Friday 30 September 2011

312 The Sea Devils: Episode One

EPISODE: The Sea Devils: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 312
STORY NUMBER: 062
TRANSMITTED: 26 February 1972
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians / The Sea Devils / Warriors of the Deep)
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

The story opens with a ship radioing that they are attacked and then being cut off..... The Doctor & Jo go to see Master in prison, he's being held in a former castle on an island. Colonol Trenchard, the prison's governor, tells them of ships sinking and demonstrates the anti hypnotic blocks placed on the guards to prevent the Master from controlling them. The Master claims that prison has reformed him but still won't tell the Doctor where his Tardis is. The Doctor admits to Jo that he & the Master were once friends and even went to school together. The Master thinks that The Doctor was more interested in the vanishing ships than him and is angry when Trenchard says he mentioned it. The Doctor visits the local naval base and examines one of the damaged boats before he's apprehended by the Navy and taken to see Captain Hart. Jo is looking for the Doctor while the Master watches the Clangers on television, joking with Trenchard that he thinks they are interesting extraterrestrial life forms. Trenchard has brought the Master some naval charts that he uses to plot the boat attacks finding that there's an old see fort that Captain Hart is using for sonar testing in the middle of the attack sites. The two man maintenance crew aboard are feeling uneasy. The Doctor tells Captain Hart that he thinks the boat was deliberately attacked when Jo Grant arrives with the passes to vouch for his identity. The Sea Fort is attacked and one of the crew is killed with the other encountering a creature. The Doctor takes his borrowed boat to visit the Sea Fort. While inside their boat is destroyed. As they seek a radio to use they are stalked by the creature we saw earlier and realise something is coming towards them.....

Welcome to Doctor Who's big sequel story. Indirectly this is a follow up to three previous stories, although one of them isn't obvious yet and another is more a case of a behind the scenes connection. Obviously this is the continuation of the Master's story and since the Dæmons he's been tried and imprisoned. From the dialogue it would seem this is the first time the Doctor's been to see him and although he claims to be reformed even in this episode you see he's up to no good and has the gullible prison governor under his thumb. At this stage we know nothing about the monster, but that has a connection to a previous story as we'll see later.

The story is also effectively a Mind of Evil sequel: there the crew were assisted by the Army. Here they sought out the help of the Navy, in which both producer Barry Letts and star Jon Pertwee (and indeed his predecessor Patrick Troughton) had served. The Navy were only too pleased to be involved and after the show was broadcast waved the fee for the rights to some of their training footage that the BBC incorporated into the finished serial because they felt their exposure in the show was so positive.

Three cast members only appear in this episode: Royston Tickner plays Robbins, the boatman who takes the Doctor & Jo to the island, was Steinberger P. Green in The Daleks' Master Plan while Neil Seiler is the Navy Radio Operator who'll reappear as Commander Stewart in Death to the Daleks. Brian Justice is Castle Guard Wilson who the Master tries to hypnotise, was an uncredited Guerilla in Day of the Daleks and returns as Yates' Guard in The Green Death. Both The Green Death & Death to the Daleks were directed by Michael Briant who is in charge here and as we'll see he's quite fond of "doing a Camfield" by reusing actors in other stories!

The episode of The Clangers the Master is watching is The Rock Collector. Years later, in the new Doctor Who series, John Simms' Master would pay homage to this scene by watching an episode of In The Night Garden. The Clangers is probably the earliest thing I can remember watching on TV and can be found on 2 separate DVDs for Series 1 & Series 2.

Thursday 29 September 2011

311 The Curse of Peladon: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Curse of Peladon: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 311
STORY NUMBER: 061
TRANSMITTED: 19 February 1972
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Peladon Tales: Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

Ssorg shoots Arcturus killing him and saving the Doctor's life. Hepesh leads a revolution against King Peladon to keep his planet out of the federation but is slain by the Royal Beast when the Doctor brings Aggedor to the throne room. Jo refuses an offer of marriage from the King. The Doctor & Jo prepare to stay for the King's coronation but are forced to retreat when the real Earth delegate arrives. The Doctor realises he has been used again as an agent of the Time Lords.

Compared to the rest of the serial this episode falls a little flat. The traitor amongst the Federation delegates has been revealed meaning we're now trusting the Ice Warriors. It's been obvious from the word go that Hepesh isn't keen on the Federation so his actions here don't remotely come as a surprise. But it's not this episode the story will be remembered for: it's the large number of non human species and the way our & the Doctor's experience of the Ice Warriors works against us. Of the four Ice Warrior stories this is probably my favourite and I'm pretty certain it the "using a monster in a completely different way to what the viewer and Doctor are expecting" aspect of the story that makes it. Both the Peladon stories are reflective of real life during the 70s: Curse of Peladon is meant to represent British entry into the European Common Market while Monster of Peladon is supposedly inspired by an early 1970s miners strike.

Curse of Peladon was, as we've seen, repeated in July 1982 as the first story in the Doctor Who and The Monsters season. It was novelised by Brian Hayles in 1975, released on video in 1993 and on DVD in 2010, as part of Doctor Who - Peladon Tales, along with it's sequel the Monster of Peladon.

Wednesday 28 September 2011

310 The Curse of Peladon: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Curse of Peladon: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 310
STORY NUMBER: 061
TRANSMITTED: 12 February 1972
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Peladon Tales: Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

The Doctor is sentenced to trial by combat fighting Grun. Hepesh helps him escape into the tunnels on the condition that he leaves the planet. Izlyr tells Jo that he is honour bound to help the Doctor because the Doctor saved his life, but their conversation is bugged by Arcturus. The Doctor encounter Aggedor in the tunnels and hypnotically subdues him until Jo interrupts driving Aggedor away. The Doctor is taken to the combat arena and beats Grun, but refuses to kill him. As the delegates watch the contest Arcturus reveals a gun concealed in his life support system and a shot rings out....

This episode provoked some great debate in the Ayres household. Firstly there's the matter of the Doctor's Venusian lullaby. The lyrics were first heard in The Dæmons as the Doctor attempts to sooth Bok, but here they're set to music. It's quite well known that the tune Pertwee uses is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" but my good lady wife was certain that it wasn't. Then at the end of the episode I turned to Liz and said "I've never noticed before how obvious it is that it isn't Arcturus shooting" because watching it on DVD I thought it was painstakingly obvious that it was Ssorg standing behind the blast. Liz however was sure from what she could see that it was Arcturus who fired.

Curse of Peladon was the third Pertwee story I saw and the first story featuring the Ice Warriors. I'd seen The Carnival of Monsters and the Three Doctors in late 1981 as part of The Five Faces of Doctor Who repeat season. In 1982 the BBC found themselves with a sudden 50 minute hole in their Monday night BBC1 schedules. My memory of the situation was a James Garner series, either The Rockford Files or Brett Maverick, had finished early. A repeat of three older Doctor Who stories was scheduled with each story spotlighting one of the three main monsters in Doctor Who & shown as 2 fifty minute episodes. The stories shown were The Curse of Peladon on 12 & 19th July featuring The Ice Warriors, Genesis of the Daleks on 26th July & 2nd August featuring the Daleks & Earthshock on 9 to 16 August 1982 featuring the Cybermen. 525 line colour copies of Curse of Peladon, which only existed in black & white films in the BBC archives, were returned from BBC Toronto in 1981. The first two episodes played with no problems but episode 3 turned out to be a nightmare with the tape sticking & breaking necessitating it's playback & copying in sections with the sections being assembled into a complete episode. The BBC retained the copy, which was a PAL recording converted to NTSC and then converted using 1981 techniques back to what was a poorer quality PAL copy. The BBC deemed the original tape unbroadcastable and decided to junk it but Ian Levene, who'd gone to a lot of trouble to retrieve the episodes in the first place, retained the tape. In the early 2000s the Reverse Standards Conversion was developed to produce high quality conversions back to PAL by unpicking the original conversion. The original 525 line was "baked", to reduce it's moisture content, and then played back in sections, assembled and converted resulting in the good quality copy we have today. For more details see The Restoration Team Website article for more details.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

309 The Curse of Peladon: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Curse of Peladon: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 309
STORY NUMBER: 061
TRANSMITTED: 05 February 1972
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Peladon Tales: Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

The Doctor spots the falling statue and saves the delegates with Hepesh blaming the incident on the spirit of Aggedor, the royal beast. Jo sneaks away during a throne room conference and discovers evidence that the Ice Warriors may have been responsible for the incident. Arcturus is attacked in his quarters and is found by the Doctor with a vital component of his life support system missing. After the Doctor saves his life the component is recovered by Jo from the Ice Warriors' quarters. Grun, the King's champion, leads the Doctor into the tunnels where he wanders into the shrine to Aggedor and is sentenced to death for trespassing on holy ground.

This episode really points the finger of suspicion at The Ice Warriors as being behind events playing very much on our, and the Doctor's, previous experience of them. Despite this they plead their innocence. But do we believe them?

Curse of Peladon has two notable technical achievements. It's the first studio bound Pertwee story with no location filming: In fact the only previous studio bound Pertwee episode is the Silurians episode 4. There's only one other studio bound Pertwee, this story's sequel Monster of Peladon. Beyond the two Peladon episode and the aforementioned Silurians 3 the following Pertwee episodes are the only other ones confined to the studio:

Mutants 6
Time Monster 5
Frontier in Space 1, 2 & 4
Planet of the Daleks 1-4 & 6
Death to the Daleks 4
Planet of the Daleks 3-6

Conversely the first Pertwee story features 100% location filming due to a strike at the BBC.

Curse of Peladon is also notable for being the first Doctor Who story shown out of it's filming order. After the first story of the season, Day of the Daleks, was completed the Sea Devils was made followed by this story, then the Mutants, the Time Monster & Carnival of Monsters which would be held over as the second story of the show's tenth anniversary season.

Monday 26 September 2011

308 The Curse of Peladon: Episode One

EPISODE: The Curse of Peladon: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 308
STORY NUMBER: 061
TRANSMITTED: 29 January 1972
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Peladon Tales: Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

On the planet Peladon Chancellor Torbis is murdered as the delegates from the Federation arrive to access the planet for membership. The Doctor & Jo are taking the Tardis for a test flight: it materialises half way up a mountain and falls off the ledge just as Jo & the Doctor leave. They find their way into a tunnel which leads into a secret passage into the Peladon Citadel where the Doctor is mistaken for the chairman delegate from Earth by the other members of the commission: Alpha Centauri, Arcturus and Izlyr, the Ice Warrior delegate from Mars and his bodyguard Ssorg. The Doctor & Jo, who is pretending to be a princess, are presented to King Peladon and his high priest Hepesh. Leaving the throne room the delegates have a statue pushed off a ledge towards them.

Yeah, not bad at all. A nice variety of aliens all with well defined personalities and a planet struggling between sticking to it's traditions and improving itself on the galactic stage..... but there's no escaping it we have to talk about Alpha Centauri's costume. The story has it that when the production team saw the costume they weren't 100% happy with it due to, and there's no other way of saying this, it looking like a green penis with six arms. So they added a cloak..... and now when you see the costume from behind it looks even worse. It's not helped by the obvious veins in the head or by the bobbing up & down motion as it moves either!

Inside the Alpha Centauri costume is regular stunt man Stuart Fell. This is his first credited appearance and he'll return as the same character in The Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders as the tramp that Pertwee runs over with a hovercraft, The Ark in Space as a Wirrn, The Android Invasion as a Kraal, The Brain of Morbius as the Morbius Monster, The Masque of Mandragora as an entertainer, The Invasion of Time as a Sontaran & State of Decay as Roga. He's been in Blake's 7 and worked as a film stuntman on productions including Superman, Aliens and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Meanwhile the voice of Alpha Centauri is provided by Ysanne Churchman who also returns in the same role in The Monster of Peladon then voices some of the eponymous monsters in the Planet of the Spiders. She's most famous for voicing Grace Archer, the character killed off in the Radio Soap Opera the night ITV was launched. Also returning in Monster of Peladon is Nick Hobbs, playing the royal beast Aggedor in both stories, who also has a Wirrn in The Ark in Space to his name before returning in New Doctor Who as Mr Nainby in Amy's Choice. Alan Bennion as Izlyr and Sonny Caldinez as Ssorg have both been in previous Ice Warrior stories and return for Monster of Peladon, but here Ssorg's voice is provided, uncredited, by series producer and equity card holder Barry Letts. The only members of the cast playing non humans not to return for Monster of Peladon are Murphy Grumbar, an experienced Dalek Operator, who was inside Arcturus and Terry Bale, providing Arcturus' voice who'd previously been a Soldier in the Reign of Terror.

Playing King Peladon is David Troughton, the son of Patrick, who we've seen previously as a Guard in Enemy of the World & Private Moor in the War Games. He'll return years later as Professor Winfold Hobbes in Midnight. Among his many acting achievements is Bob Buzzard in A Very Peculiar Practice alongside fifth Doctor Peter Davison & Horns of the Nimon guest actor Graham Crowdon. Geoffrey Toone, here playing Hepesh, was Temmosus in the film version of Dr. Who and the Daleks while Henry Gilbert, briefly playing Torbis, is one of the few actors involved in this serial not to have another Doctor Who credit on their CV ! Gordon St. Clair, playing Grun, appears to not have appeared in anything else at all but it has recently emerged, thanks to Toby Hadoke's observations in Running Through Corridors, that he's actually Gordon Stothard who played a Robot Yeti in The Web of Fear and a Cyberman in The Wheel in Space, and was an extra in the Invasion & Mind of Evil.

Sunday 25 September 2011

307 Day of the Daleks: Episode Four

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 307
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: 22 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: I'm watching a VHS: Doctor Who - The Day of the Daleks but by the time you read this the DVD will be out!
Episode Format: 625 video

The Controller interrupts the Daleks' interrogation of the Doctor saving his life so that he can be questioned about the resistance. The Daleks, then the Controller relate how the Daleks invaded Earth and enslaved the population. The resistance storm the Dalek HQ with several casualties including Boaz who dies saving Anat from a Dalek. The Doctor & Jo are rescued, the Doctor persuading the resistance to spare the Controller. In our time Unit is still searching for Jo & The Doctor. The Resistance want the Doctor to return and kill Styles, who they believe killed everyone at the conference with explosives leading to world chaos. The Doctor works out that the explosion was caused by the missing resistance member Shura using the explosives the team took with them. The Controller sets an ambush up for the resistance in the tunnel, capturing the Doctor & Jo, but the Doctor talks his way to a release enabling them to return to the present day. The Controller is observed by his deputy who reports him to the Daleks causing his extermination. The Daleks travel themselves to the 20th century and attack Auderley House. Warned by the Doctor, the Brigadier evacuates the house. Once the Daleks are within the house Shura detonates his explosives killing him and destroying the Daleks & Ogrons and giving the peace conference the impetus to succeed.

There's a lot to get into in this episode: I'm pretty sure the Doctor's been asked before why if they don't succeed they can't go back and have another go. Well here the Daleks have done: following the failure of the Dalek Invasion of Earth they quite clearly state that they go back in time and invade again. Except.... The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a frequently referenced event in Earth's future history as it progresses down it's normal path. Somehow they must have ended up in an alternate future created by the resistance killing Styles, which is itself undone when The Doctor returns to the past. Doctor Who is always against altering established history yet here an entire future is changed: the get out clause allowing them to do it is that the future we see here isn't the correct one. As I'm writing this I have two other Doctor Who stories in mind, the McGann movie and the abhorrent Last of the Timelords where what we see on screen is undone. Here it feels OK. It doesn't in either of the other two.

This episode features one of the major short comings of the story: the Daleks attack on Austerley House. It's soooooooooooo slow! The Daleks are having obvious trouble moving over the grass and, once again, the Ogrons are having to amble as to not outpace them. It's also painfully obvious during this sequence that there are just three Dalek props available to film with, a position made worse by one of them, a third of what you can see on screen, being painted a different colour! Thankfully it appears as if this sequence has had some love & attention lavished on it for the special edition on the DVD in terms of CGI & newly filmed sequences. You can see a trailer for the special edition on YouTube while another is included on The Sun Makers DVD.

Like the Dæmons we get to see a BBC television reporter on screen & involved in the action in this story. However Alex MacIntosh was an actual BBC presenter as well as being the voice over on the first ever television advert !

So Day of the Daleks: good story, cracking in fact. Unfortunately it's not a triumphant return for the Daleks. All the story's problems surround them: they're confined to the background for the most part, sounding wrong and made to look ridiculous in the closing battle scenes. I think it would have worked perfectly well without them as the story was originally written. It's one of the better Pertwee stories, better than I remember it being. I'd not watched it for some years prior to viewing it for the Blog but I've seen it twice in the last week now and it was great both times. I'm really looking forward to the DVD release and improved special edition now!

What Day does do is give the Pertwee era another solid link with it's past. Apart from Unit and the occasional mention of the Tardis & the Time Lords, the Third Doctor's reign has felt like a different show to what has gone before. Now the Daleks are back, and will be back every year for the next three years, the show starts to play a little more with it's heritage. The next story involves Tardis travel & returning foes the Ice Warriors, we'll make two more trips in the Tardis after that this season and we won't see the Brigadier & Unit HQ again till the last story of the season. The show is starting to feel a bit more like old Doctor Who.

A little milestone with the end of this episode: the next 10 stories/52 episodes are all on DVD, and all (now) in colour. That will be our longest run watching on one format so far and by the time we'll be back on video it'll be 1974, Sarah-Jane Smith will be the companion and we'll be watching the last Pertwee episode to only exists in black & white. Now therein lies a story......

Day of the Daleks was repeated on BBC1 as a 60-minute compilation on 3 September 1973. It was novelised by Terrance Dicks and released in April 1974. The Day of the Daleks paperback was one of the first Doctor Who books I owned, being given a copy by my parents for my 9th birthday in 1982 along with Destiny of the Daleks and the first volume of the Programme Guide. Day of the Daleks was released as a compilation video in July 1986. It was the first Pertwee story to be released on video, initially costing £24.95 and was the last Doctor Who video to be released on Beta Max as well as VHS. An episodic version was released in April 1994 by which point Doctor Who videos were a much more palatable £9.99 each! Day of the Daleks is one of just six Doctor Who stories to be released on Laserdisc in the UK: The others are Revenge of the Cybermen, Brain of Morbius, The Five Doctor, The Ark in Space & Terror of the Zygons. It was released as a 2 disc special edition DVD on September 12th 2011 containing the restored original version of the story and a new special edition with enhanced effects, newly filmed footage and replacement Dalek voices provided by new series Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs. Oddly the DVD is released on the same day and month which Jo says she left earlier Time, and 40 years almost to the day since location work was started on the story.

Saturday 24 September 2011

306 Day of the Daleks: Episode Three

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 306
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: 15 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: I'm watching a VHS: Doctor Who - The Day of the Daleks but by the time you read this the DVD will be out!
Episode Format: 625 video

Fleeing from the Dalek the Doctor is transported to the future with Anat & Boaz. Becoming separated from them he emerges onto the surface and sees the deprivation of the enslaved humans. The Daleks are enraged when they hear that the Doctor is in their time and order his extermination. Anat & Boaz report to their superior Monia who tells them of Jo's capture. The Doctor is swiftly apprehended by Ogrons and taken for interrogation while Jo is wined and dined by the Controller plying her for information. A more friendly Interrogator questions the Doctor but is interrupted by the Controller who takes the Doctor into his custody as "an honoured guest". The Interrogator reports what has happened to the resistance before being caught & killed by the Ogrons. Reunited with Jo the Doctor is also plied with food & drink but is critical of the future regime. Jo & The Doctor stage an escape but are swiftly recaptured. The resistance learn of his capture & decide to rescue him. The Doctor is strapped to the Mind Analysis to prove his identity.

Apart from the reprise this episode is entirely set in the future and thanks to some superb location work it looks a horribly bleak place. The Dalek looks superb in the tunnel at the start of the episode, I always think they look good when you put them in dark confined spaces. There's some similar shots in the Daleks in Manhattan which are one of the few things about that story which really work for me! Jo's "screams" to attract the guard's attention don't sound like she's afraid or scared ....... The Trike she & the Doctor escape on is obviously a gadget Pertwee sighted and wanted to use in the show but they are so slow that it makes the Ogrons ambling after them look completely stupid. As the Daleks announced what they intended to do to the Doctor Liz and I turned to each other and chorus as one "No,Not the Mind Probe!". A scene ruined by a future Doctor Who story, which is a shame as during it you get a glimpse into the Doctor's past with the faces of his former self appearing on the screen of the Mind Analysis Machine over the Pertwee end title sequence - a concious decision or a CSO keying mistake? Evidence suggests the latter as, uniquely, the music starts playing and Jon Pertwee's credit appears over the closing action. Like the previous episode this one starts with the reprise ending with the sting crashing in before the new action starts.

Scott Fredericks playing Boaz, will later return to Doctor Who as Maximilian Stael in Image of the Fendahl. He's been in Blake's 7, playing Carnell in Weapon, as has Aubrey Woods who is the Controller here and was
Krantor in Blake's 7: Gambit as well as the B Ark Captain in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV Series) episode 6 which also features former companion Caroline John's husband Geoffrey Beevers as Number Three. One of the Ogrons, Rick Lester, will reprise the role in Frontier in Space, while another, Bruce Wells was an English amateur boxing champion who was once the holder of the ABA Light Middleweight and European Amateur Boxing Championship titles.

Friday 23 September 2011

305 Day of the Daleks: Episode Two

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 305
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: 08 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: I'm watching a VHS: Doctor Who - The Day of the Daleks but by the time you read this the DVD will be out!
Episode Format: 625 video

The three time travellers, Anat, Boaz and Shura, take the Doctor & Jo prisoner. The Brigadier tries to contact the Doctor on the phone which allows the Doctor to tip the Brigadier off that something's wrong. Jo threatens the soldiers with the time machine but accidentally activates it transporting herself to the future where she's captured by the Dalek's human allies who convince her that the time travellers are criminal terrorists. Shura is sent to fetch explosives but is knocked out by an arriving squad of Ogrons. The Ogrons attack forcing Anat & Boaz to leave and make their way back to the railway tunnel they arrived in. The Doctor, saved from the Ogrons by the arrival of the Brigadier, follows them into the tunnel and where he encounters a Dalek!

Yup, good stuff again, but like the previous episode the Daleks are very much in the background. I think for their big return I'd have liked more Daleks up front actually doing something. The start of this episode is a little odd: when the reprise ends we get the sting from the start of the title sequence as the action moves on. Apparently this was a conscientious decision by the director. I'd always put it down as sloppy editing when I watched the original compilation video and was astounded to find it was in tact on the episodic version. Jo confirms the day and month she left this time in but neglects to mention the year which would have been useful to those trying to date the Unit stories!

This story is the first appearance of the Daleks in colour: here they sport Grey paint schemes with black skirt balls, as opposed to the silver & blue seen previously whereas their leader is painted gold. Returning inside the shells are veterans John Scott Martin & Murphy Grumbar with newcomer Ricky Newby making up the numbers inside the third Dalek. The voices are provided by Oliver Gilbert & Peter Messaline neither of which quite hit the right tone throughout. It's their only appearance voicing Daleks: Michael Wisher, a Who regular in the seventies, would provide voices during their next four appearances frequently alongside Roy Skelton. Dissatisfaction with the Dalek voices here was one of the major motivations behind producing a special edition of this story on DVD where the Dalek voices are provided by new series Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs.

Drop More House in Buckinghamshire is the location used for Style's house. This was a late replacement for Osterley House in Middlesex which is closer to the other locations used in the story: the bridge & tunnel entrance over the Grand Union canal at Bull's Bridge in Hayes & Harvey House in Brentford. Styles' house is called Auderley House in the story but scripts show an earlier name for it was Austerley House, reflecting the intended location. This name was used in Terrance Dicks' 1974 novelization.

Thursday 22 September 2011

304 Day of the Daleks: Episode One

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 304
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: 01 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: I'm watching a VHS: Doctor Who - The Day of the Daleks but by the time you read this the DVD will be out!
Episode Format: 625 video

Sir Reginald Styles, organiser of the world peace conference, is working late at night when he's disturbed by a man dressed in combat gear who vanishes. The Doctor, working on the Tardis console with Jo, accidentally transports their future selves to this time for a brief while. The man returns hunting Styles but he is attacked by ape like Ogrons and left for dead. The Ogrons report back to their human controller in the future that the mission was a success. The injured man is taken to hospital by Unit but when the Doctor examines his gear he activates the time machine the man carried sending the man back to the future. This time transference is picked up by the controller's staff and he reports it to his masters.... As Styles leaves for China Jo & The Doctor elect to spend a night in his house. A squad of three humans from the future arrives to kill Styles. The Doctor works on the time machine activating it causing the squad to storm the house to try to get him to deactivate it. His use of the time machine is detected in the future by the rulers of Earth ...... The Daleks!

Wanting a big event to hook the viewers in for the start of the new series Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks elect to bring the Daleks back to Doctor Who for the first time since 1967. They take a back seat in this episode, manipulating events behind the scenes through their human and Ogron allies. It's really quite a fabulous atmospheric episode as the Doctor attempts to reactivate the time machine and Jo feeds the troops. The scene with the Doctor & Jo meeting their future selves should have had a nice little pay off at the end of episode 4 as the returning Doctor & Jo find their past selves working in the lab. The scene is still present in the book but had to be cut for time reason leaving the scene merely pre-empting some of the themes of the story. Oddly the Doctor refers to the scene occurring "a few moments ago" later in the episode after his trip to Auderley House - a rearrangement of the scene order? I do think there is one critical error in this episode: You see the Controller reporting to his masters halfway through the episode giving you a brief glimpse of them. I'd have saved the reveal of the Daleks until the end of the episode. It's tradition after all. Even then the reveal isn't really that dramatic. I'd have the voice appear earlier in the episode, perhaps distorted over an intercom, and then a big pull back and reveal at the end.

Liz laughed at the discontinuity between the two Ogrons who've been to the 20th century. One gives a slow monosyllabic report of their excursion, while the other dismisses enquiries as to if there were any problems with a quick No Complications! Did the director, first timer Paul Bernard, forget to tell one of them how they should be performing?

Some more firsts here: one from the episode at the time, one that history has granted it. This episode sees the first appearance of what will become the 70s Dalek theme as the soldier rematerialises in the 20th century. Looking at the BBC's archive holdings now, this whole story is the earliest to completely exist on it's original 625 line video.

Two stories exist about surrounding the Daleks return to the screens: Terrance Dicks' version has them forgetting to ask Terry Nation's permission to use them, having to go to see Terry to apologise and being given a very nice, mainly liquid, lunch by him. Barry Letts version is roughly the same accept they had the lunch when they went to see Terry Nation to ask permission to use the Daleks before work on the story started! Barry's version, while less of a good tale, is the one supported by the BBC paperwork.

Also returning to the series after a considerable absence is script writer Louis Marks, who wrote the Hartnell tale The Planet of Giants and isn't the toy company that made Daleks. This is his only Pertwee script but he'll be back for two more Tom Baker stories.

You may remember during Evil of the Daleks 5 I mention the controversy amongst fans as to whether the Doctor ate meat or drank alcohol. Well here he's knocking back the wine here in an attempt to drink Styles' cellar dry aided by Captain Yates & Sergeant Benton!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

303 The Dæmons: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 303
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: 19 June 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who: The Dæmons
Episode Format: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

Jo is taken away to be prepared for sacrifice to Azal. Mike escapes from the cavern and tells the Doctor what's going on. Bok prevents the Doctor from entering the church. The Brigadier has the Doctor's machine activated and drives through the heat barrier. Azal and Bok are weakened while the machine is running but it blows up after they come through. The Doctor runs past the weakened Bok into the church before it can recover and menace Yates again. The newly arrived Brigadier has Bok shot at. The Doctor tries to bargain with Azal for Jo's life and demands he leaves. The Master demands Azal's power but Azal elects to pass it to the Doctor who refuses it. Benton sets a Bazooka up and destroys Bok but it reforms. Azal decides to kill the Doctor but Jo offers herself up instead causing Azal to destroy himself. Without Azal's power Bok becomes a statue again and the church is destroyed by a massive explosion from the crypt bellow while the spaceship at the dig self destructs and the barrier clears. The Master is captured by Unit. Jo & The Doctor and Benton & Miss Hawthorne join in the mayday celebrations while the Brigadier & Mike retire to the village inn for a quiet pint.

This is all working well until the point where Jo offers herself up as a sacrifice in exchange for the Doctor's life and ..... Azal clutches his head, starts yelling the Dæmon equivalent of "Does not compute" then collapses and explodes! I'm sorry but what is going on there? Deary me. Which is a shame because this episode has two of the series top quotes in it. First we have the Brigadier's memorable
Jenkins! Chap with wings, five rounds rapid.
followed by the Doctor trying to recall who the Master is reminding him of
Who was the bounder? Hitler. Yes, Adolf Hitler. Or was it Genghis Khan?
The closing moments of the story are superb with everyone enjoying themselves as the Brigadier and Yates sneak off for a drink. Then we get a lovely shot at the end, pulling back from the green, that must have been filmed from the church tower which is at that end of the village green.

I can see why The Dæmons was so popular for so long. The regular cast are superb throughout, with Benton & Yates being given loads to do, The Master being superb and only the Brigadier being relegated to the background but even then his brief moments on screen are superb and some of the best performances that Nick Courtney gives. Against that the serial is essentially a lot of mucking around in between the dig and Azal's final appearance, which in turn is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in Doctor Who so far. The colour version is infinitely preferable to black & white, but it is quite a murky looking colour restoration, easily the worst of the four currently out there. I'm hoping that can be improved for the DVD version, but episode 4, still existing on it's original 625 line video, looks a bit murky compared with other existing Pertwee episodes.

Playing Jones, the cultist that interrupts Jo's sacrifice in this episode, is Matthew Corbett, son of Harry Corbett the creator of Sooty. The Dæmons was his television début. He went on to form a singing group with Rod Burton and his then wife Jane Tucker (daughter of Doctor Who director Rex Tucker) known as Rod, Jane & Matthew, who appeared in the children's TV series Rainbow becoming a fixture. When Matthew left the group to take over the Sooty role he was replaced by first Roger Walker and then Freddy Marks to eventually become Rod, Jane & Freddy. Three other Who Alumni have Rainbow associations: Daleks voice artists Peter Hawkins and Roy Skelton both provided voices for the puppets Zippy and George while Bungle the Bear was at one time played by K-9 voice artist John Leeson.

This episode of the Dæmons was the first to be released on video in March 1992, when a black & white copy accompanied Inferno episode 7 and Frontier in Space episode 6 in The Pertwee Years. Following the story's colour restoration the entire story was released on video in 1993. A phantom DVD listing for this story has existed for many years on Amazon UK. A commentary was recorded some time ago and it's believed that a DVD of this story, with new improved colour restoration, may be coming in 2012.

The novelization of this story was carried out by Barry Letts, one of it's co-authors. It's the only Doctor Who TV Series novelization that he wrote and, like the previous story The Colony in Space/The Doomsday Weapon, is still held in very high regard. If the BBC reprints of Target books go to a second round I'd expect to see these two representing the Pertwee/Third Doctor era.

The Dæmons was repeated on the 28th December 1971 in a 90 minute omnibus edition. The colour restored version was shown on BBC2 in 1992 from 20th November to 18th December.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

302 The Dæmons: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 302
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: 12 June 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who: The Dæmons
Episode Format: 625 video

A slightly concussed Jo makes her was to the cavern under the church. The Master with the Dæmon Azal asking for power but Azal demands to speak with the Doctor too. Yates finds Jo gone and follows her. The Doctor briefs Unit on the machine and instructs them how to use it to breach the barrier so they can bring it to the village. Mike finds Jo in the cavern but they are trapped as the coven members return. Benton & Miss Hawthorne watch the villagers starting their Maypole dance as the Doctor arrives, is captured by the Morris Men and entangled in the ropes of the Maypole. Miss Hawthorne claims he is a wizard and with a little help from Benton's sharp shooting skills plus Bessie's new remote control convinces them allowing the Doctor to be freed. Jo interrupt the Master's ceremony to save the chicken they're going to sacrifice as the goat legged, horned & bearded Azal appears.

The confrontation between the Doctor & the villagers aside this episode feels like it's treading water a bit postponing the final encounter with Azal. We do get what I think is the first "Reverse the polarity" from the Doctor, soon to be given it's one and only airing as the third Doctor's supposed catch phrase. There's some great interaction between Benton & Miss Hawthorne here too. Azal claims to have destroyed Atlantis.... well we saw the sunken Atlantis city destroyed in The Underwater Menace so we can only assume he means the original sinking .....

The fourth episode of the Dæmons is the only one that exists on it's original 625 line colour video tape. The rest of the episodes were found at BBC Enterprises as Black & White film prints then recovered from the USA as off air 525 line NTSC domestic colour recordings. In 1992 the higher definition black & white film prints were married to the the colour signal from the US videos to producer a higher definition colour copy. See The Restoration Team Website for more details. This led to the same technique being applied to several other Pertwee stories.

Two actors make their Doctor Who débuts in this story Alec Linstead is playing Sgt. Osgood and will return as Arnold Jellicoe in Robot, and Arthur Stengos in Revelation of the Daleks. But playing Azal is Stephen Thorne. Originally it was planned that Thorne would just be the physical body of Azal and that Anthony Jackson, who was in the first few series of Rentaghost, was going to voice Azal. For whatever reason this plan was changed and Thorne returns, being very loud again, as Omega in The Three Doctors, an Ogron in Frontier in Space and Eldrad in The Hand of Fear. He became a great friend of Nicholas Courtney and would sign Courtney's nomination for the Equity council every year.

The Morris Dancers in this episode are a real Morris Dancing team, The Headington Quarry Men who are still going to this day!

Monday 19 September 2011

301 The Dæmons: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 301
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: 05 June 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who: The Dæmons
Episode Format: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

The Doctor repels Bok using a Venusian lullaby. He returns to the village and researches what he's seen in Miss Hawthorne's books. The Brigadier confirms that the barrier encompasses the village on all sides and over the top. The Doctor believes they are fighting a Dæmon from the planet Dæmos, powerful beings that have been influencing mankind's development. The local squire calls a village meeting where the Master has Bok kill him to ensure the obedience of the rest of the villagers. The Doctor plans a machine to deal with the barrier and travels to the barrier to explain it to the Brigadier. One of the villagers is sent to pursue the Doctor and he steals the Unit helicopter from the village green, pursued by Yates on a motorbike. Making a mistake while flying he crashes into the heat barrier and is killed. Jo is injured in the pursuit so Mike takes her back to the village in Bessie. The Master summons the Dæmon again and it appears in the cavern towering over him.....

This story is rolling along quite nicely with all of the main cast being given something to do. Roger Delgado is superb, pretending to be the local vicar. This isn't the last time we'll hear the Venusian Lullaby as it's sung in two stories time to the tune of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" while the Master's black mass used at several points in the story is "Mary had a little lamb" spoken backwards. There's a mistake repeated through the story though: Bok isn't a Gargoyle, which has a water spout in it's mouth, he's a grotesque. I was a little taken out the story by the noticeable improvement in picture quality as this episode concludes: the very end is taken from the following episode which survives on it's original video tape while the others, including this one, are colour recovered film recordings.

The majority of the location filming for this story takes place in Aldbourne in Wiltshire. Almost all the locations surround the village green which, coupled with the story's popularity in the 70s & 80s, led to it being a popular destination for Doctor Who fans. Indeed a pilgrimage to Aldbourne was for many years considered a rite of passage in fandom. (Train to Swindon, short walk to the bus station then a 46 or 48 bus to the village). As long term readers of this blog will remember I took a group of friends there in April when we accidentally gate crashed a Doctor Who convention being held there!

Shooting for this story took place from the 19th to 30th April 1971. Problems were encountered on the morning of 23rd April when the cast & crew awoke at their Marlborough Hotel to discover snow had fallen overnight. Doctor Who's favourite get out clause "freak weather conditions" was swiftly inserted into the script to cover the sudden appearance of snow on the ground!

The Village Church forms a central part in this story with the Master posing as it's vicar, but great care is taken not to show inside the church itself, with the cult's actions taking place in a cavern bellow it. In this instance the chosen location works wonders with the Aldbourne Village Church being located on a mound. We've previously seen a church in The Smugglers, and the Awakening will later ape the Dæmons by doing a story set in an English Churches Village with the church as it's centrepiece that is then destroyed at the story's climax. The Doctor *nearly* enters a church for a funeral in Remembrance of the Daleks, but instead choose to makes his exit at this point, while the Curse of Fenric again features something buried in a church.

Sunday 18 September 2011

300 The Dæmons: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 300
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: 29 May 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who: The Dæmons
Episode Format: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

Welcome to the 300th episode of Doctor Who!

Jo has the frozen Doctor taken to the village inn for treatment. Jo calls Mike Yates at Unit, who saw the event on TV, but is cut off. Yates & Benton decide to fly down first thing in the morning in the Brigadier's helicopter. At dawn an Earthquake shakes the village and the local PC, guarding the fig is killed. From the air Benton & Yates spot a line of giant hoof marks. They land on the village green and are taken to the inn by Jo who explains what's been happening. The Brigadier discovers his staff have all gone to Devil's End. Benton rescues Miss Hawthorne from the church where she's been held captive. A sudden heat wave revives the Doctor and creates a barrier round the village. Miss Hawthorne believes she's seen a 30 ft devil, but the Doctor disputes this. When she tells him that the local cult is headed by Mr Magister he realises that it's the Master, Magister being the latin word for Master. The Brigadier discovers his way into the village blocked by the heat barrier. The Doctor goes to investigate the barrow, and finds the PC's body. Entering the barrow he finds a tiny space ship, reduced in size but is confronted by Bok the Gargoyle.

That was rather fun, enjoyed that. There's a lovely scene towards the end of the episode as Yates recaps over the radio to an incredulous Brigadier what's happened. A fabulous comedy performance from Nicholas Courtney.

Some of the actors in this serial have re-appeared in Doctor Who: Christopher Wray, PC Groom, will be Ldg. Seaman Lovell in The Sea Devils. Making a return to Doctor Who in this episode, as the Baker's Man, is Gerald Taylor. previously he was a Dalek Operator in The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Power of the Daleks & The Evil of the Daleks as well as in the Doctor Who & The Daleks feature film. He's also appeared as a Zarbi in The Web Planet, the War Machine Operator in The War Machines and as Damon's Assistant in The Underwater Menace and makes one more, albeit short lived, return as Vega Nexos in the first episode of The Monster of Peladon. The main guest role for the story goes to Damaris Hayman, as Miss Hawthorne, who has an acting CV as long as your arm and is now a regular on the convention circuit.

Saturday 17 September 2011

299 The Dæmons: Episode One

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 299
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: 22 May 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who: The Dæmons
Episode Format: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

For many years the Dæmons was touted as the best Pertwee story and probably the best Doctor Who story. It's certainly well loved by those that worked on it with most of those involved speaking very fondly about it. Then it got repeated in 1993, right in the middle of Doctor Who fandom's big re-appraisal of the series and suffered a huge backlash damaging it's reputation, a feeling that persists to this day. So how is it now?

Disclaimer: I've seen this relatively recently (end of April) before watching for the Blog. Some friends and I visited Aldbourne where this story was filmed (more on that later) and we rounded the evening off by watching it. So it's still quite fresh in my memory.

In the villages of Devil's End preparations are being made to open a local burial barrow. Local white witch Miss Hawthorne voice her concerns to the new local vicar The Reverend Magister: The Master. Jo is keen to stay up to watch the dig opening the barrow live on television but the Doctor's curiosity is pipped and he & Jo drive to try and stop the dig. In a cavern under the church the Master and a local cult are holding a ceremony to summon something.... The Doctor arrives just as the barrow is penetrated and torrent of cold air comes out freezing him. The Master calls on the name of Azal as the gargoyle in the crypt, Bok, comes to life.

Oh look, it's the Master. Again. There's a lot of little detail to like in this episode: The Doctor playing with Bessie fitting the remote control, the Brigadier dressed up for a do, Yates & Benton wanting to watch the rugby and the casual insinuation that the Master may have had something to do with the disappearance of the previous vicar Cannon Smallwood. All this is against a background of black magic and village cults pre-dating The Wicker Man by two years. It's a very un-Doctor who sphere to be wandering into especially taking this episode in isolation and not knowing how the story progresses. I can imagine there may have been some slight unease amongst some viewers at the subject matter this week. The TV presenter, Alistair Fergus, played by David Simeon who was Private Latimer in Inferno, seems a lot like a parody of a TV Presenter that Monty Python's Michael Palin would have done. The resemblance between the two actors doesn't help either.

The Dæmons is the only Doctor Who story credited to Guy Leopold: That's because it's actually a pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts, Doctor Who's producer formed from the first name of Sloman's son and Letts' middle name. The events of this episode at least look like they were inspired, at least in part, by a BBC Televised dig at Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, not that far from the locations used in this story. Silbury Hill and it's neighbouring neolithic sites Avebury Stone Circle and West Kennet Long Barrow are well worth a visit.

Friday 16 September 2011

298 Colony in Space: Episode Six

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 298
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: 15 May 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - the Master Tin Set: Colony In Space & The Time Monster but DVD release due on October 3rd
Episode Format: 525 video

Caldwell & Morgan free Jo. The Master & the Doctor are taken prisoner by the primitives. Caldwell helps Jo escape from the IMC guards forcing the colonists onto the ship. The Master tells the Doctor about the Doomsday Weapon the primitives once developed which he intends to use to hold the galaxy to ransom. They escape their cell and seek the controls for the weapon. The colonists prepare to leave. Winton sneaks away and knocks out the IMC lookout observing the spaceship launch. Seeking the Doctor, Jo & Caldwell see the colonists ship take off & explode. The Master explains how he will use the Doomsday Weapon to destroy stars. Jo & Caldwell gain entrance to the city seeking the Doctor. The Doctor is appalled by the Master's plan and turns down his offer of a partnership & a half share in the universe. The Guardian reveals himself to the Doctor & the Master. The Guardian explains how the radiation from the weapon's power source has poisoned their world. The Master threatens him, but the Guardian makes his weapon disappear. Under the Guardian's instruction the Doctor activates the weapon's self destruct sequence. Fleeing the city the Doctor & Master are reunited with Jo & Caldwell allowing them to all escape together before an explosion destroys the weapon & city. They are captured by Morgan and the IMC troops but are freed by the colonists who attack IMC. In the battle the Master escapes to his Tardis leaving the planet. The Doctor tells Winton that now the Doomsday Weapon has been destroyed their crops should grow. Winton explains how only Ashe was on the rocket when it launched, convincing IMC that they had all been killed. Caldwell elects to stay with the colonists. The Tardis has been found allowing the Doctor & Jo to return to Earth mere seconds after they left as the Brigadier reports that the sighting of the Master was a hoax.

Liz has been watching this story with me, having not seen it before, and was surprised when their ship blew up "they've killed the colonists!" followed by just a few minutes later "hang on, they weren't on board were they?". The fight between Winton and the guard is great though I'm not sure about the Guardian's rave video that we see as the Doctor activates the self destruct mechanism. He's not the only Guardian with a rave video that we'll see in Doctor Who - wait till Mawdryn Undead comes along!

I've not seen Colony in Space that often, and found it a bit of a slog before. The state of the 525 line tapes doesn't help either: a portion of the sequence of the Doctor & the Master in the control room looks particularly washed out. This time round the story worked for me, I can't quite put my finger on what's different but something was... which is a good job as I'm going to have to watch it again shortly.

Regular stuntman and Pertwee double Terry Walsh is the guard Rogers who mud wrestles with Winton. Norman Atkyns is the Guardian and returns shortly as a Rear Admiral in The Sea Devils and Roy Heymann, the diminutive Alien Priest will be Gotal in Death to the Daleks. Both stories are directed by Michael Briant who is obviously subscribing to the Camfield method of casting. Regular extra Pat Gorman is in every episode of this story: he's the Primitive and Voice in episodes 1 & 2, Long in 3, a Primitive in 4 & 6 and a colonist in 5.

The Colony in Space was novelised by it's original author Malcolm Hulke under the title The Doomsday Weapon and is generally acknowledged to be one of the best Target books. I'd lay money on it being one of the next Target books to be re-issued by the BBC. It was released on video in 2001 as part of The Master Tin Set with The Time Monster. Frustrating it's due out on DVD on October 3rd, just 3 weeks too late for the purposes of me watching it for this blog.

Colony in Space, The Dæmons & Day of the Daleks are the last trio of consecutive complete Doctor Who stories we'll be watching on video. Although Day of the Daleks is out on DVD before the blog articles are published I've watched that on video too because I'm so far ahead on my viewing. I was going to try to reduce my lead to watch Day on DVD too but just missing Colony's release has made me decide to push on.

Edit: Blow me! The BBC's only gone and put a UNIT box through the BBFC and scheduled in for a January release. That means I'll narrowly miss watching both of Invasion of the Dinosaurs & Android Invasion on DVD!

Thursday 15 September 2011

297 Colony in Space: Episode Five

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 297
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: 08 May 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - the Master Tin Set: Colony In Space & The Time Monster but DVD release due on October 3rd
Episode Format: 525 video

Ashe interrupts, asking the Master, as the adjudicator, to intervene in the fight. Winton captures Dent forcing IMC to surrender. They are taken as prisoners to their space ship. Trying to get evidence that the Master is an imposter the Doctor & Jo plan to break in to his Tardis, disguised as the Adjudicator's space ship. Dent prepares to leave but contacts Earth to check the Adjudicator's identity. The Doctor & Jo get past the Master's alarm system and search his Tardis. The IMC's ship orbits Uxarieus when confirmation that the Adjudicator is a fake arrives. The Doctor & Jo find the credentials for the real adjudicator but in her haste to leave Jo activates the alarm system causing her & the Doctor to be gassed. IMC return to the planet 50 kilometres from the colony and plan to attack & kill the colonists. The Master uses Jo as a hostage to get the Doctor to guide him to the primitives' city. The IMC guards enter the colony taking Ashe hostage, forcing the other colonists to surrender. IMC hold a show trial and exile the colonists from the planet. Ashe protests that their ship is old and won't survive the trip. The primitives attack the Doctor & Master destroying their vehicle. Caldwell confirms Ashe's claims and says the ship may blow up on take off, but Dent is unconcerned. Caldwell & Morgan, attempting to locate the Adjudicator, find the key to the Master's Tardis that the Doctor dropped earlier. They gain entry to the Tardis setting of the alarm system which notifies the Master causing him to activate a mechanism to flood the chamber holding Jo Grant with poisonous gas.

How stupid is Jo Grant? Well as stupid as the story needs her to be obviously. After the Doctor's made such a fuss about getting into the Master's Tardis she forgets everything he's said about the alarm system and sets it off in her haste to try and get the Doctor out of there. Deary me. I suppose you can lay some blame at the Doctor's feet for not deactivating the alarm in the first place but.....

The location work for this story was filmed in Old Baal Claypit in Cornwall. Wet weather conditions, which livened up the fight sequence we'll see in the next episode, caused some problems. The robot prop was left outside overnight and unsurprisingly it's plywood & cardboard construction didn't prove to be water proof. The IMC buggies used during filming were also damaged necessitating a payment to the hire firm they were rented from for their repair. Jon Pertwee had driven his own car to the location, rather than ride on the coach with the rest of the cast & crew, and parked it in the quarry. The underside had been been caked in the china mud while it was there and driving the car home baked it turning it into china which then had to be carefully stripped away.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

296 Colony in Space: Episode Four

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 296
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: 01 May 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - the Master Tin Set: Colony In Space & The Time Monster but DVD release due on October 3rd
Episode Format: 525 video

The Adjudicator's ship arrives on Uxarieus. Winton finds the projector that IMC having been using to create their Monsters but the IMC guards regain control of the ship and capture the colonists. The Doctor finds the entrance to the primitives city and attempts to bargain for Jo's life. Within the city he finds a pictorial record of the Primitives history showing that some great catastrophe befell the people there. The Adjudicator arrives to mediate the dispute between IMC and the Colonists: it's the Master. The Doctor & Jo attempt to escape from the city but are recaptured by the Primitives. They are taken to the city's Guardian, a shrunken Primitive with the power to speak and bargain they're freedom. They are told that if they return they will be destroyed. The Master is about to deliver his verdict when the Doctor returns to the colony. He rules against the colonists and orders them off the planet. Ashe wants to appeal against the decision but Winton plans to attack the IMC ship. The Master questions Ashe about the Primitive City. Norton is discovered with an IMC radio by one of the colonists but kills him. The IMC crew are lured into a trap in the main dome. Norton warns them, but is killed by Winton. A gun battle ensues, giving the Master an opportunity to kill Jo & the Doctor making it appear as if they were caught in the crossfire......

Oh look, it's the Master disguised as the Adjudicator, what a surprise! Well we shouldn't be surprised because the Time Lords flagged his interest in Uxarieus at the start of the first episode. And he's been every story so far this season. Would the audience at the time have cottoned on to this though? Jo *is* surprised to see him there, obviously not having caught onto the whole "he can travel in time & space thing too" Morris Perry's performance as Dent is increasingly making me think he's channelling Kevin Stoney of Dalek Masterplan & The Invasion fame! I've got some of his other roles on DVD (see episode 2) so I'll have to dig them out and see if he's the same there.

Michael Briant is making his Doctor Who directing début this story having previously worked as a production assistant on the Crusade, Power of the Daleks & The Fury from the Deep. He'll return as a director for the Sea Devils (he's good value on the commentary for that story), The Green Death, Death to the Daleks, Revenge of the Cybermen and one of the all time classics The Robots of Death. But if you look down the order on the production crew for this story you'll see another important name: the Assistant Floor Manager is future director Graeme Harper. He'll serve as AFM on Planet of the Daleks & Planet of the Spiders, make a brief on screen appearance in the Brain of Morbius, be Production Assistant on Seeds of Doom & Warriors' Gate, where he also directed some material before becoming a director for The Caves of Androzani & Revelation of the Daleks, where he's generally credited as being the best director Doctor Who had in the 80s. He then enjoyed an extensive career directing everything on British Television before being recalled to Doctor Who in 2006 to head up Rise of the Cybermen & The Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts & Doomsday, 42, Utopia, Time Crash, Planet of the Ood, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth & Journey's End and The Waters of Mars. He's the only man to direct both classic and Nu Who. Both Briant & Harper are on the commentary team for the forthcoming DVD of this story.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

295 Colony in Space: Episode Three

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 295
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: 24 April 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - the Master Tin Set: Colony In Space & The Time Monster but DVD release due on October 3rd
Episode Format: 525 video

The Doctor attacks Morgan seizing the remote control for the robot. The Colonists are struggling to restore power when IMC move their ship closer to the colony, announcing their presence. IMC Captain Dent summons an adjudicator, but the Doctor returns saying he was attacked by the robot. The Doctor tries to repair the generator while Norton denounces his story. Winton & Jo try to find evidence on the IMC ship but Norton radios Dent to tell him they are there. The Doctor restores the power back to the colony. Jo & Winton are imprisoned in a primitive dwelling chained to a drilling explosive to ensure the Doctor's co-operation. Winton escapes, but Jo is recaptured. Winton is saved from pursuing guards by Caldwell, then incites the colonists to attack the IMC ship. Caldwell arranges Jo's release to prevent the attack, but she's seized by the primitives. The Doctor helps colonists get into the ship to capture the crew. The Doctor & Ashe search for Jo, finding her guard's body. Jo is taken to the Primitive's underground city....

What possessed Jo to try to break into the IMC ship? Honestly..... Caldwell's dissatisfaction with IMC's polices is coming over nicely and while you hope the Adjudicator's arrival will help to resolve the Colonists' issues their actions here won't have done them any favours. Of course you're very much getting the feel that the system is bent in IMC's favour anyway from what you hear from both sides in this story. But don't forget: there's a tinsy hanging plot thread from the first episode: Why has the Doctor been sent here by the Time Lords in the first place?

We've seen Human colonies before in Doctor Who. The Ark is all about the remainder of the human race travelling to a new world, whereas the Doctor visits established colonies on Vulcan, in the Power of the Daleks, the unnamed planet in the Macra Terror and the Issigri Mining Corporation's base on Ta. Interestingly all three of these worlds show or mention Mining taking place in connection with the Colony. Here the focus is on living and there's conflict with those who want to mine. We'll return to Earth colonies in The Mutants, The Planet of the Spiders, The Ark in Space & The Sontaran Experiment (kind of), The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death, The Sunmakers, State of Decay, Kinda & Snakedance, Frontios, Revelation of the Daleks & The Happiness Patrol. In addition to these, there's many planets the Doctor visits inhabited by civilisations that could be human colonies that have evolved & changed or that might be actually be humanoid primitives that have evolved into a form similar to Humans - in most cases it's just no clear but I think we can be sure about the Kaleds, Thals, Time Lords & Sisterhood of Kahn aren't Earth originated humans! Insinuating that would be opening a whole can of worms that I don't want to go near!

Monday 12 September 2011

294 Colony in Space: Episode Two

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 294
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: 17 April 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - the Master Tin Set: Colony In Space & The Time Monster but DVD release due on October 3rd
Episode Format: 525 video

The Robot is controlled by Caldwell, from the Interplanetary Mining Corporation, who takes the Doctor back to his ship. Norton incites the Colonists against the primitives. On the way to the ship the Doctor discovers the Tardis gone. Caldwell is appalled to discover that Colonists have been killed but his Captain & second in command Morgan aren't: Morgan claims there was an accident that killed the Leesons. IMC have been assigned the mining rights for the planet, claiming there has been an administration error permitting the Colonists to come. Morgan takes the Doctor back to the colony. On the journey they are attacked by primitives. Winton is showing Norton round the colony. The Colonists are having trouble their power generator. Norton kills the Electrician and sabotages the generator, blaming the primitive helper who he also killed. Morgan has the robot attack the Doctor using fake monster claws......

.... and now the Mining company show up becoming the evil bad guys. Liz, who's not seen this before, got to Norton working for IMC miles before they showed in on the screen. I found it odd when the Doctor & Caldwell were travelling to the IMC Spaceship that the Doctor was driving and not Caldwell's whose vehicle it was. The "Jim'll fix it" line that Mary Ashe uses, in reference to the base electrician fixing the power supply is dire!

Most of the IMC crew are known to us: Bernard Kay plays Caldwell. He was previously Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Saladin in The Crusade and Inspector Crossland in The Faceless Ones. Tony Caunter, who was also in The Crusade as Thatcher, appears here as Morgan and later as Jackson in Enlightenment. His best known role is as Roy Evans in Eastenders. John Herrington, appearing in this one episode as Jim Holden the colony electrician, worked with The Crusade's Director Douglas Camfield in another of his productions: he was Rhynmal in The Daleks' Master Plan. Stanley McGeagh, playing the guard Allen in the next episode, returns as Drew in The Sea Devils. Captain Dent is played by Morris Perry who while not having any Who form has a pretty long television career. He has a recurring role as the Flying Squad Commander Det. Chief Supt. Maynon in The Sweeney as well as appearing in The Professionals, Survivors and Midsomer Murders.

One of the most prominant pieces of casting for this story never made it to the screen! Susan Jameson was cast as Morgan, but BBC executives objected to having a leather clad sadistic female villain and Tony Caunter was elevated from a more minor part. Jameson was paid for the work she would have done and, to date, has not appeared in televised Doctor Who though she has done some audio plays with the fourth Doctor Tom Baker.

Sunday 11 September 2011

293 Colony in Space: Episode One

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 293
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: 10 April 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: VHS: Doctor Who - the Master Tin Set: Colony In Space & The Time Monster but DVD release due on October 3rd
Episode Format: 525 video

The Time Lords discover that their report on the Doomsday Weapon is missing and so send the Tardis to Uxarieus, a struggling human Colony that has been established under the leadership of Ashe. Their crops are failing and the live in fear of the planet being mined. The Leeson colonists are attacked and killed by a monster. Norton, a survivor from another colony wanders in. He tells Ashe and his colleagues that his colony was destroyed by the monster that killed the Leeson. While searching for evidence in the Leeson dome the Doctor is attacked by a robot.

Very much setup for the rest of the story this episode: Get the Doctor off Earth and establish the struggling colonists. The Doctor stranded on Earth was the idea of the previous production team: Terrance Dicks & Barry Letts decided to get him off Earth as quickly as possible. They use "on a mission for the Time Lords" as a way to do it, and in the process treat us to a brief view of the Time Lords analysing files the Master stole on the planet and deciding to use the Doctor to deal with it. Given that as a start it's a bit of a surprise we don't see the Master in the rest of the episode. The Doctor's line about The Spanish Ambassador being mistaken for the Master is a nod to Roger Delgado's previous role as Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador in Sir Francis Drake!.

Lots of the cast have form in Doctor Who: John Ringham, as Ashe, was previously Tlotoxl in The Aztecs & Josiah Blake in The Smugglers while Sheila Grant, as Jane Leeson, voiced the Quarks in The Dominators. Making his on screen début is Roy Skelton of Dalek & Cyberman voice fame as Norton. He's got four further in front of camera appearances in Planet of the Daleks ( as Wester), The Green Death (as James), The Android Invasion (as Chedaki) and The Hand of Fear (as King Rokon). His Dalek co-conspirator John Scott Martin is the Robot here. All three Time Lords we saw at the start also have had or will have other Doctor Who appearances: Peter Forbes-Robertson was a Guard in The Power of the Daleks and will be the Chief Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, John Baker returns as Ralph in The Visitation and Graham Leaman was in The Macra Terror (as the Controller), Fury from the Deep (as Price) & The Seeds of Death (as the Grand Marshall) with another appearance as a Time Lord in The Three Doctors. Mitzi Webster, playing Mrs. Martin, returns under the name Mitzi McKenzie to play Nancy in The Green Death. But by far the most famous member of the cast is making her only Doctor Who appearance. Now I'm obsessive about what other actors have been in, but Helen Worth, as Mary Ashe the daughter of the colony's leader, should be recognisable to almost anyone: She's Gail McIntyre (nee Potter, Tilsley, Platt and Hillman) from Coronation Street.

Saturday 10 September 2011

292 The Claws of Axos: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Claws of Axos: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 292
STORY NUMBER: 057
TRANSMITTED: 03 April 1971
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - the Claws of Axos
Episode Format: 625 video

With Axos disrupted by the power the Master is feeding it, The Doctor & Jo managed to escape. Axos feeds the power back to the Nuton complex, killing Hardiman as he disconnects the link. The Doctor arrives back at the Nuton complex saying he is needing the Master's help to defeat Axos. However when he has the Master alone in the Tardis he tells him he needs his help repairing the Tardis so they can both escape. Axos begins to surface ready to start feeding energy from the distributed Axonite causing the observing Yates & Benton to flee. The Doctor & Master depart together to the horror of the Jo and the Brigadier as Axons attack the Nuton complex. The Doctor brings the Tardis saying he wishes to bargain the secret of time travel for an alliance against the high council of the Time Lords. Axos agrees and the Doctor wires it into the Tardis intending, as the Master notices, to Time Loop Axos. The Master flees, attempting to get to his own Tardis. Axos and the Axons dematerialise becoming Time Looped but the Doctor, shielded by the Tardis, rematerialises in the Nuton complex just as it's destroyed in a huge explosion. The Doctor persuades the Tardis to make another rematerialising in the ruins of the Nuton complex.

The Doctor is quite duplicitous here, first deceiving the Brigadier and co, then the Master to gain his co-operation and finally Axos forcing them into the Time Loop. I'm pretty certain he was intending to make his getaway at the end of this episode but alas he discovers the limits the Time Lords have placed on him..... which we will shortly see relaxed so he can do their bidding. But at the end of these 4 episodes I still find myself left with no great love for the Claws of Axos. I'm sorry, it just doesn't appeal to me.

Although the end of this story is the last we see of Axos and the Axons we do get to see an Axon monster costume again. One was later resprayed green and used as a Krynoid in the fourth Doctor story the Seeds of Doom

One particular technical element of this episode has attracted considerable debate over the years: As Benton & Yates are attempting to drive a jeep back to the Brigadier they're attacked by Axons. During this sequence the long shots of the jeep are on location and the close ups of Yates & Benton are filmed in the studio. Behind them is a featureless blue grey background. The argument runs is that a poor attempt at a sky, which doesn't really match the location sequences, or is it a CSO shot where someone's forgotten to key in the background? For years watching this story on video I was a subscriber to the later theory but now I'm not so sure especially when compared to a similar shot of Filer driving his car in episode one that while a different colour looks equally bad compared to the location footage around it. Two other factors weigh against it being CSO: Firstly the blue isn't that bright as it's usually a bright colour used for CSO. The second is that Doctor Who tended to avoid using the colour blue as the Background for it's CSO work due to one of the major props in the series, the Tardis, being coloured blue!

The Claws of Axos was novelised in 1977 by Terrance Dicks. In 1979 it became one of the first Target Doctor Who books to be rejacketed with a new cover. A video version of Claws of Axos was released on 5th May 1992 alongside Tomb of the Cybermen and the Woolworths exclusive The Twin Dilemma. It was released on DVD on 25th April, 2005 and was the fifth Third Doctor DVD to be released. At this point a reasonable portion of the range was Pertwee releases but that slowed down leaving the last few years of the DVD range with several Pertwee stories a number of which need extensive restoration work.

Friday 9 September 2011

291 The Claws of Axos: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Claws of Axos: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 291
STORY NUMBER: 057
TRANSMITTED: 27 March 1971
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - the Claws of Axos
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

The Axons take the Doctor & Jo back to Axos. The Brigadier and his men are released on the Ministry's orders. The Master has leaked news of Axonite's existence and use to the UN who want worldwide distribution immediately. Axos interrogates the Doctor for the secret of Time Travel. The Master, having infiltrated the Nuton complex disguised a high ranking army officer, attempts to repair the Doctor's Tardis, intending to escape Earth. Trying to harness the reactor's power he is captured by the Brigadier. The Axons seize control of the reactor, but the Master comes up with a way of turning the Axonite's power against Axos destroying it. Unfortunately that will also kill the captive Doctor & Jo....

The Doctor & Jo spend this episode captured & interrogated by Axos so the supporting cast get some screen time with the Master & the Brigadier getting to spend some time together. The videolink between Chinn and his Minister at the start of the episode confirms what we've known all along that Chinn is an idiot and shows that his superior knows it too. The thinly veiled threat of Chinn's unsigned resignation waiting for him if he gets it wrong says everything.... but unwittingly his incompetence and narrow mindedness has, as the Doctor points out, crucially delayed Axos' plans. There's a notably first in this episode: Thirty Eight episodes into the Pertwee era we finally see the inside of the Tardis again!

As with most third Doctor stories a fair amount of location work was involved. In fact there's only two Pertwee stories without any location work... Filming for this story took place in Kent near to the Dungeness Power Station. Unfortunately filming in early January proved to be subject to interference from the weather and a snow shower intervened, ruining the continuity between consecutive scenes on location, Terrance Dicks was forced to deploy for the first time a future Doctor Who staple: Episode one features the début of the all purpose get out "Freak Weather Conditions". Now in January you'd expect snow to be a risk. But April? Come back for the Daemons in just over a week to see more snow in the 1971 Doctor Who season.

Thursday 8 September 2011

290 The Claws of Axos: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Claws of Axos: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 290
STORY NUMBER: 057
TRANSMITTED: 20 March 1971
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - the Claws of Axos
Episode Format: 525 video RSC

The Axons attempt to convince Jo she suffered a hallucination due to being near their power source. Chinn negotiates with Axos for worldwide distribution rights for Axonite and then, using emergency powers granted to him by the minister, has all Unit staff arrested. The Doctor is released to aid Windsor in his testing of the Axonite. The Axons duplicate Bill Filer and send him to fetch the Doctor. The Master negotiates his release, but Axos retains his Tardis. He journeys to London to bring the Doctor's Tardis back with him. Filer escapes and saves the Doctor from the fake Filer but in doing so is arrested and locked up with Unit. The Doctor runs an experiment on the Axonite which Windsor interferes with and is killed, setting off an alarm that allows the Brigadier, Jo & Filer to escape. The Doctor realises Axos, the Axons & Axonite are all one being. The Axonite sample is absorbing all the energy from the nuclear power plant and duplicating itself. The Doctor & Jo are surrounded by tentacled Axon monsters.

Must resist urge to punch Chinn..... Deary me one self seeking idiot fouling it up for the whole world. Windsor's a bit of an idiot too for someone who's supposedly the chief scientist at a power point as the manner of his death demonstrates. Actually what function is Filer playing in this story that couldn't have been filled by giving his part to Captain Yates? Hmmm. We liked the Axon eye on a stem that talks to the Master, a decent effect unfortunately flawed by some dodgy CSO that causes the background to be seen through it occasionally.

Lots of the cast in this story are familiar to us from Doctor Who and other television programs. Donald Hewlett,playing Hardiman, becomes a regular player in Croft & Perry sitcoms appearing as Colonel Charles Reynolds in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Lord Meldrum in You Rang, M'Lord?. David Savile, Winser, already has played Lieutenant Carstairs in The War Games and returns as Colonel Charles Crichton in The Five Doctors. Bernard Holley is the golden Axon Man and he was previously Peter Haydon in The Tomb of the Cybermen. The Axon Boy, John Hicks, was a Quark in The Dominators while one of the Radar operators, Michael Walker will return as Miseus in The Time Monster. This is the television debut for Tim Piggott-Smith, playing Captain Harker, who'll return as Marco in The Masque of Mandragora. He's been in a large number of prominent TV and film productions. Bill Filer is played by Paul Grist who's also been in genre shows such as Blake's 7: Gambit as Cevedic and Survivors. An online acquaintance of mine believes they've spotted him in Space 1999 as an Eagle Pilot. This is Michael Fergusson's fourth and final Doctor Who story following The War Machines, The Seeds of Death & The Ambassadors of Death.

This story exists as 625 line PAL video for episodes 1 & 4 and 525 line video for episode 2 & 3 which was subjected to the Reverse Standards Conversion Process to bring it back close to the original look of the episode on it's UK broadcast.