Holistic Review: The plot is little more than a runaround, but it's enlivened by a healthy dose of humor in the first half, a talented director, and the wonderful William Hartnell.
It's not difficult to know where to start a review of The Gunfighters: its reputation. When I was growing up, the overwhelming opinion was that The Gunfighters was one of the worst, if not the worst, Doctor Who stories. I'm not really sure where I ever heard this opinion, given that I didn't get tied into fandom until the early 1990s, but I was certainly aware of it. I don't even know if I could articulate why it was held in such low regard, aside from the Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon, the perception that it was an extremely dull story, and the low audience appreciation figures. I certainly remember showing it to my friend Kenny Fox during a fourth-grade sleepover during which it happened to be airing on PBS; it was one of the very few times that I can remember actually being embarrassed about Doctor Who. I think I've blocked out most of the comments he made afterward, but I definitely remember that he was not particularly impressed. (Between this incident and Peter's post-Unearthly Child caveman dreams — or, come to think of it, was that Kenny too? — I was just about put off trying to introduce my childhood friends to Doctor Who.) By the time I bought the novelization (secondhand, from my friend Jenny who worked at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, with half of the back cover peeled off by tape or something), I was so unimpressed with the story that I don't even think I bothered reading it.
Then The Gunfighters was released on VHS in 2002, and fandom started to think, hey, this isn't so bad after all! Suddenly The Gunfighters was being praised as a long-overlooked comedy classic and a misjudged gem. While it's true that The Gunfighters is far better than I remembered it as a child, and I do remember enjoying it a surprising amount when I showed it to Andrew a couple of years ago, on this viewing — only my third, as far as I'm aware, since I doubt I ever watched it again after the Kenny debacle — I only found it average, but with some definite redeeming qualities.
The biggest impediment to its success, I think, is that The Gunfighters is really kind of uneventful. The whole plot is essentially about the TARDIS crew trying unsuccessfully to keep out of the way of an inevitable shootout that turns into the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Really, that's all that happens. Steven is kept hostage by the Clanton brothers for most of the story's duration, while Dodo gets carted back and forth from Tombstone at either end of a gun with Doc Holliday, who's trying to keep away from the Clantons; meanwhile, the Doctor does a lot of hiding in plain sight while the Clanton brothers swagger around town looking for him (or, y'know, kick back in the saloon and drink their weight in whiskey). There's a lot of gunfighting, a lot of talking about gunfighting, and a lot of avoiding gunfighting. Which at least means that the title was appropriate. And the violent nature of the climax means that, aside from Dodo's ill-judged attempt to warn Holliday, the TARDIS crew can't participate at all, and are reduced to mere observers on the sidelines (which we really never even see them doing... for all we know, the Doctor and Steven are cozied up in their rooms with a mug of cocoa. Or whiskey.).
On the upside: for a sixties story, The Gunfighters is unusually well-directed by Rex Tucker, who not only avoids those extreme closeups that many other directors in this era adored (in which the actor's eyes practically fill the frame, incidentally magnifying any tiny movement of their head), but who also manages to compose a number of very excellent wide shots and lots of interesting angles, including some creative overhead shots. I particularly loved the shot through the lace curtain of Dodo's window, and the shot of Charlie's body slumped over the bar. So, even when the plot is lagging, there's some visual interest to be had. (Unfortunately, VidFIRE seems ill-suited to some of his shots; the picture periodically goes a bit weird when the Clantons ride into town, Kate dances on the bar, and particularly during the gunfight. Methinks it doesn't interact well with fast camera movements.)
Negative #2: This story is automatically facing an uphill battle from me because, quite frankly, I hate Westerns. My father has always adored them, and spends many a Sunday afternoon watching something like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (there's one film in particular that seemed to be on TV constantly, and just hearing the music annoyed me... perhaps fortunately, I don't know which it is!), but I've never understood the appeal of them at all. As far as I can tell, it's just a bunch of macho men strutting around dreary dusty towns, making grand macho proclamations, spitting, drinking, engaging in bar brawls and shooting loads of people with no remorse. These activities are not on my personal to-do list, and I don't see how they make for engaging viewing, particularly when all Westerns seem to be to be more or less the same plot. Vengeance, blood feuds, outlaws, pistol fights, blah blah blah. And, aside from the spitting, this basically encapsulates The Gunfighters, which is at its very worst when we get scenes of the Clantons sitting around the saloon table evilly plotting their next move.
Positive #2: Perhaps the production team realized how deadly dull a straight Western could be, because Donald Cotton and his lovely comic pen save The Gunfighters from macho doom. Having refined his "comedy historical" sub-genre techniques on The Myth Makers, here he liberally sprinkles one-liners and comedic slants on serious situations throughout the first two episodes. The disappointing thing is that parts 3 and 4 aren't quite as lighthearted as the first half, thanks to the gunslingers' feud taking center stage, but the first two episodes are so entertaining that they help to make up for this deficiency. There's lots of period Western dialogue, which ordinarily would make me roll my eyes and stop caring, but overall it's pretty well delivered. The mistaken-identity plotline also helps drive the first two episodes, before it overstays its welcome a bit and becomes kind of trite by part 3.
Negative #3: Well, I had to say it: the accents. The Clanton family and Johnny Ringo are by far the worst offenders, and given that they're also largely responsible for the dull macho parts of the storyline, I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been nicer to excise them from the plot altogether and call this story... um... Milk-Chugging Contest at the O.K. Corral. Standout lines, for me, included Billy's "What for do we need Seth Harper?", and Ringo's "Now that I'd really like to see!" which was delivered in an odd posh/Cockney mix, but those are far from the only offenders. Really, though, I suppose it's only fair. We've inflicted enough bad English accents on Britain (I believe poor Dick Van Dyke is usually mentioned at this point) that it would be churlish of us not to let them have their turn, and show us what it feels like.
Positive #3: Thankfully for US/UK relations, it seems to be only the bad guys who also get the bad accents. Do you suppose there's a connection? To my relief — and despite the story's reputation — the rest of the characters (notably Kate, Holliday, Wyatt and Warren Earp, Masterson, and arguably Harper) deliver their lines in convincing American (and even Southern) accents.
Here concludes my point/counterpoint discussion, and I must now turn to one of the greatest contributors to this story: William Hartnell. Were he not in this story, it would be a much less interesting tale. I get the feeling that, unlike me, Hartnell really enjoys Westerns, because he absolutely throws himself into the role here and demonstrates his great flair for comedy. His shining moment has got to be the horrified but resigned look on his face as Holliday advances on his mouth with a pair of pliers. But I also loved his sudden cold feet upon seeing the "subtle advertising" of the dentist's office. Among his great deliveries: "Come, fellow thespians!", "Oh, what a good thing I didn't have to have my tonsils out", "The Clanton brothers! — oh dear.", "We'd be, eh, mighty grateful" and his perplexing-but-funny habit of calling Wyatt Earp "Mister Werp".
Peter Purves doesn't do too badly for himself here either. Not only does he demonstrate great comic timing throughout (I love the moment when he trips over his own spurs, and shortly thereafter, accidentally drops his gun while attempting to pull off a neat twirling move) and excellent facial acting, but he also proves that he's got a decent set of pipes and can act while he sings. His "cover" of the Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon is, dare I say it, even more pleasing to the ear than Lynda Baron's original. And, with echoes of Morton Dill, he proves yet again that he can put on a convincing American accent. I love his posh delivery of "Miss Dupont, can you play?" In terms of a character arc, Steven doesn't get a whole lot to do here, mostly cooling his heels under the watchful eyes of the Clantons, but I appreciate that, in the face of all this testosterone, his usual macho bull-headedness is traded out for an endearingly tentative approach. At first he tries to act all macho around the Western pioneers, but before long he discovers he's out of his depth. Steven seems particularly, ahem, gun-shy around the Clantons, apparently appreciating the fact that his usual aggressive tactics are only going to get him turned into Swiss cheese. Instead, he tries his best to sail under the radar, putting on as local an accent as he can manage, and trying to avoid trouble or appease the locals as much as possible. But of course, despite their best efforts, he and Dodo just can't help winding up smack in the middle of all the trouble.
Jackie Lane is somewhat wasted in this story, but at least Dodo gets to show off her determination (ordering Holliday to take her back to the Doctor) and her rather surprising forthrightness (loudly expressing her hurt feelings when Steven refuses to risk getting shot in the back to accompany her upstairs). What I really love is her obvious enthusiasm at being back in the Old West, her overwhelming relief that Holliday didn't force her hand (or, to be more accurate, her trigger finger), and her bravery in risking her life during the gunfight to warn Holliday about imminent danger. And Lane's American accent is unexpectedly good, too! But what's with the obvious hair extension? I guess Dodo figured that her pixie cut wasn't going to fly in the Wild West, and if she wanted to be treated like a girl, she had better clip a ponytail to her head when she changed into her cowgirl outfit... but it lies there like a dead squirrel throughout the story. Couldn't they have given her something a little more flattering? I mean, even a wig would've been better!
Of the guest cast, the ones who make the biggest impression are Anthony Jacobs as Doc Holliday and Sheena Marshe as Kate Fisher, both of whom are clearly having fun with their roles and bring a larger-than-life element to the way they deliver their lines. Jacobs saunters around like a snake-oil peddler, full of unctuous charm. Holliday seems to revel in the idea of being a wanted man, who skirts the edges of the law but remains friends with lawmakers, who's shrewd enough to know when and how to avoid trouble, and who's unscrupulous enough to chuck somebody else into the frying pan in his place. And yet, for all his unsavoury character traits, he remains very likeable and seems at least somewhat decent, deep down. I find it quite funny that his solution to anaesthetic is "a rap on the cranium" with a six-shooter, or alternatively, a "slug of rattlesnake oil", aka whiskey! (And he's quite happy to take a swig himself, immediately before dental surgery!)
Marshe, meanwhile, is perfect as a vampy saloon singer, with her cleavage-baring dress, her husky Mae West voice, the sultry way she moves as though she's hoping for a career in burlesque, and the way she practically purrs at the various men in her life. And yet, even though she oozes sexpot, she's no shrinking violet. One gets the impression that she would gladly stand up to the Clantons single-handedly, and could probably wield a rifle with the best of them. Neither character is firmly on the side of good, but they both seem like decent people who have their hearts in the right place, at least most of the time. Well, maybe fifty percent of the time, in Holliday's case. One of my favorite deliveries of Marshe's is "I blush for shame, Mr Clanton, indeed I do. That was a dad-blasted lie. He's right there in Tombstone with the Earps."
As for the gunslingers, we've got William Hurndall (Ike; and who is apparently not the love-child of First Doctor actors William Hartnell and Richard Hurndall), Maurice Good (Phineas), David Cole (Billy) and Reed de Rouen as Pa, who suddenly appeared in part 3 without my noticing and had me terribly confused as to how many Clantons there were. The main trouble with the Clanton bunch is that they get practically zero funny lines, which is what makes them come across as the macho/boring Western stereotype (that I have in my head, anyway). All they do is sit around and plot and cackle and play with their guns. And shoot innocent people quite happily. The other trouble with them is that I had a terrible time figuring out who was who. They hardly ever call each other by name! Shane Rimmer fares slightly better as Harper, given that his accent is decent and his stutter makes him stand out from the crowd. He seems really familiar to me, but I don't see anything else he's done that I ought to recognize him from... so I wonder who he reminds me of? Laurence Payne, as Johnny Ringo, likewise benefits from having a dramatic introduction later in the story, but even then, his manner of dress is similar enough to Ike and Billy that I still got him mixed up from time to time. If anyone else is having trouble, I finally realized that their clothing is the key: Ike wears a dark hat and shirt, Phineas wears all beige, and Billy is in a dark hat and vest with a white shirt. Pa Clanton wears a bowler hat, so he's not a problem really. But, like Ike, Johnny Ringo also dresses in all-black, so you're on your own there.
On the side of right, John Alderson as Wyatt Earp and Richard Beale as Bat Masterson are entertaining enough. I love the moment in which Masterson manhandles the Doctor aside and poor William Hartnell goes flying out the left of the frame! But, like the Clantons, they get a lot of macho dialogue and not a lot of funny lines, so their scenes are also a bit of a chore to slog through, and I also found them a bit difficult to distinguish. That might also be another issue with this story: there are so many characters running around at any one point, and so many of them wearing similar clothing, that sometimes it just seems like a jumble of random people talking and it's difficult to form attachments with any of them. Maybe that's why classic film Westerns always put the good guys in white, so you wouldn't have this problem as much! The Gunfighters, on the other hand, puts its good guys in moustaches. (Earp has a handlebar moustache, and Masterson's stretches down to his chin... then there's Holliday, whose moustache is neatly trimmed.)
Despite being one of the more peripheral characters, David Graham does a nice job as Charlie, who seems like a friendly if high-strung bartender (and who can blame him, with shootouts constantly occurring in his saloon). It's genuinely a shame to see him shot (Lynda Baron agrees). I can't quite decide about his accent... he reminds me of somebody too, but I can't place who it is. But at worst, his accent is just a little weird. Martyn Huntley is enjoyable as the fresh-faced Warren Earp, although he doesn't have enough plot function for us to really get to know him before his equally-untimely death, but he does fare better than Victor Carin as his brother Virgil, who sort of breezes in and out of the story at the end, just in time to be part of the famous gunfight but otherwise making very little of an impression.
As for the infamous Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon, I actually kind of like it. If nothing else, it's an interesting way to frame the story, and original songs for Doctor Who were pretty rare up until the Murray Gold years. Lynda Baron croons it well, giving some nice emotion to her delivery, and the melody of the song is nice. The only times that it grates on my nerves are when the lyrics repeat within a verse, which happens at least three times and smacks of a lack of creativity. The worst offender in this regard is the following stanza: "Johnny Ringo has found her / Johnny Ringo's found Kate / The gunslinger's got her / now what is her fate? / Johnny Ringo has seen her / She's coming his way / Johnny Ringo and Katie were lovers, they say." At that point I kind of wanted to strangle Lynda Baron. But aside from those few instances, the song overall is kind of cool, particularly when it's performed uptempo. I was intrigued that it started off with general lyrics about the townsfolk, but gradually got more and more pertinent, to the point where Lynda was singing about the specific dead man in front of us (and the fact that he had just died, and also how, which really was kind of silly since we'd just watched it unfold... but I digress).
I should also mention that the sets and costumes are quite nice, my particular favorites being Dodo's very authentic-looking hotel room, and Kate's nifty dress. I wish the men had gotten slightly more variety in their clothing, but this is probably just an issue because we're watching in black-and-white.
Oh, and apparently calling The Gunfighters a "historical" is like calling The Rocky Horror Picture Show an accurate representation of suburban middle-class America, but in this case I can let it slide quite easily, since I'm not a Wild West buff, and in story terms it just feels right for all the bad guys to (a) be in the shootout, and (b) die. Besides, my stance on historical stories has always been that it's not as important to be pinpoint accurate as it is to inspire children (and adults!) to want to learn more about the real-life events, and/or to make learning more interesting... and I can guarantee you that I would find reading about Tombstone way more interesting than any other Western topic, solely because of The Gunfighters.
Minor points:
Steven: "Hey, what's the matter, Doctor?"
Doctor: "Oh, I've got the most ghastly toothache. It's a paralyzing pain."
Steven: "Well, it serves you right for eating that sweet."
Doctor: "Fat chance I've got of finding a dentist in the Middle West."
Apparently "Middle West" was a term for the American Midwest around 1898, but the Midwest has never even come close to including Arizona; it's traditionally the area between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. Arizona is three states away, at least. Maybe the Doctor was wishing he'd landed in Chicago and had a Freudian slip.
Doctor: "Why can't you wear inconspicuous clothes like I do?"
(although it's less funny here than it would be if he'd said it in five incarnations' time!)
Ike: "Now, let's get this straight, you mean you don't know where Holliday — you, you n- you never met Holliday either?"
Doctor: "Doctor... Caligari, hmm."
Masterson: "Doctor who?"
Doctor: "Yes, quite right."
Doctor: "Well, I had to find some sort of suitable cover. After all, you can't walk into the middle of a Western town and say you've come from outer space. Good gracious me. You'll be arrested on a vagrancy charge."
Doctor: "Oh, my dear man, I never touch alcohol!"
Clearly he's forgotten about this by the time he partakes of drugged wine in The Androids of Tara.
Dodo: "You're darn tootin' I am!"
Doctor: "Unfortunately I don't touch alcohol."
Clearly he's forgotten about this by the time he sips de Vries' sherry in The Stones of Blood.
Doctor: "I certainly disapprove of violence!"
Clearly he's forgotten about this by the time he stuffs a bomb down the Graff Vynda-K's shorts in The Ribos Operation. (Why is it that the Key to Time season seems to break most of the Doctor's rules? I should stretch further for my next example. Although, as long as we're talking about violence: why is it that the Doctor has a "favorite collection" of what are apparently guns?! Maybe this story is the turning point for him, given that he later pretends to threaten the entire Clanton gang with his pistol, and then giggles about it!)
Steven: "We're just choosing a song."
Dodo: "Here's one!"
Steven: "Let's hope the piano knows it."
Doctor: "Well, I'm afraid I don't touch alcohol."
Clearly he's forgotten about this by the time he holds a one-man wine tasting in Auderley House during Day of the Daleks. (There, that's a non-Key-to-Time example!)
Harper: "You ain't leavin', Doc."
Clantons: "Live, that is!"
Doctor: (amusing himself by twirling his gun on his finger) "Mr Werp!" (notices him) "Oh, eh-heh, Mr Werp. I say, can you do that?"
"Mr Werp": "Nope. And I wouldn't try it if I were you."
Doctor: "I have no intention of trying anything, only people keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn't."
Dodo: (horrified) "They've got Steven!"
Doc Holliday: (equally horrified) "They got my operatin' chair!"
Doctor: "Now don't be ridiculous, Doc Holliday's a great friend of mine. He gave me a gun, he extracted my tooth — good gracious me, what more do you want?"
Dodo: "I shall try not to kill you. I shall aim for your arm."
Doc Holliday: "That's real thoughtful. Just at the moment, you're aiming right between my eyes."
Dodo: "Oh, I'm sorry." (adjusts gun) "Is that better?"
Dodo: (all smiles) "Oh, I honestly didn't want to have to shoot you."
Doc Holliday: "And I didn't want to have to shoot you neither." (holds up small gun) "Heh heh heh heh."
Dodo: "Oh!" (faints)
Ringo: (maybe not flirting then) "I'd blast you down as soon as spit at ya."
Steven: "Thanks."
Doctor: "Disgusting habit."
Doc Holliday: "I thought you'd do better than that, Mr Ringo."
Ringo: "I will, next time." (dies)
Doc Holliday: "Ringo was here."
Wyatt Earp: "And?"
Doc Holliday: "He ain't no more."
So, The Gunfighters is far from bad, but where it succeeds the most is in its atmosphere and humor. It's a nice mostly-lighthearted slice of Western life, with a great performance by Hartnell. If it had a slightly more complex plot, slightly fewer characters, and slightly better (and more distinct) actors playing the Clantons, I think it would have been more popular.