The Aztecs

The Aztecs
by John Lucarotti
Originally Broadcasted: May 23rd-June 13th, 1964

The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara land in the time of the ancient Aztecs. Barbara quickly gets lost and mistakenly believed to be Yetaxa, an Aztec god. The TARDIS team must keep up the bluff long enough to find a way back to the tomb where the TARDIS is trapped. But not all Aztec people believe the bluff...

I'll say it now, this is not going to be the easiest story to write a review for. You see, I saw this on BBC America this past weekend as part of their new Doctors Revisited series, a monthly look at each Doctor with a 30 minute documentary followed by a complete story from that Doctor. Naturally, they started off with William Hartnell. The documentary was absolutely wonderful. It went in depth on the First Doctor himself, as well as many of his companions and enemies. After seeing many of the BBC America specials looking at the current era of Doctor Who, it was nice to see the classic era celebrated for a change. And then they showed The Aztecs, in its entirety, and that is why this review may not be easy. For it's pretty tricky to watch any classic Doctor Who story all at once, but a rather rudimentary story like The Aztecs is kind of hard to watch all at once. This story did have some interesting elements however. It was the first time the show really dwelled on the consequences of time travel. Barbara tries to stop the Aztecs sacrificing people. The Doctor explains to her that you can travel in time and see things, but you can't alter the course of history, for that could lead to drastic change. The funny thing is Barbara just try to stop the sacrifice, but the guy being sacrificed wanted to be, so he kills himself anyway! The other interesting part of this story to me was seeing The Doctor almost in love, for he fell for Tonila, an Aztec woman, and they're openly seen wooing each other. Very odd to see William Hartnell's Doctor doing that, and this sort of thing didn't really happen again until the TV movie with Paul McGann. Honestly, The Aztecs is not my kind of Doctor Who story. There's just not enough happening. But I can appreciate it for what it is, and it was really cool to see a classic Doctor Who episode being played on American TV. Something I've been hoping for for a long time! And I especially enjoyed the Doctors Revisited. Can't wait to see the next one with the Second Doctor!

Luke's Rating: 5/10