525 The Horns of Nimon Part Four

EPISODE: The Horns of Nimon Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 525
STORY NUMBER: 108
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 12 January 1980
WRITER: Anthony Read
DIRECTOR: Kenny McBain
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 10.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon

A moments silence please as we start this episode for the last broadcast appearance of the Tom Baker tunnel title sequence which has been with us for 144 episodes. It's retirement here leaves it 8 episodes shy of the record held by the original title sequence used on all 134 First Doctor episodes and the first 18 Second Doctor episodes.

The Doctor stuns Soldeed and starts to make repairs to the equipment, but needs K-9. Soldeed escapes, pursued by Seth wielding Soldeed's staff. Romana finds herself on the dying planet Crinoth where she meets Sezom, who was used by the Nimon like Soldeed is on Skonoss. He rebelled against the Nimon and uses a local mineral Jasonite to enhance the power of his staff to harm them. Seth & Teka are separated in the Power Complex, and Teka is captured by Soldeed. The Doctor bring the capsule back but find 2 Nimon within so returns it to Crinoth. Sorak reactivates K-9 who goes to the Power Complex to seek the Doctor. Knowing there is a problem, the Nimon on Crinoth prepare their final contingency plan to make the great journey of life continue. Sezom gives Romana some Jasonite and then distracts the Nimon guarding the capsule allowing Romana to get aboard but pays with his life. The Doctor brings Romana back to Skonnos., but they are captured by the Nimon. Seth frees them using Soldeed's staff enhance with the Jasonite. K-9 arrives to help the Doctor while Romana & Seth go to free the Anethians from the larder. Soldeed finds them, and tries to stop them but Seth kills him as he overloads the reactor. The Anethians are freed and K-9 navigates their way out of the changing maze escaping just as the Power Complex goes critical destroying the Nimon within. The Doctor & Romana observe Crinoth exploding on the Tardis scanner as Seth travels home in the Skonnan battlecruiser, repainted white.

Yup, liked that, decent episode which kept moving at a decent speed. That strobing red light when the Power Complex is overloading is annoying though!.

Horns of the Nimon has copped some flack over the years but I'm really quite fond of it: it's a nice retelling of the Theseus & The Minotaur myth, combined with the concept of a locust like species leaping from planet to planet and stripping them bare, with a brilliant crackpot performance from guest star Graham Crowden. It was the only serial that season I watched first time out after Destiny of the Daleks and when I found a source of taped Doctor Who while at University I made an effort to get it.

Some more adapted names for you: Crinoth is obviously Corinth, while Jasonite's origins must surely lie with the Greek hero Jason. Sezom is perhaps less obvious, but when you think of characters associated with great journeys then the biblical Moses springs to mind.

This is the only Doctor Who directed by Kenny McBain who would later go on to produce ITV's Inspector Morse. Likewise it's the only solo script written by former Script Editor Anthony Read, but as we've noted he did have a hand in the "David Agnew's" Invasion of Time. It's also the last episode to be scored by Dudley Simpson who had worked on the show since Planet of Giants. As we've said it's the last episode broadcast using the Tunnel tittle sequences and it's the last broadcast episode for producer Graham Williams and Script Editor Douglas Adams.

At 20 weeks the broadcast (I keep using that word today) Season 17 is the joint shortest of Doctor Who so far, tying with Season 12 (Robot-Revenge of the Cybermen). Following it was the longest break to date of 32 weeks with no new Doctor Who, though both Destiny of the Daleks & City of Death had a repeat during this period. The reason for the shortness of the season and the length of break was that industrial action at the BBC forced the cancellation of the next story, Shada by Douglas Adams, halfway through recording. But what was recorded of Shada does exist and over the next six days we'll look at that material and what should have been made.

While Doctor Who was off air during the summer, the second Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back was released in the UK. Many Doctor Who actors are involved and for a near complete list see Episode 321: The Mutants part 4.

The Horns of the Nimon was novelised by Terrance Dicks and released in October 1980. I've got very clear memories of buying a copy of this and Invasion of Time from a book fair in Perranporth while on holiday visiting my Aunt, Uncle & Grandmother. It was one of a number of remaindered Doctor Who novels given away by Doctor Who magazine and following the promotion a large amount of left over stock, all of this novel, were pulped. It was the final fourth Doctor story to be released on video in June 2003 and on DVD on 29th March 2010 as part of Doctor Who - Myths & Legends with The Time Monster & Underworld.

524 The Horns of Nimon Part Three

EPISODE: The Horns of Nimon Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 524
STORY NUMBER: 108
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 05 January 1980
WRITER: Anthony Read
DIRECTOR: Kenny McBain
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon

Welcome to the first episode of Doctor Who shown in the 1980s!

The Doctor interrupts the Nimon allowing Romana, Seth & Teka to escape but the remaining Anethians stay rooted to the spot. The Nimon deems that five crystals will suffice. Soldeed & Sorak examine the Tardis. The Doctor finds his friends. The hymetusite crystals are fed to the Nimon's furnace, with the Nimon being delighted that operational power level has been achieved. The Doctor remembers what the power complex reminds him of: a giant positronic circuit. He summons K-9 but he is captured and immobilised by Soldeed. The Doctor thinks that the power complex is focussed on the Black Hole and using it as a gateway to Hyperspace. Soldeed orates to his generals about the power the Nimon will give them. Soldeed & Sorak are alarmed when the antennae on the complex start to glow. The Doctor & Romana observe as a capsule materialises in the centre of the power complex containing a two more Nimon who tell the first one that Crinoth is finished. The Doctor realises the Nimon are invading but while Romana examines the capsule the Doctor accidentally transports it away but before it can be retrieved they are interrupted by Soldeed who damaged the equipment and swears to kill the Doctor....

After a rather long reprise, which lasts till 2:23 into the program, we get what is essentially a big run around the Nimon's Power Complex (Labyrinth) culminating in a revelation that there's more than one Nimon and they're mounting an Invasion. It's not the worst third episode but until quite close to the end it is just running around.

Simon Gipps-Kent, as Seth, had done a lot of child acting in the 1970s but his career dried up in the early 80s and he died of a morphine overdose on 16th September 1987. His female companion, Teka, is played by Janet Ellis had done some acting during the 1970s, including a memorable appearance in The Sweeney. By the time this episode aired she was presenting Jigsaw (which also featured Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy and then went on to present Blue Peter. Nowadays she's most famous for being the mother of popstar Sophie Ellis Bextor. Janet Ellis' father is Mike Ellis, a BBC visual effects designer, who will later operate Drathro in parts 1-4 of Trial of a Timelord. Soldeed's general Sorak is played by Michael Osborne who had uncredited appearances in The Myth Makers and The Ark while the surviving co-pilot is played by Malcolm Terris who was Etnin in The Dominators. One of the Nimon, Bob Appleby, will be back as a Vervoid in parts 9-12 of Trial of a Timelord while the Nimon voice is provided by Clifford Norgate who will voice the Generator in the next transmitted Doctor Who story, The Leisure Hive. Finally, although we haven't seen him yet, Sezom is played by John Bailey who was the Commander in The Sensorites and Edward Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks. We'll be a bit busy tomorrow so I thought I'd better mention it now.

EDIT: I thought I'd recognised one of the female Anethian extras and dug out the DWM with the archive in (247) to get their names: Rachael Wheeler, Zena Daire & Katy Jarret. It turns out Katy Jarret had another job at around the same time as this story was filmed: She was Zuckuss in The Empire Strikes Back, where she works under the name Catherine Munroe. She's got a website at www.zuckuss.co.uk (albeit with some rather broken links) and CV there reckons she's in Full Circle too. There's an interview here where she talks about working on Empire Strikes Back. IMDB credits her with playing E-3PO, the silver protocol droid on Bespin, but she believes she was on of the aliens on Bespin instead.

523 The Horns of Nimon Part Two

EPISODE: The Horns of Nimon Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 523
STORY NUMBER: 108
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 29 December 1979
WRITER: Anthony Read
DIRECTOR: Kenny McBain
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 8.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon

The Pilot puts Romana in the hold with the Anethian sacrifices. The Doctor puts the Tardis into a spin allowing the Asteroid to knock it out of the pull of the black hole. The Nimon reminds Soldeed of his agreement to provide the required tribute and speaks once again of the Great Journey of Life. Soldeed plans to attack Aneth, thinking they have rescued the children. Teka tells Romana that Seth will destroy the Nimon. Skonnos detects the missing ship and prepares for the ceremony to mark the fulfilment of their pact. Soldeed is angry that two of the hymetusite crystals are missing, used by Romana to power the ship but the pilot claims responsibility. Soldeed sends both the Pilot & Romana into the power complex with the Anethians and the hymetusite to face the Nimon. The Doctor makes makeshift repairs to the Tardis and sets course for Skonnos. The Pilot wanders the maze of the Power Complex, briefly catching sight of the Anethians but he, and Romana & the Anethians find the walls are shifting around them. The Doctor sights the Power Complex from orbit, reminding him of something. Materialising on Skonnos the Doctor is immediately arrested. The Anethians find the husk of a body that decays at the touch, which Romana believes has had the life sucked out of it. The Doctor confronts Soldeed with the accusation that someone is building a black hole nearby. Soldeed claims not to have seen Romana but when Soldeed's general produces the Doctor's grativic anomalyser he knows she is nearby. Soldeed drives the Doctor into the Power Complex. Romana and the Anethians find the Nimon's larder where it keeps previous Anethian sacrifices in suspended animation. They are captured by the pilot, who summons the Nimon, who kills him then turns on Romana & the Anethians.....

Ah now we're talking proper mythology, with Romana and the Anethians wandering the Power Complex (Labyrinth) with the Nimon (Minotaur) in the centre. The shifting walls is a nice touch and very well done on screen.

I'll talk about the rest of the cast later, but really this story is dominated by one actor: Ladies and Gentlemen, playing Soldeed we have the late, great Graham Crowden! (Seriously: Even Doctor Who Magazine labelled him as such when they did their Fact of Fiction piece for this story in issue 429: box out for the actors with form and we get John Bailey on the left, Simon Gipps-Kent on the right and The Late, Great Graham Crowden in the middle!) At this point it his career he's probably best known for his theatre work, though he has had a memorable appearance as the Slade Prison Doctor in the Porridge Christmas Special "No Way Out". He had been offered the role of the fourth Doctor when Jon Pertwee left the series but had turned it down, not be willing to commit to three years in a role.

Recognition would follow sometime after this story. First he was cast as Dr. Jock McCannon in A Very Peculiar Practice then Tom Ballard in Waiting for God, both of which have a fair few Doctor Who connections.

A Very Peculiar Practice stars (by then) former Doctor Who Peter Davison alongside David Troughton (Enemy of the World/War Games/Curse of Peladon/Midnight/son of Patrick Troughton. Also featured were Trevor Cooper (Revelation of the Daleks), Hugh Grant (Curse of Fatal Death), Geoffrey Beevers (Ambassadors of Death/Keeper of Traken/husband of Caroline John (Liz Shaw)), Chris Jury (Greatest Show in the Galaxy) and Tim Munro (Planet of the Daleks). Female lead in the first series is Amanda Hillwood, Morse's 2nd pathologist (we've had Frost and Barnaby's pathologists in recent episodes of Doctor Who) and is married to Max Headroom's Matt Frewer. If you haven't seen A Very Peculiar Practice then it's currently available on DVD (at long last!)

Waiting for God was a long running sitcom set in a retirement home. Amongst the regular cast are Daniel Hill (Shada), Andrew Tourell (Black Orchid) and Michael Bilton (The Massacre/Pyramids of Mars/The Deadly Assassin)

Which brings us nicely back to the accusations of comedy levelled frequently at this season. One of the worst examples occurs in this episode as the Doctor's repairs to the Tardis fail: the accompanying sound effect is taken straight from light entertainment's repertoire. EDIT: while trying to find out if the mineral Hymetusite had a classical origin to it's name (I didn't find anything) I discovered that the sound effect used here has a name! It's called Major Bloodnok's Stomach which was first used in an episode of The Goon Show!

This is the last episode of Doctor Who shown in the 1970s.

Happy 100th Birthday Zohra Sehgal

We've mentioned from time to time that some cast members of Doctor Who stories are now quite elderly but Doctor Who has it's first centenarian actor! It's not a name you'll have heard of but today Indian actress Zohra Sehgal, 100 today, played Sheyrah in the 1965's 'The Crusade'.

522 The Horns of Nimon Part One

EPISODE: The Horns of Nimon Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 522
STORY NUMBER: 108
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 22 December 1979
WRITER: Anthony Read
DIRECTOR: Kenny McBain
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon

An ageing Skonnan battlecruiser travels from Aneth to Skonnos carrying the last payment of tribute. The crew overload the systems trying to make the journey quicker and are dragged off course, killing the pilot. The Doctor is modifying the Tardis' systems, with vital systems disconnected, when K-9 detects that the Tardis is moving and accelerating. They sight the Skonnan space ship where the surviving co-pilot attempts to contact Skonnan control. On Skonnos the Skonnan leader Soldeed returns from having spoken with the Nimon with promises of greatness. The Tardis collides with the Skonnan space ship with the Doctor extruding a forcefield from the doors enabling them to board the ship where they find the radioactive hymetusite, and then the Anethan children locked in a room. They tell the Doctor they are the bearers of the tribute from Aneth. The Doctor wonders if someone is artificially creating the black hole he believes they have encountered. The remaining pilot finds the Doctor & Romana taking them to the bridge. Skonnos detects that the ship has vanished and Soldeed goes to inform the Nimon. The Doctor uses the grativic aomaliser from the Tardis to help the ailing ship, but as the Doctor returns to the Tardis the pilot, eager to get back to Skonnos with his cargo of sacrifices, activates the ship's drive leaving the Tardis behind and taking Romana with them. On Skonnos Soldeed meets with the Nimon, a massive bull headed creature. An asteroid hurtles towards the Tardis threatening it's safety.....

Doctor and Romana help stricken spacecraft. Except this is just the hook to get them involved in the story. If you haven't figures it out by the end of the episode the appearance of the bull headed Nimon should give you a big clue: we're doing Theseus & The Minotaur!

This is Anthony Read's first solo script for Doctor Who, having previously been one part of the first Doctor Who incarnation of "David Agnew". However while he was Script Editor Read commissioned Underworld which plays with the myth of Jason & The Argonauts, so he's returning to similar territory here. And like Underworld, many of the names in this story have mythical origins:

Aneth - Athens
Skonnos - Konossos
Nimon - Minotaur
Seth - Theseus
Soldeed - Daedalus, architect of the Labyrinth.

While the name Teka, Seth female companion. doesn't seem to have a mythical origin. The heroine of the Minotaur story is King Minos' daughter Ariadna so it's not taken from there. While Doctor Who 429 draws our attention to the similar sounding Attica, which is the region of Greece where Athens is found, it's worth pointing out that Teka is an anagram of Kate and thus probably based on a relative of one of the production team.

Oh look, there's the triangle/hexagon patterned walls again! They're all over the place in this story.

521 Nightmare of Eden Part Four

EPISODE: Nightmare of Eden Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 521
STORY NUMBER: 107
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 15 December 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker
DIRECTOR: Alan Bromly
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.4 million viewers
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Nightmare of Eden

The ships successfully separate. Dymond requests permission to leave but Fisk demands he stays. Della tells Romana about the last day on Eden when Stott disappeared in a Mandrell attack. Romana tells her that Stott is alive. The Doctor finds himself aboard the Hecate with some advanced laser equipment connected to a CET Machine. He interrogates the Hecate's computers and finds data on the profits of the Eden project, then hides in the Hecate's shuttle as Dymond flies it over to the Empress. Tryst attempts to incriminate the Doctor to customs officer Fisk. K-9 detects the Doctor's arrival and he is reunited with K-9, Romana & Della. Della is seen with the Doctor and arrested by the ship's guards. The Doctor deduces that Tryst intends to transmit the Vraxoin, inside the Eden projection to Dymond on the Empress. Della escapes when her guard is attacked by a Mandrell and finds Tryst. Fisk arrests the Doctor but Stott arrives incriminating Tryst & Dymond. Della confronts Tryst about the Vraxoin smuggling, and escapes when a Mandrell attacks but is wounded. The Mandrells are driven back into the projection and secured. The Eden projection is transferred to the Hecate but the Doctor uses K-9 and scans the Hecate into the CET machine allowing the customs officers to arrest Tryst & Dymond. Tryst pleads for clemency but the Doctor dismisses him. Della & Stott are reunited and the Doctor take Tryst's collection of projection crystals to return the samples within to where they came.

You know what? That wasn't bad at all. A bit more running about, and a clever resolution, but a clever resolution quite clearly sign posted earlier in the story.

I've liked Nightmare of Eden far more than I expected to. Like it's predecessor, Creature from the Pit, there's some clever ideas going on but here they reach the screen a bit more successfully. There's a few down points, notably Lewis Fiander's accent as Tryst and the Mandrells themselves. They don't look *too* bad but then you think of previous marauding monsters, the Axons in particular spring to mind, and you start to think that maybe they aren't that much cop. It's certainly not obvious that the production was fraught, with tensions developing between lead actor & director to such a point that Alan Bromly walked away from the production and the final day's filming was completed by producer Graham Williams. He never worked on Doctor Who again, but there again after this season only one director and 3 writers with prior experience of the program will be back! So this is a last appearance for Bob Baker who would go on to write for the Wallace & Gromit films.

Nightmare of Eden was novelised by Terrance Dicks and released in August 1980. It was released on video in 1999 and but was released on DVD on 2nd April 2011, after I'd written this blog entry.

This is possibly the last broadcast Doctor Who story that we will watch on video. Horns of the Nimon, the next story, is on DVD and then we have the unbroadcast Shada, the remains of which we will watch on video. The Leisure Hive (1981) is next and that starts a DVD run which stretches through to Sylvester McCoy's Delta & The Bannermen in 1987 taking in two whole Doctors. Of the remaining three McCoy stories Dragonfire & The Happiness Patrol are both in the Ace Adventures Boxset which is due out May 7th and though I have a sizeable lead of blog entries written there's no way I'll be that far ahead by then! So that leaves just the Greatest Show in the Galaxy which I suspect I'll be watching on Video but may well be out on DVD by the time that blog entry gets published. EDIT: and yes, just as I typed that the trailer for Greatest Show in the Galaxy went up before the BBFC which means that'll be on the Krotons disc, which in turn is the release after Death to the Daleks.

So....
7th May Ace Adventures Boxset
18th June Death to the Daleks
? July The Krotons
? August Greatest Show in the Galaxy

520 Nightmare of Eden Part Three

EPISODE: Nightmare of Eden Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 520
STORY NUMBER: 107
TRANSMITTED: 08 December 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker
DIRECTOR: Alan Bromly
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.6 million viewers
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Nightmare of Eden but the DVD should be out now

Romana & The Doctor hide inside the Eden projection, accessible because of the lack of a key component in Tryst's CET Machine that restricts access to and from the projection. They confront one of the creatures seen on the ship and are saved by Stott, the missing member of Tryst's expedition who has been hiding in the recording. He is a major in the space corp tracking the drugs. Stored in the CET machine the Vraxoin is undetectable. Stott knows the source is somewhere in Eden but can't find it. They escape to the power unit where they meet K-9 who tells them he has seen five of the monsters which Stott calls Mandrells. The Mandrells run amok in the ship to the drugged Rigg's amusement. Tryst tries to persuade Fisk to tranquillise the Mandrells but Fisk orders them killed. The Doctor dispatches his friends on vital tasks while he remains in the power room. While alone he is attacked by a Mandrell. The Mandrell strikes a circuit bank and is electrocuted, reducing it to a pile of Vraxoin, revealing that they are the source of the drug to the Doctor. Romana tells Rigg that the Doctor is about to separate the ship but he, now addicted, demands Vraxoin from her and attacks her, preventing her from activating the power. She is saved by Fisk who tries to arrest her, threatening to shoot if she touches the controls. At the appointed time she activates the drive system and the ships begin to separate.....

There's a lot of running around manically in this episode, but the plot does move on with this missing member of the expedition being revealed and the Doctor putting his plan into action to separate the ships. The end of the episode, as the Doctor fades away, is rather odd as it's just not clear what's going on!

Some of the cast of this story are known to us from previous Doctor Who tales: Captain Rigg is David Daker who was Irongron in director Alan Bromly's only previous Doctor Who story The Time Warrior. Geoffrey Hinsliff, playing customs officer Fisk, was Jack Tyler in Image of the Fendahl. He's most famous for playing Don Brennan in Coronation Street. Peter Craze, as Costa, has two previous Doctor Who's to his name, playing Dako in The Space Museum and Du Pont in The War Games as well as a pair of Blake's 7s: he was in Seek Locate Destroy as Prell and Sand as Servalan's Assistant. He is the brother of Michael Craze, who played former companion Ben Jackson. Finally one of the passengers, Lionel Sansby, would have been seen as Krarg in Shada. Except, as we'll see, he wasn't.

The scenes of the passengers here in their cabins remind me of scenes with ageing passengers trapped in a crashed space liner in the last episode of the second series of The Hitch Hiker's guide to the Galaxy that Script Editor Douglas Adams would have been writing at about the time this story was made.

519 Nightmare of Eden Part Two

EPISODE: Nightmare of Eden Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 519
STORY NUMBER: 107
TRANSMITTED: 01 December 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker
DIRECTOR: Alan Bromly
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.6 million viewers
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Nightmare of Eden but the DVD should be out now

K-9 drives the monster back and reseals the hole. Rigg scans the ships for Vraxoin but finds none. Romana is found by Della. She gets a drink for her, but it gets spiked with Vraxoin and then consumed by Rigg. Romana tells the Doctor she thinks the creature escaped from the machine, which he considers to be unstable. Rigg starts to show the influence of the drug he has accidentally taken. The Doctor & Romana use the Tardis to try to separate the ships, but the Hecate cannot take the stress. The Doctor sees a masked figure flee from one of the matter interfaces and pursues him. The drugged Rigg accuses the Doctor & Romana of first drugs smuggling and then being a narcotics agent as Tryst plies him with drinks. Romana searches for the Doctor but finds on of the creatures and is saved by a mystery man who shoots it who the Doctor thinks is the man he was chasing. The Doctor removed a radiation device from the man linking him to the ship Tryst used. Tryst discusses with Della the possibility that their slain expedition member was the drug smuggler. Tryst then accuses Della of drug smuggling to the Doctor. In the Power Unit, K-9 encounters the monster. Azure custom officers Fisk & Costa come aboard and try to arrest the Doctor, who they detect minute traces of Vraxoin on. They flee to Tryst's room, activate the CET machine and enter the Eden projection.....

Again this episode moves at a nice pace, advancing the plot. There are clues there as to who the culprit is if you've not seen the show before. If you have it'll lodge in your brain and be absolutely obvious, removing much of the point of the serial. Essentially this is just an Agatha Christie style mystery just dressed up with spaceships & monsters.

The director Alan Bromly, who'd previously helmed 1974's The Time Warrior, gets some clever reuse of stair, lift lobby and passenger compartment sets in during this episode to suggest that there's more to the Empress than we think. Unfortunately it is absolutely obvious that it's the same set reused again and again, especially when the same trick is pulled with three different sets one after the other during the Doctor's pursuit of the mystery man. But the scenes shot in the matter interface use some nice video trickery to suggest what's going on, the first time I think this sort of effect has been used on Doctor Who.

518 Nightmare of Eden Part One

EPISODE: Nightmare of Eden Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 518
STORY NUMBER: 107
TRANSMITTED: 24 November 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker
DIRECTOR: Alan Bromly
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 8.7 million viewers
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Nightmare of Eden but the DVD should be out now

Gasp! We're watching a video! Yup these blog entries are written in advance and true to form just as I completed Nightmare of Eden the DVD Pre Order went up!

The spaceliner Empress comes out of Hyperspace into orbit around the planet Azure but due to an error by the co-pilot Secker it collides with and ends up fused with another ship the Hecate. The Tardis arrives and, seeing the unstable matter interface between the ships, the Doctor decides to interfere and poses as an investigator from Galactic insurance & salvage. He meets captain Rigg, the commanding officer of the Empress, and Mr Dymond, the owner of the Hecate. The Doctor comes up with a plan to separate the ships. Secker is told to take the Doctor to the power room, but behaving oddly, leaves him. The Doctor & K-9 follow and discover Secker using the banned drug Vraxoin. Romana meets Tryst, and his assistant Della, engaged in a survey using his CET machine which keep matter in a crystal in the machine. The Doctor tells Rigg that he thinks Secker is using Vraxoin. The drugged up Secker wanders into an unstable matter interface. The Doctor asks Tryst about where he has visited, but Dymond is keen to get his ship separated so he has Rigg take him to the Power Unit. Tryst reveals to Romana that a member of their crew was killed on the journey. Romana examines the projections of the planets Tryst has been to and catches sight of someone inside the Eden projection. Della reveals that it was on Eden the lost their other crew member. Trying to reach the power unit the Doctor finds his path blocked by a matter interface. He hears a scream and a bloodied Secker falls out of the interface. Returning to where Secker keeps his drugs the Doctor is shot. Tryst is shown Secker, who dies, and guarantees to Rigg he has only bought recording not live specimens aboard. Romana & K-9 find the Doctor. Romana wonders if the creatures could have escaped from the machine through the unstable matter interface and is sent to examine the CET machine where she is attacked by something in the Eden projection. K-9 starts to cut his way through to the power room but once the hole is complete a rampaging monster is revealed

That's not a bad episode, plenty going on with some reasonable, if functional & unspectacular, sets. Most of the performances aren't bad but Lewis Fiander's accent as Tryst is more than slightly dubious!

There's some nice ideas floating around in Bob Baker's first and only solo story for Doctor Who (previously he'd written with Dave Martin) The fused ships coming out of Hyperspace is good but the CET Machine is startlingly reminiscent of the Scope seen in Carnival of Monsters. The drugs angle to the plot is a surprisingly adult one for Doctor Who to be tackling at this time.

Do the Backgrounds of the environment shown from the CET machine look familiar? They're from footage from model sequences created for several Space 1999 episodes: The planet Retha from Full Circle, Piri from Guardians of Piri and Terra Nova from Matter of Life & Death.

517 The Creature from the Pit Part Four

EPISODE: The Creature from the Pit Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 517
STORY NUMBER: 106
TRANSMITTED: 17 November 1979
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Creature from the Pit

The creature uses the shield to communicate using the Doctor's larynx introducing itself as Erato, a high ambassador from Tythonus. Erato came to Chloris to propose a trading agreement for the metal, abundant on Tythonus, for Chlorophyll, which is found on Chloris. Adrasta, holder of the monopoly on metal on Chloris, imprisoned it in the pit. Angry at the deception Adrasta has perpetrated the guards sets the wolf weeds on her killing her. Erato is freed from the pit. The Doctor reveals the shell they found was Erato's spaceship. Romana works out the noise the shell was making was distress signal. The bandits plan to steal Erato's photon drive, which the Doctor has entrusted to Organon. The Tythonians have set a Neutron star on a course for Chloris' sun in retaliation for the treatment of their ambassador. The Doctor plans to get Erato to weave a layer of aluminium round the star to divert it's course, but it is discovered the photon drive is missing. Kerala retrieves the drive, killing the bandit's leader, and the Doctor convinces her to turn it over to him. Erato's repaired ship lifts off and successfully wraps the star in aluminium, diverting it's course and saving Chloris. The Doctor brings the people of Chloris a trading agreement from Erato.

Hmmm. I dislike this episode an awful lot. Get the explanations for what going on out the way and it all seems like something added onto the end to extend the story for 2/3 of an episode.

Creature from the Pit's execution isn't the best but the concepts are good: Evil beautiful woman with trapped good but hideous alien is reminiscent of Galaxy Four while the idea of a plant rich but metal poor civilisation coming into contact with one with the opposite problem is clever as is the idea that the first person the ambassador from the metal planet coming into contact with is someone with the monopoly on metal and thus an interest in preserving the status quo. After this it all falls apart with especial blame being laid at the feet of the monster. Not my favourite story.

This is the last Doctor Who story directed by Christopher Barry. His complete Doctor Who CV reads The Daleks (episodes 1,2,4,5 only), The Rescue, The Romans, The Savages, The Power of the Dalek, The Dæmons, The Mutants, Robot, The Brain of Morbius & The Creature from the Pit. He's also directed for Moonbase 3 and The Tripods, plus a range of other BBC productions over the years.

Creature from the Pit was adapted by it's original author David Fisher in 1981. It was was released on VHS in July 2002 and on DVD in May 2010. It also brings us to the end of a massive 74 episode run on DVD, stretching back to Robots of Death 1. Thanks to The Face Of Evil and the Android Invasion now being out on DVD that run stretches back to Planet of Evil 1, covering 112 episodes.

516 The Creature from the Pit Part Three

EPISODE: The Creature from the Pit Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 516
STORY NUMBER: 106
TRANSMITTED: 10 November 1979
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 10.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Creature from the Pit

Driving Organon and the guards out of his cave the creature seals the entrance with metal. One of the guards informs Adrastra. The Doctor attempts to communicate with the creature, deducing it has chlorophyll in it's veins. The creature creates a metal shape in the rock which the Doctor recognises as a shield hanging on Adrastra's palace wall. As he does so the shield lights up, but just then the bandits arrive in the palace and start to loot it, taking the shield. Detected they flee into the mines. The Doctor finds pieces of the shell he saw on the surface in the cave, and Romana finds the cave blockage is also the same material. Two of the bandits become entranced by the shield and carry it away. With the metal weakened the Doctor bursts through, with Adrastra wanting to know how he communicated with the creature. Adrastra sends K-9, Romana & the guards to kill the creature, but they cannot find the creature. Adrastra starts to panic, and accidentally reveals the creature is a Tythonian. The Doctor and Romana attempt to escape using K-9, but as they do the creature approaches. The Doctor deduces that Adrastra put it in the pit. Adrastra holds the Doctor at knife point demanding that Romana has K-9 kill the creature. The bandits arrive and place the shield on the creature to Adrastra's screams of NO!

The more we find out about the creature in the pit the more intriguing it gets. Unfortunately the story as it's unfolding on the screen is a little pedestrian to say the least. We will not pass further comment on what Tom Baker appears to be doing to the creature's appendage while attempting to communicate with it, but I believe the actor himself has something to say on the matter in Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Years.

With this episode, his 135th, Tom Baker takes the record for the longest serving Doctor in terms of episodes. He'll eventually extend that record to 172 broadcast episodes (or 178 ish if you count Shada) and nobody will ever get remotely close to braking that record again.

Although the actress playing Adrastra, Myra Frances doesn't have any Doctor Who form, indeed the only thing I can find that we might have seen her in is Survivors, lots of the rest of the cast do. Playing Karela, her assistant, is Eileen Way who was the Old Mother in the very first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child, and was first character to die in the entire series. A late entry on her CV is a role Russell T Davies children's drama series Century Falls. From the bandits, John Bryans, playing their leader Torvin, was Senator Bercol during the first two series of Blake's 7 (Seek Locate Destroy & Trial) returning in the third series as the torturer Shrinker (the superb Rumours of Death). Edu is played by Edward Kelsey who was a slave buyer in The Romans & Resno in The Power of the Daleks while Ainu is played by Tim Munro who'll return as Sigurd in Terminus.

By far the most recognisable face in this story is someone who could have been in Doctor Who hundreds of times, but this is actually his first & only appearance: playing the astrologer Organon, with more than a hint of William Hartnell, is Geoffrey Bayldon. It seems that every time the Doctor was cast his name was mentioned in connection with the role! Years later he would play an alternate version of the first Doctor in two Big Finish audio plays. By this point he was famous for playing the lead role in Catweazle and had recently appeared in the film version of Porridge. He was, at the time this series was made, appearing in Worzel Gummidge, as the Crowman, with third Doctor Jon Pertwee. His partner was actor Alan Rowe, who appeared in the Doctor Who stories The Time Warrior & Horror of Fang Rock. Aged 88 he is, at time of writing, still going strong!

515 The Creature from the Pit Part Two

EPISODE: The Creature from the Pit Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 515
STORY NUMBER: 106
TRANSMITTED: 03 November 1979
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 10.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Creature from the Pit

The Doctor survives by clinging to a ledge, breaking his fall, before falling the remaining way to the pit's floor. Adrasta plans to put Romana to work on the shell and to break K-9 up for the metal that forms his construction. The Doctor encounters the creature in the pit, a huge glowing green monster. Romana convinces Adrasta that the knowledge she needs is in K-9. In the Pit the Doctor encounters Organon, an astrologer that Adrasta threw into the pit for telling her that she would have visitors from beyond the stars, the Doctor deducing that Adrasta is a afraid of alien visitors. The Bandits plan to attack the palace to steal the metal contained within. Organon tells the Doctor how Adrasta owns the only metal mine on the planet and thus has a monopoly. Romana attempts to escape but gets no further than the throne room. The Doctor wonders how the creature got in the pit. Adrasta interrogates Romana and plans to use the Tardis to journey to the stars to get more metal. She then decides to use K-9 to kill something huge which is now superfluous. Assessing a secret corridor they enter the mines. The Doctor & Organon stumble into the huge chamber containing the creature which reaches out and consumes the Doctor.....

There's some good ideas bubbling away in the background of this one: the female dominated society and the metal shortage, but they're not quite making it onto the screen OK. Worst of all is the creature itself, a big green blob with an extremely phalic looking appendage. Wait till you see what Tom does to that later! Years later the special effects team still recall this story will a distinct lack of fondness as recounted in some detail on the Team Erato documentary on The Creature from the Pit DVD.

I note we have a failed escape attempt in this episode, as Romana discusses her escape plan with K-9 and then it fails. An obvious time waster!

This is Tom Baker's 134th episode of Doctor Who which brings him equal with William Hartnell.

514 The Creature from the Pit Part One

EPISODE: The Creature from the Pit Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 514
STORY NUMBER: 106
TRANSMITTED: 27 October 1979
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Creature from the Pit

The Tardis receives a distress call summoning them to the verdant planet Chloris where they find the remains of a giant metal egg. They are captured by servants of the Lady Adrasta, but while en route to her palace they are attacked by bandits, who are seeking metal which is rare on Chloris, who capture Romana. The Doctor is sentenced to death for being found in the place of death. Romana talks her way free and summons K-9. The Doctor tells Adrasta that he thinks the structure he found is an egg shell & alive, for which she sentences her technical adviser to death. He is taken to the pit and thrown in, consumed by the monster within. Romana & K-9 attempt a rescue but K-9 is immobilised by the wolf weeds that Adrasta keeps and Romana is captured. The Doctor attempts to escape by jumping into the pit.

Hmmm. Somehow the humorous dialogue used in this episode is a bit silly somehow and doesn't quite work. Sorry. But the jungle sets, filmed at Ealing studios, look superb.

Two last appearances in this episode: The technician Tollund is an only acting appearance in Doctor Who for Morris Barry. However he had previously directed the The Moonbase, The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Dominators, making him (I think) the only person to be credited as both an actor & director on Doctor Who. His other acting credits include episodes of Are You Being Served?, Blake's 7, The Day of the Triffids, Tales of the Unexpected, All Creatures Great and Small, and Hi-de-Hi!. His fellow technician Doran is a final Doctor Who appearance for regular stuntman, fight arranger, double for Jon Pertwee & Tom Baker and actor Terry Walsh. He's credited as Fight Arranger on The Curse of Peladon, The Mutants, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, The Sontaran Experiment, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil & The Androids of Tara. His acting credits on the show are The Smugglers (uncredited; as a militiaman), The Web of Fear (uncredited; as a soldier) , The Invasion (uncredited; as a UNIT soldier), The Ambassadors of Death (uncredited; as a UNIT soldier), Inferno (uncredited; as a UNIT soldier), Terror of the Autons (as an Auton Policeman), Colony in Space (uncredited; as Rogers), The Sea Devils (as Barclay), The Mutants (uncredited; as a guard), The Time Monster (as a Window Cleaner), The Green Death (as a Guard), Invasion of the Dinosaurs (as a Warehouse Looter), The Monster of Peladon (as a Guard Captain), Planet of the Spiders (as the man with boat), Robot (uncredited; as a security guard), The Ark in Space (uncredited; as a Wirrn Operator), The Sontaran Experiment (as Zake), Genesis of the Daleks (uncredited; as a soldier, guard, and a scientist), Planet of Evil (uncredited; as a crew member) & The Power of Kroll (as Mensch).

This episode was promoted by Tom Baker appearing, in character as the Doctor, on the Children's TV nature series Animal Magic. This sequence is included on The Creature from the Pit DVD, although there's some debate as to if the correct title sequence has been used and if there pictures of the monsters displayed over the screen while Tom was talking. I also remember seeing the sequence where K-9 is attacked by the wolf-weeds on a children's program too, but can't remember where it was from - I actually thought it was part of the Animal Magic clip until I watched it with this episode. Consultation with m'learned friends at Roobarb's Forum suggests it could be an episode of Ask Aspel, a children's show presented by Michael Aspel.

513 City of Death Part Four

EPISODE: City of Death Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 513
STORY NUMBER: 105
TRANSMITTED: 20 October 1979
WRITER: "David Agnew" (pseudonym for Douglas Adams, Graham Williams, and David Fisher)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 16.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - City of Death

The Count threatens to do to the whole of Paris what he has just done to Professor Kerensky to force Romana to stabilise the time field in his machine. He wants Romana to make the machine send him back in time to prevent himself from launching the ship which splintered him through time and killed the rest of the Jagaroth. The Doctor arrives at the Chateau and talks to the Countess, planting seeds of doubt about her husband. The Doctor is taken to the cellar. The Countess searches the counts rare books and documents, finding an Egyptian scroll showing a Scaroth headed human as the Doctor described him. The Doctor tries to stop the Count, but the Count once again threatens to destroy Paris and has them locked up. The Count goes to see the Countess who pulls a gun on him demanding the truth about his identity. He pulls his mask off and kills her using circuitry within the scanning bracelet. Duggan forces the cell door allowing him, the Doctor & Romana to escape witnessing Scaroth vanish back in time and his machine explode. They return to the art gallery where the Doctor left the Tardis, astounding some watching art lovers who think the Tardis is a piece of art when it dematerialises. The Tardis travels back in time to when the Jagaroth ship was due to launch, the Doctor finding the fluid which will give birth to life, waiting for the radiation from the Jagaroth ship to start the process of life. Scaroth arrives to warn his earlier self but is stopped by Duggan who knocks him out. The unconscious Scaroth vanishes back to 1979 due to a limit Romana placed on the time machine. The Doctor, Romana & Duggan flee the scene in the Tardis escaping just before the Jagaroth ship explodes. The unmasked Scaroth materialises in 1979, startling Herman who throws something at him breaching the time field which kills Scaroth & destroys the time machine starting a fire which just one of the "fake" Mona Lisas survives, to be returned to and hung in the Louvre. The Doctor & Romana bid farewell to Duggan.

Another great episode, well done. Really loved it. To cap it all it establishes the all time viewing record for an episode of Doctor Who 16.1 Million Viewers!

Here's how many people have watched the last 8 episodes:

Date	Story	Episode	Rating Million Viewers
01/09/1979	Destiny of the Daleks	Part 1	13.0
08/09/1979		Part 2	12.7
15/09/1979		Part 3	13.8
22/09/1979		Part 4	14.4
29/09/1979	City of Death	Part One	12.4
06/10/1979		Part Two	14.1
13/10/1979		Part Three	15.4
20/10/1979		Part Four	16.1

Huge numbers. Unfortunately the ITV technicians finally went back to work in the week following this episode on 24th October and Doctor Who would never achieve such high viewing figures again. For the record then, this is how the Doctor Who highest viewing figure record changes hands:

Episode #	Date	Story & Episode	Rating Million Viewers
1	23/11/1963	An Unearthly Child: An Unearthly Child	4.4
2	30/11/1963	An Unearthly Child: The Cave of Skulls	5.9
3	07/12/1963	An Unearthly Child: The Forest of Fear	6.9
7	04/01/1964	The Daleks: The Escape	8.9
8	11/01/1964	The Daleks: The Ambush	9.9
10	25/01/1964	The Daleks: The Ordeal	10.4
46	21/11/1964	The Dalek Invasion of Earth: World's End	11.4
47	28/11/1964	The Dalek Invasion of Earth: The Daleks	12.4
53	09/01/1965	The Rescue: Desperate Measures	13
58	13/02/1965	The Web Planet: The Web Planet	13.5
387	01/02/1975	The Ark in Space: Part Two	13.6
508	15/09/1979	Destiny of the Daleks: Part Three	13.8
509	22/09/1979	Destiny of the Daleks: Part Four	14.4
512	13/10/1979	City of Death: Part Three	15.4
513	20/10/1979	City of Death: Part Four	16.1

There's 2 prominent cameos in this episode as the art lovers who observe the Tardis leaving the gallery it's in. The female art lover is actress & satirist Eleanor Bron who'll return as Kara in Revelation of the Daleks while her male companion is John Cleese. You don't need me to tell you who he is. Reputedly he was in TV Centre that day recording the final episode of Fawlty Towers!

City of Death was repeated on 12th, 13th, 19th & 20th August 1980. It was never adapted as a Target Book: Douglas Adams was keen to novelise his three stories himself and wouldn't let anyone else do them. But then he became busy, and then became famous and the fees Target books would need to pay for his services shot up waaaay beyond the budgets for the range. However one of the central conceits of the story, an alien who's spaceship blows up at the dawn of time starting life on Earth and then influences events to try to avert the explosion utilising a time machine, was recycled by Douglas Adams for his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, probably one of the best things Adams wrote. As we will see this isn't the only Doctor Who story to have an influence on Dirk Gently. City of Death was released on video twice: The first time was in July of 1991 (I can remember buying it on the day of release from Volume 1 in Kingston) and then again in May 2001. A DVD edition was made available in the UK on 7th November 2005.

512 City of Death Part Three

EPISODE: City of Death Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 512
STORY NUMBER: 105
TRANSMITTED: 13 October 1979
WRITER: "David Agnew" (pseudonym for Douglas Adams, Graham Williams, and David Fisher)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 15.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - City of Death

Duggan & Romana walk into the Louvre, with all it's alarms having been immobilised and found the Mona Lisa gone. Duggan mistakenly sets the alarm off forcing them to make a hasty exit. Kerensky, having recovered, find the room at the back of the cellar with the six Mona Lisas and find the unconscious Count who starts to recover, using the same words that Captain Tancredi is speaking in 1505. Tancredi tells The Doctor of how the Jagaroth wiped themselves out in a war and that the survivors were killed when their spaceship exploded on a primordial lifeless world. Scaroth was splintered through time as identical copies in contact with one another. Tancredi has had the Mona Lisas made by Leonardo DaVinci for Scarlioni to find. Tancredi decides to torture the Doctor for information. The Doctor escapes his guard, writing This Is A Fake on the back of the parchments Tancredi intends to get Leonardo to use and leaves a note for DaVinci. Unfortunately as he is about to leave Tancredi arrives with the thumb screws. Scarlioni recovers and puts Kerensky back to work. Romana & Duggan meet up at the deserted Cafe. The Count has Kerensky modify his machinery, but Kerensky refuses, as Hermon enters with the stolen Mona Lisa. The Doctor tells Tancredi that he is a Time Lord. The Count raves about his achievements in front of his wife, worrying her. Tancredi too is overcome by his other selves communicating with him allowing the Doctor to escape in the Tardis, returning to 1979. Romana leaves a note for the Doctor at the Cafe as she and Duggan wonder if Scarlioni has travelled in time to arrange the copies. They return to the count's chateau, with the Doctor collecting his note sometime later. Hermon holds Romana & Duggan for Scarlioni while the count tries to persuade Romana to help build his time machine. Romana is convinced Scarlioni could destroy Paris with his machine. Kerensky is killed by Scarlioni using it, who ages him to death.

Somehow, and I can't quite put my finger on it, something is just slightly off about this episode compared to the two that preceded it. Yes the dialogue still sparkles, and Douglas is back for another cameo, but somehow , possibly due to the necessity of having to explain what's going on, this doesn't quite work so well. And yet Destiny of the Daleks Part 4's record of 14.4 million viewers falls after just 3 weeks, being smashed by an entire million extra viewers! And we're not done yet.....

Several of the cast have Doctor Who form, or will be back later. The most recognisable face in the cast is Julian Glover as Scaroth / Count Scarlioni / Captain Tancredi. He was previously Richard the Lionheart in the First Doctor Story in The Crusade. His real life wife in real life is Isla Blair, who we'll see later in the King's Demons, but here his fictional wife is the Countess Scarlioni played by Catherine Schell who's most famous as Maya in Space 1999, a series which both Glover & Blair have featured in. Julian Glover's acting CV is huge taking in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, James Bond: For Your Eyes Only and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade. Meanwhile Tom Chadbon, here playing Duggan, will be back in the first four episodes of Trial of a Timelord as Merdeen. Making his final Doctor Who appearance, but only his second in front of the camera, is David Graham as Professor Kerensky. He was previously seen as Charlie the Barman in The Gunfighters, but he's best known as a Dalek voice artist in The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase (where he also voiced the Mechanoids), Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan on TV plus both of the Dalek films. Nowadays he's best known as the voice of Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig and the Wise Old Elf in Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom. Another old Doctor Who face (and voice) is Peter Halliday as the Soldier. He was in The Invasion as Packer, the Silurians as the Silurian Voices, The Ambassadors of Death as the Alien Voices and Carnival of Monsters as Pletrac. He has one more appearance to come as in Remembrance of the Daleks as the Vicar.

511 City of Death Part Two

EPISODE: City of Death Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 511
STORY NUMBER: 105
TRANSMITTED: 06 October 1979
WRITER: "David Agnew" (pseudonym for Douglas Adams, Graham Williams, and David Fisher)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 14.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - City of Death

The Doctor, Romana & Duggan are taken to the Count's house where they are questioned. As they are taken to the cellar the Count remarks to his wife that they have a Mona Lisa to steal. The Doctor is interested by the laboratory but locked in an adjoining room which Romana notices is too small compared to the outside. They escape and examine the lab, but hide when Kerensky returns. The observe him experimenting on an egg which he ages into a chicken, before the Doctor introduces himself. The Count, Hermann & The Countess plan the robbery using a holographic replica of the Louvre generated from data taken by the countess. The Professor & Doctor discuss the experiment as the chicken collapses into bones then dust. The Doctor reverses the polarity bringing the chicken back to life, but in the time effect the see the face of Scaroth. Romana discovers another room bricked up at the end of the cell. Duggan demolishes the wall and behind it they find a room that has been sealed up for a long time containing six Mona Lisas. Duggan tells them he knows of seven people that would buy a Mona Lisa, but couldn't while the real one is in the Louvre. Count Scarlioni finds them and holds them at gun point, telling them by the end of the night he will have a seventh. Duggan knocks him out and they all escape. Duggan & Romana go to stop the robbery while the Doctor takes the Tardis to early 16th century Florence where he is captured by one of Captain Tancredi's soldiers. Tancredi has put Leonardo to work on something and when he enters he is revealed to be an exact duplicate of Count Scarlioni!

Ah fabulous again. This episode purrs along like a perfectly tuned car, all the more incredible when you think it was cobbled together over a weekend.

We last heard of Leonardo da Vinci during the Masque of Mandragora where the Doctor was looking forward to meeting him c1492. By about 10 years later for Leonardo (given the time period which he paint the Mona Lisa and the visit is dated in the following episode) he has met the Doctor, probably more than once judging by the friendly comments the Doctor makes while poking round his rooms, and is working on his great painting The Mona Lisa.

Leonardo isn't the only painter the Doctor has met: The Eleventh Doctor meets Vincent Van Gogh in Vincent and the Doctor. And, according to a scene cut from Silver Nemesis, at some point the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace gets herself painted by someone famous enough for the Queen to have the portrait hanging in Windsor Castle!

The week following the broadcast of this episode saw two notable publishing events connected with the show. On Thursday 11th October the first issue of Doctor Who Weekly (later Monthly, and now Magazine) was published. Yes I know it's dated 17th October but British periodical publishing custom has it that the date on the issue is the last day it's on sale rather than the first. Odd, yes, but there we go..... The next day, Friday 12th October, Script Editor Douglas Adams had his first novel publish, the printed adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which, to say the least, did rather well for him.

510 City of Death Part One

EPISODE: City of Death Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 510
STORY NUMBER: 105
TRANSMITTED: 29 September 1979
WRITER: "David Agnew" (pseudonym for Douglas Adams, Graham Williams, and David Fisher)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 12.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - City of Death

On a barren planet the spaceship carrying the last of the Jagaroth prepares to lift of. It's pilot Scaroth is ordered to lift off using warp thrust, which he objects to. As the ship leaves the ground it is destroyed. In 1979 Paris the Doctor & Romana enjoy the sights. In an underground laboratory Professor Kerensky complains about the lack of money to continue his experiments so his employer, Count Scarlioni, gives him a million francs and orders his servant Hermann to sell one of their Guttenberg bibles. While taking lunch in a cafe the Doctor & Romana become aware of a time disturbance and decide to investigate. An artist painting a picture of Romana depicts her face as a clock, prompting her and the Doctor to argue about art so he takes her to the Louvre and shows her the Mona Lisa. They encounter another time disturbance there, causing the Doctor to collapse onto woman, and then a man, carrying a gun, who follows them. Scarlioni congratulates Kerensky on the success of his experiments. The Doctor & Romana stop for a rest, and the Doctor shows her a bracelet, actually a high technology scanner, that he took from the woman. The man with the gun catches up with them and marches them into a nearby bar. The woman, the Countess Scarlioni, reports back to her husband what has happened and he orders the bracelet recovered. The Count's men catch up with the Doctor, Romana and the Detective Duggan, who had been following the Countess, and retrieve the bracelet. The Doctor tells Duggan that he thinks someone may want to steel the Mona Lisa. The Count orders the Doctor, Romana & Duggan brought to his house. Duggan tells the Doctor of how missing works of art are turning up which appear connected to Count Scarlioni before some more thugs turn up to take them to the Count. In the locked laboratory the count surveys the equipment, pausing in front of a mirror to remove the mask that forms his face and revealing that of Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth!

"Well I think it's marvellous"

What I've written really doesn't do what I've seen justice. This is a fabulous episode, a witty script enhanced by some stunning location footage in Paris and some top performances. You really need to buy the DVD & watch it. And yet it's initial viewing figures - remember ITV are still out on strike - are less than those for any episode of Destiny of the Daleks! We get a brief mention of the Braxiatal Collection in this episode which will spawn a character and location featured in several of the Doctor Who New Adventures books.

Hurrah, It's our old friend "David Agnew" again in the writers chair! Except, as we know from Invasion of Time, David Agnew is a pseudonym used when the show's staff end up writing a story in a time of crisis. Once again producer Graham Williams is involved but this time his chief assistant is script editor Douglas Adams. The original story meant for this slot, A Gamble With Time, was originally written by David Fisher, who had already completed The Creature from the Pit, the third story shown this season but the first filmed. Originally written as a Bulldog Drummond parody, the action was shifted to Monte Carlo. *Then* the cost of location filming in Paris was assessed and found to be within the program's budget so the action would have to switched to Paris. At this point Fisher was experiencing marital difficulties so, as the story goes, Williams & Adams locked themselves away for a weekend and wrote the script.

This appears to be the first time that Douglas Adams is locked away until a story is written. It wouldn't be the last and would later prove the most effective method of getting a book out of him with Douglas typing in one room while his editor worked next door!

Both writer/script editor Douglas Adams and director Michael Hayes make cameo appearances in this episode; Hayes is the shifty-looking man wearing a cloth cap and carrying a metal case who exits the train at Boissière Metro Station after the Doctor and Romana. Adams is seen as a man having a drink in the bar, first just behind the Doctor as he gets up to leave the cafe and then sitting at a table as Duggan brings them back in.

509 Destiny of the Daleks Part Four

EPISODE: Destiny of the Daleks Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 509
STORY NUMBER: 104
TRANSMITTED: 22 September 1979
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Ken Grieve
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 14.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Destiny Of The Daleks

As the device clicks towards zero the Doctor is stunned by the Movellans. When zero is reached nothing happens: the Movellans had set it not to detonate. Davros is waiting for a Dalek deep space cruiser to collect him but it will not arrive for six hours. He analyses the data on the Dalek Battlefleet's stalemate with the Movellans. The Movellans prepare to lift off leaving Lan behind to manually activate the Nova device and destroy the surface of Skaro. The Doctor challenges the logical robotic Movellans, demonstrating the limits of what you can accomplish with logic using a game of scissor, paper, stone. The Movellans insist that the Doctor reprogram their computers as Davros will for the Daleks. Lan is overcome by the former slaves and reprogrammed. Davros orders the Movellan ship destroyed by attaching explosives to the majority of the Daleks and sending them to the ship to self destruct. Agella is sent to check on the non-responsive Lan and is also reprogrammed by the former slaves. The slaves & controlled Movellans enter the ship, freeing the Doctor and deactivating the Movellan crew. The Doctor goes to the Dalek base to confront Davros, seeing the explosive laden Daleks as he travels. He enters the base, Davros telling him he intends to destroy the Movellan ship with the remaining Dalek threatening the Doctor. Commander Sharrel is found to be missing and Romana goes to look for him, fearing he will activate the Nova device. Daleks approach the Movellan ship and the freed slaves attempt to repel them using Movellan weapons. Romana prevents Sharrel from activating the Nova device and deactivates him. The Doctor blinds the guarding Dalek with his hat, and the Dalek is destroyed by a ricocheting shot. The Doctor detonates the Daleks explosives before they can reach the Movellan ship. Davros is placed in suspended animation in the Movellan ship and taken to Earth by Tyssan as Romana & The Doctor dig the Tardis out of the rubble it is buried in.

I love Destiny of the Daleks, but I'm not blind to it's faults. To me most of the major ones can be found in this episode. The first concerns the mocked up Daleks created to boost their numbers: while many complain that the Daleks throughout the story look shoddy I don't mind the majority of the props: they're in the middle of a war, you'd expect them not to look pristine. But the extra props made up for this story are just not up to scratch, needing to be lifted up to be moved. The one left with Davros, at the end of the scene where the Daleks are sent to destroy the Movellan ship, is a particularly bad offender. Thankfully it gets substituted for a real casing for the next scene and all the dodgy ones go up in flames at the story's climax. The other problem concerns the Daleks being described as robots: They're not, they're cyborgs, with a "living, bubbling lump of hate" inside each one. I can just about live with the idea of the Daleks having completely shed their organic origins but it does jar heavily with everything we'd been told about the Daleks to date.

There's more reused costumes in this episode with a Draconian costume from Frontier in Space and what I think is a costume from Planet of Evil used in the slave scenes which also feature actor Ron Tarr, later known for East Enders amongst the slaves. However there's one poor actress, who I think is Penny Casdagli (who has dialogue with Romana in episode 2), who is seriously struggling with her costume in the location sequences.....

A thought about the Movellans vs the Daleks: is this an attempt to do Cybermen vs Daleks on the cheap? There were several attempts to make a Daleks vs Cybermen story in the sixties, and the central concept here of Daleks vs a logical robotic race seem to be quite similar.

Yes there's a few faults too the story, especially towards the end. But I love it, the first two episodes especially. There are better Doctor Who stories made, but this is my favourite. It's had a diminished reputation amongst fans, especially when held up against the previous Dalek story, Genesis of the Daleks. But it's my first proper encounter with them and nothing can shift the impact it had one me as a child which comes back everytime I watch the first episode. When I was the secretary of IFIS, the Royal Holloway Science Fiction and Fantasy society we held a Doctor Who video night to celebrate the show's 30th anniversary in 1993. We showed An Unearthly Child, Destiny of the Daleks & Earthshock and this story went down really well that night!

This is Tom Baker's 128th episode of Doctor Who which brings him equal with Jon Pertwee's total, with only William Hartnell at this point having filmed more episode (134) at this point. As well as being director Ken Grieve's only
contribution to Doctor Who, this is also Terry Nation's final script credit on Doctor Who. He'll continue too work on Blake's 7 till the end of the 1980 season, after which he moved to Los Angeles contributing to, amongst others, MacGyver. In the early 1990s he was involved, with Cybermen creator Gerry Davis, in an attempt to produce Doctor Who independently of the BBC. He died on 9th March 1997.

This episode produced the highest rating for the story:

Part 1	13.0 million viewers
Part 2	12.7 million viewers
Part 3	13.8 million viewers
Part 4	14.4 million viewers

The 14.4 million viewers for this episode, aided by the strike that had taken ITV off the air, was a record for Doctor Who to date, breaking the one set the previous week by the third episode. It would be broken twice more in the next four weeks!

Destiny of the Daleks was repeated from the 5th to 8th August 1980. The story was novelised by Terrance Dicks and released just 2 months after broadcast in November 1979. It was the first to bear a cover painted by Andrew Skilleter. I can remember borrowing the novelization from my local library and then having to hide the book in the cupboard because I was so frightened by the Daleks on the cover. So naturally it was one of the first two Doctor Who books my parents bought me for my birthday! Having "acquired" a copy of Destiny of the Daleks on video while I was at university, I bought the official video release when it came out in July 1994 just after I graduated. It was re-released in September 2001 in The Davros Collection VHS boxset, a WHSmiths exclusive, which also contained Genesis of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks & Remembrance of the Daleks. Destiny Of The Daleks was released on DVD on 26th November 2007 alongside The Davros Collection DVD Box Set which contained the DVD versions of the five stories in the VHS boxset above.

508 Destiny of the Daleks Part Three

EPISODE: Destiny of the Daleks Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 508
STORY NUMBER: 104
TRANSMITTED: 15 September 1979
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Ken Grieve
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 13.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Destiny Of The Daleks

The Doctor, Romana & Tyssan flee with Davros but are trapped in a room. Romana & Tyssan escape through a window leaving the Doctor holding Davros hostage with a bomb that he removed from Dalek control. Romana & Tyssan split up to evade the Dalek patrols. The Doctor is forced to surrender Davros when the Daleks start exterminating human prisoners, but he achieves the captives freedom. Detonating the bomb remotely after he leaves, he is unaware it has destroyed the Dalek that removed the explosive rather than it's creator. Romana returns to the Movellan ship where she finds Lan & Agella alive & well. Commander Sharrel announces their objective now the Daleks have found Davros is to secure the Doctor. The Doctor meets Tyssan, but both are captured by a Dalek. The Dalek is destroyed by a Movellan seeking the Doctor but the Doctor immobilises the Movellan by removing a tube like device from it's belt. He shows that the Movellans are robots and teaches Tyssan how to reprogram them. The Doctor finds Romana entombed in the Nova Device, a Movellan explosive device, with the timer clicking down towards zero.....

This is the second time now that Terry Nation has had to bring back a foe that he conclusively killed at the end of a previous story, the first being the Daleks themselves who were seemingly utterly wiped out at the end of their very first adventure. Nobody will seriously argue that bringing back The Daleks was a bad idea but Davros? Somehow his presence relegates the Daleks to being his goons for the rest of this story and the next two appearances and no matter how hard the actor playing him tries he's never going to live up to Michael Wisher's performance in Genesis of the Daleks.

Wisher was, at the time this story was made, committed to long running theatre work so was replaced by David Gooderson, who has primarily worked as a voice actor. However in recent years he's been regularly seen on ITV playing Pathologist Derek Simpkins in A Touch of Frost. That makes two consecutive Doctor Who stories with prominent ITV Pathologists in them: Armageddon Factor featured Barry Jackson who plays Dr George Bullard in Midsomer Murders. At the time of making Destiny of the Daleks Tim Barlow, playing Tyssan, was deaf having lost his hearing in an army accident in the 1950s. He's since had a Cochlear Implant fitted to "restore" his hearing and detailed the experience for a Radio 4 program: Earfull - From Silence into Sound. Suzanne Danielle plays Agella. She was at the time well known for a number of glamorous roles on television. Tony Osoba, playing Lan, is best known as McLaren in Porridge. This story is Mike Mungarvan's only appearance as a Dalek Operator, but he makes numerous other uncredited appearances in other stories. His fellow operator Cy Town is on his fifth Dalek story but absent is John Scott Martin who otherwise appears in every Dalek story from The Chase onwards. Regular Dalek Voice artist Roy Skelton once again reprises that role.

This episode is famed for the Doctor's retort of "spack off!" to the Daleks. I suspect Tom Baker was trying to say "Back Off!" but stumbled rather over the line.

Among the slaves assembled for extermination we see a Draconian costume for Frontier in Space!

Once again Terry Nation reaches into his usual repertoire for the third cliffhanger: It's a nice big bomb with a countdown. See also: The Daleks, Dalek Invasion of Earth, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks & The Android Invasion!

As this story has gone on we've been charting it's rating, something I've not bothered doing until now. Having notched up 13 million viewers for the first episode, and 12.8 for the second, Destiny now records a new record for Doctor Who with 13.8 million viewers, the first time the record for the most viewers had changed hands since The Ark in Space Part Two recorded 13.6 million viewers on 01st February 1975. This new record however would stand for precisely one week, and over the next 5 weeks, thanks to ITV being off the air due to a strike, it will change hands again 2 more times after that!

This is how the record for the episode with the highest viewing figures has changed so far:

Episode #	Story & Episode	Rating (millions)
1	An Unearthly Child 1: An Unearthly Child	4.4
2	An Unearthly Child 2: The Cave of Skulls	5.9
3	An Unearthly Child 3: The Forest of Fear	6.9
7	The Daleks 3: The Escape	8.9
8	The Daleks 4: The Ambush	9.9
10	The Daleks 6: The Ordeal	10.4
46	The Dalek Invasion of Earth 1: World's End	11.4
47	The Dalek Invasion of Earth 2: The Daleks	12.4
53	The Rescue 2: Desperate Measures	13
58	The Web Planet 1: The Web Planet	13.5
387	The Ark in Space Part Two	13.6
508	Destiny of the Daleks Part Three	13.8