Although "Doctor Who" is normally thought of as science fiction, the original idea behind the programme was to educate children not only about science but also about history, which explains why during the First Doctor era stories set during the earth's past were quite common. Four of the eight stories in the first series ("An Unearthly Child", set in the Stone Age, "Marco Polo", "The Aztecs" and "Reign of Terror", about the French Revolution) were of this nature. There is, however, a problem with stories of this type. There would be no sense of tension or drama if the Doctor could overcome his more primitive foes using advanced technology or escape from any danger by hopping into the Tardis.
The early convention was therefore that in stories set in the past the only science fiction element would be the time-travel theme itself; no space-age weapons or other devices would be permitted. This convention did not, however, survive. In later serials such as "The Time Warrior", "The Masque of Mandragora", "Horror of Fang Rock" and "The Mark of the Rani" the Doctor finds himself confronting evil aliens who have somehow travelled back in time. In such stories the Doctor cannot simply use the Tardis to escape because to do so would mean abandoning the Earth to whatever dreadful fate the aliens have in mind for it.
In "The Aztecs" the Doctor and his companions Susan, Ian and Barbara arrive in the Aztec Empire in present-day Mexico at some time during the fifteenth century, before the Spanish conquest. Barbara is mistaken for the goddess Yetaxa, and accepts the role because she hopes to persuade the Aztecs to give up human sacrifice. The scriptwriter John Lucarotti, who also wrote the script for the now-missing "Marco Polo", obviously anticipated questions about "why doesn't the Doctor use the Tardis to escape?", because the Tardis is trapped inside a tomb, and much of the plot deals with attempts to retrieve it.
Lucarotti's script stresses the duality of Aztec culture. In reality, the Aztecs of this period were ruled by a single monarch known as the Tlatoani, literally "Great Speaker" but normally rendered in English as "Emperor", who also acted as High Priest. In this story, however, there are two co-rulers, the wise and philosophical Autloc, High Priest of Knowledge, and the brutal and sadistic Tlotoxl, High Priest of Sacrifice, representing respectively the good and evil sides of their civilisation. Barbara, a schoolteacher in her day job, is highly knowledgeable about the Aztecs, and takes the view that there was much that was good about their civilisation. She believes that if she can persuade them to abandon the evil elements, of which human sacrifice is the most obvious example, the Spaniards would permit their society to survive. One point that is never made (possibly because it would have been too controversial) is that the Spanish invasion of Mexico was motivated more by a desire for wealth and power than it was by humanitarian concern for sacrificial victims, so in the long run it would have availed the Aztecs little if they had taken Barbara's advice.
Barbara finds, however, that her well-intentioned efforts at reform do not go down well with local people- not even with potential sacrificial victims, who regard it as an honour to die for their gods- and that such efforts are putting her, and her companions, in danger. Her efforts do not go down well with the Doctor either. He takes the view that it is futile to try and change history, although he tends to come across as a pompous, grumpy old cynic who doesn't care whether humans sacrifice one another or not and a much less attractive character than the idealistic Barbara. I must admit that although William Hartnell was the creator of the role of Doctor Who, his is not my favourite incarnation and couldn't help feeling that if the Second, Third, Fourth or Fifth Doctors had found themselves in this situation they might have admitted their powerlessness to change the future but would at least have admitted that there was a moral dilemma. The First Doctor never seemed to concern himself too much with morality.
Moral issues are, however, very much at the heart of this story, which is what gives it its power. Lucarotti is also brave enough to admit that there can be difficult questions to which there are no easy answers. It is a story which ends with the bad guys still in control- indeed, the bad guys' control is strengthened because they only person Barbara converts to her way of thinking is Autoc who promptly resigns his position to become a hermit, leaving the gleefully bloodthirsty Tlotoxl (a great performance from John Ringham) as sole ruler. This is one of the best First Doctor adventures.
A goof. Lucarotti clearly noticed that a lot of Aztec names contain the letter "x" (Tlotoxl, Yetaxa, Ixta) but in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, this consonant is not pronounced as "ks" (the pronunciation used here) but like the English "sh". So "Yetaxa" should be pronounced "Yetasha", not "Yetaksa".
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