OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 121
STORY NUMBER: 026
TRANSMITTED: 11 June 1966
WRITER: Ian Stuart Black
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2
TELESNAPS: The Savages: Part Three
The Savages shelter Steven & Dodo in their caves. Jano proposes to absorb all the lifeforce drained from the Doctor himself. Edal & Exorse follow them to the caves. Steven uses a mirror to reflect the ray from the light gun capturing Exorse. The drained unconscious Doctor is taken to the guest apartments as his energy is transferred to Jano. Tor attacks the captured Exorse but is stopped by Nanina. Chal takes Steven & Dodo to the city, where they overcome the guard and enter the city. Jano recovers after the process but seems to have taken on some of the Doctor's personality and mannerisms. Left alone he tries to destroy the transference equipment before Jano's true personality reasserts control. Steven & Dodo's progress is monitored by guard Edal & scientist Senta. They use the drained and disorientated Doctor to bait a trap. They find the Doctor but are trapped in a corridor and gassed.
Cracking episode that. The possessed Jano is a superb Hartnell impersonation from Frederick Jaeger, making the first of his three Doctor Who appearances here.
Doctor Who & quarries is a bit of a cliché and while this isn't the first time ones been used in Doctor Who, see Dalek Invasion of Earth where the quarry *is* a quarry, this story marks the first time a quarry is used as an alien landscape. One of the locations used is Callow Hill Sandpit. Now returned to it's natural state, this location, which is just North of the railway line between Virginia Water & Egham is the closest location to Royal Holloway College, University of London, where I was at University when it was Royal Holloway & Bedford New College. So hello to any RHBNC graduates and especially the IFIS members reading. Royal Holloway itself has been used as a film location many times cropping up on MacGuyver, Midsomer Murders and QI. It would have hosted the 1993 Doctor Who 30th Anniversary Special, The Dark Dimension, which was sadly cancelled.
Shame there's nothing to see there now.
ReplyDeleteBest RHBNC film in my book is Basic Instinct 2. Maybe one day I'll watch the rest of the film.
Oh yeah - Hi Phil. (Dominic, IFIS 86-89)
It is indeed. We'd have to have a trip over there every year if there was.
ReplyDeleteAnd Hello Dominic, long time no see, how you doing?
I'll drop you an email directly.
ReplyDeleteSince I've never met a Doctor, and my house isn't a location, it would be monstrously off-topic to discuss my life here.
I did meet one of the Tomorrow People once...