Doctor Who: The Rescue

The Rescue is the third serial of the second season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The serial was first broadcast on BBC1 in two weekly parts on 2 January and 9 January 1965.

The First Doctor (William Hartnell), Ian Chesterton (William Russell), and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) are still missing the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan Foreman when the TARDIS lands on a planet the Doctor eventually recognises as Dido, a world he has visited before.

The trio soon encounter two survivors of a space crash, Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) and Bennett (Ray Barrett), who are awaiting a rescue ship that is due to arrive in three days time. Vicki and Bennett live in fear of Koquillion (Barrett), a bipedal inhabitant of Dido, who is stalking the area.

Koquillion encounters the time travellers and attacks, pushing Barbara over a cliff and temporarily trapping Ian and the Doctor. Vicki finds Barbara injured and rescues her from Koquillion, and they share reminiscences.

Vicki’s father was among those who died when the survivors of the crash, save Bennett and Vicki, were lured to their deaths by the natives of Dido. She is evidently very lonely, having befriended an indigenous Sand Beast (Tom Sheridan) for company. However, when Ian and the Doctor reach the ship, tempers are fraught because Barbara mistook the Sand Beast for a threat and killed it.

The Doctor enters Bennett’s room, and finds things are not as they seem. The supposedly crippled Bennett is missing, and a tape recorder hides his absence. He finds a trap door in the floor of the cabin and follows it to a temple carved from rock where he unmasks Koquillion as Bennett.

Bennett reveals he killed a crewmember on board the ship and was arrested, but the ship crashed before the crime could be radioed to Earth. It was he who killed the crash survivors and the natives of Dido to cover his crime. He has been using the Koquillion alias so that Vicki would back up his story, and had hoped the planet would be destroyed when his version of events was given.

Just as Bennett is about to kill the Doctor, two surviving native Didonians arrive and force Bennett to his death over a ledge. They then stop the signal to prevent the Rescue Ship reaching their planet. With no living family and nothing left for her on Dido, Vicki is welcomed aboard the TARDIS.

• Episode 1: The Powerful Enemy
• Episode 2: Desperate Measures

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

Doctor Who Episode Guides for Sale on Amazon

Step aboard the TARDIS and journey across the universe with every incarnation of The Doctor in this series of unofficial Doctor Who episode companions.

This collection of twelve books explores every televised adventure of the Time Lord’s lives.

Each volume in the series delves into a different Doctor’s era, offering detailed episode guides, behind-the-scenes insights, character profiles, and story synopses.

Once you have clicked the link, choose which book you want, and then whether you want to buy the Kindle (eBook) or Paperback versions.

Previews are available before you buy.

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