The Rescue

VICKI: Who’s landed on the mountain?

(First "Doctor Who?" joke in a while)

BARBARA: Oh, but Doctor, the trembling’s stopped.
DOCTOR: Oh, my dear, I’m so glad you’re feeling better.

BARBARA: Doctor, why don’t you show me how to open the doors?
DOCTOR: Hmm? Yes, yes, yes, my dear. Of course, yes, yes, how silly of me.

(Awww)

DOCTOR: Fancy landing back here again. I wonder if I were to tell Ian that it was deliberate, whether he’d believe me or not? Oh no, of course, I was asleep. Oh, pity, pity, pity.

VICKI: Its funny, but as soon as he walked in, I felt that you could trust him. But why does he wear those funny clothes? And that long white hair.

DOCTOR: Silly child, silly child.

IAN: Kockylickin.

• First things first. Ian would rather face the Daleks than Koquillion? A man in a silly outfit and who speaks with a silly voice and has a stick is scarier than a being that will shoot you as soon as look at you and has caused death and destruction on a mass scale? Ian, I'm not sure you have quite thought that one through! 
• Not only that, Ian unlocks the TARDIS at the end of the second episode! The last thing we heard about it was Susan's explanation of how you can melt the lock ridiculously easily if you don't know the exact way to unlock it. Unless Ian has been taught off screen, and that seems unlikely seeing as Barbara didn't even know how to open the bloody doors earlier in this episode, he's got incredibly lucky to open the door successfully! 
• I like that we've gone through something of a reversal since the previous season. Ian and Barbara are the ones who want to go exploring. The Doctor just wants a nap in the TARDIS. This is really the start of the cuddly Hartnell Doctor that we get with Dennis Spooner in charge. He hears Ian and Barbara wondering about him getting old, but simply laughs at them rather than loses his temper as he did in the previous year. 
• I'm not entirely sure what the Doctor thinks he's doing confronting Bennett like that at the end. "I'll confront a murderer completely on my own with absolutely no backup or anyone even knowing where I am". Smart move, Doctor! 
• Ian and Barbara think Susan is probably learning to milk cows. Um, okay then!

Verdict

This is a breather story after the exertions of last time, and a chance to

introduce a new companion. It's a fun story in its own right, though, if a little limited. The scenes with the Doctor, Barbara and Ian at the beginning of the story are very sweet. Really, though, this story is about introducing Vicki. I think this is probably her (and Maureen O'Brien's) weakest story, and yet she still comes as a breath of fresh air after Susan. She's fun and joyful, and this is my favourite of all the Hartnell teams. I can't wait!