rills. Each has crash-landed after a confrontation in space. The Rills are friendly, compassionate explorers. The Drahvins are dull-witted, cloned soldiers, terrorised by the intelligent, warlike matriarch Maaga. With the planet just a dawn away from explosion, the race for ship repair is on and the TARDIS crew get caught in the conflict...

Verdict

Galaxy 4 is a fantastic serial and it's a joy to behold that Airlock (episode 3) was recently found allowing my first viewing of this story to be a lot better than it would have been without. I enjoyed the indifference of opinion, and the telling of events, between the Drahvin and the Rills. The Chumblies were a wonderful addition to the serial and provided the Rills with vocal contact and physical mischief. I loved all of their little antics and traits and just thought they were terrific! The sound that accompanied them wherever they were was very good. The plot itself was fantastic with the planet due to explode in two dawns, not long considering night only lasted 4 hours on the planet with three suns. The Doctor's use of the astral map, not seen since The Web Planet was fantastic and provided an excellent episode 1 cliffhanger. I thought Steven was excellent as companion and it seems he has immediately settled in the TARDIS since stowing aboard in The Chase. The clever reference to The Space Museum was superb and I again really liked the relationship between the Doctor and Vicki, that has been a standout since Susan's departure. I thought the Drahvins were extremely intriguing and unique, a cloned soldier army of blonde armed women seemed like it didn't add up - but it did very much so! Their hatred of the Rills, for no apparent reason, was again intriguing. The way the Doctor and Vicki immediately got on with the Rills was fabulous and it was great how the Doctor went to extreme measures and risks to give their ship power from the TARDIS to take off from the doomed planet. The Drahvins, headed by the evil Maaga, had disgusted the Doctor so much with their callousness, lying and discrimination of the Rills, that he left them to die on the planet. He raced to the TARDIS and left the Drahvins and Maaga on the planet with a useless ship. They'd soon be floating amongst the stars. Overall, a fantastic serial and it was wonderful to have a 'new' William Hartnell story, as will be many times this season! Superb!

Rating: 8/10