THE AZTECS

The Aztecs is a classic, one of the best first doctor stories. After all, it was the only one picked for Netflix! Sad, that it had to get removed...

One of the most fast paced 60s stories, I was expecting to cut this one very little, similar to what I did with the Deadly Assassin, however upon rewatching I realized this was not the case. I noticed something with the really early episodes. Most people know that these old stories had a different title every episode, but I realized that even being in the same story, some episodes would focus on one particular thing, an another would focuse on a different.

An example: In the Sensorites Episode 4, we see that Ian is sick, and at the end of Episode 4, the sickness is cured. In Episodes 5 and 6, it is barely referenced. So, in my edit of the Sensorites, I removed Ian being sick in the first place, and instead I simply picked out the few important clips and ended up using the 5 or 6 minutes that ends up developing the bigger picture.

In a more related example, Ian has a rivalry and fight with the Aztec Ixta that is set up and concludes during Part 2. As this does not add up to the bigger picture, I can remove the Ian/Ixta subplot, replace it with a scene of Ian from Part 3, that doesn't even get brought up until later anyways.

In Part 1 I only made some very minor changes, like prolonging the mystery of what happened to Barbara after her seperation from Susan. and a few other minor cuts. However, one notable change is that Cameca, the Doctor's first love interest, is completely wiped. I'm not a fan of the Doctor falling in love, and so I cut it. It just seems odd to me.

Part 2 is the Ian vs Ixta fight, and by removing that and the Cameca subplot, I only keep about 3-5 minutes.

Part 3 was mainly just removing subplots, leaving maybe 10 minutes in.

I had originally cut Part 4 down to 3 minutes, and thought I did a good job, but upon rewatching, I thought it deserved a more dignified ending, so I left about 15 more minutes in, and the pacing worked a lot better.

WATCH PART ONE HERE

WATCH PART TWO HERE