039 The Reign of Terror Part 3: A Change of Identity

EPISODE: The Reign of Terror Part 3: A Change of Identity
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 039
STORY NUMBER: 008
TRANSMITTED: 22 August 1964
WRITER: Dennis Spooner
DIRECTOR: Henric Hirsch (and John Gorrie Uncredited)
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The Reign Of Terror

The Doctor arrives in Paris. Two men, Jules & Jean, plot to hijack the party travelling to the guillotine. Susan is taken ill on the journey just as Jules & Jean arrive and rescue them. The Doctor visits a tailor and acquires a new set of clothes to disguise himself as an official, planning to sneak into the prison to rescue his friends. He bargains his clothes and ring for the new clothes and some parchment to write with. Jules takes the girls to his house, he wants to smuggle them out of France but they're worried for the Doctor and Ian. Ian escapes from his cell, passing the drunk jailer but is observed by Citizen Lemaitre. Barbara & Susan tell Jules their story. Jules & Jean recognise the description of the house and men. They had previously rescued the men and were getting them out the country. The deduce someone has informed on them. Léon Colbert arrives bringing them news of a stranger watching the prison. Jules & Jean depart to see who it is, leaving Barbara flirting with Leon. A splendidly attired Doctor arrives at the prison with faked credentials and rouses the jailer. The jailer tells the Doctor of Susan & Barbara's rescue and Ian's escape. The Doctor meets Citizen Lemaitre, who taken in by the Doctor's disguise as an official, wants the Doctor to come with him to palace to see First Deputy Robespierre to discuss the province the Doctor supposedly represents. The tailor arrives at the prison seeking Citizen Lemaitre. He has the Doctor's ring, which he says is evidence that he's a traitor.

Another good episode, another great turn from Hartnell who's revelling in the comedy given him here. He's not in these episodes enough!

Reign of Terror marks the debut on Doctor Who of Dennis Spooner. With a number of television writing jobs under his belt already he'd go on to write three more Doctor Who stories and take the chair as Doctor Who's second script editor. He would later mainly work for ITV & Lew Grade's ITC creating & contributing to a large number of very famous shows. He died in 1986 at the early age of 53. There's an excellent tribute of the Doctor Who: The Romans DVD.

038 The Reign of Terror Part 2: Guests of Madame Guillotine

EPISODE: The Reign of Terror Part 2: Guests of Madame Guillotine
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 038
STORY NUMBER: 008
TRANSMITTED: 15 August 1964
WRITER: Dennis Spooner
DIRECTOR: Henric Hirsch
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The Reign Of Terror

Before we start: what's special about this episode of Doctor Who? The answer will follow after I watch it!

The Doctor is unconscious and trapped in the blazing house. We cut to pictures of Paris and a dropping guillotine. The other three Travellers are taken to court where they are sentenced to death and taken to the cells to await execution by guillotine. Barbara attracts the attention of the Jailer but spurns him so ends up in the cell with Susan while Ian is held separately, The Doctor has been rescued by the boy we saw in the previous episode, who tells him the soldiers have taken his friends. The Doctor leaves on foot for Paris to rescue his friends walking through the fields till he finds a road. Susan is worried about the Doctor and hopes he has survived. Barbara wants to escape, but attempts are thwarted by the return of the guards. Ian shares a cell with another Englishman, Webster, who is dying from his wounds, who tells him war between England & France is near. He tells Ian to find James Stirling and get him to return to England with the information he possesses. He says Stirling may be found through Jules Renan at the sign of "Le Chien Gris" and dies. The Doctor encounters a chain gang of tax dodgers on the road. Antagonising the gangmaster and being unable to produce papers, the Doctor is forced into the chain gang. Barbara's attempts at levering a block out the cell wall aren't going well, and Susan fares no better. They are about to be discovered by the jailer when Citizen Lemaitre, his superior, arrives to see Webster's body. The jailer tells Lemaitre he heard the prisoners speak, and while Webster's body is being removed Susan is scared by the rats in her cell! The Doctor & the chain gang distract the gang master with talk of an eclipse so the Doctor can steel his keys. Duping the gang master again with a coin they've found the chain gang knock him out with a spade and escape allowing the Doctor to continue his journey to Paris. He stops to rest on a Paris 5km marker. As Susan & Barbara are brought from their cells they discover Ian has been crossed off the death list by Lemaitre. Ian watches from his cell window as the women are taken away to the guillotine.

Wow, that's top stuff. Probably the best episode of the series since the first. Hartnell is on towering form throughout - the scene with Hartnell & the boy is wonderful and the comedy stuff with the chain gang is very well done. The rest of the Tardis crew imprisoned throughout, the hint of a quest for Ian and another wonderfully imperilled cliffhanger make this a great episode.

So what's special about it? Well the scenes of the Doctor walking along the roads and in the fields are the very first location filming undertaken by the team. Ok, it's not William Hartnell being filmed, but his double Brian Proudfoot. Even so it adds some nice detail to the episode. Details of the locations in Buckinghamshire can be found on www.doctorwholocations.net. It's a small start, but much location work will follow including some splendid stuff in just two stories time. For more information on the locations used in Doctor Who visit the website linked above or track down a copy of Doctor Who on Location by Richard Bignell.

037 The Reign of Terror Part 1: A Land of Fear

EPISODE: The Reign of Terror Part 1: A Land of Fear
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 037
STORY NUMBER: 008
TRANSMITTED: 08 August 1964
WRITER: Dennis Spooner
DIRECTOR: Henric Hirsch
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The Reign Of Terror


Onto The Reign of Terror, the last story in Doctor Who's first season. I bought the VHS set this was in, one of the last pair of releases the day it came out, in the shops the day it came out (Blackstar didn't find me a copy in time). The other tape in the box, the remaining orphaned Troughton episodes, went straight in the player and was loved & cherished. Reign of Terror however sat on the shelf. When I finished work due to ill health in 2005 one of the first things I did was polish off the last four Doctor Who stories that existed that I hadn't seen. Keys of Marinus was one, this was the second. The remaining two were the Romans, which we'll come to shortly, and the Dominators, which is some way in the future.

We open in woods as the Tardis materialises. The Doctor believes he has brought Ian & Barbara home. The Doctor & Susan come with them, the Doctor accepting Ian's invitation of a drink. Leaving the Tardis they hear gunfire. Ian finds a boy in the woods: he tells the party they are in France near Paris. The boy returns to a house: it doesn't look like the modern day. The TARDIS party find the house, and speculate if they are before their own time. They sneak inside and find candles to help them look round. They discover artefacts and clothes making them think they're in the 18th century, including a letter signed by Robspierre: The Doctor has landed them in the middle of the French Revolution. The Doctor is attacked and falls to the floor while the others change into the period clothes. They are held at gunpoint by two counter-revolutionaries, D'Argenson and Rouvray. Soldiers arrive, besieging the building and killing the revolutionaries. Ian, Barbara & Susan are captured and taken away while the house is set on fire with the Doctor trapped within.

Yeah, not bad, a bit lingering on the setup though. But a real cliffhanger ending with the Doctor trapped in the burning house. There's a real sense of dramatic peril there missing from some previous cliffhangers.

As promised we return to the story of Doctor Who's missing episodes. No episode of The Reign of Terror was found to remain at the BBC during Ian Levine's visits in the Seventies. Episode 6 was recovered by Ian Levine & collector Bruce Campbell in May 1982. Episodes 1-3 were returned together, along with a second copy of episode 6 and duplicates of the existing stories The Aztecs (Episodes 1, 3 & 4) and The Sensorites (all six episodes) in 1984. Independent enquiries by Levine and Paul Vanezies (now of the BBC & Doctor Who restoration Team) at a Cyprus TV station turned these episodes up in December 1984. They had held Reign of Terror 4 & 5 (and Aztecs 2) as well, but these were destroyed in 1974 when a shelling during a coup destroyed the Cyprus National Film archive. A large number of other missing BBC programs were retrieved from the same Cyprus archive. Oddly enough, shortly afterwards in early 1985 the person who sold Bruce Campbell Reign of Terror 6 came forward again, now in possession of a copy of Reign of Terror 3!

This is the state of play with the story as it stands today. Therefore Reign of Terror will be our first mixed story made up of 3 episodes of video, two on CD and a final video episode.

036 The Sensorites Part 6: A Desperate Venture

EPISODE: The Sensorites Part 6: A Desperate Venture
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 036
STORY NUMBER: 007
TRANSMITTED: 01 August 1964
WRITER: Peter R. Newman
DIRECTOR: Frank Cox
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The First Doctor (The Sensorites , The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters)

Part 6, last episode.

Carol has been seized by the former Administrator and freed Chief Warrior , who wants her to write a note convincing John she's gone to the Spaceship, but John, Susan and a returned Barbara see through the story and suspect the Administrator. The First Elder confirms that nobody had travelled to the Spaceship - they try to convince him that a Sensorite is responsible. The Doctor & Ian discover their map is altered and the weapons they have been supplied with have been disabled. John finds Carol held in the Disintegrator room by the Chief Warrior and releases her with the Chief Warrior being captured again. The Chief Elder believes he is working in concert with another Sensorite. Susan & Barbara obtain an accurate map and intend to seek the Doctor & Ian, who are in the tunnel with a monster baying at them from a distance. They discover a man in the tunnel who flees: They think he is a survivor from the exploded Spaceship. Barbara and John go to the tunnels leaving Susan with the Chief Elder. Ian and the Doctor are found by two humans in the aqueduct. They ask if the Sensorites are dead and if they've bought a Spaceship. They take the pair to their commander, while Barbara & John track the marks the Doctor has made in the tunnel. The commander is pleased to see them, and orders his subordinates to add some more poison to the water. The Doctor convinces the Commander that he's beaten the Sensorites, but then they find Barbara and John in the Aqueduct, which initially unnerves him, but then he agrees to come out and walks into an ambush by the Sensorites, who capture the commander and his party. The Sensorites believe the three humans in the tunnel had been unhinged by using the Sensorites mind control machines. Maitland, the Captain of the Earth spaceship agrees to transport them back to Earth. The Chief Elder, convinced of the Administrator's guilt exiles him and returns the Tardis lock allowing the Doctor & the TARDIS crew to leave. Susan, now deprived of the Telepathy she had on the Sensorite planet, reflects on wanting a place to stay and belong. The Doctor argues with Ian and threatens to put him off the ship when they next land.

Probably the best episode of the six. There's some great concepts in this story, the alieness of the near identical Sensorites with their aversion to the dark & loud noise and use of clothing to differentiate themselves, the concept of telepathy and a glimpse of some genuinely unhinged minds. However the execution on screen doesn't help the story at all. It's slow, it's a nice touch plodding and the design isn't that great. Susan's desire to stay somewhere and belong is a nice precursor to later events. The Sensorites is a very sixties story, I'm not sure you could get it to work now without drastic revision. However the Sensorites have been recycled in modern Doctor Who. The Ood are strongly based on them, with the Ood home planet and Sense Sphere being placed in the same solar system.

The Sensorites was one of the last stories released on video, appearing in a First Doctor Boxset with The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters which "mops up" the remaining unreleased complete Hartnell stories. Since The Time Meddler is out on DVD you'll probably not be wanting to shell out for the boxset and a video recorder to play it on just for The Sensorites!

So it's a good job that the Sensorites is available on the BBC section of YouTube. You can find Episode 6 here. No DVD release has yet been announced or even hinted at.

035 The Sensorites Part 5: Kidnap

EPISODE: The Sensorites Part 5: Kidnap
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 035
STORY NUMBER: 007
TRANSMITTED: 25 July 1964
WRITER: Peter R. Newman
DIRECTOR: Frank Cox
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The First Doctor (The Sensorites , The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters)

Ian & Susan find the Doctor lying on the floor, his clothes shredded. Susan is suspicious of some of the Sensorites' equipment found near the Doctor in the tunnel. The Doctor is outraged to find out the original antidote never reached Ian and thinks the problems with the water and the monsters are connected and linked to a Sensorite: he does not know they've been observed by a Sensorite. John is raving about Treachery and a Plot as if he's trying to warn the others. The Sensorite reports back to the Administrator what he has seen, whom forces the Second Elder to summon the Senior Warrior so the disintegrator key can be passed to the Administrator. Once the Administrator has the key the Second Elder tries to seize it: he breaks it but is killed by the Administrator. The only other key is held by the first elder. The Administrator attempts to frame the Doctor for the Second Elder's death, but Ian spots the flaw in their story and exposes the lie who the Administrator blames on his subordinate, the Chief Warrior, who is imprisoned. The Administrator is made the new official Second Elder. John appears to have recovered. John remembers that there was an evil Sensorite menacing him. They discover a plan of the aqueduct amongst the effects of the humans who visited and John recalls that it was the Administrator who threatened him. The Doctor & Ian decide to visit the aqueduct: before leaving they arrange for Barbara to be brought to the Sensesphere. The aqueduct plans are altered before they get to the Doctor. The First Elder realises that the late Second Elder was killed by a Sensorite and wonders why. The Doctor & Ian visit the aqueduct, but they haven't told Susan where they were going. She sends Carol to look for them but she is in turn seized by an unseen assailant.

Plod, plod, plod, plod. The most exciting thing in this episode is the Doctor getting a new cape from the Sensorites!

As it stands the Fifteen episode from Sensorites 1 to Planet of Giants 3 (Sensorites 1-6 then Reign of Terror 1-3 on video, Reign 4 & 5 on CD and the Reign 6 & Planet of Giants 1-3 on video again) is going to be one of our longer breaks from DVD, but beating this and the same length Pertwee run on Video mentioned previously (Colony in Space, through Daemons into Day of the Daleks) is a massive 20 episodes at the start of Season 4: 4 Episodes of the Smugglers on CD, The first three episodes of Tenth Planet on Video then the fourth on CD/reconstructed on video then all six episodes of Power of the Daleks, four episode of the Highlanders and the first 2 episodes of The Underwater Menace on CD before we reach the third episode of Underwater Menace in the Lost in Time box.

The Sensorites is available on the BBC section of YouTube. You can find Episode 5 here.

034 The Sensorites Part 4: A Race Against Death

EPISODE: The Sensorites Part 4: A Race Against Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 034
STORY NUMBER: 007
TRANSMITTED: 18 July 1964
WRITER: Peter R. Newman
DIRECTOR: Mervyn Pinfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The First Doctor (The Sensorites , The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters)

Since Ian collapsed and was pronounced to be dying at the end of the last episode the title is appropriate!

The Doctor discovers that what Ian has isn't contagious and deduces it's the water Ian drank that the rest of them and the elders didn't. The Doctor thinks that it's more a poison than a disease and wants everyone to drink the water that the Elders alone drink. They get Ian to drink water & salt. The Doctor wants the Tardis lock back to get at his scientific instruments to cure Ian, but the Second Elder does not trust them. The Second Elder works to repair John's mind, but the Administrator argues with him. Second Elder goes to speak again with the First Elder and John accuses him of being evil. The female crew member, Carol, mistakes the Administrator for a scientist giving him the idea that he could pose as another Sensorite. The Sensorites won't allow the Doctor access to the TARDIS but let him use their lab. The Administrator confers with a colleague, they will lure the second Elder into a trap. The Doctor deduces which poison is in the water. Samples are gathered from all over the Sensesphere and the Doctor traces which area the poison is found. The Second Elder is held captive by the Administrator who poses as the Second Elder in order to disrupt the Doctor's activities. John is a little more lucid and tells the Doctor that there are enemies making plots. The Administrator seizes the antidote from the scientist: he believes Ian is pretending and will not die without it. The Doctor & The Scientist visit the aqueduct where they think the poisoned liquid is sourced from: The scientist is scared to enter both because of the dark and a belief there are monsters within. Susan finds some more of the antidote for Ian, who wants to go and find the Doctor. The First Elder telepathically contacts the Second telling him what has occurred. Unable to reply and in the clutches of the Administrator he is forced to tell the Administrator where they have gone. The Doctor finds the source of the poison, some deadly Nightshade just as he hears a monster bellowing.....

Barbara is missing from this episode or the next: she's on holiday.

The story picks up a bit this episode. The Sensorites being near identical is exploited by the plot and there's some menace from the Administrator's machinations.

The Sensorites is available on the BBC section of YouTube. You can find Episode 4 here.

Doctor Who at Christmas

Hmmm, the Sensorite part 3 isn't the most Christmassy of episodes is it?

In the early days of Doctor Who the series generally ran during the winter. For the first three years the Doctor spent his Christmas with the Daleks, which probably says (in years 2 & 3 at least) that the BBC knew what their audience wanted! In the third year Christmas Day was, like this year, a Saturday. Doctor Who was on that day and in fact took time out from the massive 12 part Dalek Masterplan to enjoy a pantomime style episode with a Dixon of Dock Green substitute and a visit to the silent movie studios. It's true, as you'll see when we get to Episode 97: The Feast of Steven on 27th February next year. It's a barking episode that ends with Hartnell wishing everyone at home a very happy Christmas. Troughton decides to change things round a bit, so visits the Daleks in the run to Christmas, Power of the Daleks finishing on the 10th December 1966, and then emulates the Royal Family by taking a Scottish Holiday in The Highlanders which had episodes 2 & 3 on Christmas & New Year's Eves respectively. 1967 was spent fighting his double in The Enemy of the World so lots of pantomime antics there, while Christmas 1968 falls between the last episode of The Invasion and the first of The Krotons.

Jon Pertwee's first season started later in Jan 1970 so there's no Doctor Who on in Christmas 1969. This pattern was repeated for the next few years, but usually at some point over the Christmas Holiday there was a compilation repeat with the Daemons shown in 1971, The Sea Devils in 1972, The Green Death in 1973, Planet of the Spiders in 1974 and Genesis of the Daleks in 1975 (the first of MANY repeats for this story)

Tom Baker made his debut a couple of days after Christmas 1974 and then in subsequent years the show would take a small mid season break over Christmas until Power of Kroll in 1978 and Doctor Who's great Christmas Pantomime, Horns of the Nimon in 1979. 1980 saw another break mid season, and for the next four years the Season would start very early in January. However in late 1981 we were treated to Doctor Who's first official spin off, K-9 and company, including the traditional British Christmas fare of a black magic cult. For many years Broadcasters would go for odd ghost stories and the like over Christmas. Odd but.....

The 1986 season, The Trial of a Timelord, was delayed till the Autumn but thankfully over by Christmas a pattern that was planned to be repeated for each of Sylvester McCoy's three years. However Sylvester's second year starts late due to the Olympics making The Greatest Show In The Galaxy the last original Doctor Who story shown over the Christmas period.

Of course now we're used to the new Doctor Who being a Christmas Fixture, starting with David Tennant's debut, The Christmas Invasion, through the Runaway Bride, Voyage of the Dammed, The End of Time and this year's Christmas Carol with the Warbling Barbie. So settle yourselves down at 6pm with a glass of something nice and enjoy.

Happy Christmas! I'm off to church, got to project at our morning service., but have a good day whatever you're doing.

033 The Sensorites Part 3: Hidden Danger

EPISODE: The Sensorites Part 3: Hidden Danger
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 033
STORY NUMBER: 007
TRANSMITTED: 11 July 1964
WRITER: Peter R. Newman
DIRECTOR: Mervyn Pinfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The First Doctor (The Sensorites , The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters)

The Tardis crew rescue Susan by turning the lights out on the Sensorites.... oh dear. Bad story or clever comment on how different an alien life form is? The Doctor wants to speak with the Sensorite first elder to arrange their release. John is raving saying he can hear voices in his mind and the Sensorites want him to forget. The Sensorite elder agrees to them coming to the planet. The Sensorites tell a story about a previous contact with humans which went badly: the humans ships exploded which seems to be causing an increasing number of deaths on the Sensesphere (the atmosphere has been contaminated?)

We see the Sensorite council chamber where the Sensorites are discussing the visitors. The first elder, wearing a crossed sash on his chest, supports the visit but the second elder, with a single sash is against it. The administrator, with a black collar, supports the first elder. Otherwise they are nearly identical to the Sensorites seen before. The Admininistrator has beamed a Disintegrator to the council chamber to "protect them", but intends to use it to kill the earth visitors at the first opportunity. The Sensorites reveal there is a caste system to the travellers. John tries to tell the travellers something. The Sensorites say they can restore John's mental faculties. The Second Elder orders the disintegrator dismantled but the Administrator argues with them. The travellers discuss events with the First Elder who tells them of John's visit: he wanted to mine the planet. In order to stop him they wiped his mind but it went wrong driving him insane. The Doctor discusses the disease afflicting the people with the elders, who have not been affected by it, as Ian falls ill.

I can see what this story is trying to do, it's just I don't think it's execution on screen has done it any favours. There's lots of nice little detail: they flagged up about the eyes the last episode, today it's mentioned that the elders drink a different water. The Sensorites have no menace to them at all and the b&w film prints make them look just like bearded old men with odd faces.

Doctor Who's most famous guest star thus far appears in this episode. Peter Glaze was at the time the resident comic on Crackerjack. Here he's a Sensorite but I have no idea which one! His Wikipedia entry says he's the Administrator, whereas the cast list shows him as Third Sensorite. Since the cast list doesn't say who The Administrator is, I'm willing to go with this.

The Sensorites is available on the BBC section of YouTube. You can find Episode 3 here.

032 The Sensorites Part 2: The Unwilling Warriors

EPISODE: The Sensorites Part 2: The Unwilling Warriors
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 032
STORY NUMBER: 007
TRANSMITTED: 27 June 1964
WRITER: Peter R. Newman
DIRECTOR: Mervyn Pinfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The First Doctor (The Sensorites , The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters)

The crew fall back under the influence of the Sensorites, but the Doctor snaps them back to reality and they continue to try to open the door, beyond which Susan and Barbara are trapped with the third crew member who isn't in his right mind. The Sensorites board the ship. Susan recalls a previous adventure which involved mind control and shows Barbara how to fight against the Sensorites influence as the Doctor and friends break out of the bridge. The Doctor deduces the Sensorites are trying to keep their planet a secret. Aware of Susan's resistance, the Sensorites are interested in her. The Doctor examines the spectroscope readings of the planet and deduces that John, the mineralogist found something on the Sensesphere, the rare metal molybdenum. The Sensorites attack Susan's mind....

We're then treated to lots of slow wandering around the ship as Ian & Barbara seek the Sensorites who eventually find them. Ian holds them off while the others seek to seal themselves in. The problem here is that the Sensorites, who look a little like slow moving old men, present very little physical menace so you don't feel they are a threat. They telepathically contact Susan who admits them to the bridge. They tell the Doctor that the Travellers cannot leave: previous contact with Earthmen have made them suspicious of outsiders. They tell everyone on the ship that they will be taken to the Sensesphere. The Doctor demands the Tardis lock back. Having seen the Sensorites faces the Doctor works out they may have a problem seeing in the dark. Susan agrees to go with the Sensorites to their planet.

Yeah,dragged a bit. The wandering round the ship was just so slooooooow, and there's no menace to the Sensorites at all.

This episode of Doctor who was delayed by 25 minutes due to an over running edition of Grandstand. The following week Doctor Who was missing from the Saturday schedules for the first time since it started thanks to Tennis at Wimbledon and The 3rd Ashes Test from Leeds.

The Sensorites is available on the BBC section of YouTube. You can find Episode 2 here.

031 The Sensorites Part 1: Strangers in Space

EPISODE: The Sensorites Part 1: Strangers in Space
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 031
STORY NUMBER: 007
TRANSMITTED: 20 June 1964
WRITER: Peter R. Newman
DIRECTOR: Mervyn Pinfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - The First Doctor (The Sensorites , The Time Meddler & The Gunfighters)



The Tardis has landed inside a Spaceship: a first for the series. The crew are dead. The Doctor wishes to leave but suddenly one of the bodies moves. He asks the travellers to grab a piece of equipment that will revive them, because they have in a deep sleep.

Oh dear, that didn't work well. The Doctor can't tell the difference between a deep sleep and dead?

The ship is orbiting the Sense-Sphere, home of the Sensorites, who are controlling their craft and influencing their brains. The ship's crew claim the Sensorites will try and stop the TARDIS crew from leaving - we see a gloved hand reaching for the TARDIS door and as the TARDIS crew smell burning we see the lock being removed. The crew are trapped outside. The ship shakes under the Sensorite control but the Doctor stabilises the ship albeit on a collision course for the Sense Sphere, but saves the ship in the nick of time. The Doctor wonders about the Sensorites behaviour. Only the other member of the crew has met them but he isn't there and they won't say what has happened to him. Barbara & Susan gain access to the rest of the ship seeking water, but another human shuts them out of the control deck. Susan & Barbara are stalked by the human, the missing crewman John, who is in a zombie like state. He collapses before them and tries to talk with them. The Doctor, Ian and the ship crew are trying to cut their way out of the flight deck: they hear a high pitch wine, the Sensorites are near and returning to the ship. The episode ends with a Sensorite looking in through the ship's window.

That didn't work for me. I get the feeling that there's something decent trying to get out but what comes over on the screen doesn't quite work.


Ladies and gentlemen, a big applause for the first appearance of Phil's Video Recorder in our journey. As yet not all existing Doctor Who stories are available on DVD but this is the first time I've need to dig out the VCR. We're actually watching the next THREE stories on video, the only time this will happen, but we'll break to CD half way through because two episodes in the middle of the next story are missing making that our first partially complete story. So for the next Nine episodes it's video. This will be one of the longer runs of consecutive days with the video. At the moment there's two Ten episodes stretches still on DVD (Terror of the Autons & Mind of Evil and Invasion of the Dinosaurs & Death to the Daleks) but that's beaten by a FIFTEEN episode run from Colony in Space through the Daemons and into Day of the Daleks. Note how these are all Pertwee episodes and two of them involve Season Eight! However by the time we get there - we hit Terror of the Autons on August 28th 2011! - it's possible that both Terror and Day of the Daleks will be out on DVD.

The BBC have made the Sensorites available on YouTube - You can find Episode One here.

030 The Aztecs Part 4: The Day of Darkness

EPISODE: The Aztecs Part 4: The Day of Darkness
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 030
STORY NUMBER: 006
TRANSMITTED: 13 June 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: John Crockett
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Aztecs


Tapped in the tunnel with rapidly rising water, Ian finds a way out into the tomb. The Doctor tells Ixta that Ian is within who in turn thanks the Doctor for ensuring his victory in the contest with Ian. Ian works at opening the door to the tomb and manages to secure it with the rope so they can open it again with a rope. Barbara finds Ian and they are reunited with the Doctor. Ian goes to rescue Susan who Ixta is now guarding. Ixta is surprised when Ian emerges. Barbara and the Doctor wait on the temple for the others.

There's a horribly obvious backdrop here representing the long distance here! And when Ian and Susan arrive we're treated to a classic Billy fluff:

"I can't tell you how glad I am.... I'll tell you how glad I am to see you later!". Ah, the wonders of TV filmed as live!

The travellers struggle with the rope: the Doctor wishes they had a pulley, which is beyond Aztec technology. Tlotoxl tasks Ixta with killing Autloc intending to place the blame on Ian. Trying to gain entrance to the Tomb, Ian & Susan discover the struck down Autloc and are arrested by guards as Tlotoxl intending. The Doctor is fashioning a pulley while talking with Cameca, who persuades Autloc to visit Yetaxa (Barbara) who tries to convince him that he was not struck by Ian, but Autloc feels he cannot save Ian. Cameca talks to the Doctor, knowing he must leave. Cameca & Autloc talk, Autloc provides a means to rescue Susan and says he is leaving the city. Tlotoxl tells Barbara Autloc has left. Cameca goes to fetch Susan which enables Ian to overcome their guard. Ian starts to strip the guard of his clothing. Susan is reunited with Barbara and the Doctor as the Doctor & Cameca say their goodbyes. Tlotoxl finds the prisoners have escaped just as the sacrificial ceremony starts, he goes to kill Yetaxa who is defended by her guard - Ian in disguise. Ixta & Ian fight again (big set piece here pre-filmed at Ealing) Ixta dies falling from the temple and Ian helps the others open the tomb with the rope & pulley just as the eclipse starts. Pleased they are trapped in the tomb Tloxoxl starts the sacrifices. Barbara muses to the Doctor on how futile their visit was and that they were unable to change history. Barbara places her high priestess gear in the tomb as they leave in the Tardis.

Sometime late they gather in the control room: Some of the Tardis instruments say they've stopped but others say they're still moving. Barbara wonders if they've landed inside something ...,

Well I wasn't that impressed with the first few episodes, but it picked up during the third. The final episode rattles along at a fair rate making it easily the best episode of the story. John Ringham's Tloxotl gets more barking as the story goes on! Like Keys of Marinus, watching each episode separately has changed my view of the story a bit.

The Aztecs was the first William Hartnell story to be released on DVD. It's also the first DVD story to be VIDFired, restoring the Video look of the film prints. I'll talk about this some more when we reach Planet of Giants - the first story to have this process used on it. There's a special feature on the story's restoration on the DVD which neatly explain VIDFire and numerous other aspects of the film & video technology involved.

Margot Van Der Burgh - who plays Cameca - would return to Doctor Who many years later in The Keeper of Traken while John Ringham - Tloxoxl - returns in the penultimate Hartnell story the Smugglers. The cast member who returns the most is Walter Randall, who plays Tonila one of the lesser characters in the story. He'd become a regular player in stories directed by Douglas Camfield notching up five further appearances over the first three Doctors. Camfield had a habit of reusing actors he liked as we shall see later.

029 The Aztecs Part 3: The Bride of Sacrifice

EPISODE: The Aztecs Part 3: The Bride of Sacrifice
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 029
STORY NUMBER: 006
TRANSMITTED: 06 June 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: John Crockett
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD
: Doctor Who - The Aztecs

Barbara holds Tlotoxl at knife point till Ixta releases Ian. Tlotoxl question Ixta and finds out the Doctor wants details of the tomb. Barbara and Autloc discuss a sacrifice due to occur when there is an eclipse in three days time. The Aztecs believe that the sacrifices are necessary for the sun to return. The Doctor and Tlotoxl talk, Tlotoxl wants proof that Yetaxa/Barbara is a false god. Ixta & Ian reach an understanding. When asked for the drawing by Tlotoxl,Ixta reveals they do not exist. Tlotoxl proposes killing Barbara to test if she is immortal. The Doctor and Cameca take cocoa together, without the Doctor realising that this will mean they are engaged. Tlotoxl brings the poison to Barbara: Ian realises it's poison, Barbara tries to get Tlotoxl to drink it first and he refuses. She admits she is not Yetaxa and could be killed by the poison but argues with Tlotoxl. The Doctor discovers his error while the priests argue over what to do with Barbara: They decide to find a husband for Susan as a way of getting at Barbara. Susan refuses to go through with the wedding. Cameca brings The Doctor a gift, something from the Tomb that Ixta's father gave her. The Doctor suspects there is a tunnel into the tomb and confides this to Ian who teases the Doctor about his engagement. The Doctor & Ian look for the tunnel at night but struggle to gain access. Ian removes the stone and climbs into the tunnel, but the Doctor is caught by Ixta who replaces the stone trapping Ian. The tunnel is a watercourse and starts to fill with Ian unable to escape....

Now this episode worked better for me than the previous two, there's a sense of the situations the characters are in coming together and giving them an urgency to find a way into the tomb to leave.

Carol Anne Ford's appearances in these middle two episodes are on film and are pre-recorded as she was on holiday these weeks.

028 The Aztecs Part 2: The Warriors of Death

EPISODE: The Aztecs Part 2: The Warriors of Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 028
STORY NUMBER: 006
TRANSMITTED: 30 May 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: John Crockett
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Aztecs

The Doctor tells Barbara off for interfering in the sacrifice. Susan has been locked up in a seminary for her part in the sacrifice debacle. Tlotoxl tests Barbara while Ian argues with Ixta. Ian uses martial arts to immobilised Ixta with a touch to the neck - IT'S A VULCAN NERVE PINCH ;-)

I'm finding the scenes of the Aztecs talking amongst themselves difficult to follow....

Ixta, Tlotoxl & Autloc disagree over who should command the Aztecs forces. Tlotoxl speaks with Barbara and seeks to trap her. It emerges that Ixta is the son of the architect of the tomb. He plots against the travellers. Susan is being educated in the Aztecs ways, but objects when it appears she will be married off. Ixta meets the Doctor and offers to bring him drawings of the temple in exchange for knowledge on how to beat his opponent, not disclosing to The Doctor that he is fighting Ian, whom he challenges. Barbara speaks with Autloc and discusses halting the sacrifices. The Doctor gives Ixta a plant that will sap Ian's strength is scratched with it. The Doctor then finds out from Barbara that Ixta is fighting Ian, but is arrested by the guards. Ian & Ixta fight, the Doctor enters and tries to warn Ian but Ian is scratched by the plant allowing Ixta to overcome him. Barbara arrives stopping the fight but Tlotoxl challenges her to save Ian.

Well better than the first episode, didn't drag so much, but still..... not a favourite.

The publication of the book of the Aztecs, by it's TV series author
John Lucarotti as Target book number 88, marks a turning point for the Doctor Who range. Up until this point forays into the eras of previous Doctors had been rare. A few when the series started, another few in the late 70s but very little from outside of the last 3 years or so before publication. The Aztecs started a concerted assault on the earlier un-novelised stories and lead to a general upswing in the quality of the books. We love Terrance Dicks, author of many Doctor Who novels, but during the period he was turning out a novel a month some of the novelisations, especially those in Tom Baker's 3rd - 6th years are a little lacking.

027 The Aztecs Part 1: The Temple of Evil

EPISODE: The Aztecs Part 1: The Temple of Evil
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 027
STORY NUMBER: 006
TRANSMITTED: 23 May 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: John Crockett
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Aztecs


Right, The Aztecs. I've seen this a grand total of twice: Once when I bought the video a few years after it came out, and once with the commentary on after the DVD was released. I've got the book but never read it. It's a historical story and they've never interested me. I know there's something in there about Barbara wanting to stop the Aztec's sacrifices and that the great John Ringham is in it but that's about it. So on with the DVD.

Oooh, the tapestry at the start of the Play All option on the DVD was in the story and now lives in designer Barry Newbery's house - there's a picture of it on the Restoration Team website.

We've materialised in an Aztec tomb. It emerges that Barbara, a history teacher remember, is an expert on the Aztecs. Susan & Barbara find an exit, Barbara is seen by a priest who calls the guards to capture her. Susan fetches the Doctor & Ian but as soon as they go through the door of the tomb it seals behind them. They are greeted by the high priest Autloc who thinks they are the servants of Yetaxa, a former high priest, who Barbara has been mistaken as the reincarnation of. The travellers are reunited with Barbara, they worry what will happen when the Aztecs realise Barbara isn't Yetaxa. The priests Autloc and Tlotoxl (pronounced ya tox al) arrange for Barbara to be presented to the people, just before the rains will come. The Doctor & Ian are allowed to go out amongst the people. The priests decide Ian will lead their warriors while the Doctor is taken to the garden of peace. Ian will have to fight Ixta, the Axtec's strongest warrior, for command of the army. The Doctor takes a shine to Cameca, one of the women in the garden of peace, and plies her for information on the temple. Ian's duties involve escorting a human sacrifice to the alter,which he's not happy with. The Doctor insists he must comply as the sacrifice is part of the Aztecs culture. The Doctor tells Barbara not to interfere, but she won't listen. She wants to forbid the people to make human sacrifices reasoning that if they stop the sacrifices it will save the Aztecs when the Spanish arrive in a few years time. She interrupts the sacrifice, but the victim is shocked claiming he has been denied honour and throws himself off the temple as the storm starts confirming to the mind of the Aztec priest Tlotoxl that the rains need death to summon them. Tlotoxl concludes that "Yetaxa" is a false goddess and vows to destroy her.

That dragged. Big time. Felt more like an hour than 25 minutes. But in there we do get an important concept to Doctor Who: don't interfere with established events.

026 The Keys of Marinus Part 6: The Keys of Marinus

EPISODE: The Keys of Marinus Part 6: The Keys of Marinus
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 026
STORY NUMBER: 005
TRANSMITTED: 16 May 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: John Gorrie
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Keys Of Marinus

Part Six! So Susan is being threatened by unseen assailants while talking to Barbara. They go to see Kala, Aydan's widow for information, but she says she knows nothing. She's crying as they leave but soon perks up and opens a door to reveal the kidnapped Susan. Kala takes a phone call from an unseen co-conspirator who tells her to call Susan. Barbara realises that Kala was lying to them and they return to her rooms in time to save Susan. Barbara calls the Guardians and tells them that Kala killed Aydan. Kala lies and says Ian Chesterton as her accomplice. The Doctor decides to set a trap for the ringleader who now plans to collect the key. He lies in wait with Tarron and other Guardians and capture him: it's the senior Guardian Eyesen. The key is found hidden in the mace that killed Eprin. The travellers transport on to Arbitan's citadel.

Sabitha & Altos have travelled ahead: they are prisoners of Yartek, leader of the Vrood. Yartek disguises himself as Arbitan and takes the key from Ian, but gives himself away by not knowing Altos. Ian reveals he has given Yartek the fake key: They leave the building just before the fake key activates the machine's destruct mechanism, killing the Vrood. The travellers leave in the Tardis leaving Sabitha & Altos together who intend to travel to Millenius.

OK episode. Changing the setting half way through helps, like the whole story is helped by the location changing every episode. This device neatly papers over some of the cracks and Nation will return to it again (The Chase & The Dalek Masterplan) The wrap up to the murder is better than the court room stuff in the previous episode that preceded it. The return to Arbitan's citadel is only half the episode then, so we get to see little of the Vrood after their brief appearances earlier. Maybe having a Vrood presence in the other episodes would have helped as they seek to find the keys elsewhere.

At the time the Vrood were popular, appearing in the first Doctor Who annual. Years later a young Grant Morrison would use them in a Doctor Who Monthly comic strip, the World Shapers, where it's revealed that they become the Cybermen. This story has recently been collected in Panini's Doctor Who: The World Shapers Trade Paperback.

Over the 6 episodes I found this *MUCH* better than I remember it being. Episode 5 was the only real let down this time. As I said earlier I think this story improved for me watching one episode at a time !

025 The Keys of Marinus Part 5: Sentence of Death

EPISODE: The Keys of Marinus Part 5: Sentence of Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 025
STORY NUMBER: 005
TRANSMITTED: 09 May 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: John Gorrie
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Keys Of Marinus

Ian waked up to find himself a prisoner of the Guardian Tarron (Nation will use several similar names in his stories in years to come) in the city of Millenius. Tarron does not believe his story and arrests Ian for the murder. Presumed guilty, Ian must prove his innocence or die. The other travellers see Ian - they are yet to find Altos' friend Eprin or the Doctor. Fortunately the Doctor turns up at that moment - Hartnell refreshed by a fortnight's fishing - and announces HE will defend Ian. In court the Doctor obtains two days to investigate. The murdered man was Eprin, Altos' friend who was working with the Doctor. The Doctor claims to know who stole the key and killed Eprin. He reconstructs the events with the companions. They conclude that Aydan, one of the guards first on the scene must have stolen the key. Susan & Barbara visit Kala, the wife of Aydan, who tells them how the key came to be here. Aydan arrives and threatens them, accidentally giving himself away. When they leave he hits his wife. A man named Eyesen is seen conferring with his associates over the phone. Returning to the court the Doctor claims the murderer is present. Under interrogation in court Kala produces the key and reveals Aydan is the murderer who is promptly shot. The court believes Ian is still guilty and pronounces sentence. Barbara takes a phone call from Susan who is being held by unknown assailants who are threatening to kill her.

What a boring episode. Doctor Who does court room drama and not very well at that! Having seen the episode again maybe that explains why I thought the story so bad on previous viewings!

A couple of familiar faces here: Donald Pickering (Eyesen) will be back in the Faceless Ones and Time & The Rani, while Fiona Walker (Kala), in a very early acting job here, returns as Lady Peniforte in Silver Nemesis.

024 The Keys of Marinus Part 4: The Snows of Terror

EPISODE: The Keys of Marinus Part 4: The Snows of Terror
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 024
STORY NUMBER: 005
TRANSMITTED: 02 May 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: John Gorrie
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Keys Of Marinus

Our "does what it says on the tin" measure finds Ian & Barbara freezing to death in the snow. They're rescued by a man and taken to a cottage. A man in the cottage, the trapper Vasor, says they were rescued from wolves by a stranger who was looking for two girls. Ian thinks it sounds like Altos. He bargains away his travel bracelet for some firs to go out in the snow looking for the other three. He finds Altos and rescues him. Barbara finds Sabitha's chain with the keys: the Vasor found them with the girls. Barbara thinks he stole the keys and the travel dials. He's put raw meat into Ian's bag to attract the wolves. Back at the cottage Vasor is attempting to assault Barbara. She defends herself long enough for Ian & Altos to arrive. He has Susan & Sabitha captive in a cave on the mountain. Vasor leads Ian's party up the mountain to the cave where the girls are but they have ventured further into the caves inside the mountain. Crossing a rope bridge over a chasm Susan and Sabitha find four knights guarding something. Ian's party cross the bridge and are reunited with the girls but Vasor cuts the ropes trapping them. They take shelter in the chamber with Knights - in the middle of them is the key. Ian believes the knights are four frozen warriors. Turning a valve on a pipe, linked to a hot underground spring, starts to melt the ice containing the key. Ian & Altos build a temporary bridge to escape. With the ice melted they retrieve the key, but the Knights come to life and attack them. Susan crosses the temporary bridge enabling the rope bridge to be retired long enough for them to escape over it. Ian cuts the bridge again as one knight falls to his doom and the others are trapped. Ian's party return to Vasor's cottage, seize their travel dials and escape as Vasor is slain by one of the Knights who has escaped.

Ian materialises in a museum with a body on the floor. He is clubbed unconscious from behind with his hand placed on the handle of a mace. His unseen assailant breaks into a cabinet and steals the last key.

A little bit more pedestrian this episode. The knights waking up is similar to the moving statue from the last episode, while the mucking about with the rope bridge reminded me of the chasm in The Daleks episode 6. Never one to waste an idea was Terry Nation:-) However Vasor's assault on Barbara is a little bit of an adult theme for a teatime show, it's quite obvious what they're implying his intention is here. The Ice & Snow setting is good, but Doctor Who will make much better use of such a setting in later stories.

023 The Keys of Marinus Part 3: The Screaming Jungle

EPISODE: The Keys of Marinus Part 3: The Screaming Jungle
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 023
STORY NUMBER: 005
TRANSMITTED: 25 April 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: John Gorrie
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Keys Of Marinus

Since the last episode ended in woodland with screaming I'm hoping that this episode title lives up to it's billing.

The noise Susan's heard has vanished. They find some walls overgrown with vegetation but can't force their way through the archway. Ian, Altos and Sabitha try to find another entrance and while Barbara examines the arch Susan is attacked by the plants. Barbara forces her way through the arch and finds a statue which has the key on it. As she removes the key the statue grabs her and rotates into the wall. The statue rotates back but it's arms are open and empty. Thinking Barbara may have used her travel dial Altos & Susan travel on ahead while Ian & Sabitha see if they can rescue Barbara. However they discover the Key that Barbara found and dropped is a fake. Sabitha goes to find the others and tell them what has happened leaving Ian to set off the statue trap again. He finds himself in a courtyard where he is attacked by a suit of armour and then finds Barbara who tells him the place is booby trapped.

While Ian looks for something to force a door it opens for Barbara who enters and is trapped by a net under some slowly descending spikes. A cloaked figure releases her from the trap. He doesn't believe she has come from Arbitan and takes her travel dial but is then grabbed by the plants. Ian frees him with a sword. The man says the jungle is coming and urges them to leave. As he dies he gives Ian a code to find the key and warns them of the whispering in the darkness. They find a safe but the code doesn't work so they commence a search. As they search it gets dark outside and the noises Susan heard start. Plants start to push their way through the walls. They realise the code is a chemical formula and that the key was hidden in a jar. They use their travel discs to leave but find themselves on a snowy landscape completely exposed.

The noises and the moving plants were great but the statue was obviously someone with his arms poked through the scenery. If it wasn't five years in the future when this was made I'd swear I was just watching an unused Scooby Doo script!

This episode and the next are missing William Hartnell who has a scheduled holiday.

022 The Keys of Marinus Part 2: The Velvet Web

EPISODE: The Keys of Marinus Part 2: The Velvet Web
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 022
STORY NUMBER: 005
TRANSMITTED: 18 April 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: John Gorrie
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT:
DVD: Doctor Who - The Keys Of Marinus

From the title, I'm expecting Spiders. Do I get them?

The travellers, looking for Barbara, open the doors behind them and, after seeing a pulsating light and hearing a matching noise, find themselves in a Roman like palatial setting. Ian is hesitant to eat, they find themselves the guests of the contented city of Morphoton. As they sleep a woman places a disk on their foreheads. Barbara awakes to the flashing light, and falls into a very deep sleep from which she is slow to wake. Barbara awakes and sees a very different room: all run down. Her drinking glass is a dirty mug and Susan's new dress is dirty rags. Their host, Altos offers to help Barbara but she runs off and hides. Altos reports to his masters - disembodied brains, with eyes on stalks, held in jars. The TARDIS crew are being exposed to the mesmertron but Barbara has seen the truth and must be destroyed. Barbara finds the serving woman who is to be punished for not placing the discs properly. The Doctor is taken to a room he believes is an advanced laboratory but we see is an empty room. The serving girl has something on a chain round her neck that Barbara recognises. She asks her if she knows Arbitan: she is Sabitha, Arbitan's missing daughter.

Oooh these brains are good, they pulse in time to a heart beat.

Barbara finds Ian, but he is under the brains control. They need the humans as slaves. Front on shot of the brains, they look superb. The eyes recoil as Barbara smashes their machinery and the jars freeing everyone in the city from their control. Altos too is one of Arbitan's servants: he will travel with the Doctor. Sabitha has the first key round her neck. The Doctor will travel on in search of Altos' friend who was looking for the fourth key. Susan teleports ahead and finds herself in a woodland setting filled with odd screaming noises.

No Spiders then. But what a cracking episode! Decent plot. The Morphotron Brains were a great effect, we didn't see enough of them especially from the front. There's some colour photos on the DVD photo gallery and in colour they look jaw droopingly great. In fact there's colour shots of the whole episode and it really looks superb.

Hmmmm. I've really enjoyed both of these episodes, and that doesn't match my recollections of the story. Does it make that much difference watching one episode at a time or are there some dodgy episodes to come?

Phil's *NEW* DVD Race

I mentioned a few weeks backthat I was relieved The Ark would be on DVD before I got there.

Well Terror of the Autons & Day of the Daleks are believed to be coming this year. It's just occured to me that I can't now be sure if I'll be watching on DVD or Video.

We know DVD release daytes into March now. Terror of the Autons is due to be watched on 28th July 2011 with Day of the Daleks following on the 22nd September.

Can 2Entertain release them before I get there to watch them? The race is on. I'm hoping 2Entertain get there first :-)

021 The Keys of Marinus Part 1: The Sea of Death

EPISODE: The Keys of Marinus Part 1: The Sea of Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 021
STORY NUMBER: 005
TRANSMITTED: 11 April 1964
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: John Gorrie
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Keys Of Marinus


We're halfway through Doctor Who Season 1! This is episode 21 of 42!

We're also back on DVD so we have visuals again. There's a distinct break between this story and the last, with no reprise of action form the previous story. It opens with a pyramid, on an island surrounded by sea.

Oooh, Terry Nation (write of the Daleks) is back writing this one!

There's the Tardis on the sea shore. Ian thinks he can see something moving, we see some odd one man submarines landing on the sea shore.

"Is it frozen?"
"No,impossible in this temperature. Besides it's too warm."

We see an odd figure in a black body/wet suit. The shore is glass,not sand on this odd world. Susan wants to go paddling in a rock pool but Barbara knocks her shoe in and it dissolves. The liquid is acid! The black clad figure examines the Tardis. The Doctor finds the submarines

Goodness Billy is fluffing like a good un this episode!

Susan finds webbed footprints, and as she leaves the figure is revealed. The others find a damaged craft beached by the acid with another black suit in there. They prod at the suit - remember that picture from an old Doctor Who weekly Crazy Caption competition. They make for the Pyramid structure, Susan is already there exploring but observed by one of the dark clad beings. He draws a knife to threaten her but is dragged through a concealed door.

Look closely as the door opens - you can very briefly see one of the effects crew operating it!

The odd shape buttresses supporting the structure have a very similar shape to the Dalek city corridors a few stories back.

Susan is pulled through a door and screams alerting the others. The Doctor likewise vanishes. Susan walks along a corridor, sees a white robed figure but is then attacked by one of the black clad strangers who falls dead with a knife in it's back. Ian vanishes and then finally Barbara falls through the doors. Ian finds the body while Barbara is reunited with Susan & the Doctor. The white robed figure wrestles with another black suited attacker but is saved by Ian who pushes him down a shaft into some acid.

The man thanks Ian and tells him the attackers are the Voord who have returned to attack where he lives after many years away and releases the others.

The man takes them to The Conscience of Marinus, a huge crystal machine (lovely set) which has been used to influence the inhabitants and eliminate evil & violence on Marinus, the planet they are on. To protect the machine from Yartek, the Voord leader who wishes to use it for evil, 4 of he 5 keys to the machine have been scattered and hidden. Yartek has developed technology to protect the Voord from the machine's influence. Now the keys are needed to use the machine which has been modified to overcome the Voord's protection. All of the man's followers, including his daughter, have vanished trying to find the keys. He wants the Doctor and his friends to find the keys. They refuse and leave but find a force barrier round the TARDIS, which has been erected by Arbitan, the robed man in the citadel - Ian calls his name but I swear we've not heard it before. Arbitan forces them to help him. The Doctor describes the situation as outrageous. He refuses to travel in the subs but Arbitan says he has a better mode of transport in mind and passes them all a bracelet that will move them through Space (but not time unlike the Tardis) at the twist of the dial. Oooh, do I see Blake's Seven's teleport bracelets 14 years too early? Terry Nation, as we shall see, was always good at recycling ideas. Arbitan urges them to destroy the keys if they find the Voord have taking the building on their return. The travellers vanish and Arbitan is promptly slain by a Voord. Ian, Susan and the Doctor materialise and find Barbara's travel dial with blood on it.

That was a cracking episode! Up until the point the explanations start that's probably the best the series has been so far. A real sense of mystery and menace to their surroundings. Loved it.

020 Marco Polo Part 7: Assassin At Peking

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 7: Assassin At Peking
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 020
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 04 April 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: CD Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965)

Right, part 7.

Ian and Tegana argue but the Khan's courier arrives, confiscates their weapons and escort them to Peking. The Doctor and the Khan have already arrived and is playing his new friend at Backgammon and drinking tea. Lovely list of items given that they have gambled away! The Doctor tries to gamble for the TARDIS, but loses. Ian tells their story to Marco Polo including the tale of Tegana's treachery. Ping Cho discovers she is to be married in the morning but isn't at all happy. Tegana tries to turn the Khan against the travellers. Later after the banquet, the Khan confesses to Ping Cho that her husband to be expired over dinner! Ping Cho elects to stay a while with the Khan. Tegana obtains an audience with the Khan, but then travellers deduce that he intends to assassinate the Khan. They evade their guard, meet Marco and tell him what Tegana intends. Polo goes to the throne room where Tegana and the Khan meet. Tegana attacks, slaying the Khan's Vizier but Marco arrives and fights him. Polo wins as the guards arrive, but Tegana slays himself. Marco gives the Doctor the TARDIS keys and they leave, dematerialising in front of the Khan who is astonished by what he sees. Realising what Ian said was true Marco wonders if they have gone to the past or the future.

At Seven parts Marco Polo is one of the longer Doctor Who stories, and is the longest historical story. There's one other six part historical story during this season but in the next three series, until they were phased out, historical stories are confined to four episodes. I found Marco Polo a bit of a slog in places, and a little bit up and down, but what long Doctor Who story isn't? But having said that it's much better than I remember it being, and I think I can be more positive about it now. I've seen photos and the sets for this story superb so I suspect this would definitely be served by having the film to go with the sound. I would have said, with but one exception, that I'm not that keen on the historical stories, but I think this has to be added to the plus pile. As for the historical accuracy.... well Polo existed as did the Khan but the rest of it is entirely fictional.

As we've said Marco Polo is seven parts long which is a slightly unusual length for a Doctor Who story. There are plenty of Six and Four part stories and a few Two and Three parters. At the small end of the scale there's just two single episode stories: Mission to the Unknown and the 90 minute Five Doctors anniversary special. Three Five part stories exist - The Dominators & The Mind Robber from the Sixth season and The Daemons from the Eighth. Two of Doctor Who's Seven parters are in the First season and we've done those already - The Daleks & Marco Polo. We don't see the next one for another three years until Evil of the Daleks closes the Fourth seasons. The Seventh season is, bar it's Four part opener, almost entirely comprised of 3 Seven Part stories: The Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death & Inferno - the last of which pulls a very clever trick to stretch it's story to that many episodes. Season Six has both an Eight parter - The Invasion - and a Ten Parter - The War Games, while season Three featured the long time record holder, in the Twelve part epic The Dalek Masterplan. Officially the record is now held by season Twenty Three's mammoth Fourteen part A Trial Of A Timelord but you can argue that this is a) 3xFour part stories and 1xTwo part stories and B) rubbish. Actually it's just occurred to me I'm going to have to watch Trial again. Oh dear. Three times in one lifetime was enough!

Missing Episodes 7) Is that it?

When we left Ian Levine at the archives there were 137 episodes of Doctor Who missing. Today there are 108. However it's been nearly seven years since the last complete episode of Doctor Who was recovered (Dalek Masterplan 2: The Day of Armageddon in January 2004). So is that it? Maybe. All the broadcasters who showed Doctor Who have been contacted and say they don't have any older episodes remaining in their archives. But things do get mislabelled, put in the wrong tin etc - for many years there was a film can of Day of Armageddon in existence and nobody knew what had happened to it's contents. There are other film tins labelled as Doctor Who that didn't have the right episodes in: Moonbase episode 3, Ice Warriors 3 and Fury from the Deep 6 have all had cans discovered over the years. Did the contents of these tins walk out the door of the BBC, or other broadcaster, and into the hands of private collectors. Mind you if a private collector has got any missing Doctor Who then he's keeping very quiet about it. There again, to use Day of Armageddon again, that had sat in a bag hung on someone's door for years. There's a few oddities in the records: What happened to Dalek Masterplan 4: The Traitors after the BBC used it? What was the fate of Tenth Planet 4? (which has had more rumours about it's existence than any other episode) What happened to the episodes that were , according to the records, in the film library when a documentary was made in the 1970s but had vanished when Ian Levine looked? An error on the records or did they go walkies? In many cases we'll never know. But the rumour, lack of complete records of destruction and in at least one case the survival of a film print that was definitely destroyed will keep Doctor Who fans & professionals looking for missing episodes. Who knows what they might find?

The first recovered missing episode we come to will be the Reign of Terror 1 in 16 days time. As they come up I'll attempt to tell the story of where they were and how they came back to the BBC.

Those interested in the subject are directed to Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes by Richard Molesworth which is a great read and I have been indebted to while writing these articles.

019 Marco Polo Part 6: Mighty Kublai Khan

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 6: Mighty Kublai Khan
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 019
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 28 March 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: CD Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965)

Tegana forces the crew from the TARDIS by threatening Susan then attacks the Doctor. They all then ride ahead of the Tardis and the baggage to Cathay. Ian tells Marco Polo the truth about the TARDIS and their origins in an attempt to get the Tardis back but Marco doesn't believe him. Marco Polo deduces Ping Cho stole the key and she sneaks away. Ian volunteers to go back and find her while Marco Polo pushes on to the Khan. Ping Cho has returned Cheng-Ting (so we get the camp innkeeper back) but is conned out of her money. When Ian arrives they discover the TARDIS has been stolen. There is argument amongst the travellers about whether Ping Cho should be made to marry someone old enough to be her Grandfather so Marco Polo dispatches Tegana to find Ian & Ping Cho. They are pursuing the TARDIS along a disused road. The travellers arrive at Shang-Tu and meet the great Kublai Khan, who elects that they will travel to Peking. The Doctor befriends the Khan on the mutual grounds of their advanced years. Ian & ping Cho find the TARDIS with the man that robbed Ping Cho and discover that he was paid by Tegana who then arrives and squares up to Ian.

Not a bad episode this one.

Missing Episodes 6) Reconstructions

Of course if you have sound and pictures you can try to put them together. Several fan groups exist who have attempted this unofficially. The BBC have had a go themselves a few times: Tenth Planet 4 has been completely reconstructed for the Video release of that story. An abridged reconstruction of The Ice Warriors 2 & 3 is found on the VHS of that story. A complete reconstruction of all six episodes of The Power of the Daleks is found on a CD Rom while an 30 minute abridged version of Marco Polo is found on the Doctor Who: The Beginning DVD Boxset.

The Invasion has had to take an alternative route. Episodes 1 & 4 of this eight part story no longer exist and no telesnaps were taken for this story. When the story was released on DVD these episodes were animated to add visuals to the existing soundtracks.

Doctor Who On DVD 2011: More dates

Here's what 2011 looks like now:

10th Jan: Meglos

31st Jan: The Mutants

14th Feb: The Ark

07th March: Mara Tales - Kinda & Snakedance

28th March: Revisitations 2 - Seeds of Death, Carnival of Monsters & Resurection of The Daleks

Also coming: Day of the Daleks, a new Spearhead from Space believed to be in a boxset with Terror of the Autons and the Planet of Spiders.

Revisitations Volume 3 is *believed* to contain Tomb of the Cybermen. Vengeance on Varos (mistake with the production subtitles), Three Doctors (repeated episode ending) and Robots of Death (early release, boring commentary, no documentary) are other good candidates.

018 Marco Polo Part 5: Rider from Shang-Tu

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 5: Rider from Shang-Tu
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 018
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 21 March 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: CD Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965)

In the forest is Tegana's ally Accobat and some bandits. The Doctor wish to flee in the Tardis but Ian goes to warn Marco Polo.

Hmm the recording of this episode is a bit rough! I'm struggling to hear this. It does pick up a bit but fluctuates after that.

Ian creates a plan for a diversion by flinging Bamboo on the fire which should explode. Bandits attack and just as the travellers are being overpowered the bamboo explodes. After they travel through the forest onto the plain beyond. Polo frees his prisoners but extracts a promise from them not to try to escape. The Tardis crew are further convinced of Tegana's guilt & treachery. A courier from the Khan arrives to speak with Marco unwittingly causing Ping Cho to discover the location of the TARDIS keys. Polo has received orders to proceed without delay to Shang-Tu. They stop at another Way Station at Cheng-Ting. The Innkeeper has stashed the TARDIS in the stables which earns the Doctor's wrath.

The Innkeeper at the Way Station is easily the campest character to appear in Doctor Who so far !

Tegana and an accomplice plot to steel the TARDIS from the stables. Ping Cho steals the TARDIS keys for Susan. The TARDIS crew make to sneak away at night, Susan goes to say goodbye to Ping Cho, but within reach of the TARDIS when she is seized by Tegana.

Missing Episodes 5) Tape Recording

Even back in the 60s there were Doctor Who fans and some of them wanted to experience their favourite TV show time and again. Video Recorders didn't exist then so what they did was record the soundtracks of the episodes, sometimes by putting the microphone up against the TV speaker or, in at least one case, wiring their tape recorder into the TV sound output. Years later these Soundtracks started being passed between fans. The BBC borrowed some recordings and released five best selling cassettes in the early 1990s, then in the late 1999 started a regular CD release of these stories which now means all the missing story soundtracks are available. Boxed set releases of these stories have now commenced, staring with CD: Doctor Who - The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965) No. 1 which contains Marco Polo, The Reign of Terror, The Crusade, Galaxy 4 and The Myth Makers

017 Marco Polo Part 4: The Wall of Lies

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 4: The Wall of Lies
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 017
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 14 March 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: John Crockett
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965)

Marco finds where the Doctor has gone and leaves with Ian for the cave. The Doctor doubts Susan has seen the eyes move when they meet Tegana, closely followed by Marco & Ian, who deduces there's a room behind the cave wall. The door to the room opens and they are attacked by a warrior who they defeat to rescue Barbara. Marco & Tegana argue about travelling with the Tardis crew. Barbara tells Marco about Tegana who denies having been to the cave before. Tegana overhears Susan & Ping Cho talking and discovers there is a spare Tardis key. Ping Cho spots a flaw in something Tegana said but Marco will not believe her. Tegana plots the slaughter of the travellers with an ally. The Doctor works on the broken circuit, while Ian talks with Marco. Tegana enters and tells Marco that the Doctor is at work in the Tardis via a second key, which Tegana takes from him by force. The Doctor bluffs that putting the key in the lock will destroy the Tardis. Marco has the Tardis crew taken prisoner. Ian wants to escape from confinement, and they plot to capture Marco and seize a key back. Ian cuts his was into Marco's tent with a broken plate, tackling the guard but finding that he's already dead.

This story is an up and down experience so far for me: I've liked the odd numbered episodes but the even numbered ones have left me cold.

Episode 4 is the only episode of Marco Polo not directed by Waris Hussein, John Crockett is in the chair instead. It seems to be a common thing in first year of Doctor Who to give a director new to the series a single or couple of episodes before unleashing them on a complete story: see the shared responsibility for the Daleks, Edge of Destruction & Planet of Giants for other examples. John Crockett would return ten weeks later to direct The Aztecs, which is his only other work on Doctor Who.

Missing Episodes 4) John Cura's Telesnap Photos

Photographer John Cura had a business in the 1950s & 60s taking photos from television programs to provide the makers with a permanent record of their work. These remained forgotten for many years but were gradually rediscovered from the mid 1980s onwards. Several stories that were missing from the BBC's libraries exist in the Telesnap format so they've become very popular as the only way of seeing what these missing stories looked like.

Telesnaps from The Power of The Daleks were first printed in Doctor Who:The Early Years by Jeremy Bentham and over the years many other stories have had their telesnaps printed in several publications. Doctor Who magazine has serialised several stories worth of telesnaps over the years.

For many years no Telesnaps from Marco Polo were known to exists: None were found in the BBC's written archive, the source of many of the pictures that exist today. However in 2003 Six of the Seven episodes of Marco Polo were acquired from the director, Waris Hussein, who had kept copies. As we've already said the fourth episode, for which no telesnaps are known to exist, was overseen by a different director, John Crockett who died some years previously.

Several sets of telesnaps can be found at The BBC's Classic Doctor Who Website, but unfortunately they don't have the set for Marco Polo displayed.

016 Marco Polo Part 3: Five Hundred Eyes

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 3: Five Hundred Eyes
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 016
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 07 March 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965)

More narration, as Marco wonders where Tegana is. The Doctor is asleep in the Tardis when he is awoken by water dripping on him which he and Susan hurry to collect. Condensation has formed but Marco does not understand what it is, giving Ian an opportunity to explain what condensation is for the children at home. They proceed to the oasis where Tegana strings them a story about being delayed by bandits. From there they go to the way station at Tuang-Huan. Marco tells Susan, Ping-Cho & Barbara the tale of the cave of Five Hundred Eyes, where the faces of 250 evil warriors who were slain are painted. Tegana sneaks out to the cave, followed by Barbara, to meet a couple of contacts who are hiding there. They plan to attack the caravan, capture the Tardis and kill everyone. Barbara is spotted and captured giving Jacqueline Hill a chance to scream. Barbara is missed at meal time: Ian, Marco & Tegana set out to search for her. Ping Cho tells the Doctor that she thinks Barbara may have gone to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes. Tegana's servant reveals the location to them and they travel there. The servant finds Tegana and tells him what has happened. The Doctor is fascinated by the faces carved from rock exposing the quartz structure at the eyes. Barbara's handkerchief is found and the travellers call out for her while she is held silent by one of Tegana's allies. Susan notices a pair of eyes in the cave moving and screams.

An easier episode than the last one, this held my attention a lot more.

Missing Episodes 3) Ian Levine, The Film & Video Library & BBC Enterprises Film Store

The figure of Ian Levine enters our story in 1977. A successful record producer and Doctor Who fan he negotiated with the BBC to buy some episodes. At the time the earliest episodes available to buy commercially were the Pertwee ones. He negotiated with the Writers Guild and Equity and got dispensation to buy older stories. However when he got to the BBC's Film & Video Library he discovered they held just 47 of the 253 episodes of Doctor Who broadcast in the sixties, 17 Hartnells and 30 Troughtons and just one complete story: the first. The F&VL believed they held a 48th: Part 4 of the Daleks Masterplan had been borrowed by the BBC Childrens program Blue Peter but went missing following it's use on that program. For many years when this story was told by fans with a huge error in it, substituting Tenth Planet 4, the only episode of that story missing, for Dalek Masterplan 4. To this day many people believe that the final episode of The Tenth Planet was lost by Blue Peter!

After searching the BBC Film & Video library, Ian Levine then discovered that BBC Enterprises, the division of the BBC that sold the programs abroad, also had a film store. It was here that he discovered all seven episodes of The Daleks tied together and ready to be destroyed. The Film & Video library took possession of the films adding a further 56 Hartnell Episodes and 5 Troughton episodes to the collection. Three Troughton stories had been donated to the British Film Institute and were retrieved from there. This completed 15 Hartnell stories and 5 Troughton stories with several odd episodes existing from other stories. At this point 139 episodes of Doctor Who were missing: 137 episode of 60s Doctor Who made up of 61 Hartnell episodes - including all Seven episodes of Marco Polo - and 76 Troughton episodes, plus a further two episodes from Jon Pertwee's tenure as the Doctor during the 1970s - Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1 & Death to the Daleks 1. In addition a number of Pertwee episodes only existed in Black & White. I'll look at what happened with the various Pertwee episode when we get there.

Today the number of missing episodes stands at 108, with episodes having been recovered from a variety of sources. The story of the missing Hartnell episodes and how they came to be returned/recovered will be picked up in a few weeks with Part 1 of The Reign of Terror.

Marco Polo is the longest complete story, at seven episodes, that is completely missing from the Doctor Who archives. However, if you look elsewhere in Doctor Who, there are greater numbers of consecutive missing episodes. Ten consecutive episodes are missing from Galaxy Four part 1, through Mission to the Unknown & The Myth Makers to The Dalek Masterplan 1. There's two "runs" of 13 missing episodes: Tenth Planet 4, through Power of the Daleks & The Highlanders to the second episode of the Underwater Menace, then again from Web of Fear 2 through Fury from the Deep to the second part of the Wheel In Space.

015 Marco Polo Part 2: The Singing Sands

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 2: The Singing Sands
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 015
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 29 February 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965)


After the reprise we get the unique for Doctor Who device of some narration, given by Marco Polo over an animated map of the journey. Ian raises the subject of how much water they need....ooooh, what a coincidence. The Doctor is sulking unwilling to eat or talk to anyone - is Hartnell on holiday this week? Susan watches the desert at night with Ping Cho and sees Tegana sneaking away - they follow. The horses, agitated by a coming sandstorm, wake Ian and Marco. Susan & Ping Cho take shelter from the storm. Tegana finds the girls and bring them back but later sabotages the water gourds. (why didn't he use the poison he bought the previous episode?) Marco wants to push on to an oasis while Tegana wishes to return to the way station at Lop. After several days the water runs out and Tegana is dispatched to the oasis to fetch more water. The Doctor emerges and collapses (the pictures are missing, is this a double for Hartnell?*) Tegana reaches the oasis and drinks his fill but has no intention of returning.

A bit harder going this episode, but some lovely sound effects in the middle for the storm.

* I'm unable to get at any of my reference works to check but I'm assuming Hartnell was on holiday: During the 60s Doctor Who was recorded an episode a week most of the year so every so often an actor will spend a week locked up in a prison cell so that they can have a week off. Hartnell's disappearances become more frequent as the series progresses and his health starts to decline. EDIT: I've found an online resource that says Hartnell *was* present this week and his first holiday was episodes 3 & 4 of Keys of Marinus.

Missing Episodes 2) Film & Selling Abroad

Different broadcasting systems are used around the world for the transmission of Television, so when Doctor Who was sold abroad it was sold on film which is easy to play whatever broadcasting system you used. These films were made but pointing a film camera at a television screen. (an unforeseen and beneficial consequence of this technique emerged many years later) Film copies of Doctor Who were sold round the world with some films being sent from one country to another. After five years the rights to sell the story needed to be renegotiated with the writer & their agent. If the rights were not renewed then the film was no longer able to be sold and being seen of no further value was destroyed.

For example Marco Polo was sold on film to Australia, Canada, Malta, Singapore, Gibraltar, Aden, Trinidad & Tobago, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Barbados, Hong Kong, Uganda, New Zealand, Ghana, Zambia, Jamaica, Cyprus, Kenya, Bermuda, Thailand, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Iran & Ethiopia. (Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes p376-8) In some cases we know which country passed which print onto which other country. Despite this wide distribution not a frame of footage of this story has ever been found.

014 Marco Polo Part 1: The Roof of the World

EPISODE: Marco Polo Part 1: The Roof of the World
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 014
STORY NUMBER: 004
TRANSMITTED: 22 February 1964
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who - The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1964-1965) No. 1

We're using a soundtrack CD instead of a DVD for the first time this episode.

Having materialised in a mountainous snowy landscape that the teachers wonder if it might be on Earth the Doctor finds that a number of the Tardis systems have failed. They end up being captured by a group of Mongol Warriors who believe they are evil spirits and want to slay them, but are saved by a European man: Marco Polo. He is accompanied by the warlord Tegana & the lady Ping Cho: she is on her way to be married. They are in the year 1289 and are on the Pamir Plateau bound for Shang-Tu. Marco Polo is interested in the Tardis wondering how it is big enough to accommodate them all and can move without wheels. Arriving at a way station the Doctor tries to repair the Tardis but is stopped by Marco Polo: Believing it to be a flying caravan he intends to offer the Tardis to Kublai Khan as a gift to buy his way out of the Khan's service. The Warlord Tegana has acquired a strong poison and intends to use it to kill the party and steal the Tardis' power for himself.

This is the first truly historical Doctor Who story. While the later three episodes of an Unearthly Child are set in the past this story is the first to feature a documented historical setting and figure. I'm afraid I'm not a huge fan of most of these stories, but after the confusing mess that was Edge of Destruction I found this episode a relief as I could actually follow what's going on.

We also have a famous sci fi guest star wander into view: Playing Ping Cho is an eighteen year old Zienia Merton, later to find fame as Sandra Benes, the senior data analyst on Moonbase Alpha in Space 1999. I've been trying to watch that right the way through in order since the first season Blu Rays came out but am struggling to!

Missing Episodes

Marco Polo is the first story that we've come to that no longer exists at the BBC. So over the course of it's seven episodes I thought I'd run a series on how episodes came to be missing from the BBC and why we have the missing episodes in the form we do today. I am indebted to Richard Molesworth's Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes (a fine read on the subject) and The Nothing At The End Of The Lane Omnibus edition for much of the information that follows. Both tomes will be referred to again and again over the course of this blog.

We start with

1) Videotape

Doctor Who was mainly recorded & transmitted on Videotape. The initial contract for a story allowed for one showing by the BBC and a repeat showing within two years during which time the videotapes were retained in case a repeat showing was needed. Eventually the Videotapes, which were very expensive, were wiped and reused by the BBC to save money. However as we'll see most Doctor who stories had previously been copied to film for overseas sales.