25) THE GUNFIGHTERS

The show’s first and perhaps finest parody, The Gunfighters takes the gun welding, smooth talking, and wild attributes of the classic Western genre to create a comedic tale, something the show very rarely gets right. You know you’re watching a great piece of television when the cast themselves are having tremendous fun. William Hartnell is given another opportunity, to provide a performance which calls for both comedy and seriousness, in a story where there is no real threat to face, apart from staying alive from a band of redneck brothers. 
The script is tightly written and brought to life by the highly experienced Rex Tucker who for a while was the original producer of the show. It’s only fitting that his first and last assignment on the show was to take a vastly growing popular genre and turn The Gunfighters  into something that is both suitable but educational for children. It’s easy to see The Gunfighters as a critique of gun violence, the title is a big give away, and all of the characters who die are killed by being shot to death. Compare this to other American Western films and TV shows at the time who glorify gun violence, and look at The Doctor’s reaction at being offered a firearm, ‘Well, I should hope not. I certainly disapprove of violence’, followed by an awkward moment when The Doctor holds a gun for the first time. The Doctor has always been a role model for children, and not some swash buckling cowboy who fires bullets into the air, as he rides off into the sunset. Or rather dematerialises from a disused barn. It’s a bold attempt and statement for The Doctor when the entire atmosphere around him is constructed around violence, and the possibility of being killed is more likely than discovering a nugget of gold in the local mine. 
The scripts are the most creative (up-to-this-point) that is, incorporating dark humour for the occasion, cheap joke now and then, impressive camerawork inside a small BBC recording studio, short musical numbers, and a ballad singer who acts like a narrator and commentator at the same time. The entire plot of the story hangs on the whole mistaken identity storyline where ‘The Doc’ is mistaken for Doc Holliday and The Clanton Brothers fail to listen to Steven and Dodo for the umpteenth time that The Doctor is not Doc Holliday. This is better suited for comedic Silent-movies than Doctor Who. The final gunfight is fine, for a small budget, but does appear to be clumsy in places; heck 3 of the Brothers are killed within a 39 second timespan. Thrilling? Entertaining more like. Despite the botched gunfight at the end, The Gunfighters is a brave attempt to take the show to new heights and doesn’t disappoint. **** 
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