The Exiles

The First Doctor #4

'The Exiles' from Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors.

Really love the writing for The Doctor here; it totally nails William Hartnell's speech and even his line flubs. The sequence of them getting onto the TARDIS and aquainting themselves with it is lovely and feels very appropriate to what we see in An Unearthly Child, and the focus on Susan is great with her talking about wanting to dance. Cool to have another hint at The Doctor's previous career as an "ambassador", and even another small hint at Susan's clairvoyance with her seemingly knowing what the instruction manual of the TARDIS is going to look like, although whether this is because she may have seen it before in the past or not is unclear, but it certainly adds to the much more alien-like nature of her when compared to The Doctor. I can't say I'm that enthused by the man with fangs in the mirror portion of the story - it's chilling although it feels somewhat out of place tonally with the rest of the story - but I'm curious to see if this is something that will come back in some other form of media down the line. The Doctor's way of shrugging it off is still very in character however.

This one is more interesting than The Beginning, and it adds more mystery to the TARDIS.

Its interesting how theirs 2 accounts to The Doctor and Susan's first step into the Tardis. This adventure is mainly set in there. The Author Justin Richards describes the Tardis perfectly with the scale and as Susan wanders the corridors.

I also love how Justin writes 1st here, the fact he has no idea what hes doing and hes all giddy about it its a fun aspect as if he stole the Tardis for the hell of it. We also find out the doctor made the everlasting matches I just love the fact that Galifrey's greatest invention is everlasting matches.

The story really gives 1st n Susan a true bond, you really feel the fact they are all they have. Justin also adds a new layer to Susan and its quite a mysterious one, the story describes her looking at her appearance for the first time. It makes you wonder if Susan and The Doctor are actually related either way shes obviously had a quite sheltered upbringing.
I think the funniest part of this story to me is Susan thinking about bears ... Gallifrey bears exists.
Anyway Susan goes to the wardrobe to change, she feels like shes being watched and she is. By something in the Tardis, a man with fangs. I'm left feeling uneasy at this man with fangs. its honestly terrifying stuff to hear for a small story, especially how he goes "you are not the one!" who is the one? This part of the story is where i was fully into this story especially at how Susan is alone at this point.

She later recalls the story to The Doctor and he just shrugs it off, which is defiantly not what i would do.

I experienced this story on archive.org as there is a reading of it on there, I feel that greatly helped me get pulled into the story more.

Overall amazing short trip it captures The Doctor and Susan very well and I'm excited to see where these 2 go next