s01 e08 The Reign of Terror

In which some French people freak out, the Doctor's companions get arrested a lot, and the Doctor hikes 12 kilometers through some farmland to rescue them.

Review:
So I realize that Doctor Who season finales don't exactly have the best track record, but at least they've never been this boring.

Important Firsts:

• First season finale.
• First time the Doctor beats someone unconscious with a shovel.

Musings:

• Susan states that the french revolution, i.e. the Reign of Terror, is the Doctor's favorite period in Earth's history.  Evidently the Doctor enjoys being bored.
• Nevertheless, the Tenth Doctor shares this fascination for all things French.
• There's an extremely shrieky, whiney frenchmen who is actually more annoying than Susan.
• In fact pretty much all the French in this episode ham it up to a fairly extreme degrees.  It's pretty obnoxious.
• Barbara changes into a more period-appropriate outfit BASICALLY WHILE IAN WATCHES
• *sigh*
• Some French set fire to a barn in which the Doctor lies unconscious.  His companions are dragged away to be executed.
• Things look pretty grim for the Doctor at the end of the first segment, as he wakes up just long enough to pass out from smoke inhalation.
• The barn goes up in a pretty epic blaze.  They're burning a model here, but based on the size of the flames, it's a pretty big model.  Adjusting for the time period, these special effects are basically the equivalent of this.
• A lecherous leper of a French jailer offers to trade Barbara freedom in exchange for sex.  She slaps him in the face.
• Barbara and Susan reminisce about being taken captive by cavemen in the first episode.
• The Doctor is rescued by a dirty little frenchboy.
• The Doctor decides to hike the 12 miles to Paris to rescue his companions.   He spends some time looking for a walking stick.
• Setting across the French countryside with a look of grim determination, the Doctor marches along to a bopping ditty.
• The Doctor encounters a French taskmaster slavishly driving some debtors who are building a road. What follows is one of the best Doctor Who scenes ever
• The doctor walks for another three segments (about one hour of real time).  Meanwhile, his companions sit in captivity and are menaced by various boring Frenchmen.
• Upon arriving in Paris, the Doctor dons a pretty bitchin' disguise and proceeds to rescue his companions in style. 
• It good to see the Doctor doing to rescuing for once, a job usually left to Ian in previous episodes.  The writers are finally starting to cast the Doctor more in the role of hero.
• Unlike all episodes up until this point, The Reign of Terror does NOT end in any sort of cliffhanger, and in fact suggests that the crew will have several adventures before we see them next.   This is fitting for the end of a season, and it also gave a place to allow spin-off media such as novel and radio plays to insert adventures without breaking continuity.
• "Our lives are important—at least to us—and as we see, so we learn... Our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it." --The Doctor, last line of the first season.