531 Shada Part Six

EPISODE: Shada Part Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 531
STORY NUMBER: 109
TRANSMITTED: Unaired (planned for 23rd February 1980)
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: Unbroadcast
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Shada

K-9 fires at the Prisoners, driving them back but he is thrown aside by a Krarg. The Doctor, Romana & Clare grab K-9 and flee to the Professor's Tardis. Romana reminds the Doctor that his mind is inside Skagra's machine too. Skagra returns to the Tardis and tells the former prisoners that they will return to the carrier ship and be distributed through the universe to further his revolution. The Doctor follows his Tardis in the Professors, capturing it in a force field, and has himself placed into the Time vortex. The Doctor begins crossing to his Tardis, but his journey appears in vain when an accident occurs in the Professor's Tardis deactivating the forcefield, throwing the Doctor into the vortex. The Doctor finds himself in a room in his Tardis and starts building a helmet shaped device. The Professor's Tardis arrives on the carrier ship, as the Doctor reveals himself and struggles for control of the joint mind. Romana deactivates the Krarg generating equipment, tipping the gas contained within out and using it to destroy the Krargs. Skagra flees to his ship, but is taken prisoner by his ship's computer who has now decided to serve the Doctor. The Doctor promises to return the prisoners to Shada and summon the Time Lords. The Doctor returns both his and the Professor's Tardis to Earth, confusing the college Porter who returns with a policeman to find the room now back in it's usual place and the Professor taking tea with his guests.

As a dramatic production very little exists of episode 6 just the scenes in the Professor's room/Tardis and Skagra's ship's brig. The climatic battle in Shada itself is completely absent and without it you're relying on the narration which works better here than at any other point in the story.

The remaining material throws up a nice little deviation from the script by Tom: a "space time mystic in the Qualactin Zone" becomes a "space time mystic in the Quantocks", producing a nod towards Planet of Spiders' Buddhist community headed by an elderly Time Lord.

So what do we make of Shada? From what I can gather from the script & remaining video it's not quite up to Adams' previous works for the series, Pirate Planet & City of Death, both of which are personal favourites. Doing Shada for the blog has given me a better feel for the story but even then it does rather vanish at crucial points. The script book, which I'd never read before, does help to fill in the gaps and you can hear Tom speaking some of the dialogue which would have added a sparkle to something that, in all honesty, seems a little flat especially compared to the two Douglas Adams stories that went before it. However it would have probably made a fitting climax to the season that otherwise runs some six episodes short of the usual length.

We return to Douglas Adams' fifth novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Set in St Cedd's College Cambridge it features a Professor Chronotis who has been living in the same rooms in Cambridge for 300+ years which also double as his time machine. He's got problems with his memory and likes to tease visitors with how many lumps of milk he'd like in their tea. I think we can see where Douglas sourced that from! And, as we pointed out during City of Death, the backbone of the plot involves an alien race who's spaceship tries to take off on prehistoric Earth kickstarting the process of life leaving one of their number to try to reverse the situation. Essentially Dirk Gently's is a "Cut & Shut" job on two of Douglas Adams Doctor Who stories, albeit one with a considerable amount of work done on the detail. I re-read it in the run up to doing these particular stories and was astounded at the similarities but I also found it one of the best of his novels, right up there (for me) with So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish.

This is the last episode of Doctor Who written or Script Edited by Douglas Adams. As Season 17 had progressed so the success of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy had grown. A second radio series was in the works, a record was on the horizon as was a TV series. Plus the novel of HitchHikers had sold by the bucketload..... Douglas Adams went on to write 4 more Hitch-hiker's books, 2 Dirk Gently novels and several other works. He emigrated to America, where he died of a heart attack on May 11th 2001.

This is also the last episode of Doctor Who produced by Graham Williams. He left the BBC in the 1980s going on to produce television shows for ITV including Supergran. In 1985 he had submitted a story to the then production team entitled The Nightmare Fare, and featuring the Celestial Toymaker, which was in pre-production at the point the series was "put on hiatus" for 18 months by the BBC. In the late 1980s he left the television industry to run a hotel in Tiverton, Devon, which was where he was killed in a shooting accident on 17th August 1990.

As we have previously said Shada was finally novelised in 2011 by Gareth Roberts. The recorded sections were released on video in 1993. A DVD release is currently being prepared pairing this with the 1993 documentary 30 Years In The Tardis.

530 Shada Part Five

EPISODE: Shada Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 530
STORY NUMBER: 109
TRANSMITTED: Unaired (planned for 16th February 1980)
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: Unbroadcast
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Shada

The Krarg strikes the machinery in the think tank, creating a vast amount of smoke which enables the Doctor, K-9 & Chris to escape back to Skagra's ship, leaving just as the Think Tank station explodes. The Ship is persuaded to take the Doctor to Skagra's home. While trying to repair the Professor's ship Clare asks about who Salyavin is. The Professor places the knowledge that Clare needs to repair the Tardis in her head telepathically. Skagra's ship takes the Doctor's ship to the Krarg carrier ship. They are captured and Skagra reveals his plan to take over the universe telepathically, merging them into one mind: his. The Doctor stages an escape with Chris & K-9 but Romana is dragged back to the Tardis by Skagra. Fleeing down the corridors of the ship the Doctor & co find an out of place old wooden door and go through it, discovering themselves to be in Professor Chronotis' rooms/Tardis. The Professor knows that with the book & Tardis that Skagra can travel to Shada, which is exactly what he does. Skagra searches Shada's records for the location of Salyavin, the Time Lord criminal with huge mental powers. The Professor's Tardis arrives and he, K-9 & The Doctor follow Shada with the Professor guiding them. Skagra starts reviving the prisoners as the Doctor arrives but when they open Salyavin's cell they find it empty. The Professor admits he is Salyavin: he escaped centuries ago and used his powers to make the Time Lords forget about Shada. The Sphere attacks the Professor but is destroyed by K-9. However it reforms into several smaller spheres, one of which attaches itself to the Professor and he sinks to the floor. The spheres attach themselves to the revived prisoners, bringing them under Skagra's control. Chris & Clare arrive, but Chris too is brought under the control of a sphere. He and the prisoners advance on the Doctor.

Once again Tom Baker's narration doesn't do what's happening justice. Not Tom's fault at all, more the John Nathan-Turner penned script which draws attention to the wrong elements. Read the script book alongside it and certain bits, notably finding the door to the Professor's rooms on the Krarg carrier ship and the revelation that Chronotis is Salyavin come to life.

The idea that Time Lords have mental powers has been hinted at before: Susan was telepathic and both the Doctor & The Master have been shown to easily hypnotise people. In Salyavin we have someone who has taken those abilities to a whole new level.

Many years ago when I was given for my Birthday a copy of the Doctor Who Programme Guide my interest in this story was peaked by the description that the prisoners would include "A Dalek, a Cyberleader and a Zygon". Obviously since the scenes on Shada weren't filmed we see none of this, and reading the script book there's no reference there to who or what the prisoners are. So, fearing this detail had been made up, I asked on Roobarb's Doctor Who forum and m'learned colleague Mr David Brunt recalled thus:

If memory serves, it's something listed in the costume designer's notes for the story.

Might even be in the recording scripts which post-date the ones used for the script book.

There's certainly paperwork listing extras Steve Ismay, Ridgewell Hawks and Les Shannon as "Space Monsters". Ismay was certainly tall enough to get into a Cyberman suit.

The most natural home for Shada to be finished would, for many years, have been the Doctor Who Target Book range. There was one problem though: It was a Douglas Adams story and Douglas said only he was going to adapt his stories. Unfortunately by this point Douglas had become a best selling author and the advance he commanded was waaaaaay in excess of what Target could afford. So the Target book of Shada, along with those for Douglas' two previous tales The Pirate Planet & City of Death, went unmade. There's two other Doctor Who stories that weren't adapted as Target Books: Resurrection of th Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks but the reasons they weren't adapted are slightly different.

However in 1989 an unauthorised adaptation of the story was carried out by The New Zealand Doctor Who fan club. A version can be downloaded from here.

In 2011 BBC Books unexpectedly announced that they were publishing a novelization of the story which would be written by New series writer Gareth Roberts. Roberts made his name writing a series of Fourth Doctor Missing Adventures books for Virgin. Doctor Who: Shada was released on 17th March 2012. Roberts takes certain liberties with the plot, most notably the cliffhanger to this episode, but it's a decent attempt at adapting the story and worth a read.

Happy Birthday

Yeah it's my Birthday, 39 today.

This time last year we put up the entry for 163 Evil of the Daleks 1 although I actually watched 192 Web of Fear 1, meaning I had a 29 episode lead at the time.

Today we put up 529 Shada 4 which is exactly where I suspected it to be. Wanna know what I actually watched? 659 The Trial a Timelord Part Fourteen (The Ultimate Foe Part Two)! That's a lead of 131 days and just 43 episodes shy of the end. Your daily dose of this nonsense is safe for a while yet and, bar major internet failures, I think we'll make our target of not missing a day!

529 Shada Part Four

EPISODE: Shada Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 529
STORY NUMBER: 109
TRANSMITTED: Unaired (planned for 09th February 1980)
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: Unbroadcast
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Shada

Chris & K-9 are transported out their cell and detecting them the ship re-activates it's oxygen supply. The Tardis arrives at the Krarg carrier ship and Romana sees the Krargs being grown. Another Krarg starts to form on Skagra's ship. The Doctor boosts the ships power to enabling it to cross the distances of space quickly. In Professor Chronotis' rooms Clare awakes and is startled by the appearance of the Professor, dressed in a night shirt. Skagra finds himself unable to translate the book using the Doctor's mind in the sphere. The Professor explains to Clare that his rooms are his Tardis and it interfered to save his life. The Professor decides they must find Skagra to save the book, which is the key to Shada, the Time Lord prison which has been forgotten about. The Doctor & Chris are attacked by a Krarg, but it is held off by K-9 allowing them to explore the Think Tank complex at which they have arrived. They find the ages bodies of Skagra's former colleagues. Skagra notices that turning the pages of the book influence the Tardis and realises turning the last page of the book will take him to Shada. He prepares to journey to Shada to find the Time Lord criminal Salyavin, who is crucial to his plans. The Doctor uses Chris' brain power to revive one of the scientists, the neurologist Caldera. He explains how Skagra set up Think Tank to pool the resources of the mind electronically but when they had completed the sphere he used it to steal their minds. Skagra now intends to use his mind to dominate the whole of humanity but need Salyavin to complete his plan. K-9 looses his fight against the Krarg and is driven into the Think Tank by the massive creature which now advances on the Doctor.....

OK, is anyone able to explain to me just how & why Chris and K-9 are transported out of their cell? It appears to just happen for no reason at all. Chronotis' survival is rather brushed over, but seemingly accredited to his Tardis. I can get that Skagra notices that the book affects the Tardis, but turning the last page will cause the Tardis to travel to Shada? That's a bit of a leap. I think this episode could have done with another pass over it by the script editor.... except the script editor is in this case the author!

Playing the Think Tank scientist Caldera is Derek Pollitt who was Driver Evans in The Web of Fear and Private Wright in Doctor Who and the Silurians.

The first attempt at using the Shada footage was made by new Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner, but having secured funding for two extra episodes for the forthcoming season, to avoid having to make a new six parter, the BBC were reluctant to give him more money to finish Shada as well. With the departure of Lalla Ward and then Tom Baker from the show any possibility of finishing the story vanished.

In 1983 the footage that had been filmed was combined into a version of episodes 1 & 2 constructed by fans Ian Levine, Richard Landen, James Russell and Kevin Davies for the DWAS Panopticon 3 convention September 3rd and 4th. That same year the Shada footage provided the scenes of the Doctor & Romana punting from episode 1 and The Doctor being rescued from beneath a fence gate from episode 3 to give Tom Baker some presence in the 20th Anniversary story The Five Doctors.

Ideas for releasing Shada on video started circulating as early as 1984 but nothing came of it till the Doctor Who - Shada was released on VHS on July 6th 1992. Douglas Adams was reluctant for the material to be released and was only convinced by an offer to donate his royalties to Comic Relief. Tom Baker provides the narration to accompany the story whose single video is accompanied by a book reproducing the complete script for all six episode.

This is the BBC's first attempt at filling the gaps in a missing story: narration is also used later on the videos of The Invasion & The Crusade to cover for missing episodes. The Crusade, and later the Ice Warriors, also include CDs of the missing episodes (an option obviously not available here since the episodes were never finished). The Ice Warriors also includes an abridged Telesnap reconstruction of it's missing material: a full telesnap reconstruction married to the Soundtrack would be used in place of the missing Tenth Planet episode 4. When the Invasion was released on DVD, it's two missing episodes (for which no Telesnaps exist) were animated, a technique shortly due to be used on Reign of Terror. At some point Ian Levine started working on an animated version of Shada with the hope of getting the BBC to release it. If you want more detail Google Ian Levine Shada .....

The current BBC plan is for the material recorded for Shada to be released on DVD along with the documentary Thirty Years in the Tardis, or more likely it's expanded version More Than Thirty Years in the Tardis. A date for this DVD is yet to be announced and the final contents are yet to be known.

In 2003 a complete, alternate, audio version of the story was released by Big Finish on CD starring Paul McGann as The Doctor and featuring Lalla Ward as Romana.

528 Shada Part Three

EPISODE: Shada Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 528
STORY NUMBER: 109
TRANSMITTED: Unaired (planned for 02nd February 1980)
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: Unbroadcast
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Shada

Romana arrives in the Tardis, rescuing the Doctor. They return to Chronotis' rooms where Chris reports the professor's body just disappeared. The Doctor decides he needs to speak with Skagra. K-9 tracks the sphere to Skagra's ship. Clare, worried about the danger the book may represent, comes to Chronotis' rooms to find them empty. The Tardis materialises in an apparently empty field where Skagra's invisible ship is. They are allowed to enter the ship where Skagra takes them prisoner. Skagra tells them he was only interested in Chronotis' mind. He tries to force the Doctor to decode the book and sets the sphere on him to take his mind. K-9 is unable to blast his way out of the cell he, Romana and Chris find themselves in. K-9 picks up the sphere's signals and is able to detect the Doctor amongst it's voices. Romana is transported from the cell and taken to the Tardis by Skagra who forces her to take it. While searching the Professor's rooms for the missing book Clare finds a number of concealed control panels and she accidentally triggers an explosion. The Doctor awakens on the ship and explains to it's computer how he survived, with the sphere merely taking a copy of his mind. The College Porter comes to the Professor's rooms, but when opening the door doesn't find the room there but instead the swirling time vortex. The Doctor attempts to persuade the ship to release him and his companions but instead it decides the sphere must haves succeeded in it's task and killed the Doctor so to conserve resources it turns off the Oxygen supply......

For the first time this episode *really* flags missing some crucial material. Before there were just holes, now there's whole chunks of plot missing. I'd always been a bit confused by the narration at the end of the episode so I turned to the script book and it makes it a lot clearer, showing the Doctor trying to trap the computer into doing something silly. It's a typical piece of Tom fast talking and the narration in no way does it justice.

And still no sign of the Krargs!

It's in this episode that we first see Victoria Burgoyne as Clare Keightley which is a little jarring as she just appears from nowhere during the video version. If filming had bee completed she would have had scenes in the lab with both Chris Parsons & The Doctor during the second episode.

Having conducted location filming from 15th - 19th October 1979, the cast reconvened in Television Centre 3 from 3rd-5th November 1979 for the first studio book which included all the Think Tank material, the scenes in Skagra's ships brig/cell and the substantial number of scenes in Professor Chronotis rooms for all six episodes. On November 15th & 16th model work was done at Ealing before the second studio block on November 19th & 20th in TC6 and the third on December 1st - 3rd in TC1. This would included the lab scenes & those on the bridge of Skagra's ship, the most crucial pieces that are now missing from the two earliest episodes, plus material filmed inside the Tardis and at Shada in the latter episodes of the show. After conducting rehearsals on the morning of November 19th cast and crew returned to the studio and discovered they had been locked out as part of an industrial dispute between the unions and the BBC.

The dispute lasted until 30th November 1979 but by that time there was a rush for studio space to complete the BBC's Christmas programming for that year. Studio space could not be found until January, just before Shada was due to be aired (the first episode should have gone out 19th January 1980), which would not leave enough time for the post production work to have been completed. Reluctantly the production was cancelled.

527 Shada Part Two

EPISODE: Shada Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 527
STORY NUMBER: 109
TRANSMITTED: Unaired (planned for 26th January 1980)
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: Unbroadcast
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Shada

While the Doctor & Romana search the Professor's rooms for the book, they discuss Time Lord law which brings to their mind the Time Lord criminal Salyavin, a boyhood hero of the Doctor. The Professor, when questioned on his contemporary Salyavin, recalls Chris Parsons' visit and wonders if he has borrowed it by accident. Chris and his friend Clare Keightley continue to analyse the book as the Doctor cycles across Cambridge to the lab. Skagra, now disguised in contemporary clothes, comes to the Professor's college seeking him. While Romana searches in the Tardis for milk so they can have some tea, Skagra arrives seeking the book and sets the sphere on the Professor stealing part of his mind. The Doctor meets Clare at the lab, and examines the book. Romana & K-9 find the collapsed Professor as Chris Parsons arrives. Using the Tardis medical kit Romana attempts to stabilise the Professor's condition. The Doctor & Clare discover that the book carbon dates to -20,000 years old. Skagra scans his copy of Professor Chronotis' mind for a trace of the book but finds nothing. The professor beats out a message to Romana on his hearts in Gallifreyan morse code telling her to beware of the sphere, Skagra and Shada but dies before he can reveal where the secret is. Skagra encounters the Doctor trying to return the book to the Professor and has a sphere pursue him, on a bike, through Cambridge. During the chase the book is dislodged from his basket and retrieved by Skagra. Forced to resort to running away on foot the Doctor is cornered by the sphere and attempts to escape under a gate, but the sphere approaches and begins to steal his mind......

I see the Gallifreyan Morse code bit in this episode and I weep. Absolute nonsense. You're trying to stay alive and you do something that causes your body to fail? Deary me. Again the pacing and the music bother me, and again the only bits really missing are those of Chris, and now Clare, in the lab. Oh that they'd recorded them in the first recording block instead of the cell stuff seen in the next few episodes. The Doctor's line to Skagra, "I'm not mad about your tailor", seems very out of place now that Skagra's actually taken the trouble to blend in and he's wearing something reasonable... well for 1980 at least! I also wonder at the wisdom of introducing the Krargs at the end of the previous episode and then doing absolutely nothing involving them in this one, save for their appearance in the reprise! There's a few too many odd S names in this story: Shada, Skagra & Salyavin which makes it confusing!

A University is an obvious setting for a Doctor Who story at around this time: The Tom Baker years were finding viewers in University Common rooms all over the country. The Doctor Who Appreciation Society had grown out of Westfield College's Doctor Who society in 1976. Going to University was a much less common experience for those working on the original series of Doctor Who than it is nowadays. Of the entire production staff for the original series only 3 have a declared University eduction and all four went to Cambridge: Terrance Dicks was at Downing College, Philip Hinchcliffe was at Pembroke College, script editor Antony Root was at King's College and the writer & script editor of this story, Douglas Adams, was at St John's College. When Douglas initially had the idea for this story, allegedly replacing one centred around Cricket, he wanted to set in at St John's but eventually the fictitious St Cedd's was dreamed up. From 15th - 19th October 1979 the Doctor Who team descended on Cambridge to conduct their location filming, using a large number of locations in the town. The College scenes were filmed at Emmanuel College. The bicycle chase sequence was originally scheduled to be filmed at night but, thanks to some ongoing problems between the BBC and the unions, the Lighting Director was summoned back to London necessitating the sequence to be recorded during the day. while out for a drink, Tom Baker was approached by a member of the St John's college choristers who offered their services and it's that group that can be seen singing Chattanooga Choo Choo as the Doctor cycles down Trinity Lane.

526 Shada Part One

EPISODE: Shada Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 526
STORY NUMBER: 109
TRANSMITTED: Unaired (planned for 19th January 1980)
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: Unbroadcast
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - Shada

A museum, filled with the Doctor's old foes. An aged Fourth Doctor/Tom Baker wanders around recalling those he beat until he comes across the Krarg, his foe from Shada, the unfinished Doctor Who story.

And thus, to some excruciating late 1980s Doctor Who music, opens the video for Shada. Doctor Who fans are used to dealing with bits of stories, with much of the early years of Doctor Who missing and just solitary episodes of stories remaining. But even the Shada is an odd beast: the six part story that was meant to close Season 17, is unique in that filming was started but aborted after the location work and studio session. What is left is most of the first two episodes and little pieces of the remainder.

So here's what I intend to do: with the video and scriptbook I'll attempt to treat it as a proper story. With the first two episodes, where we'll look at the cast that we get to see onscreen and where the location filming was done. Then at episode 3 we'll look at what went wrong with the production that caused it to be cancelled and in the following episodes look at how Shada has attempted to surface since then....

The introduction itself has an error in it: This wasn't Victoria Burgoyne's first television role. There's also a fabulous joke about Daniel Hill now running a retirement home: the actor was then appearing in Waiting for God, with Horns of the Nimon's Graham Crowden, playing care home manager Harvey Bains.

And if you think these plot summaries look similar to those found for Shada on The Tardis Index File then they are: I pasted them to the Wiki when I discovered there were no plot summary for the individual episodes.

On the Think Tank Space station Doctor Skagra uses a sphere like device to drain the minds of his colleagues and leaves in his spaceship for Earth, leaving an automated quarantine message running. In Cambridge 1979, Professor Chronotis has a visit from one of his students, Chris Parsons, who accidentally leaves with the wrong book. The Doctor & Romana, after enjoying a spot of punting during which they're observed by Skagra & distracted by voices from the sphere he's carrying, visit the professor. Chris discovers that the book is written in a completely alien script. Chronotis reveals to Romana that he is an elderly Time Lord who has retired to Earth and has been living in the same Cambridge rooms for 300 years. The Doctor asks him why he was summoned by him to Cambridge but the Professor can't initially remember, later recalling he needs the Doctor's help finding the book. Chris analyses the book using various instruments which make it smoke and glow. Skagra steals a car and the driver's ability to drive. The Professor reveals the missing book is one he brought back from Gallifrey. Skagra drives out to a field where his spaceship is concealed, invisible from the human eye. The Professor confesses the book he took was The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey, which dates back to the time of Rassilon, and is known to have incredible power. Skagra receives word that all is ready from his carrier ship, commanded by a massive Krarg.

Hmmm. Of all the episodes of Shada this is the most complete missing just the two short scenes of Chris analysing the book in the lab, and the closing sequence of Skagra on the bridge of his ship. Some of the pacing feels a bit odd and I don't think that's helped by Keff McCulloch's music and some poor editing of the material: the opening scene just drags and could use a trim (What did the scientists think Skagra was doing when he drained their minds? They've obviously entered whatever experiment he's carried out cooperatively), the stealing a car sequence is just odd with a lingering shot of the retreating car. The Tardis parked in the corner of Chronotis' rooms is handled very oddly indeed, a brief glance from the Professor then it just sits there till Chris sees it and the Professor dismisses it as "someone must have just left it there". Of course he knows the Doctor, and would know what his Tardis looked like, so maybe he's just being dismissive and nonchalant about the oddness. As for oddness..... what on Earth is Skagra wearing and why is nobody in Cambridge giving him funny looks? Deary me!

The "milk, one lump or two" joke used here may be familiar to you. For why see later on in the story.... Equally you may well have seen the punting scene in this episode: it was reused as part of the Five Doctors to cover the absence of Tom Baker. Douglas Adams reuses his earliest published work during this episode too with the joke about the man who has forgotten what word his mind is like (sieve).

The majority of the cast in this story appear in this episode: Playing the lead role of Professor Chronotis is Denis Carey who'll return as the Keeper in The Keeper of Traken and the Old Man in Timelash where he was directed by Pennant Roberts who helms this story. Interestingly Roberts is the only director who works on Doctor Who prior to Season 18 to work on the show again thereafter! The Villainous Skagra is played by Christopher Neame who a few years later would emigrate to America and make a career out of playing villains, usually English, on the American small & large screen. Star Treks, Babylon 5, The Flash and McGyver feature on his CV. One of the scenes not filmed for this episode would have featured one of the Krargs: these would be voiced byJames Coombes, who later plays Paroli in Pennant Roberts's Warriors of the Deep. As to which Krarg it would have been we don't know but two of the names attached to the role are known to us: all my sources name Lionel Sansby, a Passenger in Nightmare of Eden, as one of them but some pages on the Interweb also finger our old friend Harry Fielder as being involved. Playing College porter Wilkin is Gerald Campion who had obtained fame a generation earlier in the Television version of Billy Bunter. Playing Chris Parsons is Daniel Hill. He's appear in Blake's 7's: Sand as Chago before gaining recognition in the sitcoms No Place Like Home and Waiting for God, as mentioned earlier this instalment and during Horns of the Nimon.

Daniel Hill isn't the only cast member from No Place Like Home, where he played the son-in-law Raymond Codd, to have a Doctor Who connection. The father of the family, Arthur Crabtree, is played by William Gaunt who'll pop up in Revelation of the Daleks as Orcini. One son, Nigel Crabtree, is played by a young Martin Clunes very soon after appearing in Snakedance as Lon. The other son, Paul Crabtree, was played by Stephen Watson who we'll shortly see in Full Circle as a Marshman. He made national news when he died, aged 26, while on his honeymoon in Spain, just before the fourth series of No Place Like Home was screened but after most of the episodes had been recorded. Lastly Tracy Crabtree was played by Dee Sadler, who will be in the Greatest Show in The Galaxy as Flowerchild.