EPISODE: The Hand of Fear Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 435
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 23 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
The deteriorating Eldrad is taken by the Doctor to a regeneration chamber where she is crushed by a stone block, another trap left by King Rokkon. However Eldrad then emerges from a chamber restored to his true form. They find their way to the Kastrian race banks where Eldrad is confronted by a message from King Rokkon who tells him that the Kastrians destroyed themselves and their race bank. The Doctor & Sarah attempt to escape, tripping Eldrad over the Doctor's scarf who falls to his doom down a crevasse. Returning to the TARDIS the Doctor receives a summons to Galifrey forcing him to return Sarah to Earth where he bids goodbye to her.
Ah we love Stephen Thorne, previously Azal in The Dæmons and Omega in The Three Doctors, but his Kastrian Eldrad isn't a touch on Judith Paris' Female Eldrad and I'm afraid the scenes on Kastria all get a bit silly once he shows up. And as for the stepping over the Doctor's scarf and *then* tripping over....
But what people really remember about this episode is the departure of Sarah Jane Smith/Elizabeth Sladen. As send off's go hers is a particularly good one with a protracted scene between her & the Doctor in the Tardis followed by Sarah standing in the street as the Tardis materialises and realising that, yet again, the Doctor has failed to bring her home. He was aiming for South Croydon but years later, in the new series episode School Reunion, it would be claimed that the Tardis had actually landed in Aberdeen! The filming took place at neither location, instead being recorded at Stokefield Close in Thornbury, Gloucestershire near the other locations used in the story. As Sarah leaves she's whistling the tune to Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow..... well I say she is, but Elizabeth Sladen couldn't whistle the tune and the noise is instead provided by director Lennie Mayne in the closing moments of his final episode. The tune is used in response to the dog that Sarah's met on the street but it's actually a little prophetic: in 1981 Elizabeth Sladen would return as Sarah Jane Smith in K-9 and Company, twinned with the Doctor's robot dog. For more on this come back on the 4th June! She would return again in 1983's celebration story, the Five Doctors, reunited with Jon Pertwee whom she'd later star opposite in two Doctor Who radio series. During the 80s and 90s Elizabeth Sladen mainly concentrated on the upbringing of her daughter but in 2006 she was lured back to play Sarah Jane Smith in the new series episode School Reunion, which led to several more appearances and a spin off series The Sarah Jane Adventures which only ended when Elizabeth Sladen was taken ill with cancer, the actress passing away on 19th April 2011 leaving her husband, actor Brian Miller and daughter Sadie Miller who has followed both parents into the acting profession.
On the 9 & 10 May 2011 The Hand of Fear was repeated on BBC4 as a tribute to Elizabeth Sladen. Hand of Fear was novelised by Terrance Dicks. It's the start of a run of 11 stories all novelised by Terrance Dicks, the most consecutive stories produced by the same author. It had an extremely limited video release in 1996: two weeks after it's release all existing Doctor Who video were withdrawn from sale ahead of the forthcoming Paul McGann TV Movie and Hand of Fear never returned for sale at one point getting a staggering price on the second hand market. Fortunately it was released on DVD early in 2006, and later sent out by 2 Entertain as compensation to those who had to return their Invisible Enemy DVDs due to an authoring fault on that set.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Monday, 30 January 2012
434 The Hand of Fear Part Three
EPISODE: The Hand of Fear Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 434
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 16 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
The anticipated explosion fails to occur. The Doctor works out that the hand is in the reactor absorbing all the energy. Professor Watson has the RAF conduct a nuclear strike on the plant but the missiles have no effect, dealt with by whatever is in the reactor. The Doctor and Sarah re-enter the building and meet Eldrad, a woman made from rock & gem stones. she negotiates with the Doctor who agrees to take her to Kastria. However on their arrival Eldrad is shot by an automatic defence mechanism.
Female villains are rare in Doctor Who. Liz, who loves this story, and I had a think and we could only come up with the Drahvians (Galaxy Four), Kaftan (Tomb of the Cybermen), Queen Galia (Time Monster) Miss Winters (Robot) and the Zygon Sister Lamont (Terror of the Zygons) that appeared on screen but noted that there should have been one in Colony in Space. Judith Paris puts in a top performance Eldrad making this a decent episode.... except we get yet another airing, thankfully briefly, of the "get past the traps to get to your destination" storyline!
The Power Complex here is named Nunton but that's pretty close to the Nuton used in Bob Baker & Dave Martin's earlier Doctor Who story the Claws of Axos. Indeed it seems as if during this story's troubled development it was meant to be the location seen in the earlier story. Hand of Fear was originally intended as the six part story which would close the 13th season and kill off the Brigadier. All along it featured Hands wandering about by themselves inspired by the films The Hands of Orlac and The Beast with Five Fingers. Problems with the story led to it being shelved and replaced by the Seeds of Doom. When Douglas Camfield's French Foreign Legion story fell through, which was meant to kill of Sarah, Hand of Fear was brought back into service, slimmed down to four parts and heavily modified by the authors.
The location for the Nunton complex is Oldbury Power Station near Thornbury, close to where Bob Baker & Dave Martin lived. This is it's only Doctor who appearance but it's been used three times in Blake's 7: in Time Squad as the Federation complex, in Redemption as the Spaceworld interiors and in Killer as the Q-base exterior and tunnel - see The Blake's 7 Location Guide. Oldbury is scheduled to be decommissioned somewhere around the point you read this. Oddly it's just four miles down the road from Berkeley Power Station, which we'll shortly see used in Pirate Planet. We get to see the quarry again, albeit briefly, in this episode too and that's not too far away either, filmed at Slickstone Quarry in Gloucestershire.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 434
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 16 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
The anticipated explosion fails to occur. The Doctor works out that the hand is in the reactor absorbing all the energy. Professor Watson has the RAF conduct a nuclear strike on the plant but the missiles have no effect, dealt with by whatever is in the reactor. The Doctor and Sarah re-enter the building and meet Eldrad, a woman made from rock & gem stones. she negotiates with the Doctor who agrees to take her to Kastria. However on their arrival Eldrad is shot by an automatic defence mechanism.
Female villains are rare in Doctor Who. Liz, who loves this story, and I had a think and we could only come up with the Drahvians (Galaxy Four), Kaftan (Tomb of the Cybermen), Queen Galia (Time Monster) Miss Winters (Robot) and the Zygon Sister Lamont (Terror of the Zygons) that appeared on screen but noted that there should have been one in Colony in Space. Judith Paris puts in a top performance Eldrad making this a decent episode.... except we get yet another airing, thankfully briefly, of the "get past the traps to get to your destination" storyline!
The Power Complex here is named Nunton but that's pretty close to the Nuton used in Bob Baker & Dave Martin's earlier Doctor Who story the Claws of Axos. Indeed it seems as if during this story's troubled development it was meant to be the location seen in the earlier story. Hand of Fear was originally intended as the six part story which would close the 13th season and kill off the Brigadier. All along it featured Hands wandering about by themselves inspired by the films The Hands of Orlac and The Beast with Five Fingers. Problems with the story led to it being shelved and replaced by the Seeds of Doom. When Douglas Camfield's French Foreign Legion story fell through, which was meant to kill of Sarah, Hand of Fear was brought back into service, slimmed down to four parts and heavily modified by the authors.
The location for the Nunton complex is Oldbury Power Station near Thornbury, close to where Bob Baker & Dave Martin lived. This is it's only Doctor who appearance but it's been used three times in Blake's 7: in Time Squad as the Federation complex, in Redemption as the Spaceworld interiors and in Killer as the Q-base exterior and tunnel - see The Blake's 7 Location Guide. Oldbury is scheduled to be decommissioned somewhere around the point you read this. Oddly it's just four miles down the road from Berkeley Power Station, which we'll shortly see used in Pirate Planet. We get to see the quarry again, albeit briefly, in this episode too and that's not too far away either, filmed at Slickstone Quarry in Gloucestershire.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
433 The Hand of Fear Part Two
EPISODE: The Hand of Fear Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 433
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 09 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
The alarm sounds allowing The Doctor & Dr Carter to evade the guards holding them. Reactor head Professor Watson orders the reactor shut down. Watson, and then the Doctor, tries to speak to Sarah but all she says is "Eldrad must live", which echoes round the mind of the controlled Dr Carter. The Doctor is attacked by Dr Carter on his way to the reactor, with Carter claiming "Eldrad must Live" but he slips and falls to his death. The Doctor repeats the phrase to gain the possessed Sarah's confidence then overpowers her removing he from the reactor room. In the process she drops the ring she's been holding. Sarah is tested and found to be free of radiation. In the reactor the hand crawls towards the source of the radiation. A technician, Driscoll, is sent to retrieve it and places it in a container. He also finds the ring and becomes possessed like Sarah was. The Doctor asks for the ring but Driscoll denies having seen it. The Doctor hypnotises Sarah and asks her to tell him what was happening. In the decontamination area the hand tries to escape from where it has been stored. Driscoll retrieves the hand and returns it to the reactor, pursued by the Doctor & Sarah. Driscoll sets the reactor to overload causing Watson to evacuate the complex. Driscoll opens the reactor up and carries the hand in.....
Lots of running around and shouting "Eldrad must live!" but it's a decent fast moving episode. Oddly just one character from the first episode, Doctor Carter, appears in this one and he gets bumped off half way through! So we get introduced to a whole bunch of new characters and actors. Glyn Houston plays Professor Watson: he'll be back as Colonel Ben Wolsey in The Awakening. Frances Pidgeon is Miss Jackson. She was previously in The Monster of Peladon as an uncredited handmaiden. She was the wife of Lennie Mayne, the director of both this story and Monster of Peladon. Technician Elgin is played by John Cannon who was later cast as an executioner in Shada but as we will see never made it onto the screen.
The phrase "Eldrad must live!" is used repeatedly throughout the story and starts a run of catchphrases in Bob Baker & Dave Martin stories. We'll hear that "Contact has been made!" in Invisible Enemy and then in Underworld we'll repeatedly hear that "The Quest is the Quest!"
Liz walked in while I was watching part 1, took one look a the screen and said "Eldrad must live!" If I know my readership "Eldrad Must Live" comments will be covering episode 1 here, on Facebook and on the TMUK Forum already.......
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 433
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 09 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
The alarm sounds allowing The Doctor & Dr Carter to evade the guards holding them. Reactor head Professor Watson orders the reactor shut down. Watson, and then the Doctor, tries to speak to Sarah but all she says is "Eldrad must live", which echoes round the mind of the controlled Dr Carter. The Doctor is attacked by Dr Carter on his way to the reactor, with Carter claiming "Eldrad must Live" but he slips and falls to his death. The Doctor repeats the phrase to gain the possessed Sarah's confidence then overpowers her removing he from the reactor room. In the process she drops the ring she's been holding. Sarah is tested and found to be free of radiation. In the reactor the hand crawls towards the source of the radiation. A technician, Driscoll, is sent to retrieve it and places it in a container. He also finds the ring and becomes possessed like Sarah was. The Doctor asks for the ring but Driscoll denies having seen it. The Doctor hypnotises Sarah and asks her to tell him what was happening. In the decontamination area the hand tries to escape from where it has been stored. Driscoll retrieves the hand and returns it to the reactor, pursued by the Doctor & Sarah. Driscoll sets the reactor to overload causing Watson to evacuate the complex. Driscoll opens the reactor up and carries the hand in.....
Lots of running around and shouting "Eldrad must live!" but it's a decent fast moving episode. Oddly just one character from the first episode, Doctor Carter, appears in this one and he gets bumped off half way through! So we get introduced to a whole bunch of new characters and actors. Glyn Houston plays Professor Watson: he'll be back as Colonel Ben Wolsey in The Awakening. Frances Pidgeon is Miss Jackson. She was previously in The Monster of Peladon as an uncredited handmaiden. She was the wife of Lennie Mayne, the director of both this story and Monster of Peladon. Technician Elgin is played by John Cannon who was later cast as an executioner in Shada but as we will see never made it onto the screen.
The phrase "Eldrad must live!" is used repeatedly throughout the story and starts a run of catchphrases in Bob Baker & Dave Martin stories. We'll hear that "Contact has been made!" in Invisible Enemy and then in Underworld we'll repeatedly hear that "The Quest is the Quest!"
Liz walked in while I was watching part 1, took one look a the screen and said "Eldrad must live!" If I know my readership "Eldrad Must Live" comments will be covering episode 1 here, on Facebook and on the TMUK Forum already.......
Saturday, 28 January 2012
432 The Hand of Fear Part One
EPISODE: The Hand of Fear Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 432
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 02 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
On the dying planet Kastria the traitor Eldrad is sentenced to death and fired into space in a ship which is destroyed. Materialising in a quarry on Earth, the Doctor & Sarah are caught in an explosion and Sarah is trapped under rubble where she finds a stone hand with a ring and a missing finger which she won't let go of. She & the Doctor are taken to a local hospital. The recovered Doctor sees how Sarah is then visits Doctor Carter in the path lab who is analysing the hand. Meanwhile the ring glows and revives Sarah. The Doctor borrows virology's electron microscope to further examine the hand. He dates it by the strata of rock that it was buried in and returns to the quarry. Sarah finds her way to the pathology lab, shooting Dr Carter with an energy bolt and proclaiming that "Eldrad must live!" She places the hand in a container and absconds with it. Examining the scene the Doctor thinks the hand may have come from a prehistoric spaceship crash. When Carter revives he tells the Doctor what has happened and, under the same influence as Sarah, enquires if the Doctor has found anything. They find a sample from the machine has changed, absorbing radiation from the machine analysing it. Sarah goes to the nearby Nunton nuclear power complex, blasting a guard with energy from the ring. She walks straight into the main nuclear reactor carrying the hand which feeds on the radiation, regrowing it's missing finger and starting to move.
Ah a companion possessed by an evil entity. Have we done this before? Did Susan get sort of possessed a few times (Edge of Destruction & Sensorites?) Mind you Sarah was obviously possessed by something before this story started, nobody in their right mind would wear an outfit as silly as hers. It's even referred to in the dialogue as "pink striped overalls just like Andy Pandy" Or it could just be stupidity, after all why didn't her and the Doctor do a runner straight back to the Tardis as soon as they heard the siren?
We welcome back Rex Robinson in this episode as Dr. Carter. He's previously been Dr. Tyler in The Three Doctors and Gebek in The Monster of Peladon. All three of his appearances were directed by Lennie Mayne. Also returning are Roy Pattison, as Zazzka, the Kastrian technician, who was a Draconian Space Pilot in Frontier in Space. Making his last appearance in front of the camera in Doctor Who is Roy Skelton heavily made up as Kastrian King Rokon. You've seen him previously in Colony in Space as Norton, Planet of the Daleks as Wester, The Green Death as James and The Android Invasion as Chedaki. Meanwhile he's been heard in The Ark doing Monoid voices, The Tenth Planet & The Wheel in Space as Cybermen voices, The Ice Warriors as the Computer voice & The Krotons as the Kroton voices. He's been the voice of the Daleks in The Evil of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks & Genesis of the Daleks and will return to this role in Destiny of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks & Remembrance of the Daleks missing only Resurrection of the Daleks.
The Doctor at the hospital (credited as an Intern) is played by Renu Setna. This is a very rare role for an Asian actor of Indian/Pakistani extraction in Doctor Who and I'm struggling to think of any others before this. Playing Abbott, the quarry foreman, is David Purcell. I know nothing about him but doesn't he look like the comedian Steve Coogan.
The word Fear doesn't show up that many times in the title of Doctor Who stories. It's got two appearances as a First Doctor episode title: An Unearthly Child 3: The Forest of Fear and The Reign of Terror 1: A Land of Fear. After that it's used just twice in an overall story title in The Web of Fear then finally here in The Hand of Fear.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 432
STORY NUMBER: 087
TRANSMITTED: 02 October 1976
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear
On the dying planet Kastria the traitor Eldrad is sentenced to death and fired into space in a ship which is destroyed. Materialising in a quarry on Earth, the Doctor & Sarah are caught in an explosion and Sarah is trapped under rubble where she finds a stone hand with a ring and a missing finger which she won't let go of. She & the Doctor are taken to a local hospital. The recovered Doctor sees how Sarah is then visits Doctor Carter in the path lab who is analysing the hand. Meanwhile the ring glows and revives Sarah. The Doctor borrows virology's electron microscope to further examine the hand. He dates it by the strata of rock that it was buried in and returns to the quarry. Sarah finds her way to the pathology lab, shooting Dr Carter with an energy bolt and proclaiming that "Eldrad must live!" She places the hand in a container and absconds with it. Examining the scene the Doctor thinks the hand may have come from a prehistoric spaceship crash. When Carter revives he tells the Doctor what has happened and, under the same influence as Sarah, enquires if the Doctor has found anything. They find a sample from the machine has changed, absorbing radiation from the machine analysing it. Sarah goes to the nearby Nunton nuclear power complex, blasting a guard with energy from the ring. She walks straight into the main nuclear reactor carrying the hand which feeds on the radiation, regrowing it's missing finger and starting to move.
Ah a companion possessed by an evil entity. Have we done this before? Did Susan get sort of possessed a few times (Edge of Destruction & Sensorites?) Mind you Sarah was obviously possessed by something before this story started, nobody in their right mind would wear an outfit as silly as hers. It's even referred to in the dialogue as "pink striped overalls just like Andy Pandy" Or it could just be stupidity, after all why didn't her and the Doctor do a runner straight back to the Tardis as soon as they heard the siren?
We welcome back Rex Robinson in this episode as Dr. Carter. He's previously been Dr. Tyler in The Three Doctors and Gebek in The Monster of Peladon. All three of his appearances were directed by Lennie Mayne. Also returning are Roy Pattison, as Zazzka, the Kastrian technician, who was a Draconian Space Pilot in Frontier in Space. Making his last appearance in front of the camera in Doctor Who is Roy Skelton heavily made up as Kastrian King Rokon. You've seen him previously in Colony in Space as Norton, Planet of the Daleks as Wester, The Green Death as James and The Android Invasion as Chedaki. Meanwhile he's been heard in The Ark doing Monoid voices, The Tenth Planet & The Wheel in Space as Cybermen voices, The Ice Warriors as the Computer voice & The Krotons as the Kroton voices. He's been the voice of the Daleks in The Evil of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks & Genesis of the Daleks and will return to this role in Destiny of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks & Remembrance of the Daleks missing only Resurrection of the Daleks.
The Doctor at the hospital (credited as an Intern) is played by Renu Setna. This is a very rare role for an Asian actor of Indian/Pakistani extraction in Doctor Who and I'm struggling to think of any others before this. Playing Abbott, the quarry foreman, is David Purcell. I know nothing about him but doesn't he look like the comedian Steve Coogan.
The word Fear doesn't show up that many times in the title of Doctor Who stories. It's got two appearances as a First Doctor episode title: An Unearthly Child 3: The Forest of Fear and The Reign of Terror 1: A Land of Fear. After that it's used just twice in an overall story title in The Web of Fear then finally here in The Hand of Fear.
Friday, 27 January 2012
431 The Masque of Mandragora Part Four
EPISODE: The Masque of Mandragora Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 431
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 25 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Doctor escapes from the cavern and averts the execution of Sarah, Guiliano & Marco by bringing news of the Count's death. He has the Palace barricaded to stop the Mandragora controlled brotherhood from attacking. The Doctor calculates the timing of a lunar eclipse that will signal the brotherhood's attack. He approves of Guiliano's decision to continue holding the Masque to celebrate his accession to the Dukedom. The Doctor prepares by mounting an armoured breast plate under his coat and obtaining a length of wire. The Brotherhood gather round the palace as the Masque takes place. Returning to the temple the Doctor uses the wire to ground the chestplate and confronts Heironymous. The wire & chestplate protect the Doctor from the energy bolts that Heironymous fires at him and he starts to be drained from the confrontation. The Doctor's lion costume enters the ball but it removes it's mask revealing itself to be Mandragora energy. Heironymous enters and has everyone taken to the temple as the eclipse starts. There the cult is consumed by Mandragora leaving just "Heironymous" who is revealed to be the Doctor. The Doctor thinks that Mandragora's constellation will be in a position to try again towards the end of the 20th Century.
Um..... did the ending to that make any sense at all? It doesn't explain how the Doctor repelled Mandragora. It's not clear who it was in the Doctor's costume - I think it's meant to be the Doctor in disguise as Heironymous but in which case how does he do the trick with the face? Some explanation of what and why things are happening would be nice! A big, big mess.
It this episode (briefly) is Stuart Fell as the Entertainer, Previous Doctor Who credits include The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon as Alpha Centauri, Planet of the Spiders as a tramp, The Ark in Space as a Wirrn, The Android Invasion as a Kraal and The Brain of Morbius as the Morbius Monster. He'll be back in The Invasion of Time as a Sontaran and the State of Decay as Roga. Not returning is writer Louis Marks. He'd first written for the show at the end of it's first recording block, penning Planet of the Giants bringing an idea to screen that had been knocking around since day 1. Years later he returned to write Day of the Daleks for the third Doctor, then Planet of Evil & Masque of Mandragora for the fourth Doctor. He died 17th September 2010 aged 82. And since it's his final appearance, I'll remind you that he's not to be confused with Louis Marx, the toy company that made the 1960s Dalek toys!
Masque of Mandragora is one of the Doctor Who novels that I can remember reading from the library quite early on.... but I also owned a paperback copy quite early having bought it in a local news agent. It was the only Doctor Who book I ever saw in there. It's one of three stories adapted by Philip Hinchcliffe, the other two being the previous story The Seeds of Doom and the fifth Doctor Who the Keys of Marinus. It was released in December 1977. A video was released in August 1991 alongside the Three Doctors. The DVD was released on 8th February 2010.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 431
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 25 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Doctor escapes from the cavern and averts the execution of Sarah, Guiliano & Marco by bringing news of the Count's death. He has the Palace barricaded to stop the Mandragora controlled brotherhood from attacking. The Doctor calculates the timing of a lunar eclipse that will signal the brotherhood's attack. He approves of Guiliano's decision to continue holding the Masque to celebrate his accession to the Dukedom. The Doctor prepares by mounting an armoured breast plate under his coat and obtaining a length of wire. The Brotherhood gather round the palace as the Masque takes place. Returning to the temple the Doctor uses the wire to ground the chestplate and confronts Heironymous. The wire & chestplate protect the Doctor from the energy bolts that Heironymous fires at him and he starts to be drained from the confrontation. The Doctor's lion costume enters the ball but it removes it's mask revealing itself to be Mandragora energy. Heironymous enters and has everyone taken to the temple as the eclipse starts. There the cult is consumed by Mandragora leaving just "Heironymous" who is revealed to be the Doctor. The Doctor thinks that Mandragora's constellation will be in a position to try again towards the end of the 20th Century.
Um..... did the ending to that make any sense at all? It doesn't explain how the Doctor repelled Mandragora. It's not clear who it was in the Doctor's costume - I think it's meant to be the Doctor in disguise as Heironymous but in which case how does he do the trick with the face? Some explanation of what and why things are happening would be nice! A big, big mess.
It this episode (briefly) is Stuart Fell as the Entertainer, Previous Doctor Who credits include The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon as Alpha Centauri, Planet of the Spiders as a tramp, The Ark in Space as a Wirrn, The Android Invasion as a Kraal and The Brain of Morbius as the Morbius Monster. He'll be back in The Invasion of Time as a Sontaran and the State of Decay as Roga. Not returning is writer Louis Marks. He'd first written for the show at the end of it's first recording block, penning Planet of the Giants bringing an idea to screen that had been knocking around since day 1. Years later he returned to write Day of the Daleks for the third Doctor, then Planet of Evil & Masque of Mandragora for the fourth Doctor. He died 17th September 2010 aged 82. And since it's his final appearance, I'll remind you that he's not to be confused with Louis Marx, the toy company that made the 1960s Dalek toys!
Masque of Mandragora is one of the Doctor Who novels that I can remember reading from the library quite early on.... but I also owned a paperback copy quite early having bought it in a local news agent. It was the only Doctor Who book I ever saw in there. It's one of three stories adapted by Philip Hinchcliffe, the other two being the previous story The Seeds of Doom and the fifth Doctor Who the Keys of Marinus. It was released in December 1977. A video was released in August 1991 alongside the Three Doctors. The DVD was released on 8th February 2010.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
430 The Masque of Mandragora Part Three
EPISODE: The Masque of Mandragora Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 430
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 18 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Helix releases the Doctor and shows him the temple restored using it's power. The Doctor flees, finds Guiliano and together they hold off the Count's guards until they are chased away by the brethren allowing the Doctor & Guiliano to hide in the catacombs. The priest wished to sacrifice Sarah but Heironymous, the high priest, has other plans for her and exposes her to a potion which puts her under his hypnotic control before sending her to the Doctor. They find her in the catacombs and then find a route back to the palace. Sarah questions the Doctor as to how she can understand what Guiliano says. Marco is captured by the Duke's guards. Hieronymous tells the Duke that he has predicted the Count's death but is dismissed by the Count. Finding Marco missing, Guiliano tells The Doctor of the dignitaries & scientists invited to Saint Martino. The Doctor realises if they are killed then the world will be thrown into a new Dark Age and goes to confront who he believes head the cult of Demnos, followed by Sarah. The Count orders Heironymous thrown out of the city. The Doctor confronts Heironymous but Sarah arrives with a poison needle to kill the Doctor. The Doctor breaks her programming, but is seized by the counts guards who have come for Heironymous, who in turn escapes. Guiliano too is seized and thrown in the Count's dungeons with the Doctor, Sarah & Marco. Marco has been made to claim that Guiliano is a worshipper of Demnos. The Cult of Demnos gathers and is infused with the Mandragora Helix. The Doctor tell Federico that Heironymous is the head of the brethren, so he takes the Doctor and two armed men to the temple in disguise. Federico pulls Heironymous' mark away revealing not his face but a glowing ball of energy which slays him.
Once again I'm struggling with this story. It's just failing to hold my interest on screen. It's around this episode I usually drift off when we watch it as a four parter and, though I can't put my finger on why, I'm sure I probably would have done this time too! But watching it in 25 minute chunks has at least kept me awake!
This episode goes to some lengths to try to explain why the Doctor & his companions can understand the language wherever they go. It's explained here as a telepathic gift provided by the Tardis to those that travel in her and as we've seen (Genesis of the Daleks for example) doesn't need the Tardis to be present.
The Doctor mentions in this episode that he's looking forward to meeting Leonardo da Vinci. Although he's not shown to meet the genius here he seems to know him by the time of City of Death when he visits his workshop in order to graffiti the parchment the Mona Lisa is painted on.....
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 430
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 18 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Helix releases the Doctor and shows him the temple restored using it's power. The Doctor flees, finds Guiliano and together they hold off the Count's guards until they are chased away by the brethren allowing the Doctor & Guiliano to hide in the catacombs. The priest wished to sacrifice Sarah but Heironymous, the high priest, has other plans for her and exposes her to a potion which puts her under his hypnotic control before sending her to the Doctor. They find her in the catacombs and then find a route back to the palace. Sarah questions the Doctor as to how she can understand what Guiliano says. Marco is captured by the Duke's guards. Hieronymous tells the Duke that he has predicted the Count's death but is dismissed by the Count. Finding Marco missing, Guiliano tells The Doctor of the dignitaries & scientists invited to Saint Martino. The Doctor realises if they are killed then the world will be thrown into a new Dark Age and goes to confront who he believes head the cult of Demnos, followed by Sarah. The Count orders Heironymous thrown out of the city. The Doctor confronts Heironymous but Sarah arrives with a poison needle to kill the Doctor. The Doctor breaks her programming, but is seized by the counts guards who have come for Heironymous, who in turn escapes. Guiliano too is seized and thrown in the Count's dungeons with the Doctor, Sarah & Marco. Marco has been made to claim that Guiliano is a worshipper of Demnos. The Cult of Demnos gathers and is infused with the Mandragora Helix. The Doctor tell Federico that Heironymous is the head of the brethren, so he takes the Doctor and two armed men to the temple in disguise. Federico pulls Heironymous' mark away revealing not his face but a glowing ball of energy which slays him.
Once again I'm struggling with this story. It's just failing to hold my interest on screen. It's around this episode I usually drift off when we watch it as a four parter and, though I can't put my finger on why, I'm sure I probably would have done this time too! But watching it in 25 minute chunks has at least kept me awake!
This episode goes to some lengths to try to explain why the Doctor & his companions can understand the language wherever they go. It's explained here as a telepathic gift provided by the Tardis to those that travel in her and as we've seen (Genesis of the Daleks for example) doesn't need the Tardis to be present.
The Doctor mentions in this episode that he's looking forward to meeting Leonardo da Vinci. Although he's not shown to meet the genius here he seems to know him by the time of City of Death when he visits his workshop in order to graffiti the parchment the Mona Lisa is painted on.....
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
429 The Masque of Mandragora Part Two
EPISODE: The Masque of Mandragora Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 429
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 11 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Doctor trips his executioner up with his scarf and escapes. The priests of Demnos prepare their alter for sacrifice bringing the drugged Sarah to lie on it. The Doctor hides and finds himself in the catacombs that the Cult of Demnos use. He follows their high priest and rescues Sarah. As he leaves the chamber is invaded by the Mandragora Helix which restores the temple. Guiliano is brought the body of a guard killed by the Mandragora Helix. The golden masked High Priest is given instructions by the Helix for the advancement of it's plans. As he leaves the temple he removes the masks revealing himself to be the astrologer Hieronymous. The Doctor & Sarah are found and taken to Guiliano & Marco who explain his uncle's desire for the dukedom of Saint Martino. They show the Doctor the body who tells that the Mandragora Helix killed it and wonders why the Helix has come to this time & place. The count intercepts a list of dignitaries that the Duke has invited to his accession along with some noted scholars who they have given their patronage to. Hieronymous is ordered to predict Guiliano's imminent death and confers with the Mandragora Helix. The Doctor tries to explain the Mandragora Helix to Guiliano and thinks it might be trying to use cult of Demnos to oppose the scientific achievements of the Renaissance and take over the Earth. The Doctor goes back to the temple to investigate, but they are seen by the Count's spies. The Doctor finds his way to the main temple cavern where he is attacked by the Mandragora Helix. The Count's guards arrive attacking Guiliano. Sarah goes to find the the Doctor but is recaptured by the cult.....
Hmmm. A little slow moving perhaps in places but OK without really being anything special. Yes, the cut of Demnos do seem to be doing the Hokey Cokey when they're about to sacrifice Sarah!
What you do get highlighted in this episode are the wonderful locations used in the production at Portmerion in North Wales. Portmerion was designed and built in the style of an Italian Village by Sir Clough William Ellis. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe had been there as a tour guide years before and thought it would make an excellent location for filming. It was only after the series was made that it was pointed out to him that Portmerion had been used in the production of The Prisoner nearly ten years earlier!
There's a pair of unnamed Pikeman in this episode: one of them, Peter Washe, was Erak in The Sontaran Experiment while the other, Jay Neill will be back in The Invisible Enemy and Guard Klimt in Underworld.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 429
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 11 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Doctor trips his executioner up with his scarf and escapes. The priests of Demnos prepare their alter for sacrifice bringing the drugged Sarah to lie on it. The Doctor hides and finds himself in the catacombs that the Cult of Demnos use. He follows their high priest and rescues Sarah. As he leaves the chamber is invaded by the Mandragora Helix which restores the temple. Guiliano is brought the body of a guard killed by the Mandragora Helix. The golden masked High Priest is given instructions by the Helix for the advancement of it's plans. As he leaves the temple he removes the masks revealing himself to be the astrologer Hieronymous. The Doctor & Sarah are found and taken to Guiliano & Marco who explain his uncle's desire for the dukedom of Saint Martino. They show the Doctor the body who tells that the Mandragora Helix killed it and wonders why the Helix has come to this time & place. The count intercepts a list of dignitaries that the Duke has invited to his accession along with some noted scholars who they have given their patronage to. Hieronymous is ordered to predict Guiliano's imminent death and confers with the Mandragora Helix. The Doctor tries to explain the Mandragora Helix to Guiliano and thinks it might be trying to use cult of Demnos to oppose the scientific achievements of the Renaissance and take over the Earth. The Doctor goes back to the temple to investigate, but they are seen by the Count's spies. The Doctor finds his way to the main temple cavern where he is attacked by the Mandragora Helix. The Count's guards arrive attacking Guiliano. Sarah goes to find the the Doctor but is recaptured by the cult.....
Hmmm. A little slow moving perhaps in places but OK without really being anything special. Yes, the cut of Demnos do seem to be doing the Hokey Cokey when they're about to sacrifice Sarah!
What you do get highlighted in this episode are the wonderful locations used in the production at Portmerion in North Wales. Portmerion was designed and built in the style of an Italian Village by Sir Clough William Ellis. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe had been there as a tour guide years before and thought it would make an excellent location for filming. It was only after the series was made that it was pointed out to him that Portmerion had been used in the production of The Prisoner nearly ten years earlier!
There's a pair of unnamed Pikeman in this episode: one of them, Peter Washe, was Erak in The Sontaran Experiment while the other, Jay Neill will be back in The Invisible Enemy and Guard Klimt in Underworld.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
428 The Masque of Mandragora Part One
EPISODE: The Masque of Mandragora Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 428
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 04 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Tardis is invaded by the Mandragora Helix which uses it to take it to late 15th century Italy. Giuliano has just succeeded his father Duke, who died exactly when astrologer Hieronymous predicted it. Hieronymous is working for Giuliano's uncle, Count Federico, who has poisoned his brother & seeks to kill the new Duke. Sarah is abducted by black robed cultists who knock the Doctor out. When he comes round he sees Mandragora energy which has escaped the Tardis and has gone on a rampage. Federico & Hieronymous bring Giuliano the prediction of his death. The Doctor searches for Sarah but guards take him captive. Sarah is taken to the hidden temple of the cult of Demnos where the high priest makes preparations to sacrifice here while the Doctor is taken to Federico who tries to interrogate him. Federico doesn't believe the Doctor's story and orders him executed, but Giuliano is intrigued by him. Sarah is drugged prior to sacrifice while the Doctor is taken to the executioner's block.
Ah Masque of Mandragora. Stuck between several much loved stories it's a bit ignored. I've always had a bit of a problem with it as a TV story...... I've never stayed awake watching all 4 episodes right the way through. Ooops. This first episode isn't bad, if a little slow in place. But there's some splendid stuff in it, especially the magnificent Tardis secondary control room seen at the start of the story which has a very Jules Verne feel with lots of wood panelling plus some throwbacks to the show's past with the second Doctor's recorder and the third Doctor's shirt & jacket on display. I think this is one of the first times we've seen a mass of Tardis corridors. We saw some extra rooms in the early stories, especially in Edge of Destruction, but this really starts our exploration of the ship beyond the control room. I spent an lot of Seeds of Doom commenting on the physical violence: here the Doctor uses his Venusian Akido to defend himself when attacked by the Cultists and that looks much better.
Playing Count Federico is John Laurimore who's had a long TV Carer generally avoiding science fiction apart from in 1976 when he was in this and Space 1999 Black Sun. Hieronymous is played fabulously by Norman Jones (fantastic wide staring eyes) who previously was Khrisong in The Abominable Snowmen and Major Baker in the Silurians. The High Priest is Robert James who we heard as Lesterson in The Power of the Daleks. One of the Brothers is played by Brian Ellis who was the Prisoner in The Sontaran Experiment. The Titan Voice heard in this episode is Peter Tuddenham who provided voices for The Ark in Space and Time and the Rani as well as Orac, Zen & Slave in Blake's 7. Gareth Armstrong playing Giuliano, was also in Blake's 7 as Parton in Star One while his friend Marco is Tim Piggott-Smith who was Captain Harker in The Claws of Axos. Pat Gorman is credited as a Soldier and I'm pretty sure that it's him playing the guard that gets fried by the Mandragora Energy towards the end of the episode!
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 428
STORY NUMBER: 086
TRANSMITTED: 04 September 1976
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Masque Of Mandragora
The Tardis is invaded by the Mandragora Helix which uses it to take it to late 15th century Italy. Giuliano has just succeeded his father Duke, who died exactly when astrologer Hieronymous predicted it. Hieronymous is working for Giuliano's uncle, Count Federico, who has poisoned his brother & seeks to kill the new Duke. Sarah is abducted by black robed cultists who knock the Doctor out. When he comes round he sees Mandragora energy which has escaped the Tardis and has gone on a rampage. Federico & Hieronymous bring Giuliano the prediction of his death. The Doctor searches for Sarah but guards take him captive. Sarah is taken to the hidden temple of the cult of Demnos where the high priest makes preparations to sacrifice here while the Doctor is taken to Federico who tries to interrogate him. Federico doesn't believe the Doctor's story and orders him executed, but Giuliano is intrigued by him. Sarah is drugged prior to sacrifice while the Doctor is taken to the executioner's block.
Ah Masque of Mandragora. Stuck between several much loved stories it's a bit ignored. I've always had a bit of a problem with it as a TV story...... I've never stayed awake watching all 4 episodes right the way through. Ooops. This first episode isn't bad, if a little slow in place. But there's some splendid stuff in it, especially the magnificent Tardis secondary control room seen at the start of the story which has a very Jules Verne feel with lots of wood panelling plus some throwbacks to the show's past with the second Doctor's recorder and the third Doctor's shirt & jacket on display. I think this is one of the first times we've seen a mass of Tardis corridors. We saw some extra rooms in the early stories, especially in Edge of Destruction, but this really starts our exploration of the ship beyond the control room. I spent an lot of Seeds of Doom commenting on the physical violence: here the Doctor uses his Venusian Akido to defend himself when attacked by the Cultists and that looks much better.
Playing Count Federico is John Laurimore who's had a long TV Carer generally avoiding science fiction apart from in 1976 when he was in this and Space 1999 Black Sun. Hieronymous is played fabulously by Norman Jones (fantastic wide staring eyes) who previously was Khrisong in The Abominable Snowmen and Major Baker in the Silurians. The High Priest is Robert James who we heard as Lesterson in The Power of the Daleks. One of the Brothers is played by Brian Ellis who was the Prisoner in The Sontaran Experiment. The Titan Voice heard in this episode is Peter Tuddenham who provided voices for The Ark in Space and Time and the Rani as well as Orac, Zen & Slave in Blake's 7. Gareth Armstrong playing Giuliano, was also in Blake's 7 as Parton in Star One while his friend Marco is Tim Piggott-Smith who was Captain Harker in The Claws of Axos. Pat Gorman is credited as a Soldier and I'm pretty sure that it's him playing the guard that gets fried by the Mandragora Energy towards the end of the episode!
Monday, 23 January 2012
427 The Seeds of Doom Part Six
EPISODE: The Seeds of Doom Part Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 427
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 06 March 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The laser team arrive and attack the Krynoid allowing the Doctor, Sarah, Scorby and Sergeant Henderson to escape back into the house via another door. The Doctor ponders on how Chase is moving about unharmed by the Krynoid and wonders if he is infected or, as Sarah suggests, possessed. Chase is appalled at their use of pesticides. The Krynoid starts to break through the masonry into the house. Henderson searches for timber to patch up their barricade but is found by Scorby, knocked unconscious and fed into the composter. Scorby starts to crack under the pressure of the situation and makes a run for it into the grounds. The plants drag him under water killing him. By now the Krynoid is larger than the house. Sarah goes to look for Henderson and is captured by Chase. The Doctor picks up Beresford's transmission and tell him & Sir Colin that he thinks the Krynoid has 15 minutes till it germinates and asks him to have the house destroyed by the RAF to avoid the seed pods being spread all over Earth. Chase ties Sarah up to feed her into the composter but the Doctor rescues her. He struggles with Chase who is trapped in the composter and killed. The Doctor uses steam from a pipe in the mansion's heating system to drive a path through the plants surrounding the house allowing the Doctor & Sarah to escape as the RAF bomb the house destroying the monster. The Doctor takes Sarah on a trip to Cassiopeia for a holiday, but the Tardis instead materialises back in Antarctica!
Oh what a shame: UNIT finally comes up against a menace they can defeat by blowing it to smithereens and the Brigadier isn't there to see it happen! Although a worrying though occurs to me: if this had been done with the regular UNIT team that would have been Sergeant Benton going into the composter and that's not the sort of end I'd want to see our hero get! The steam pipes are a rather convenient solution top getting the Doctor & Sarah out the house, maybe if they'd have flagged up that this was how Scorby's greenhouse was heated in an earlier episode it would be less of a "solution plucked from thin air". But as we've seen there was very limited time for editing the scripts so correcting minor details like this we shouldn't really moan about. Slightly more serious is the Tardis returning to Antarctica at the end of the episode because the Doctor had "forgot to cancel the coordinate program": The Tardis never went to Antarctica in the first place: the Doctor & Sarah were flown there! These scenes are the last filmed using the original Tardis Police Box prop: it collapsed on Elizabeth Sladen during filming (possibly necessitating a rewrite that sent them to Antarctica by air transport?)
While the first two parts of the story are The Thing From Another World, the last four are a cross between The Quatermass Experiment (man turns into plant-like monster) and The Avengers episode The Man Eater of Surrey Green (alien plant looking to germinate & take over the world) I caught this episode on BBC4 one night and saw lots of people being dragged around by vines which reminded me a lot of Seeds of Doom. A documentary on the DVD claims Day of the Triffids as an influence, and ignores the two I've mentioned above, but I can't really see it. Either way Seeds of Doom is effectively the final word on plant monsters in Doctor Who because they've done it so well here. There have been others both before (the plants in Keys of Marinus 3, the Varga plants on Kemble in Dalek Masterplan, the seaweed in Fury from the Deep and the jungle of Planet of the Daleks) and but only one after (the Vervoids in Trial of a Timelord) such was the success of the monster in the show. The violence in the middle of the story stands out as being wrong and I feel is a symptom of the the lack of time available. These episodes could have done with another pass and some more thorough script editing which perhaps the earlier and later episodes had.
Seeds of Doom closes Season 13, which has had SIX stories, the most since season six in 1968/9. It's the only 6 parter this year and sets a pattern followed for most of the remaining years of the fourth Doctor: FIVE 4 part stories followed by a single SIX parter. The next three seasons are all structured like this and that was the plan for his sixth season, the show's seventeenth, until strike action killed off the production of Shada.
As we said yesterday this is the last UNIT story, though their role has been diminished over the last few years anyway and their regular staff over the course of this season. This is the second & last Doctor Who script from Robert Banks-Stewart. He would go on to create detective shows Shoestring and Bergerac.
It's also the last Doctor Who directing job for Douglas Camfield. His wife, Sheila Dunn was worried that the stress of a Doctor Who production was putting to much stress on him and worried it may exacerbate the heart condition that caused him to be hospitalised during the making of Inferno. He continued to work in television directing (deep breath) two episodes of The Onedin Line (I see you Iain Fairbairn and Harry Fielder!) Three more episode of The Sweeney (Bad Apple, Pay Off & Trust Red) to go with the 3 he'd done previously (Cover Story , Stay Lucky, Eh? & Thou Shalt Not Kill), two episodes of Philip Hinchcliffe's Target, two episodes of The Professionals (including Private Madness, Public Danger, the first broadcast episode which I'd not twigged he directed till researching this story. It's one of two episodes to retain Cowley's voice over over the opening titles even if the titles shown on DVD aren't the ones it originally had!), two episodes of Blake's 7 (Duel & Warlord), 3 episodes of the aforementioned Shoestring (the first episode of the series, Private Ear, then The Link-Up and Another Man's Castle), three episodes of a drama series called Accident, two of Danger UXB, and Robert Holmes's Nightmare Man. (I keep seeing the name Maurice Roëves pop up on these productions. Camfield never used him on Doctor Who but his protege Graeme Harper, production assistant on the Seeds of Doom, did when he directed The Caves of Androzani.
A lifelong fan of the French Foreign Legion, he tried to write a Doctor Who script on the subject for the Hinchcliffe/Holmes team. So when Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks came to do Beau Geste for the Classic Serial they immediately turned to Douglas Camfield who called up several of his regular castings including Seeds of Doom's John Challis and Harry Fielder plus Doctor Who regular Pat Gorman. A huge success it earned much publicity including a Radio Times front cover.
Letts engaged Camfield to direct a new adaptation of the novel The Prisoner of Zenda. He was booked to start work on the production on 30th of January 1984. Three days before, on Friday 27th, he went to bed early, complaining of feeling tired. He never woke up, the heart condition which had plagued him almost in secret for years claiming him as he slept. He was aged just 52.
Douglas Camfield directed more Doctor Who stories and episodes than anyone else:
Planet of Giants (episode 3 only)
The Crusade
The Time Meddler
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Web of Fear
The Invasion
Inferno (Barry Letts took over when Camfield was taken ill);
Terror of the Zygons
The Seeds of Doom
His contribution to the series cannot be underestimated.
As a postscript Camfield's old friend Barry Letts went to see his boss, Graeme MacDonald. Worried about Camfield's widow Sheila Dunn's finances, possibly recalling the problems Kismet Delgado had follows the death of her husband Roger Delgado some years before, the two arranged for Camfield's fee for the story to be paid to Dunn. Sheila Dunn outlived her husband by 20 years, dying in 2004 aged 63.
Seeds of Doom has never been repeated by the BBC despite it's popularity with fans. Douglas Camfield made notes on cutting it down to a compilation version for broadcast during the 1976 Christmas period but in the end two different stories, the Pyramids of Mars & the Brain of Morbius were shown. Seeds of Doom was one of three Doctor Who stories novelised by producer Philip Hinchcliffe. The other two were the following story, Masque of Mandragora and the first Doctor tale the Keys of Marinus. It was released on a double video tape in 1994 and on DVD in October 2010
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 427
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 06 March 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The laser team arrive and attack the Krynoid allowing the Doctor, Sarah, Scorby and Sergeant Henderson to escape back into the house via another door. The Doctor ponders on how Chase is moving about unharmed by the Krynoid and wonders if he is infected or, as Sarah suggests, possessed. Chase is appalled at their use of pesticides. The Krynoid starts to break through the masonry into the house. Henderson searches for timber to patch up their barricade but is found by Scorby, knocked unconscious and fed into the composter. Scorby starts to crack under the pressure of the situation and makes a run for it into the grounds. The plants drag him under water killing him. By now the Krynoid is larger than the house. Sarah goes to look for Henderson and is captured by Chase. The Doctor picks up Beresford's transmission and tell him & Sir Colin that he thinks the Krynoid has 15 minutes till it germinates and asks him to have the house destroyed by the RAF to avoid the seed pods being spread all over Earth. Chase ties Sarah up to feed her into the composter but the Doctor rescues her. He struggles with Chase who is trapped in the composter and killed. The Doctor uses steam from a pipe in the mansion's heating system to drive a path through the plants surrounding the house allowing the Doctor & Sarah to escape as the RAF bomb the house destroying the monster. The Doctor takes Sarah on a trip to Cassiopeia for a holiday, but the Tardis instead materialises back in Antarctica!
Oh what a shame: UNIT finally comes up against a menace they can defeat by blowing it to smithereens and the Brigadier isn't there to see it happen! Although a worrying though occurs to me: if this had been done with the regular UNIT team that would have been Sergeant Benton going into the composter and that's not the sort of end I'd want to see our hero get! The steam pipes are a rather convenient solution top getting the Doctor & Sarah out the house, maybe if they'd have flagged up that this was how Scorby's greenhouse was heated in an earlier episode it would be less of a "solution plucked from thin air". But as we've seen there was very limited time for editing the scripts so correcting minor details like this we shouldn't really moan about. Slightly more serious is the Tardis returning to Antarctica at the end of the episode because the Doctor had "forgot to cancel the coordinate program": The Tardis never went to Antarctica in the first place: the Doctor & Sarah were flown there! These scenes are the last filmed using the original Tardis Police Box prop: it collapsed on Elizabeth Sladen during filming (possibly necessitating a rewrite that sent them to Antarctica by air transport?)
While the first two parts of the story are The Thing From Another World, the last four are a cross between The Quatermass Experiment (man turns into plant-like monster) and The Avengers episode The Man Eater of Surrey Green (alien plant looking to germinate & take over the world) I caught this episode on BBC4 one night and saw lots of people being dragged around by vines which reminded me a lot of Seeds of Doom. A documentary on the DVD claims Day of the Triffids as an influence, and ignores the two I've mentioned above, but I can't really see it. Either way Seeds of Doom is effectively the final word on plant monsters in Doctor Who because they've done it so well here. There have been others both before (the plants in Keys of Marinus 3, the Varga plants on Kemble in Dalek Masterplan, the seaweed in Fury from the Deep and the jungle of Planet of the Daleks) and but only one after (the Vervoids in Trial of a Timelord) such was the success of the monster in the show. The violence in the middle of the story stands out as being wrong and I feel is a symptom of the the lack of time available. These episodes could have done with another pass and some more thorough script editing which perhaps the earlier and later episodes had.
Seeds of Doom closes Season 13, which has had SIX stories, the most since season six in 1968/9. It's the only 6 parter this year and sets a pattern followed for most of the remaining years of the fourth Doctor: FIVE 4 part stories followed by a single SIX parter. The next three seasons are all structured like this and that was the plan for his sixth season, the show's seventeenth, until strike action killed off the production of Shada.
As we said yesterday this is the last UNIT story, though their role has been diminished over the last few years anyway and their regular staff over the course of this season. This is the second & last Doctor Who script from Robert Banks-Stewart. He would go on to create detective shows Shoestring and Bergerac.
It's also the last Doctor Who directing job for Douglas Camfield. His wife, Sheila Dunn was worried that the stress of a Doctor Who production was putting to much stress on him and worried it may exacerbate the heart condition that caused him to be hospitalised during the making of Inferno. He continued to work in television directing (deep breath) two episodes of The Onedin Line (I see you Iain Fairbairn and Harry Fielder!) Three more episode of The Sweeney (Bad Apple, Pay Off & Trust Red) to go with the 3 he'd done previously (Cover Story , Stay Lucky, Eh? & Thou Shalt Not Kill), two episodes of Philip Hinchcliffe's Target, two episodes of The Professionals (including Private Madness, Public Danger, the first broadcast episode which I'd not twigged he directed till researching this story. It's one of two episodes to retain Cowley's voice over over the opening titles even if the titles shown on DVD aren't the ones it originally had!), two episodes of Blake's 7 (Duel & Warlord), 3 episodes of the aforementioned Shoestring (the first episode of the series, Private Ear, then The Link-Up and Another Man's Castle), three episodes of a drama series called Accident, two of Danger UXB, and Robert Holmes's Nightmare Man. (I keep seeing the name Maurice Roëves pop up on these productions. Camfield never used him on Doctor Who but his protege Graeme Harper, production assistant on the Seeds of Doom, did when he directed The Caves of Androzani.
A lifelong fan of the French Foreign Legion, he tried to write a Doctor Who script on the subject for the Hinchcliffe/Holmes team. So when Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks came to do Beau Geste for the Classic Serial they immediately turned to Douglas Camfield who called up several of his regular castings including Seeds of Doom's John Challis and Harry Fielder plus Doctor Who regular Pat Gorman. A huge success it earned much publicity including a Radio Times front cover.
Letts engaged Camfield to direct a new adaptation of the novel The Prisoner of Zenda. He was booked to start work on the production on 30th of January 1984. Three days before, on Friday 27th, he went to bed early, complaining of feeling tired. He never woke up, the heart condition which had plagued him almost in secret for years claiming him as he slept. He was aged just 52.
Douglas Camfield directed more Doctor Who stories and episodes than anyone else:
Planet of Giants (episode 3 only)
The Crusade
The Time Meddler
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Web of Fear
The Invasion
Inferno (Barry Letts took over when Camfield was taken ill);
Terror of the Zygons
The Seeds of Doom
His contribution to the series cannot be underestimated.
As a postscript Camfield's old friend Barry Letts went to see his boss, Graeme MacDonald. Worried about Camfield's widow Sheila Dunn's finances, possibly recalling the problems Kismet Delgado had follows the death of her husband Roger Delgado some years before, the two arranged for Camfield's fee for the story to be paid to Dunn. Sheila Dunn outlived her husband by 20 years, dying in 2004 aged 63.
Seeds of Doom has never been repeated by the BBC despite it's popularity with fans. Douglas Camfield made notes on cutting it down to a compilation version for broadcast during the 1976 Christmas period but in the end two different stories, the Pyramids of Mars & the Brain of Morbius were shown. Seeds of Doom was one of three Doctor Who stories novelised by producer Philip Hinchcliffe. The other two were the following story, Masque of Mandragora and the first Doctor tale the Keys of Marinus. It was released on a double video tape in 1994 and on DVD in October 2010
Sunday, 22 January 2012
426 The Seeds of Doom Part Five
EPISODE: The Seeds of Doom Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 426
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 28 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The Krynoid is attacked by the guards allowing the Doctor & Sarah to escape with them & Scorby to the cottages, but the Krynoid finds them. The Doctor has Scorby make a Molotov cocktail to distract the Krynoid while they escape. Sir Colin Thackeray contacts Major Beresford at UNIT, since the Brigadier is in Geneva, to summon his help thanking Miss Ducat for her help. The Doctor runs for the car to go to contact Sir Colin while Scorby & Sarah go back to the house searching for Chase who is in the garden photographing the Krynoid. Reaching the World Ecology Bureau he explains to Sir Colin & Major Beresford what's been happening and brings to their attention that within a mile of Chase's estate the Krynoid has started using other plants to kill people. They assemble a laser gun team to attack the Krynoid. The Doctor phones Sarah at Chase's mansion but they are cut off by the Krynoid which snaps the telephone wires. The guards flee the mansion leaving Scorby, Sarah & the butler Hargreaves behind. They find a guard's body outside strangled by the vines and encounter Chase, who is firmly on the side of the plants & the Krynoid and quite mad. He returns to the house sheltering in a room full of plants refusing to listen to Scorby's pleas for help. The plants attack them, choking them with vines as the Doctor & Sergeant Henderson arrive with pesticide. Chase attacks them calling them murderers. They free Sarah & Scorby but Hargreaves is already dead. They take shelter in Chase's laboratory. They clear the room of plants but while they are dumping them outside Chase locks the door leaving them at the mercy of the now giant Krynoid.
Much less violence this episode which is a big relief. Ok so Sir Colin asked Miss Ducat to help him.... how does he know of th link between her & Chase - did the Doctor contact him in between leaving her house and driving to Chase's mansion. Chase's madness in this episode seems very real and genuine and very very scary. Top marks to Tony Beckley's performance here. He's been "slightly odd" since the start of the story but as it's gone he's tipped from obsession right the way over the edge into madness. And UNIT's back. Except it's not UNIT as we know it. No Brigadier, no Benton, no Mike Yates or Harry Sullivan. Android Invasion *just about* got away with it by having Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) and John Levene (Benton) involved when Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) wasn't available. Here none of them are and it's a bunch of faces we don't recognise. This might of worked if it had been an established pattern over the years of different personnel (like the different Jimmys in the early days of UNIT) but UNIT has come to mean the Brigadier, plus support, so their appearance here is effectively UNIT in name only. Over the last three stories they've been commanded by officers of decreasing rank: after the Brigadier in Terror of the Zygons we had Colonel Faraday in Android Invasion and now Major Beresford. These last two episodes of the story are UNIT's last appearances of the seventies and it's a bit of anti climatic exit. Over the next few years the Doctor will be visiting contemporary Earth a lot less so the story need for them disappears. Save for a few mentions, and a cameo appearance of their headquarters, the next time we see UNIT on active service will be in 1989 in the final season of Doctor Who.
Playing Major Beresford is John Acheson who I know nothing about save that he's been in a previous Douglas Camfield production appearing in the Paul Temple episode Night Train. A quick peak at the cast list for that shows Peter Halliday in the cast also, who Camfield used on the Invasion. I also know nothing about Ray Barron, playing Sergeant Henderson. He's got no previous Doctor who appearances to his name but, and I'm sure this will surprise you, Camfield used him before in his 1975 Sweeney Stay Lucky Eh, which is the same one John Challis (Scorby) is in!
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 426
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 28 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The Krynoid is attacked by the guards allowing the Doctor & Sarah to escape with them & Scorby to the cottages, but the Krynoid finds them. The Doctor has Scorby make a Molotov cocktail to distract the Krynoid while they escape. Sir Colin Thackeray contacts Major Beresford at UNIT, since the Brigadier is in Geneva, to summon his help thanking Miss Ducat for her help. The Doctor runs for the car to go to contact Sir Colin while Scorby & Sarah go back to the house searching for Chase who is in the garden photographing the Krynoid. Reaching the World Ecology Bureau he explains to Sir Colin & Major Beresford what's been happening and brings to their attention that within a mile of Chase's estate the Krynoid has started using other plants to kill people. They assemble a laser gun team to attack the Krynoid. The Doctor phones Sarah at Chase's mansion but they are cut off by the Krynoid which snaps the telephone wires. The guards flee the mansion leaving Scorby, Sarah & the butler Hargreaves behind. They find a guard's body outside strangled by the vines and encounter Chase, who is firmly on the side of the plants & the Krynoid and quite mad. He returns to the house sheltering in a room full of plants refusing to listen to Scorby's pleas for help. The plants attack them, choking them with vines as the Doctor & Sergeant Henderson arrive with pesticide. Chase attacks them calling them murderers. They free Sarah & Scorby but Hargreaves is already dead. They take shelter in Chase's laboratory. They clear the room of plants but while they are dumping them outside Chase locks the door leaving them at the mercy of the now giant Krynoid.
Much less violence this episode which is a big relief. Ok so Sir Colin asked Miss Ducat to help him.... how does he know of th link between her & Chase - did the Doctor contact him in between leaving her house and driving to Chase's mansion. Chase's madness in this episode seems very real and genuine and very very scary. Top marks to Tony Beckley's performance here. He's been "slightly odd" since the start of the story but as it's gone he's tipped from obsession right the way over the edge into madness. And UNIT's back. Except it's not UNIT as we know it. No Brigadier, no Benton, no Mike Yates or Harry Sullivan. Android Invasion *just about* got away with it by having Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) and John Levene (Benton) involved when Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) wasn't available. Here none of them are and it's a bunch of faces we don't recognise. This might of worked if it had been an established pattern over the years of different personnel (like the different Jimmys in the early days of UNIT) but UNIT has come to mean the Brigadier, plus support, so their appearance here is effectively UNIT in name only. Over the last three stories they've been commanded by officers of decreasing rank: after the Brigadier in Terror of the Zygons we had Colonel Faraday in Android Invasion and now Major Beresford. These last two episodes of the story are UNIT's last appearances of the seventies and it's a bit of anti climatic exit. Over the next few years the Doctor will be visiting contemporary Earth a lot less so the story need for them disappears. Save for a few mentions, and a cameo appearance of their headquarters, the next time we see UNIT on active service will be in 1989 in the final season of Doctor Who.
Playing Major Beresford is John Acheson who I know nothing about save that he's been in a previous Douglas Camfield production appearing in the Paul Temple episode Night Train. A quick peak at the cast list for that shows Peter Halliday in the cast also, who Camfield used on the Invasion. I also know nothing about Ray Barron, playing Sergeant Henderson. He's got no previous Doctor who appearances to his name but, and I'm sure this will surprise you, Camfield used him before in his 1975 Sweeney Stay Lucky Eh, which is the same one John Challis (Scorby) is in!
Saturday, 21 January 2012
425 The Seeds of Doom Part Four
EPISODE: The Seeds of Doom Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 425
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 21 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The Doctor jumps through the windows in the ceiling and, overcoming Scorby & seizing his gun, holds Chase at gunpoint. He rescues Sarah, locking them in the lab but the Krynoid pod stings Keeler. Keeler quickly begins to change to Chase's amazed interest. Hiding Sarah in the grounds the Doctor sneaks back to the house. Keeler is taken to a cottage in the grounds. The Doctor finds the opened pod in the lab but is taken prisoner again by Scorby who takes him to Chase's composting machine. Locked in the cottage & bedridden, Keeler continues to mutate. Amelia Ducat turns up at the main gate demanding to be paid for her painting. Sarah sneaks into the cottage and is horrified by what Keeler is becoming. She goes to find the Doctor for help. Chase tries to fob Miss Ducat off by paying her and has Scorby escort her from the premises. Scorby is called away by the guards allowing Sarah to speak to her and gets her to pass a message to Sir Colin Thackeray. Chase has the Doctor placed in the entrance to his composter and sets the machine to start automatically. Miss Ducat returns to her car where Sir Colin & Dunbar are waiting for her. Sir Colin decides to call UNIT while Dunbar goes into the house, admitting his error to Sir Colin. Keeler has mutated into his tentacled form and breaks his bonds, escaping from the cottage. Sarah finds the Doctor and deactivates the composter. Dunbar argues with Chase. Chase's butler Hargreaves tells them Keeler has escaped and Dunbar goes for help. The Doctor & Sarah find Keeler gone. Dunbar encounters a larger Krynoid blob in in the grounds and is consumed by it before it turns it's attentions on the Doctor & Sarah.....
More violence in this episode with the Doctor hitting Scorby in stomach and then smashing chair over his head. Sorry, that's just not the Doctor. Violence from Scorby is more acceptable but his beating the Doctor is a little over the top: this isn't the Sweeney. Then there's the horror aspect of the episode too with Keeler pleading to go to hospital as Chase watches fascinated and the nasty composter machine that the Doctor is nearly fed to. Yes I know it's just a "saw mill saw blade with the damsel in distress tied to a log" but with the volume turned up a few notches but still. Like the previous episode there's aspects of this one which leave a rather bad taste in the mouth which is a shame because I think there is some good stuff going on here. When you think about it you do have to wonder why Miss Ducat has Sir Colin Thackeray waiting for her in a car: there's no established link between the two previously in the story.
Right lets deal with the casting "elephant in the room" now: Yes that is Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase. Not heard the name before but think he looks a tad familiar? He was Camp Freddie in The Italian Job. He died of cancer in California in 1980. Seeds of Doom was made 6 years after the Italian Job was released and, though the film was popular, I suspect it hadn't quite reached the popularity it has today. At the time John Challis, playing Scorby, was best known for a recurring role in Z-Cars. From 1981 he found fame as Boycie in Only Fools & Horses. He was an actor Douglas Camfield used repeatedly in his Sweeney episode Stay Lucky Eh and then again as Cpl Dupre in his acclaimed classic serial Beau Geste for Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks. So even though they weren't as well known then you can't watch this now without thinking that the lead villains are Camp Freddie from The Italian Job & Boycie from Only Fools & Horses and that takes you right out of the production.
Kenneth Gilbert plays Richard Dunbar. It's his soul Doctor Who appearance but he was in the Camfield directed Sweeney episode Bad Apple and the first Shoestring episode Private Ear (director: D Camfield) You may recognise him as Harold Earle, one of the politicians who falls pray to Francis Urquart in House of Cards. Mark Jones plays the ill fated Arnold Keeler as well as the voice of the Krynoid he becomes. He's yet another Imperial Officer in The Empire Strikes Back and is one of the few Who actors to appear in Red Dwarf (he's in Pete part 1 as a Canary). Chase's butler Hargreaves is played by Seymour Green who'll be back as the Chamberlain in The Twin Dilemma. Michael Barrington, playing Sir Colin Thackeray, is probably most familiar as Governor Venables in my favourite sitcom Porridge. David Masterman, the Guard Leader, was in another Camfield episode of the Sweeney Thou Shalt Not Kill while one of his guards, is Harry 'aitch Fielder (who was accidentally uncredited in episode 3). He spent his career as a supporting artist and once you know his face you'll be recognising him everywhere. He's got a stack of Doctor Who episodes to his name, almost all of them uncredited: The Enemy of the World: Central European Guard, The Wheel in Space: Wheel Crewmember, Planet of the Spiders: Guard, Revenge of the Cybermen: Vogan, The Deadly Assassin: Guard, The Face of Evil: Second Assassin, The Invisible Enemy: Titan Base Crewman, The Ribos Operation: Levithian Guard, The Armageddon Factor: Guard, Meglos: Tigellan & Castrovalva: Security Guard. He was numerous uncredited Federation Troopers in Blake's 7, one of which Camfield directed. Other Camfield productions he's appeared in include Target: Blow Out (which also features Camfield's wife Sheila Dunn) and four episodes of Beau Geste. If you look at his IMDB entry you'll find he has a truly impressive CV! I didn't realise until I started researching this story that he'd also appeared on Thames TV children's magazine series CBTV where he played Harry, the security the security guard on the gates of Teddington Studios that Jim Sweeney & Steve Steen had to get past to get their rooftop studio. Incredibly YouTube footage of this exists, uploaded by the man himself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG-lrYSulTc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHkJvLnWats. He's got a website at http://www.harryfielder.co.uk/ and once you realise what he looks like you'll be spotting him everywhere!
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 425
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 21 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The Doctor jumps through the windows in the ceiling and, overcoming Scorby & seizing his gun, holds Chase at gunpoint. He rescues Sarah, locking them in the lab but the Krynoid pod stings Keeler. Keeler quickly begins to change to Chase's amazed interest. Hiding Sarah in the grounds the Doctor sneaks back to the house. Keeler is taken to a cottage in the grounds. The Doctor finds the opened pod in the lab but is taken prisoner again by Scorby who takes him to Chase's composting machine. Locked in the cottage & bedridden, Keeler continues to mutate. Amelia Ducat turns up at the main gate demanding to be paid for her painting. Sarah sneaks into the cottage and is horrified by what Keeler is becoming. She goes to find the Doctor for help. Chase tries to fob Miss Ducat off by paying her and has Scorby escort her from the premises. Scorby is called away by the guards allowing Sarah to speak to her and gets her to pass a message to Sir Colin Thackeray. Chase has the Doctor placed in the entrance to his composter and sets the machine to start automatically. Miss Ducat returns to her car where Sir Colin & Dunbar are waiting for her. Sir Colin decides to call UNIT while Dunbar goes into the house, admitting his error to Sir Colin. Keeler has mutated into his tentacled form and breaks his bonds, escaping from the cottage. Sarah finds the Doctor and deactivates the composter. Dunbar argues with Chase. Chase's butler Hargreaves tells them Keeler has escaped and Dunbar goes for help. The Doctor & Sarah find Keeler gone. Dunbar encounters a larger Krynoid blob in in the grounds and is consumed by it before it turns it's attentions on the Doctor & Sarah.....
More violence in this episode with the Doctor hitting Scorby in stomach and then smashing chair over his head. Sorry, that's just not the Doctor. Violence from Scorby is more acceptable but his beating the Doctor is a little over the top: this isn't the Sweeney. Then there's the horror aspect of the episode too with Keeler pleading to go to hospital as Chase watches fascinated and the nasty composter machine that the Doctor is nearly fed to. Yes I know it's just a "saw mill saw blade with the damsel in distress tied to a log" but with the volume turned up a few notches but still. Like the previous episode there's aspects of this one which leave a rather bad taste in the mouth which is a shame because I think there is some good stuff going on here. When you think about it you do have to wonder why Miss Ducat has Sir Colin Thackeray waiting for her in a car: there's no established link between the two previously in the story.
Right lets deal with the casting "elephant in the room" now: Yes that is Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase. Not heard the name before but think he looks a tad familiar? He was Camp Freddie in The Italian Job. He died of cancer in California in 1980. Seeds of Doom was made 6 years after the Italian Job was released and, though the film was popular, I suspect it hadn't quite reached the popularity it has today. At the time John Challis, playing Scorby, was best known for a recurring role in Z-Cars. From 1981 he found fame as Boycie in Only Fools & Horses. He was an actor Douglas Camfield used repeatedly in his Sweeney episode Stay Lucky Eh and then again as Cpl Dupre in his acclaimed classic serial Beau Geste for Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks. So even though they weren't as well known then you can't watch this now without thinking that the lead villains are Camp Freddie from The Italian Job & Boycie from Only Fools & Horses and that takes you right out of the production.
Kenneth Gilbert plays Richard Dunbar. It's his soul Doctor Who appearance but he was in the Camfield directed Sweeney episode Bad Apple and the first Shoestring episode Private Ear (director: D Camfield) You may recognise him as Harold Earle, one of the politicians who falls pray to Francis Urquart in House of Cards. Mark Jones plays the ill fated Arnold Keeler as well as the voice of the Krynoid he becomes. He's yet another Imperial Officer in The Empire Strikes Back and is one of the few Who actors to appear in Red Dwarf (he's in Pete part 1 as a Canary). Chase's butler Hargreaves is played by Seymour Green who'll be back as the Chamberlain in The Twin Dilemma. Michael Barrington, playing Sir Colin Thackeray, is probably most familiar as Governor Venables in my favourite sitcom Porridge. David Masterman, the Guard Leader, was in another Camfield episode of the Sweeney Thou Shalt Not Kill while one of his guards, is Harry 'aitch Fielder (who was accidentally uncredited in episode 3). He spent his career as a supporting artist and once you know his face you'll be recognising him everywhere. He's got a stack of Doctor Who episodes to his name, almost all of them uncredited: The Enemy of the World: Central European Guard, The Wheel in Space: Wheel Crewmember, Planet of the Spiders: Guard, Revenge of the Cybermen: Vogan, The Deadly Assassin: Guard, The Face of Evil: Second Assassin, The Invisible Enemy: Titan Base Crewman, The Ribos Operation: Levithian Guard, The Armageddon Factor: Guard, Meglos: Tigellan & Castrovalva: Security Guard. He was numerous uncredited Federation Troopers in Blake's 7, one of which Camfield directed. Other Camfield productions he's appeared in include Target: Blow Out (which also features Camfield's wife Sheila Dunn) and four episodes of Beau Geste. If you look at his IMDB entry you'll find he has a truly impressive CV! I didn't realise until I started researching this story that he'd also appeared on Thames TV children's magazine series CBTV where he played Harry, the security the security guard on the gates of Teddington Studios that Jim Sweeney & Steve Steen had to get past to get their rooftop studio. Incredibly YouTube footage of this exists, uploaded by the man himself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG-lrYSulTc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHkJvLnWats. He's got a website at http://www.harryfielder.co.uk/ and once you realise what he looks like you'll be spotting him everywhere!
Friday, 20 January 2012
424 The Seeds of Doom Part Three
EPISODE: The Seeds of Doom Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 424
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 14 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The Doctor & Sarah are rescued from the ruins of the Antarctic base and flown to London. Scorby and Keeler deliver the seed pod to Harrison Chase. Dunbar arrives angry at the destruction Chase has caused and tells them that the Doctor & Sarah are still alive. The Doctor meets with Dunbar and his superior Sir Colin Thackery at the World Ecology Bureau. The Doctor worries information has leaked from the bureau and warns them of the danger the pod causes. The Doctor & Sarah leave in a car for the Botanic Institute but are instead driven to a quarry where their driver tries to kill them. The Doctor beats him unconscious. Examining the boot they find a painting by famed painter Amelia Ducat who identifies it as one she sold to Harrison Chase. Keeler has qualms about experimenting on the pod. The Doctor & Sarah drive to Chase's country mansion and are chased by guards but caught by Scorby then taken to Chase. He tells them he has the greatest collection of plants in the world and the plant that will hatch from the pod will be the centrepiece. The pod starts to activate & Chase is summoned allowing the Doctor & Sarah to escape from Scorby. Sarah is sent to summon help but is swiftly recaptured. The Doctor tries to get back into the house to get the pod. Sarah is taken to the seed pod and held down as it starts to open.....
The thing that stands out for me from this episode is how violent the Doctor is. we're used to see the Third Doctor throw people about and defend himself with Venusian Akido but here the Doctor is physically violent in a way we've not seen before striking the Chauffeur with his fist and punching Scorby in the stomach then twisting his neck to render him unconscious. It stands out from what we've seen before and doesn't feel right. In times to come the later piece of action would probably been accomplished by tripping him up with the scarf! My feeling is that this is the script as Robert Banks-Stewart wrote it and script editor Robert Holmes who was pushed for time (30 days between the script's commission & location filming) didn't have time to rewrite the scenes. It feels quite out of character for the Doctor and spoils the episode for me which has some great stuff in it with Chase's madness in his devotion to his plants and the wonderful exchange between the Doctor & Amelia Ducat about the painting standing out:[blockquote] The Doctor: We found it in a car boot
Amelia Ducat: A car boot?
The Doctor: A Daimler car boot
Amelia Ducat: The car is immaterial.[/blockquote]But I'm a little wary of one of the Doctor's other lines where he describes Sarah-Jane Smith as his "best friend". It's an odd turn of phrase for the Doctor who hasn't really described anyone as a friend before. Companion, assistant yes. But friend? Again I wonder if given a little more time to script edit the episode this line might have been tweaked.
Cast: Ian Fairbairn appears briefly as Doctor Chester. He was first in The Macra Terror as Questa, then became a Camfield regular appearing in The Invasion as Gregory and Inferno as Bromley & the Penetration Announcer before this. Camfield keeps using him as he appears in a Camfield episode of The Onedin Line, the first broadcast episode of The Professionals, Private Madness, Public Danger, that Camfield directed and also in one of Camfield's Shoestring episodes Link Up. The same episode also features Doctor who actors Stewart Bevan (Professor Clifford Jones from Green Death), John Woodnutt (most recently in the Camfield directed Terror of the Zygons), Camfield's wife Sheila Dunn (Dalek Masterplan, The Invasion & Inferno) plus Sylvia Coleridge - Amelia Ducat who's Amelia Ducat in this story (as well as appearing in Blake's 7: Gambit as the Croupier). Alan Chuntz, the Chauffeur was a regular member of the HAVOK stunt team and has been in the background of many a Doctor Who story either hitting someone or falling down.
We're back at Buckland Sand and Silica Co Ltd, this time serving as the quarry where the chauffeur tries to kill the Doctor & Sarah. The exterior of the World Ecology Bureau is probably the shortest distance Doctor Who ever travelled to film: it's the entrance to BBC Television Centre! Meanwhile Harrison Chase's estate is filmed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athelhampton House in Dorset.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 424
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 14 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
The Doctor & Sarah are rescued from the ruins of the Antarctic base and flown to London. Scorby and Keeler deliver the seed pod to Harrison Chase. Dunbar arrives angry at the destruction Chase has caused and tells them that the Doctor & Sarah are still alive. The Doctor meets with Dunbar and his superior Sir Colin Thackery at the World Ecology Bureau. The Doctor worries information has leaked from the bureau and warns them of the danger the pod causes. The Doctor & Sarah leave in a car for the Botanic Institute but are instead driven to a quarry where their driver tries to kill them. The Doctor beats him unconscious. Examining the boot they find a painting by famed painter Amelia Ducat who identifies it as one she sold to Harrison Chase. Keeler has qualms about experimenting on the pod. The Doctor & Sarah drive to Chase's country mansion and are chased by guards but caught by Scorby then taken to Chase. He tells them he has the greatest collection of plants in the world and the plant that will hatch from the pod will be the centrepiece. The pod starts to activate & Chase is summoned allowing the Doctor & Sarah to escape from Scorby. Sarah is sent to summon help but is swiftly recaptured. The Doctor tries to get back into the house to get the pod. Sarah is taken to the seed pod and held down as it starts to open.....
The thing that stands out for me from this episode is how violent the Doctor is. we're used to see the Third Doctor throw people about and defend himself with Venusian Akido but here the Doctor is physically violent in a way we've not seen before striking the Chauffeur with his fist and punching Scorby in the stomach then twisting his neck to render him unconscious. It stands out from what we've seen before and doesn't feel right. In times to come the later piece of action would probably been accomplished by tripping him up with the scarf! My feeling is that this is the script as Robert Banks-Stewart wrote it and script editor Robert Holmes who was pushed for time (30 days between the script's commission & location filming) didn't have time to rewrite the scenes. It feels quite out of character for the Doctor and spoils the episode for me which has some great stuff in it with Chase's madness in his devotion to his plants and the wonderful exchange between the Doctor & Amelia Ducat about the painting standing out:[blockquote] The Doctor: We found it in a car boot
Amelia Ducat: A car boot?
The Doctor: A Daimler car boot
Amelia Ducat: The car is immaterial.[/blockquote]But I'm a little wary of one of the Doctor's other lines where he describes Sarah-Jane Smith as his "best friend". It's an odd turn of phrase for the Doctor who hasn't really described anyone as a friend before. Companion, assistant yes. But friend? Again I wonder if given a little more time to script edit the episode this line might have been tweaked.
Cast: Ian Fairbairn appears briefly as Doctor Chester. He was first in The Macra Terror as Questa, then became a Camfield regular appearing in The Invasion as Gregory and Inferno as Bromley & the Penetration Announcer before this. Camfield keeps using him as he appears in a Camfield episode of The Onedin Line, the first broadcast episode of The Professionals, Private Madness, Public Danger, that Camfield directed and also in one of Camfield's Shoestring episodes Link Up. The same episode also features Doctor who actors Stewart Bevan (Professor Clifford Jones from Green Death), John Woodnutt (most recently in the Camfield directed Terror of the Zygons), Camfield's wife Sheila Dunn (Dalek Masterplan, The Invasion & Inferno) plus Sylvia Coleridge - Amelia Ducat who's Amelia Ducat in this story (as well as appearing in Blake's 7: Gambit as the Croupier). Alan Chuntz, the Chauffeur was a regular member of the HAVOK stunt team and has been in the background of many a Doctor Who story either hitting someone or falling down.
We're back at Buckland Sand and Silica Co Ltd, this time serving as the quarry where the chauffeur tries to kill the Doctor & Sarah. The exterior of the World Ecology Bureau is probably the shortest distance Doctor Who ever travelled to film: it's the entrance to BBC Television Centre! Meanwhile Harrison Chase's estate is filmed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athelhampton House in Dorset.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
423 The Seeds of Doom Part Two
EPISODE: The Seeds of Doom Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 423
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 07 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
Scorby arms himself to prepare to take the pod by force, despite Keeler's objections. Sarah finds Moberley's body and the base door opened. The Krynoid creature Winlett has become makes it's way through the snow as the Doctor tells Stevenson that they must destroy it. Dunbar speaks with Chase and tells him that they have heard there's been a virus outbreak at the base. Scorby destroys the base's radio when the medical rescue team try to contact them. Keeler finds the opened pod causing them to look for what has come out of it. Scorby takes the Doctor & Sarah prisoner and asks them about the pod. The Doctor tells him it's taken over Winlett. Stevenson returns to the base and is captured, accidentally revealing to Scorby that there is a second pod which Scorby has him fetch from the Freezer. The Doctor & Stevenson are tied up in the base while Scorby ties Sarah to a bomb in the generator plant, despite Keeler's continued objections. The Doctor & Stevenson sever their bonds and escape, the Doctor going to the generator to find Sarah. Stevenson attempts to contact help but is murdered by the Krynoid. Scorby & Keeler escape with the pod in their plane. The Doctor finds Sarah as the Krynoid enters the base's generator plant seeking shelter & food. They escape sealing it in as it's consumed by the explosion.
Perhaps a little on the slow side but there's some decent tension in this episode. Will Scorby & Keller find what they're after? Will the Krynoid kill them all? Will Sarah be rescued before the bomb goes off ? So yeah, good stuff, liked these first two episodes which essentially form a two part story by themselves.
If you're thinking the Krynoid monster looks familiar then it is: It's a resprayed Axon monster costume from 1971's Claws of Axos. Seeds of Doom was a somewhat late replacement as a story. The original idea was that season 13 would conclude with The Hand of Fear, a six part Bob Baker & Dave Martin story that was originally intended to kill off the Brigadier. For various reason the story fell through, being redrafted as a four parter for the next season. Script editor Robert Holmes turned to Robert Banks-Stewart who created Seeds of Doom in something of a hurry. Banks-Stewart was commissioned on 30th September 1975: By the 30th October location filming was taking place. The Axon costume reuse saves time & money creating a new costume, neither of which the production had.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 423
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 07 February 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
Scorby arms himself to prepare to take the pod by force, despite Keeler's objections. Sarah finds Moberley's body and the base door opened. The Krynoid creature Winlett has become makes it's way through the snow as the Doctor tells Stevenson that they must destroy it. Dunbar speaks with Chase and tells him that they have heard there's been a virus outbreak at the base. Scorby destroys the base's radio when the medical rescue team try to contact them. Keeler finds the opened pod causing them to look for what has come out of it. Scorby takes the Doctor & Sarah prisoner and asks them about the pod. The Doctor tells him it's taken over Winlett. Stevenson returns to the base and is captured, accidentally revealing to Scorby that there is a second pod which Scorby has him fetch from the Freezer. The Doctor & Stevenson are tied up in the base while Scorby ties Sarah to a bomb in the generator plant, despite Keeler's continued objections. The Doctor & Stevenson sever their bonds and escape, the Doctor going to the generator to find Sarah. Stevenson attempts to contact help but is murdered by the Krynoid. Scorby & Keeler escape with the pod in their plane. The Doctor finds Sarah as the Krynoid enters the base's generator plant seeking shelter & food. They escape sealing it in as it's consumed by the explosion.
Perhaps a little on the slow side but there's some decent tension in this episode. Will Scorby & Keller find what they're after? Will the Krynoid kill them all? Will Sarah be rescued before the bomb goes off ? So yeah, good stuff, liked these first two episodes which essentially form a two part story by themselves.
If you're thinking the Krynoid monster looks familiar then it is: It's a resprayed Axon monster costume from 1971's Claws of Axos. Seeds of Doom was a somewhat late replacement as a story. The original idea was that season 13 would conclude with The Hand of Fear, a six part Bob Baker & Dave Martin story that was originally intended to kill off the Brigadier. For various reason the story fell through, being redrafted as a four parter for the next season. Script editor Robert Holmes turned to Robert Banks-Stewart who created Seeds of Doom in something of a hurry. Banks-Stewart was commissioned on 30th September 1975: By the 30th October location filming was taking place. The Axon costume reuse saves time & money creating a new costume, neither of which the production had.
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
422 The Seeds of Doom Part One
EPISODE: The Seeds of Doom Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 422
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 31 January 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
An expedition team in the Antarctic finds a round object buried in Ice. Examining it at their base they think it's a seed pod of some sort. Pictures are sent to the world ecology bureau in London where Dunbar shows them to the Doctor, called in from UNIT, who is worried it's dangerous. The Antarctic team find the pod is growing. Dunbar visits noted plant collector Harrison Chase and shows him the photos. Chase is intrigued and dispatches Scorby & Keeler to retrieve it. While one of the team, Winlett, guards the pod it opens and spits out a tendril striking him. When he's found be Stevenson & Moberley he has started to turn green. The Doctor & Sarah are delivered to the Antarctic by helicopter. When the Doctor arrives he finds Winlett's body transforming into a plant like structure. The Doctor discovers a second pod in the ice next to where the team found the first, which they store in the freezer. The Doctor tells Sarah that Keeler is becoming a Krynoid, an animal consuming plant. Scorby & Keeler arrive posing as the medical team. The Doctor proposes amputating the arm where the infection first occurred. Moberley prepares to perform the operation but the creature Winlett is becoming clambers to it's feet and murders him......
Do not confuse with The Seeds of DEATH
Hurrah! Some snow and ice! I've loved snow & ice as a back drop ever since I saw the Hoth scenes in Empire Strikes Back. It's a few years too early to be homaging Empire though.... No essentially these first few episodes are The Thing From Another World, a 1951 movie about Arctic scientists digging something plant based up in the Arctic. It was remade in 1982 by John Carpenter as The Thing and the 1993 X-Files episode Ice, one of my favourites, owes a considerable debt to it as well. Apart from the monster being a tad gruesome I can't fault this episode at all. It comes as no surprise to find it's been produced by the same writer/director team, Robert Banks-Stewart and Douglas Camfield, that gave us Terror of the Zygons at the start of the season.
Two of the base crew have prior form in Doctor Who: Hubert Rees, as Stevenson, was Chief Engineer in Fury from the Deep and Captain Ransom in The War Games. I've found him also in Thou Shalt Not Kill, one of director Douglas Camfield's episodes of The Sweeney. John Gleeson, the ill fated Winlett, was a Thal Solider in Genesis of the Daleks. He's been in the Sweeney too, but his episode I Want That Man, wasn't directed by Camfield! But Michael McStay, who plays Moberley the third member of the base, was in Cover Story, another of Douglas Camfield's Sweeney episodes. We'll come to the rest of the cast later and there's at least one Camfield regular to appear.
I'll get to the casting "elephant in the house" later in the story. But for now it will be suffice to say that Yes, that is Camp Freddie & Boycie.
The master video tape of this episode went missing in the week prior to transmission but was fortunately found just in time!
Believe it or not but the exterior Antarctic scenes in this episode were filmed on location at Buckland Sand and Silica Co Ltd near Reigatre. It'll be back looking more like it's natural self later in the story.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 422
STORY NUMBER: 085
TRANSMITTED: 31 January 1976
WRITER: Robert Banks-Stewart
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom
An expedition team in the Antarctic finds a round object buried in Ice. Examining it at their base they think it's a seed pod of some sort. Pictures are sent to the world ecology bureau in London where Dunbar shows them to the Doctor, called in from UNIT, who is worried it's dangerous. The Antarctic team find the pod is growing. Dunbar visits noted plant collector Harrison Chase and shows him the photos. Chase is intrigued and dispatches Scorby & Keeler to retrieve it. While one of the team, Winlett, guards the pod it opens and spits out a tendril striking him. When he's found be Stevenson & Moberley he has started to turn green. The Doctor & Sarah are delivered to the Antarctic by helicopter. When the Doctor arrives he finds Winlett's body transforming into a plant like structure. The Doctor discovers a second pod in the ice next to where the team found the first, which they store in the freezer. The Doctor tells Sarah that Keeler is becoming a Krynoid, an animal consuming plant. Scorby & Keeler arrive posing as the medical team. The Doctor proposes amputating the arm where the infection first occurred. Moberley prepares to perform the operation but the creature Winlett is becoming clambers to it's feet and murders him......
Do not confuse with The Seeds of DEATH
Hurrah! Some snow and ice! I've loved snow & ice as a back drop ever since I saw the Hoth scenes in Empire Strikes Back. It's a few years too early to be homaging Empire though.... No essentially these first few episodes are The Thing From Another World, a 1951 movie about Arctic scientists digging something plant based up in the Arctic. It was remade in 1982 by John Carpenter as The Thing and the 1993 X-Files episode Ice, one of my favourites, owes a considerable debt to it as well. Apart from the monster being a tad gruesome I can't fault this episode at all. It comes as no surprise to find it's been produced by the same writer/director team, Robert Banks-Stewart and Douglas Camfield, that gave us Terror of the Zygons at the start of the season.
Two of the base crew have prior form in Doctor Who: Hubert Rees, as Stevenson, was Chief Engineer in Fury from the Deep and Captain Ransom in The War Games. I've found him also in Thou Shalt Not Kill, one of director Douglas Camfield's episodes of The Sweeney. John Gleeson, the ill fated Winlett, was a Thal Solider in Genesis of the Daleks. He's been in the Sweeney too, but his episode I Want That Man, wasn't directed by Camfield! But Michael McStay, who plays Moberley the third member of the base, was in Cover Story, another of Douglas Camfield's Sweeney episodes. We'll come to the rest of the cast later and there's at least one Camfield regular to appear.
I'll get to the casting "elephant in the house" later in the story. But for now it will be suffice to say that Yes, that is Camp Freddie & Boycie.
The master video tape of this episode went missing in the week prior to transmission but was fortunately found just in time!
Believe it or not but the exterior Antarctic scenes in this episode were filmed on location at Buckland Sand and Silica Co Ltd near Reigatre. It'll be back looking more like it's natural self later in the story.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
421 The Brain of Morbius Part Four
EPISODE: The Brain of Morbius Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 421
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 24 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
Sarah sees the Monster and screams, accidentally setting it on fire with a flaming torch. She finds the Doctor's body and is shocked when he wakes up. Solon tries to calm the Morbius monster but it attacks him. Morbius then strikes the Doctor down and grabs Sarah but he is then attacked by the injured Condo who he kills. Morbius rampages through the rocks of Karn killing weakened members of the Sisterhood. The recovered Solon sedates his creation and, locking the Doctor and Sarah in a room, adjusts it allowing Morbius' brain to gain full control. The Doctor generates cyanide gas from Solon's chemical store to release into the air system to kill the monster, but all he succeeds in doing is killing Solon, the Monster survives due to his lungs having a methane filter. The Doctor confronts Morbius and challenges him to a dual in a mind bending contest. Morbius regresses the Doctor through his past lives all but killing him when the apparatus explodes. The Monster, damaged by the electrical discharge, goes on the rampage and is driven off a cliff by the Sisterhood destroying it. Maran uses what little elixir had been generated to restore the Doctor before sacrificing herself to the sacred flame. The Doctor leaves the Sisterhood some more fireworks in case they have more trouble with the flame and leaves in the Tardis.
Fab, that works wonderfully as a story. We get two rounds of "Hunt the Monster" in this episode first with the Doctor & Solon and then with the sisterhood, who in classic style, drive it off the cliff while wielding flaming torches. The dual sequence, between Morbius and the Doctor, is rather interesting as their past incarnations are projected onto a screen. We see Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton & William Hartnell, all seemingly taken from a photo in the 10th anniversary special. Then there's a succession of other faces.... are these earlier incarnations of the Doctor or an attempt by the Doctor to fool Morbius? I think we're pretty certain that the first Doctor we saw is the actual first Doctor.... In case you're wondering the faces actually belong to members of the Doctor Who production staff and the teams working on this and the next story: producer Philip Hinchcliffe, script editor Robert Holmes, Brain of Morbius director Christopher Barry, The Seeds Of Doom director Douglas Camfield, production manager George Gallacio, The Seeds Of Doom writer Robert Banks-Stewart, and production assistants Chris Baker and Graeme Harper.
The all female cult in this story have given their name to The Sisterhood of Karn, London-based gay science fiction fan club.
Brain of Morbius was repeated as a 60-minute compilation on Saturday 4 December 1976, a week after a similar compilation of Pyramids of Mars. Brain of Morbius was novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1977 using the modified storyline as seen on TV. It was adapted as the second and final Junior Doctor who novel in 1980 which I did actually see for sale. Once. In 1984 it was released on video as a compilation with a running time of less than an hour. I've never seen either version but I'm told this is not the same cut as the repeat compilation and, oddly, both include material which the other omits! The same compilation was released on Laserdisc in the same year. It was re-released on video in episodic format in July 1990, alongside a complete version of the Five Doctors which had also been butchered for it's original Video release, the first of the early Doctor Who stories on video to be re-released in their original length. Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius was released on DVD on 21st July 2008.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 421
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 24 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
Sarah sees the Monster and screams, accidentally setting it on fire with a flaming torch. She finds the Doctor's body and is shocked when he wakes up. Solon tries to calm the Morbius monster but it attacks him. Morbius then strikes the Doctor down and grabs Sarah but he is then attacked by the injured Condo who he kills. Morbius rampages through the rocks of Karn killing weakened members of the Sisterhood. The recovered Solon sedates his creation and, locking the Doctor and Sarah in a room, adjusts it allowing Morbius' brain to gain full control. The Doctor generates cyanide gas from Solon's chemical store to release into the air system to kill the monster, but all he succeeds in doing is killing Solon, the Monster survives due to his lungs having a methane filter. The Doctor confronts Morbius and challenges him to a dual in a mind bending contest. Morbius regresses the Doctor through his past lives all but killing him when the apparatus explodes. The Monster, damaged by the electrical discharge, goes on the rampage and is driven off a cliff by the Sisterhood destroying it. Maran uses what little elixir had been generated to restore the Doctor before sacrificing herself to the sacred flame. The Doctor leaves the Sisterhood some more fireworks in case they have more trouble with the flame and leaves in the Tardis.
Fab, that works wonderfully as a story. We get two rounds of "Hunt the Monster" in this episode first with the Doctor & Solon and then with the sisterhood, who in classic style, drive it off the cliff while wielding flaming torches. The dual sequence, between Morbius and the Doctor, is rather interesting as their past incarnations are projected onto a screen. We see Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton & William Hartnell, all seemingly taken from a photo in the 10th anniversary special. Then there's a succession of other faces.... are these earlier incarnations of the Doctor or an attempt by the Doctor to fool Morbius? I think we're pretty certain that the first Doctor we saw is the actual first Doctor.... In case you're wondering the faces actually belong to members of the Doctor Who production staff and the teams working on this and the next story: producer Philip Hinchcliffe, script editor Robert Holmes, Brain of Morbius director Christopher Barry, The Seeds Of Doom director Douglas Camfield, production manager George Gallacio, The Seeds Of Doom writer Robert Banks-Stewart, and production assistants Chris Baker and Graeme Harper.
The all female cult in this story have given their name to The Sisterhood of Karn, London-based gay science fiction fan club.
Brain of Morbius was repeated as a 60-minute compilation on Saturday 4 December 1976, a week after a similar compilation of Pyramids of Mars. Brain of Morbius was novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1977 using the modified storyline as seen on TV. It was adapted as the second and final Junior Doctor who novel in 1980 which I did actually see for sale. Once. In 1984 it was released on video as a compilation with a running time of less than an hour. I've never seen either version but I'm told this is not the same cut as the repeat compilation and, oddly, both include material which the other omits! The same compilation was released on Laserdisc in the same year. It was re-released on video in episodic format in July 1990, alongside a complete version of the Five Doctors which had also been butchered for it's original Video release, the first of the early Doctor Who stories on video to be re-released in their original length. Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius was released on DVD on 21st July 2008.
Monday, 16 January 2012
420 The Brain of Morbius Part Three
EPISODE: The Brain of Morbius Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 420
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 17 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
Morbius' voice summons Solon who throws Sarah out the lab as Morbius raves at him, wanting a new body. Sarah overhears that the Doctor has been sent into a trap and shuts the door on Solon, locking him in. Maran uses the last of the elixir to feed five of the sisterhood to keep them alive. They receive the message from Solon and plan to trap the Doctor. The still blind Sarah stumbles through the rocks as the Doctor enters the sanctuary and is captured. Condo returns to the castle and frees Solon. Maran tells the Doctor that Sarah's sight will return and that Solon lied to the Doctor. The Doctor suggests Morbius is on Karn hiding his mind from the sisterhood and offers to help Maran. Condo finds Sarah and takes her back to the castle. The Doctor examines the flame and, using a "little demon" firework, cleans the shaft from it's coating of soot allowing the flame to burn brightly again earning the Sisterhood's trust. Solon binds Sarah, bur Condo insists he doesn't
hurt her. Solon lets slip to Morbius that the Doctor is a Time Lord inciting Morbius' suspicions that the Time Lords have tracked him down and are coming to destroy him. Condo overhears Morbius suggesting using Sarah's head to complete the body so he can escape from Karn. Morbius then orders Solon to use an artificial brain case which he has developed. Solon begins preparing for the operation. Condo discovers his missing arm on the Morbius creature and filled with rage he attacks Solon, knocking Morbius' brain to the floor. Solon shoots him and retrieves the brain, placing it in the artificial case, concerned it may be damaged. Solon frees Sarah to act as his assistant to operate a pump. As Solon finishes the operation he is called to the castle doors as the sisterhood deliver the Doctor's body to the castle. Sarah, her sight recovering is menaced by the completed and awakening Morbius monster!
Fabulous again, great stuff. Really enjoying this story, it's working well. I wonder how many people watching it would have thought that the Doctor had been killed by the sisterhood?
Central to this story's success is our old friend Philip Madoc, playing Solon. He was previously in two of the stories that David Maloney directed in the sixth season, Patrick Troughton's last. He was in The Krotons as Eelek then The War Games as the War Lord and will return in The Power of Kroll as Fenner. He was in the second 1960s Dalek Movie: Dalek Invasion of Earth 2164ad as Brockley. Voicing Morbius is Michael Spice who'll be back as Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang as well as appearing in the final episode of Blake's 7's second season, Star One, as . Inside the Morbius Monster is another familiar name: Stuart Fell who was Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon, a tramp in Planet of the Spiders, a Wirrn in The Ark in Space and a Kraal in the previous story The Android Invasion. He'll be back as an entertainer in The Masque of Mandragora, a Sontaran in The Invasion of Time and Roga in State of Decay.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 420
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 17 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
Morbius' voice summons Solon who throws Sarah out the lab as Morbius raves at him, wanting a new body. Sarah overhears that the Doctor has been sent into a trap and shuts the door on Solon, locking him in. Maran uses the last of the elixir to feed five of the sisterhood to keep them alive. They receive the message from Solon and plan to trap the Doctor. The still blind Sarah stumbles through the rocks as the Doctor enters the sanctuary and is captured. Condo returns to the castle and frees Solon. Maran tells the Doctor that Sarah's sight will return and that Solon lied to the Doctor. The Doctor suggests Morbius is on Karn hiding his mind from the sisterhood and offers to help Maran. Condo finds Sarah and takes her back to the castle. The Doctor examines the flame and, using a "little demon" firework, cleans the shaft from it's coating of soot allowing the flame to burn brightly again earning the Sisterhood's trust. Solon binds Sarah, bur Condo insists he doesn't
hurt her. Solon lets slip to Morbius that the Doctor is a Time Lord inciting Morbius' suspicions that the Time Lords have tracked him down and are coming to destroy him. Condo overhears Morbius suggesting using Sarah's head to complete the body so he can escape from Karn. Morbius then orders Solon to use an artificial brain case which he has developed. Solon begins preparing for the operation. Condo discovers his missing arm on the Morbius creature and filled with rage he attacks Solon, knocking Morbius' brain to the floor. Solon shoots him and retrieves the brain, placing it in the artificial case, concerned it may be damaged. Solon frees Sarah to act as his assistant to operate a pump. As Solon finishes the operation he is called to the castle doors as the sisterhood deliver the Doctor's body to the castle. Sarah, her sight recovering is menaced by the completed and awakening Morbius monster!
Fabulous again, great stuff. Really enjoying this story, it's working well. I wonder how many people watching it would have thought that the Doctor had been killed by the sisterhood?
Central to this story's success is our old friend Philip Madoc, playing Solon. He was previously in two of the stories that David Maloney directed in the sixth season, Patrick Troughton's last. He was in The Krotons as Eelek then The War Games as the War Lord and will return in The Power of Kroll as Fenner. He was in the second 1960s Dalek Movie: Dalek Invasion of Earth 2164ad as Brockley. Voicing Morbius is Michael Spice who'll be back as Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang as well as appearing in the final episode of Blake's 7's second season, Star One, as . Inside the Morbius Monster is another familiar name: Stuart Fell who was Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon, a tramp in Planet of the Spiders, a Wirrn in The Ark in Space and a Kraal in the previous story The Android Invasion. He'll be back as an entertainer in The Masque of Mandragora, a Sontaran in The Invasion of Time and Roga in State of Decay.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
419 The Brain of Morbius Part Two
EPISODE: The Brain of Morbius Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 419
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 10 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
Solon returns to the laboratory so Sarah hides. Solon & Condo & hunting the Doctor and conclude Maran, the head of the sisterhood has taken him. The Doctor wakes in the sisterhood's sanctuary and they accuse him of being sent to steel the elixir. They tell him of Morbius' crimes on Karn and his execution but the Doctor insists he felt the presence of his mind. Sarah follows Solon & Condo as they go to the sanctuary, interrupting the Doctor's being sacrificed to the flame to bargain for his life and Solon offers his servant's life for the Doctor's. While Solon debates with Maran a disguised Sarah loosens the Doctor's bonds allowing him to escape when the fire is lit. Maran fires an energy blast at them from her ring which blinds Sarah. Condo argues with Solon, upset that his master would offer him for sacrifice. Solon promises to reattach his arm. The Doctor brings Sarah to Solon to get him to look at her eyes. In the depths of the castle Solon confers with an unseen colleague that he addresses as Morbius but is summoned away by Condo when the Doctor & Sarah return. Solon examines Sarah but while he is doing so the Doctor catches sight of the Monster. Condo escorts Sarah from the lab as Solon tells the Doctor Sarah's sight is nearly completely destroyed and only the elixir of life can save it. The Doctor leaves to obtain some. Stumbling around the castle Sarah hears a voice calling for Solon and descends the stairs to the basement. Condo is sent with a message to the sisterhood and urged to get there before the Doctor. Sarah comes into the basement lab where Morbius' brain is house in a jar.
Just tops. Fabulous. A little bit "to and fro between the castle and the sanctuary" in places but each move is justified by the plot.
Frankenstein isn't the only story "borrowed" from for this serial: The name Morbius is a steal from the film Forbidden Planet, previously homaged in Planet of Evil. The planet name Karn is taken from author Terrance Dicks' own Doctor Who stage play The Seven Keys to Doomsday. The brain in a jar we see at the end is a horror staple, but a living brain? well there's two anitcendants that I can think of: Doctor Who's own The Keys of Marinus which has the Brains of Morphotron in the second episode but more importantly the Roald Dahl short story William & Mary where a man's brain is preserved living after his death. I saw it dramatised in Tales of the Unexpected (The episode guide says it first aired 1979 so I'm guessing that it's a repeat I caught in the mid eighties) and it lodged in my mind so much that when Liz turned a radio adaptation on in the car the other month I recognised it immediately! It's available on DVD in Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete First Series and Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete Series
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 419
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 10 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
Solon returns to the laboratory so Sarah hides. Solon & Condo & hunting the Doctor and conclude Maran, the head of the sisterhood has taken him. The Doctor wakes in the sisterhood's sanctuary and they accuse him of being sent to steel the elixir. They tell him of Morbius' crimes on Karn and his execution but the Doctor insists he felt the presence of his mind. Sarah follows Solon & Condo as they go to the sanctuary, interrupting the Doctor's being sacrificed to the flame to bargain for his life and Solon offers his servant's life for the Doctor's. While Solon debates with Maran a disguised Sarah loosens the Doctor's bonds allowing him to escape when the fire is lit. Maran fires an energy blast at them from her ring which blinds Sarah. Condo argues with Solon, upset that his master would offer him for sacrifice. Solon promises to reattach his arm. The Doctor brings Sarah to Solon to get him to look at her eyes. In the depths of the castle Solon confers with an unseen colleague that he addresses as Morbius but is summoned away by Condo when the Doctor & Sarah return. Solon examines Sarah but while he is doing so the Doctor catches sight of the Monster. Condo escorts Sarah from the lab as Solon tells the Doctor Sarah's sight is nearly completely destroyed and only the elixir of life can save it. The Doctor leaves to obtain some. Stumbling around the castle Sarah hears a voice calling for Solon and descends the stairs to the basement. Condo is sent with a message to the sisterhood and urged to get there before the Doctor. Sarah comes into the basement lab where Morbius' brain is house in a jar.
Just tops. Fabulous. A little bit "to and fro between the castle and the sanctuary" in places but each move is justified by the plot.
Frankenstein isn't the only story "borrowed" from for this serial: The name Morbius is a steal from the film Forbidden Planet, previously homaged in Planet of Evil. The planet name Karn is taken from author Terrance Dicks' own Doctor Who stage play The Seven Keys to Doomsday. The brain in a jar we see at the end is a horror staple, but a living brain? well there's two anitcendants that I can think of: Doctor Who's own The Keys of Marinus which has the Brains of Morphotron in the second episode but more importantly the Roald Dahl short story William & Mary where a man's brain is preserved living after his death. I saw it dramatised in Tales of the Unexpected (The episode guide says it first aired 1979 so I'm guessing that it's a repeat I caught in the mid eighties) and it lodged in my mind so much that when Liz turned a radio adaptation on in the car the other month I recognised it immediately! It's available on DVD in Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete First Series and Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete Series
Saturday, 14 January 2012
418 The Brain of Morbius Part One
EPISODE: The Brain of Morbius Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 418
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 03 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
A ship has crashed on a barren planet and it's insectoid occupant drags it's body across the rocks only to be brutally murdered by a man with a hook for a hand who takes it's head. Condo, the servant, takes the head to his master Solon who tells him it won't do and he needs someone warm blooded with a central nervous system. The Tardis materialises on the planet with the Doctor emerging and shouting at the Time Lords who he believes have dragged them off course to do some dirty work for them. Sarah finds the crashed ship and when a bolt of lightening illuminates the landscape she sees many more. The Doctor obstinately refuses to investigate and sits playing with his yo-yo until he hears Sarah scream when she finds the headless corpse. The Doctor recognises the star patterns as being close to where he was born. Seeing a castle on the horizon they make for it. Solon is experimenting on the insect head when the lightening takes his power out. Elsewhere a group of women have noticed the Doctor & Sarah's arrival and believe they have come to take the elixir of life, a substance they guard which is no longer being produced from the flame of life which is dying. They have shared the elixir with the Time Lords and believe that the Time Lords have come to steal that little which remains. Solon finds Condo who has been looking for his missing arm which Solon has promised to repair. A bell sounds announcing visitors as the Doctor & Sarah arrive. Solon immediately is drawn to the Doctor's head. He tells them that they are on Karn, a name the Doctor recognises. One of the head statues in the room catches the Doctor's attention which he thinks he recognises. They are bought wine by Condo, who Solon explains he rescued from a crashed Drahvidan starship. The sisterhood form a chanting circle, locate the Tardis and transport it to their sanctuary. They recognise it as a Tardis, the vessel of the Time Lords. They form a circle again and attempt to locate the Doctor. The Doctor remembers that Solon is neuro scientist who disappeared, rumoured to have joined the cult of Morbius. A wind sweeps through the castle throwing the doors open and revealing the statue. The Doctor wonders if the Sisterhood of Karn are responsible and recognises the bust as being that of Morbius, a despicable Time Lord criminal before both he & Sarah collapse drugged by the wine. Solon plans his operation using the Doctor's head and orders Sarah's death but Condo hesitates. Before he can complete the task he's ordered to take the Doctor to the laboratory. Solon discovers from the Doctor's secondary cardiovascular system that he is a Time Lord. Sarah explores the castle but as Solon & Condo repair the generators the Doctor is teleported away by the sisterhood. Sarah finds the lab but while searching for the Doctor discovers a hideous headless creature made from an assortment of body parts......
Huzzah! It's Doctor Who does Frankenstein with all the trimmings: a mad scientist, a castle, a deformed servant, a castle and even lightening everywhere. Very atmospheric and top stuff. Yes that's a Mutant costume in the opening moments of the show, as later confirmed by the Doctor. Our old friend John Scott Martin is inside it (apparently the character is named Kriz). We also get references to the Time Lords and the Drahvidans, as seen in the story Galaxy Four!
So "Robin Bland". Terrance Dicks wrote the first draft of this story with Morbius having crashed on the planet and a robot trying to rebuild him using the parts he found there. He then went away on holiday as which point Philip Hinchcliffe became worried about realising the robot for the screen so had Robert Holmes rewrite the story. Terrance Dicks read the revised scripts on his return from holiday and disagreed with the changes arguing that while you could understand a robot coming up with this patchwork body surely the galaxy's greatest neurosurgeon could do better. He's got a point: why doesn't Solon immediately want to transfer Morbius' head into the Doctor's body? Or, for that matter, Condo's? So Dicks ordered Holmes to take his name off the script and replace it with "some bland pseudonym". Holmes took him at his word and came up with the writer's name that this story went out under.
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 418
STORY NUMBER: 084
TRANSMITTED: 03 January 1976
WRITER: Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius
A ship has crashed on a barren planet and it's insectoid occupant drags it's body across the rocks only to be brutally murdered by a man with a hook for a hand who takes it's head. Condo, the servant, takes the head to his master Solon who tells him it won't do and he needs someone warm blooded with a central nervous system. The Tardis materialises on the planet with the Doctor emerging and shouting at the Time Lords who he believes have dragged them off course to do some dirty work for them. Sarah finds the crashed ship and when a bolt of lightening illuminates the landscape she sees many more. The Doctor obstinately refuses to investigate and sits playing with his yo-yo until he hears Sarah scream when she finds the headless corpse. The Doctor recognises the star patterns as being close to where he was born. Seeing a castle on the horizon they make for it. Solon is experimenting on the insect head when the lightening takes his power out. Elsewhere a group of women have noticed the Doctor & Sarah's arrival and believe they have come to take the elixir of life, a substance they guard which is no longer being produced from the flame of life which is dying. They have shared the elixir with the Time Lords and believe that the Time Lords have come to steal that little which remains. Solon finds Condo who has been looking for his missing arm which Solon has promised to repair. A bell sounds announcing visitors as the Doctor & Sarah arrive. Solon immediately is drawn to the Doctor's head. He tells them that they are on Karn, a name the Doctor recognises. One of the head statues in the room catches the Doctor's attention which he thinks he recognises. They are bought wine by Condo, who Solon explains he rescued from a crashed Drahvidan starship. The sisterhood form a chanting circle, locate the Tardis and transport it to their sanctuary. They recognise it as a Tardis, the vessel of the Time Lords. They form a circle again and attempt to locate the Doctor. The Doctor remembers that Solon is neuro scientist who disappeared, rumoured to have joined the cult of Morbius. A wind sweeps through the castle throwing the doors open and revealing the statue. The Doctor wonders if the Sisterhood of Karn are responsible and recognises the bust as being that of Morbius, a despicable Time Lord criminal before both he & Sarah collapse drugged by the wine. Solon plans his operation using the Doctor's head and orders Sarah's death but Condo hesitates. Before he can complete the task he's ordered to take the Doctor to the laboratory. Solon discovers from the Doctor's secondary cardiovascular system that he is a Time Lord. Sarah explores the castle but as Solon & Condo repair the generators the Doctor is teleported away by the sisterhood. Sarah finds the lab but while searching for the Doctor discovers a hideous headless creature made from an assortment of body parts......
Huzzah! It's Doctor Who does Frankenstein with all the trimmings: a mad scientist, a castle, a deformed servant, a castle and even lightening everywhere. Very atmospheric and top stuff. Yes that's a Mutant costume in the opening moments of the show, as later confirmed by the Doctor. Our old friend John Scott Martin is inside it (apparently the character is named Kriz). We also get references to the Time Lords and the Drahvidans, as seen in the story Galaxy Four!
So "Robin Bland". Terrance Dicks wrote the first draft of this story with Morbius having crashed on the planet and a robot trying to rebuild him using the parts he found there. He then went away on holiday as which point Philip Hinchcliffe became worried about realising the robot for the screen so had Robert Holmes rewrite the story. Terrance Dicks read the revised scripts on his return from holiday and disagreed with the changes arguing that while you could understand a robot coming up with this patchwork body surely the galaxy's greatest neurosurgeon could do better. He's got a point: why doesn't Solon immediately want to transfer Morbius' head into the Doctor's body? Or, for that matter, Condo's? So Dicks ordered Holmes to take his name off the script and replace it with "some bland pseudonym". Holmes took him at his word and came up with the writer's name that this story went out under.
Friday, 13 January 2012
417 The Android Invasion Part Four
EPISODE: The Android Invasion Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 417
STORY NUMBER: 083
TRANSMITTED: 13 December 1975
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: UNIT Files: Invasion of the Dinosaurs & The Android Invasion
Somewhile later Sarah is roused by the Doctor. He plans to hide in the pods when they're fired out the ship to get to Earth before it. On Earth Space Control tracks the rocket as Harry & Benton search for the Doctor, worried by the Tardis appearing without him. Colonel Faraday takes them to Space Control where they contact Crayford. The pods are spotted and identified as meteorites. The pods land in the area near Devesham. The Doctor looks for Sarah. Visual contact is established with the rocket. Sarah hunts for the Doctor and finds her way to the Tardis where she meets Android copies of the Doctor & herself and flees into the woods. The rocket lands at Devesham and Colonel Faraday and Harry go to check if Crayford's OK. The Doctor arrives at the space centre and has them called back. Benton is called away and knocked out by an Android with his duplicate replacing him. The Doctor gives the space controller instructions and ask to have them kept secret. The Doctor detects that Harry & Farraday have been replaced and, threatened by his own duplicate, escapes through a window assisted by Sarah. The Doctor, pretending to be his double, goes back to the space centre & scanning room while Sarah climbs towards the rocket. The Android Doctor finds the Doctor as he's about to activate the jamming for the robot. Crayford arrives and questions what's going on. The Android Doctor reveals to Crayford the true plan using the virus to kill everyone. The Doctor breaks his brainwashing by getting him to remove his eye patch, discovering that his hidden eye is fine and realising he's been tricked by Stygron. The Doctor struggles with his Android and activates the jamming device freezing the Androids. Sarah frees Harry & Farraday in the rocket but they are caught by Stygron. Crayford & Stygron struggle, with the Kraal killing his former ally. The Doctor arrives and struggles with Stygron who falls against the plague jar and dies, but not before he shoots the Doctor. The Doctor then walks into the room revealing it was his reprogrammed android that attacked Stygron. The Doctor & Sarah go and find the Tardis in the woods. Sarah intends to stay and get a Taxi home but the Doctor talks her into having a lift in the Tardis.
With one major exception that was a pretty good episode. It's come in for some stick over the years from certain publications and commentators who ask questions like "Why hasn't Crayford removed his eye patch before?" (because he's been brainwashed not to and doing so breaks his conditioning) and "How come the Doctor's robot still works when his jammed the rest?" (it's inside the rocket shielding it from the jamming signal). No, that's a competent and fun episode of Doctor Who with some amusing stuff done with the Doctor's robot double.
No the problem here for me is poor Patrick Newell, as Colonel Faraday. I've never seen his performance as Mother in the final John Steed and Tara King series of The Avengers but here he's nothing but a cheap Brigadier imitation/caricature. I know he's in because of Nicholas Courtney's unavailability but it's not a good performance and it would, in my opinion, have been a better episode with the role just filled by Harry & Benton. I doubt that the performance is an in-joke at the series Invasion of the Body Snatchers origins.
There's a couple of familiar names at the space centre this episode: Hugh Lund plays Matthews, one of the technicians, and he was a Zarbi in The Web Planet. Meanwhile the other technician, Grierson, is our old friend Dave Carter, who was credited for part 1, but isn't in it. He was also in Doctor Who and the Silurians as the Old Silurian, Inferno as a Primord, Terror of the Autons as a Museum Attendant, The Mind of Evil as a Prison Officer, The Time Monster as a Roundhead officer and Invasion of the Dinosaurs as Sergeant Duffy. This is his last appearance in Doctor Who as it is too for Ian Marter, as former companion Harry Sullivan, and John Levene, as RSM Benton. Neither get a particularly good send off with Harry last seen as a prisoner of Stygron and, even worse for a character that's been with the show for eight years, Benton lying on the floor having been attacked by an Android. In fact we're not even sure from this story if he's alive or dead. Fortunately when the Brigadier reappears many years later we discover that Benton has left the army and become a used car salesman while Harry is doing something "hush hush at Porton Down". I'm unsure if the plans at the time involved these characters returning for the next UNIT story. We know one was on the cards because the original six part version of the Hand of Fear, intended to close this season, would have killed the Brigadier off. UNIT does return in the six parter that closes the season but none of the soldiers seen are ones we've previously encountered. It's a bit of a damps squib departure for something that's been such a part of the last few years of Doctor Who.
John Levene emigrated to the USA where he works as an entertainer and occasional actor. His website can be found at http://www.john-levene.com/. Ian Marter continued to act into the 80s but developed a sideline adapting Doctor Who stories for Target Books. He novelised nine stories, making him the series second most prolific author. He died on 28 October 1986 from a heart attack caused by diabetes complications and was the first actor who played a Doctor Who companion to die.
This is also the last story directed by Barry Letts. From here he goes on to produce the classic serials for the BBC, with Terrance Dicks acting as his Script Editor once again. He returns to Doctor Who to act as Executive Producer on Tom Baker's final season over new producer John Nathan-Turner. During the 1990s he wrote two radio plays for the Third(Jon Pertwee) Doctor and contributed to many DVD commentaries effectively filling the moderator role on most of them. He died on 9th October 2009 aged 84.
Following this episode's broadcast on 13th December 1975 the program took a break for three weeks over Christmas. However two weeks later on the 27th December an 85-minute compilation repeat of Genesis of the Daleks was aired with a new story starting on Saturday 3rd January 1976.
Android Invasion was novelised by Terrance Dicks three years after it's broadcast in November 1978. It was released on video in 1995. It was released on DVD on Monday this week in the UNIT Files boxset with Invasion of the Dinosaurs
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 417
STORY NUMBER: 083
TRANSMITTED: 13 December 1975
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: UNIT Files: Invasion of the Dinosaurs & The Android Invasion
Somewhile later Sarah is roused by the Doctor. He plans to hide in the pods when they're fired out the ship to get to Earth before it. On Earth Space Control tracks the rocket as Harry & Benton search for the Doctor, worried by the Tardis appearing without him. Colonel Faraday takes them to Space Control where they contact Crayford. The pods are spotted and identified as meteorites. The pods land in the area near Devesham. The Doctor looks for Sarah. Visual contact is established with the rocket. Sarah hunts for the Doctor and finds her way to the Tardis where she meets Android copies of the Doctor & herself and flees into the woods. The rocket lands at Devesham and Colonel Faraday and Harry go to check if Crayford's OK. The Doctor arrives at the space centre and has them called back. Benton is called away and knocked out by an Android with his duplicate replacing him. The Doctor gives the space controller instructions and ask to have them kept secret. The Doctor detects that Harry & Farraday have been replaced and, threatened by his own duplicate, escapes through a window assisted by Sarah. The Doctor, pretending to be his double, goes back to the space centre & scanning room while Sarah climbs towards the rocket. The Android Doctor finds the Doctor as he's about to activate the jamming for the robot. Crayford arrives and questions what's going on. The Android Doctor reveals to Crayford the true plan using the virus to kill everyone. The Doctor breaks his brainwashing by getting him to remove his eye patch, discovering that his hidden eye is fine and realising he's been tricked by Stygron. The Doctor struggles with his Android and activates the jamming device freezing the Androids. Sarah frees Harry & Farraday in the rocket but they are caught by Stygron. Crayford & Stygron struggle, with the Kraal killing his former ally. The Doctor arrives and struggles with Stygron who falls against the plague jar and dies, but not before he shoots the Doctor. The Doctor then walks into the room revealing it was his reprogrammed android that attacked Stygron. The Doctor & Sarah go and find the Tardis in the woods. Sarah intends to stay and get a Taxi home but the Doctor talks her into having a lift in the Tardis.
With one major exception that was a pretty good episode. It's come in for some stick over the years from certain publications and commentators who ask questions like "Why hasn't Crayford removed his eye patch before?" (because he's been brainwashed not to and doing so breaks his conditioning) and "How come the Doctor's robot still works when his jammed the rest?" (it's inside the rocket shielding it from the jamming signal). No, that's a competent and fun episode of Doctor Who with some amusing stuff done with the Doctor's robot double.
No the problem here for me is poor Patrick Newell, as Colonel Faraday. I've never seen his performance as Mother in the final John Steed and Tara King series of The Avengers but here he's nothing but a cheap Brigadier imitation/caricature. I know he's in because of Nicholas Courtney's unavailability but it's not a good performance and it would, in my opinion, have been a better episode with the role just filled by Harry & Benton. I doubt that the performance is an in-joke at the series Invasion of the Body Snatchers origins.
There's a couple of familiar names at the space centre this episode: Hugh Lund plays Matthews, one of the technicians, and he was a Zarbi in The Web Planet. Meanwhile the other technician, Grierson, is our old friend Dave Carter, who was credited for part 1, but isn't in it. He was also in Doctor Who and the Silurians as the Old Silurian, Inferno as a Primord, Terror of the Autons as a Museum Attendant, The Mind of Evil as a Prison Officer, The Time Monster as a Roundhead officer and Invasion of the Dinosaurs as Sergeant Duffy. This is his last appearance in Doctor Who as it is too for Ian Marter, as former companion Harry Sullivan, and John Levene, as RSM Benton. Neither get a particularly good send off with Harry last seen as a prisoner of Stygron and, even worse for a character that's been with the show for eight years, Benton lying on the floor having been attacked by an Android. In fact we're not even sure from this story if he's alive or dead. Fortunately when the Brigadier reappears many years later we discover that Benton has left the army and become a used car salesman while Harry is doing something "hush hush at Porton Down". I'm unsure if the plans at the time involved these characters returning for the next UNIT story. We know one was on the cards because the original six part version of the Hand of Fear, intended to close this season, would have killed the Brigadier off. UNIT does return in the six parter that closes the season but none of the soldiers seen are ones we've previously encountered. It's a bit of a damps squib departure for something that's been such a part of the last few years of Doctor Who.
John Levene emigrated to the USA where he works as an entertainer and occasional actor. His website can be found at http://www.john-levene.com/. Ian Marter continued to act into the 80s but developed a sideline adapting Doctor Who stories for Target Books. He novelised nine stories, making him the series second most prolific author. He died on 28 October 1986 from a heart attack caused by diabetes complications and was the first actor who played a Doctor Who companion to die.
This is also the last story directed by Barry Letts. From here he goes on to produce the classic serials for the BBC, with Terrance Dicks acting as his Script Editor once again. He returns to Doctor Who to act as Executive Producer on Tom Baker's final season over new producer John Nathan-Turner. During the 1990s he wrote two radio plays for the Third(Jon Pertwee) Doctor and contributed to many DVD commentaries effectively filling the moderator role on most of them. He died on 9th October 2009 aged 84.
Following this episode's broadcast on 13th December 1975 the program took a break for three weeks over Christmas. However two weeks later on the 27th December an 85-minute compilation repeat of Genesis of the Daleks was aired with a new story starting on Saturday 3rd January 1976.
Android Invasion was novelised by Terrance Dicks three years after it's broadcast in November 1978. It was released on video in 1995. It was released on DVD on Monday this week in the UNIT Files boxset with Invasion of the Dinosaurs
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