105 The Massacre Part 3: Priest of Death

EPISODE: The Massacre Part 3: Priest of Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 105
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: 19 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2

If you've read the Blog on the last two episodes you'll know I've been struggling with the characters in this one, telling them apart and identifying who they work for. So in the interests of trying to get a better understanding of the story I'll try and sort the cast into allegiances:

Admiral de Coligny - prominent protestant Huguenot who's got a group of them staying in his house. He supports the protestant Dutch, nicknamed the Sea Beggars, in their war with Catholic Spain so has become known as the Sea Beggar.

Abbot of Amboise - prominent Catholic persecuting Huguenots
Simon Duval - Catholic agent of the Abbot
Roger Colbert - Catholic secretary to the Abbot. I can recognise him cos he's played by
Marshal Tavannes - apparently he was in the second episode but I have no memory of him. He tells Simon Duval that something will happen to the Sea Beggar, which Steven overhears

Charles Preslin - Huguenot apothecary who's being persecuted for his religious and scientific beliefs. Has disappeared with the Doctor.
Nicholas & Gaston - Huguenot drinkers in the tavern that befriend Steven
Anne Chaplet - Huguenot servant girl who while working for the Abbot overheard a plot to kill Huguenots and assassinate Prince Henri of Navarre.

Landlord - allows Huguenot drinkers in the tavern but reports to Simon Duval.

Right got that straight. Now I A) have to recognise them in the sound recording and B) hope no new characters are introduced.

Steven wants to seek the Doctor at the Abbot's house and disguises himself. In the Louvre, the Queen Mother, the King, the Marshal, the Admiral, and Charles de Teligny discuss allying themselves to the Dutch but conversation turns to protestant Huguenot persecution. Steven meets the Abbot bringing Anne with him as Marshal Tavannes arrives. Waiting outside they overhear the conversation discussing killing the Sea Beggar and leave to speak to Nicholas just before they are recognised by Roger Colbert. Admiral de Coligny is shot and wounded on his way home from the meeting. Nicholas and Steven take the wounded Admiral home, while the Catholic conspirators blame the Abbot for things going wrong. The Huguenots believe that the Abbot is behind the assassination but Steven denies it believing him to be the Doctor. However word arrives that the Abbot has been killed. The Queen Mother incites the King to believe his life is under threat from the Huguenots. Steven returns to the Abbot's house to see if the body is the Doctor. The crowds believe the Huguenots are responsible and are demanding blood. When Steven arrived Roger Colbert identifies him as the killer forcing him to flee.

Right that made a bit more sense now I'm sure who everyone is. However as a story it's still not doing much for me: Steven spends lots of the time running around confused.

This story is packed with guest artists who are famous for other rolls. Andre Morrel (Marshal Tavannes) was the third Professor Bernard Quatermass in Quatermass & The Pit. The BBC original is available on DVD and well worth watching. We've then got a whole bunch of people associated with Time Lord roles: Leonard Sachs (Admiral de Coligny), famous as the compère in The Good Old Days, later played Borusa in Arc of Infinity. Michael Bilton (Teligny), who's had a long television career, later played Collins in Pyramids of Mars and a Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin which also featured Erik Chitty (Charles Preslin) as Coordinator Engin. Christopher Tranchell (Roger Colbert) later played Jenkins in The Faceless Ones and Commander Andred in The Invasion of Time. He's most famous as a Play School presenter, a role also played by fellow guest artist Eric Thompson who to the best of my knowledge hasn't played a Time Lord of any description. He's the Husband of Phyllidia Law and father of Emma & Sophie Thompson, but is most famous to people of my generation as being the narrator (and English language writer) of The Magic Roundabout.

As a note this is the last episode to credit Donald Tosh with being script editor. He's done extensive rewrites on this story but BBC rules have prevented him from taking an on screen credit. Most of the remaining stories this season are commissioned under his reign so his influence is felt for a while yet. War Machines is the first story to be 100% developed by the new producer & script editor team.

104 The Massacre Part 2: The Sea Beggar

EPISODE: The Massacre Part 2: The Sea Beggar
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 104
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: 12 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2

Steven hunts for the Doctor, alienating his new French friends who think he's working for the Abbot. He finds out about an attempt to be made to assassinate "The Sea Beggar" but doesn't know who this is. Meeting Anne in the street they go to shelter in Preslin's shop. It's revealed that the Sea Beggar is Admiral De Coligny.

Straight off the bat: Maybe it's because I wasn't feeling too good when I listened to this but it passed me by completely. As with the previous episode I'm just completely confused with identity and allegiance. Whose idea was it to let Hartnell have a week off during this, only appearing in brief pre-filmed inserts, a story where he plays two roles? Madness. Yeah I don't like historicals, but this is leaving me colder than most.

Doubles is a recurring theme in Doctor Who: We'll meet the second Doctor's double Salamander in Enemy of the World, while Xoanon in Face of Evil uses the Doctor's face, Meglos disguises itself as the Doctor in Meglos, Nyssa meets an identical double and there's a case of stolen costumes with someone pretending to be the Doctor in Black Orchid and Omega assumes the Doctor's form in Arc of Infinity. Then we've got Mawdryn Undead which really does feature two of the same person wandering about!

A notable first for this story: Doctor Who's first female director. Patricia "Paddy" Russel, had previously worked as a production assistant under Rudolph Cartier of Quatermass fame. She directed three other Doctor Who stories: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Pyramids of Mars & Horror of Fang Rock. Doctor who had four other female directors:Julia Smith (later co-creator with Tony Holland of Angels, Eastenders and Eldorado) who directed The Smugglers and The Underwater Menace, Fiona Cumming director of Castrovalva, Snakedance, Enlightenment (which was also written by a woman making it the only Doctor Who story 100% written and directed by women) & Planet of Fire. Mary Ridge, more well known for her Blake's Seven work, directed Terminus while Sarah Hellings was in charge of Mark of the Rani.

103 The Massacre Part 1: War of God

EPISODE: The Massacre Part 1: War of God
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 103
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: 05 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2

The Tardis materialises in Paris, 1572. The Doctor wishes to see an apothecary called named Preslin who was way ahead of his time. They overhear much talk of tension between Catholics and Protestants. The Doctor goes to seek Preslin leaving Steven in a tavern where he promptly gets into trouble and is befriended by Nicholas Muss. The Doctor arrives at Preslin's shop and meets the man himself who is wary of the Doctor. Steven speaks with people in the Inn, telling them he's been in Egypt, taking directions from them. As he leaves he nearly runs into a servant girl, Anne Chaplet, a protestant Huguenot being hunted by Catholic guards. She is hidden in the pub and Steven returns to speak with her. Preslin tells The Doctor that he is frightened of the Abbot of Amboise. Anne has overheard a Catholic plot to slaughter Huguenots: the recent marriage of Protestant Prince Henri of Navarre to Catholic Princess Marguerite de Valois, the sister of the King, has heightened tensions and it has been decided to assassinate Henri of Navarre . They decide to hide Anne in the kitchens of Admiral de Coligny, the innkeeper's master. Simon Duval returns and questions the Inn Keeper. Nicholas, one of the people Steven's been talking to, convinces Steven to stay the night at Admiral de Coligny's house. Simon Duval reports to his master the Abbot of Amboise, a double of the Doctor!

Struggled with this one. It's hard to keep track of who is who and which of the factions they are allied to. Without the visuals the show's climatic reveal is lost, spoiled as it is by the passage of time and the knowledge that it's a double and not the Doctor himself.

We're back in Paris for this story, which seems to be one of the Doctor's favourite places to visit - see The Reign of Terror. It's not the first place the Tardis has visited twice - That's London in An Unearthly Child, in the future in Dalek Invasion of Earth and again to contemporary London, at the cricket match in Dalek Masterplan. In fact he's not landed in Paris twice yet: The Tardis materialises at least 14 kilometres outside Paris in Reign of Terror. They've not even landed in a similar time, like with London or even closer chronologically the two trips to Kembel in Dalek's Masterplan, with the caveat that the second one was guided by stolen technology. We can date the Doctor's visits to Paris very accurately: Robespierre was arrested 27th July 1794, an event seen in Reign of Terror part 6 while the Massacre of this stories title took place on 24th August 1572, 222 years earlier.

And while we're at it: The story title. For years it was The Massacre, and then scholars switched to the longer The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, which is a little long. I'll stick to the Massacre: 1) That's the title I grew up with. 2) That's the title on the book (neither compelling arguments I'll admit) 3) The historical event is known as The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre!

102 The Daleks' Master Plan Part 12: Destruction of Time

EPISODE: The Daleks' Master Plan Part 12: Destruction of Time
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 102
STORY NUMBER: 021
TRANSMITTED: 29 January 1966
WRITER: Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2

Chen escorts Steven & Sara to the Dalek control room. The Daleks proclaim the alliance over, but Chen says he now leads it and attacks the Dalek Supreme. Unharmed, the Supreme has him taken away and exterminated. The Doctor sneaks into the control room freeing Steven & Sara and ordering them back to the Tardis. The Doctor activates the Dalek's Time Destructor and fleeing the Dalek base encounters Sara who has stayed behind. The Time Destructor starts to take effect as the wind howls on Kembel. Steven finds the safety of the Tardis, pursued by the Doctor but Sarah has fallen behind: She is being rapidly aged by the time destructor. The Kembel jungle starts to decay and even the Doctor is now feeling the effects of the Time Destructor. Falling to the ground Sara tries to help him but is turned to dust by the forces unleashed. Steven emerges from the Tardis and drags the Doctor inside leaving the time destructor outside the Tardis where it destroys the Daleks before burning itself out. Emerging from the Tardis the Doctor and Steven find Kembel transformed into a desert planet. Steven mourns the friends they've lost in this battle:

"Bret, Katarina, Sara..."
"What a terrible waste..." comments the Doctor.

Oh that sounds superb and suitably epic. I'd love to see what this one looked like. I can imagine the effects sequences and wonder how much it would live up to what I can see in my mind. Sara's death was meant to be quite horrific: I struggle to see how they could have achieved what I hear described here as she ages and crumbles to dust. The Doctor is out there while this is happening, what effect is the Time Destructor having on him? Does this contribute to what happens to the Doctor as the end of the Tenth Planet? By killing three prominent characters during this story the program feels like it's aiming for a much more adult level than before and it's no surprise that the notably sensitive Australian censors kicked up a stink when the ABC tried (and failed) to show it there. If anyone's got a copy of this out there please let the BBC have it back. Thus far the program has felt like a children's show but in this story the horror and the terror are ramped right up at times. Having sat through it again, I'm starting to feel the Dalek Masterplan *IS* the twelve (effectively thirteen) episode masterpiece some older fans maintain. I don't know whether it's because I'm in the groove and tuned into the Hartnell episodes now after a few months of doing this but I really got into this this time round and loved it. Even episode five, which I've struggled with previously, I enjoyed much more this time out.

Great stuff.

At twelve episodes The Dalek Masterplan is the longest Doctor Who story to date. It's nearest sixties contenders both occur in Season 6: The Eight Part Invasion and Ten Part War Games. There are extenuating circumstances there. 1986's Trial of a Timelord is numbered as 14 parts on the screen but you can argue that it's a series of stories with 4-4-4-2 episodes and a linking theme. Which I would because it's rubbish.

Sadly we have some goodbyes: This is the last episode to carry a David Graham Dalek Voice. He'll be back in the Gunfighters and City of Death in front of the camera acting and is still going strong today voicing Peppa Pig's Grandpa Pig. It's also the last time Terry Nation would write for Doctor Who in the sixties as attempts to launch the Daleks in the USA and writing for various ITC series absorb his time. This is also the last Doctor Who script credited to Dennis Spooner, although he apparently helped rewrite parts of Power of the Daleks. The Dalek Supreme - did he survive the Time Destructor inside the Dalek's base ? - leaves us now with a black Dalek Supreme not being seen again till 1984'a Resurrection of the Daleks. We get an uniquely designed Emperor in Evil of the Daleks, a Gold Dalek in Day of the Daleks & Frontier in Space and a black & gold Dalek Supreme in Planet of the Daleks. Significantly this is the last time William Hartnell's Doctor meets the Daleks, and that does make this story feel like the end of an era and the beginning of the end for Hartnell. The Dalek's are Hartnell's monster returning again and again. The making of the story took it's toll behind the scenes: Both John Wills & Donald Tosh tended their resignations during the production and both were replaced over the next few months with successors who would guide the show into it's next incarnation and set up some of the things we feel are intrinsically Doctor Who to this day. Vicki went just before this story started to be replaced by a couple of temporary companions. We'll see her most permanent replacement very soon but when she and Steven leave in a few stories time they're replaced by Hartnell's final set of companions. In the weeks to come we've got the stories that grew under the Wiles/Tosh regime, Dalek Masterplan having been inherited from Verity Lambert and there's some real oddities in there. But at the end of it the program scores several notably succesful firsts, one of the most important of which (back to the Daleks not appearing with Hartnell again) occurs right at the very end. Although several other monsters have been created during this era with an eye on replicating the Dalek's success, the production team wouldn't strike gold (or perhaps silver might be more appropriate!) again until Hartnell's last story, which I can feel looming towards us now (coming out of the snow) even though there's seven four part stories between now and then.

Some of those involved in this story will be back: Director Douglas Camfield returns for 1968's Web of Fear where Nicholas Courtney, seen as Bret Vyon in episodes 1-4, take on his more familiar role in the series. Both are back later that same year for the Invasion when Kevin Stoney returns as another classic Doctor Who Villain. These stories are key in reshaping Doctor Who for a second time for Jon Pertwee's reign.

The Dalek Masterplan was novelised towards the end of the Target Book range over two volumes - Mission to the Unknown & The Mutation of Time - both written by John Peel. Episodes 5 & 10 were released on Daleks: The Early Years along with interviews, clips and Evil of the Daleks part 2. Following the return of episode 2, all three surviving episodes were released as part of the Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD set. The Soundtrack to all 12 episodes of The Dalek Masterplan (plus Mission to the Unknown) was released on the Doctor Who - The Daleks' Master Plan CD on 22nd October 2001 which contains narration by Peter Purves but also unnarrated MP3 version. This CD has been recently reissued as part of Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2.

101 The Daleks' Master Plan Part 11: The Abandoned Planet

EPISODE: The Daleks' Master Plan Part 11: The Abandoned Planet
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 101
STORY NUMBER: 021
TRANSMITTED: 22 January 1966
WRITER: Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2

The directional unit has burned out, but the rest of the Tardis is fine. However it was enough to get them to Kembel. Steven & Sara become separated from the Doctor in the Jungle. In an argument in the council Gearon is slain by Mavic Chen (So that's Mavic Chen, Celation, Beaus & Malpha left: Gearon, Trantis and Zephon have been slain) but the Dalek Supreme has left sealing the members in the council chamber until Daleks arrive to imprison them. Steven & Sara find the Dalek's city initially deserted, but find and free the council members. The council leave in their ships but Mavic Chen's explodes on take off. Steven & Sara hunt for the Doctor and narrowly avoid a Dalek which they follow to their base inside a mountain where they are captured by a very much alive Chen who has faked his death and taken into the depths of the mountain base.....

Back to Kembel for the dissolving of the council. This episode feels a bit odd: very little Hartnell, I'm not sure why, did he have a week off? He does appear briefly at the beginning, a bit like that episode of Marco Polo he's in for 20 seconds..... and a lot of fuss about the Daleks switching to a new James Bond villain inside a mountain base. It almost feels like it's treading water and filling in time before the final confrontation. There again watching it might provoke a different reaction: listening to Episode 2 and watching it is a completely different experience.

We've made our final journey of this series and are finally back on Kembel. It's worth looking at all the location's we've covered in the last 11 episodes:

1-2 Kembel
3 Desperus
4-5 4000ad Earth
5-6 Mira
6 Kembel
7 60s Earth - Christmas at the Police Station
7 20s Earth - Silent Movie
8 60s Earth - Cricket Match
8 Tigus
8 London New Year 1966
9 & 10 Ancient Egypt
11 & 12 Kembel

That's a lot of travelling and most of that's without the Tardis!

If we had this episode we'd be a lot surer which alien delegate is which. We now know who Zephon is for sure from Episode 2. He dies in episode 3. So the other delegate that appears in 2 but not here must be Trantis. Everyone's reasonably confident that the Michelin man alike is Malpha so it's a matter of sorting out who Celation, Gearon & Beaus are from the remainder.

100 The Daleks' Master Plan Part 10: Escape Switch

EPISODE: The Daleks' Master Plan Part 10: Escape Switch
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 100
STORY NUMBER: 021
TRANSMITTED: 15 January 1966
WRITER: Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Lost In Time

The mummified figure is the Monk who'd been imprisoned by the Doctor. The Monk, Steven & Sara are held prisoner by the Daleks who demand the Taranium core in return for their release. The Doctor conducts the swap at the Great Pyramid passing the core to Mavic Chen at which point the Daleks are set on by the Egyptians who are swiftly exterminated. The Doctor has stolen the Monk's directional unit, sending the fleeing Monk to a planet of ice, and uses it to attempt to follow the Daleks back to Kembel. However as the Tardis is in flight there's a blinding explosion in the control room......

Happy 100th Episode Doctor Who! And we celebrate well with the Doctor, a favourite slightly less than serious adversary in the Monk and the Daleks being the Daleks. They look superb in the pre filmed battle sequences in this episode. There's four Daleks here, as there has been all series, but no Supreme so I assume he's had a respray since Episode 8. I spot Broken Neck Ring in the back of some scenes with Camfield again trying to hide the damaged section from view a lot of the time. Camfield favourite Walter Randall makes his third Doctor Who appearance as an Egyptian and there's a speaking part for Derek Ware, the fight arranger for many Doctor Who stories. He'll later appear as Rozzer, in The Italian Job and found the stunt agency HAVOC used on many 70s Doctor Who stories. He's not the last actor from The Italian Job that Camfield will cast in Doctor Who either!

Oddly most of Doctor Who's anniversary episodes from the sixties exist: The 50th (Dalek Invasion of Earth 5), 100th, 150th (Moonbase 2) and 250th (War Games 7). Sadly the 200th (Fury from the Deep 3) doesn't spoiling the pattern somewhat!

Sadly here we say farewell to the Monk and Peter Butterworth. Top performance on both appearances and superb when acting against Hartnell. It's a shame that he never came back for a third go. You could argue that the Monk is a more mischievous and less evil prototype for another member of the Doctor's race , at this point unnamed, that we'll meet later.

Confession time: I fell asleep watching this episode on the first go for this blog: I was tired, it was cold and I was in bed. It deserved better as it's not that bad. In it's defence I've slept through better and worse episodes of Doctor Who in my time.

Unfortunately that's that for pictures in this story, we're back to CD for the remaining two episodes and all four of the next story.

099 The Daleks' Master Plan Part 9: Golden Death

EPISODE: The Daleks' Master Plan Part 9: Golden Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 099
STORY NUMBER: 021
TRANSMITTED: 08 January 1966
WRITER: Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2

The Tardis arrives in ancient Egypt where the Doctor sets about repairing the lock. Looking out for the Monk, Steven & Sara are arrested as looters. The Monk is found by Mavic Chen & the Daleks and coerced into helping them: the Daleks will kill him if he doesn't retrieve the Taranium. The Doctor follow the Monk back to his Tardis, and enters it, changing it's shape to match his and then confronting then Monk. Sara & Steven escape but hiding in a tomb they find a bandaged hand emerging.....

I'm surprised we've not done ancient Egypt before on Doctor Who as it's such an obvious choice. The Hartnell/Monk and Monk/Chen scenes are superb, but I suspect the rest may have been better with the pictures..... Fortunately we can get an idea what it all looks like by watching the next episode which does exist.

We'll be back to ancient Egypt for the Pyramids of Mars in just under eleven months when we play up to the Mummy stereotype a little more.