Doctor Who: The Savages

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The Savages is the ninth serial of Season 3. It was originally broadcast in four weekly parts from 28 May to 18 June 1966. It was written by Ian Stuart Black and directed by Christopher Barry. It stars William Hartnell as the Doctor, Peter Purves as Steven Taylor, and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet.

On an unnamed world, the travellers meet a polished, scientific society of Elders who claim to be civilised and humane, yet secretly drain life-energy from the so-called “savages” to power their city; when the Doctor is captured and his vitality is siphoned into the city’s leader, Jano, the theft backfires, awakening Jano’s conscience and exposing the cruelty beneath the utopia.

All episodes are currently missing from the BBC archives, but the audio survives and reconstructions and animations have made the story accessible.

Episode 1

The TARDIS lands on a rocky plain. The Doctor is excited; his instruments show a very advanced civilisation nearby. He, Steven, and Dodo walk toward a shining city. On the way, rough people with clubs appear from the rocks and circle them. Before a fight starts, uniformed guards arrive and drive the attackers back with silent light guns.

In the city the travellers meet courteous Elders. Their leader, Jano, welcomes the Doctor as an honoured guest and says they have followed his journeys. They show a gallery of trophies and speak of a perfect society without disease or want. The Doctor smiles but grows wary. He notices laboratories, quiet corridors, and doors guarded by men with the light guns.

Outside the walls, a patrol captures a young “savage” girl and takes her to an outpost. A scientist speaks of “preparation” and “extraction.” The girl is frightened but too weak to resist.

Steven and Dodo are given a pleasant tour and friendly tests of sight and reflexes. The Doctor slips away to explore. He hears a cry behind a sealed door and sees a chamber filled with strange tubes and lights. Technicians bring in the captive girl and begin their work. The Doctor understands: the city’s comfort is fed by others’ life energy. Guards spot him at the window, and a light gun swings toward him.

Episode 2

Guards seize the Doctor after he discovers the secret chamber. Captain Edal marches him to the laboratory, where the scientist Senta and the Elder Jano wait. They speak calmly about “extraction” and “distillation.” The Doctor warns them it is wicked. They strap him to the frame and begin the process. Light flares. When it ends, the Doctor is pale, weak, and barely able to stand.

Steven and Dodo grow suspicious when the tour suddenly ends. They slip away, follow service passages, and find Nanina staggering from a side room, drained and frightened. Dodo comforts her and learns the city takes life energy from the people outside. Footsteps approach. Edal’s patrol grabs Steven; Dodo hides with Nanina and escapes through a waste door to the rocks.

Outside, Dodo meets Chal and hot-headed Tor. She tells them the Doctor is a prisoner. Chal counsels care; Tor wants to strike now. They agree to try a rescue through old tunnels.

In the city, Jano studies the vial taken from the Doctor and orders a full transfer made from this powerful source. He hints he will take it himself. Steven fights free for a moment, then is overpowered and dragged into “preparation.” Sirens wail. Senta raises the controls. The frame closes on the Doctor again. Power builds, and the machine begins to glow.

Episode 3

Jano orders the new transfer to begin, using the Doctor’s life energy. Light floods the chamber. When it ends, Jano staggers, then straightens with new mannerisms and a strange kindness. He speaks like the Doctor, then quickly hides it, dismissing guards before they notice. The real Doctor lies drained on a couch, barely conscious.

Outside, Dodo guides Chal and Tor through service tunnels. They slip into the outpost, stun a guard with a club, and carry the Doctor to the caves.

He wakes in brief flashes and urges them to stop the extraction machines before more people are harmed. Steven is prepared for treatment in the city. Captain Edal starts the sequence, but an alarm sounds: rebels are inside. Steven wrenches free, knocks down a technician, and escapes into a corridor.

Jano’s new conscience grows. He meets Dodo in secret, gives her a pass key, and cuts power to part of the lab. Senta notices odd orders and calls Edal. Patrols sweep the passages. Steven joins Dodo and the savages; together they smash control panels and release captives.

Edal corners them at a junction. Jano steps forward and orders him to stop, declaring the practice must end. Edal raises his weapon. In the caves, the Doctor opens his eyes at last: just as alarms and smoke rise from the city.

Episode 4

Alarms ring through the city. Captain Edal marches guards to crush the revolt. Steven, Dodo, Chal, and Tor guide freed captives through service tunnels and smash control panels. Power dips. In a council room, Jano, changed by the Doctor’s life energy, faces the Elders. He speaks with new compassion and declares the extractions must end. Some Elders waver; Edal storms in and orders Jano arrested.

Fighting breaks out in corridors and labs. Steven blocks a doorway; Dodo pulls cables; Chal leads people to safety. Jano shuts down the main chamber from a wall console. Edal fires and shouts for full power. A struggle follows among sparking machines. The frame overloads; lights blow. Edal falls, defeated, and the extraction equipment dies.

The Doctor, recovering in the caves, returns to the city and confirms the practice is finished. He urges both sides to live together and rebuild. Jano bows his head and agrees. The Elders and the former “savages” meet in the great hall and promise equal rights and shared work.

They ask the Doctor to choose someone to guide them while trust grows. The Doctor proposes Steven, who has fought for both sides and thinks clearly. Steven hesitates, then accepts. Dodo hugs him goodbye. The Doctor shakes his hand, proud. The TARDIS departs. Steven stands with Jano, Chal, and Tor, ready to lead a new society built on fairness instead of fear.

Themes

As a sober sci-fi parable, The Savages lands with unexpected force. Across its four episodes, the Elders’ genteel cruelty, the extraction chamber, and Jano’s eerie absorption of the Doctor’s manner give the story a moral clarity.

This outstrips the rambunctious charm of The Gunfighters and sits just beneath the upper tier defined by The Aztecs and The Crusade. It’s not as operatic as The Daleks’ Master Plan, but the writing helps nudge this serial into the upper-mid range for the era: precise, thematically sharp, and quietly bold.

Its threads bind past and future with care. The exploitation-versus-empathy debate echoes the Doctor’s stance in The Aztecs, while Steven’s departure (choosing to lead a newly united society) closes the arc that began with The Chase and resets the team for modern-day peril in The War Machines. The story’s critique of “civilised” oppression foreshadows later allegories from The Macra Terror to The Sun Makers. Jano’s stolen-self motif anticipates identity plays the series will revisit again and again. As a story, it earns a strong rating for turning a modest production into a hinge: ethics sharpened, one companion’s journey complete, and the TARDIS aimed squarely at London: in 1966.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The First Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the First Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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

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