Feature by PAUL KIRKLEY
It speaks volumes about The Savages’ slightly unloved reputation that this 1966 story is best known for an issue of taxonomy – this being the first Doctor Who serial broadcast under a single umbrella title, and thus the first we can all reliably agree on the correct name for, without recourse to heated arguments or hair-pulling.
But it broke a couple of other significant moulds, too. It was the first non-historical story not to feature any monsters, a fact that, for a long time, contributed to its slightly runtish reputation, but that now appears rather bold. Most seismic of all, though – this was the story that properly introduced viewers to that reliable staple, still beloved of waggish newspaper columnists to this day: the Doctor Who quarry. The fact that it was a gravel pit near Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, is just a bonus gift from the comedy gods. (And yes, I know that, technically, The Dalek Invasion of Earth got there first in 1964. But that doesn’t count, because it wasn’t doubling for an alien planet. It was doubling for Bedfordshire.)